Chapter 260 259. If I had known it would be the regular season, I would have gone to Yao Ming’s house!

She has indeed lost a lot of weight, and the flesh on her cheeks has been sucked back.

Before the start of the playoffs last season, the Rockets submitted a player physical test report to the league. Yao Ming weighed 145 kilograms at the time, breaking his weight record.

As for his performance, it was extremely brutal, averaging 7 points and 25 rebounds in 10 games. There were 101 inside players registered for the playoffs last season, and only Yao Ming and Duncan averaged 25+10 in a series.

Not to mention averaging 25+10 per game, at least two-thirds of the teams cannot produce an inside player who can score 25+10 in a single game in the playoffs.

But Zhao Riyue, who has lost weight to 137 kilograms, please stop smiling. You have to understand that you are still one of the fattest players in the league.

During the interview of Zhang Yang, Jordan and Yao Ming, Yao Ming seemed to be having a seizure. His laugh point was very low. He laughed every time he was talking, which made Zhang Yang want to find a hole to crawl into. It was so embarrassing!

But if you think about it, you can understand it. God knows how much torture Yao Ming felt inside during those years with the Rockets. Whether he wanted to or not, he had to help create the illusion of "we are competing for the championship" in front of domestic media; he had to be careful when speaking in front of American media, and he could never shout the slogan of competing for the championship, as it would be embarrassing, and he could not just say that his team was just an ordinary first-round team and was just trying to make the playoffs every year; the key was that he had to carry a team that had nothing but two core players to the playoffs... It was good enough that he didn't have neurasthenia.

He successfully escaped from Houston and joined a team that could win 50 games and advance to the second round without him... Not to mention three months, it would be normal to laugh out loud when thinking about this in three years.

After the interview, Zhang Yang and Yao Ming said goodbye and prepared to return to the hotel.

Yao Ming said: "Yang Yang, come to my house for dinner tonight. I've moved to a new house and you haven't been here yet. My sister-in-law is cooking tonight and I just asked her to go buy groceries."

Zhang Yang refused disrespectfully and said, "Okay, Brother Yao, give me the address. I'll go back to the hotel. I have something to do. I'll come to your house in the evening."

After they separated, Zhang Yang took a taxi to the mall to buy gifts to congratulate Yao Ming on his new house. He, Zhang San, was no longer the underage teenager who went to Yao Ming's house for the first time two years ago, so he had to do a good job in socializing.

At the same time, he bought a necklace for his mother, a luxury excavator toy set for his brother, and a new razor for his father. Every time he went out, he would buy some gifts for his family... Zhang Chen opened the bookcase and fell silent when he looked at the cabinet full of razors.

In the evening, Zhang Yang came to visit Yao Ming's new home.

Yao Ming accepted the gift from Zhang Yang without hesitation. He said he would just return the gift next time when he went to Zhang Yang's house. It just so happened that Zhang Yang had moved to a new house.

Before and after the meal, the two chatted for a long time, mainly about Yao Ming's change of team and move to a new home.

Some of the topics were related to the national team. Yao Ming told Zhang Yang about the general situation of the national team. In one sentence - next year's Olympics is not optimistic.

Yao Ming's words were filled with his nostalgia for the Chinese men's basketball team's outside line-up during his youth, as well as his anticipation of partnering with Zhang Yang to compete in the Olympics.

Yao Ming gave Zhang Yang a brief introduction to the development history of the Chinese men's basketball team.

The development history of the Chinese men's basketball team is very strange. In the 70s, the first world-class genius emerged. His name was Zhang Weiping. When he joined the Chinese men's basketball team and participated in a major event for the first time, he led the Chinese men's basketball team to win the first Asian Championship in team history. After that, he won two championships in a row and led the Chinese men's basketball team to win an unprecedented three consecutive championships in the Asian Championships, laying the foundation for the subsequent five consecutive championships in the Asian Championships.

He also led the Chinese men's basketball team to win the first Asian Games. After joining the Chinese men's basketball team for 8 years, they won 4 Asian championships and were named the best player in Asia.

During this period, when Zhang Weiping was at his peak at the age of 28, he averaged 25 points per game in the World Championships, becoming the first yellow-skinned basketball player to achieve world-class performance in international competitions.

