basketball kingdom

Chapter 43 Heading to Sacramento

The Sacramento Kings is a veteran NBA team founded in 1948. In the impression of many people, the Kings have never won a championship.But the real situation is that in the distant 1950-1951 season, the Rochester Royals, the predecessor of the Kings, won the only championship in team history.

In the following years, the king moved several times and changed his name several times, but he still couldn't get rid of the fate of the belly.

Until the early 21st century, Rick Adelman used the Princeton system to finally make the Kings splash in the NBA again.The leading brother of that Kings team was Chris Webber, a gorgeous power forward who was the best synonym for all-around on the offensive end.

The 2003-04 season can be said to be Chris Webber's "Twilight of the Gods". In the Western Conference semifinals that year, the Kings led by him met the Timberwolves led by another all-around power forward Kevin Garnett.Webber, who underwent minimally invasive knee surgery the previous season, couldn't guard Garnett in the series.

In the tie-break of the Western Conference semifinals (the series is a best-of-seven series, the seventh game is called a tie-break), Garnett scored a large double-double with 32 points and 21 rebounds, while Webber scored only 16 points and missed a The crucial final shot.

The most classic picture left by this game is that Kevin Garnett raised his hands in celebration after the game. In the same picture, Chris Webber lay on the ground and buried his face in his hands.

Of course, these are the afterglow of the past, no matter what, it has become a thing of the past.

The current owner of the Kings is Vivek Ranadive, a software tycoon from India, who admires the gorgeous style of play.But what I want to talk about is not him, but his daughter Anjali Ranadive, this Indian beauty, known as one of the most beautiful boss daughters (Bucks boss daughter Mallory Edens, and 2K Ricky's anchorwoman Rachel is tied with her!).

No, this is not the main topic. What I really want to talk about is the current boss of the Sacramento Kings - "cousin" DeMarcus Cousins.

Cousins ​​is 211 cm tall and weighs 123 kg. He is a heavy center forward.He has a tough style of play and excellent offense and defense, but his irritable personality restricts him from going further.But even so, he is also the number one center in the active league, enough to become a big trouble for the Lakers.

There are three centers in the Lakers lineup, but only Hibbert can carry Cousins ​​a little bit, and the other two are very reluctant.

Byron Scott has been thinking about the issue of inside defense for the past two days, but he has no clue.That's enough to bother him, but he's got an even bigger worry now -- Magic Johnson waived his favorite Ryan Kelly yesterday, the day after the regular season opener. .

Scott was sitting in the team plane, still thinking about what happened when Ryan Kelly called him. Kelly's lost tone made Scott very heartbroken.He couldn't help wondering, if Jim Buss and Mitch Kupchak were president and general manager, would they both cut players without consulting him?The answer is definitely no.

Magic Johnson is not nostalgic at all!Thinking of this, Scott unconsciously looked at Kobe and Xu Tian who were sitting in the front row. He vaguely felt that these two were his life-saving straws.

Magic Johnson told Kobe after the first game that he had asked him to give advice to Xu Tian, ​​but in yesterday's team training match, Xu Tian led the team to defeat him, which made him a little angry and caused him to forget about it .It wasn't until now that he remembered it and said, "Xu, I want to tell you something about your defense."

Xu Tian was resting his eyes with his eyes closed. Hearing what Kobe said, he opened his eyes and asked, "Do you have any suggestions?"

Kobe said: "Although I also like the previous level of confrontation, since the ugly defensive finals between the Spurs and Pistons in 05, David Stern has changed the rules, and now the degree of contact allowed on the outside is much lower. ...So, when defending on the outside, you have to pay attention to the movement of your hands, otherwise you will still be called a foul."

Xu Tian leaned on the back of the chair and said, "I discovered this when I was watching the video the day before yesterday. I will definitely not do unnecessary things this time."

Kobe smiled and said: "That's good! You are starting today, don't hold me back."

Xu Tian didn't retort. He knew that Kobe and the magician must have put a lot of effort into getting the chance to start the game today.

Magic Johnson, who was not on the road with the team, was sitting in his Staples Center office talking to Jenny Buss' brother, Jesse Buss.Since Magic Johnson took office as president of team operations, he has been looking for a team general manager who can help him, and Jesse Buss is in his consideration.

Jesse Buss is the youngest son of the old Buss. Since 2012, he has been the Lakers scouting supervisor, and he is responsible for most of the draft work.This year he also proposed to choose Xu Tian, ​​but his brother Jim Bass advocated, and finally the Lakers chose D'Angelo Russell.

Magic Johnson spoke first and said, "Jesse, I really like your performance in the scouting position. You have found many good players for the team."

Jesse Buss heard his sister Jenny Buss say that Magic Johnson was looking for the general manager of the team, understood what he meant, and said: "No matter what position I am in, I will give my all to the Lakers. "

Magic Johnson laughed and said several times, "I love that! I love that!"

