At seven o'clock, in the visiting team's locker room, the head coach announced tonight's starting lineup.
"Kevin Johnson, Dan Marley..."
Paul Westphal read out the names of No. 1 and 2, and at the small forward position, he hesitated.
Cedric Ceballos immediately became nervous, stared at the coach, and grabbed his pants with both hands, for fear that he would lose his main position.
He was the 20th pick of the second round in 1990, very late in the draft. He only averaged 11 minutes of substitute time per game in the first two seasons and was not taken seriously.
But this season the team changed its head coach and lost three more starters. There was a serious shortage of players, so he had the opportunity to become the starting small forward. However, his playing time only increased to 21 minutes, less than 30 minutes. The main position was not
Very stable.
On the contrary, Richard Dumas, who was in the same room as Wang Tiejun, was looking forward to it and dreamed of getting this main position.
"...Cedric Ceballos..."
Then, Westphal read out the starting small forward position.
"yeah!"
Cedric Ceballos clenched his fists excitedly.
"Damn it!"
Dumas muttered in disappointment.
"...Barkley..."
Westphal read this and paused again.
Only the center was left. At this moment, Wang Tiejun, Mark Weston, and Oliver Miller all looked at the head coach.
"Old K."
Westphal looked at Wang Tiejun and then said.
"hey-hey!"
Comrade Lao Wang suddenly laughed.
"Damn it!"
Mark West cursed secretly.
"Why?"
Oliver Miller is extremely disappointed. He is a first-round pick with full potential. Why should the team give up on him?
Although they had already guessed such an outcome due to Wang Tiejun's big contract and the team's training match in the afternoon, when it actually happened, they still couldn't accept it.
At 7:30, both sides announced the starting lineup.
Suns: Wang Tiejun, Barkley, Cedric Ceballos, Dan Marley, Kevin Johnson
Digital Team: Andrew Long, Tim Perry, Clarence Witherspoon, Jeff Hornacek, Jose Hawkins
This game was not broadcast live across the United States, and was only broadcast in Philadelphia, so the attention was average.
But in fact, in Philadelphia and Phoenix, because Barkley and three Suns starters swapped clubs, this game actually attracted a lot of attention.
Judging from this season's record, Florida City's transaction was not considered a success because the previous games had fewer wins and more losses.
But it is not considered a failure, because Philadelphia did not make the playoffs last season. No matter how bad the record is this season, it will just fail to make the playoffs.
From the perspective of the Suns, the transaction was considered a success. Before Tom Chambers was injured, they were first in the Western Conference and first in the league.
"Tonight Andrew Long faces the perverted coolie from China..."
In the on-site commentary box, commentator Rom wanted to praise his own center and then make fun of Wang Tiejun. Thinking about the strength of Andrew Long 56, he lost the confidence to speak and couldn't go on.
Partner Venus quickly picked up the topic and said: "In terms of scoring, last time the Suns played against the Magic, the perverted coolie played for thirty minutes and only scored two points. It shows that he is an offensive idiot. In this regard, Andrew Long can definitely do it."
Use his defense to keep him clean."
At this point, he felt there was something wrong, because O'Neal failed to keep Wang Tiejun clean and was dunked on. Although Andrew Long averaged 1.9 blocks per game, could he really keep that pervert in zero?
He felt a little weak and couldn't speak anymore.
Their center was too weak, so the two had to change the topic and start talking about Barkley's past with Philadelphia.
At 7:45, the starting lineup started.
"Kevin, long time no see!"
"Jeff, it's so nice to see you!"
In the tunnel, Kevin Johnson warmly hugged Jeff Hornacek.
Except for Wang Tiejun, other players from both sides were once teammates and greeted each other.
"Introducing my brother, Lao Wang." Buckley introduced at this time.
"Hello." Wang Tiejun said with a genuine smile.
"Is he okay?"
Hornacek glanced at Lao Wang and asked Kevin Johnson in a low voice.
As the former main shooting guard of the Suns, he pays close attention to the Suns' games. He watched the Suns' last game against the Magic. Although the Chinese's statistics were very poor, his performance against O'Neal surprised him.
"Better than Mark West anyway."
Kevin Johnson said something, and then smiled at Andrew Lang: "Andrew, you are going to suffer tonight."
Andrew Lang was startled, glanced at Wang Tiejun, and asked with some confusion: "Kevin, what do you mean?"
Kevin Johnson laughed: "It seems you didn't pay attention to our last game."
Andrew Lang shrugged and nodded: "I had a party the night before yesterday and I really didn't watch that game."
"Andrew, he is very good at strong confrontation." Hornacek reminded.
Andrew Long is 211 centimeters tall and weighs 115 kilograms. He looks strong, but he has the same style as Milicic in later generations and does not like confrontation, so when he heard this sentence, he frowned.
"System, there is no mission this time?"
Before going on stage, Wang Tiejun checked the system and found that no tasks were issued.
The system replied: "If the host completes various achievement tasks, such as scoring, 10, 20, 30 for the first time, etc., total score of 500 points, 1000 points, etc., the system will give corresponding rewards and will not issue such rewards specially.
Task."
Fifteen minutes later, the game started.
In the middle circle, Wang Tiejun and Andrew Long jump the ball.
Lao Wang's jumping was not very good, but he was pretty good at the fifth position. Durant, the god of death in later generations, only had a jumping of more than 60 centimeters.
Andrew Long's athletic qualities are also average, his bounce is not as good as him, and he can easily bat the ball away.
Sun attack.
Wang Tiejun pushed directly towards the basket. Andrew Lang blocked it and was immediately pushed away. His strength and confrontation ability were not at the same level. He successfully entered the basket.
Andrew Long went around and was pushed away from the basket by him. He carried the defender with his left arm and raised his right hand to ask for the ball at the top of the arc.
Kevin Johnson originally wanted to give it to Barkley, but this was Wang Tiejun's first start. Seeing that he had a chance, he lobbed the ball in.
Wang Tiejun jumped up and grabbed the ball with one hand. He got up again and was about to dunk when his left arm was caught by Andrew Long.
"Bang!"
The dunk missed, the ball bounced on the basket, and the referee's whistle sounded at the same time.
"What the hell!"
Wang Tiejun was a little depressed. His athletic quality was indeed poor, his explosive power was not enough, and his getting up speed was also slow. If this ball had been played by O'Neal's pervert, it would have definitely made it two plus one. This was one of the differences between him and O'Neal.
"Old K, you did a good job." Buckley came over and encouraged him.
"Brother, get ready to grab rebounds."
While high-fiving, Wang Tiejun and Barkley were close to each other.
His shooting is only level 50, and his free throw ability is very poor. He still has this self-awareness.
Buckley's face trembled and he nodded.
Wang Tiejun stood on the free throw line, took the ball and dribbled it seven or eight times in a row, and then carefully threw it towards the basket.
"Bang!"
The ball was too short and bounced back into the basket.
"Rookie, I can punish you more accurately with my eyes closed." Jeff Hornacek joked.
Lao Wang rolled his eyes, I'm a fucking center, I've only played basketball for three years, and I haven't touched the ball much for almost two years. I've been doing strenuous work in the past few months, and now I still have a crappy shooting touch.
Being able to touch the basket from such a distance is something to be proud of.
"Bang!"
The second ball hit the basket as usual.
Barkley jumped high, half of Andrew Long's head appeared from behind, grabbed the ball from his head, and then rose up again, made a throw through Andrew Long, and scored the ball.
