Chapter 998 997. Mr. June Joins!

When Liu Mang was drinking with Jason Terry and Muhammad, the only remaining former teammates before the rise, Yahoo Sports revealed a deal on the afternoon of September 12, which was about Muhammad.

The Hawks and the Spurs reached a deal.

The Hawks sent Nazr Muhammad and got Brent Barry and Robert Horry from the Spurs.

The deal between the champion and runner-up teams of last season's finals!

It was quite surprising when the news came out.

After the Spurs and the Hawks issued a thank-you statement to the players who left, the league officials also confirmed the deal.

With more than half a month left before the training camp started, the deal between the two strongest teams last season caused heated discussions.

However, the Lakers and the Celtics made a deal about Payton last summer, which didn't seem so strange.

There was definitely some surprise. The Lakers proposed to the Spurs several times this summer to trade Horry back, but they were all rejected.

People thought the Spurs wanted to keep Horry, but now they sent him to the Hawks along with Barry!

The Spurs signed a lot of players this summer. Nick Van Exel, an All-Star player when Kobe was a substitute, was signed by the Spurs at a minimum salary.

The Mavericks used the Alan Houston clause to pardon Michael Finley, their former core and one of Jordan's successors. The Spurs, who were unwilling to renew Bonzi Wells' contract with a high salary, quickly signed Finley.

With Van Exel and Finley, and the second-year pitcher Udrih, plus Parker, Ginobili, and Bowen... the Spurs have too many outside players, so they chose to trade some players.

Compared with the outside line that is so crowded that it is about to explode, the Spurs are very short of inside players. They also signed veteran Sean Marks, a center, and two undrafted players in the offseason. They are all inside players, but it is still not enough. The two undrafted players cannot give Popovich too much expectation.

It is impossible to poach players with big contracts. The Spurs have to ensure that the salary does not exceed the luxury tax threshold. After trading for Muhammad, the Spurs immediately renewed the contract with Parker, matching the Warriors' offer of 6 years and 60 million, which is similar to the poison contract. Parker's salary in the new season is as high as 7.9 million US dollars, the same starting salary as Kwame Brown's new contract. The Spurs are facing the pressure of luxury tax and can only trade.

When doing business, Popovich does not like to do business with teams in the same division, but likes to trade with top teams in another division.

The Lakers wanted to take advantage of the Spurs' desire for inside players and proposed a trade with Odom first and then trade for Parker and Horry, but was rejected by Popovich. They also proposed to trade Mihm for Horry and were willing to take Nesterovic's garbage contract, but Popovich also refused.

Generally speaking, the Lakers' real offer for trades is basically not very loud and has not been revealed.

Popovich would rather let a stronger opponent in another division profit than let an opponent in the same division get strengthened, especially the Lakers, who are trying to spend money to recruit role players after getting Yao Ming.

The Lakers want to take advantage of the low salary in the last year of Yao Ming's rookie contract and quickly poach players.

Finally, after considering for a long time on the Hawks side, they felt that it would be better to have two veteran forwards and guards. After making an offer, Popovich saw that the bargaining chip of the offer was Muhammad and immediately agreed.

Muhammad signed a five-year, $23.9 million full middle-class contract in 2001. Last season, he averaged 5.9 points and 7.1 rebounds per game, ranking third in the Hawks in average rebounds, second only to Kwame Brown and Liu Mang.

Getting Muhammad has given the Spurs a strong addition to the inside line.

On the Hawks side, with David Lee as a new inside player this season, Muhammad's position seems awkward.

In addition, Josh Smith is in his second year and needs more playing time. Originally, Muhammad sometimes had to play center, but now Rasheed Wallace also needs to play more in the center position.

There are only two inside positions, and if there are too many people, the playing time will not be enough.

Indeed, Muhammad is now at his peak, and his strength is stronger than Josh Smith and David Lee.

However, Muhammad is good at top defense, Kwame Brown can do it, and do it better. His mobility can be better, and Josh Smith can do it better. He is strong in comprehensive defensive ability. Before Josh Smith was still young and Kwame Brown did not gain weight, he played a big role in the Hawks.

But now these two young players have made progress, and Muhammad's position is gone.

