Almighty Coach

To be tied by a 3-pointer at the buzzer, and it was a 3-pointer off the board, it hurts morale.

The away game lost two games in a row, and the home game was dragged into overtime, which also hurt morale.

Even the Warriors have seen many big scenes, but when encountering this situation, the players will inevitably feel a little frustrated.

In the surrounding audience seats, all the fans had already stood up to watch the game, but the shouting was much quieter. The 48 minutes of fierce competition in regular time, several equal points, and several back and forth overtakes have exhausted the energy of the fans, and the fans have become hoarse. The peddler who wandered among the auditorium selling drinks has become the busiest person on the scene.

After a short break, it was time for overtime.

Overtime is only a short five minutes, and each team will only have seven or eight offensive opportunities if allocated, so each offensive is particularly important.

Dai Li still didn't arrange any tactics. At this time, he could only trust the judgment of the veterans.

The veterans chose to break through with the ball. Even if you can't score directly, you still hope to make fouls and get free throws. For superstar players with first-class skills, this is indeed the most stable way to score.

The Warriors continue to implement the previous tactics. They still focus on shooting from outside the three-point line. One more point.

The two sides fought each other for four rounds, and each scored six points. The Warriors made two three-pointers, while the Clippers scored four free throws and a layup.

Looking at those veterans rushing to the basket of the Warriors like a cannon tower, and then making layups with twisted bodies, the eye sockets couldn't help but get a little moist.

These old guys are really eager for that championship ring.

It was not only Li Dai who was moved, but also the commentator and countless audiences in front of the TV.

"Wood directly collided with the Warriors' inside players, and the guard went to find physical contact with the center. This is like suicide!"

"Hall still dares to make a layup like this. Isn't he afraid of losing his knee again?"

"Raymond's breakthrough, his body is twisted like this!"

"Vincent, he flew up, oh my god, it caused a foul, but it fell so hard! He is 39 years old..."

Everyone can feel that these veterans are really working hard, and their breakthroughs every time seem to be betting on their careers! At this time, they are like soldiers who regard death as home, no matter how many sacrifices they make, they will still win.

"Crazy, these crazy guys! Play ball, do you need to do this? Do you think you are a superman? If everyone plays like this, the medical insurance company will pay for it!" Dell thought to himself.

Dell has already won three championships at a young age, so for him, the fourth championship is just icing on the cake.

Not only Dell, but other Warriors players also have this idea, especially the main players, who already have championship rings, and they feel that they don't need to work hard for what they own.

"These old guys are red-eyed, it's better not to compete with them!"

"They're not afraid of injury, I'm afraid of injury! The season is almost over, I don't want to spend a summer in the hospital."

"At the age of these veterans, they will have to retire after only one or two years of playing, and my career is still very long! They are barefoot and are not afraid of me wearing shoes. Forget it, let's be cowardly!"

"I have reached the contract year, and I am still counting on signing a 100 million contract next year. If I get injured at this time, the contract will definitely be ruined. No, I have to hold back. For the sake of the contract, I have to protect my health! Or Honestly, just float outside and shoot three-pointers, it's the safest way!"

The Warriors' players have different minds, but what they have in common is that they are unwilling to fight desperately with the Clippers.

The so-called narrow road meets the brave to win. In the last two minutes of overtime, it really came to a "narrow road", but the Warriors couldn't be "brave".

Sudden death!

That's what happened with the Warriors. The first minute was full of enthusiasm, the score was tight, and then there were no points for three consecutive rounds.

And it was the most critical three rounds in overtime.

It is not surprising that the team that shoots three-pointers misses three consecutive shots. It is a common occurrence.

But in the last two minutes of overtime, missing three shots in a row would be fatal!

That is, in these three rounds, the Clippers opened up a 5-point advantage. Two layups, and one foul made one of two free throws.

The Warriors finally scored their fourth three-point attempt, and then the Clippers did not give the Warriors a chance to breathe. They broke through directly to the inside, made another foul, and then made two free throws to close the gap. It was extended to 4 points again.

The point difference of 4 points is an embarrassing number. It takes two rounds to equalize or overtake.

After serving the ball, the Warriors advanced quickly, grabbed a quick two points in ten seconds, and then adopted foul tactics.

It's time to test the Clippers' free throws.

The fans kept making noises, making all kinds of noises, trying to interfere with the Clippers' free throws.

Then the Clippers made two free throws, but the fans were quiet again.

Same as before, the point difference is still 4 points, and two attacks are still needed to tie the score, but the time is ten seconds shorter than before.

This time, time has not allowed them to make two quick points, they must try a three-pointer.

