The cool breeze blows gently and the autumn leaves fill the sky.

The National Day Golden Week in China has just passed, and autumn has already begun in Atlanta. Although it is located in the southeastern region of the United States, Atlanta has a humid climate, and late autumn is almost here.

On October 10th, the Hawks ushered in their first preseason game, facing Charlotte at home...now called the New Orleans Hornets, and in the future called the Waterbirds.

As someone who can't read national maps, Liu Mang didn't know that although New Orleans is said to be in the west, it is actually a city on the south coast. It is only 400 nautical miles away from Miami by sea, and only a few kilometers away from Orlando and Atlanta.

It’s about 600 kilometers away, and Atlanta to Orlando is 650 kilometers away.

It's just that Liu Mang, who is illiterate on maps, first flew from Los Angeles to Louisiana, where New Orleans is located, then from Louisiana to North Carolina, and finally from North Carolina back to Atlanta. He knew that Florida is in Georgia.

Next to it, but didn't even notice that Louisiana is also next to Georgia.

So in the preseason, the Eagles' first game was actually against the newly relocated "Western Conference team" Hornets.

In the past ten days, except for the initial incident of Glenn Robinson hurting each other, which shocked the United States and made Eagles fans quite worried, everything after that seems to be a good thing.

According to reporters' descriptions and interviews with Eagles players, they all praised Glenn Robinson's training attitude after returning to the team.

After Big Dog came to the Hawks, he seemed to have really changed his ways and trained harder. You must know that when he was with the Bucks, Big Dog was regarded as a bankrupt version of O'Neal among guards. He played better than O'Neal.

It all depends on talent. At the beginning of the season, I was all fat and it took two months of playing to get back to normal shape.

Later, Jason Terry signed a three-year, US$3 million endorsement contract with a Chinese sports brand called Li-Ning, becoming the second Eagles star to have an official sneaker endorsement.

Then Liu Mang shocked the Americans. Nike offered him the most outrageous seven-year, $90 million and one-dollar endorsement contract since Jordan.

On October 7, after Nike executives sent people to Atlanta to hold a press conference, this contract shocked Americans!

In the past two days, the news has been buzzing about Liu Mang's signing with Nike. Nike has begun designing Liu Mang's boots for the Christmas game. The Hawks have finally become a part of the Christmas game. Their opponent...the Houston Rockets!

David Stern has been waiting for this day since Liu Mang just played last year. Now, he has been looking forward to it for nearly a year. The Chinese Derby is finally coming!

Liu Mang has received more than 10 pairs of customized sneakers from Nike, ranging from Jordan Nike era sneakers to airjordan, as well as some non-star endorsed sneakers. In short, Liu Mang started from the first preseason game of the new season.

, you have to wear Nike boots.

The enthusiasm brought about by Liu Mang's signing did not gradually dissipate until the preseason started.

For Eagles fans, this is a good thing. Fans are the ones who have the strongest sense of belonging to their own team’s stars and their favorite stars. If their favorite stars are good with the team, their work will be easier, and they will even eat.

Mummy smells good.

Before the preseason game against the Hornets started, I don't know whether it was intentional or not, but the Sports Illustrated reporter found Big Dog for a pre-game interview.

Sports Illustrated has always disliked Liu Mang, mainly because he has a bad relationship with the Lakers. Popular teams always have one live broadcast in preseason. The Eagles are also one of the popular teams this year, with three live broadcasts compared to last year.

This season there are 16 live broadcasts across the United States, second only to the Lakers (19 games) and the 76ers (17 games), and one more than the Magic and Raptors.

Mr. Joe can't drive the Wizards' ratings this season. There are only 9 live broadcasts in the United States, which is in the middle and lower reaches of the league. Starting from the second half of last season, fans don't want to watch Jordan play anymore, and they don't want to see Jordan struggling like this.

On the contrary, in China, the Wizards have the most live broadcasts, more than the Rockets and Hawks. The Wizards, Rockets, Hawks, and Lakers are the four teams with the most live broadcasts in China.