David Lee has the ability to play low-post singles that none of the Hawks' inside players have, which can relieve Liu Mang's pressure on low-post singles. Instead of Brandon Bass, who has better physical talent, David Lee was chosen because of his offensive skills.

The reason for keeping Muhammad was that they didn't know whether Mourning would stay. Now that it was confirmed, the trade was inevitable.

After the target of the signing was determined, the Hawks made a decisive move.

After the two teams reached the deal, the media gave high evaluations. The trade ratings of both teams were A-level, second only to the only S-level trade this summer, that is, the Lakers got Yao Ming from the Rockets. The Lakers' trade rating was S-level, while the Rockets' was B-level.

Bynum was a young man in high school, but his talent is obvious to the naked eye. If it weren't for Bynum and Butler, the Rockets would have only received three first-round picks, which would have been a huge loss.

The trade between the Hawks and the Spurs was seen as a win-win situation. The Spurs' inside line was strengthened, and Duncan could return to his center position...

Of course, the position Muhammad applied for by the Spurs was center, and Duncan was still a power forward...

...

...

Muhammad originally planned to rest for a few more days in Los Angeles. He has been training since July and has been training for nearly two months, but now he has to go back to Atlanta to pack up in advance.

Muhammad has become accustomed to being traded. In addition to staying in the Hawks for four years, when he was on a rookie contract, he could be traded twice a year. He was used to being traded at any time, so he has been renting a house in Atlanta. He has few things, so he just packs them and sends them to the Spurs arena by FedEx. He doesn't have a girlfriend, and he doesn't say anything to too many people. It's enough to drink with Liu Mang and Jason Terry, two old teammates, and then go to San Antonio.

Jason Terry still looked heartless, and he went out with Korver, who did not leave after coming to Los Angeles for Liu Mang's birthday.

After feeling sad for a while, Liu Mang continued to devote himself to new learning.

Since it has come to this, what else can be done?

From the moment Rahim left, the team's transactions were open. Except for Liu Mang, anyone can be traded. Liu Mang knew this better than anyone else.

Liu Mang must be very happy to get the news of Horry and Barry joining. With Horry and a key man, the Hawks have more options at critical moments.

Barry went to the Spurs for the championship, but failed to win it. Now he comes to the Hawks and continues to have a chance to win the championship. Before winning the championship, he will definitely be very motivated and full of fighting spirit, which is very important for the Hawks, the defending champion team.

Liu Mang thinks that what the team needs now is this kind of person who has never won a championship...

The team has completed the signings. In this case, Liu Mang now wants to improve himself, make himself stronger, and keep the dynasty foundation laid by the old teammates who worked hard together, and truly establish the dynasty!

…

On September 14, McGrady and Iguodala had already returned to Atlanta, and James also returned to Cleveland to prepare for the new season. Liu Mang's parents and Levia also took Alexia and Little Loli back to Atlanta first. Los Angeles is good for pregnancy, but there is still more than a month before the due date, so she will return to Atlanta to prepare for the birth of the baby.

Liu Mang will stay alone for a few days.

On the afternoon of the 14th, Liu Mang was practicing three-pointers in the rented gym. There is a gap between the three-point evaluation of 94 and the three-point evaluation of 95.

Maybe to be honest, the accuracy will not be much different, but if you cross this gap, you can have greater development.

It is probably equal to the difference between Ray Allen and the Tsunami trio.

It is not something that can be achieved in one, ten or a hundred training sessions, but it will be achieved one day. If it is not possible after a hundred times, Liu Mang can have the patience to wait a thousand times.

After watching the three-pointers of the Tsunami trio of the Universe team, Liu Mang was full of motivation.

While practicing, the doorbell of the gym rang, and the caddy who had received Liu Mang's instructions long ago went to open the door.

Liu Mang also put down the ball, wiped the sweat, and went to the door.

Hakeem Olajuwon!

Maybe the strongest center in NBA history!

"Oh, Hakeem, I've been waiting for you for a long time, and I can't wait to learn the dream footwork from you!" Liu Mang went up to hug Olajuwon.

