Champion Creed-Chapter 960 - 314: Unprecedented Rights (Please vote for the monthly ticket!)
Chapter 960: 314: Unprecedented Rights (Please vote for the monthly ticket!)
There are places in the United States that are among the most dangerous in the world, like Oakland or Ferguson, with crime rates that are just outrageous, I’m telling you. — Donald Trump.
When Roger got off the highway and arrived in Oakland, he thought he had been sold to some remote poverty-stricken area.
Trash everywhere, abandoned houses, and homeless people gathered like zombies... even in Atlanta, it’s hard to find such filthy and chaotic scenes.
Roger glanced at Eric Fleisher as if to ask, "Wait, aren’t we supposed to be heading to a fucking big city!?"
Indeed, it’s a big city, but that’s two years later, when the team moves to San Francisco.
For now, Roger has to spend two years in this place with a nationwide crime rate second only to Baltimore.
It’s not all bad; it could effectively improve Roger’s defensive skills.
In Atlanta, you only need to protect your ass.
But in Oakland, you have to protect your head, and don’t forget about your ass.
Roger thought of those stories about Damian Lillard’s childhood with gangs, and Lillard’s hometown is precisely Oakland.
Years later, all professional sports teams here would either move or try to move elsewhere, enough to show this place isn’t exactly a land of fortune.
It’s a city that’s both fragrant and foul, boasting a decent per capita disposable income yet also possessing a high poverty and crime rate.
Put simply, the gap between rich and poor here is bigger than the difference between 298 and 998 at the same joint.
And the Warriors’ operation here was arduous; after the RUN-TMC era, their attendance almost always ranked at the bottom. Former owner Chris Cohan himself even began downgrading his consumption — the evidence being he even started to touch his own wife.
But Roger’s choice wasn’t wrong either; the success of the Stephen Curry era proved the Golden State Warriors have tremendous profit potential, only lacking a person to unleash it.
The first challenge Roger faced was how to safely spend two years in Oakland.
The Warriors’ staff accompanying him seemed to notice the worry on Roger’s face, so they turned around from the front seat: "Actually, you don’t have to worry too much; Oakland is like a collection of novels, each Chapter is different. Don’t mind the rundown look outside, if we keep driving towards downtown, you’ll see a completely different view."
He wasn’t lying, after heading towards downtown, the scenery in Oakland started to become pleasant. Especially around Merritt Lake, known as the "soul of Oakland," it was so comfortable that Roger felt an impulse to settle down there.
But after driving a few blocks along Merritt Lake, the cityscape turned messy again, with some buildings’ walls even riddled with bullet holes. For a moment, Roger felt like he was somewhere in the Middle East.
The staff awkwardly chuckled, then fiercely glared at the driver.
Why the hell are you taking Roger to these kinds of places for a tour of Oakland!?
The driver had no choice; due to the large wealth gap in Oakland, every few blocks you feel like you’ve arrived in another world.
The staff immediately explained: "Actually, only West Oakland is a bit chaotic, but many people tend to generalize and think the whole of Oakland is unsafe; that’s not the case!"
After saying this, a few seconds passed, and the staff added: "Oh right, it’s best not to go to East Oakland either. As for the south... well... it’s a bit rundown, better not to go."
Roger: ...
You might as well say just don’t go in any direction!
Thank goodness the staff didn’t say that: "But the north side of Oakland is definitely paradise, Roger, you’d love it."
Love?
Ha, Roger only wished for the day the team moved to San Francisco to come soon.
After a tour around Oakland, Roger expressed that he quite liked it, then decided to live in San Francisco.
Even if commuting to Oakland for training every day might end up stuck on the aging Golden Gate Bridge, Roger insisted on living in San Francisco.
No problem with a Chinese living in a place with many Chinese, right?
Indeed, there are many Chinese in San Francisco; when Roger toured San Francisco yesterday, he found many neighborhoods with Chinese signs, where you could speak Chinese the whole time, and even on the utility poles, there were grounded advertisements like "Looking for American models, call girls, phone: XXXXX."
These scenes instantly made Roger understand the concept of a global village.
The city of Oakland was vastly different from what Roger had imagined, but the fans in Oakland were passionate.
Roger already saw quite a few people wearing his Warriors jersey — you can always trust Reebok’s efficiency in this regard.
Over seventy percent of advertisements in the entire city had been replaced with Roger’s "Nomadic Dynasty" series of posters.
Roger didn’t know whose idea "Nomadic Dynasty" was, but they must have been someone whose life wasn’t going well.
How is the future Little Emperor supposed to deal with this?
In fact, Roger’s influence wasn’t limited to Oakland; the Golden State Warriors truly stood behind the entire Bay Area.
So the surrounding cities, including San Francisco, were also within Roger’s sphere of influence.
Roger’s favorite billboards weren’t the "Nomadic Dynasty" series, but the "Beyond Greatness" series, which hung most frequently in San Francisco.
Like the Hawks, the Warriors too are among the oldest teams in NBA history, and they’ve had many superstars in their lineage.
Paul Arizin, Nate Thurmond, Rick Barry, Bernard King, and then there’s the RUN-TMC trio of Tim Hardaway, Chris Mullin, and Mitch Richmond. And of course, the man among 20,000, Wilt Chamberlain.
