basketball never sleeps

Chapter 25 He has a good temper

"The stupid white people at the top of the league just sit in the office and watch us black coolies play hard without doing anything, and they can make more than us. We players are the ones being bullied by them.

What a victim of exploitation!”

A black player with yellow teeth spoke nonsense in front of the camera. His words not only shocked the reporters in front of him, but even the cameraman trembled.

"OK, Rashid, I understand what you mean, okay, that's it for this interview, thank you very much."

The black female reporter put away her voice recorder and left the interview area with a smile on her face.

"We got big news, Jack, hurry up, haha, we will definitely be the headlines this time!"

At 10 o'clock that night, Paul Allen received a call from Stern as he was about to take a rest.

"I'm sorry to disturb you at this time Alan, but I think you should see what Rasheed just said?"

Paul Allen frowned. He didn't care much about team operations. Listening to Stern's tone on the other end of the phone, he could hear the suppressed anger under his gentle words.

"Okay, I'll pay attention."

After the two exchanged pleasantries for a while, Allen hung up the phone, and then another call came to the team's general manager, John Nash.

"I want to know what stupid things Rasheed said before. David (Stern) just called me."

John Nash on the other end of the phone sighed, repeated Rasheed's remarks, and then fell silent.

After Paul Allen was silent for more than ten seconds, he dropped the cup in front of him to the ground.

"Didn't he want to leave before? Well, trade him before the trade deadline, no matter who he gets in exchange for it."

John Nash was also silent for a few seconds.

"Give me some time, Allen, and I will give you a satisfactory explanation."

On February 10, Rahim was feeling complacent about scoring 27+10 in the game between the Hawks and the Mavericks and winning the game.

A transaction request was delivered to Stern's desk. Stern showed rare efficiency and immediately approved the transaction.

As a result, a five-player trade was born - the Hawks used Raheem, Ratliff, and Dandy Kao in a package deal to acquire Rasheed and Berson from the Trail Blazers.

Excluding stuffing and balancing weights, the main body of the transaction is Rasheed exchanging Raheem and Ratliff alone.

With the Hawks, Raheem and Ratliff have proven they can't carry the team into the playoffs.

The days when there are no results and nothing to show off makes the Eagles management feel extremely tortured, and it is even more tortured when they think that Raheem and Ratliff still have 60 million dollar contracts to execute in the future.

Rasheed's contract expires this year, and the Hawks, who wanted to get rid of the big contract, readily accepted the deal.

But the day after the Hawks completed the transaction, Larry Brown called his former disciple and now Hawks general manager Knight.

"Since we want to pursue the No. 1 pick, then why not give it a bad start?"

Another 10 days later, Rasheed, who had just finished a game with the Hawks, learned that he had been traded. On the trade deadline, the Pistons, Celtics, and Hawks completed another major three-party deal.

.

The Pistons sent a first-round pick traded from the Bucks and guard Bob Sura, Milicic...'s fellow Ray Black, to the Hawks, along with Lynch Hunter, Atkins and next year's first pick.

The draft was given to the Celtics, and they got Mike James from the Celtics and Rasheed Wallace from the Hawks.

This big three-party deal with the Celtics is just a bridge, because the Pistons' first-team blue-collar or minimum-salary contracts really can't match Rashid's 13 million contract without moving the starting player and Milicic.

On the surface, the Hawks exchanged Rasheed, an All-Star power forward, for a high-paid but incompetent Sura, a retired Mills with an annual salary of 600, and a Bucks who is on the verge of the playoffs. Next year's first-round pick is

He lost so much blood that he even had no pants left.

However, considering that there are still more than 20 games left in the season, and Rasheed can enter the free market when his contract expires in the summer, this transaction is understandable.

Only a few of the top contending teams frowned after seeing this deal.

This wave of reinforcements by the Pistons can be considered epic, using a bunch of scraps and two future draft picks in exchange for a usable All-Star big man.

Not only did it make up for the last shortcoming of the Pistons' interior defense, it also made up for the Pistons' lack of stable offensive ability.

Rasheed was attracted by Larry Brown because of his "tough" style on the defensive end. But on the offensive end, he is a serious space-based power forward who uses shooting as his offensive method.

He has a wide range of shots, with a good shooting percentage from outside the 3-point line to mid-range, and his inside attacks only account for 20% of his total shots. (Well, this is very tough.) But it is undeniable that his signature

The shooting action of "straight-arm shooting" is difficult to interfere with. This stable scoring ability is what the Pistons currently lack.

···

Like a commodity, Rasheed Wallace, who changed three teams in half a month, finally recognized his identity.

Multi-millionaires and all-star players are nothing more than toys for the president.

The only thing that pleased him was that the Pistons respected him.

