The Whip of the God of Basketball

(Because the book was interrupted several times, I forgot a lot of information about player transactions and whereabouts. If there are any mistakes or omissions, I hope everyone can correct me.)

On November 8, 2007, the day after the Suns had their first loss of the season, in Phoenix, Steve Kerr hosted a press conference announcing that the Suns had successfully signed free agent Grant Hill. Hill, after completing his physical examination, Hill will go to Orlando to join the team and start another year of his NBA journey.

The signing of the Suns was expected. As early as in the summer, Hill was interested in signing with the Suns, but he thought that the arrival of Fox Leon and Leon's "notoriety" made the Hill team reluctant to let Hill I played for the Suns.

The Suns' medical team is well-known, but Fox Leon's iron-blooded defense in Boston is even more well-known. Hill just passed his 35th birthday in October this year. 35 years old, for a professional player, means that he has entered the twilight period of his sports life, and it is very likely that a common injury can end his entire sports career.

Hill has experienced too many injuries in his career, but this still hasn't destroyed his basketball dream. Originally, he and the team were worried that the Suns would play an iron-blooded defense. After Leon and Kerr personally visited, and after watching the Suns' first few games, Hill was sure that he could continue his NBA career with this team. Moreover, the timing of his joining was just right. The Suns' striker rotation was somewhat stretched due to Stoudemire's injury. Hill's arrival is definitely a good help to the team.

At this time, the Suns have left Atlanta and headed to Miami. They will have back-to-back games on the South Coast. Because of the physical examination, Cole and Leon decided to let Hill play in the second back-to-back game. , the game against the Magic.

In this way, Hill, who has just ended his career in Orlando, can continue to start a new journey of his career in Orlando in the new team.

Leon saw the news on ESPN Sports News, and he had already arrived in Miami with the team and stayed at the hotel. After Hill signed, Leon sent a text message to Hill to express his congratulations. The two also talked on the phone to communicate about the team's current situation, style of play, and vision for the future.

Leon shared his thoughts with Hill. The two are actually about the same age, and they can be called peers. Hill is smart, knowledgeable, and has his own understanding of basketball. The communication between the two was very pleasant.

After hanging up the phone, Leon became worried again. Recently, Khomeinis's due date was approaching, and Leon had to pay attention to the birth of the first little life connected with his blood after he came to this world. Of course, New York is also constantly contacting him, and the global financial market is surging.

For tomorrow's game, their opponents, the Miami Heat, are not in good shape. After losing consecutive Eastern Conference finals in 2005 and 2006, they began to plummet. In 2007, they were directly eliminated in the first round. Haven't won a game yet. And their even worse situation is that the team's top star Dwyane Wade missed the first few games of the season due to injury, and it seems that he will still not appear in the game against the Suns.

This is undoubtedly good news for the Suns and Leon. The Suns' perimeter guards are relatively slow and old. Facing an assault gun like Wade, they are estimated to be broken. Now that he is injured, the Heat's strength has declined. a chunk.

The only person Leon needs to worry about is Shaquille O'Neal, the big insider of the Heat. This giant shark has been unable to swim on the south coast this year, and it is said that his relationship with Pat Riley is relatively tense. Cole has thought about trading O'Neal, but Leon wants him to die. Not only can the Sharks not be able to provide the dominance they used to on the court, but they may also be troublesome off the court.

Of course, as a former league superstar, Leon still has to do some preparations for O'Neal, such as sending cannon fodder to attack him a few times, and sending him to the free throw line to wipe off his sweat and catch his breath.

Nights in Miami are fascinating, and after arriving here, Leon gave the players a break to let everyone hang out and relax. This surprised Dior and Bell. Anyway, after Leon came to the Suns, the number of times he took or allowed everyone to go out to play almost exceeded the few years in Boston.

Leon's explanation for this is that offensive teams need a certain degree of relaxation to open up the state, but the actual situation is that Leon believes that the team has more veterans, and the season is still very long. It is a long journey to maintain a good physical and mental state. just began.

On November 9th, at 7:30 p.m. Eastern Time, at the American Airlines Center Arena in Miami, the game between the Phoenix Suns and the Miami Heat will start here. Without Wade, the Heat started with Ricky Davis at shooting guard and Anfernee Hardaway on the front line.

The penny-shark combination that used to be Magic is now reunited in the Heat. It's a pity that O'Neal is quite old, and Hardaway has long been tortured by injuries and lost all his aura and talent. He has become an ordinary forward. His figure is not as thin and agile as it was back then, but has become a strong and strong man. After 2005, he disappeared from the league for two years.

This summer, Pat Riley contacted Hardaway with the mentality of giving it a try and signed a non-guaranteed contract, which means that if Hardaway cannot perform satisfactorily in the game, the Heat will He can be cut.

Hardaway is exactly 36 years old this year, one year older than Grant Hill. Both of them became famous when they were young. It all illustrates a problem, that is, the Orlando Magic team is poisonous.

The Suns sent the same starters as in the previous game. Turiaf still stood in the middle circle to jump the ball. In fact, after Stoudemire was absent, Turiaf's performance was still good. When he was on the court, the defense, Rebounding, including fast downs and catch-ups on the offensive end, Turiaf has completed his tasks very well.

It's just that, because Leon uses more of the five small lineups, Turiaf doesn't have much time to play. In many cases, he is a false starter.

So in these 15 minutes, Turiaf played very hard, which Leon valued very much. He did not feel slack and dissatisfied because of the lack of playing time, but played the few fifteen minutes with passion.

At the beginning of the game, the Heat successfully jumped the ball and attacked for the first time. Without Wade, O'Neal naturally became the core of the team's offense, starting with O'Neal in the opening game. And Turiaf obeyed Leon's arrangement, O'Neal's first offense, he directly fouled him and sent him to the free throw line, disrupting O'Neal's offensive rhythm.

The scene couldn't help but booed, the hacking shark came earlier than usual.

O'Neal lived up to expectations and missed two free throws in front of the free throw line of his lifelong enemy. Haslem wanted to rush to grab the offensive rebound, but was stopped by Turiaf, and Diaw protected the backboard.

The Heat retreated a bit slowly. Nash got the ball and broke into the three-second zone directly. Then, under the defense of Jason Williams, a close-range riding archery hit the board and shot into the basket. This season, Nash's desire to attack has surpassed the sum of previous seasons. It is rare to see Nash attacking the basket directly at the beginning of the game.

Obviously, the defeat in the last game still has a strong motivating effect. Nash's attitude of taking the lead in attacking has boosted the morale of the whole team. In the next few offenses and defenses, the Suns kept fouling O'Neal to send him to the free throw line, as well as the tight defense on the outside to oppress the Heat, and then their efficient counterattacks made O'Neal exhausted. As for Hardaway, he is really old, and in front of the fast horse Marion, he seems to be slow everywhere.

In the opening game, the Suns beat the Heat 9-0, Riley had to call a timeout, and the team's inside advantage was not played at all. But Riley was not in a hurry, because he felt that Leon was going to play in the fifth team no matter what, and when he was in the fifth team, the opportunity for the Heat came.