Chapter 1421 1420. Sweep the Promotion, the Award Is in Doubt (3 More Chapters, 13,000 Monthly Tickets Requested)

When the two alternative topics of "despicable Ace Liu" and "Chinese players manipulating the NBA" were becoming more and more popular, the Hawks came to Detroit and began to prepare for the game with the Pistons.

With such a topic, Liu Mang didn't care and thought it was quite interesting.

It was mainly because Liu Mang didn't analyze his opponent, the Pistons, but analyzed other teams instead, which was very interesting. Even ESPN was hyping it up.

Anyway, Liu Mang wouldn't lose a piece of meat. After ESPN and Liu Mang had cooperated for a long time, they also understood Liu Mang's personality and knew what to do and what not to do. ESPN also regarded Liu Mang as the "God of Wealth".

It was Liu Mang who was surprised to come to Detroit.

The fans here... were not as resistant to them as they were the year before last.

At the airport, there were fans wearing Liu Mang's former No. 1 Hawks jersey and fans wearing Dumars' No. 4 Pistons jersey that Bosh took the initiative to give to take pictures of Liu Mang and others.

The Pistons are quite special. Their famous players like to retire their jerseys. Greg Monroe, who will be the future player, also wore Rodman's jersey.

After a year, Detroit has changed a lot, mainly because of the collapse of the Pistons' strength and the departure of their "soul" Ben Wallace.

This time, the Pistons have no hope of winning. The Pistons fans have also let it go. They don't hold signs at the airport to scold the Hawks like they did the year before.

When we arrived at the hotel, there were fans outside the hotel, and most of them were not Hawks fans, but Pistons fans.

After Liu Mang saw the slogans held by the Pistons fans, he understood...

"Ace, come to Detroit to teach us how to build a dynasty!"

"Ace, next stop Detroit?"

Slogans like these came one after another.

As time passed, the reason why Grant Hill took the initiative to ask for a buyout from the Magic and quickly joined the Hawks after the buyout slowly surfaced.

It's not that Grant Hill is a big mouth. This kind of thing will eventually be known to others. Grant Hill and McGrady were drinking and chatting, and people heard it, and then it was publicized.

"Grant, come to us, I want you to win the championship..."

This sentence was a little popular in early April, but then it was dominated by the "Snake Science" storm.

But this time, it was used by the Pistons fans.

When Liu Mang saw this, he didn't have any interest in the Pistons, but... felt that time passed so quickly!

The 4+1 maximum salary contract signed in 2004, after this season, has been three years. In the summer of 2008, he can opt out of the contract, and of course he will definitely opt out of the contract and sign a new long-term contract.

The current starting salary is already very different from the starting salary back then.

Liu Mang said to Jason Terry who was sitting next to him: "Jason, when I signed the contract, I thought four years was too long. I didn't expect that the time would be up next year so soon."

"Really? I always feel that the days are like years. It's too troublesome to play with you. It's so tiring every year. Forget it. I'm unlucky and can only play more than a hundred games with you every year." Jason Terry looked helpless.

"..." Liu Mang wanted to hit Jason Terry after listening to his words!

"It's really bad to have a relationship with this short guy!"

...

...

Listening to the fans cheering for Liu Mang, and seeing a large number of fans wearing Liu Mang's No. 1 Hawks jersey, it seems that many of them are still Pistons fans. Billups, who was wearing the No. 1 jersey, was completely disappointed.

Once upon a time, Billups was very grateful for the Pistons' kindness and wanted to build a career here.

But now, he is still in the Pistons, and the Pistons fans are thinking about giving his No. 1 jersey to others.

It's okay to give it to others, but the person to give it to is actually the star player of their opponent in the playoffs this year.

When the ruler of an era appears, most of the stars of that era will cry. After a few years, Billups has understood the meaning of this sentence. He is the main background of Liu Mang's era.

But even so, Billups still can't accept the scene in front of him.

Originally, even if it was just a little bit of nostalgia, Billups still wanted to renew his contract, but now, all hope is gone.

On April 24, 2007, the third series between the Hawks and the Pistons was the time when an era of the Pistons completely ended.

99 to 77, the Hawks defeated the Pistons by 22 points. Liu Mang played 39 minutes, 9 of 14 shots, 6 of 7 three-pointers, and easily got 31 points, 7 rebounds and 7 assists, helping the Hawks easily win the match point.

Liu Mang continues to keep the title of Detroit Nemesis.

Speaking of which, the Pistons have played the playoffs with the Hawks for the fifth time in six years. It seems that they should be mortal enemies, but in fact, the Pistons have never posed any threat to Liu Mang from the beginning, and he was beaten from the beginning.

