The Strongest Bishop in the NBA

"Welcome everyone to watch the opening game of the NBA regular season, the home game between the Milwaukee Bucks and the Charlotte Hornets. I am Kenny Smith, the commentator for this game. By my side are Charles Barkley and Shaq O'Neal. Today's game will be explained by the three of us."

"To be honest, it's the first time I've commented on the nationally televised opener of two non-playoff teams." Barkley said straight to the point: "But I believe most viewers are very clear why this game will be nationally televised. .”

"It's to celebrate that Charlotte's team finally got back the name Hornets..." O'Neill said cheerfully.

In May 2014, the Charlotte Bobcats officially changed their name to the Charlotte Hornets, regaining the name that was abandoned by the New Orleans Pelicans.

Old fans of the NBA know that the New Orleans Pelicans were previously called the New Orleans Hornets. Chris Paul had risen in this team, and earlier, the New Orleans Hornets played in Charlotte. At that time, the name It was called the Charlotte Hornets. Later, the team moved to New Orleans, and Charlotte had no team until 2004 when the Charlotte Bobcats were established.

Now, the Charlotte Bobcats have changed their name to the Hornets. On the one hand, they are returning to their roots. On the other hand, they also want to use the nostalgic name of the Hornets to win more markets. After all, the popularity of the Bobcats in the NBA has always been very low.

Of course, O'Neal was just joking. The league and TNT TV would not pay attention to such things as changing the team name, and it was impossible to arrange a national live broadcast because of this.

The opening game of the NBA is still very important, and there are many highlights, such as the Wizards VS Cavaliers, Trail Blazers VS Clippers, etc.

The Bucks vs. Hornets, in terms of team strength and star market, are definitely not enough to support the opening game to be broadcast live across the United States.

The reason why it was broadcast live across the United States, in fact, many people are very clear, it is only because of Wang Xiao.

Generally speaking, coaches are not very popular, and they cannot be compared with players.

But Wang Xiao is an outlier.

All the players of the two teams combined, none of them are more popular than Wang Xiao. Even if the scope is expanded, only the owner of the Hornets, Michael Jordan, can crush Wang Xiao in terms of popularity.

While his popularity is high, Wang Xiao's controversy is not small.

The Wizards have made it clear that they are willing to renew Wang Xiao's contract with a high salary.

However, Wang Xiao refused to renew his contract with the Wizards, and ran to a team that was at the bottom of the league last season, expressing his desire to increase the challenge.

Such behavior is simply slapping the head coach of another team in the face.

When many coaches were desperate for a championship, Wang Xiao was tired of being invincible in the Wizards, and instead ran to a bottom team and wanted to start a new challenge.

This can't help but make many people wonder what Wang Xiao can do in the Bucks.

The NBA is obviously very thieves, and so is TNT TV.

How could they not grasp such a topical situation?

As a result, two teams with low popularity and poor records ushered in the national live broadcast in the opening game.

...

Wang Xiao stood on the sidelines, looking around at the players in front of him.

"Don't be nervous, just play according to the tactics in the preseason and daily training."

In the preseason game that ended not long ago, Wang Xiao used a large-scale rotation as always, which made many people unclear what the Bucks' starting lineup for the new season is.

However, the team's players and assistant coaches can feel it through daily training.

Antetokounmpo. Antetokounmpo, the player who was placed in the C position when the makeup photo was taken, was particularly valued by Wang Xiao.

In daily training, Wang Xiao has personally guided his style of play many times, and arranged several sets of tactics that use him as the starting point of offense, and most of them are based on breakthroughs with the ball from the outside.

This made the Bucks coaches very puzzled.

Antetokounmpo did play a point guard when he was a child. He is skilled in ball handling and has a strong breakthrough ability. However, as his height grows, his playing style gradually moves closer to the inside.

Last season, Antetokounmpo basically swayed between small forward and power forward, and spent more time in the interior, which also matches his height of 2.11 meters.

But under Wang Xiao, it seems that Antetokounmpo is regarded as a point guard, and the time of touching the ball in the tactical design is even more than the two guards Oladipo and Knight.

With the change of Antetokounmpo's playing style, in the preseason, Antetokounmpo, who has been increasing the number of breakthroughs and intensity, performed very well. In 6 preseason games, he averaged 23 points and 8 rebounds per game. According to the data of assists, the opponent seems to have no resistance at all in the face of his outside breakthrough.

But that was just a preseason game. The opponent didn't take it seriously, didn't send in the main players, and didn't arrange targeted defensive tactics.

Most people still believe that a player of Antetokounmpo's height is not suitable for the guard's style of play.

Only Antetokounmpo knew that Wang Xiao wanted to make him a point forward.

Previously, Wang Xiao had met Antetokounmpo alone, and told him clearly that he would be the core of the team. He hoped that Antetokounmpo would become a point forward like LeBron James in the Bucks and carry the offense. And partly the responsibility of organizing the team.

Antetokounmpo was stunned at the time, but he was surprised, but he simply said that he would go all out to not let Wang Xiao down.

He is very clear that this is an opportunity. If he seizes it, he will probably become a new star in the league like Curry and George. After all, in front of him is the ace coach who can train newcomers best in the entire league!

Clenching his fists tightly, Antetokounmpo secretly said in his heart: "Look at the coach, I will not let you down!"

...

The game starts, players from both sides come to the field to jump the ball.

The starting lineup for the Bucks is point guard Brandon Knight, shooting guard Victor Oladipo, small forward Khris Middleton, power forward Giannis Antetokounmpo, center Nicolas La Jokic.

Hornets starting lineup: point guard Kemba Walker, shooting guard Marvin Williams, small forward Michael Gilchrist, power forward Cody Zeller, center Al Jefferson.

Judging from the lineup, the two sides are evenly matched, and the Hornets are even slightly better, because they still have Al Jefferson.

Although he has never been selected as an All-Star in his career, Al Jefferson is considered a star in the eyes of many fans. After all, he is an inside player who can contribute 20+10 steadily.

It's a pity that this inside player is only 2.08 meters tall, and his playing style is unpretentious and unremarkable. In addition to his bad luck, he has no strength but has not been selected for the All-Star.