Chapter 581 Old Wang: The postman, without a crown for life, is as miserable as a dog!
On the 19th, the Suns challenged the Jazz away from home.
Now this Jazz is still a team with both black and white. Jeff Hornacek retired in 2000, even before Lao Wang retired.
This Jazz, with the deterioration of the lineup and the gradual aging of the black and white teams, has withdrawn from the championship competition from the first team in the championship level since 1999, and barely made the playoffs last season.
Game, ranked only eighth in the Western Conference, and then was eliminated by the Kings in the first round with a score of 1 to 3.
In fact, the 39-year-old postman Karl Malone's strength is not bad. From the beginning of this season to now, he is still averaging 20 per game. However, with the increase in injuries and decline in physical fitness, his investment in defensive end and rebounding has gradually decreased.
The team's contribution has also been reduced a lot.
Stockton is 40 years old and still averages 107 points per game. Although he can still play, his strength is no longer good and he is on the verge of retirement.
The two starters met in the tunnel. The black and white players couldn't help but sigh when they saw the old K, who was as majestic as ever.
The two of them watched Lao K enter the league. They had many conflicts with Lao K in the early stage. The postman even had many serious conflicts with Lao K. Many bones were broken in the conflicts off the court and also on the court.
After passing a few bones, they eventually became Lao K’s stepping stones.
During their entire peak period as individuals and as a team, they were crushed by Old K's team. They were killed in the second round every time. Let alone the finals, they didn't even touch the floor of the Western Conference Finals. For
For these two superstars, this is a huge tragedy.
Whenever they think about this, the two of them are so depressed that they want to retire directly. Now that they see Lao K, they are even more filled with emotion.
"A postman will be as miserable as a dog without a title for the rest of his life!"
Lao Wang comforted him and then advised: "I heard that your contract will end after playing this season. I think you should leave the Jazz and look for opportunities outside."
The postman snorted and cursed.
John Stockton couldn't help but glance at the postman. He was so familiar with this good friend that he didn't directly object to Old K. Could it be that Karl really wanted to leave the Jazz for the championship?
In this game, the Suns won in the end.
Lao Wang didn't want to lose to anyone, but he didn't want to lose to the postman, so he scored 53 points in this effort.
After beating the Jazz, the Suns will continue on the road to challenge a strong enemy, the Kings, who have grown rapidly in recent seasons with the help of the Princeton system.
So far, the Suns have played a total of 9 games, and the schedule is not close, with 7 wins and 2 losses.
The Kings have a more intensive schedule, with 9 wins and 4 losses so far, playing 4 more games than the Suns.
On the 20th, the Suns returned to Phoenix and stayed for a day before flying to Sacramento on the 21st.
Sacramento is the capital of California, with a permanent urban population of more than 400,000. It is one of the gathering places for Chinese. In the 19th century, the Chinese came to the United States to prospect for gold and landed here from the West Coast. This was their first stop.
In addition, it is only 130 kilometers away from San Francisco, which is very close, and it is only 600 kilometers away from Los Angeles, which is not far away.
At 11 o'clock, when the Suns arrived at the airport, Kevin Johnson also appeared at the airport with his driver. He now looked more and more calm, looking like a successful person.
"Kevin, how are you doing? When are you going to run for mayor? I'm ready to win votes for you." Lao Wang asked as soon as he got in the car.
"Don't worry, it hasn't been long since I was elected as a member. I still need time to accumulate." Lightning said with a smile.
"If you need campaign funds, contact me. K Times Trading Company and the club will support you." Lao Wang warned.
"Of course, Old K, you are my partner." Lightning smiled.
"It's best to become the governor of California as soon as possible. I look forward to that day." Lao Wang said seriously.
His second sister had said that if Lightning could be sent to the position of governor, it would be of great help to the trading company's business and it would allow them to enter many restricted trade areas.
The K-era Club's connections in the United States also need to be monetized through some channels. Clients provide a platform for connections, but the benefits obtained in this way are too few.
"There will be a day." Lightning said with confidence.
His confidence comes from Lao K, but not from K Era Trading Company, but from the K Era Club behind Lao K.
The club has a huge network of contacts. He has obtained the qualification from Old K's second sister to attend the club's top parties. At those parties, he will find many supporters.
I had lunch with Lightning, and I treated everyone to dinner.
DaZhi has been with the Kings and has signed a second contract. His playing style and style are quite suitable for the current Kings. With the training of the past few years, he has now become one of the stable rotation members of the Kings.
At noon on the 22nd, the Timberwolves came to Phoenix and will play against the Suns on the 23rd. In other words, after the Suns beat the Kings, they will also play against the Timberwolves.
As soon as they arrived at the hotel, they held a press conference at the request of the media.
