This Forward is Not Serious

Before the Suns take on the Lakers again, Ben is back.

Although he has not officially signed a new contract with the Suns, he can't wait.

After spending a week on a short vacation with his family, he returned to Phoenix without stopping.

Like Stoudemire before, adding Butler gave him hope of winning this season.

Of course, because he has not signed a contract, he will definitely not be able to play.

However, he can train with the team!

Maintaining form is one thing, but more importantly, helping Lopez improve his defense.

When he was here before, Lopez was the 11th or 12th man in the rotation.

The Suns' normal rotation is 9 to 10 people, so it is generally difficult for Lopez to get much playing time.

But now, Big Ben has not signed the contract, and he will definitely replace Big Ben in the round.

Lopez is also a typical example of strong offense and weak defense. Although he is a little less talented than his brother, he is completely sufficient as a substitute center.

It's just that details such as his blocking position, defensive positioning, and pick-and-roll defense need to be improved.

Fortunately, the Suns still have time.

One day later, the Lakers arrived in Phoenix.

In the evening, Lin Ying took Butler and drove to the hotel door to pick up Kobe.

Kobe went straight to the back seat and chatted with Butler, and the conversation was heated.

Lin Ying couldn't get a word in front.

Well, it feels like being a light bulb.

We finally arrived at Yao Restaurant, and when we discussed the dining environment, we started to enter his home court.

Kobe has obviously tried Chinese food. If he is interested in something, he will first ask Lin Ying what he is.

And maybe because he grew up in Italy, he has a particular love for pasta.

Following Lin Ying's recommendation, he planned to try knife-shaped noodles.

And he also chatted with Lin Ying about an interesting story between him and Butler.

Because he was usually busy training, especially when O'Neal just left the team, he basically declined all leisure activities.

Therefore, the impression he gives to others is that of a training freak who has no other social activities except training.

It was against this background that Butler held a party and invited Kobe and Odom.

There were dozens of people attending that party, and they all had shocked faces when they saw Kobe.

And as soon as Kobe sat down, he took the pork ribs that were passed to him, and then chatted and laughed with Odom Butler while eating.

This time everyone else was stunned:

"Oh my God, Kobe ate ribs!"

There is a background here, because clenbuterol is an illegal drug in the NBA, and pork contains a lot of it but has not been detected, so NBA players generally do not eat pork.

Then Kobe's response was very interesting. He smiled and replied:

"Yeah, Kobe even drove himself to the gas station to refuel!"

Butler imitated Kobe's tone and said.

This immediately caused a burst of laughter from Kobe.

Lin Ying looked at the two of them. He had been in contact with Kobe for a long time, but this was the first time he had seen Kobe like this.

It can be seen that the relationship between Butler and Kobe is extraordinary and completely beyond the scope of ordinary friends.

"Lin, don't you want to know Caron's story?"

Because serving food takes time, Kobe took advantage of this moment to speak.

Lin Ying also sat upright and listened attentively.

Everyone knows the story of Iverson because Iverson stood on the stage of the NBA Finals.

In that story, Iverson was in a difficult situation when he was a child. He dealt with drugs and violence every day, but he was clean and hobbies and did not get involved.

That allowed him to eventually become the No. 1 pick in the NBA and establish himself in a league of his own.

Butler is also in a difficult situation, but he is on the completely opposite path to Iverson.

He was born in a small town near Lake Michigan, only 22 miles away from Milwaukee.

His father also abandoned him and his mother early, and his mother had to work two jobs to support him.

Unlike Iverson, he doesn't have a stepfather.

So he is more like Iverson's stepfather. In order to keep himself and his mother alive, he started selling drugs at the age of twelve.

In the United States, this is a high-risk, high-reward job.

But it is obviously difficult for a teenage child to do this well.

He continued doing it until he was 15, then got busted 15 times.

For the last time, the local police finally realized that the boy would die on the streets sooner or later if he continued like this, so they threw him into a juvenile detention center.

He will serve a year there.

This sounds like a wonderful story.

But like so many packaged American stories, its interior is shady.

That juvenile detention center, according to Butler, may be more dangerous than drug trafficking, and every day there is "a matter of life and death."

Some people are raped, some are murdered, but no one cares.

