On December 15, ten days before Christmas 2006, the Las Vegas Radiance announced the trade for Allen Iverson on their official website.
As soon as the news came out, all of the team's ticket channels blew up: the phones were jammed, the website servers crashed under the traffic, and fans rushed to the box office to line up for tickets. The team's season tickets for next year sold out in just half an hour.
Because Ah Gan might retire at any time, advance sales for Glory's season tickets had been mediocre. Many fans were worried that if they bought season tickets for next season and Ah Gan retired, they'd be left watching only Yao Ming.
Yao Ming has enormous popularity within certain groups, but among young fans in North America his influence is far inferior to Iverson's. The moment Iverson's photo appeared on Glory's website, it became the best possible advertisement for ticket sales.