Moreover, even though the Pistons fans turned against Liu Mang and cheered for him in the playoffs, Liu Mang didn't think there was anything special about it.

Detroit... Liu Mang really wasn't interested!

And the Pistons fans' words and deeds made Liu Mang realize that there would be a relatively tricky thing next season.

There would definitely be a lot of rumors about him changing teams.

If he didn't win the championship this season, the rumors would be even worse!

If the contract was renewed in advance, all the rumors about this would no longer exist.

But Liu Mang is unwilling to renew his contract in advance. Renewing in advance means that the total salary of the new contract will be lower.

Liu Mang is the key to the rapid growth of NBA revenue. The salary cap has increased every year. In 2008, if he opts out of the contract renewal, his starting salary will most likely be higher than the last year of his current contract in the 2008-09 season, which triggered the Ace clause. After all, the Ace clause triggered by his contract is 30% of the salary cap in 2004. Although the salary cap in the 2004-2005 season has increased slightly compared to the original time and space thanks to Liu Mang, it is only 46 million. The salary cap this season is already 61 million. Even if the growth has stagnated in the past two years, it is much higher than that of the year.

Of course, if the record is good next season, everything will not be a problem.

The main thing is to win!

…

Another day passed, and on April 26, the fourth game of the series between the Hawks and the Pistons came.

“Chris, I heard that you had heart pain before?” Liu Mang asked, leaning against the technical table.

Bosh didn't have any hope of winning. Since the fans wanted to recruit Liu Mang so much, Bosh was naturally willing to help recruit him. He was eager to partner with Liu Mang, so when he saw Liu Mang leaning on the technical table before the game, he immediately went over to get close to him.

Hearing Liu Mang's words, Bosh nodded and said, "Don't worry, Boss Ace, I'm fine."

"You still have to pay attention. Your season is about to end today. Take a break and go to the Cleveland Cardiovascular Hospital. The cardiovascular medical technology there is the best in the United States. You can also go to Johns Hopkins Hospital. Don't be careless about this kind of thing." Liu Mang suggested.

"..." Bosh was speechless. It was too direct!

Although Bosh did feel that today was his last game of the season...

But Bosh was still very touched by Liu Mang's concern, and after Liu Mang said that, Bosh was really a little worried about his heart problem.

Then... Bosh couldn't help but sigh: "Boss Ace, I know, I will go for a check-up, don't worry. But your team really cares about medical care! You know everything about this."

"Uh... our team doctor is the best in the world..." Liu Mang didn't know how to answer. Should he say: You will not die in the future because of the Cleveland Cardiovascular Hospital...

The Hawks spent 4 million US dollars a year to hire a medical consultant, and the surgery and medical expenses were paid separately. In addition, the Hawks' medical team has been recruiting famous doctors from some large hospitals to expand the medical team. Such a generous behavior has attracted the attention of many players.

However... the vision of businessmen, no matter how bad it is, is different from that of ordinary people. Price has signed a medical cooperation agreement with the Atlanta Falcons and the Atlanta Braves. The teams in the other two leagues of the four major leagues have to pay millions of dollars to the Hawks every year to borrow the Hawks' medical team.

After spending so much money, the Hawks actually made money in the end.

Thinking of this, Liu Mang couldn't help but sigh in his heart: "The boss has no talent in team building, and he has a set of business methods. People from big families are really..."

...

No unexpected situation that other fans expected happened. The Eagles slaughtered the Pistons with a score difference of 122 to 79, 43 points, and swept 4 to 0.

Liu Mang still failed to get 40+, 33 points, 9 rebounds and 0 assists. Liu Mang played for 27 minutes in this game and had tried his best to shoot. He shot 28 times in 27 minutes, one shot every minute, and grabbed 5 offensive rebounds. Unfortunately, he only shot 10 out of 28. He tried his best to not pass the ball and only got 33 points.

The Pistons had no fighting spirit at all. From the desperate coach Saunders to Billups who had completely lost his love for the team, none of them had the tendency to struggle.

When he met Liu Mang, who was in his prime, Coach Saunders had to accept it.

Coach Saunders felt that he had to start rebuilding as soon as possible and start again around Bosh as the core. Bosh, who was only 23 years old, had a bright future.

It is important to make decisions when necessary, and not to do stupid things like the Timberwolves did before. This is the biggest gain that Coach Saunders has gained from the Timberwolves.

After the Hawks swept the Pistons, they returned to Atlanta that night.

