The rest is just noise

Chapter 1498 Patrick Ewing Night

Chapter 1498 Patrick Ewing Night

Just after the draft ended, a big thing happened in the NBA.

The Cavaliers' core center Alonzo Mourning announced his retirement because his kidney function could no longer support high-intensity competitions.

Mourning's retirement is a sign that the Cavaliers have decided to end an era.

In the summer of 1997, because the Trail Blazers were unable to pay the huge luxury tax brought by renewing Mourning's contract, they let go of the first-line center acquired with four first-round picks, indirectly cutting off Jordan's last hope of competing for the championship.

That year, Mourning switched to the Cleveland Cavaliers with a seven-year, $90 million contract. In the following six seasons, the Cavaliers were always a strong team in the Eastern Conference, reaching the playoffs every year.

Unfortunately, the Cavaliers were unlucky.

At most they reached the semi-finals, but could never take a step forward.

Mourning's retirement indirectly pushed them to make another choice.

In July, the free market officially opened, and the Cavaliers put the team's soul figure Kang Chengbiao on the shelves.

Although the core of the Cavaliers is not Kang Chengbiao, he has always been the team's atmosphere promoter and the team's spiritual leader.

Louis, Benjamin Wilson, Rudy Tomjanovich, John Thompson, John Stockton and others were invited to the stage to sit behind Ewing's speaker's chair.

However, in the last few years of his career, Gathers did not want to do nothing. He gave up big money in exchange for big money to join, so that the Pacers can have the defensive ability to suffocate the league's top players. This is the only way they can let the Pacers regain the glory of the ABA period.

Method.

The Heat used a mediocre power forward plus a 2003 first-round pick and a 2004 first-round pick swap to get a versatile player who can play all five positions and do everything.

Garnett has the ability to support a defensive system, but until now, he is still not ready to transform into a full-time center.

They lack a defensive hero like Ben. Unfortunately, the salaries of the Big Three have already filled up the team. They don’t have the conditions to sign Ben. Otherwise, not long after they bought the team, they would be keen on playing basketball games such as 2K.

Mark Cuban, who is building the team, will definitely use his money ability.

This is their view.

In addition, the defending champion Lakers also have some problems.

In fact, Louis has known him for almost twenty years, and he has never heard Ewing refer to himself as "coach" with great respect. Tonight, he heard it.

Even so, New Yorkers still paid three times the price of game tickets and filled every corner of MSG.

Ewing was also very respectful.

The Indiana Pacers, another traditional strong team in the East, have made internal adjustments and created the conditions to sign big money.

To them, Ben is just the sixth man. Without the Lakers as a whole, would he still be the DPOY?

Who would give an insider who is less than two meters tall, whose only role on the field is defense and whose offensive creativity is close to zero, an annual salary of tens of millions?

Louie's idea is that you don't realize the full value of someone until you lose them.

Last season, Ben was elected DPOY as the sixth man. As the league's leading rim protector and unparalleled switch defender, his worth has been wildly hyped.

The addition of Kang Chengbiao is of great significance to the Heat.

The Heat tentatively offered Jason Caffey a price for a first-round pick and a first-round pick s

"Messiah, Godfather, 'Coach, My Coach,' Little Lu, Leader Lu, Legend Lu, whatever you want to call him, to me, he's 'The One.' I always call him that behind his back.

"He." Ewing's dry humor never got so many laughs. "About 20 years ago, I won the national championship at Georgetown, and that was the proudest night of my life. As a Jamaican-American, I

I thought I had won the most valuable trophy of my life that night. Then, that man, your respected coach, came to me and negated everything I had done and warned me that if I wasn't there

One year into the draft and I'd be dead."

The Lakers gave away a sixth man who was very defensive.

For the Lakers to have that kind of dominance in the playoffs last season, the only defense was the most critical.

Now it's Ewing's turn.

The first sentence of Ewing's speech mentioned Louis.

Although Gathers declined last season, he was still a first-line power forward averaging 17 points, 10 rebounds and 1.8 blocks per game. In addition, he has worked hard for the Pacers for many years, so it is reasonable to give him a decent pension contract.

Under the pressure of the super luxury tax, the Lakers cannot afford big contracts.

If he does not stand at the center position, his potential on the defensive end cannot be fully realized. Before, with Ben there, he had no need to switch to the center. Now, Ben's departure will force him to step out of his comfort zone. In the long run, this can allow the Canadians to

Nate becomes a complete player earlier, and in the short term, the price the Lakers have to bear may be one or two championships.

