Chapter 447 The Start of the 0405 Season

Chapter 447 The start of the 04-05 season

Lin Dong got married, and Sakuragi also got married. The wedding date was set in Kanagawa in mid-October.

The fans' commotion, Nike's dissatisfaction and final compromise, the acquisition of European teams, and the rush to Kanagawa to meet old friends, attend Sakuragi's wedding, etc.

The whole of September and October passed quickly in this quite compact bustle.

Probably because of the Olympics, this year's NBA season will start a little later than in previous years. Except for a few preseason games in the second half of October, the regular season is scheduled to start on November 2.

While Lin Dong was busy with his personal affairs, the league's summer trade market also ushered in several blockbuster transfer news.

The Lakers and Wizards just completed a deal that shocked the league on October 3rd - the Wizards traded Yao for O'Neal!

Yes, single exchange.

As the league's well-deserved No. 1 center, O'Neal's value is second to none in the entire NBA today, and even in the entire NBA history. In the previous evaluations of some good media, O'Neal is qualified to replace O'Neal alone. NBA stars, before that there were only four people.

Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, basketball emperor Chamberlain, and now Lin Dong.

Yes, even Bird, the logo man West, or Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and a series of other superstars whose historical status is above O'Neal, in the eyes of the media, if they are in the same era as O'Neal, , cannot complete a single exchange with O'Neal. After all, this guy's dominance is too strong. Except for the kind of player who can become the absolute foundation of the team by himself, no other player, no matter how strong, can do it.

But now, Yao Ming has accomplished this feat!

It is true that the entire league knows that this is because O'Neal has already broken up with the Lakers' top management and wants to retain his own bird rights, which is equivalent to giving the Wizards a discount, but no matter what, a one-way trade is a one-way trade.

Two finals, and the experience of leading a single-core team to the Eastern Conference Finals were just the basis for Dayao to get this contract and the honor of changing O'Neal.

What really gave the Wizards the confidence to trade for O'Neal was Yao's performance in the Olympic finals.

Faced with the rotation pressure and consumption of Duncan, Big Ben and Odom, Yao Ming was stunned to maintain a balanced situation inside the basket in the first three quarters. It can be said that he single-handedly withstood the American All-Star team's inside line.

This strength, coupled with his own focus, seriousness and humility, make the Lakers executives very optimistic about the chemical reaction between him and Kobe.

At the same time, Dayao's 3+1 rookie contract has ended. The last choice was to trade but not execute it. Now he chooses to join the Lakers. The Lakers also offered Yao Ming the highest salary for a Chinese player in NBA history. A four-year, 55 million contract with an annual salary of 13.75 million, second only to Kobe Bryant’s current 14.18 million in the team.

However, this salary space has also compressed the Lakers' salary cap very tightly. At the same time, paired with Odom, it not only strengthens the Lakers' interior rotation lineup, but also forms the Lakers' interior twin towers when necessary.

The subsequent blockbuster in the trade market was that the Wizards sent Larry Hughes, Christian Laettner, and Ron Artest to the Magic in exchange for Tracy McGrady.

McGrady, who just scored 32.1 points during the regular season last year and ranked second in the scoring list behind Lin Dong, is undoubtedly one of the best small forwards and scorers in the league today.

Since Jordan left this season, the Wizards have suffered a substantial loss in market value and fans. It is entirely because of the foundation laid by Jordan in the previous two years and Yao Ming's Asian market that they have barely stabilized profits.

Although he did not lose money, a boss like Potter would never tolerate him being asked to go back to drink soup after eating meat.

So this summer, Wizards owner Porter was desperate. He seized the opportunity when the Lakers wanted to sell O'Neal, used Yao Ming to complete a single trade, and then acquired Tracy McGrady, just to bring the Wizards back to the strong competition for the championship. .

Sure enough, as soon as the deal was settled, the Wizards' market enthusiasm ushered in a wave of fanatical recovery.

Washington fans rejoiced.

The strongest center in the league, plus one of the strongest small forwards in the league!

Who dares to say that such wizards are not competitive?