Larry Brown looked for the stars and the moon. After half a year of looking forward to it, Rasheed finally came to him.

Stern is still thinking about the impact this deal will have on this year's NBA landscape, or in other words, he doesn't want Rasheed to go to a strong team.

Let Rasheed, an irritable and irritable idiot who always yells at referees, complains about high-level officials and brings up racial issues, and who was portrayed as a bad guy and a jerk by the media a few years ago, to participate in the playoffs with high ratings, and to the NBA.

It was not a good idea in terms of image, so I just pressed the button without approving the transaction.

(Rashid also threw the towel on Sabonis because of the playoff defeat, which indirectly led to Sabonis' retirement)

The main reason is to let the Pistons understand the president's intentions - labor and management don't like this player, so if you want to use him, you can take good care of him.

But who would have thought that Larry Brown couldn't wait to take Rasheed over from Atlanta. He didn't even play a few team training games before putting Rasheed on the starting lineup. He directly used him in the game against his old team, the 76ers.

He appears as the main force.

The president is all stupid, what's going on with you Pistons? I haven't approved the transaction yet, why did you just use it?

Do you understand respect?

The angry Stern directly slapped the Pistons with a $200,000 fine, which was also the largest fine in the NBA this year.

Dumars was also numb. He had to pay an extra 200,000 for a game that was guaranteed to be won (the 76ers game against Iverson due to injury). He turned around and argued with Brown. The old man confidently told him that he only wanted to win.

Responsible for leading the team to win, regardless of the team's business operations.

As for Mo Wen, Bob Sura was sent away, and Sura's playing time was transferred to Mo Wen.

In addition, Mo Wen still has to work as a substitute at position 3 for a while, and Mo Wen's average time per game has doubled to 17 minutes per game. Corliss has also benefited from it. He was originally assigned to Mo Wen.

His playing time has returned a lot.

Although Larry Brown felt that it was a bit unreliable to give a rookie so much playing time, he had no choice. With Sula gone, the Pistons didn't even have a serious point substitute.

The remaining players in the team who can play the No. 2 position were outperformed by Mo Wen in training games. If Mo Wen were not used in this situation, he would probably be accused of racial discrimination later on.

As for Milicic, it doesn't matter. Larry Brown is also white. He is protecting his own race by not letting Milicic play.

The Los Angeles Times wrote a joke a few weeks ago:

Milicic: I had to come from Europe to the United States because I needed a coach like Larry Brown to help me grow.

Brown: You made the right choice. Don't worry. I will stay here for three to four years. Of course, it may be three to four weeks. No matter what, you will get a chance to play.

···

Rasheed Wallace, who just came to the Pistons, originally wanted to offer his loyalty to Larry Brown.

After all, he and Brown were both from North Carolina. Brown had expressed admiration for him many times before. After he was abandoned and traded, he was still trusted by Brown so much that he was allowed to start in the game. In addition, Brown had a strong relationship with him within the team.

He is also very good, and all the above made him deepen his respect for this unsmiling white coach.

But after staying in the Pistons for a long time, he realized that things were not that simple.

The second overall pick, who was rumored to be in a bad state, is probably no worse than when he was in the first or second grade. But because of poor defense, he can't even get a stable playing time now, and he still has to deal with some problems every day.

Brown scolded Brown for his small mistake.

There is also an Asian rookie who is not very popular with Larry Brown. His skills are as mature as an old monster. The team's trainer said that his body is still growing, but his overall strength is definitely not inferior to what he has shown so far.

The Blazers were starting teammates at positions 2 and 3.

But it is also because the Pistons have no one available after his trade, and he has recently been promoted to a rotation substitute with less than 20 minutes of playing time.

Looking back, even Okur, who was pushed out of the starting position by him, didn't necessarily have much worse shooting skills than he does now.

Rasheed originally thought that he could quickly integrate into the team by hugging Larry Brown's lap, but privately, few Pistons players like Larry Brown.

Finally, Ben, who had been his teammate in the Trail Blazers, revealed something to him.

"What Larry values ​​most is defense, and he only values ​​defense. If there is anything else, it is to emphasize concentration and confrontation during defense. When it comes to offense, most of them are... uncomplicated tactics. His only requirement is

I hope everyone will try their best to shoot at the basket, as close to the basket as possible, but...well, it’s nothing but.”

"Everyone doesn't like Larry very much because he is usually too strict. Although I don't think there is anything wrong with it, the team does lack a lot of human touch. Everyone rarely communicates during training because Larry thinks it is too noisy."

"Dak (Milicic), I don't know what he did to offend the coach. He has actually improved a lot than before, but this arrangement is actually not that strange. After you stay for a long time, you will know that our coach prefers to use

Experienced players.”