"Mr. Garnett, are you still planning on pressing Old K to the floor and rubbing him?" a Phoenix Sports reporter asked.
Garnett almost jumped up and said, "Don't hurt me. That's what O'Neal said, not me."
He immediately retorted: "I have never said that. To me, Lao K is a senior, and I have always respected him very much..."
The reporter interrupted Garnett and said, "Does your respect mean that the old K who comes back is just a spoiler?
So let me ask, is it possible for the current Timberwolves to win the championship? Is it Old K who ruined the Timberwolves' chance to win the championship?"
There was no expression on Garnett's face. He is now a superstar. For the sake of his status, he cannot bow to anyone, so he replied forcefully: "There are no weak teams in the league. Why don't we, the Timberwolves, have a chance to win the championship? I
I can tell you in a very positive way that we have unlimited possibilities.”
At this time, another local reporter asked: "Mr. Garnett, you said that you will not allow Old K to be arrogant on you. I want to know what arrogance means. Do you have a specific explanation? It means not letting Old K be arrogant.
Score on your head? How many points will it cost if you don’t let me score on you? Ten points, or twenty points? Thirty points? Or more, one hundred points?”
"Haha..." the local reporter laughed.
Garnett hesitated: "When I say unbridled, I mean I won't let Mr. K score as many points as he wants on my head..."
"What's the score? You have to have a bottom line, right?" a reporter shouted.
"..."
Garnett is extremely embarrassed. How should he answer this? Is it possible for him to say that Old K will score 100 points on his head?
"Ha ha……"
The local reporters at the scene laughed again.
Garnett, who was surrounded by local reporters, stared in embarrassment and expressed his anger.
On the evening of the 22nd, after two hours of fierce battle at the Kings’ home court, Arco Arena, the Suns lost to the Kings and were defeated.
After the game, Barkley, who commented on the game, analyzed: "The styles of both sides are somewhat similar, and the offensive rhythm is very fast, but they are completely different offensive tactical systems.
First of all, the King's Princeton offensive system is a half-court position battle, which emphasizes human movement, ball movement, and man-ball coordination. Human movement refers to running without the ball, and ball movement refers to constant passing. Constant counter-running is the essence of tactics.
, there are a lot of backdoor air cuts.
Thanks to Adelman's efforts, the Kings' system has matured since 1999, and now the Kings have entered their peak period because of the maturity of this offensive system.
The small-ball tactics that the Suns are building now are far from mature, but they also have very obvious characteristics. It not only includes half-court position battles, but also pays more attention to the speed between offense and defense. Its fast breaks are like ocean waves.
, wave after wave, there are also a lot of air cuts, but more emphasis is placed on pick-and-rolls to create cutting opportunities for teammates, rather than Princeton's counter-running."
Kenny Smith said: "Old K's defense against Chris Webber today was not successful. He restricted Webber's offense very well, but Webber's passing organization function failed to limit it, which also failed to disrupt the operation of the King's Princeton system.
.”
Barkley nodded and said: "Webber is the organizing center in the Kings' system. Although Old K is also good at assists, his organizational ability is not as good as Weber's. This makes him better at playing against Weber and understanding the Kings' tactics.
Some deviations eventually led to problems on defense."
Lao Wang returned to the locker room and discussed the Kings' Princeton system with the coaching staff.
The Kings are different from the Trail Blazers. The Suns are in a different district from the Trail Blazers, but they are both in the Pacific District. There are five teams in this district, but there are three first-tier teams, the Suns, Kings, and Lakers. The competition is very stressful.
If the Suns cannot win the division championship, they will be very passive in the playoff rankings. If they are ranked in the bottom half, they will probably have to face a strong team in the first round. And now there are strong teams in the Western Conference.
There are as many as four teams in the first tier, and they might even be eliminated in the first round.
Therefore, he is under great pressure. If he cannot even advance to the second round, it will undoubtedly be a huge failure for him who has never missed the Western Conference Finals.
Van Gundy Jr. said: "The Kings' tactical system is already very mature. We have just started to build it. It is normal not to be able to beat them."
D'Antoni said confidently: "Today we only lost by 7 points. Old K's performance in protecting the basket was very good, and he sent 7 big blocks, which largely destroyed their cutting tactics.
I believe that after the regular season, our system will be more mature. When we meet them in the playoffs, who loses and who wins depends on on-site performance."
Lao Wang said: "Our defense is still not good. Their passes are too fast and too much. The transfer of the ball often makes our defense fail, allowing them to easily get many open shots."
The reason why he only lost by 7 points today was because his offense was pretty good. In order not to lose, he scored 34 points, 17 rebounds, 7 assists and 7 blocks, but he still lost.