A three-pointer at a time like this requires luck as well as strength.

However, the head coach of the Warriors does not have the lucky horseshoe, the prayer skill, and the improvement of luck.

The most critical three-pointer, the Warriors did not make it, and then the Clippers grabbed a rebound, and then the Warriors had to foul.

The Clippers went to the free throw line again and made one of two free throws, with a 5-point difference.

The Warriors called a timeout, served the ball in midfield, caught the ball and immediately shot a three-pointer, and this time they made it. The point difference became 2 points.

Immediately after the Clippers served the ball, the Warriors fouled again. The Clippers went to the free throw line and made two free throws. The point difference changed to 4 points, but the time was only 5.5 seconds.

The Warriors used up the last timeout, and then continued to serve at halftime, rushing to shoot a three-pointer.

Did not score, the Clippers got a rebound, and the Warriors fouled again, but this time the foul was meaningless.

There are 2.2 seconds left in the time, 4 points difference, no timeout, need to attack from the backcourt, even if a goal is scored, these 2.2 seconds will be exhausted. What's more, even if a three-pointer is scored, the Warriors will still lose by 1 point.

So in one game, the Warriors are completely cool.

...

When the sound of the end of the game sounded, the fans had already begun to leave in an orderly manner.

The big score in this round of the series has become 3 to 0, and the Clippers have already won the match point. For the Warriors, they can already say "bye" to this year's playoffs.

In the NBA, there has never been a team that has come back from a 0-3 deficit. If that team is 0 to 3 behind, the mentality is already in a state of surrender.

In the fourth game two days later, Dai Li only allowed the main players to play for more than ten minutes, so as to keep his hands warm, he joined the non-rotation lineup. This is tantamount to withdrawing troops early and giving up the fourth game voluntarily.

Facing the water dispenser administrator of the Clippers, the Warriors easily won a victory, tying the total score to 1-3.

Although the Warriors won, the Warriors players were not happy at all. When they were behind 3-0, they had held back all their strength and prepared to counterattack crazily to save some face, but they didn't expect to punch them. on cotton.

Moreover, this game did not help the Warriors regain their confidence. They defeated the opponent's water dispenser administrator. It felt like a two-meter-tall man beating up a child. It must be embarrassing to lose, and there is no sense of accomplishment in winning. .

All in all, victory is not without force.

The coaching staff of the Warriors was a little depressed. They originally wanted to use this victory to boost the morale of the players, but they didn't expect that they didn't plan to come to the front at all, and just swayed and avoided.

Dai Li took it for granted, and answered the reporter's question directly: "Our players are relatively old, and they are already exhausted in the fierce confrontation in the playoffs, so they need to rest. You always You can't let a group of nearly forty-year-old veterans work as hard as young people!"

Li Dai's statement made the reporters speechless. A player of such an age is called "dedication" for a long time on the court, which must be praised by everyone, but if he plays a few games of healthy basketball, he can't make irresponsible remarks.

There is a virtue called respecting the old and caring for the young, but in the NBA there is only respect for the old and no love for the young. It is normal for young rookies to be bullied when they come, but it is politically correct to respect the seniors.

...

In the fifth game, the two sides returned to Los Angeles.

Los Angeles is also a team with a championship tradition. Although it is not the Lakers but the Clippers who have the opportunity to hit the championship this year, this does not affect the enthusiasm of the fans. The entire stadium is filled with nearly 20,000 seats, and there are many Hollywood fans. The famous movie star came to the scene to witness the moment when the Clippers won the Western Conference championship.

Before the game started, Dai Li had a good conversation with Xiao Dingtian in the VIP seat.

"I didn't expect sports in the United States to be so profitable. I play football in China and lose more than one billion a year. Playing basketball in the United States, I can earn more than 20 million dollars per game!" Xiao Dingtian sighed.

It is a normal operation for Dingtian Football Club to lose more than one billion every year, but for Dingtian Group, more than one billion is nothing more than developing a few buildings, which is regarded as advertising.

When Dingtian Group acquired the Clippers, it didn't intend to make a lot of money, as long as it didn't lose too much. But to Xiao Ding's surprise, playing sports in the United States can really make a lot of money.

The average price of tickets for this game has exceeded one thousand dollars, creating the highest ticket price for the Western Conference Finals. Based on the 20,000 seats in the Staples Center, the ticket revenue for this game alone has reached 20 million dollars.

Playing a game, a quasi-star player's salary for a year has already been earned.

The ticket price in Los Angeles is relatively expensive. If it comes to the finals, the average ticket price in Los Angeles can exceed 2,500 US dollars.

