From today on is the king

Chapter 204 203. Wolf Blood Boiling
Time flies, and before you know it, 43 games have been played in the season. The Eagles have a record of 30 wins and 13 losses, and they are still one game ahead of the Nets. Nets, "help" the Eagles secure the No. 1 position in the Eastern Conference.

New York time, at 1:28 p.m. on January 12, the All-Star voting ends.

At 12:29 noon on December [-]th, the NBA officially held a press conference to announce the starting list of the All-Stars for this season!

Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Hotel, a group of Eagles didn't even go back to the room to put away their luggage, but went to Raheem's room together, watching ABC Sports TV, looking forward to the announcement of the NBA All-Star starting results!
The first to be announced is the All-Star starting center.

O'Neal surpassed Kobe with 122 million votes and became the Western All-Star vote king, and was elected as the starting center of the Western All-Star without any suspense.

Dikembe Mutombo narrowly beat Jermaine O'Neal with 59 votes by 55 votes and became the starting center for the Eastern Conference All-Stars.

Next is the striker.

Tim Duncan in the West ranked first among forwards with 89 votes, and Garnett ranked second among forwards with 87 votes. The two No. 21s have been competing fiercely.

The competition for the Eastern Conference forward list is not so fierce.

Vince Carter won the All-Star vote with 151 million votes!Without any suspense, the crushing level won the All-Star ticket again.

The second position is also very stable, Sharif - Rahim won the Eastern Conference forward's second All-Star starting position with 75 votes.

In terms of guards, Kobe Bryant in the West ranked first with 115 million votes, and the gap with the second is also very large. Francis ranked second in the West with 57 votes. The two partnered with the All-Star Western Conference starting guard.

The competition for the second spot in the Western Conference guard is fierce, and there are Gary Payton with 52 votes, Michael Finley with 44 votes, and Stephen Marbury with 41 votes.

The Eastern Conference guard, as the Wizards completely gave up Kwame Brown and put him on the bench and occasionally did not give him playing time. After the Wizards did not train rookies, the record improved slightly.

……

Raheem All-Star starts!
The teammates of the Eagles who came to Raheem's room cheered loudly, especially Jason Terry. Although Raheem's votes were ranked second in the Eastern Conference forward more than a dozen days ago, he has basically stabilized, but now it is really confirmed that the All-Star starter, Jason Terry, don't get too excited!
To maintain this record, it is impossible for the coaches to vote without considering the fact that there is only one All-Star player in the East and he is still the starter. The probability of choosing another All-Star substitute from the Eagles is very high!

Rahim doesn't talk too much, and he was selected as the All-Star starter at the moment without saying a word... He just jumped up and did a black tap dance, and a pair of leather shoes on the carpet actually heard the sound of thumping.

"Sharif, it's done! You'll be the All-Star's hotel in Philadelphia, and you'll pay for the girls' overnight stay!" Emmanuel reminded Raheem of his promise in a timely manner.

"It's covered! I'll rent a car for you! You can choose any car rental company!" Rahim said, throwing out at least 20 dollars.

But it doesn't matter!A clause in Raheem's contract with Nike was triggered, and his contract changed from a 100 million ordinary star contract to a main star contract!The endorsement fee will be increased from 100 million to more than 300 million and will be extended for three years!
90.00% of NBA players have signed endorsement contracts with sneaker brands such as Nike, Adidas, Reebok, Jordan, etc., ranging from [-] to [-] dollars a year plus several pairs of sneakers, to signature shoes plus tens of millions of endorsement fees.

As long as there is an NBA player with a slight chance of being popular, there will be a sneaker brand to sign with them. Of course, the less famous and less valued the player, the less reasonable the endorsement contract signed, such as Emmanuel, who costs [-] dollars a year, but he cannot change the endorsement brand for a long time.

On the contrary, the stars who are regarded as the main stars from the beginning, and the stars who are very popular from the beginning, sign the contract terms more loosely, usually for several years, and at most there is a matching clause after the contract expires.

This has something to do with strength, because the NBA is a place where the strength of stars is king no matter what, no matter how hyped it is, it will not work without strength.

Seeing his teammates celebrating wildly, Liu Mang said that he didn't want to sit with them, and the group didn't want to play with him anymore.

He was surprised by the results of the All-Star voting. Originally, there was still a small gap in the number of votes between him and McGrady, but when the voting ended, he actually got 69 votes, much more than McGrady's 61 votes!

