no shortcuts in basketball

Chapter 275 "Fairness"

Xu Yong smiled.

He is a relatively optimistic person, so he will think that although it is theoretically impossible, it is not impossible that Green will not beat James.

But thinking it's not impossible and thinking it's very possible are two different things. After all, James is not comparable to Pu'er.

Unexpectedly, it actually happened, which surprised him and fully satisfied his theater-goer mentality.

He was even curious about what Curry's mentality was at this time.

"Boss, what do you think Stephen will do?" Anderson seemed to be a roundworm in Xu Yong's stomach.

Xu Yong shook his head.

he does not know.

This kind of thing is very troublesome to deal with. No matter how low James' status is, he is still in the top five in the league and the top player in Adidas. Green's punch can be said to be very impulsive, and he directly put himself on the trading shelf.

If Curry speaks for Green at this time, he will simply treat James as an outsider. The relationship between James and him will inevitably become rigid. But if he does not speak for Green, then the identity of the leading brother in the Bay Area will also be loosened. Really Left and right are not people.

So what's the best way? It's best not to speak up.

At this time, fans are already going crazy on social media.

"Go to hell Green, he doesn't deserve to be a basketball player at all!"

"Holy shit, how dare he hit his teammates? Did his head get caught in the door?!"

"Here's a big cousin, he's obedient to Xu Yong, he punches hard at the king, he's really a happy person!"

"Green is the rat turd of the Warriors. He turned into garbage after missing an egg. Now he is taking it out on his teammates. Get out of here!"

……

There was a lot of abuse on social media.

James's reputation has indeed not been very good in recent years, but everything has its opposite. Since Green started chasing eggs, he has basically received negative news.

Even Bay Area fans feel ashamed of what he did.

What they like is the "Dream Chaser" Green who became the team's core playmaker from the second round, not the current "Egg Chaser" Green.

"I think what Draymond did was wrong, but I don't think he did it on purpose. He has been working hard and sacrificing for the team, and we need him."

But Curry's statement in front of reporters surprised everyone.

Even Xu Yong was a little surprised. Curry didn't even give an ambiguous answer and directly chose to defend Green.

But thinking about it carefully, this seems to be a choice Curry will definitely make.

Because when people make choices, not everyone only weighs the pros and cons, it also has to do with personality.

What kind of character is Curry?

Gentle and good-tempered? Are you talking about fame and fortune but not greedy for power? Are you childish at heart?

Xu Yong has had a lot of contact with Curry, but it is not as in-depth as Harden, but he can still feel that these are somewhat similar from the contact.

To sum up these character traits, he is an idealist who values ​​loyalty and true temperament.

In Xu Yong's opinion, this is probably the same type as Jia Baoyu, Liu Bei, and Lu Zhishen.

So it is destined that he will make a very direct choice when encountering this kind of thing.

This is not necessarily a good choice, but it is foreseeable that Green will be moved to a mess, and the Warriors' fundamentals are still there.

As for James, he may be angry, but it seems there is nothing he can do. After all, there was a quarrel with the Heat back then. If he is eventually traded away by the Warriors, he will really be a dead rat in the sewer, and the stench will be to the sky. .

But at this time, no matter what the purpose was, Xu Yong still admired Curry's approach because he was under huge pressure from public opinion.

In fact, just after Curry spoke out, he was rarely exposed on social media.

"You just ignore the right and wrong of the facts and just protect your shortcomings, right? Is such a person worthy of being a leader?"

"Where is Curry as the leader of the Warriors? He is clearly Green. When the leader is questioned, the younger brother cannot support him?"

"Of course brother Gongming will protect brother Tieniu. Isn't this reasonable?"

……

In the face of these voices, Curry chose silence. This silence actually shows that he insists on his previous views and continues to choose to defend Green.

His resolute attitude basically determined the direction of this incident.

