Chapter 303 The distance from God
The day after the All-Star Weekend, stars from the East and West embarked on their return journey.
Generally speaking, the time before and after the All-Star Weekend often symbolizes the watershed of an NBA season.
From now on, weak teams need to lose without a bottom line in order to get better picks, while strong teams need to win whenever they can in order to get a better ranking.
Before the teams launch their final sprint, the management still has a big stage to go on.
That's the annual trade deadline.
The trade deadline every year is an opportunity for relief for suffering star players.
This year, there are also many people who want to be liberated.
Kevin Garnett of the Timberwolves. In the past two years, the Timberwolves' various operations have given people a strong hint: KG, let's go, you don't owe Mingzhou anything anymore.
A few years ago, they let Turkoglu go.
Last year, after wasting a season with Garnett, the Timberwolves decided not to renew Sam Cassell, and their only signing throughout the summer was to acquire "Mad Dog" Mark Madsen with a mid-level contract.
At this point, Garnett, who is over 30 years old, still does not apply for a trade.
Then there is Paul Pierce of the Celtics. A star in his prime who desperately needs to make a career, but he hits a team that is rapidly rebuilding. He definitely wants to be traded, but Ainge, who has not yet shown his ruthless nature, seems to have some interest in Pierce. With a morbid fascination and trust, he believed that Pierce would be the key figure in Green Kai's return to glory.
Ainge has missed two opportunities to trade Pierce in the past year.
One time was last year's trade deadline. The 76ers wanted to send Iguodala and Dalembert to Boston in exchange for Pierce to appease Iverson's emotions - but Ainge's love for Pierce was not just a complete one. The star prospect small forward and one of the best blue-collar centers in the league can be shaken - so the 76ers can only downgrade and replace Pierce with a disabled version of Webber.
Another time was after the draft started last year, the Hornets wanted to exchange Chris Paul's signing rights and Nick Van Exel for Pierce. Ainge thought the offer was "ridiculous" and gave up without even negotiating.
(Both are historical facts)
This year, Ainge still insists that he will never trade Pierce.
Although Ainge's guarantee does not seem to be taken seriously, from a historical perspective, he said he would not trade Pierce, but he really would not trade Pierce, which would not work for anyone.
Another star who may be traded is Allen Iverson. It only took him one year to know that Webb can't go back to the past. Now he is starting to complain about why the management didn't just trade Pierce for ball counting. .
There are many teams ready to make a move. As the favorites in the Eastern Conference, the Bucks had the league's best record before the All-Star break.
Every experienced front office will not seek trades when the team's momentum is improving.
But there are many teams willing to trade with the Bucks because they have a lot of high-quality chips.
Especially those young players, any one put on the shelf can get a good offer.
But Bucks general manager Larry Harris isn't planning on trying anything risky.
They must win the championship this year, otherwise what can they do to retain Frye next year?
Therefore, any operation that may affect the team's chemical reaction is not in Harris' plan.
Ironically, the less a buck wants to move, the more temptation it faces.
First, the 76ers "quietly" asked the Bucks: "Does Frye have the desire to play brother basketball with AI?"
This scared little Harris into a cold sweat.
Yu Fei and Iverson are known to have a good relationship. If it were anyone else, he would have rejected the offer without even thinking about it. But if Iverson was concerned, I really had to ask Da Fei for his opinion.
On the first day back from Houston, Yu Fei decided to keep in good health and go home to sleep after training, because Sharapova performed a crazy horse show on him after seeing the tattoo yesterday, which greatly damaged his energy.
Just when Yu Feizheng and Lawson were watching "Lost" with nothing to do, little Harris called.
Harris Jr. mentioned Philadelphia's idea of trading Iverson, which made Yu Fei stunned for a moment.
"Does AI know?"
"I don't think I know."
Yu Fei knew very well that Iverson's style did not match his own. He was a secondary attacker who had a strong need for the ball. Yu Fei can only tolerate secondary attackers like 01 Kobe and 16 Irving. Therefore, if Iverson comes, they will most likely break up and forget about competing for the championship.
Of course, this is the worst assumption. The best assumption is that the Bucks take out Sprewell and Martin to match Iverson's contract, and then rebuild the team that has been running very well. Pray for the final 1/ They played better in the 3 schedules than in the previous 2/3, but even under the best circumstances, they can only be as good as before the trade.
If that's the case, why make this deal?
"Larry, you are the GM. Don't ask me about everything. I believe you will make the best decision for the team."
Yu Fei hung up the phone.
Little Harris immediately understood what Yu Fei was thinking.
If Yu Fei wanted to join forces with Iverson, he would yell: "Don't worry about that, I want to play with AI right now." Since he said this, the answer is self-evident.