At the age of 30, Zhang Weiping chose to retire at the height of his career, leaving behind a legend in the history of Chinese men's basketball that he was at his peak throughout his national team career.

Since Zhang Weiping, the Chinese men's basketball team has entered a golden age of inside basketball that lasted for more than a decade. In the 70s and 80s, they dominated Asia with the continuous emergence of inside talents. However, the outside basketball has always been a big problem. Every time in the world championships, the outside basketball team has been beaten by European and American countries.

The Basketball Association learned from its mistakes and began to focus on training outside players in the 80s. Then in the 90s, a group of talented outside players headed by Hu Weidong emerged in the Chinese men's basketball team, and the Chinese men's basketball team entered the golden age of outside players.

But in those years, the training of inside players was neglected. In the 90s, the inside players could not beat others. Then they started to train inside players again, and then Wang Zhizhi, Battelle, Yao Ming, Tang Zhengdong, and Yi Jianlian emerged. As a result, in the 21st century, the outside players were not good enough again...

Zhang Yang has never paid attention to this aspect. After listening to Yao Ming's popular science, he felt complicated. Although it has been taking detours, the Basketball Association at that time could at least cultivate talents. The current Basketball Association seems to have good results in leading the team, but in fact it is just relying on the old capital left by the old leadership team in the 1980s and 1990s. Even Yi Jianlian was discovered by the previous generation of Basketball Association.

When Zhang Yang heard the tipsy Yao Ming say that his ultimate dream was to combine the inside training of the men's basketball team in the 70s with the outside training of the 80s, and lead the Chinese men's basketball team to glory...

Although the decline of Chinese basketball in the future will not start with Yao Ming, but after the retirement of the old generation of basketball association leaders, the men's basketball team has been lacking in fresh blood, but Yao Ming has not done much. A very important point is that Yao Ming was only in his 30s when he took office, and no one paid any attention to him when he promulgated new regulations. He also had to constantly make various compromises with various clubs and local basketball associations... It's not like "orders cannot leave the Forbidden City", but it's not much better either.

Zhang Yang: Brother Yao Ming, you should take good care of your health. Playing for a few more years will help Chinese basketball more than anything else.

...

That night, Zhang Yang stayed at Yao Ming's house.

The next morning, Ye Li drove Yao Ming and Zhang Yang to the United Center, where Zhang Yang met up with his teammates to prepare for the game.

Although they said they had a day off on the 8th, the coaching staff actually got two days to rest and prepare. During the morning training session, Carlisle made detailed adjustments to several tactics, deleted two tactics, and added a new one.

This intensity is already very high for veteran players, but for Afflalo, a rookie who just graduated from college, the intensity is too high. He performed poorly during training and was criticized several times by Carlisle.

When Bickerstaff was coaching, these tasks were left to the assistant coaches.

Young Bickerstaff is good at dealing with players and generally does not blame others; Engelland has a rigid and strict personality. If he is dissatisfied with someone's performance, he will punish them by adding extra training; Randy Brown was born as a bottom-level player, a second-round pick, and averaged 4.8 points and 2.2 assists per game in his career. He can easily empathize with the difficulties of newcomers. If a player performs poorly, he will correct him. If the performance continues to be poor, he will report it to Bickerstaff, but he chooses to turn a blind eye.

Carlisle's coaching is different. He does everything himself. Although he won't scold people, he is very strict. Whether it's Zhang Yang or Afflalo, if anyone performs poorly in training, he will criticize them directly and won't give anyone face.

He is capable and principled. The players generally do not complain but are clearly aware of their own problems, which is a good thing for the team.

But also because of this, when he was fired, almost no one, whether they were players from the Pistons or the Pacers, stood up to speak for him, and no one had much attachment to him... After all, they had never achieved any real great honors together. If they had won a championship, it would have been completely different.

After the preparatory training, Zhang Yang took a shower, changed his clothes and prepared to go for lunch. Seeing that Afflalo had not left the training ground for a long time, he took a small stool and sat in the corner to read the tactical manual.

The old senior has neither Millsap's strong physical fitness nor Rondo's proud heart. The helplessness of entering the NBA for the first time is written on his face, and it is even more so when it comes to the official competition. He needs help.