Although Curry's character is not suitable for being a team leader, he is the leader of the Warriors. The Warriors team is built on him and this absolute core. It is impossible for the management to make such a firm statement. Turn a blind eye.

Or in other words, the Warriors can afford to lose James, but they definitely can't afford to lose Curry.

James is eating like crazy, and he who has always been self-disciplined is now overeating.

Just as Xu Yong thought, Curry's unexpected determination meant that all his efforts in the past six months were in vain, and he can't do anything now.

He was taking the most difficult road, and being the most difficult meant that there was no way out, and that also meant... that the punch he received was in vain.

That damn guy Rich Paul came back to offer him some advice, but now he had disappeared again. It was so abominable!

In the end, this incident, just like the previous conflict between Green and James in the player tunnel, ended in nothing.

Is this a good thing?

Xu Yong doesn’t think so.

He admires Curry's approach, but this result is definitely not a good thing for the Warriors.

Now it is no longer a question of a thorn, but a time bomb, one with a clearly visible fuse.

He now hopes that the Warriors will eventually reach the finals in the Western Conference.

Time flies to the All-Star weekend.

This year's All-Star Game will be held in New Orleans. This is the third time in the league and the first time in the Silver era that the All-Star Game has been held here.

The Pelicans failed to reach the playoffs last year and it was not a successful season, but they won the No. 1 pick and the All-Star Game in the new season, which is not a loss at all.

For Xu Yong, because he broke the single-game scoring record in the All-Star Game last year, and because he needs to reduce consumption in the regular season to challenge the dynasty this season, he can be said to have absolutely no desires and desires this year.

But just because he has no desire doesn't mean that this year's All-Star Game won't be interesting to watch.

Adam·Xiao Hua is the best at all things. It has been decided before the season. This year’s All-Star Game format has been modified again, and it is a major modification. The Eastern and Western Conferences will be canceled and replaced by the Eastern and Western Conferences. The way the troop leader selects people to fight against.

Xu Yong was deeply impressed by this thing, mainly because of two points.

First, Harden was the last one selected several times, so that Harden was considered by fans to be the least popular star player in the NBA for a long time.

The second is that this competition system is interesting at first, but after playing too much, the All-Star Game is completely meaningless due to the lack of competition. After all, when the East and West compete, you are fighting for the honor of your own division. When it comes to selecting players, for Fight as captain?

However, this is the first year, and Xu Yong and Durant are the captains of the East and West respectively. They will be directly invited to the TNT program for live broadcast of the selection, which will attract a lot of attention.

In fact, before the selection process began, Xu Yong and Durant were asked relevant questions by reporters one after another. The most popular one was who they would choose first. There were endless speculations.

When the selection day came, both Xu Yong and Durant appeared on the TNT show in formal suits.

In order to maximize the effect, this program was completely broadcast live. Because it was full of uncertainty, it also attracted unprecedented attention.

According to TNT real-time data, this program set a new high in ratings for TNT that season when it first aired.

"I have a question, who will you choose first?" After the live broadcast officially started, Barkley asked the question that fans are most concerned about during this period.

Xu Yong and Durant looked at each other, and Xu Yong gestured to Durant to speak first in a gentlemanly manner.

"I will choose my teammates." Durant gave an affirmative answer.

This answer can be said to be very direct, which made Barkley look surprised. After all, this kind of thing must be left in suspense.

Xu Yong smiled, Durant is not such a simple person.

"I wouldn't pick Jimmy because he played with me too many times." When he was asked this question, he chose to eliminate one answer.

Butler's desire to compete during the All-Star schedule is too low, and this kind of entertainment game naturally has a program effect.

Now things get interesting, because just judging from the answers, the two people have completely different methods of selecting people.

After asking the questions, Kenny Smith, as the host, introduced some basic rules for selecting candidates.

The rules are very simple. Two people guess the coin to decide who comes first, and the selections are divided into starters and substitutes. The starters can only be selected from those selected for the starting lineup, and the same goes for the substitutes.

