The rest is just noise

After the draft day, each team began to prepare for the upcoming free market. Only the Celtics showed nothing.

Because they don't expect to find big-name players willing to come to Boston to play in the free market.

Interestingly, Lu Wuxia, who was preparing to take advantage of the summer to improve himself, received invitations from three national teams. They are the United States Men's Basketball National Team, the Italian Men's Basketball National Team, and the Hong Kong SAR Men's Basketball Team of China.

Although neither Louis nor Lorraine has U.S. citizenship, the U.S. policy is that newborns automatically acquire U.S. citizenship as soon as they land in the United States, so Wu Xia is widely regarded as an American. In fact, Wu Xia now holds dual U.S. and Italian citizenship.

Country of Citizenship.

But he has options. If he gets mad and wants to play for Hong Kong, China, he can. Changing his nationality is very simple. But playing for Hong Kong, China is equivalent to playing for a provincial team in China.

What's the point of this? It's better to just play for China. Although Louis is a bit of a wolf warrior, he didn't make the decision for his son.

Because Wu Xia is a person with very weak national awareness. He was born in the United States and has been traveling with his parents since he was a child.

Due to his privileged family and background, he gets the best and sees the best. He feels that the world is beautiful and is the same everywhere.

He has no clear self-understanding of his nationality. In other words, he cannot find his roots.

Although Louis has worked hard to understand where his roots are, it is obviously not enough to arrange for him to return to China for a period of time every year before he is 16 years old.

Wu Xia accepted the call-up to Team USA.

There are many good players there, and you can get the highest quality training by participating in the training camp of the American team. However, in less than a week, Lu Wuxia withdrew from the training team of the United States.

Because he was at odds with Larry Brown, the current head coach of the US team, and his weak sense of national honor made Brown very dissatisfied. Later, Lu Wuxia planned to go to Italy to see, but was persuaded by Lorraine.

Lorraine believes that basketball is irrelevant to Italy.

"You may not find one basketball fan out of 100 Italians."

Finally, Lu Wuxia tentatively asked his father: "Is it feasible to play for Hong Kong?"

"Even if you ask top Benj to play for the Hong Kong team, you won't win the Asian Championship." Louis rolled his eyes at him, "If you have this idea, you might as well play for the Chinese team."

Lu Wuxia asked: "Do you want me to play for the Chinese team?"

"It depends on yourself." Louis said, "You have to think clearly that the national team competition is not a child's play. Fighting for the country is the supreme thing no matter where you are."

Lu Wuxia nodded and said, "Yes, Coach Brown said that too." "What did he say?"

"He said there is no way an unpatriotic person like me would appear on his team."

"So you're back?"

Lu Wuxia puffed up his chest and said proudly: "No, I told him, if every player who represents the United States team is as patriotic as he is, the United States men's basketball team will definitely not lose the gold medal in Sydney."

Louis wanted to see Brown's expression at that time, it must be particularly exciting.

"Silly boy, even if it's the truth, you can't talk nonsense." Louis smiled. After talking to his father about this, Lu Wuxia figured it out.

He doesn't have to represent any country now because he hasn't decided yet.

Moreover, for him at this stage, the offseason is very precious. It is a good time for special training and improving his weak areas. He will consider representing the national team in international competitions when he has achieved great success.

Louis agrees with his son's decision not to represent any country for the time being.

Even though he was selected for a team last season, in fact, the current Wu Xia is just like the Magician who just debuted. He looks strong but is actually quite weak.

Magic also experienced unanimous criticism from teammates and fans, as well as the skills and mentality developed through repeated defeats, before he became a super giant. There is still a long way to go without flaws.

In early July, NBA free agency opened. The first big drama happened in Dallas.

mavericks owner mark

Cuban refuses to give All-Star guard Steve Nash a max contract extension.

The reason is simple. Nash seems to be less reliable in the playoffs than in the regular season. Moreover, many people believe that although the Mavericks' Bodilloga has strengthened his offense, he is not as powerful as he was with the Lakers. This may be directly related to the team's positioning.

relation.

During the Lakers era, Bodilloga mainly played the one position.

Not to mention that Nowitzki, Bodilloga and Nash need someone else to take care of them on the defensive end.

The three big guys all have defensive holes. How can they beat a team like the Lakers with a mind-numbing defense like the Lakers in the playoffs? So, give up on Nash and spend the money that should have been used to renew his contract.

It would be better to spend it on an inside man who can wipe the butts of Dirk and DeYoung. Cuban chose to offer veteran P-J Brown a big contract and then asked Nash to leave gracefully.

Nash, who was heartbroken by the Mavericks, looked to the free market. The only team willing to provide him, a 30-year-old white guard, with a maximum retirement salary was the Utah Jazz.

The Jazz made the decision under Sloan's decision. They wanted to win now and use the rookie contract bonuses of Anthony and Bosh to create enough salary space to give Nash a maximum salary of US$100 million in six years.

