basketball kingdom

Chapter 63 Difficult situation
The magician came to the training ground, properly handled the debate between Hibbert and Scott, and didn't let ESPN reporters see the joke.Then he informed Xu Tian to go to his office after the interview.

Xu Tian readily agreed to the magician, and then walked with ESPN reporters to a place far away from the main training ground, ready to start this interview.

The young reporter in charge of the interview was wearing a Nike sports suit.Xu Tianguang can see from this point that this reporter does not have much experience in interviewing.

ESPN's follow-up staff quickly moved two chairs, let Xu Tian and the young reporter sit on them, and then the two started the interview.

The young reporter stretched out his right hand first, and introduced himself: "Hello, my name is Thomas Giggs."

Xu Tian smiled and held Ziggs' right hand, jokingly said, "Your surname is the same as the bomber in League of Legends."

It was not the first time Giggs heard such words, and he pretended to reply calmly: "Your association is very interesting, but I think we should start the interview immediately instead of getting entangled in my surname. After all, we only have 30 minutes. .”

"Of course it's okay, you can start asking questions." Xu Tian came to the arena except for training, there is only one thing to do interviews, the sooner he finishes the training, the sooner he can go to training.

Giggs took out the neatly folded manuscript from his belt, unfolded it slowly, and prepared to ask questions according to the questions written on it.

The cameraman couldn't stand it anymore, turned his head to look at Giggs and said, "Thomas, don't hold that piece of paper, or your shot will have to be cut."

Giggs put down the manuscript helplessly, his face became a little stiff, but he still asked the first question, "Xu, the first thing I want to ask is from the Rockets to the Lakers. What do you think is the biggest change?"

Xu Tian was very relaxed, and replied leisurely: "The biggest change is the attention. When I was in Houston, basically only reporters from the Houston Chronicle would interview me, but in Los Angeles, many sports media have arranged interviews."

Giggs is a Lakers fan. He couldn't help laughing when he heard Xu Tian's answer, but he quickly restrained himself and asked: "It is widely rumored that there are irreconcilable conflicts between you and James Harden and Dwight Howard. , does this matter really exist?"

The cameraman paused the filming progress, and couldn't help interjecting: "Thomas, you prepared all night carefully, did you only prepare these non-nutritive questions?"

Giggs tried to strengthen his courage, and said a little loudly to the cameraman: "Tom Green, you are a cameraman, don't interfere with the progress of the interview."

Xu Tian didn't pay attention to the cameraman before, but now he looked at him and found that he was looking at Giggs with displeasure.

Seeing Xu Tian's eyes on him, Tom Green hurriedly said, "Continue the interview, don't waste time."

Giggs muttered in a low voice, and after expressing his dissatisfaction, he repeated the question just now.

Xu Tian put his hands on his knees and replied: "Actually, there is no conflict between me and the two of them. It's just that our goals are different, which caused the disconnection of performance on the court. It has nothing to do with the conflict."

Giggs didn't quite believe what Xu Tian said, but he couldn't steer the topic in the right direction, so he could only say: "Dwight has indeed been criticized for his lack of desire to win. This is not controversial. But if you stay with the Rockets , the hope of competing for the championship is much greater than that, but why did you join the Lakers?"

Xu Tian smiled and said, "I was traded, so I can't describe it as joining."

While explaining his slip of the tongue, Giggs looked at the manuscript on the chair next to him.He was a little short-sighted and could only see the content about 2K in the last row. He turned to Xu Tian and said, "Xu, let's talk about games. Adams and D'Angelo Russell are 2 and 72 respectively. Do you think you are worse than them?"

Xu Tian replied without thinking: "The two of them should be able to compete for the best rookie."

When Ziggs heard Xu Tian's answer, his eyes widened, and he asked in disbelief: "You mean they are better than you?"

Xu Tian said: "Of course not. Their goal is the best rookie, and my goal is the MVP. There is a big difference."

Giggs saw that Xu Tian finally entered the state, and began to ask controversial topics.

Although Xu Tian knew Giggs' purpose, he didn't hide it at all, and answered Giggs' words according to his own ideas.The three 10-minute interviews ended in a pleasant atmosphere.

Giggs was excited about what he had interviewed, while Xu Tian was glad that the boring interview was finally over and he could go to training.

After Scott saw the ESPN reporter walk out of the venue, he came to Xu Tian and reminded him that the magician asked him to go to the office.

Only then did Xu Tian remember what the magician said before the interview, and went to the president's office with some confusion.

The magician was sorting out the trading plans on the desk, and let Xu Tian in after hearing the knock on the door.

It was Xu Tian's first visit to the CEO's office, and he looked around curiously, and found that it was not as luxurious as he had imagined, and the decoration style was very simple.