This year’s starting lineup (except captain): Irving, Butler, George, Antetokounmpo, Curry, Harden, James, Griffin;

Substitutes: Paul, Wall, DeRozan, Anthony, Love, Anthony Davis, Drummond, Westbrook, Lillard, Klay Thompson, Gordon Hayward, Gasso Er, Cousins, DeAndre Jordan.

During the coin guessing session, Durant guessed correctly and got the first chance to choose.

This instantly attracted the attention of other people in the live broadcast room and the fans in front of the TV. They wanted to know whether Durant would choose Harden.

"Steph Curry."

"Stephen is your teammate?!" When Durant gave the answer, Barkley's eyes widened, while Xu Yong had a genuine expression.

"I think what Xu said makes sense." Durant smiled and explained to Dong'an. As the GOAT of the keyboard warrior, he also understands the program effects quite well.

Buckley didn't know how to retort for a moment.

Next is Xu Yong.

"I would be very surprised if you picked LeBron." Of course, Barkley can create more show effects.

"James... Harden." Xu Yong smiled and then gave the answer.

"He's a former teammate of mine." And before Barkley could ask, he immediately gave his own explanation.

This program is totally effective.

"Jimmy Butler." Durant made his second choice.

"I want to experience what it's like to play with Jimmy." Durant then looked at Xu Yong and said.

So Xu Yong chose Durant's current teammates, and Durant chose Xu Yong's. It was really interesting to choose them as the captain in the first year.

"Paul George, I know he is a very strong guy." Xu Yong gave his second choice to his fanboy George.

Barkley and O'Neal both nodded in approval this time. George is now one of the best swingmen in the Eastern Conference. Because he is the boss of the team, he can even be said to be second only to Xu Yong. Durant then picked Antetokounmpo. The Western team still lacked a big man. Xu Yong also picked Griffin for the same reason.

Now only the last two people are left in the starting lineup, Irving and James.

Theoretically, the Western Team already has Curry and Butler, and they will need James even more.

"Kyrie Irving." But Durant chose Irving with little hesitation.

Xu Yong smiled and shook his head. This result was expected, because based on Durant's complaints about James on social media in the past year or so, it was impossible for him to choose James.

When the coin guessing session ends, he and James are destined to remain teammates.

Of course, in fact, the moment the captain was selected, James was destined to be the one left in the first year, because Xu Yong was even less likely to take the initiative to choose James.

Then when it came to the substitutions, the starting order of the two players was swapped.

Xu Yong chose DeRozan as his first choice. He had actually planned to reunite the Three Musketeers from the beginning.

Durant chose Westbrook.

When Xu Yong heard this, he glanced at Durant. Speaking of which, the current relationship between Durant and Westbrook is really different from that in history.

With this relationship, he wouldn't be surprised if one day the two of them team up to play together again.

In this year's All-Star Game, the selection process attracted a lot of attention, but when it came to the main game, the two sides were basically playing exhibition games.

On the one hand, as mentioned earlier, the sense of honor of fighting for the captain is too weak. On the other hand, the two captains themselves have no desire to compete.

Xu Yong explained that as for Durant, he didn't even go to the Olympics for this season, so he definitely wasn't interested in this kind of exhibition game.

The two protagonists of this exhibition game are Westbrook on the Western side. He is good at playing this kind of game. In addition, this time he is playing locally, and his teammates will pass the ball to him. On the Eastern side, James is doing his part. Is he good at it? It is easy for Xu Yong to fight.

Ever since, this has become a showdown between the king (triple double king) and the king (king).

In the end, the winner was the triple-double king.

Westbrook scored 51 points and led Durant's team to defeat Xu Yong's team 192-182. He was also elected as the All-Star Game MVP for the first time in his career, truly reaching a new height.

In contrast, although James also scored 41 points, he could only score in vain.