"Oh, by the way, in fact, the people in our team are not difficult to get along with. The only thing you may have to pay attention to is to try to control your emotions when facing Mo Wen. That guy is very strong, and his scope is not only applicable on the court.

That kind of thing.”

After a little understanding, Rashid finally had some understanding of the unusual situation of the Pistons.

The only player he couldn't understand was the Asian rookie Mo Wen.

Listening to what Da Ben said before, Mo Wen seemed to be very capable of being beaten or very difficult to deal with. However, after a few days of contact, he felt that this Mo Wen was no different from the Asians he came into contact with in his daily life.

It feels like Mo Wen has a good temper just like him.

······

"I'm going to fire you, Bowen. Your shoes are open, right? Are you starting to lock your feet again?"

"Labour and management originally wanted to play a dungeon today. In one regular season, I have tolerated you three times. How can I tolerate you?"

"You like to lock your legs, don't you? I have to stick your legs out. You can lie on the bed and look at your legs for the rest of your life!"

"Don't stop me. If anyone stops me, I'll beat them up too."

Ginobili wanted to come up and hug Mo Wen but was knocked to the ground with an elbow. Daidai hesitated and rushed over, but was hit by Mo Wen with a punch and his body was bent to the ground like a shrimp.

Others didn't dare to come over, so Popovich rushed over. Before he could reach Mo Wen, he was slapped to the ground by Mo Wen.

The dumbfounded security and referee finally reacted, and Mo Wen hit Bowen's ankle with a heavy kick before the referee called him out.

The referee blew the whistle, and Mo Wen's figure flashed back to the starting point of all copies - the locker room.

This is a mechanism of the copy space. If the host is called for six fouls or a technical foul, the copy will judge the game as a loss and automatically enter the next game.

Looking at his teammates who seemed like nothing happened, Mo Wen's mood gradually calmed down.

Fortunately, I won the first three games, otherwise, tonight's copy would have been in vain.

[Normal Dungeon] Relying on his nearly 1,500 game experience, he has been able to maintain a winning rate of 35%. He even challenged the [Difficult Dungeon] three times. To be honest, he paid tuition three more times.

It stands to reason that there should be abuse games in the first two rounds of the playoffs, but he just didn't encounter it, or he was always the one being abused. As always, there are no loopholes in this dungeon space.

Mo Wen felt that he was in a very embarrassing situation. He had invested all the potential raw stones he had obtained into physical attributes, and his physical potential could not be realized in a short time.

And the potential of his offensive and defensive skills has basically been tapped out - with nearly 1,500 game experience, although he does not have daily training after the game like ordinary players, no matter how much training he does in normal times, it will not be better than that of ordinary players.

It’s faster to practice your skills on the court.

His playing experience is growing, but his actual growth in strength has stagnated.

Do we really have to wait until we slowly build up our body before fighting?

[Body attributes]

Upper body strength: 65↑(75); Lower body strength: 64↑(75); Coordination: 79(86)

Explosive power: 67↑(80); Straight line speed: 67(69); Lateral agility: 71(75)

Physical strength: 70↑(80); Recovery: 70(72); Injury resistance: 70(76)

He is now 38 points away from increasing the potential of all physical attributes to 80 (the upper limit of points for mid-level potential raw stones). According to his current winning rate, it will take about 95 days to obtain enough potential raw stones.

But if he puts some of his potential raw stones into his offensive attributes or defensive attributes, his winning rate in the [normal copy] may be able to jump online, and he can also experience the feeling of improvement in strength.

But in that case, the growth of his physical attributes will be slowed down a lot.

Although he is not in a hurry, the Pistons, who have successfully strengthened themselves, should not have any pressure to win the championship this season. Without him, the Pistons could have finished 4:1 with the Lakers. It is impossible to add him as a player with rich experience who can be the starting core of a weak team.

There is no way to go back later.

But we can’t let those dungeon matches give us the opportunity to practice our skills and just waste it.

There is no technological progress at all, and it is short-sighted to just grind dungeons just for potential rough stones and badge fragments.

Mo Wen was not an indecisive person. After careful consideration, he decided to allocate 30% of the potential rough stones to technical attributes.

Mo Wen, who thought he had made a wise decision, strengthened his decision after hearing a piece of news from the team the next day, and was even considering whether to allocate a little more of the raw potential for technical attributes.

"Prince can't come today. He slipped and sprained his ankle in the bathroom yesterday. It was quite serious. The doctor said he won't be able to play for at least the next four weeks." Billups told Mo Wen very depressedly.

This news.

He patted Mo Wen's shoulder heavily, and his meaning was obvious.

Prince is injured, so the Pistons' No. 3 position will have to be filled by him.

I keep my word, the second update will be more than ten thousand a day

(End of chapter)