Dai Li replied with a smile: "The commercialization of sports in the United States is indeed incomparable to other countries."

"Unfortunately, this stadium is not our own." Xiao Dingtian sighed again, and then looked around at the auditorium.

Xiao Dingtian himself develops real estate, and Dingtian Group is one of the top 200 companies in the world's top 500 companies. This stadium is not his own, which makes Xiao Dingtian feel very uncomfortable.

After developing real estate for a lifetime, I have to rent someone else's stadium in the end. This is intolerable!

Only Xiao Dingtian lowered his voice and said, "I plan to build a new stadium, which is our own stadium. If you win the NBA championship this year, the board of directors will definitely have no trouble building the stadium."

The 30 NBA teams have a total of 29 arenas. The Lakers and Clippers share a Staples Arena.

Among the 29 arenas, only seven and a half teams have their own real home arena. These include: Pistons at Palace of Auburn Hills, Wizards at Verizon Center, Raptors at Air Canada Center, Nets at Barclays Center, Trail Blazers at Moda Center, Nuggets at Pepsi Center, Jazz at Wein Special smart home arena. In addition, the owner of the Bulls owns 50% of the shares of the Bulls home United Center, so the Bulls have half of their own venue.

Except for these seven and a half teams, all other teams have to rent venues. For example, the Toyota Center, home of the Rockets, which is familiar to Chinese fans, is owned by the Houston Sports Bureau.

"It costs a lot of money to build a stadium, right?" Dai Li asked subconsciously.

"I plan to come up with this number." Xiao Dingtian stretched out a finger directly.

100 million dollars? This amount of money can't build an NBA basketball stadium in Los Angeles.

10 billion dollars? Dingtian Group can't afford so much money. Besides, it doesn't take so much money to build a stadium.

So this gesture must represent 1 billion US dollars!

1 billion US dollars to build a stadium, this must be a very high standard stadium.

Nowadays, most of the arenas of NBA teams were built in the last century. The earlier ones, such as the Bradley Center and the Palace of Auburn Hills, were built in 1988. The cost at that time has no reference value. .

After 2010, a total of three NBA arenas have been built and opened. They are the Orlando Amway Center Arena, which opened in 2010, with a cost of 480 million U.S. dollars; the Brooklyn Barclays Center, which opened in 2012, cost 1 billion U.S. dollars; And in 2016, the Sacramento Golden One Arena opened at a cost of US$558 million.

In addition, the new arena built by the Warriors in San Francisco is also known as an investment of 1 billion US dollars.

Barclays Center is located in New York, where the land is relatively expensive, which is why it has a cost of 1 billion US dollars; the land price in San Francisco is also high, so the cost of the new Warriors stadium is also rising.

The land in Los Angeles is also very expensive. To build a new arena in Los Angeles, 700 to 800 million US dollars must be indispensable. But if it costs 1 billion US dollars, it must be a high-standard arena.

As for whether the cost can be recovered, Dai Li is not worried. When it comes to coaching, Dai Li thinks he is world-class, but when it comes to real estate development, Xiao Dingtian is also world-class. Since Xiao Dingtian is willing to spend 1 billion to build the arena, there must be a way to profit from it.

...

Among the audience, many are not fans of the Clippers. They just came to witness a new Western Conference champion. Of course, some people came to witness the Warriors being eliminated.

The Warriors have entered the finals for four consecutive years and won three championships. This is the first time in five years that the Warriors have not entered the finals. It really needs to be witnessed.

And many fans also realize that this may be the last game of the Warriors' current lineup.

Some of the Warriors players are in contract years and hope to get a big contract. Some people have lowered their salaries for the sake of the championship, and some are about to usher in their contract year. If there is a championship in hand, player salary cuts and contract extensions are not a problem, but if they do not win the championship or even enter the finals, then the Warriors' lineup is likely to disintegrate next year.

So in this game, after the Warriors lose, their players are likely to go their separate ways next season.

How can professional coaches and players not be aware of things that even fans can realize?

In this game, some of the main players in the Warriors played with confusion about the future. Their minds are no longer on the outcome of the game, but thinking about "I have to get a maximum salary next season", or "Which team should I play for next season".

When the hearts of the people are scattered, it will be difficult to win again.

...

During the game, the Clippers and the Warriors played back and forth, and both sides had wonderful goals, but in the eyes of basketball professionals, this game did not reach the intensity of the Western Conference Finals.

Even when the Warriors lost the game in the end, people did not see the frustration of being eliminated on the faces of the Warriors players. At best, they were a little disappointed, and some players even showed expressions of relief.

Perhaps for the Warriors players, the championship is also a kind of pressure, the so-called high places are too cold! Now that he has not entered the finals, it is more like a heavy burden has been lifted from his shoulders.