A week later, the 2017 NBA trade deadline came to an end. The Bulls had been trying to send Diaw out for replacements, but without success.

In the end, they and Diaw chose to buy out the contract, and the freed up spot was used to sign another player who also reached a buyout contract with his home team, Deron Williams.

How much skill does Deron have left? There is probably not much left. He has been frequently tortured by knee and foot injuries this season. He has been playing in and out, averaging only 13.1 points and 6.9 assists per game, and his shooting percentage is only 43%.

This time Deron sought a buyout himself, knowing that he did not have much time left in his career, so he gave it a last try.

The Bulls' thinking is also very simple. It is unrealistic to expect Murray to play in the playoffs, so signing Deron to play the third guard is equivalent to adding another insurance to the original lineup.

When he saw Delong, Xu Yong was a little confused. Is this big fat man in front of him still the Delong he knew?

However, it is not unexplainable. The nutritional intake of professional athletes is not comparable to that of ordinary people. Because of injuries and training, they will naturally gain weight.

Not to mention that Deron himself is a relatively large and heavy point guard.

Xu Yong took the initiative to give Delong a big hug to express his welcome.

After the buyout deadline, there are only the last two months of the regular season.

In the past two months, there have been a lot of changes within the Bulls.

The first is Jokic. His condition is getting better and better, and he even hit all 10 shots in a single game. This once again made the outside world call for Jokic to be the starter.

Thibodeau was more resolute this time and completely ignored those voices.

It is basically a fact that as long as Thibodeau is still the head coach of the Bulls, Jokic cannot become the Bulls' starting center.

Of course, driven by Malone, Thibodeau still managed to add some playing time to Jokic, that is, playing in the twin-tower lineup at specific times.

In this new twin-tower lineup, Jokic plays four on offense and five on defense, while Adams plays five on offense and four on defense.

Although Adams' assist defense ability is not excellent, at least this method is much better than the previous method.

Of course, everyone can see that this is just a stop-gap measure. As Jokic's ability continues to improve, there will always be a day when this irreconcilable contradiction needs to be completely resolved.

Followed by Deron.

It may seem unbelievable to say it, but Deron was in very good shape after arriving with the Bulls.

How good is it? He pushed Stephenson directly out of the rotation.

Stephenson's characteristic is that he dares to fight hard and is full of passion, while Deron is stable. When he is in good condition, Deron is obviously Thibodeau's preferred point guard. Even if it weren't for Deron's current defense, he would be useless. Whatever is left, Thibodeau is even happy to let him start.

This is actually something Xu Yong didn't expect. He had the impression that after Deron arrived in the Cavaliers, Cavaliers fans criticized him for nothing, as if Cleveland had not taken him in, and Deron had nowhere to go.

Then, just after half a season with the Cavaliers, Deron suddenly disappeared from the NBA at the age of 32. When he was known to fans again, he was already a boxer in the ring.

This can only mean one thing, Deron should be the victim of [teammate's CBA remarks].

It's a pity that Xu Yong's brain is not a computer, so he can't search out how Deron is playing with the Cavaliers.

But at least he is playing quite well in the Bulls now, averaging about 20 minutes per game, shooting nearly 47% from the field, 41% from the three-point range, and averaging 7.5 points and 3.6 assists.

This is another surprise for the Bulls this season after Jokic, and it's the kind that fell from the sky.

Of course, just like what happened with Jokic, Deron's squeeze into the rotation also had a negative impact. Stephenson began to show his thorny attributes and cause trouble.

First he was late for practice, argued with Malone, and then started chattering in the locker room.

"Why do some people get into the rotation just by relying on their reputation? Are we a team that relies on our reputation?" He even barely knows his name.

Deron's face turned red. Like James, he was an outsider.

After James was beaten, Curry still protected his shortcomings, not to mention that he is basically about to fade out of the league.

"Shut your mouth, Lance." But at this moment, Xu Yong scolded Stephenson directly.

