NBA M3 - Chapter 529: Welcome, Klay Thompson (Patreon)

With exceptional looks and gaming skill that stood out even among female streamers, Mia’s popularity kept climbing.

Over the course of the four-hour stream, her popularity peaked at 320,000, pushing her straight into the top 20 of that night’s rankings.

That was already an explosive debut.

And because she was an attractive female streamer, Mia received far more in gifts than many male streamers with even higher popularity numbers.

After the stream ended, Blake looked at her in surprise.

“Wow! Mia, your popularity was way higher than I expected!”

Then he checked the total value of the gifts and became even more surprised.

“You received $1,554 in gifts. After the platform’s cut, that’s a full $777.”

“$777 in four hours. Plenty of people don’t even make that much in an entire month.”

“Hehe~”

Mia was a little dazed herself, almost unable to believe it.

“I never thought there’d be a day when I could make money just by livestreaming myself playing games.”

“And I made quite a lot, too.”

She thought for a moment, then asked with some confusion, “Blake, is it really this easy to make money in this industry?”

“Of course not.”

Blake shook his head repeatedly and smiled. “A lot of streamers barely make more than a basic salary. Debut streamers who can net $777 in one night like you did are few and far between.”

“So it’s not that the industry is easy money. It’s because you’re good enough, Mia. The viewers like you, which is why so many of them were willing to send gifts.”

“Really~?”

“Of course. Our Mia has always been talented. You just never had the right opportunity before.”

Blake smiled.

And that was not empty praise.

In the future, Mia would become one of the most celebrated young actresses in film and television, with countless fans.

Now, because Blake was here, perhaps her future fame would extend beyond film and television. She might become a huge star in livestreaming and other fields as well.

“Hehe~”

After hearing Blake praise her like that, Mia became even more confident in herself, smiling brightly.

“I made so much tonight. Come on, I’m treating you to a late-night snack, and we’re getting the best food!”

“Sure.”

Blake nodded with a smile, then added, “Although you didn’t sing tonight. If you work some singing into the stream next time, your popularity should climb even higher.”

“Ah! I was so nervous that I completely forgot!”

Mia lightly smacked her forehead, then laughed again. “Got it. But forget about streaming for now. Let’s go get something to eat.”

With that, she grabbed Blake and pulled him out the door.

Mia’s League of Legends debut on Justin.tv had come to a perfect end. As her popularity continued to rise, everything was moving in the right direction.

...

The next day was August 1.

More than a month had passed since the Finals. For Blake, that month had been both enjoyable and extremely busy.

Now, at last, everything had settled down.

It was time to begin serious training.

At 1:00 p.m., Blake arrived at the training facility.

At this point in the offseason, not every player had returned to training. Quite a few were still on vacation, which was also one reason some players would never reach a particularly high ceiling.

There was nothing Blake could do about that.

Of course, some players had already started training, including Curry, George, Yao Ming, Carter, and Nash.

For the older Carter and Nash, the focus was on maintaining their condition. If they could simply slow the rate of their decline, that would be enough.

Yao Ming, meanwhile, was still putting most of his effort into restoring his health. Getting his body into good enough condition before the next season was his main priority.

Curry and George were different.

For them, it was pure training, and a lot of it. They wanted to become much stronger before the next season arrived.

Blake’s own training was just as targeted. His goal was to gain weight.

Once he put on 10 kilograms, he would possess the strength of rookie Shaq O’Neal.

That boost would greatly increase his individual ability on both offense and defense.

At the moment, Blake weighed only 108 kilograms. That sounded heavy enough, but for a center standing 215 centimeters tall, he was actually still a little lean.

So gaining another 10 kilograms would only make him stronger without hurting the rest of his game. Of course, he had to follow a scientifically designed weight-gain program.

There was no rushing the process.

Only three players had come to the gym at this hour: Blake, George, and Curry.

The three stood together on the court and slapped hands.

Blake looked at the other two seriously. “George, Curry, you both know what last season was like.”

“We won the championship, but the road there wasn’t easy, especially the Finals. It went all the way to Game 7, and everyone had to give absolutely everything before we finally won.”

“We won, but we didn’t truly dominate. Next season, or even the next time we face those same teams, we could still lose.”

“And every team around the league is strengthening its roster.”

“So this offseason, we have to train hard. We have to become even better. Next season, I want us to play with real dominance.”

“I want the entire league to understand what it means when the Suns truly rule the NBA.”

“Yeah!”

George shouted at the top of his lungs, “We will, Blake! We’ll train hard and get stronger. We can’t just stand around and watch you fight by yourself.”

“We’ll help carry the load.”

“Exactly!” Curry nodded. “You might be capable of carrying us to a championship by yourself, but that’s still risky.”

“And we can’t rely on you forever. We have to improve too. Otherwise, the moment we’re separated from you, this league will leave us behind.”

“That’s not happening.”

“So even if you hadn’t said anything, we’d still train seriously and get stronger!”

“Mm-hmm.”

Seeing that George and Curry understood, Blake smiled and nodded.

“That’s exactly it. Let’s work hard together.”

“Next season, we’ll make the entire league truly feel how terrifying the Suns can be.”

“Yeah~”

“Absolutely!”

“Then let’s officially start our offseason training!”

The three slapped hands again. Their eyes burned with the desire to improve and with anticipation for an even stronger Suns team next season.

However, just as they were about to begin, Coach Gentry walked through the door and entered their line of sight.

Then another figure stepped out behind him.

It was none other than the 11th overall pick in this year’s draft.

Klay Thompson.

“Klay!”

“Klay Thompson?!”

George and Curry were both surprised to see him.

Blake alone smiled, walked forward, and extended his hand.

“Welcome, Klay Thompson.”