It was Zhang Yang who was too careless. In the past, when Gerald Wallace was around, whenever someone was feeling down, Gerald Wallace would be the first to give encouragement... Zhang San shook the little fat boss over.

This matter was previously done by Gerald Wallace, but now that Gerald Wallace is gone, Felton took the lead and found Afflaro to chat and give comfort and encouragement.

Afflalo opened up with Felton's comfort and talked about his situation: "The pace of the NBA is much faster than in college. I just finished the summer league in mid-August. After a week of rest, I was called to the gym for extra practice. As soon as the extra practice ended, the training camp started. I learned new tactics. Just after two weeks, I had to start playing games. In the meantime, the tactics were constantly adjusted... When I was in college, the preparation time before the start of the season was at least 8 months."

Felton: "You have to get used to this kind of thing slowly. Everyone has been through this. Jack said that this is life. You can't make life accommodate you. You can only adapt to it yourself." Hearing this, Afflalo looked at Zhang Yang...

Felton: Σ(⊙▽⊙ "a!! Just ask me! Don't ask him!

The fat Boss tried to stop him, but it was too late.

Afflalo: "Jack, you entered the NBA before you finished high school. The pace of high school is slower than college. Did you also survive like this when you first entered the NBA?"

Zhang Yang: "Me? No."

Aflaro: “Huh?”

Zhang Yang: "I had it much easier than you back then. We had just established the team and there were no performance requirements. The team didn't even expect me to play well. There was no pressure at all. We didn't start playing in a methodical way until February. Common tactics were gradually accumulated and a preliminary system was formed. Later, we entered the playoffs and won the best sixth man award... It's much more difficult for you now. You're on a championship team when you enter the NBA, and the team has to change to a new system. Come on, senior!"

Aflaro: "..."

Felton: “…”

Afflalo was hit by a critical hit, and the true damage directly emptied his health bar. The feeling of blow made him forget the feeling of loss brought by Carlisle's criticism.

Seeing the rookie about to break apart, Felton said: Look, look, who else can you empathize with, but Jack, the greatest genius in history? Isn't that asking for trouble?

...

At 8: in the evening, at the United Center, Zhang Yang and his teammates entered the court.

There was no entrance ceremony for the preseason game, and people entered the stadium half an hour in advance because the two domestic TV stations that were broadcasting the game live had interview activities.

There was a live broadcast of the preseason game, and it was a live broadcast of a country that was said to have a larger population than the entire Americas... Although most players didn't know how many people there were in the entire Americas, the Bobcats and Bulls players were very excited when they learned about it.

The Bulls players were excited about Yao Ming joining the team.

Although the Bulls have performed well in the past three seasons, they have always lacked a true star player and can only be considered a first-class team, which is qualitatively different from the top teams.

With Yao Ming, they became a super team in people's minds. Hinrich, Luol Deng, Ben Wallace and others are all very competitive players. The team's strength has improved, and even if their team status and tactical status have declined, and their data may also decline, they are still very excited.

In addition to the improvement in the team's strength, the money they earn also increases.

Unlike Zhang Yang, who brought commercial benefits to his teammates only after joining the Bobcats and playing for most of the season and being selected as an All-Star starter, Yao Ming had long been a walking "money printing machine". In the Rockets of that year, even a marginal player like Ryan Bowen, who averaged 2 points and 2 rebounds per game in his career, had interviews every now and then and received hundreds of thousands of US dollars in sponsorship fees every year. His off-court income almost caught up with his NBA salary.

Except for a few players, such as Bob Sura and someone else, there was no teammate who didn't love Yao Ming.

The Bobcats are also very excited and can't wait to start their defending championship season.

After the interview, Zhang Yang returned to the bench and stood on the sidelines with assistant coach Randy Brown. He looked at the opposing team and said, "Wallace makes $1600 million a year, Yao's salary is almost $1400 million, Hinrich just got $5 million for five years, and they also gave Nocioni a three-year, $5000 million contract and signed Smith with the mid-level class... The Bulls have to pay taxes this season, right? I remember when they kept Hinrich and Nocioni's bird rights and traded for Yao, the $3 million salary cap was already filled."

Randy Brown: "If they don't lower their salary through a trade before the trade deadline, they will have to pay about 600 million in luxury tax. This year's luxury tax threshold is 5960 million."