Jesse Buss looked at the laughing magician, wondering what the number one point guard in history meant.

Sacramento side.

Rajon Rondo is the main point guard of the Kings, with a height of 185 cm and a weight of 78 kg.He was sitting in the locker room of the Energy Balance Arena (the home of the Kings), carefully studying the game between the Lakers and the Timberwolves the night before, focusing on the No. 1 player of the Lakers-Xu Tian.

When Rondo saw Xu Tian take off the rebound from behind Downs twice in a row, he silently remembered this characteristic of Xu Tian in his heart.

Rudy Gay is the main small forward of the Kings, with a height of 203 cm and a weight of 104 kg.After he entered the locker room, he saw Rajon Rondo who was watching the video of the game. He walked over and took a look, and said, "Rajon, what is there to study about this lousy Lakers team."

Rondo looked back at Gay and said, "Rudy, don't underestimate the Lakers. The No. 1 player on their team is about the same size as you. He is a very threatening player."

Guy was a little short-sighted, and leaned closer to the computer screen, just in time to see the scene where Xu Tianliu committed a crime, and said, "Du Liu committed a crime, what's so scary."

Rondo pressed pause, pointed to Xu Tian's data and said, "Look at his data."

Gay squinted his eyes and saw a column of statistics at the bottom of the computer screen—19 minutes, 11 points, 6 rebounds, 7 assists, and 3 steals. He said, "These statistics are very ordinary. What's there to see?"

Rondo shook his head and said: "This No. 1 has a lot of fouls. His playing time is cut into pieces, but he can maintain his performance every time he plays. What is more noteworthy is his steals, which contributed 19 steals in 3 minutes .When facing him, the pass must be careful."

Only then did Guy realize—this player is quite strong.He took a closer look at Lakers No. 1 who was walking towards the bench, and found that Xu Tian's complexion was not black, and asked: "Did the Lakers' No. 1 have internal conflicts with James Harden and Dwight Howard and was traded by the Rockets?" that player?"

Before Rondo could answer, the burly Cousins ​​walked into the locker room with a loud bang from the door of the locker room.

When Cousins ​​saw Rondo and Gay inside, his attitude changed a lot immediately, and he said loudly, "Hello, two brothers!"

Rondo looked at Cousins ​​who came over, ignored him, and continued to talk to Gay: "That's right, the No. 1 Lakers is the Summer League MVP. The Chinese defender who has been in the news all the time seems to be called Xu Tian."

Although Cousins ​​is the leader of the team, Rondo and Gay are more important in the locker room. Seeing that they ignored him, he was not angry. He walked up to the two and saw the pictures of the Lakers and Timberwolves on the computer. After the game, he said: "What's so good about the current Lakers, we can beat them by 30 points."

Gay immediately said: "DeMarcus! Don't underestimate the Lakers. Their No. 1 player is very similar to me in size and is a very threatening player."

Listening to Guy's words, Rondo always felt that something was wrong. It took him a while to realize that this was what he said to Guy just now.

American time is daytime, domestic time is nighttime.

Before going to bed, Yao Ming took out his mobile phone, found Xu Tian's number, and tried to make a call.

Xu Tian was on the plane, but Yao Ming's call failed.He sat and thought for a while, dug out WeChat, and edited a paragraph.

"Xu Tian, ​​I watched your first game. Generally speaking, you played well. But you still need to control fouls, and there are still many areas for improvement. Don't stop. I'm waiting to see your game tonight. I hope you can perform better!"

……

Harvard University is located in Boston. It is well known that the Boston Celtics and the Lakers are old enemies. Alice returned to school and kept a low profile as much as possible.Even so, she was attacked by extreme Celtic fans earlier in the day, who said she was a "racial betrayer".What's more, he abused her directly.

These made Alice very uncomfortable, causing her to make a silent wish in her heart, hoping that when the Lakers played against the Celtics, they could beat the Celtics to the ground.

This is not all!

Many nicknames have been given to Xu Tian on the Internet, among which the most widely spread is "the tearer of the locker room" - given to him by local fans in Houston.Alice's father, Boss Jin, has been seeing news or posts related to her these past few days, but in order not to affect Xu Tian's mood, he never told Xu Tian about it.

The domestic fans are not so extreme, they just adapted the joke of "the boss tried his best" and replaced the protagonist with Xu Tian.

Kobe is aware of the storm of public opinion that Xu Tian has received, but he doesn't think it's a big deal.Just like what he said, "As many people love him, as many people hate him." He thinks Xu Tian should be like this.

Xu Tian closed his eyes and rested his mind, completely unaware of what surrounded him, and was fully looking forward to arriving in Sacramento sooner.

(End of this chapter)