A teenage child is surrounded by the darkness of the world. You can imagine what a desperate environment it is.

It was at this time that he grasped a life-saving straw, basketball.

Just like what is described in American movies, because the investment is not large and the basketball court does not occupy a large space, most juvenile detention centers and prisons will be equipped with one.

That's when he discovered his love for basketball.

In fact, in a sense, Butler and Laue are the same kind of people.

Laue was disabled physically, but Butler was disabled mentally.

But the same thing is that they all saved themselves through basketball.

After being imprisoned for two weeks for a fight with others, he finally figured out that he wanted to play basketball!

So after he came out of the juvenile detention center, he began to devote all his love to basketball.

"They still looked for me."

At this moment, Butler interrupted Kobe.

"Shortly after I came out of there, they found the thing near my house and suspected me because of my criminal record."

Kobe looked at Butler in surprise at this time. It was obvious that he had never heard Butler say this.

"They're going to take me to jail for ten years."

When Butler said this, his expression was obviously a little scared.

If he really has to sit out for ten years, let alone his basketball career, his return to a normal life will be completely ruined.

Of course, now that Butler is sitting here, as an NBA player, that obviously didn't happen in the end.

"But Officer Rick Geller communicated with me at the time and confirmed that I had nothing to do with it, and he saved me."

Butler then spoke with emotion.

Accidental arrests are very common in the American police industry, and something similar happened when Iverson caused a stir.

So the policeman named Geller can be regarded as Butler's benefactor.

Before Kobe could recover, Butler told the rest of the story himself.

Although he embarked on the road of basketball, he only started playing basketball at the age of 15, and with those bad records, his basketball road was destined to be bumpy.

From the beginning, he and his mother were forced to move out of their original neighborhood.

Because of his bad record, local schools refused to admit him.

He was then forced to attend a technical school and began to level up and fight monsters along the way.

He first worked his way into Maine Preparatory School.

During that time, apart from training and competing, he spent the rest of his time working at Burger King to make money.

After that, he worked hard to enter Washington Park Middle School and began to realize his basketball talent.

He helped the team improve from 3 wins and 19 losses last season to 19 wins and 3 losses, and contributed 30+10+5 in 98 consecutive games.

It was this kind of game that allowed him to finally enter the AUU league. Two years later, he completed the junior college upgrade and finally entered the University of Connecticut.

He was already 20 years old as a freshman, and then he contributed 15.6 points and 7.6 rebounds in his first year.

By his sophomore year, he improved this data to 20.3 points and 7.5 rebounds, helping UConn become the Big East Conference regular season and tournament double champion, and reached the Elite Eight in the same year.

That year, he knocked on the door of the NBA and was selected by the Heat with the 10th overall pick in the first round.

By now, Lin Ying probably knew the rest of the story.

The Heat were at the peak of their career, and losing their position in the second year was used as a bargaining chip to trade O'Neal. When the Lakers became the second-in-command and became good friends with Kobe, finally he started his trident career with the Wizards.

After hearing the whole story, Lin Ying was still very shocked.

In the stories he has heard before, be it Iverson or Durant.

As they grow up, there will always be someone who protects them and guides them, either their stepfather or their godfather.

But Butler did it step by step by himself.

What I'm going to talk about now is just some bland words, but if you were to put yourself in it, most people would probably be like those who couldn't survive three episodes in a TV series.

Give a very simple example.

If a drug dealer goes to work at Burger King, he will definitely be ridiculed by his former drug dealers.

It's even possible that they would go to the restaurant to give Butler some color and try to draw him back. It's foreseeable.

But he persisted in the end.

This story seems to explain a lot of things.

Why is his character so straightforward? It's because he doesn't have a father/godfather figure to teach him how to get along better with others.

Why does he have a big heart? Because of his experiences, no one on the court can scare him.

The same kind of person deserves Kobe to regard him as a friend, or even a close friend.

The prodigal son returns with gold, a model of NBA inspiration!

And Lin Ying can better understand why Butler has such a strong desire for a championship.

Because only if he succeeds, will someone understand his story, and he won't have to do what he did when he first arrived in the Suns. The first thing he did when he saw the locker room was to say that he was not a thorn in his side.