The recent popularity of the Eagles has not only boosted Raheem's popularity, Liu Mang, who was already a big controversy, has also attracted more and more attention, especially after ESPN and the NBA official website spared no effort to promote him as the youngest 40+ player in the NBA, his popularity has risen rapidly!
It seemed that Liu Mang just felt that he had underestimated his popularity a bit.

If Jordan didn't come back, would it be possible for him to start the All-Star?
Or switch to the West?
……

……

The main thing is to have confidence!Many players, after a year of hard work, have greatly improved their strength and statistics. They were selected by the coaches as the All-Star substitute, or by the fans as the All-Star starter, or were selected by the media as the best team.

And some players broke out for a season, but didn't get any honors. Many people suddenly collapsed and gradually disappeared in the NBA. Although it is not conclusive, it must have a lot to do with not being recognized.

Another month passed, and Liu Mang's ability value increased a little, and his overall ability increased from 63 to 64.

There are not many big improvements. The comprehensive shooting ability has increased from 73 to 75, and the strength will reach 60. Finally, the passing line has been reached, and the speed has also increased from 87 to 88. Before reaching the uncanny valley, the stronger the body, the faster the speed will continue to increase. With Liu Mang's physical condition, the speed should be getting faster and faster.

However, his weight is still 82 kg. He plays games every day, and he trains a lot on rest days. If he doesn’t deliberately eat high-protein food, even if he eats junk food, it will be difficult for Liu Mang to gain weight.

Some things that can’t be improved immediately, such as weight, strength, and jumping, the trainer’s suggestion is to ignore them first, and just practice things that can become better now without affecting strength, such as expanding offensive methods, stabilizing previous offensive methods, practicing good shooting, etc.

Liu Mang now sees that he is ranked third in the All-Star votes of the division guards, and feels the approval of others, and his motivation has become stronger!

If there is strength, there must be hype. Raheem is a good example.

Seeing that the day to promote himself to the whole world is half a month away, Liu Mang is a little excited!

……

……

On January 1th, the last game of the Eagles' five consecutive away games, the away game against the Timberwolves was also the last game in January, followed by the brutal schedule in February, 30 games in 1 days.

The February schedule was distributed to the players before the Timberwolves game.

Although this comprehensive schedule is distributed to the players before the start of the season, and some players also have endorsement activities, and commercial travel, etc., their agents must arrange their time reasonably, but when it comes to players, not many people really remember who they will play after a week.

The opponents studied are changing every day, how can the head pay attention to so many.

Look at the Eagles' schedule next month, and you'll know why they scold the league as a goddamn evil!

2月1号到2月12号，老鹰队有三个背靠背，12天8场比赛！
然后13号开始冬休，15号到18号是全明星周末，19号冬休最后一天，20号到28号9天时间6场比赛！
No human rights!
We can only use this season's record to let the league arrange a better schedule for them next season.

……

At [-] p.m., the Eagles arrived at Target Center in Minneapolis to prepare for the upcoming game.

Timberwolves, one of the top five in the West!In the next two years, it will get stronger and stronger, until it reached its peak and won the Western Conference No. 1 and entered the Western Conference Finals, and then collapsed directly.

The current Timberwolves are still on the rise, but their strength is already good.

Due to the recent high popularity of the Eagles, and the Timberwolves have been a high-profile team since they got Garnett, the game between the two teams has attracted the attention of many fans and the media.

Although there is no national broadcast, Time Warner, which loves regional broadcasts, broadcast the game live in Minnesota and Georgia, which is not bad.

For Garnett in the Timberwolves period, Liu Mang always felt that Garnett was cheated!
Properly cheated!

If the Timberwolves hadn't killed themselves, they would have risen a long time ago, but they were cheated by themselves.

That is the famous "Tragedy of the Prosperity" of the Timberwolves.

In the summer of 1998, because the Timberwolves first signed a super-maximum salary of 6 million for six years with Garnett, which was unprecedented at the time, there was no salary space.

But at that time the salary cap was only 2600 million, and Garnett's salary for the new season alone reached 1600 million, and the Timberwolves only had 150 million space.

So at that time, the general manager of the Timberwolves and former Celtics star Kevin McHale used his brains, and agreed with Joe Smith to give him a maximum salary in three years and let him sign a three-year minimum salary contract so that he can sign on the salary cap with the Bird clause in the future.

