Chapter 1597 1596. A Huge Victory in the First Battle!

The Hawks were able to get Artest because the Rockets and Mike Bibby had agreed to sign first and then trade.

The Rockets formed the strongest lineup since the two consecutive championships, which made some old fans very excited, but there were more complaints.

At that time, they did not give the 30-year-old Nash an annual salary of 10 million, but only wanted to give him 9 million. At that time, the Rockets still had some big contracts, and only trade exceptions could be used. In addition, there was only 9 million space from the luxury tax threshold. The Rockets were unwilling to pay the luxury tax of 1 million. Of course, it also had a lot to do with the luxury tax threshold of less than 60 million US dollars at that time.

But now Mike Bibby, also 30 years old, has been given a two-year, $22 million contract... At this time when the subprime mortgage crisis broke out, $10 million now may be more valuable than four years ago, and it is still $11 million a year...

The new salary cap announced on July 10th, the salary cap for next season has only increased by $1.13 million, reaching $64.79 million. The salary cap that has been growing wildly in the past seven or eight years at the beginning of the century has basically reached its limit now. Before, it was a surge of three or four million dollars a year, which has a lot to do with the subprime mortgage crisis.

The luxury tax threshold is $75.91 million. By using the Hawks' trading exception to sign and then trade for Mike Bibby, Iguodala's new contract took effect, and Lewis was taken in...The Rockets' salary reached $70.96 million.

Fortunately, Morey has been getting some so-called "low-salary high-energy" substitutes every year. After they traded Artest for two and signed rookie Joe Alexander, they have now put together a 15-man roster and don't have to worry about paying luxury tax this season.

But even if they don't pay luxury tax, the salary of more than 70 million has broken the salary record in the Rockets' history!

Morey looked at the excitement of the boss and felt that the boss must have been replaced by aliens!

So excited to spend so much money!

Originally, the Rockets could have traded for Mike Bibby. The reason for making this deal was not only because of the good relationship with the Hawks, but also because Gay's agent was dissatisfied with Gay's substitute role, forcing the Rockets to make a decision, either trade him or give Gay back his starting position in his rookie year.

This agent is Schwartz... Of course, Schwartz did this not only because of his good relationship with the Hawks. Gay continued to play as a substitute, which was not a good thing for Schwartz, the agent, because it would affect his future big contract.

Everything was planned by Coach Kruger, although dozens of precious hairs have been lost again...

Artest may be much stronger than Gay at this stage, and his role is stronger than Iguodala, and his role on the court is second only to Bynum.

But Artest is strong, and it is indeed because of Artest that the Rockets were able to get 50+ wins last season, but it is also because of Artest that the Rockets have not been able to recruit players in the past month. Mike Bibby is very concerned about Artest's personality problems, and the Rockets face two problems.

But now, they can sell another favor to the Hawks. In addition, they also get a former Hawks star, which can keep the Rockets' popularity in China continuous. They got Iguodala before, which continued the popularity very well. If they get Gortat, who is nicknamed "pig farmer" by Chinese fans, the continuity will be even stronger!

The Rockets wanted to dig Wang Zhizhi from the Lakers, but the importance of this time-space three-pointer is much stronger than the original time-space. After sending away the problematic skier, the Lakers refused to let Wang Zhizhi go again. They would rather keep him at double the salary of Wang Zhizhi's 2 million US dollars, which is only 4 million US dollars a year. The Rockets had to give up and settle for the next best thing, and got the mid-range shooter Gortat.

A three-way trade may activate the potential accumulated by the Rockets over the years, and at the same time, it may allow the Hawks to enter another peak after the decline of their strength in the big trade, and the 76ers also avoided losing Mike Bibby in vain.

The media commented that this is a rare win-win-win trade this summer.

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Yao Ming's face was full of ferocity at the beginning of the game, which was rare.

That expression seemed to say, "How do you want to die?"

That's it, there is also a world basketball superstar who is undoubtedly the best player in the world today and can even impact the top three in history, performing a dunk.

Even though Kirilenko has played in the NBA for so many years, he rarely sees Liu Mang so excited.