On the day they joined the Wizards, O'Neal and McGrady showed their infinite appreciation and friendship for each other when they attended the press conference.

Both of them are down and out at the moment. One won three consecutive championships with the Lakers but was considered to have taken advantage of Kobe. The other played with amazing scoring efficiency in the Magic, but was still unable to break through the playoff barrier and was questioned. His ability to fight tough battles.

They are all the subjects of doubt, and it is almost a shame to meet them together.

One after another said at the press conference that the Wizards this season will surely impress everyone and will definitely surpass the brilliance achieved by Jordan and Yao Ming in the Wizards.

The Eastern Conference is already weak. Last year, even one of Yao's wizards reached the Eastern Conference Finals. Can't they make it to the Finals again this time?

Even when owner Porter stated that he would get an All-Star guard for the team at all costs, everyone felt that the Wizards wanted to defeat the SuperSonics with the big devil this season and achieve the championship. It's not impossible.

At the same time, the league also ushered in its third blockbuster transaction.

The Philadelphia 76ers traded CWebb from the Kings for center Chris Webb, the No. 1 pick in 1993. Together with Iverson, they also intend to make a difference this season.

... Various blockbuster transactions have made the league's wealthy clubs seem to have sprung up overnight.

Frankly speaking, Stern felt a headache looking at the various reports on the table.

This is the founder who single-handedly cultivated the NBA from the brink of bankruptcy to its current behemoth scale, and turned an originally unpopular second-rate sport into one of the three major sports in the world.

He may not be the person who knows basketball best on the planet, but he must be the person who knows the basketball court best!

What is the spirit of the NBA? Did you really think it was basketball?

no.

Stern knows all too well that it is hard work and struggle, monuments built with blood and bones, and this is also the reason why Jordan can succeed.

Every city where the team is located has a hero. This is American heroism.

Only the grudges of one person and one city can keep the NBA prosperous in various business topics, and the pattern of one person and one city can also ensure the balance of most NBA teams to the greatest extent.

Only when most teams are balanced will the game be exciting and beautiful to watch.

But now, whether the Lakers get Yao Ming to team up with Kobe, or the Wizards get O'Neal to team up with Tracy McGrady, or the 76ers get Chris Webber to team up with Iverson, this is obviously moving towards a group giant model. Going in the same direction, with superstars getting together, will destroy the balance between NBA teams and make most games start to become boring and one-sided.

What's even more terrible is that the tradition of one person, one city will also be completely lost.

That means not only the disappearance of topics, grudges and other off-field issues, but also means that fans will begin to be confused and lost.

For example, O'Neal's former fans in Los Angeles, do you want them to choose to continue supporting O'Neal and then the Wizards, or do you want them to choose to continue supporting their home team? Fans are having a hard time making a choice, or maybe O'Neal went to Washington, and it becomes difficult for fans to see him, and it's not necessarily possible to get angry and just stop watching.

At the same time, if players can win championships as long as they get together, it also means that the original rookie selection, training system, etc. have all lost their appeal. Rich and wealthy teams are desperately recruiting superstars and have completely lost interest and patience in training rookies. But teams without money are working hard to train players and sell them at high prices. All of this is not conducive to the long-term development of the league.

Fans of wealthy teams cannot stand any defeat and will scold and lose fans when they lose. Fans of weak teams cannot look forward to any victory and will be disappointed every day and eventually lose fans.

Moreover, the league will also move from the original model of ‘teams and leagues dominate everything’ to ‘players dominate everything’.

By then, the player's right to speak will be higher than that of the team, and may even influence the league. That will be putting the cart before the horse, and will make the NBA completely out of control.

...Just thinking about it, Stern can feel that there are too many problems.

His first reaction was to urgently halt the transactions.

But first, their transactions were legal and compliant, and there were no existing league rules to restrict them. More importantly, Stern found that he could no longer stop it.

The emergence of Supersonics Lin Dong, an overly powerful individual, has actually begun to affect the balance of the NBA as early as two seasons ago.

In this Olympics, although people saw the hope of defeating Lin Dong, they even saw the hope of suppressing Lin Dong from beginning to end, leaving Lin Dong without any chance.