Moreover, the Cavaliers fully respected Kang Chengbiao's wish that he wanted to join a championship team.

There were no games or other major programs, except for a few pop singers who spontaneously came to sing. The only theme of the night was for Ewing to attend in formal attire and give a retirement speech in front of everyone.

And this pressure is not brought by Garnett and Malone, but when Ben is in the center and cooperates with the defense of Kobe and Artest, the superimposed effect is 1+1+1>3.

Does this gorilla have such a sense of humor?

The knight asked Kang Chengbiao for his opinion.

Tonight's meeting has a rather old-fashioned name - Patrick Ewing Night.

When they won the championship the year before last, what they lacked most was a reliable scorer outside of Duncan. Now, Stephen Jackson and Gilbert Arenas have overflowed their offensive firepower, and how to distribute the ball has become a new issue. Offensive overflow

At the same time, the decline on the defensive end and the lack of versatile players who can serve as ball transfer stations are their major flaws.

After poaching Ben from the Lakers, the Pacers subsequently signed the 35-year-old Gathers to a three-year, $15 million mid-level contract.

The Pacers sent Ben a five-year, $60 million contract. Although there was a gap from the five-year, $70 million contract, this was the highest offer they had received, and there was no reason not to accept it.

If it were to be more than ten years later, maybe Louis should pick up his smartphone and take a video from behind as a souvenir.

Moreover, the general disdain for defensive players has also deterred the Lakers from negotiating.

Ben Wallace's second contract expires this summer.

Now that the team is going to be in trouble, there is no point in keeping Kang Chengbiao.

It is true that Kobe and Artest's wing defense is important, but it is always the interior that determines the upper limit of the defensive system.

Kang Chengbiao nodded, and the deal was done.

This kind of so-and-so night is a tradition left fifty years ago. The first player to hold a retirement night in his own name was George McCann. In the late 1970s, Havlicek's retirement made this form of retirement a reality.

The ritual became a tradition, and later, Dr. J, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bird, and Magic all followed this example.

Louis watched from afar, and the various stories in the offseason had nothing to do with the Celtics.

Kang Chengbiao can perfectly solve these problems.

The four-year, $24 million contract extension proposed by the Lakers was like useless paper in the face of the five-year, $70 million offer.

However, for those teams that are truly pursuing it, this is not a problem.

The Dallas Mavericks next door are looking forward to it.

Tonight is Ewing's big day, and it's rare that Louis didn't make a kind mockery of Ewing.

They have two Chinese players in the team who can help Kang Chengbiao quickly adapt to the team, but they have no trading assets.

On July 20, 2002, Louis was invited to New York to attend a grand event held at Madison Garden that night.

The last retirement night named after a player was Larry Bird.

The heat comes right after you smell it.

"My biggest wish is to come back here to play ball again one day." Kang Chengbiao's farewell press conference moved many Kecheng media, "I love every plant and tree here."

The Pacers' captain, team leader and core interior player Hank Gathers chose to opt out of his contract, giving the team enough room to sign someone.

Speaking of this, Ewing glanced at Louis with a smile on his face and said, "He should feel lucky. If I listened to him, I really don't know how he won so many championships in New York."

All members of the Knicks dynasty, including Louis and Wilson, were present.

Even Louis was amused.

"I want to thank my mother. Although she can't sit here, I believe she is sitting on the moon and has witnessed every successful moment in my career. I believe she will be proud of me." Ewing continued.

Said, "I want to thank coach John Thompson. When I was walking on the streets of Boston as confused as a duckweed, he made me understand what I should really care about in the world of life."

"I also want to thank that person." Whenever Ewing talks about "that person," there is always a lot of laughter. "He is the meanest person I have ever met, and he is also the smartest person I have ever met.

People, he used to be the person I hated the most, and now he is also the person I am most grateful for. Without him, you will not see me today. I will be like Hakeem Olajuwon, David Robinson,

Brad Doherty has also been forgotten in history. I don't like Charles Barkley, but I agree with what he said, it's not how you play that matters, it's who you play for."

"Without him, I won't win anything. No matter what I do, I can't repay what he did for me. At this special moment today, I have to say something to that person." Ewing turned sideways and said,

Looking directly at Louis, "Coach, thank you, I hope. I didn't let you down in the end."

(End of chapter)

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