Today's preseason game is not included in the number of live broadcasts in the United States during the regular season. It is broadcast live nationwide by Time Warner Cable, so the pre-game interview was with Sports Illustrated, a subsidiary of Time Warner.

It seems that after a few days of silence, his impetuous temper can no longer be restrained. Big Dog said in an interview: "Now is a beginning. I will bring new helpers and win the first place in the regular season until I win the championship."

Champion, prove myself!"

Liu Mang heard Big Dog's interview while he was practicing shooting and couldn't explain how he felt.

It has been 10 days since Glenn Robinson returned to the team. The relationship between the rest of the Hawks and the newly joined All-Star player is lukewarm. Glenn Robinson mainly wants to improve the relationship with Ratliff.

Apart from him, Rahim, the two oldest players on the team, and others including Liu Mang and Glenn Robinson, they have not had much contact. It is said that he behaves like a boss, but it is not as expected.

It's a bit low-key to be so arrogant to the "little brothers".

Apart from communication about movement direction during training, Liu Mang and Glenn Robinson have not spoken once in private, so they really don't understand this teammate.

Rahim, on the other hand, does not have an enthusiastic temperament. Even the only time he and Liu Mang got drunk, he didn't talk much and just watched Liu Mang bragging silently.

Ratliff is very moderate, greeting everyone with a smile, and never involves himself in any disputes, because he does not need to take sides or anything else. For a defensive pillar center like him, even if he partners with Duncan

, he must be a center occupying the basket, a center with a normal height and the best defensive player level. In his peak period, O'Neal may have given up the basket position to him on the defensive end.

Jason Terry, on the other hand, resented the new teammates who took his shooting guard position. He didn't like playing point guard, he just liked shooting.

Therefore, Glenn Robinson was very depressed after coming to the Eagles and deliberately kept a low profile in the training camp.

But when the game was about to begin, my restless heart finally couldn't contain it anymore!

…

There are not many tricks in the pre-season, and there are very few pre-match activities. After all, the attention is just that, and there is no need to invest too much money.

Although the salary of the Eagles this year is still very good, except for Raheem's 12 million salary, Glenn Robinson, Ratliff's 9.8 million and 9.3 million salaries, the other highest salaries are Muhammad's 4.7 million, and then 4 million.

After Newbell renewed his contract and sent away DeMarre Johnson, the No. 6 pick, the Hawks' salary this year is lower than last season because Alan Henderson, who has a salary of 7 million, was not hired by the Hawks.

The team executes the team option. Others Jason Terry is 2.57 million, Dean Grove is 2.25 million, and Chris Crawford is 2.66 million; Boozer and Prince both have rookie contracts of around 1.5 million.

, Liu Mang, and Barnes all earn more than 500,000 US dollars a year.

It seems that the Hawks spent a lot of money to bring in three rookies and an All-Star player. In fact, the salary is 3 million lower than last season, with a total salary of only more than 49 million US dollars.

It's just that this is the last season for the Eagles to enjoy the rookie bonus. The Eagles management is actively negotiating with Jason Terry and Liu Mang's agents to renew their contracts in advance. On Liu Mang's side, Schwartz

The attitude is very tough. At most, the contract will be extended for one year with priority renewal clauses. Jason Terry's side originally negotiated a very good deal at the end of last season, with a seven-year contract worth more than 80 million U.S. dollars, but because of Glenn-

With Robinson joining, Jason Terry is no longer in a hurry to renew his contract.

If it is delayed until the end of the new season and the two have not renewed their contract, other teams will definitely rush for poisonous offers, which will give the Eagles management a headache.

Therefore, given the stingy owner of the Eagles, Steven Price, he started to save money whenever he could. If neither of them renewed their contracts in advance, they could only match the contract that others offered him.

Of course, I'm talking about Jason Terry. On Liu Mang's side, the Eagles understand that Liu Mang wants to renew his contract for only one year and wants to get the Bird rights. Don't worry, he really can't renew the long-term contract, so he signed a 1 1

A contract with a player option with a priority extension clause is also acceptable.

Soon, the game started. In the first preseason game, the Eagles sent out a lineup of Dean Grove, Glenn Robinson, Raheem, Muhammad, and Ratliff.

