NBA M3 - Chapter 532: Filthy Rich: Buy, Buy, Buy! (Patreon)

An offseason without Blake left a lot of fans missing him badly.

They wished the new season would arrive sooner so they could watch him play again.

That was why even a discussion about his season honors could make everyone so excited and happy.

That was simply how popular Blake had become.

The media and the league were not sitting idle either.

They continued using Blake’s popularity to create offseason talking points, keeping attention on the NBA while gradually building hype for the new season.

Adidas was just as busy.

Production of the “Blake Su Generation” signature shoes was still running at full speed.

On top of that, Adidas took advantage of the momentum to launch a “Champion Edition” of the “Blake Su Generation.”

It did not look much different from the original model, but simply adding the “Champion Edition” label was enough to make plenty of fans buy it even at a higher price.

That meant even more profit for Adidas.

Naturally, Blake continued making money as well thanks to his personal share of the sales.

Blake’s enormous popularity did more than make the “Blake Su Generation” a huge seller. It also boosted sales of Adidas’s other basketball shoes.

Game 7 of the Finals had helped even more.

Blake had been wearing the “Blake Su Generation” when he literally stepped hard enough to destroy the latest LeBron signature shoe on LeBron’s foot.

The combination of those two factors caused Nike to lose hundreds of millions in just a few months.

That might not sound catastrophic for a company of Nike’s size, but there had been no broader crisis or unusual market event behind it.

A single rookie player had caused that much damage by himself.

That was an astronomical loss under the circumstances.

Nike’s boss was so furious he nearly coughed up blood. He probably wished he could drag Manager Karl, the executive who had once been responsible for signing Blake and had since been fired, back into the office just to punish him all over again.

Meanwhile, Blake had led the Suns to a championship as their lone superstar, pushing both his personal ability and his popularity to their peak.

Endorsement offers and interview requests naturally came flooding in.

Austin handled the screening process.

Ever since Blake became one of his clients, Austin had become several times busier than before.

The workload was exhausting, but the money was good enough that he was more than happy to deal with it.

...

Time flew.

Two months passed quietly.

During that period, Blake, Curry, George, Yao Ming, Thompson, and the other Suns players followed their offseason training plans step by step.

The rest of the league did the same.

Dolores Su and Charlotte Quinn, meanwhile, spent two wonderfully relaxing months enjoying the $40 million vacation mansion.

As for Mia, after nearly two months of livestreaming, she had gone from awkward and inexperienced to completely comfortable in the gaming-streaming environment.

She had outstanding looks, elite gaming skill among female streamers, and a beautiful singing voice.

Anyone better at gaming was not as attractive. Anyone as attractive was not as skilled at the game. And anyone who could sing better was far behind her in the other two areas.

In short, among her competitors, being better than Mia in even one category was already impressive.

Mia had all three.

In only two months, she had become the star female streamer of Justin.tv’s League of Legends section.

[Esports Goddess].

[Otaku Goddess].

Those were the titles her fans had given her.

And in just two months, countless people, whether they came for her looks, her gaming skill, or her singing, had made watching Mia’s stream part of their nightly routine.

During those same two months, Mia had won over countless fans and earned roughly $157,000.

Of course, that still was not remotely on Blake’s level.

But for a gaming streamer, earning roughly $157,000 in two months was already an enormous amount of money.

It was also the fastest Mia had ever earned money in her life.

Now, gaming livestreams were bringing her both income and steadily rising popularity, and she was moving closer and closer to becoming Justin.tv’s number-one female streamer.

Even so, Mia had not forgotten why she started.

Her dream of becoming an actress was still firmly in her heart and remained part of her plans.

Outside of streaming, she often video-called her best friend Yoona, and the two met up several times to go out together.

Blake occasionally joined them as well.

They were all close friends. Careers mattered, but friendships needed to be maintained too.

Mia’s sudden rise also changed Justin.tv itself.

Previously, female singing streamers and female gaming streamers had mostly occupied separate parts of the platform.

Now those two categories were beginning to merge, and the trend was on the verge of becoming mainstream.

For female singing streamers, singing was no longer necessarily enough by itself. Sometimes they also needed to know how to play games and interact with viewers.

Likewise, female gaming streamers were no longer expected to do nothing but play games. Having another talent, such as singing, telling jokes, or even dancing, became increasingly valuable.

The same trend gradually spread to male gaming streamers.

Even skill-focused streamers began looking for something extra that could make their broadcasts stand out.

Some developed a funny on-stream personality. Some focused heavily on interacting with viewers. Others turned their gameplay into detailed teaching sessions.

In short, Mia’s sudden emergence raised the standard of livestreaming content and helped push the entire industry forward.

Blake’s investment also gave Justin.tv the confidence to spend heavily and negotiate with the NBA for official game broadcasting rights.

At the same time, the platform assigned its technical staff to build a dedicated NBA basketball streaming section.

Everything was progressing steadily and in an orderly fashion.

...

Around the league, with the new season and preseason drawing closer, the media and the NBA itself kept increasing the hype surrounding the upcoming matchups and storylines.

Soon, almost in the blink of an eye, October arrived.

Only three days remained before the preseason.

After nearly two months of hard training, Blake had successfully gained 5 kilograms.

He was still only halfway to his full 10-kilogram goal, but because he had followed a scientifically designed weight-gain program, he had already acquired half of the strength boost associated with rookie Shaq O’Neal.

That alone was unquestionably powerful.

How powerful, exactly?

No one would truly know until the preseason, or even the regular season, when Blake finally stepped onto the court again.

...

The next day, with two days remaining before the preseason, Blake and Mia went shopping.

That’s right.

After one season, even after accounting for his investments and spending, Blake still had roughly $112 million in cash assets.

It was time to reward himself.

Life was short. You had to enjoy it while you could.

Blake had made that much money in a single season, so he and Mia began an outrageously extravagant shopping spree.

And for a man, few rewards were more appealing than a luxury car~