After Xu Tian finished his visit, the magician pointed to the chair in front of the desk and said, "Xu, sit down first, I have something to talk to you about."

Xu Tian went to the chair and sat down, looking at the magician behind the desk, suddenly felt like being interviewed, and asked, "What do you want to talk about?"

The magician pushed the documents aside, put his hands on the desk, and said: "Xu, Julius' ankle injury is a bit serious, and he will probably be absent for 4-6 weeks."

When Xu Tian heard the news, he was stunned for a moment. After a long while, he said, "There are also Brandon, Roy (Hibert) and Nance Jr. on the inside. Julius is only out for a month, so it's not a big problem."

The magician added: "I decided to impose a team suspension on Roy (Hibert). As for when he can play again, it depends entirely on his attitude."

Xu Tian didn't expect Hibbert to be suspended for his behavior on the training ground, so he could only say helplessly: "Okay! But in this way, we won't have enough internal rotation players."

The magician said: "This is not all bad news. You have trained with Kobe for a long time and know his character. Today he did not come to participate in training. You should understand what it means?"

As soon as Xu Tian came to the training ground, he found that Kobe was not here, but he didn't take it seriously at the time. Now he heard the magician's words, he was a little worried, and said: "I don't understand what it means, let's just say it directly." .”

The magician usually likes to smile, but now there is no smile on his face, saying: "Kobe has a sore knee and will be out for about two weeks."

Xu Tian had been mentally prepared for a long time, but he was still shocked by the news, but soon he reacted and asked, "Are you calling me here to talk about this?"

The magician withdrew his hand from the table, leaned back on the chair and said: "I know your goal very well, but now I have to ask you, if the team is bad, can you accept it?"

Xu Tian gave the answer without hesitation, "I don't accept being bad. Even if I don't make it to the playoffs, I will try my best to win. If the team is going to be bad, I hope I can be traded."

The magician smiled and said: "I think the same as you. As long as the team has five players who can play, I will not agree to deliberately lose. You can try your best to win."

Xu Tian was relieved after hearing this.

Magician's prestige in the Lakers is very high. If he decides to play badly, Xu Tian is irreversible. He doesn't want to leave the Lakers yet.

Seeing Xu Tian let out a long breath, the magician smiled and said, "Don't worry. As long as I'm still in the position of president of basketball operations, the Lakers will never fail."

Xu Tian said while the iron was hot: "Magician, my goal is to win the championship this season. If possible, try to strengthen the team."

The magician was silent for a moment, and said: "With the current lineup, the upper limit is to enter the playoffs. If you want to compete for the championship this season, you have to move the lineup, but..."

Xu Tian knew that what the magician didn't mention was the issue of Kobe's big contract, and said: "I don't need stars, as long as I have some good role players, I can win."

The magician knew that it was not that easy to compete for the championship, but he still supported Xu Tian first, allowing him to return to the training ground to train with peace of mind.

After Xu Tian left the office, the magician thought about it and called Rob Pelinka.

Pelinka is a person favored by both Magician and Kobe. Since Magician became the president of operations, Pelinka has been operating the affairs of the brokerage company in order to serve as the general manager of the team.

When the magician called him, he was officially notified of his appointment as the general manager of the team.

Kobe Bryant pulled out Jerry West's phone while at home with knee therapy and tried calling.

Jerry West's playing career is a bit tragic, but his management experience is legendary enough. It was this old man who helped the Lakers trade Divac to Kobe in 96.

The Golden State Warriors were able to win the championship last season, and West's operation is also behind the scenes.

West did a lot of things in the Warriors. The far-reaching ones include strengthening Curry, abandoning the more popular Jimmer Fredette during the draft, decisively selecting Klay Thompson, and hiring Steve Kerr as the head coach , Signed Andre Iguodala, who won the FMVP of last season.

This series of operations allowed the Warriors to reach the pinnacle.

Kobe knew that the current lineup of the Lakers was difficult to achieve, and wanted to consult West to see if he could give advice.

Xu Tian returned to the training field after changing his training clothes. Seeing that Hibbert was no longer here, the attitude of the players on the field was also very negative.

Scott sat on the sidelines, bewildered by the team's current situation, and he even hoped that the Magic would fire him so that he could enjoy life.

Xu Tian went straight to Scott and sat down, saying, "Head coach, don't pay too much attention to Roy (Hibert). If he loves basketball, he will definitely come back."

Scott sighed and said: "I think it's difficult! Today's league is full of small balls, and a clumsy center like Roy (Hibert) is very embarrassing. This cannot be changed by loving basketball."

Xu Tian looked at his slow-moving teammates on the field and understood that what Scott said made sense.

(End of this chapter)