The Hornets sent out David Wesley, Jamal Mashburn, George Lynch, PJ Brown, and Jamal Magloire.

Bearded Baron Davis will miss at least two months of the new season starting from the preseason due to injury. It is said that he tore his thigh muscle during training.

And Jamal Mashburn, who played half of last season and was reimbursed, is back and seems to be in good physical condition. He just moved to a seaside city and has not even bought a new house yet, so he comes out to play away games.

Mashburn feels that playing basketball this year feels weird.

It is said that Jack is a killer. From time to time, he sacrifices his teammates who are oppressing him and then becomes one himself. In fact, Mashburn has a similar function.

This year is the tenth season of Mashburn's career. Before this, he has been reimbursed for the season four times after playing half of the season, and each time he was reimbursed for the season, he had an All-Star level at the beginning of the second season.

A teammate was injured, and then Mashburn was almost at full attendance in the new season...

After the game started, Liu Mang looked at Jason Terry sitting next to him and asked strangely: "Jason, why are you on the bench? There are no three-point shooters." "I'll just let you be on the bench."

You can play whatever you want on the table, why don’t you allow me to try too? You won’t even give me a chance in the preseason?” Jason Terry said with a ferocious expression.

"Okay, okay, wait until next season. I'll switch with you next season and you can play as the sixth man!" Liu Mang said helplessly.

"Why next season?" Jason Terry was puzzled.

"I want to win two Sixth Man of the Year awards in a row! It's my dream to break all NBA historical records!" Liu Mang had a Martin Luther King-like expression of having the same dream.

"..."

…

After the game started, Ratliff won the jump ball for the Eagles. After the game, the Big Dog was as irritable as he wanted to be. He was quite active and was in excellent form from inside and outside. He scored 22 points in the first quarter and defeated the Hornets.

The team doesn't want to play anymore.

Seeing that Glenn Robinson was playing so well, Coach Kruger asked him to continue playing on the court with Barnes, Prince, Boozer, and Newbell in the second quarter, replacing all the other main players.

As for the original players of the Eagles except for the four new players, Coach Kruger already knows them very well after one season. He only needs to look at the training status to know that they are in better shape in the new season than last season, so

The main point is to see how the new players are doing. Seeing that Glenn Robinson is playing so well, Coach Kruger wants him to play more and see how strong Glenn Robinson is in official games.

In the first quarter, the Eagles led by a big score of 34 to 17. After the start of the second quarter, Glenn Robinson continued to attack with the ball. On the defensive end, Barnes, Prince, and Newbell all defended desperately. The first two

He is a rookie substitute who wants to show his strengths in the preseason to get playing time in the regular season. Newbell has a sense of crisis because of the addition of Boozer. In the past, he was an unstoppable first inside substitute, but now

There is an additional rookie who is stronger than him in his first season, so the pressure is a bit high.

Boozer's defense was poor, but his weight was there and he was very good at grabbing rebounds. When the Hornets really didn't have the fighting spirit to compete today, Glenn Robinson went crazy!

Liu Mang and Jason Terry did not get a chance to play today. Jason Terry is very disappointed. It is rare to be a substitute. Can you give him a chance to perform?

"Ace, why do you think the Hornets are playing so poorly after all?" Jason Terry asked in confusion.

"Uh... Jason, I think they are probably worried about whether Charlotte's house can be sold," Liu Mang complained.

"It makes sense." Jason Terry really thought it made sense. "The players of the Hornets are so pitiful. The whole team moved. They may have thought that they would be traded to different cities, but they didn't think that the entire team would be traded.

Find another city! At least five or six people in a team have villas. Selling so many villas together will probably make a huge loss."

"Huh? I didn't expect that Jason, your brain is so good! You can analyze it so thoroughly!" Liu Mang exclaimed.

"Humph, of course..." Jason Terry was so proud of being praised that he suddenly reacted: "Damn! Ace! How stupid I am in your eyes!"

…

The Eagles' preseason was a little crazy. The first 50 points of the new season actually appeared in the preseason. Glenn Robinson's first game after joining the Eagles was in a preseason game against the Hornets.
To be continued...