This was the charter flight that was booked at the beginning. Although the emotions of Detroit fans towards the Hawks have changed, from hating Liu Mang to death two years ago to wagging their tails and begging Liu Mang to join, the Hawks are not worried about safety issues. However, since they are ready to go home after the game, they will go back directly. It is better to be safe than sorry.

The more such times, the more likely it is that extreme things will happen, and such things must be nipped in the bud.

…

The Hawks swept the Pistons, but they were not the first team to advance. The Cavaliers swept the Wizards on the 25th, and like the Hawks, they all ended the series in eight days.

Although Liu Mang gave advice to the Wizards, it didn't work. The gap between the two teams was too big, and the advice was useless.

The attention of the series between these two teams has dropped a lot since 2-0. Although Liu Mang and James are popular, it can be seen from the first two games that the Pistons and Wizards have no chance to win at all.

People's attention is on the Warriors and Mavericks...

3-1, the Warriors lead the Mavericks 3-1.

The Warriors returned to their home court and won two consecutive games, 110-90 and 103-89. The Warriors did not win a game with a difference of less than 10 points, all of which were crushing victories.

Baron Davis played an MVP-level performance in this series, averaging 27 points, 8 rebounds and 9 assists in four games.

The Mavericks relied on Josh Howard to support them. The Warriors had Baron Davis, Stephen Jackson and Jason Richardson averaging 20+ points per game. The Mavericks had only Josh Howard averaging 22 points per game, and Nowitzki averaging only 19 points per game. Although he averaged 14 rebounds per game, showing that Nowitzki's rebounding in the playoffs was stronger than Garnett and Duncan, Nowitzki's hit rate in four games was 33%, a total of 28 of 84 shots, and his performance was worse and worse. His state continued to be sluggish.

When Crawford broke out in one game and then withered, the Mavericks were completely gone.

1 to 3 behind, the chance of a comeback was less than 10%...

The Pistons were defeated by the Hawks in the black eight that year, which was expected by the fans from the beginning.

But the Mavericks were eliminated in the first round, which was a shock. From the first game, they attracted everyone's attention, and even the star battle between the Nuggets and the Jazz, and the center battle between the Magic and the Raptors, which were about to enter the decisive battle, attracted a lot of attention.

The Spurs were beaten 3-1 by the Suns, and they won the third game with difficulty to avoid being swept.

In the original time and space, the Spurs in 2007 were not as strong as the Suns in terms of strength. Although the Spurs got Artest and the defense was improved to a higher level, the offense was their big problem. The defense was paralyzed, and the offense... except for the Hawks and the Lakers, who can be stronger than the Suns?

Even if they played against the Lakers, the Spurs would not have such a big disadvantage, but it happened to be the Suns, with O'Neal who barely maintained the strength of a top star. Nash and Gentry also came up with many ways to deal with the Spurs. Raja Bell's defense was even dirtier than the Suns' defense... and the Hawks' assists...

But the Suns are finally going to turn over the Spurs, but the attention is not high.

The Mavericks are too awesome!

They took the initiative to send the Warriors to the playoffs and picked an opponent who is specifically designed to defeat them.

The winner is the king and the loser is the enemy, this is the truth since ancient times.

When the Mavericks chose the Warriors as their opponent, everyone thought the Mavericks were shameless, because the Clippers played in the second round of the playoffs last year and performed well, and the Supersonics were a strong team for more than ten years and just declined. It felt like a lean camel was bigger than a horse, and they felt that the Warriors, who had not made the playoffs for 12 years, were the easiest to deal with.

But now, the Mavericks' choice of opponents has become a laughing stock.

The apprentice of General Johnson wanted to challenge his teacher, the crazy scientist old Nelson, and became the biggest laughing stock.

From the perspective of the entire league, are the Warriors stronger than the Mavericks?

Obviously not. If the Mavericks hadn't let the Warriors win, the Warriors would be on par with the Clippers and the Supersonics.

But the Warriors just happened to restrain the Mavericks.

This is the key to the Mavericks becoming a laughing stock.

Knowing that the other coach is old Nelson, who has always wanted to retaliate against them, they still chose the Warriors as their opponent.

This led to some strange things...

As the first round of the playoffs drew to a close, the league voted for the four awards of Best Rookie, MVP, Best Coach, and Best Manager.

On April 26, the day the Hawks advanced, the voting for these four awards to be announced in the first round ended.

On April 27, the first award announced, the Best Coach Award, was not given to Avery Johnson, the Mavericks coach, who people thought would win the award at the beginning, but to Sam Mitchell, the Raptors coach!