"In Chicago, everything is based on strength, and you have to win back what you lose through your own efforts."

Xu Yong's words made Stephenson's face turn red. He didn't expect that Xu Yong would say that to him in public. You must know that he played a huge role in defending the Bulls last season, while Deron is just an outsider and may even retire after this season. kind of.

But he still shut up obediently. The biggest difference between Xu Yong and Curry is their personality, and this also determines their completely different control over the locker room.

"Xu, are you free? I'll buy you a cup of coffee." After the training session was over and Xu Yong was about to go back to rest, Delong caught up with him.

Xu Yong looked at the time and nodded.

"Thank you so much for today. If it weren't for you, I really don't know how I could solve this kind of thing." After sitting down, Deron said gratefully.

Xu Yong was still in a daze. The Delong he remembered was a rebellious and unruly guy who contradicted Sloan, and he was completely different from the person in front of him.

But this may be the wash of time. Years of injuries have long made Deron no longer the high-spirited young man he once was.

"I'm not helping you, what I said is true." Xu Yong told the truth.

He really admires Curry, but if he were put in Curry's position, his approach would be different.

He will not favor Green, because fairness is the foundation for maintaining a team's atmosphere.

But he won't sit back and watch Green be forced out, just like Rose did.

So this time it’s a matter of fact.

People cannot sit back and wait to die on their merit books, because what is recorded in the merit books is history, and the glory of history has already been given.

"Anyway, I'm sorry I couldn't come here sooner." Deron's words came from the bottom of his heart.

Xu Yong laughed when he heard this.

Delong really came late.

When he first entered the league, he coveted Deron's shuffling skills. If Deron had come earlier, not only would he have mastered it earlier, but he wouldn't have to make that bet with Durant. To be honest, he was really worried at that time. Durant wants a Scarlett one.

"Dejounte is a good kid. He will become an All-Star player in the future." The two chatted while drinking coffee. After the distance became closer, Deron talked about Murray.

"Oh?" Xu Yong was a little surprised, Delong didn't have a clairvoyance.

"Xu, you know that children are particularly easy to be bewitched. If there is no noble help at that time, they may be useless in their lives." Delong suddenly said with emotion.

The noble person he is talking about here is a real noble person, not the kneeling person.

Xu Yong nodded. Although he had never experienced this, his words were not wrong. Especially in the big environment of Amelica, especially black people, there are really only a few people who can wake up in the world. Most of them need the guidance of such a noble person. .

"I know Jamal. Jamal told me about this child." Then Deron's next words surprised Xu Yong.

Although it doesn’t sound too strange that Deron and Crawford know each other, is Crawford a nobleman of Murray?

Xu Yong has never deliberately gotten to know Murray. His current impression of Murray is still the troubled boy Forman said, although he worked hard.

"His nobleman is his uncle Terry Thompson. I heard Jamal say that Dejounte was addicted to alcohol and marijuana when he was 15 years old, and he was no different from those street gangsters. It was Terry who guided him and became a His example.”

Xu Yong was a little surprised that it was not Crawford.

"After that, Dejounte's life was reshaped and Terry helped him get into Lena Beach High School."

"Lena Beach?" Xu Yong confirmed.

"What's wrong?" Delong didn't expect Xu Yong to ask questions here.

"I also played high school in Seattle." Xu Yong explained that he had played against Lena Beach High School.

And it was also at this time that he understood, because the high school in his mind was the same high school that Crawford had attended.

"You know, what others say is just what others say, but after getting in touch with him for a while, I feel that he is indeed very mature and hard-working. The experience in the past made him mature precociously, and he also knows what he wants. He will Become an All-Star player." Deron repeated what he just said.

"I know." Xu Yong nodded.

"I'm serious, Xu, if he can get a chance, I think the Bulls may have another dynasty." Deron thought Xu Yong was being polite.

"I'm serious too." Xu Yong replied with a smile.

(End of this chapter)