The Clippers defeated the Warriors with a total score of 4 to 1, and they are only one step away from the championship.

On the other hand, the Eastern Conference finals are still in progress.

Contrary to Dai Li's expectations, the Milwaukee Bucks won the Eastern Conference championship.

The Bucks are also a team with a long history. They once won the NBA championship in 1971, but since 2000, the strength of the Bucks has begun to decline, and it has not become a strong team in the East until the last two years. Team.

But even so, before the start of the playoffs, there are still not many people who are optimistic about the Bucks, but under the leadership of the team's core "Antetokounmpo", the Bucks have overcome all obstacles and reached the finals.

I believe that before the start of the season, no one would have expected the Clippers and Bucks to meet in the Finals.

The day after the Eastern Conference Finals, the Clippers flew to Milwaukee.

The first two games of the finals are the home court of the Bucks. Because the Bucks' regular season record is better than that of the Clippers.

This does not mean that the Bucks are stronger than the Clippers, mainly because the competition in the Western Conference regular season this season is too fierce.

This season, the Western Conference has become a mess, especially in the first half of the regular season, with seven or eight teams taking turns to take the No. 1 position in the Western Conference. Today is still the No. 1 team in the West, and if they lose a game tomorrow, they may fall out of the playoffs. This chaotic situation has caused the overall record of the Western Conference teams to be lowered.

The competition in the East is not so fierce. As in previous years, the top five or six teams have established their places in the playoffs early, and the other teams with a winning rate of less than 50% compete for the remaining places in the playoffs. At the beginning of the season, he started to perform poorly and became a point-giving boy in the eyes of other teams.

Therefore, the top three teams in the East have better records than the top teams in the West.

...

In the first game of the finals, the Clippers took a double-digit lead before they knew it.

The Bucks actually didn't make any mistakes, their tactical execution was in place, and their shooting percentage was not bad, but they were behind in points.

This is the gap in strength!

The lineup is weaker, and the experience is poorer. In the finals, this gap becomes a lagging behind, and it is still the kind of lagging that cannot be chased.

Obviously they have done a good job, but they still have to lose. The Bucks really have nothing to do.

On the bench beside the court, Dai Li had a relaxed expression, chatting with assistant coach Cassel:

"That young man is very good!" Dai Li pointed to the core of the Bucks team, the "Brother Alphabet" with a very long name. Until now, Dai Li still couldn't spell his name.

Dai Li's detection results show that this 24-year-old young man has an S+ level of talent and is likely to become the next generation ruler of the league. His averages of 26 points, 13 rebounds and 6 assists per game this season are also impressive. Impeccable people.

Only Dai Li continued to say: "Such a good boy, he shouldn't stay in Milwaukee, he should go to a big city to develop."

"Are you planning to bring him over?" Cassel asked tentatively.

Dai Li didn't answer, and Kassel went on to say, "His contract has two years left, but I'm afraid it will be difficult for us to recruit him to Los Angeles. He expressed in an interview that he would like to stay in Milwaukee forever."

"He said that because he hasn't experienced enough failures! He is still young and feels that his future career is still very long, and he is not so eager for championships. After he has experienced failures again and again, Desperate, when he realizes that staying in Milwaukee will never win a championship, he will change his mind." Dai Li said.

"Indeed, Milwaukee is a small ball market, and it is difficult for them to attract superstars to join. In the current NBA, if there are not enough superstars, there will be no championship!" Cassell replied honestly.

Milwaukee is not a small city. They have a population of nearly two million, which ranks among the top among many cities in the United States.

But as far as basketball goes, Milwaukee is a small market.

People in this city prefer baseball more than basketball. The Brewers in Major League Baseball have been at the bottom of the list for many years in a row, but in Milwaukee, the Brewers are always more popular than the Bucks. .

Only Dai Li continued to say: "After this season is over, I plan to resign as the head coach."

"What?" Cassel swayed in shock, and looked at Dai Li with an incredulous look.

"Next year is the Olympic year again, and I can't continue to focus on the team." Dai Li spread his hands, and continued: "I plan to suggest to the management that you take over as the head coach. Anyway, the two For years, you have been in charge of the team's tactics. Next season, I will only continue to be in charge of physical training."

"Let me be the head coach!" Cassel opened his mouth wide. He didn't expect to get such a big surprise on this occasion.

As long as you are an assistant coach, you must want to be the head coach, and Kassel is the same.

And Li Dai left Kassel with a championship lineup.

Cassel suddenly felt that his daughter-in-law for many years had finally become a mother-in-law!