So I am the god of basketball?

Chapter 106: Romance Exposed and "Improved Triangle Tactics"

Finally, for a year, Meng Lang could spend his birthday peacefully at home.

He didn't throw a party, even though Shaquille O'Neal repeatedly asked.

But on this rare game-free day, what Meng Lang wanted was to rest quietly for a day. This is the biggest reward for myself during the season. At least that's what Meng Lang thought.

Hill still sent him a gift as in previous years. This time it was still a tie bought based on his aesthetics. Meng Lang continued to put it in the closet in his room, thinking that when he put it together, he would find it. Wearing it on this occasion, it is Hill's heart at least.

On this day, Meng Lang didn't practice any more.

365 days a year, except for game days, he practices extra time. He feels that he can be a little lazy on "birthday night".

People who are diligent enough have the confidence to do such things.

Just on his way home from the arena, he received a call from Madonna.

"I'm at the airport, come pick me up!"

An unexpected phone call brought Meng Lang to the Orlando airport.

Madonna has walked out of the airport gate from the passenger passage and is standing in the square in front of the airport. People are coming and going. She stands there, like a blooming rose, with eye-catching beauty.

"Happy birthday!"

Madonna did an "I am a surprise" gesture.

Ok……

For any man, it is indeed a surprise that this woman came specially to celebrate his birthday. Even Meng Lang is no exception.

And tonight, they finished all the things they had not finished in the dressing room that day. This time, there was no coughing outside the door, but in the room, Madonna's screams filled the room one after another.

There is reason to believe that if Meng Lang had not bought a villa, a neighbor would have come to the door at this moment and smashed the door wildly: "Why are you shouting so loudly!"

One after another, until the fierce fighting stopped for almost half an hour, Madonna's eyes were still a little blurred, and there were still fireworks inside her head, crackling and ringing.

The way she looked at Meng Lang suddenly changed, and she became extremely satisfied.

In fact, she has always regarded men as her playthings, and she has a habit of coming and leaving men as soon as she calls them. For Meng Lang, she did some things that she would not do before, such as enduring for a period of time, and taking the initiative to come to Meng Lang on his "birthday night". These were all things she would not do before.

But at this moment, she felt that everything was worth it.

This kind of "double pleasure" of body and spirit is worth doing these things for her!

"Be my boyfriend, Dream. I realize that I can't live without you!" She looked at Meng Lang like a little woman.

Meng Lang did not answer her directly, but just said: "Thank you for coming to celebrate my birthday, Madonna, this birthday night is very special!"

"So we want to be together?" Madonna asked again. She suddenly found that she was a little bit mother-in-law when facing Meng Lang. It was like this last time, and it's still like this this time. Meng Lang's avoidant attitude was actually a signal, but she was still unwilling to give in.

Meng Lang thought for a while: "You can think so!"

He couldn't refuse Madonna a second time. It's really time for him to fall in love. If this is love.

Early the next morning, the news spread throughout the United States, and everyone knew that Madonna's new love was Dream.

This is the way this "Queen" interacts.

Free and straightforward.

All relationships she wants to admit will be put under the spotlight, and all relationships she doesn't want to admit will never be made public. Oh, and when she wants to refuse, she will also refuse very clearly.

You say so, Michael!

Martha sent a message to Meng Lang, and she also saw the news:

——It’s so crazy, I actually had the same man as the Queen.

Meng Lang sent her a message back:

——So you'd better not embarrass me!

As far as he knew, Martha had not had a new boyfriend yet.

So, when you are young, you just can't meet anyone who is too amazing.

Hi~

Being in a relationship with the "Queen" made Meng Lang's popularity take off again during this period. Many programs approached Tai Lun and wanted to invite Meng Lang to participate in the recording of the program. Considering that American interview programs all asked very explicit and sharp questions, Meng Lang chose to refuse them all. However, he accepted two more endorsement ads and earned about 4 million. Meng Lang discovered that as a sports star, the types of endorsements he could choose were limited. Good resources usually look for top movie stars. What he can accept are basically clothing and sports advertisements, as well as food billboards such as McDonald's. But one characteristic of this kind of advertising is that the endorsement fee is basically between 1 million and 2 million.

Occasionally, there are two fashion endorsements, which may soar to more than 5 million...

But as a sports star, it is really difficult to accept fashion endorsements.

He also received several luxury advertising endorsements through Madonna's "east wind".

For basketball players, the bulk of their money comes from team contracts and sneaker endorsements. Another example is to build your own industry.

Ok……

The main reason is that he feels that the speed at which he makes money cannot match his popularity.

With his current popularity, it is said that it is easy to earn 20 to 30 million a year.

But this year’s team contract, sneaker contract, and various endorsements, combined, he earned almost 2 million, and this was with the “big tree” of Madonna as his backing. He felt like he wasted his heat.

