NBA: Start the water cooler and reach the Hall of Fame

The time soon came to the night of December 12th. The Lakers are a team that combines high exposure, a long history and super strength. As expected, this game was another ugly live broadcast.

The Wizards players arrived at Staples Center five hours before the game started. Tonight's game cannot be compared to the previous two games in terms of the level of attention and the importance of the game itself.

Before the team bus drove into the arena, Li Kaiming also saw the Star Plaza in front of Staples Center.

Staples Center is a home with a long history. It is not only the well-known home of the Lakers and Clippers, but also the home of the American National Hockey League Kings, WNBA Los Angeles Sparks and the AFL League's Los Angeles Avengers. .

Too many legends have been born here and too many great things have been witnessed here.

In order to commemorate these great pioneers, the operators of Staples Center set up a special area called "Star Plaza" outside the arena. As the name suggests, it is for placing star statues.

As of now, there are four statues standing in this square, namely Wayne Gretzky, the greatest player in the history of ice hockey, and Magic Johnson, the No. 1 player in the history of the Lakers. The third statue is of the famous boxer Oscar De La Oya. , the last one is veteran Lakers broadcaster Zeke Hearn.

And according to media reports, the Lakers will add another statue to Star Plaza in the next few months. The owner of this statue is Lakers passing star and the prototype of the NBA logo, Jerry West, known as the logo man.

In the glorious history of the Lakers, there has never been a shortage of star-studded celebrities.

After the Wizards arrived at the court to start training, not surprisingly, the Lakers players also started training early in the other half.

The reason why there is no surprise is that before Li Kaiming entered college, he heard that Kobe was a training machine. He was not only cruel to himself, but also merciless to his teammates. He was as paranoid as Jordan.

So when he arrived at the training ground and found that the Lakers players on the opposite side were sweating profusely from training, he didn't feel surprised at all.

This is the quality of a championship team!

Of course, as an opponent, Li Kaiming is also very curious about what the Lakers' training content is, and wants to observe what coach Phil Jackson has to do.

But the result disappointed him. The Lakers basically did not practice tactics in the pre-game training. Most of the players cooperated in a small area, or they practiced shooting and dribbling with the ball.

Regarding the arrival of the Wizards, many people from the Lakers looked over with curiosity, but no one came over to say hello to the Wizards players.

The team's top player, Kobe Bryant, acted as if he hadn't seen the Wizards. He was immersed in training alone and didn't even turn his head...

After watching for a while, Li Kaiming lost interest. He originally wanted to take the opportunity to secretly learn some of the Lakers' tactics, especially the defensive tactics, so that he could find the opponent's flaws after the official game started.

Later I found out that he was overthinking it!

Perhaps due to his age, Phil Jackson himself did not even appear on the sidelines, only the assistant coach was present.

After taking his mind back, Li Kaiming also started to warm up step by step, jogging and moving his joints.

After sweating slightly, Li Kaiming beckoned for a pass from the team staff, and then directly hit 10 three-pointers from five points on the three-point line!

This is his favorite rhythm. The first training item after the warm-up is fixed-point shooting from outside the three-point line. He has very high requirements for himself. These 50 three-pointers must be made consecutively. If he loses one, he has to start from the beginning!

After Li Kaiming shot 50 appetizer three-pointers, his training officially began, and his mind was fully devoted...

But what he didn't expect was that all 50 of his three-pointers in the warm-up session were seen by the opposing Lakers players!

Ci Shiping and Odom stood outside the three-point line and were stunned!

Because the two of them happen to be training three-pointers, but they are both players who are not good at shooting three-pointers, so the three-point training basically focuses on the bottom corner.

Just when they were throwing in a few three-pointers, a person in the opposite half was like a barrage of shots, and he was not in the same position. How could this not surprise them!

Odom nudged Ci Shiping with his elbow, his face very serious, "Meta, did you count? How many did this kid score in a row?"

Ci Shiping's face was also very shocked. He replied without thinking, "50! Scored 50 consecutively from five positions outside the three-point line! This kid has something!"

When Odom thought that tonight's game was going to be between him and Li Kaiming, he felt uncomfortable. He cursed in a low voice, "Damn, I hate guarding against guys like this who are hiding outside to shoot!"

As soon as he finished speaking, a basketball flew towards his face!

Odom blocked it with his hand, then grabbed the basketball with one hand and looked at the person throwing the ball towards him.

When his gaze reached him, the anger on Odom's face instantly dissipated, and he forced a smile that was uglier than crying, "Boss, what's wrong?"

