The Pope of Basketball Community

Chapter 326 [Joining the Wizards to show weakness to the enemy]

As soon as the free market opened in July, the Wizards became a team that attracted much attention.

On the 1st, they completed a trade with the Clippers, trading Kwame Brown and Bobby Simmons for the Clippers' Corey Maggette, maintaining salary parity. Many media think the Wizards management is crazy and Jordan is crazy, because everyone knows that the Wizards will not give away Brown so easily without Jordan nodding.

This seems to be an attempt to break the pot and start rebuilding directly. Brown is the No. 1 pick after all. Even if he doesn't play well in the first year, most teams will train him for two years to tap his potential.

Although the media said so, in fact, no team has much interest in Brown, and Clippers manager Elgin Baylor did not want to change him at first. Yang Rui called Wizards manager Unseld again to communicate and insisted on replacing Maggette. Finally, the deal was completed, with Simmons as an extra.

Baylor relented because he planned not to renew Olawokandi's contract after it expired. He was training Kwame Brown, who was on a rookie contract, and the coaching staff had lost confidence in Olawokandi.

As for Brown, he is also recognized as a "parallel import", which suits the Clippers quite well, there is nothing wrong with it...

On the 3rd, the Wizards announced that they had officially signed a contract with Yang Rui with a high salary of 30 million over five years. Mike D'Antoni was also signed. After consideration, he decided to hang out with Yang Rui for another year. No team that wanted to play fast break hired him as a head coach. .

D'Antoni believes that as long as the Wizards reach the playoffs, his worth will be higher and more teams will pay attention to him. The first assistant coach in the Raptors was Thibodeau, and he became the first assistant coach in the Wizards.

The team held a press conference, and Michael Jordan and manager Unseld came to the scene to welcome Yang Rui. Boss Abel Paulin did not come. He is 77 years old and rarely attends press conferences.

The reporter asked: "Jerry, why did you leave the defending champion team to join the Wizards? Is it because of any conflicts with the Raptors?"

"No, I have a very good relationship with everyone on the Raptors. Before I left Toronto, I had dinner with Glenn and Richard. We will keep in touch often in the future because we are good friends. I joined the Wizards for two reasons. ,

One is for Michael. He came to me sincerely and proposed joining forces. I wanted to help him leave with glory at the end of his career. "

Yang Rui's words vaguely revealed that this is Jordan's last season, which will bring more attention to the Wizards. If Jordan regrets it in the future and wants to continue playing for another year, as long as the team's record is good, the fans will only be happy, not Feel cheated. As long as he doesn't end up at the bottom of the league after the tour, causing all the rookies on the team to complain.

Yang Rui continued: "The second reason is that I am confident that I can help the Wizards become stronger. The Wizards were twelfth in the Eastern Conference last season. It was very challenging and was only slightly better than when I first took over the Raptors. At that time, The Raptors drafted Vince Carter and now the Wizards drafted Amar'e Stoudemire."

The reporter asked: "Do you think Stoudemire can be compared with Carter?"

"I'm optimistic about his potential. This season he will compete with Yao Ming for the Rookie of the Year award. I think everyone should have discovered that I am particularly good at training rookies." Yang Rui said with a smile.

Stoudemire went to the summer league. If he were here, he would definitely praise Yang Rui when he heard this.

The reporter asked: "Who will be the core of the Wizards in the new season?"

"Of course it's Michael. The Wizards won't bring in big-name stars in the summer, but they will find outstanding role players."

The reporter asked: "What is the Wizards' goal for the new season?"

Yang Rui smiled and said: "It is certainly difficult to reach the playoffs because Michael will be 40 years old in the middle of next season, but we will work hard together."

There were not many highlights in these answers. A reporter who wanted to dig up big news asked: "As we all know, your most famous tactics are fast-paced counterattacks and creating one-on-one opportunities for stars through screens. Do you think Jordan can still be a perfect core?"

Even Jordan himself can't answer this question. He obviously suffered a disadvantage when facing young stars last season.

Yang Rui thought for a while and smiled: "What is the biggest factor in becoming the core of a team? Is it technology? Consciousness? Body? Experience? In my opinion, none. I think the most important thing is concentration, determination, and yes Perseverance is strength at the mental level. These things Michael has always been at the top of the league. I will arrange tactics that suit him, rather than asking him to accomplish things that are difficult to do, to adapt to me, so his age is not a problem. "

After the press conference, the reporters were a little regretful. They hoped that Yang Rui's goal of winning the championship would be too explosive.

Yang Rui wouldn't be that stupid. If he really said that, it would make the Wizards the focus, but it would also become the target of attacks by the media and fans. Once they lose, Jordan will be implicated.

The lineup does not have an overwhelming advantage, so one cannot be too arrogant.

When signing the contract, Yang Rui specifically added that he would participate in the team's promotion and was relieved of the general manager's job in order to better promote this season and worry that someone on the team would say the wrong thing.

In Yang Rui's previous life, many people began to hate Jordan because of his two failed seasons with the Wizards. If it's just a poor record, it won't be enough to make Jordan step down from the altar. After all, he has six championship rings and countless personal honors.

However, the Wizards did a terrible job promoting it and missed the point.

Washington News has mentioned many times that the league's defense and confrontation are not as good as in the past. If Jordan was still at his peak, he would average 50 points per game. This is purely bragging and does not pay taxes. It is worth criticizing. With Jordan's three-point ability, how many times can he average 50 points per game? Tired him to death.

Nowadays, the confrontation is not as good as in the past. How come two of Jordan's ribs were broken by Artest? That's just training.

Some media said that if Jordan had not retired for the first time, he would have won 8 consecutive championships. At the end of his career, he repeatedly boasted about Jordan's power, causing young stars to fight to the death when they met the Wizards.

The most terrible thing is that the Wizards management cannot control what other players say. Some staff members even accepted interviews anonymously and revealed that the relationship between Jordan and the players and management was very tense. Jordan will not teach young players by words and deeds. He did three trivial things in the Wizards. He sprayed you, sprayed you, changed his posture and continued to spray you...

After Hamilton was traded to the Pistons, he broke the news that Jordan would gamble with players on the team and often gambled with him on shooting. There are rumors that Hamilton was sent away because he won too much gambling and offended Jordan.

In short, Wizards management failed extremely in promoting this aspect.

Yang Rui plans to play the tragedy card in the new season and promote Jordan's injuries, hard work and dedication.

Kobe was only 37 years old when he retired. In the end, he was not at the age that fans have been saying for many years, "Kobe is 38 this year, whoever blames him will die." At that time, the Lakers' record was at the bottom of the league, but the Lakers' ticket prices were selling out like crazy. Every game was sold out. Kobe was treated like a hero and was the All-Star ticket holder.

Why is this happening? Because the publicity is good!

The Lakers never mentioned Kobe's shooting percentage, scoring efficiency, the most shots on the team, his impact on the growth of new players, etc. They just talked about Kobe's fighting spirit, that he stayed with the Lakers from start to finish, that he played through injuries, and that he You know what Los Angeles looks like at four in the morning.

Yang Rui will have a good talk with Jordan. When people get old, they have to recognize that it is more suitable for him to show weakness as an enemy than to pretend to be a hero.

Please remember the first domain name of this book: . Mobile version reading URL:

Tap the screen to use advanced tools Tip: You can use left and right keyboard keys to browse between chapters.

You'll Also Like