Utah is as attractive to free agents as Boston, but for Nash, signing such a contract with a growing team is enough to keep him competitive for the championship.

On the other side, Penny Hardaway, whose fate with the Golden State Warriors has ended, signed a 7-year, $110 million long-term contract with the Phoenix Suns. It is expected that this will be the last big contract of Penny's career.

In Pence's words, competing for the championship is no longer his top priority at the moment. Playing in a place that makes him happy is more important. At the same time, the Lakers' trends are also curious.

The dispute between Garnett and Kobe has become public, and the former currently has one year left on his contract. The Lakers started early contract extension negotiations with Garnett, but no progress has been made.

In mid-July, the Lakers announced that their contract extension with Garnett would continue in the future, and they were confident of keeping Garnett. When Kobe Bryant, who was training with the US team at the time, was interviewed, his attitude towards the matter was very ambiguous.

"My long-term goal is to make the Lakers win the championship again, and my short-term goal is to help the U.S. team wash away the shame left by the Sydney Olympics. As for the rest, I don't care."

Kobe participated in this year's U.S. team training camp and was highly recognized by Larry Brown.

This offseason, various teams have undergone a lot of personnel changes. Mainly, the old and strong teams that have no hope of competing for the championship have plans to tear down and rebuild. Therefore, some old patterns that have been formed for many years are being broken.

Like the aftermath of Benjamin Wilson's retirement.

The King of June ended the best era and ushered professional basketball into a new era.

The Boston Celtics, who could only make ends meet in the free market, reached a three-year, $40 million contract with injury-plagued midfielder Alan Houston in late July.

After being traded from the Knicks to the Rockets, Houston became the leader of the youth team.

Now, Marbury has become the devil. Houston originally wanted to stay in the airport city, but the Rockets, like the Mavericks, did not intend to give the veteran dignity. Houston could only join the free market and was not signed by the Celtics until the end.

If healthy, Houston is still an All-Star level second position. The problem is that he is not healthy and his attendance rate has been poor in recent years. The Celtics want him because they are prepared for him to play up to 50 regular season games in a season.

.

If necessary, they can allow Houston to play only 40 regular season games and save the remaining energy for the playoffs. Last season's loss to the Knicks in the Eastern Conference Finals convinced the Celtics management that they had entered a new competition.

Crown cycle. Moreover, this cycle will be very long.

Because the team's main players are basically rookies, like Yao Yueban and Gasol, who still have two years of rookie contracts, not to mention Lu Wuxia's group.

From a practical point of view, although the Celtics lineup is extremely talented, they still need veterans like Houston who have seen big scenes in the playoffs to prevent them from getting carried away by their enthusiasm.

Louis agreed to the signing. Houston in this life is lucky. In his previous life, he no longer had the ability to play. At the end of July, Louis invited Auerbach to participate in his Hall of Fame speech at a luncheon but was rejected.

Old man: I’ll just take a video to wish you well, and you won’t have to go to the scene. I’m not in good health.

Louis understood this, and in order to make the old man happy, he told him good news. Under his wise leadership, the Celtics' profits last season set a new record in team history.

"You did a good job."

There was neither sadness nor joy on Auerbach's face.

The old man has become more and more silent recently. He will always look at a conspicuous empty seat at the luncheon. That belongs to his brother Zane.

Last winter, Zane passed away from a heart attack, so the luncheon was suspended for a few weeks, but then it resumed. The old man still looked the same, but he spoke less than before.

"Of course!" Louis began to brag about his achievements in the past year in front of a group of prominent old men.

When everyone heard that the Celtics' net profit in the past year was US$16 million, everyone was surprised. Because when Paul Gaston attended the lunch meeting before, he said that the Celtics had very little profit.

.

At this time, Auerbach suddenly asked: "According to the regulations, do the money earned by the Celtics have to be shared with the other 29 teams?" "Part of it is necessary." Louis said, "But the Bobcats are an expansion team.

Team, they will have to wait a few years before they can be divided..."

"This is unfair!" Auerbach asked angrily, "Why should I (1) share that part of the money with New York? They have made so much money, when did they share it?"

Louis couldn't complain. He wanted to say that big money makers like the Knicks and Lakers have always given money to other teams... But looking at the old man's appearance, he couldn't refute. He could only echo: "I am already a shareholder.

I expressed my dissatisfaction at the meeting, and the president expressed his understanding, but the rules are the rules."

"Sooner or later this alliance will be destroyed by David Stern!"

(1) Auerbach owns 1% of the shares of the Celtics, which was donated privately by Louis after he became the owner. I may not have written this paragraph, so I will add it here.

PS: According to the normal procedure, the next chapter should be Louis' Hall of Fame speech... but Louis' career is too long. This chapter is destined to be a big project. It will most likely be a big chapter with more than 10,000 words. I wrote it last night

It’s more than 2,000 words...so I decided to post it later and see when it’s finished. There is no update today.

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