NBA: Start by torturing Jordan and add points to upgrade

"Look, the director has given the camera to Lin Tian! An extremely long shot, a 360-degree rotation without blind spots! We hope the camera can stay on him for a while longer, because the next time we want to see Lin Tian on the track and field field may be at the Athens Olympics next year."

“The players are hunkered down, they’re getting into a rhythm!”

"Lin Tian is in the fourth lane. I wonder if his starting reaction has improved recently? Can he break the world record again tonight?"

"The contestants are ready! Let's wait for the final moment..."

"The game begins! Lin Tian starts with a slingshot! His reaction is very fast!"

"He's out! Lin Tian has a clear lead at 10 meters. He's ahead of everyone else!"

“No one can defeat him! The gap has been completely widened! No one can catch up with Lin Tian! No one can pose any threat to him!”

"Lin Tian is still accelerating! He is still increasing the distance! Oh my God! Lin Tian is taking off!"

"He's off the ground! The person closest to Lin Tian is more than 5 meters away from him! Huge advantage!"

"Lin... Hey? Ah! What is Lin Tian doing! He's looking back! He's looking back!"

"He's looking back at his opponent! He's passed! He crossed the finish line! First place! Absolute first place!"

"The champion without any suspense! 9 seconds!"

"What a pity! Lin Tian didn't break the world record! But we can all see that it's not because Lin Tian's strength is not enough! He turned back!"

"He turned around when he was 10 meters away from the finish line, which slowed him down significantly! Although he still won first place, he failed to break the world record!"

“I think if Lin Tian doesn’t look back, he will definitely break the world record!”

"Let's watch the replay again!"

"Too fast! Really too fast! He's basically flying!"

"Look, that's when he turned around! He seemed to be looking for his opponent! He seemed to not know what he was doing. He needed to turn around to remember that he was in a competition!"

"Let's change the angle and watch it again. This time, let's chase these flying people from behind and see what they did!"

"Start, run, take off, look back... he's smiling! Lin Tian is smiling, right? He is smiling, right? I need a freeze frame... Here it comes! Freeze frame, let's freeze on this frame, he is smiling! He is indeed smiling!"

"Confidence, absolute confidence! Unparalleled confidence!"

"It was so easy! It was so easy! Lin Tian didn't even try his best, but he won the championship!"

"It is also worth mentioning that this smile is really charming and handsome! I think this scene will become a classic and one of the most wonderful moments in world sports!"

"Congratulations to all the friends in front of the TV, congratulations for witnessing this unique, historic moment with me!"

Yang Jian’s commentary was quick and powerful, and he easily brought everyone’s emotions into the game.

At this time, Lin Tian had already draped himself with the national flag, celebrating excitedly and accepting the cheers and shouts from the fans on the scene.

He continues to dominate the track and field arena!

Even when he was celebrating, several athletes who had just competed with him came over and wanted to take photos with him.

Lin Tian was so fast that he completely overwhelmed his opponents and made them worship him as an idol!

What is even more respectable is that in last year's BALCO laboratory case, many top athletes were brought down for doping issues, stood trial, and lost their honors.

But in this case, Lin Tian was not found to have taken any banned substances. At least for now, he is clean!

His achievement is well deserved!

This is much more respectable than those sickly champions!

Anyway, today, Lin Tian felt the same feeling as the 92 Dream Team in Barcelona.

Is this what it feels like to be a star among stars?
Unfortunately, the guys who followed me all the way to Sydney to watch my boxing match in 00 did not come.

If they come, that will be real happiness!

such a pity!
Jordan, Miller, Barkley and others: I’m crazy to come and see you show off!
After celebrating with everyone, the reporter from China Sports finally waited for Lin Tian and started the post-match interview.

"Brother Lin, how does it feel to win the championship again?" The person interviewing Lin Tian was a young man who looked very smart. When Lin Tian saw that it was a young man, he didn't even bother to ask his name.

Just show off and go back to sleep, don't waste your time.

"It's OK, as expected, nothing surprising or exciting."

"Are you satisfied with the score of 9.89?"

"I'm quite satisfied. I can achieve this result just by running casually. What's there to be dissatisfied about?"

"Then Brother Lin, why did you look back at the end? Aren't you afraid that your opponent will surpass you?"

"No, I believe they are definitely more than 7 or 8 meters away from me. I have this confidence!"