However, this matter cannot be done immediately in a day or two. Even if it is an investment, it needs to be investigated. Meng Lang's mind returned to his main business.

After the Magic defeated the Pacers on the road, they returned home and defeated the Trail Blazers without a "glider."

After the last game before Christmas, the Magic still lost only 12 games in December.

December 12th is the annual Christmas in the United States, and it is also the annual "Christmas War" in the NBA. For this year's "Christmas War", David Stern arranged for the opponents of last season's finals. The Magic and Team Rocket.

The finals in June this year can be called the most exciting finals in the history of the NBA Finals.

After losing 3 games first, the Magic pulled back 4 games in a row, won the final championship, and won the O'Brien Trophy.

The Rockets have also become the biggest "background emperor" in the NBA and have suffered such a shame. In Stern's view, the Rockets and Magic are expected to become another set of "rivals." Such opponents are also very suitable for the "Christmas War." Such a night.

One more thing...

Judging from the reinforcements of each team this summer, the Rockets are the only team that has made a big move and is generally optimistic by the major media, and can continue to be a strong contender for the championship in the new season.

It is also the team with the strongest paper strength besides the Magic.

It is a pity that after changing the lineup, the Rockets did not show their strength on paper. Instead, they stumbled all the way. They are currently only ranked 6th in the Western Conference and may fall to 7th in the Western Conference at any time.

The media attributed this to the psychological collapse after being "reversed" last season.

In their view, it is difficult for the Rockets to achieve great results this season.

And this "Christmas War" with the Magic also ended easily with the Magic's unilateral suppression, 118 to 100. The final score difference was 18 points, and starting from 4 minutes and 35 seconds of the first quarter of the game, The score difference in this game has never been less than double digits.

It shows just how temperless the Rockets are tonight.

This defeat also extinguished the last illusions other media had about the Rockets, the "runner-up" team last season. Even many media, including local media in Houston, are suggesting that the Rockets immediately push for reconstruction.

And their bragging about the Magic... has reached a new level!

"Is the first team in NBA history to win 70 games in a season about to be born?" - "The New York Times";

"With 25 wins and 2 losses, the Magic's opening 27 games are in terrible shape!" - "Bleachers";

"Orlando show time, is the new era that Dream said really coming?" - "ESPN";

In the history of the NBA, the team with the best record is the Los Angeles Lakers in the 1971-72 season. They finally got 69 wins and 13 losses in the regular season. It is worth mentioning that that season, the Lakers got 33. winning streak.

Except for the Lakers this season, the team with the best record has a record of 67 wins.

The closest team is none other than...

The Chicago Bulls in the 91-92 season had 67 wins and 15 losses!

If you only look at their first 27 games, they don't have the momentum of this Magic team, so everyone in the media believes that the first NBA team to win 70 games in a single season is about to be born.

So far, the only strong teams the Magic have not faced are the Utah Jazz and SuperSonics.

Other teams ranked high this season, the Magic have basically played one round.

Except for the Suns, which brought some difficulty to them, other teams did not bring any difficulty to this team. Even the "win-streak" back-to-back schedule sometimes can't stop this Magic team. ——At present, the Magic team has experienced a total of 3 rounds of "back-to-back", of which there is only one "back-to-back" round. The Magic team's record is one win and one loss. In the other two rounds, they had the last laugh.

They showed the control that a "defending champion" has over the league.

These remarks also caused some potential conflicts within the Magic team to immediately dissipate, and everyone became much more enthusiastic when they went into training.

Chuck Daly saw all this and discussed with Pat Williams to let the media in Orlando take advantage of the momentum to light a fire again so that everyone could be more united and run together. Working towards the historical record of "70 wins in a single season".

Meng Lang also felt that this was a sprintable goal.

The original Magic team ended up winning 53 games this season.

But that Magic team only experienced one round of playoffs and was eliminated in the first round. It had too little experience. Now this Magic team is different. They have won a championship and have experienced the most adversity of falling behind 0-3. They are more mature mentally and have better abilities than they did at the same time.

In addition, he has a "Finals MVP" out of thin air, and he is a "Finals MVP" that completely fits this team. It is no exaggeration to say that for this NBA without Jordan, this season's Magic team Definitely a supermodel.

In this league, at least this season, there really isn't any team that can compete with the Magic.

Of course, such a supermodel team is destined not to exist forever.

Not to mention anything else, in 96, the contracts of Shaquille O'Neal and Meng Lang expired at the same time. How much money did the Magic have to spend to retain these two people at the same time?

You must know that in the season when Cleveland won the championship, the Cavaliers ended up losing more than 4 million in a single season.

This number is an affordable number for Gilbert, who wants to win the first championship in team history, but for the Magic's "money-grabbing" owner, it may not be an affordable number.

More importantly...

If he really wants to maintain the Magic's lineup, the Magic boss will have to spend close to 60 million!