"Kobe, aren't you afraid that we will beat you?"

Knowing Butler's story, Lin Ying is more confident in defeating the Lakers this year.

Nash, Stoudemire, Hill, Tony Allen, Butler, and himself, they have assembled a group of people who are infinitely eager to win!

"No, you can't win."

Kobe's can't-win theory is here again.

…

The Suns ultimately lost to the Lakers 103-113.

Gentry chose a stable style of play, and this result is acceptable to the coaching staff.

What excited the coaching staff was Butler's performance. He scored 17 points and 5 rebounds in his first game.

And his shooting was very efficient, making 6 of 11 shots and 4 of 8 three-pointers.

This performance made Suns fans unable to help but fall in love with him.

…

The time has come to March 18, one month has passed since the trade deadline.

Two signings that broke out on this day caused shock to the league.

One is Ilgauskas signing with the Cavaliers, and the other is Big Ben signing with the Suns.

Coincidentally, these two childish transactions completely aroused the dissatisfaction of other teams.

According to the game, this is obviously a BUG here!

Here’s an example of an operation that doesn’t focus on practice but only on theory:

The Cavaliers traded James for Kobe, then the Lakers waived James, and the Cavaliers signed him back 30 days later, and then 23+24 took shape.

This is obviously a loophole in the rules.

Finally, the league bowed to pressure and issued relevant regulations.

Unlike the previous Gary Payton clause, this time it is a fix to the league rules, which stipulates that players cannot be signed back after being traded in the same season.

Therefore, this clause does not have a specific name, but fans named it as:

Well, Big Ben-Big Z terms.

It was exactly the same as what Lin Ying had thought before.

Of course, this clause only applies to the later teams, and the two teams like the Cavaliers and Suns are the final beneficiaries.

Speaking of the Suns, after signing back the big money, the team's 15-man roster for the playoffs was finalized.

Point Guard: Nash, Barbosa, Holiday

Shooting Guards: Tony Allen, Quentin Richardson, Gerald Green

Small forward: Caron Butler, Hill, Dudley

Power forward: Lin Ying, Frye, Jalen Collins

Center: Stoudemire, Robin Lopez, Ben

The reason why the big money is placed behind Lopez is because the team rotation has changed in a month.

The previous Gary Payton clause seems useless, but NBA players, especially veterans, will need time to recover after not playing official games for a month.

The big Z next door is in a similar situation.

If it really had no impact at all, the Gary Payton clause wouldn't have lasted as long.

…

The NBA playoffs are getting closer and closer, and the competition for the playoffs is becoming more and more intense.

This month belongs to Durant.

Well, lovelorn Durant.

At the end of the cold war, Monica finally broke up with Durant.

In order to help the Thunder grab a playoff spot and to vent his lovelorn emotions, Durant has become red-blooded.

His monthly scoring average soared to 35 points, and he has entered "death mode" early.

The same thing happened with Rose.

In order to help the team get the final playoff spot, roses also bloomed in Chicago.

Looking at the Suns at this time, they seem a bit like an old man who is unhurried and unhurried.

However, in the two key games, they won both with the outstanding performance of the whole team.

One against the Lakers and one against the Nuggets.

There are tightenings and loosenings, and Gentry's coaching level has also been greatly tempered in this special season.

…

The relationship between Lin Ying and Brooke has been heating up.

Lin Ying gives Brooke his favorite desserts, and Brooke will also wear a tight-fitting jersey and conduct ball-handling training with Lin Ying in the training hall.

They pay attention to each other and express their love for each other.

Lin Ying even customized a batch of special fireworks from China to create a surprise for Brooke's birthday.

Of course, Lin Ying also slowly changed from a boy to a man while getting along with Brooke.

After one meeting, Lin Ying gave Brooke a suit of JK that fit him well, and it seemed like some magical door had been opened.

cough.

This is also part of love.

It's just that because the two don't meet often, this kind of scene usually only occurs in overtime.

And for Lin Ying, it did not affect his performance on the court. On the contrary, it had a great boosting effect.

Falling in love and falling in love may sometimes be the same effect.

…

After the last game was played on April 17, the curtain of the regular season of the 2009~2010 season came to an end.