Opposite me, Kobe looked at Odom with a stern expression, "Why don't you train hard?"

"The guy on the opposite side scored 50 three-pointers in a row as soon as he came up. Meta and I were stunned!" Odom scratched the back of his head and replied with a smile.

Kobe glanced at Li Kaiming's position with his peripheral vision without leaving a trace, a light flashed in his eyes, and then disappeared!

He pretended to have a straight face and said to the two Odoms, "If he voted for him, what does it have to do with you? Train hard!"

"Okay!" Odom stuck out his tongue at Ci Shiping, and the two began to lamely shoot three-pointers from the corner again.

After Kobe stared at Odom and Odom for a while, he turned around and looked at Li Kaiming. He found that the latter had stopped shooting three-pointers and started dribbling alone. He immediately lost interest. Then go back and continue training.

At this time, Li Kaiming seemed to feel something. After stopping dribbling, he looked towards the Lakers' half court, but no one was looking at him.

He scratched his head, "Strange, why do I feel like someone is looking at me?"

But when he thought that this was Staples and it was normal to be stared at, Li Kaiming put down his guard and continued to practice dribbling as planned.

The two teams trained in their own half for three hours without any interference. At seven o'clock in the evening, it was time for the pre-match press conference, and the two teams returned to the locker room.

Tonight's press conference was very lively. As the second largest city in America, Los Angeles was already full of media reporters. In addition, tonight's game was the league's upstart against the defending champion, and the ratings were full. Therefore, the reporters before the game The meeting was also bustling with people.

Los Angeles lacks everything except journalists!

Facing Phil Jackson, the famous coach with the most championship rings in NBA history, Sanders also showed his humble side, "In my heart, Phil Jackson is the greatest coach in NBA history! He created a A new era!”

The meaning of what he said after that was also very official, praising Phil Jackson's contribution and saying that as a junior, he should learn from the seniors.

When they interviewed Li Kaiming later, reporters were even more concerned about how the new No. [-] pick, who brought traffic wherever he went, viewed the Lakers players.

"Lee, facing the defending champion Lakers, are you confident in leading the team to win the game?"

"Of course! No matter who is on the other side, I will never lose my confidence!" Li Kaiming replied unceremoniously.

"Even if there's Kobe Bryant on the other side?"

"I said, no matter who the opponent is! Of course Kobe Bryant is a very strong opponent, but a strong opponent will only arouse my competitive spirit! The stronger the opponent, the greater the pleasure after winning the game!" Li Kaiming's answer was still arrogant.

This was the first time for reporters in Los Angeles to encounter such an arrogant rookie. The cameras were clicking and they wanted to send Li Kaiming to the front page of the next day!

The Lakers' pre-game interviews were also very rich in content. Phil Jackson didn't say a few words in front of reporters. As he got older, he didn't like to talk in front of the media.

So the focus of the reporters' interviews naturally became Kobe.

"Kobe, have you watched Li Kaiming's video before the game?" a reporter asked.

Kobe nodded, "Of course I have, this guy's game video is the focus of our research!"

“Can you please comment on the way he plays?”

"His game philosophy is very mature. He doesn't look like a player who has just entered the league. He looks like he has been in the professional arena for many years. His skills are also very complete. At least in my opinion, he has no shortcomings on the offensive end. !" Kobe thought about the content in the video for a moment, and then answered the reporter's question.

The reporter who asked this question never expected that Li Kaiming would receive such a high evaluation from Kobe. In the eyes of others, Kobe should be someone who was ignored by everyone. Why did he suddenly start praising his opponent?

Is the sun coming out west?

However, he had no chance to get to the bottom of it. The time of the pre-match press conference was limited, and it was impossible for him to occupy too long alone.

The next person to be interviewed was Pau Gasol, the second-in-command of the Lakers. The latter generally did not speak harshly before a game, so not many media were interested in asking Gasol, and the interview ended quickly.

The games broadcast live at the Staples Center are usually very late. Previous games basically started at 07:30 at the latest, but today’s game did not start pre-game preparations until [-] o’clock.

After Li Kaiming stood on the bench and watched the complete Lakers appearance ceremony, the lights in the entire Staples returned to normal, and the starting lineups of both sides were displayed on the big screen in the arena.

The commentators tonight are also very well-known. Stulantz and Joel Myers, the veteran commentators of the Lakers, will appear together tonight. In addition, there will also be ESPN’s resident commentator for the official broadcast of tonight’s game. Former NBA player Marco Jackson, the three of them together form tonight's luxurious commentary lineup!