The toughest man in the NBA

Chapter 299 The Opening Game and the Championship Ring

As a basketball temple with a long history, the NBA has many warm traditions. For example, in order to commend players who have made great contributions to the team, they will choose the jerseys of retired players after one or two years of retirement.

Just like the traditional tycoons like the Boston Celtics, they have a glorious team history and a lot of stars in the team history, so they have retired a lot of jerseys, and more than 20 jerseys have been retired so far.

As the name suggests, jersey retirement means that when a player retires, the number he wears in his team will also be retired by the team, and hung high above the team's home court to be admired by others.

Any other player after that is not allowed to wear this number jersey, unless the retired player agrees.

However, as long as there are wealthy families, there are fish belly.

Among the 30 teams, there are one and only seven teams with an empty home dome:
Toronto Raptors, Memphis Grizzlies, Charlotte Bobcats, Oklahoma City Thunder, Los Angeles Clippers, Orlando Magic and Phoenix Suns

This has something to do with not winning a championship, but it doesn't have much to do with it.

The teams that have not won a championship so far include the Indiana Pacers, Brooklyn Nets, Utah Jazz, Minnesota Timberwolves, Denver Nuggets and New Orleans Hornets.

A total of thirteen teams have no championships, the remaining six have retired jerseys, and the remaining seven have their own reasons, such as:
The Thunder and Bobcats are too young, and they have no intention of inheriting the history of the Supersonics and Hornets. The Raptors and Grizzlies are the same reason. There is no player who can be called an "urban hero". How to retire?
The Clippers and the Magic are more ruthless than the other.

Retired jersey?
Don't even think about it!
The Phoenix Suns are the oldest of the seven teams, with a 44-year history, but they still haven't retired their jerseys, and the US Airways Center dome is empty.

In fact, in the last century, the Suns, like other teams, retired jerseys for their great players, but in the 90s they came up with a unique approach:

That is to award the "Ring of Honor" to the player who has made outstanding contributions to the team and seal his jersey. The jersey number will not stop being used because of this.

In 2004, the Suns held a jersey retirement ceremony for Charles Barkley, but instead of retiring his jersey in the ceremony, he issued a "ring of honor".

There are different opinions on this approach.

Some people think that the sun hopes to become the most alternative existence in the NBA. Some people think that too many jersey numbers are retired, so that future generations can only choose numbers they don't like (such as the Celtics). Of course, some people think that the sun is waiting for them The first championship of the...

Until this season, the reason was finally revealed——

The sun is really waiting for the championship!
On October 2012, 10, the NBA 31-2012 season officially kicked off. Surprisingly, the arrangement for the opening game was not head-to-head, and there were only three games:

Cavaliers vs Suns
Celtics VS Heat
Mavericks vs Thunder
I don't know what David Stern thinks, neither arranged for the overall runner-up to take revenge, nor arranged for the Thunder, who failed in the Western Conference Finals, to play in the stadium. The opponent of the Suns is actually the Cavaliers?
Is it just for the convenience of awarding the championship ring at one time?
Then he is really kind to Yi Jianlian!

Under normal circumstances, players who are traded out or leave the team by free contract will get a ring when they play their first away game. This time Yi Jianlian has too much face.

Before the start of the game, David Stern and his assistant Adam Silva presided over the championship award ceremony, which was still a lengthy speech.

After this, team owner Robert Savor came to the center of the court with a group of cool blonde beauties, full of interest:
Thank God, thank you, thank fate for making them meet...

Then, he lifted his first championship ring:
"From ancient China, the great fourth position, our Yi Madness, thank you for everything you have contributed to the Phoenix Suns!"

Surprisingly, he gave Yi Jianlian the first ring.

First the guest and then the host?

Yi Jianlian has already put on the Suns' championship jersey, which did not make the Cavaliers jealous. This is the honor he deserves, and it is also the proof of his 8000 million in five years!

"Thanks to the strong Channing, I hope this ring will bring you good luck, we will wait for you to come back together, and help us win the second Larry O'Brien Cup..."

The second ring, Robert Savoy gave to Channing Frye, who rushed back from the hospital.

Wearing a championship jersey, tears welled up in his eyes.

Then, followed by Grant Hill, Nash, Yao Ming, Tuman, Battier, Iguodala, Dragic, Robin, Dudley, Warrick, Price...

After the awards ceremony, Yi Jianlian returned to the away locker room.

This made him a little unaccustomed. In fact, he just walked into the locker room of the home team habitually, and was circled by his former teammates in turn, his hair was messed up...

The boys of the Cavaliers swarmed up and snatched his ring. This is the first championship ring of the Phoenix Suns. In the center of the ring is the Sun team logo and brilliant diamonds engraved with sun gemstones, and on the back are engraved the names of all champion members. Avatar, very fine.

Everyone rubbed it in turn, and finally the young Kyrie Irving put it on his thumb, looked left and right, and said to Yi Jianlian:
"Ah Lian, when will we also win a championship?"

Yi Jianlian smiled:

"Don't worry, you are only in the second grade, you will have bread, and you will have a championship!"

Having said that, I add to my heart:
"If you want to win the championship, you probably have to wait for that pervert Tu Man to retire..."

The game was played in a friendly and harmonious manner. With Tu Man's deliberate release of water, Yi Jianlian scored 26 points in the first half, the highest in the game, and he even got cheers from the home fans.

Phoenix is ​​really, really hospitable!
Of course, the Cavaliers did not lead.

Although they didn't defend much, their offensive power should not be underestimated. The old players are getting new reinforcements. Scola, Junzi Lei, Oden and Alston all played well.

Especially Auden, under the conditioning of Dr. Carter and the chief trainer, he has fully mastered the use of long and short legs, and began to take off with one leg reasonably and exert strength with one leg.

In just 6 minutes, he beat Varejao red-faced.

Unlike Portland, there's no pressure on Oden in Phoenix.

No one in the team laughed at him, everyone gave him encouragement and help, telling him again and again:
"You are the most talented giant among the current players in the NBA except Tu Man, don't care about those guys' bullshit!"

Gentry even asked him to leave 50% of his strength in any action. Under the protection of Tu Man, the team does not need anyone to work hard, because:
The world is not worth it!

The coaching staff gave Oden only one task——

While protecting yourself, fully bloom your talent!
(End of this chapter)