Zhang Yang: "The Bulls owner is quite generous. I thought they were stingy. They complained for a long time when they gave Michael 3000 million a year."

Randy Brown laughed and said, "It's normal for them to complain. Jack, you probably don't know how high the salary cap was when Michael was making 3000 million and 3300 million, right?"

Zhang Yang asked curiously, "How high?"

Randy Brown: "In 96, the salary cap was 2430 million, and in 97, the salary cap was 2690 million. I remember it very clearly. Now I think Michael's salary at that time was too exaggerated. Think about it, if you were the boss and you were asked to pay a player 7000 million this year, would you complain?"

Zhang Yang: "Uh... it's too exaggerated."

When he heard that the salary cap in 96 was only 2430 million, he understood.

Randy Brown: "The Bulls owner is actually quite generous. I remember when Pippen took the initiative to ask for 7 years and 2100 million, the Bulls owner and general manager both tried to stop him. At that time, the salary cap was increasing at least 10% per year. In three or four years, Pippen would have a chance to earn tens of millions of dollars a year. He refused the short-term contract and only wanted a long-term contract...

Haha, this also helped us a lot at that time. With the space vacated by Pippen, we dug Harper from the Clippers and Rodman from the Spurs. After Michael came back, we won three consecutive championships. If it weren't for Pippen's 7 years and 2100 million, there would be no basketball god. "

Zhang Yang thought about it after hearing this, it's true! It can only be said that all greatness has countless coincidences... Of course, he was able to seize the opportunity, and the strength of Boss Joe was the core reason. In the 97-98 season, Jordan won the championship and became a god.

For some reason, Zhang Yang thought of French Pippen and Batum again: Could it be that Jordan poured all his guilt towards Pippen onto French Pippen and gave him 5 million for 1.2 years?
Otherwise, it is impossible to explain why Jordan would pay a player who averaged 9 points per game that much. Even if the salary continued to explode later, no player who averaged 9 points per game could get such a high salary...

At 9 o'clock in the evening, the first preseason game of the new season between the Bobcats and the Bulls started at the United Center!
Yao Ming was defeated miserably by Okafor in the jump ball... He secretly said, "Oh no! I should take a day off tonight!"
Last night, Zhang Yang came to his house for dinner and spent the night. He just had a couple of drinks at first, but then... in the end, Ye Li helped him back to his room...

Yao Ming dared to show his joy after changing teams only in front of his parents and wife. To the outside world, he still had to pretend that he was reluctant to leave his old club. As Chinese people, we believe in parting in peace. Since he didn't fall out with his old club, he had to maintain his face with his old club.

Although his parents and wife are his closest people, he knows that they cannot truly feel how happy he is now, so he has been suppressing his emotions for a long time. Suppressing happy emotions is no better than deliberately suppressing painful emotions.

Meeting Zhang Yang in private, Yao Ming finally had someone who could empathize with him and share his happiness, and he got drunk without realizing it.

So, when the thin girl Zhao Riyue stepped onto the court tonight, she felt like she was floating, with a headache and weak legs...

Not only was he unable to lift his feet for the jump ball, but after the game started, he was slow to break through to the basket when defending Zhang Yang and Felton, and he also missed consecutive high shots under Perkins' defense.

The teammates were confused. Big Ben: No, little giant, where is the strength you had when you dunked through me during training?

Before the game started, the commentators from both TV stations kept talking about how great Yao Ming was, how he was the best in the world at inside offense and defense after partnering with Ben Wallace, and what advantages so-and-so had against the Bobcats... But Yao Ming played extremely poorly in all the preseason games.

The commentator could only laugh and joke: "Yao seems to be drunk tonight. Maybe he is not used to the new team..."

On the other hand, Zhang San, who had been drinking milk and soda water yesterday, drank too much water last night and got up twice to go to the bathroom. He slept very soundly and is full of energy today. In the first preseason game, he was the main attacking point, breaking through the basket, shooting from high positions, and scoring on counterattacks. He played beautifully!

Seeing Dayao who was hungover and performing badly on the other side, Zhang San felt so regretful... If he had known, he would not have gone to Dayao's house last night. It would have been better to wait until the regular season!
(End of this chapter)