But that was based on the gathering of superstars, and even so, even when he was double-teamed by Kobe, Wade and others, and most of his Dragon Country teammates were unable to provide him with help, the guy still Can score more than 50 points, one person is almost as strong as two super giants...

The SuperSonics also have Payton, as well as the rising star inside Hanamichi Sakuragi, as well as good outside and overall defensive capabilities.

If you no longer allow other NBA teams to significantly strengthen, it will really feel like other teams have nothing to play with, and this season's championship might as well just go to the SuperSonics.

If you want to persuade those teams to give up the trade in a balanced way, you must first ensure the overall balance of the NBA. Otherwise, if it is clear that the Sonics will be the dominant one, the harm of the superstars' teaming up has not yet become apparent. The alliance had already collapsed due to the loss of balance.

What Stern now faces is undoubtedly two cups of poison, one that will kill him immediately and one that will cause chronic poisoning that will take at least several years or even more than ten years to take effect.

Frankly speaking, if there was a third option, even if it was a cup of urine, Stern would hold his nose and drink it, but it's a pity that he didn't.

In the end, you can only choose to acquiesce.

Fortunately, the United States is extremely satisfied with the various transactions in this summer's trade market, including the 2004 NBA draft.

Several teams have experienced rapid growth in strength, but the SuperSonics are still the same team with almost no changes.

Even, they didn't have a share in this year's draft. They traded away the only first-round pick last year, which left the Sonics without any reinforcements.

The only 'reinforcement' is a guy who was previously laid off by the Bobcats and later joined the SuperSonics' affiliated Storm team - Rukawa Kaede. After leading the team to win the NBDL championship last season, he was promoted to the home team and became the Super Sonics. A member of Sonic's bench.

Regarding the player named Rukawa Kaede, frankly speaking, no one from the teams or the American fans who learned about him because of the Yang Dong incident last time took this seriously.

That guy's average data per game in the Bobcats was so pitiful that in the end he couldn't even get any playing time in a weak team like the Bobcats. He was just a shooter with no ability to withstand pressure.

Although various 3-point records were broken in the NBDL, the NBDL's defense is notoriously lax. Being able to win the three-point title there does not mean that you can do it when you return to the NBA.

However, this caused a stir among the Japanese media and fans.

Sakuragi Hanamichi and Rukawa Kaede are actually on the same team! And there is actually their favorite Lin Lin, the 6 billion most powerful man, on this team!

This picture, to Japanese fans, is simply so beautiful that it bubbling away, okay?

The SuperSonics have undoubtedly become the most popular NBA team in Japan, completely dominating the country. In today's Japan, the three words "Supersonics" represent basketball more than basketball.

Although the Sonics themselves and Lin Huang do not accept any advertisements from Japanese companies, many Japanese companies are dissatisfied and even sow discord, thinking this is a form of discrimination.

But the fans don't care about this, not to mention that Sakuragi Hanamichi and Rukawa Kaede are going to fight.

The Key Arena, which was finally completed during the offseason, finally welcomed its opening day to entertain fans for the first time.

On November 2, the defending champion SuperSonics faced the Washington Wizards, who had just brought together O'Neal and Tracy McGrady, at Key Arena, kicking off the 2004-05 regular season.

Although the Wizards that won the championship with the SuperSonics have long since changed, the grudges between the two teams still exist. The addition of O'Neal and Tracy McGrady has also made the Wizards one of the favorites this season.

The grievances between the two teams, and the newly formed 'Ohmaiga' combination versus the authentic 'god' combination, made this opening match full of highlights.

——After leaving the guy who spoke freely, I have now been resurrected with full health. I will use this game to prove to the world who is the real ruler of this alliance!

——Leaving that bad team and those teammates who couldn’t give me any help on the court, I am now full of fighting spirit. I will use this game to prove to the world who is the real best No. 3 in the league. Position and scorer!

Regarding this battle, O'Neal and McGrady put down all kinds of harsh words before the game.

Lin Dong was as concise and concise as ever: Shut up! See you in Seattle!