Chapter 371: Starting a Company
“After all that explanation, it really comes down to one thing,” Chen Yilun said. “Different places develop young talent in different ways, and the level of exposure young players get can be worlds apart.”
He took a sip of water before continuing.
“But our current talent-selection methods are incredibly crude.”
“Every team has a scouting department, usually made up of middle-aged men who’ve been watching basketball for decades. They rely on personal connections to gather information on young players from around the world, then hop on planes to evaluate those players in person.”
“This approach is simply too outdated. It’s full of subjectivity and relies far too much on coincidence.”
Chen Yilun lightly tapped the table with his fingers as he spoke.
“Let me give you the simplest example. Africa has its own leagues too—lower level, sure—but there are definitely players there worth developing. Yet because scouts rarely pay attention to that region, African players who want to make a name for themselves usually have only one option.”
“They have to move to North America and play here.”
“Only then will scouts even bother to look at them.”
“So what’s your idea?”
Musk nodded repeatedly as he listened.
“I want to build a database.”
With Musk’s interest clearly piqued, Chen Yilun finally laid out his core concept.
“Every professional player—or anyone who wants to become one—can create a profile in our database and upload their own game footage.”
“Hold on.”
Musk suddenly interrupted him. “If we do it that way, the amount of data in this database would be massive. Even for teams trying to scout players, it would be like looking for a needle in the ocean.”
“Yilun, you hit the key point,” Chen Yilun said with a slight smile.
Talking to someone smart was easy—Musk had immediately zeroed in on the real problem.
“That’s exactly why I need you. Your products can solve this perfectly.”
“You mean…?”
Musk’s frown eased, surprise flashing across his face.
“Exactly.”
Chen Yilun looked straight at him. “I need your AI technology.”
Although AI wasn’t nearly as advanced as it would become a few years later, the industry had already begun to take shape.
“We use AI for the initial screening—filtering out the noise and people just trying to slip through. That alone massively reduces the computing power needed to run the database.”
Chen Yilun casually unfastened the top button of his shirt and continued.
“And I’ve already looked into it. The technical barriers to building this database aren’t that hard to overcome, because the AI only needs to answer one kind of question.”
He deliberately paused, letting the suspense build, then continued.
“All it needs to do is tell us: buy or don’t buy, sign or don’t sign. We reduce the entire decision to its simplest form.”
As Chen Yilun finished speaking, Musk felt as if the fog in his mind had suddenly cleared.
“So that’s it!”
Musk stood up, pacing back and forth in excitement.
“Yes, yes—if this works, we could completely overturn the entire basketball world!”
This wasn’t just a spur-of-the-moment thought.
The reason basketball had thrived for so long was the constant influx of young professional players every year. If this database were successfully built and promoted, Musk and Chen Yilun would effectively be holding the key to every potential player’s path upward.
Just thinking about it was terrifying.
And this idea wasn’t entirely original.
In the world of soccer next door, similar attempts were already underway. The owner of Premier League club Brighton, Tony Bloom, had begun experimenting with replacing scouts using computer models.
But Brighton’s system was designed solely for internal use. What Chen Yilun wanted to do was aimed at the entire basketball world.
“Fun. This is really fun!”
A faint, almost unhealthy flush appeared on Musk’s normally pale face—clear evidence of his excitement.
As one of the most influential figures among global business elites, Musk loved nothing more than overturning entire industries.
Chen Yilun’s idea hit him right where it counted.
“Once this is built, all the mainstream basketball organizations will have to step aside!”
“We’ll become the only pair of eyes in world basketball!”
Seeing Musk getting a little carried away, Chen Yilun stepped in to cool things down.
“Not quite. Scouts exist for a reason—they have irreplaceable value. My estimate is that even if we build this database, final decisions will still rely on scouts conducting on-site evaluations.”
“But that’s already enough,” Musk said, now sitting back down and rubbing his hands together excitedly.
“We’ll be the first gate controlling the player pipeline. The players scouts even get to see will all be ones we’ve already filtered for them.”
“That’s exactly it.”
Chen Yilun smiled and nodded, then raised his glass.
“So, are you in?”
“I’d never miss something this interesting.”
Musk raised his glass as well. “To a successful partnership!”
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Musk’s execution was frighteningly efficient. Just a few days later, he produced a full proposal and made a high-profile announcement on his social media.
He would use his AI software to build a database belonging to basketball players all over the world.
Officially, it was described as providing every child who dreamed of becoming a professional player with a platform to showcase themselves.
In truth, this was something only Musk could pull off. If Chen Yilun had tried to front it himself, no one would have paid any attention at all.
But with Musk—one of the most prominent figures in the world—making the announcement, many team owners immediately lined up behind him.
Even players who had their doubts adopted a “better safe than sorry” attitude and signed up for Musk’s platform.
“Boss, I seriously give up,”
Prince said as he scrolled through trending topics. “Is there really anything you can’t pull off?”
In just two days since the database went live, both user registrations and uploaded game footage were growing at an exponential rate.
Once many young players understood how the system worked, they quickly realized something.
Before, they mailed tapes to coaches or scouts and hoped someone would watch them. Now, they simply uploaded videos for the AI to review.
Wasn’t that basically the same thing?
The biggest difference was this: when you mailed a tape to a scout, they might not even look at it.
But the AI?
It really did watch.
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