"Did you observe your opponents while running to see the distance between them and you?"

"I observed it before I started running, but it disappeared after I started running. It was all behind me and I couldn't observe it. There was nothing I could do."

"When you were almost at the finish line, you turned around and smiled. Were you smiling at the runner behind you?"

"Oh, that's not it. They were all running for their lives, so how could they see me smiling? I was smiling for the audience. It's a gift from me to the Chinese audience."

amount……

How should I respond to this?
The young man was stunned. This series of interviews with Lin Tian seemed to be delivered fluently without hesitation, but when he listened carefully, he could hear that every word in it sounded like he was trying to show off three times!

But Lin Tian really has the ability to pretend, and he also has the absolute confidence to look back!
After all, in a 100-meter final, where the difference is just a few tenths of a second, how can we look back and observe?

If you accidentally fall down when you look back, will you ever be a good person again? Or if you look back and find someone has surpassed you, what should you do?
At that time, it would be a joke!

But Lin Tian was confident and he did it!
Not only did it not become a joke, it also became a legend!
“Well, on behalf of the Chinese audience and your fans, thank you?” After being somewhat confused by Lin Tian’s speech, the young man scratched his head and gave an ending that could not be called professional.

As for Yang Jian, who had been listening to the interview in the studio, he felt a little embarrassed. He scratched his head in sync with the reporter and said, "Lin Tian really can always surprise us!"

"If he accepts this interview, I think it can also be included in the list of "Top 10 Chinese Athletes Interview Moments"."

“If someone makes this list!”

"In short, let us congratulate Lin Tian, ​​congratulate the Chinese Track and Field Team, and congratulate Lin Tian's fans. Today's live broadcast ends here. Friends, see you next time!"

After winning the 100-meter gold medal, Lin Tian has accumulated enough points and is officially qualified to participate in next year's Athens Olympics.

At the very least, for the next year, Lin Tian no longer has to worry about running, nor does he have to take time out to participate in any 100-meter races.

Walking all the way back to the locker room and coming to the area where Chinese athletes gathered, Lin Tian noticed that Liu Xiang, who had been wearing his 110-meter hurdles bronze medal on his chest in a very coquettish manner, quickly hid the medal and put it inside his clothes.

But Lin Tian would never let him go.

He waved Liu Xiang over and handed him the gold medal.

"Let me exchange them. I have several gold medals, including those for basketball, boxing, and running, but I don't have a single bronze medal. Let me collect some."

"Brother Lin." Liu Xiang said with a bitter face, "Please don't play tricks on me."

“Young man.” Lin Tian shook his head, put away the gold medal and said, “Don’t you know that I directly accepted the MVP trophy sent by Jordan a few years ago?”

"Do you know how many meals he treated me to after I took his MVP trophy before I gave it back to him?"

"Remember the experience I've given you. Next time someone tries this kind of thing on you, take the gold medal first, hide it, and then talk about other things! Remember?"

"Hey, don't teach Xiao Liu bad things!" Yu Weili protested immediately: "He is our favorite to win the gold medal in Athens. He is our best seedling! We are counting on him to win glory for the country!"

"I'm teaching him the most advanced life experience! How could it be a bad lesson?"

……

Indiana, Bird was originally very worried about various renewals and signings and didn't know what to do. Just then he remembered that it seemed to be the time for Lin Tian's 100-meter race final, so he turned on the TV to see Lin Tian's performance.

But anyway, the time for the 10-meter race is only seconds, and you will miss it completely if you are not careful.

If you don't wait in advance, it would be very difficult to turn on the TV and see a group of people starting to run.

For example, Bird was unlucky and missed these wonderful 10 seconds.

But his luck was pretty good, because when he turned on the TV, he happened to see TNT giving a close-up to Lin Tian.

It's a close-up of him running and then turning back and smiling.

He bared his big white teeth, looking so happy.

"puff!"

Bird spat out a mouthful of water onto the TV, cursed in fear, and then turned off the TV.

"What the hell!" Bird cursed. Now he didn't even want to worry about helping the team strengthen. What can I say?

The situation of the Pacers this year is quite miserable.

Simply put, it was hollowed out!
Ben Wallace eventually accepted Detroit's offer of $4 million for four years, but Bird was clearly unable to match the $4400 million annual salary and could only watch Ben Wallace embrace the Motor City. This tough guy finally found his ultimate destination.