In this era when the salary cap is only about 3 million, there is only one owner who can spend 6 million to build and maintain the team, and that is New York Knicks owner Dolan.

Other team owners, no matter how powerful they are, would not dare to burn money like this every year.

After finally playing the "max level account", of course I have to try to break various records!

For example, "70 wins in a single season" has not yet appeared in the NBA!

Here are the new goals for the entire Magic team this season:

In addition to defending the championship, they also want to do something big!

Chuck Daly was not only thinking about this matter, he began to try the "improved triangle tactic" during daily training.

What made him determined was the game against the Pacers.

Before that...

He once wanted to give up the "triangle tactic" because of Meng Lang's outstanding passing ability and coordination ability. But in the game against the Pacers, he discovered that this team's biggest treasure is its 1-on-1 "star hard solution" ability.

Just look at the first few minutes of the first quarter against the Pacers and you will know that no matter how timely Meng Lang's pass is, as long as the opponent has excellent basic defensive skills, he can always complete more or less interference.

It's rare that a defender is completely missed.

At this time, the ball in the hands of the star and the hands of the general main players are two completely different situations.

The star can seize the fleeting opportunity to complete the shot, or simply ask for the ball to be opened again and put the ball into the basket himself. In the game against the Pacers, the Magic took the initiative in this way and finally defeated them. opponent.

If under normal circumstances, Hardaway's breakthrough with the ball and Meng Lang's support are enough to ensure the smooth operation of this team, then the "improved triangle offense" can strengthen the Magic's "use of stars to flow" at critical moments. Strength of.

This can be said to be "preparing for a rainy day", or it can be said to be creating a trump card in advance.

Grant felt something familiar during training.

At this moment, he finally understood why Chuck Daly kept catching him for mid-range shots.

Meng Lang, Hardaway and Shaquille O'Neal formed "two strong points" and "one support point."

The original "Triangle Tactics" is actually mainly "two strong points".

But now with the addition of a "support point", the movement of the ball can become richer. Grant and Anderson, two players with different shooting lengths, can also maximize the space.

The connection between Hardaway and Shaquille O'Neal is destroyed, and Meng Lang's timely pass can stretch the formation to the maximum extent. When he turns around and passes the ball to Shaquille O'Neal under the basket, a " "Single point explosion" effect.

As Meng Lang became more and more proficient in the "Magic Triangle Tactics", he vaguely saw the "peak Shaq" who led the Lakers to win the "three consecutive championships".

Chuck Daly was actually a little surprised. He didn't expect that after creating absolute space and allowing Shaquille O'Neal enough time to handle the ball, his destructive power under the basket would be so amazing.

This was the first unexpected gain.

In about a week, the Magic gradually worked out this lineup in the training field.

During this week, the Magic continued to maintain a strong posture on the court and ended the remaining games in December with a complete victory.

With a final record of 15 wins and 1 loss, the Magic continued to maintain strong momentum in the second month of the new season, still leading the entire league with only one loss.

On January 1, the league awarded the "Player of the Month Award" for December. After the "Best Player of the Month" in November belonged to the Magic, the "Best Player of the Month" in December was still held by the Magic. .

Something different, this time, the "Player of the Month Award" in December belongs to Meng Lang alone.

他在12月份场均可以拿到24.25分4.5篮板7.5助攻1.75抢断，投篮命中率52.3%，三分球命中率45.5%，罚球命中率95.8%！整个12月份，他一共就投丢了2个罚球。

He missed fewer free throws than Shaquille O'Neal in a game.

The personal condition is extremely outstanding.

Facing the Rockets in the "Christmas Game", he once again transformed into the "Rockets Nightmare" and scored a new season high of 44 points. His shooting percentage was also as high as 50%, which shows how hot his shooting touch is!

After winning this "Best of the Month", the voices that "Meng Lang is the boss of the Magic Team" became fierce again.

Shaquille O'Neal always seems a little restless at this time, just like a woman who has an aunt. I feel a little emotional for no reason. However, now everyone knows it well and is no longer surprised. ——Well, no matter how well Shaquille O'Neal hides it, he becomes irritable every time when the outside world says that Meng Lang is the boss of the Magic team. Even the stupidest person knows what's going on.

The good news is that even if Shaquille O'Neal is a little emotional, he seems to be able to digest it. It didn't affect the atmosphere of the whole team. In this way, there will be no negative impact.

Naturally, there is no need for the rest of the Magic team to care.

On January 1st, the Magic have a tough battle to fight, that is, they will go to the road to challenge the second-place Utah Jazz in the Western Conference.

If they win against the Jazz, the Magic will take care of the top two teams in the East and West, and there is no need to worry anymore.

Chuck Daly plans to try the power of the "improved triangle tactic" in this game.

　First update

　　

　

(End of this chapter)