"Haha, Ace, I didn't expect that a point guard like you would want to learn low-post singles. Yes, low-post is a man's basketball." Olajuwon didn't care about the sweat on Liu Mang's body and hugged him heavily. This is the sign of a man.

When Liu Mang heard Olajuwon's words, it was clear that it was aimed at a certain NBA boss's mid-range shot.

Liu Mang didn't care. The relationship between the two was average. They had only met a few times at official activities. He gave money to learn things, and the other party took money to teach. He didn't need to care about the rest.

"Oh, the facilities in this stadium are quite complete. Ace, wait a moment. I'll go warm up. Here's my video. You can watch it first to understand my footwork." Olajuwon took out a CD and gave it to Liu Mang, and then went to warm up.

Professional athletes usually warm up for more than an hour, so pre-match preparation usually starts two hours before the game.

Although Olajuwon is no longer a professional player, he is very responsible for his body and spent more than half an hour warming up.

Liu Mang watched this DVD on the TV in the rest area of ​​the stadium. It was obviously mass-produced, and there was also an advertisement for Olajuwon's training camp. It was obviously a teaching CD sold in a basketball goods store.

If you can learn by watching the video, not so many people will go to Olajuwon's training camp.

Liu Mang gave up learning by watching videos. Some details cannot be learned by watching videos.

"System boss, Olajuwon's dream footwork learning is enabled!" Liu Mang said to the system.

"Ding... Hakeem Olajuwon's low-post singles learning requires 100,000 superstar points to start fast learning, which takes three days. Do you want to start the inheritance training mode?"

"It's so expensive!"

Liu Mang felt like he was robbed!

Olajuwon's training camp lasts at least one week and costs 50,000 US dollars. If you don't practice enough, you won't get your money back.

The system's training system has a fast learning speed. You can learn the technical moves in three days, but it actually requires 100,000 superstar points!

Of course, if you want to use the moves in the game after learning them, you still need long-term training.

When Kobe learned Olajuwon's footsteps, he spent 100,000 US dollars to learn for two weeks, and then practiced by himself for a summer. At that time, Kobe was almost 30 years old. Kobe's low-post singles were already very mature. When Kobe learned, he learned by analogy. It was just that after learning Olajuwon's dream footsteps, he did better in details.

Other centers who followed Olajuwon to learn low-post, except Yao Ming, were mostly centers with rough skills without any basic low-post skills, so it was normal that they couldn't learn. If you really want to learn, it is estimated that practicing like Kobe for a summer will have some effect.

But those who paid to learn are no different from some people who take remedial classes. They all hold the mentality that remedial classes are enough. They only learn during class, and then after learning, there is no difference between not learning and not learning.

Liu Mang has a certain ability to play low-post singles, but it is all raw play, relying on the bonus of skills to force it. After learning the high-post back, he has some skills in the low post, but he doesn't use them often.

Compared with the center with rough skills who has no low-post singles ability at all, Liu Mang must learn faster, but it must be much slower than Kobe learning low-post when he was almost 30 years old.

Moreover, Liu Mang doesn't have so much time to spend a summer to learn the moves.

The money has been spent, what else can I do?

"Turn it on!" Liu Mang confirmed with blood dripping in his heart.

"Ding... Host turns on the inheritance training mode, learning goal: Hakeem Olajuwon's low-post singles skills, consumes 100,000 superstar points, takes three days, and the training time must not be less than eight hours a day..."

Liu Mang looked at the 400,000 superstar points suddenly turned into 300,000, which was so painful!

However, the money has been spent. With Liu Mang's personality, he is not the kind of person who is willing to waste the money paid for the training class.

Now I have to start training crazily!

After Olajuwon warmed up, he saw Liu Mang's energetic look, and Olajuwon also felt motivated.

Although it was to make money, the students were passionate, and the teachers were more motivated.

However... before long, the motivated Olajuwon felt the madness of Kobe and Jordan while teaching...

This guy learns too fast!

How can he remember a move after just one look?

How can he practice a move for an afternoon?

The next chapter... Let's wait for ten minutes before and after seven o'clock. I'm waiting for my boss who's late at the airport. I'm writing this on a Xiaomi tablet. If there are any typos, please point them out. I'll correct them when I get back~ Please give me a monthly ticket!