Van Gundy Jr. scratched his head and said distressedly: "Our lineup is like this now. It is very difficult to improve the defensive level in the short term, whether it is the establishment of the system or the improvement of the players' defensive abilities."
Lao Wang looked at the few hairs that fell off Xiao Fan's head and sighed: "There are becoming less and less!"
"What?" Several coaches were confused.
"Haha, it's nothing. What I'm saying is that time is getting less and less. We must seize the time." Lao Wang casually walked over.
With 7 wins and 3 losses, the Suns returned to Phoenix overnight to prepare for back-to-back games against the Timberwolves tomorrow.
The Timberwolves' record has improved in the past two years, but their lineup is still not as good as the Trail Blazers, Lakers, Kings and other teams. They are not considered a first-tier team. They were fifth in the Western Conference last season. Their current record this season is 7 wins and 6 losses.
After playing three games, the record is not as good as the Suns.
In October 2000, the Timberwolves' yin-yang contract was exposed, and the league imposed the harshest punishment on the Timberwolves, imposing a fine of up to $3.5 million and forfeiting first-round draft picks for the next five years.
The so-called yin and yang contract incident, the protagonist is Joe Smith, the No. 1 pick in 1995, a player who traveled with a bodyguard in his rookie season. Compared with him, Jordan and Old K are not good enough.
Because of this incident, the Timberwolves have not been able to add new blood for five years. They have not received a first-round pick for two consecutive years. In fact, they have lost the chance to win the championship and have become a mess. The current record is okay, but they have not reached the No. 1 ranking.
The strength of a first-tier team will only continue to decline.
It was precisely because of this incident that Garnett, who was at the peak of his strength, was trapped in the Timberwolves' pit and could not escape.
On the morning of the 23rd, Lao Wang didn’t get up from bed until almost ten o’clock.
"Dad is a lazy boy, a big lazy boy..."
Zhou Zhou, who opened the door from time to time and came in to take a look, found out in time and immediately shaved his face to shame him.
"Dad, let's play with models, let's play together, come with me!"
Lao Wang wanted to pick up the precious girl, but the little girl refused and tried to pull him out anxiously.
Lao Wang has a headache. The little girl received model toys, including some model platters. She has recently become obsessed with this game and always pulls him to play.
But this kind of game tests his intelligence and is not what he is good at. However, Zhou Zhou seems to be very talented. This is where he has a headache. He cannot play games with his two-year-old daughter, so he is often teased by Fei Ge.
"Ouch, is our family going to abuse vegetables again?" Fei Ge joked after seeing it.
"Will you still torture you when I go to bed?" Lao Wang said helplessly.
"But Zhouzhou only likes to play with you." Fei Ge said proudly.
She then asked the chef to make some breakfast, and asked Lao Wang to eat breakfast, play games with his daughter, and do physical training by herself.
Lao Wang has a strong desire to have a baby recently, and he asks her to cooperate at every turn. She must manage her figure well and not lose shape after giving birth to three children.
At six o'clock, after dinner, Lao Wang drove to the American West Arena.
"Old K, Garnett said he wouldn't let you hit 20 on his head, what do you think?" asked a foreign reporter who was worried about the world being in chaos.
"20?"
Lao Wang was indeed surprised.
For an average player, it is very good if he can hit 20 data. If he can average 20 data per game in a season, he may be selected as an All-Star if he is still popular.
But there are very few such players, because it requires sufficient shooting rights. A team can have at most two players with such shooting rights, and even most teams only have one.
There are so many players in the league. In fact, as long as he is given enough shots, even people like Rodman and Ben can score 20, let alone him?
How much shooting power does he need in the Suns? In one word, it’s enough!
If he was willing to score 100 points like Chamberlain, he would have had the chance to do so, but he just didn't do it, and he didn't even bother to do it.
"Old K, how many points do you want to score on Garnett tonight?" a local reporter asked.
"Is 20 enough?" he asked.
"Old K, do you mean 20 per quarter?" another local reporter asked excitedly.
Lao Wang laughed and said, "What you want is what I am happy to do."
"Great, fuck Garnett!" local reporters shouted excitedly.
"Old K, broke Chamberlain's 100-point record."
"Yes, record breaking!"
The foreign reporters were also very excited. They didn’t mind watching the excitement and started shouting too.
"What, 20 points per quarter, old K wants to score 100 points?"
"God, it was fun to watch tonight. I hope the Timberwolves can hold on and don't collapse. Old K doesn't have the courage to score points in garbage time."
"I hope Lao K has the courage."
"Let's go and interview Garnett."
Soon, the content of Lao Wang's interview was known to many other media reporters, and a large number of reporters rushed to the visiting team's locker room.