The Bucks turned down the 76ers.
Starting from rejecting the 76ers, Harris Jr. ignored all transactions that wanted to trade stars for young players and quietly waited for the trade deadline to arrive.
Although many stars suffered and their teams worked hard to squeeze out their remaining value, in the end, no big trades occurred at the trade deadline.
Garnett, Iverson, and Pierce all stayed with their old clubs.
The New York Knicks chose to use the amnesty clause on Penny Hardaway.
The biggest player traded that day was bird walker Reggie Evans.
Pence, who was pardoned, wanted to find a championship team to join, which gave the Bucks, who were firmly sitting on Diaoyutai, an opportunity.
This is the opportunity Harris Jr. wants.
It's dispensable, but it's definitely better than nothing.
There are only two choices before Pence. One is to go to Miami to renew his relationship with the Sharks, and the other is to defect to Milwaukee and work as a bully for the most influential superstar at the moment.
Pence then launched into a classic routine.
The veteran who got free agency wanted to join the Bucks and ride the championship, but he was worried about being bullied by the notorious Da Fei.
"I wonder if Fry needs me, will he respect me?"
Yu Fei was inexplicably annoyed when he heard this.
Has his reputation gotten so bad?
Even a scumbag like Pence, who threatened to kill her mother in front of her daughter, is worried about being bullied by her when she comes to Milwaukee?
Who?
Who is spreading rumors to ruin his reputation?
Yu Fei has no evidence to prove that it is Jordan's fault that his reputation is so bad, but blaming Jordan for any problems is an effective method.
At first, his anger had a source.
Secondly, his hatred found a suitable place to land.
Thirdly, even if Da Fei hates the wrong person in the end, Da Dan will have nothing to lose. There is always a sworn relationship between them. Hatred, if it is more or less, what impact will it have?
Yu Fei welcomes Pian Pian's joining.
As for respecting Penny? He certainly does.
No matter how old and disabled Pence is now, he has actually done the work of Kobe 1.0, using extremely standard procedures to demonstrate to Kobe "how I snatched the team from the big fat pig, kicked him away, and then The team made a mess and I was crippled.”
Fortunately, Kobe learned the true meaning. Unfortunately, Kobe was too honest and even learned to "make a mess of the team" (04-05). But fortunately in the misfortune, Kobe's body is made of iron. So you won’t end up with pennies.
Yu Fei made a special call to Pian, and after allaying the other party's concerns, he said: "I can't give you any guarantees about playing time and tactical status. The only thing I can guarantee is that you can retire with a ring."
Pence was overjoyed when he heard this: "This is what I have been pursuing all my life!"
Half a day later, Pence signed a non-guaranteed minimum salary contract with the Bucks.
When Pence signed the contract, Yu Fei was already imagining how he would talk trash about Pence squeezing O'Neal away from Orlando when he met the Heat in the playoffs.
When meeting, he plays the Fat Pig card first, and plays some famous cards anytime and anywhere, and then plays the Kobe card after the Fat Pig is warmed up. If the Kobe card is not enough, there is the Penny card. Finally, he also has the Racism card. Alas, having too many cards is also a kind of Trouble.
The Bucks who signed Penny have no other operations. The only thing they need to do is to pack up their vacation thoughts, concentrate on the final stage of the regular season, and do their best to enter the playoffs as the league's number one. Only in this way can they have Home field advantage in every series.
However, in addition to letting the team achieve the league's first record, Yu Fei also has a goal, which is to maintain a triple-double per game until the end of the regular season.
This is not only what he wants, but also what Reebok desperately wants him to do.
Basketball has changed a lot since the 1960s, and the league even more so. The madness of sponsors promoted Jordan's path to becoming a god. However, when Jordan fell behind, he found that he wanted to create a second god. It is extremely difficult.
Hill failed, Pence went bankrupt, Kobe Eagle County is gone, James still has to look at it, and the one who has the most hope of shaping his godhood is Yu Fei now.
The first step to becoming a god is to do something that many great men have found elusive.
At the end of February, Yu Fei scored 45 points, 11 rebounds and 14 assists in four games against the Cavaliers. After completing the season sweep of the Cavaliers, ABC made a short tribute video on the possibility of Yu Fei averaging a triple-double per game.
One of them was when Magic was interviewed when he was young and was asked if it was possible for him to average a triple-double in the future.
"Man, I really feel like I can do anything on the court, but averaging a triple-double per game," Magic said with a classic smile, "God, that's a great deed that only God can accomplish."
Then, the video goes dark.
Yu Fei appeared on the screen, with the text:
"In 55 games, averaging 32 points, 10 rebounds, 11 assists, 2 steals and 1 block per game, Frye is only 27 games away from God."
(End of chapter)