After Ben Wallace left, Bird had planned to do his best to keep Arenas. He was even prepared to give Arenas a 4-year, $3000 million contract, which was the highest level he expected. He would then use reasoning and emotional appeals to keep Arenas on the team.

But when the ambitious Bird was about to start negotiating a contract extension with Arenas, the news from Arenas was like a bolt from the blue.

The Golden State Warriors offered Arenas a 4-year, $4800 million maximum contract!

The amount of this contract is even greater than the contract of Ben Wallace, a multiple-time Defensive Player of the Year and All-Star!
exaggerate!

Unbelievable!

You know, although Arenas has had many wonderful performances in the past two years, he has created many exciting moments, including buzzer-beaters and the Rookie Game MVP.

But after all, his average points per game is less than 10 points!

Yes, because the team has two great players, Lin Tian and Jordan, Arenas does not have much room to play and his playing time is somewhat fragmented.

But the Warriors directly offer 4 million for 4800 years?
Anyway, Bird thought they were crazy!
Bird's response, of course, was not to match the contract. He didn't even match Ben's, so how could he match Arenas' higher amount?
He could only call the Warriors' current general manager, Chris Mullin, who was also his old friend and had played for the Pacers for two years.

"You're addicted to alcohol again, aren't you? You're drunk and you're giving a random contract? Are you crazy? Giving such a big contract to a bench player, Chris, let me tell you, if you give a contract after drinking, I'll give you a chance to make amends."

"Larry, your current state can be best described by a word that Lin taught me." Mullin said with a smile: "Impotent rage!"

"FUXX!" Bird cursed again and hung up the phone. What could he do? He couldn't curse you for losing money on this contract. Arenas was also his own man.

Unable to vent his anger, Bird could only call the current general manager of the Pistons, his other old friend Joe Dumars, who played for the Pacers for a year. "Joe, have you been infected by that idiot Isaiah? You gave Ben such a big contract, aren't you afraid that your boss will tear you apart and eat you? Just like Isaiah, he was just fired by Toronto last month, be careful, your next step is to be fired too!"

"You damn fool, I can hear you!" Isaiah Thomas' voice came from the other end of the phone: "I'm going to rip your ass off! I'm telling you, I'll be able to make a comeback soon and find a new job soon!"

"How did you find a new job? Because you spent a lot of money in Toronto and the team never made the playoffs in all these years, and the draft was a mess? Your resume is pretty bad!"

"Listen to me, find a team that is recruiting assistant coaches and submit your resume to them. After all, you are a good assistant coach and have won a championship! Or you can come to me and I will ask Rick to give you a position as the chief assistant coach, how about that?"

"Fuck off!"

This time, it was Thomas' turn to hang up the phone angrily.

And Bird also felt: Comfortable!

Very comfortable!

Sometimes, the way to relieve depression is not necessarily to defeat the person who hurt you.

You can still be happy by hurting or defeating another person!
But happiness is short-lived after all.

With the departure of Ben Wallace and Arenas at the same time, and the retirement of Jordan, the Pacers suddenly lost three important rotation players, which made the Pacers very short of manpower.

In order to recruit more players, Bird actually formed two teams to play in the summer league at the same time this year!

There are a few players who performed well, but they only played well in the summer league. It is hard to say whether they can still play so well in the regular season!
Bird still needs to find a way to strengthen his team!

Normally, the Pacers have all of their future draft picks, which is a pretty good bargaining chip, but what can we say?

Things aren’t normal for the Pacers right now.

As a dynasty team and a team that has won five championships in the past six years, there are not many teams willing to make a deal with the Pacers!
Moreover, those guys who are willing to do business with the Pacers, without exception, offer high prices, clearly intending to rob you!

His meaning is very clear: If I make a deal with you, I will rob you, otherwise I won’t play!
This is also one of the difficulties that dynasty teams find difficult to sustain.

Since they can't trade for the right players, they can only rely on internal development and look for them in the free market with the pitiful salary space.

With the team's salary cap fully filled and luxury tax still to pay, all Bird can use now is a full mid-level salary of $500 million a year.

500 million to fill the vacancies left by Ben Wallace, Arenas and Jordan.

If someone gave Bird this kind of task in NBA LIVE's dynasty mode, Bird would just throw the chair in that person's face.

Go play with your eggs!
But now, Bird must carefully look for candidates among free agents.

