Kareem set down the water bottle in his hand, exchanged a glance with the coach, and quickly walked over to Ethan.
Looking at the pair of wristbands, he couldn't understand why Ethan had chosen this particular moment to bring them out. He understood even less why Ethan had continued placing additional bets despite his steadily declining scoring performance.
"Ethan, thank you very much for your support, but..."
Kareem accepted the wristbands, examining their bold color scheme and oversized GAMENOVA logo, but he didn't put them on.
"The NBA has uniform regulations regarding what players are allowed to wear during games."
Sensing the situation, a nearby reporter took the initiative to explain.
"The NBA requires players' attire to match the colors of their uniforms, including their shoes and other accessories. They aren't allowed to wear accessories with colors that stand out this dramatically."
Kareem nodded and continued, "He's right, Ethan. League rules won't let me wear them tonight." He glanced at the wristbands with a grin. "But if GAMENOVA and I ever make something official, I'll be happy to wear them during exhibition games and practice sessions."
"He can't wear them?"
Ethan turned towards the reporter.
According to his memory, Michael Jordan had worn the black and red Air Jordan 1 during games in 1986, creating one of the greatest marketing stories in sports merchandise history.
Nike was still far from the cultural giant it would become. So, what gave them the right to let Jordan wear shoes that violated league regulations?
"That's right."
Realizing Ethan was willing to continue the conversation, the reporter eagerly pressed on.
"If NBA Commissioner David Stern notices, he'll definitely fine Mr. Jabbar a substantial amount."
"Substantial? How substantial?"
"At least five thousand dollars. If the violation is considered more serious, it could even exceed ten thousand."
At this point in time, even the hugely popular rookie Michael Jordan earned an annual salary of only a little over six hundred thousand dollars, so a fine of five thousand dollars for a single game was genuinely painful.
Listening to the exchange, Sam suddenly understood exactly what Ethan had been trying to accomplish with everything he'd done so far.
His eyes narrowed slightly, as he stepped forward on his own initiative.
"It's only a few thousand dollars. Kareem, wear the wristbands anyway. Don't worry about the fine. Whatever they fine you, I'll cover it."
Seeing Sam react so quickly, Ethan nodded in agreement.
"Sam's absolutely right. How about this? GAMENOVA will also pay you an appearance fee equal to whatever fine the NBA imposes."
As he spoke, Ethan actually pulled out a checkbook from his pocket and immediately wrote a check for ten thousand dollars.
Nike paying Jordan's fines for violating league regulations had become a textbook example of sports marketing.
It was precisely that carefully orchestrated campaign, combined with Jordan's extraordinary performances in the years that followed, that transformed Air Jordan into a legendary brand.
If Nike could do it, then why couldn't GAMENOVA? What, you think Nike's got deeper pockets than us?
Kareem stared blankly at the checkbook in Ethan's hands, completely dumbfounded.
Ethan's style of doing things was simply impossible to predict. It was unconventional, rebellious, and incredibly rock 'n' roll.
Of course, no amount of encouragement could change the reality of the scoreboard. A deficit that large was simply too much to overcome.
On a basketball court, age was even more unstoppable than the Skyhook. The Lakers ultimately lost by twelve points, yet that margin had still exceeded everyone's expectations.
At least during the fourth quarter, after defeat had already become inevitable, Kareem displayed an energy completely unlike someone his age, desperately executing his trademark Skyhook over and over again to claw back a significant portion of the deficit.
And every time he unleashed the Skyhook, the brightly colored, rebellious GAMENOVA wristband on his wrist stood out spectacularly.
It was as though everyone's eyes were instinctively drawn towards it in that very moment.
Just as Ethan had expected, he soon received a warning letter from the NBA's Executive Vice President at the time, Russ Granik.
Photographs of Ethan waving his checkbook and Kareem performing the Skyhook while wearing the GAMENOVA wristbands became the two most talked about images from that night's game.
A few days later, Kareem's agent officially announced that he had reached a formal partnership agreement with GAMENOVA and would appear in one of the company's upcoming basketball games.
In addition, Kareem officially became an ambassador for The King of Fighters, personally endorsing both the American Sports Team and the character Lucky Glauber.
Only a week later, agent David Falk likewise announced that Chicago Bulls rookie Michael Jordan, who was currently sidelined with an injury, would also be joining GAMENOVA.
Around the same time, GAMENOVA announced the establishment of NovaSports, a new brand dedicated exclusively to sports games under the GAMENOVA umbrella.
Without even thinking much, anyone familiar with the gaming industry could guess what its creation signified.
They were planning to go head to head with EA.
Electronic Arts, which was diligently growing the PC gaming market, was a company primarily focused on developing and publishing sports games.
…..
San Mateo, California.
Electronic Arts.
Trip Hawkins watched the NBA replay on television, his expression less than pleased. He had left Apple and spent three years building EA into what had become a giant within the PC gaming industry.
Creating a startup and growing it to its current scale in only three years was, in Trip's own opinion, an extraordinary accomplishment. But when facing an unreasonable new force like GAMENOVA, all he could do was admit his bad luck.
Even EA couldn't make every single game a cultural phenomenon.
Before now, Trip had merely regarded GAMENOVA as a dangerous competitor, but never had he felt such an overwhelming sense of crisis.
GAMENOVA had always shown little interest in PC games, instead focusing almost entirely on home consoles and arcade games, competing fiercely against the Japanese developers.
"What exactly are they trying to do?!"
This latest move was clearly aimed directly at EA's One on One: Dr. J vs. Larry Bird, released in 1983.
Back then, they had invited basketball stars Julius Erving and Larry Bird to lend both their names and promotional support to the game. Wherever the game went, players embraced it enthusiastically. It truly had every possible advantage.
That vibrant scene, overflowing with life and opportunity, still seemed fresh in his memory. It was also that very game which had inspired their plans for the EA Sports brand.
At least according to the gaming industry's unspoken understanding, sports games were practically synonymous with EA. Now GAMENOVA was publicly announcing its entry into the sports game market with great fanfare.
Wasn't this obviously an attempt to challenge them directly?
Trip pushed open the door and entered the engineering department. Several workbenches were covered with home consoles that had been completely dismantled into individual components.
Among them, the most numerous by far were GAMENOVA's NovaBox consoles.
Walking over to several busy engineers, he asked, "How's the progress?"
"Not very good..."
The person who answered him was the chief engineer in charge of the console reverse engineering project.
He shook his head with obvious disappointment.
"Both the NES and the NovaBox have lockout security chips. If we forcibly crack them, we won't have any legal ground to stand on."
"What about the file structure?"
Trip turned towards several PCs connected to floppy disk drives. A stack of GAMENOVA game disks sat neatly piled on the side of a workbench.
Even if they couldn't make progress on the hardware itself, understanding GAMENOVA's file structure would at least give them room to maneuver.
"Even less hope."