"Why! Why are we the ones who are injured?"

Kirilenko wants to cry!

He can understand Yao Ming's desire to vent after feeling a huge threat, and he can also understand Liu Mang's excitement after losing the top three small forwards in the league and getting the best defensive small forward in the league.

But Kirilenko is even more desperate. This miserable situation has fallen on him!

He just won the European Championship last year and became the king of Europe... As a result, in the opening game of the men's basketball event of the most grand Olympic Games in history, facing the excited Liu Mang and the angry Yao Ming...

...

At 4:30 in the afternoon, the Imperial Capital Olympic Sports Center Stadium, a standard Olympic venue that can accommodate 6,500 spectators.

There are fewer seats in the audience, but this stadium is of extraordinary significance to Chinese basketball players. This is the first stadium in Chinese history with modern basketball equipment at the time. After renovation last year, it became the opening battlefield of the men's basketball event of this Olympic Games.

In fact, the fewer seats, the happier the fans on the scene. The cheapest tickets are also on the second floor. There are no stands, so you can clearly see the players on the field.

Amid the cheers of the fans on the scene, the players of the two teams entered the field and prepared for the game.

Sometimes, it is really impossible to judge the true strength of the opponent by only looking at the ability evaluation of the opponent's players.

In terms of lineup, the Russian team is really not worse than the Chinese team except for the lack of superstars like Liu Mang and Yao Ming. But after the game started...

15 to 4 in the first quarter...

The Russian team only scored 4 points in a single quarter!

Although, single-digit scores often appear in international competitions. In last year's European Championships, a strong team like Serbia was beaten by Lithuania with a single score of 11 to 0 in the group stage, and even the Spanish team, which ranked second in the world in 2010, had a performance of 0 points in the last quarter.

But if you really encounter an opponent who scores in the single digits in a single quarter, or last year's European king who scored in the single digits in a single quarter...

The Chinese team, which beat the opponent to 4 points in a single quarter, was scared!

Liu Mang knew that the opponent was going to decline, but he didn't expect that the opponent would be so bad!

If there is anything to see about the Russian team, it is probably the defense, a very tough style of play, and excellent defense.

In the second quarter, the Russian team showed signs of improvement, scoring 14 points in a single quarter, and defended the slightly careless Chinese team to only 12 points in a single quarter, narrowing the score difference to single digits in the first half.

However, in the third quarter... Yao Ming, who had been brewing for half a game, began to run wild.

He bumped with the ball, knocked the opponent's inside line open and dunked, and double-teaming didn't work!

Yao Ming, the most fierce killer in the world basketball today, beat the opponent 13 to 10 in a single quarter alone, with Liu Mang, Zhu Fangyu, Wang Shipeng, and Yi Jianlian opening up space on the outside. The Chinese team scored 22 to 10 in the third quarter!

After three quarters, the Chinese team opened the score to 49 to 28, leading by 21 points!

In the end, under the leadership of Liu Mang with 16 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists and 4 blocks, Yao Ming with 20 points and 6 rebounds, Yi Jianlian with 7 points and 14 rebounds, and Wang Shipeng with 12 points, the Chinese team defeated Russia with a huge advantage of 70 to 43!

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27 points difference!

The countries in Group A who were watching the match between the two strongest teams in Group B were all terrified!

Russia was the champion of the European Championship last year! They were beaten by the Chinese team and had no chance to fight back!

This is simply too exaggerated, so exaggerated that it is unimaginable!

Liu Mang began to be grateful to the other party. Last year, it was the Russian team that first eliminated Serbia in the semi-finals, and Serbia lost to Croatia in the qualifying round, resulting in Serbia ranking seventh in Europe and losing the qualification to enter the Olympics.

The mysterious collapse of the Russian team this year is exactly the same as the trend of collapse in the original time and space, and it collapsed directly in the first game.

Liu Mang knew that Russia would collapse, but the other members of the Chinese team did not know, and perhaps the Russian team itself did not expect it.

Confidence! Such an easy victory over the Russian team gave the Chinese players greater confidence!

At the same time, Liu Mang felt that this might put pressure on the strong teams in Group A.