Looking for guys who are capable, chasing the championship and can accept an annual salary of around 500 million.

Difficult! Very difficult!

Of course, championship-level teams also have advantages when recruiting players in the free market. That is, many veterans who become free agents and are eager for a championship are willing to lower their prices to join the team to compete for the championship.

Of course, there are such veterans this year!
For example, Gary Payton of the Supersonics!

"No, I'm fine in Seattle. This is my home and I'm never leaving here! I've decided to spend the rest of my life here! As for the championship, forget it. I'm too old, Larry."

Payton pass!

And Malone! Malone, the Pacers' old enemy in the past few years, who tried every possible means and wandered around, was known as the league's top mercenary!

"Idiot." Malone cursed after hearing what Bird said and hung up the phone.

He is a villain, a scoundrel, dirty and black, that's for sure.

But he still has a bottom line. He can't do such a thing as surrendering to the enemy!
Even less than three days after Bird was rejected by Malone, Malone announced that he would return to the Jazz, back to where his dream began!

After wandering around for several years, Malone, who had pursued his dream of winning the championship with the Heat, Magic and Lakers but failed every time, decided to give up this time.

He made the same choice as Payton.

He is going back to Salt Lake City to play with his little brothers for another year.

In addition to these two, there are other players willing to join the Pacers, but those are either too old to walk with crutches, or they have long lost the strength to be relied upon.

There was no one that Bird could look up to.

Anyway, Bird was really worried. He looked at the free market list over and over again for a long time. Finally, he even wanted to go to overseas leagues to see if there was any gain. At this time, a guy actually came to his door.

"I heard that you are looking for a forward?" A muffled voice came from the phone, but Bird didn't recognize who it was for a moment.

"I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Ron Artest!"

'The Beast' Ron Artest!
When Bird heard the name, his eyelids twitched violently for some reason.

He had a bad feeling that this guy had bad intentions and would bring bad luck to Indiana.

But even though he had a very ominous premonition in his heart, Bird did not hang up the phone.

After all, Artest is definitely a practical player in the league! Last season, he averaged 13 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists, and 2.5 steals per game for the Bulls!

He is strong and tough like a wild beast, which is the origin of his nickname. At the same time, this guy also has good breakthrough and shooting abilities. His 3-point shooting percentage last season reached 37%!

At the same time, with his height and physique, he can also push to the inside when Webber plays the 5th position and the team plays with 1 big and 4 small. At the very least, Artest's physique is not weaker than 70% of the inside players in the league!
But of course, this guy also has some big problems. He has a weird personality and gets irritated easily. He is a typical troublemaker and troublemaker!

At the same time, the biggest label of this guy is recklessness! The kind of recklessness!
In the summer of 01, when Jordan was preparing to return to the Wizards and training in Chicago, Artest was so excited that he went all out to compete against Jordan, and then?
He broke Jordan's ribs with his shoulder and almost prevented Jordan from returning.

Such a double-edged sword, if used properly, is definitely a heavy-duty war hammer that can crush the opponent. But if used improperly, it is a time bomb that will blow up the team's own locker room.

This is also the reason why this guy hasn't found a job yet and even has to take the initiative to apply for a job.

I heard that he has caused a lot of trouble in the Bulls' locker room. Otherwise, no matter how stupid the Bulls are, they would not have not even made an offer to him until now, which is equivalent to giving up on this guy directly!

"Why do you want to come to Indiana?" Bird didn't rush to agree to Artest, but asked first.

"Because I find it hard to control myself. I often get into trouble, but I have to say that I don't want to get into trouble. I don't think I'm a troublemaker, nor do I think I'm hopeless, and I don't think I'm unteachable."

"I just hope there is someone who can control me and stop me from getting into trouble. Throughout the entire league, I think only Lin has this ability! I think he can stop me from going crazy, let me play well and be myself."

Bird was shocked by Artest's shockingly frank job application brief.

Is there anyone looking for a job this way?
You’ll never find a job with this kind of opening remarks!

And from his description, this guy is not here to find a job and wants to continue playing basketball.

This is just like finding a prison and locking yourself up in it, and Lin Tian is the prison guard or warden.

But when Bird thought about it carefully, he realized that this kid was quite creative.

“But your salary…”

"I don't care about the salary." Artest said directly: "There is a team that offers me 800 million a year, but I don't want to go, because I know if I can't find someone to manage me, then this contract may be my last contract."