McHale's "seamless" plan was finally discovered by the league in the summer of 2000 when he was preparing to renew Joe Smith's contract in advance. The Timberwolves were fined 5 first-round picks at once, and the Timberwolves and Joe Smith's contract was directly terminated, and Joe Smith was assigned to the Pistons.

If we say how much help Joe Smith really brought to Garnett’s Timberwolves, it’s okay to say what awards and honors he won. The key is that Joe Smith only averaged 13 points and 8 rebounds per game in his best year in the Timberwolves...

In this way, in 2000, the team had already won 50 wins for the first time in team history, and Garnett entered his peak period, but suddenly lost a good inside helper, and the team could not attract stars to join.

The draft pick can be selected for rookie training, and can be selected for immediate combat power. It is also the best bargaining chip. When it is gone, the Timberwolves' reinforcements are directly interrupted. Now they are in the first echelon of the league, but they are the weakest one.

In the best era with the best players, I suffered a lot from being greedy for petty gain.

……

After finishing stretching, massage, warm-up, etc. at the training venue arranged by the Target Center, the Eagles players asked the media to take some pre-match photos and began to enter the field.

Minneapolis can also be regarded as a famous basketball city. The first dynasty of the NBA was born here, and the first stage in NBA history for superstars to show their abilities is also here.

George Mikan's retired jersey is still hanging on the wall of the Target Center, but to the embarrassment of the Timberwolves players, the logo on it is the Lakers.

But George Mikan is the city's greatest basketball superstar, which even Garnett can't shake. George Mikan's statue is still erected outside the arena.

Since the Lakers created brilliance here in the 50s, the Minneapolis ball market has been very hot since the team was established in 1988. Even if they were in the bottom three in the Western Conference for six consecutive years at the beginning, they can afford to wait!
After waiting for nearly 30 years, my city has an NBA team again. Other fans dare not say it, but they patiently support the team's resurgence. They are more patient than fans of other teams!It's not like the Lakers fans who have been fighting to death in three to five years.

From 1995, after the Timberwolves selected Garnett when people were not optimistic, everything changed for them!

In 97, the team entered the playoffs for the first time in history!The first All-Star starter in team history! In 2000, the team won 50 regular season games for the first time in team history!
All because of one person, Kevin Garnett!
When the Hawks players came out, the fans started booing, and when Raheem came out last, the boos reached the loudest!
The Eagles players are very puzzled. Is there any difference between their own team and this team with a history of only [-] or [-] years?

This is the enthusiasm of Timberwolves fans!
Not only because they finally have an NBA team after many years of silence, and finally become one of the strong teams, but also because it represents the attitude of their star!

After the Eagles' five starting ceremonies, the Timberwolves' starting ceremonies began!

The first player to play was Joe Smith, the second brother of the team. After playing for the Pistons for a year, he returned to the Timberwolves. Unfortunately, the maximum salary is gone. There is only a 6-year 3000 million contract. There is no way, the league does not recognize his Bird clause.

Although this player has caused harm to the team, the fans did not blame him and gave Joe Smith a loud cheer.

Next are the two guards of the Eagles, the Eastern All-Star substitute Terrill Brandon in 94 and 95, and the 97 third-round pick, the famous homeless Chauncey Billups!

Although neither of these two is as strong as Stephen Marbury who left for a big contract, the fans like them more and continue to cheer!

Next is the No. 99 pick at the end of the heyday of the draft in 6, Spain's super genius, the league's first-line small forward Wally Szczerbiak!
The last person in the standard CGGFF sequence of appearances is about to come out.

The cheers from the fans seemed to be warming up. Before Garnett came out, the DJ did not continue to introduce. The big screen in the center above the pitch-black stadium lit up, and the picture of Garnett with his eyes closed appeared on the big screen. Suddenly, the wolf king opened his eyes and let out a loud roar!

The scene is boiling!The cheers reached the highest point today!Garnett walked out of the player tunnel with a stern face!

Liu Mang couldn't help his blood boil when he saw this scene, it was so emotional!It's really exciting to play against such an opponent!

"Ding... Discover the skill Wolf Blood Boiling, from Kevin Garnett."

　The second update ~ 4500 words again ~ have a meal, let's come to another chapter tonight!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)