One Year Left to Play

On the morning of December 16th, after a day's rest, the Lakers were set for their third consecutive home game, and today, their opponent was the Pacers.

Zhang Hao's second career occurrence, and the second in NBA history, of a 60+ triple-double was still garnering attention.

Additionally, Zhang Hao's 64-point 5x5 performance was the first in NBA history.

Teammates noticed that Zhang Hao was particularly cheerful today, humming tunes during breaks in preparation training.

If any Chinese person watched the Imperial Drama Channel at 10 PM last night, they'd immediately recognize which drama's theme song he was humming.

This morning, Zhang Hao received good news from Tsuburaya Productions; since 1974's "Ultraman Taro," after a 22-year gap, the Ultraman series finally broke the 20% viewership rating for a single episode again! A 20.8% viewership rating!

After "Ultraman Taro" achieved an average rating of 17%, the Ultraman series' ratings in Japan continued to decline, dropping to an average of only 10% by the time of "Ultraman 80."

In the 1980s, when television became widely popular in Japan, it was rare for a single episode of a drama, anime, or tokusatsu series to exceed a 15% rating. But this time, "Ultraman X" hit it big!

Henry Thomas also received endorsement invitations from Japan. Zhang Hao instructed Henry Thomas that endorsements for Japanese brands should only be promoted in Japan. The product's quality didn't matter; what was important was a high endorsement fee.

Moreover, it must be clearly stated in the contract that endorsements can only be promoted in Japan. If it exceeds the promotional scope, a hefty penalty must be paid for breach of contract. This must be written, or else he wouldn't accept endorsements from Japan.

Henry Thomas was puzzled by such strange requirements, but it didn't matter; he followed Zhang Hao's instructions.

He purely saw it as Zhang Hao wanting to make some money off the Japanese.

Zhang Hao's father, Zhang Weidong, also reported good news. Last night, the Imperial Channel's drama channel achieved a late-night viewership rating of 22%. While this wasn't particularly high given the domestic drama's prevalence and the scarcity of TV resources, truly popular dramas had ratings of over 40%, with the infamously dramatic "Return of the Pearl Princess" nearing 60%. But it still wasn't bad.

After all, the initial viewers were neither kids nor film enthusiasts, but sports fans.

As for the United States, a 3% viewership rating during the midday slot wasn't great, but it exceeded the expectations of Time Warner Cable TV.

Zhang Hao's dream had come true. His childhood dream was to become Ultraman...

He also recorded the domestic version of the Chinese theme song. He's not a professional singer, but he did alright...

Throughout the morning, teammates felt Zhang Hao was happy, which wasn't surprising since the drama aired and his performance the night before was stellar.

However, today, his teammates were also happy because Kenny Anderson made a comeback, making the game less challenging.

In the previous game against the Blazers, if not for Zhang Hao's sudden outburst in the second half, where he scored 23 points and made 6 assists in the third quarter, leading the team to a record-breaking single-quarter performance of 50 points in a regular-season game, their winning streak would have ended!

With an 11-game winning streak, their record improved to 20 wins and 4 losses! Last night, after the Utah Jazz lost, they finally reached first place in the West!

In contrast to the light and happy atmosphere at the home team's training ground, the visitor's training ground was bleak.

All teams have played 23-25 games, and the Pacers have played 25 games this season, more than the Lakers, but their win count is less than half of the Lakers!

9 wins and 16 losses!

In the East, there are still teams with worse records than them, quite a few, actually, but those teams are deliberately tanking for Bo Duncan, whereas they are genuinely struggling.

Larry Bird, realizing his mistake, is actively negotiating with the Nuggets over a trade for Mark Jackson.

But Mark Jackson, now with the Nuggets, has averaged 11 points and 12.5 assists over the first 24 games, outperforming Stockton, ranking first in assists. His salary is over a million US dollars less per year than what Mark Jackson initially wanted, but trading him back isn't so easy.

Offering help in time of need?

The Nuggets have no such noble intentions. According to media reports, the Nuggets demand at least three first-round picks to part with Mark Jackson.

...

The two teams, with vast differences in strength and mood, were preparing for tonight's game.

Elsewhere, Robert Pelinka, the executive of the "I Opened a Company Secretly" in the Cayman Islands, had already spent the morning nervously preparing.

He had a meeting scheduled with the negotiation counterpart at 2 PM. He skipped lunch, arriving at a private club in Manhattan Beach with his team at noon.

Pelinka was very nervous! The boss had invested tens of millions of US dollars over the past six months, and now, there might finally be some return.

However, what the other party wanted was not what he initially thought.

In less than half a year, the instant messaging platform ICQ he managed had grown from being freely accessible to college students at some second and third-tier universities and technical colleges in the United States, to gradually spreading, now boasting over a million registered users, with average online numbers consistently high at around 100,000, and a user activity rate of up to 80%.

This had cost a lot of money, mainly for operations, maintenance, development updates, server fees, and the like.

But what the other party wanted wasn't this; they were after ICQ's subsidiary product, ICQ-TIM, which was used by over 500 companies in California, Arizona, Washington State, Oregon, and other West Coast regions of the United States.