"To be honest, I have bipolar disorder and I get angry very easily. The doctor told me there are two ways to control my anger. One is to find someone or something that scares me, and the other is to keep myself quiet and calm, take deep breaths, practice yoga more, and learn to relax."

"I think the latter method is too difficult, so I choose the former."

"So, I can accept a lower contract. I want to play basketball!"

Good guy!
Bird couldn't help but give Artest a thumbs up again for what he said, and he even said directly that he was mentally ill when applying for a job.

Amazing!
Just now he just thought this kid was creative, but now Bird thinks this kid is absolutely a genius!

But having said that, Bird no longer hesitated or asked any more questions.

The motivation, goal and situation are all understood.

Then take it! How can you refuse?

The only thing is that Lin Tian has to be made difficult. Next season, Lin Tian has to completely subdue this kid. He has to make it so that even after the two of them have been separated for 3-5 years, the kid still trembles all over when he thinks of Lin Tian. That would be enough!
Well, just do it!

Next season, give Lin Tian a brand new job!

Tame the beast!

"But we only have the full mid-level salary, which is 4 million in four years. You know the rules. No matter how much money I want to give, I can't give it, unless I also want to be fined three draft picks like Minnesota did."

"To be honest, this price is much lower than what you can actually get in the market. What do you think? Is there any problem with the price?"

"No problem." Artest's voice was still low and steady. "4 years, 1800 million in full mid-level salary, that's it. It's a pleasure to do business with you, Larry. It's really a pleasure! It's much more pleasant than chatting with that fat guy!"

After hanging up the phone with Artest, Bird breathed a sigh of relief. The depression and irritability of the previous period of time disappeared because of Artest's joining, and Bird's own off-season mission was also completed.

The money that should be spent was spent, and the money that should be saved was saved. Anyway, Bird is willing to give himself a score of 90 for his work during this offseason!
The remaining 10 points went to the boss, the Simon brothers. If it weren't for these two guys, he could have dealt with Arenas and Big Ben in minutes while also taking down Artest.

The King's Division, keep building!
Next, we will wait for the training camp to start, and then streamline the last part of the team's lineup, and the Pacers' lineup for the new season will be ready.

But those minor repairs will no longer affect the overall situation.

The Pacers' current salary is 3277 million for Lin Tian, ​​nearly 1700 million for Webber, 600 million for Christie, 450 million for Artest, and 450 million for Miller.

If nothing unexpected happens, these five people will become the Pacers' starting five next season.

The salaries of these five players reached 6500 million, which not only definitely exceeded the luxury tax line, but also occupied almost 80% of the team's salary space.

The remaining 10 players on the team, without exception, all have minimum salary or rookie contracts, and each person's salary is between US$70 and US$150 million. These 10 people will take up almost US$1200 million in salary space.

The Pacers' total salary this season is about the same, 7700 million US dollars!
This time, the Pacers' total salary space has finally dropped to third in the league, second only to the Timberwolves, who have just formed a new version of the Big Four and have a total salary of 8300 million US dollars, and the Trail Blazers, whose salaries are still high but have finally fallen below 8500 million, with a total expenditure of million US dollars.

Well...looking at those two teams, Bird once again feels that he is very capable!
Those two crappy teams have such high salaries. Look at me, with a little magic, one team still has top combat effectiveness, and the other team's salary is the highest in the league.

What is a top international manager?
After finishing all this, Bird finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Finally, only the finishing touches are left!
Originally, Bird wanted to call Lin Tian immediately, but after thinking about it, he felt that this guy was most likely celebrating right now, so it didn't matter whether he took the phone or not.

Therefore, Bird decided to leave the matter of letting Lin Tian teach Artest a lesson until tomorrow.

At that time, Bird will also tell him some of the latest news from the league.

For example, in addition to signing Iverson, the Timberwolves also got the old goblin Sam Cassell. Their starting lineup is now truly flawless and so strong that it is a little scary.

In addition, the Magic really started to sell Duncan!

But after almost a summer of selling the player and receiving various offers, the Magic's general manager suddenly came back with a surprise move.

Hehe... Not for sale! Just for fun, just for fun!
The Magic's crazy choice made the entire league roll their eyes.

There is no way this kind of crazy management team, which changes orders every day and changes things at will, can win the championship! (End of this chapter)