Chapter 855 854. Transaction Prelude

In the snowy Toronto, the inside and outside of the house are completely different worlds. Wear short sleeves and eat Haagen-Dazs inside the house, and the snowplow outside the house is dispatched every hour.

Alonzo Mourning is discussing future matters with his agent David Falk. For Mourning, the road of life is still long, but the future of the NBA can already be seen.

"Alonzo, Pat Riley and Steven Price have contacted me. They are the most suitable for you and the team most willing to put up chips." David Falcao said to Mourning.

Since Mourning's comeback, the Raptors have been open to trading Mourning, allowing other teams to contact Mourning's agent, such as obtaining authoritative materials such as medical reports.

After four years of suffering from kidney disease, comeback, misdiagnosis, viral renal failure, and kidney transplant, Arnold finally recovered, but his beard turned white. He will only be 35 years old in February next year. The injury not only made him unable to play, but the anxiety and despair about the future were the most difficult to endure.

But at least he recovered. In the eight games after his comeback, Arnold averaged 23 minutes of playing time, averaging 10 points, 7 rebounds and 2.5 blocks per game, which was quite impressive. He received the attention of many teams, but not many were willing to take over the contract.

Arnold asked, "David, do you think I am more suitable to go to the Heat or the Hawks?"

"In terms of probability, the Hawks have a greater chance of winning the championship. They have two players who can win the MVP." David Falk replied.

"Wow, David, I remember that kid refused to meet with you. Didn't you throw your phone in anger at that time?" Arnold exclaimed, obviously surprised by David Falk's answer.

"Alonzo, you are not an agent, you don't know what business is, that guy knows better than you." David Falk seemed to not care at all that Liu Mang refused to meet him two years ago.

After all, it's all business. Now Liu Mang's agency is thriving, with nearly 20 NBA players under his management, and it is almost catching up with David Falk's agency.

At that time, David Falk had more than 100 players under his management, and the NBA was almost an "internal league" of David Falk's own agency. But since Jordan and William Wesley's cooperation broke David Falk's monopoly, David Falk's influence in the NBA began to collapse, and by the 1990s, it was no longer a monopoly.

David Falk is now helping Sprewell and Eddy Curry find big contracts, and not many teams give face. Juwan Howard's billion-dollar contract was too impressive.

Getting along well with Liu Mang is a good thing for David Falk, who was a vampire in the NBA for 20 years and is now disliked by many managements.

"Fortunately, I don't understand. If I thought I knew everything and insisted on staying in the Hornets, I wouldn't have the 100 million salary to pay for treatment when I got sick." Mourning smiled.

"So this is why I like you the most, Alonzo. You won't interfere in things you don't understand." David Falk also smiled and continued, "In addition to the high probability of winning the championship, there is another factor in choosing the Hawks. The Hawks are not short of money. They are willing to accept the option of trading. Steven Price doesn't need us to give up the remaining four months of salary. Pat Riley asked me to negotiate a buyout with the Raptors."

"Pat Riley has always been like that. He won't spend a penny more." Mourning had long guessed the cost of choosing to go to the Heat.

"Then Alonzo, would you rather go to the Hawks or the Heat?" David Falk asked.

"I don't want to be a substitute for O'Neal. Anyone can do it, even a 19-year-old kid can do it, but O'Neal can't." Mourning answered decisively.

"Well, I'll call Steven Price... Wait, I'll take a call." David Falk just took out his cell phone and it rang.

David Falk went to the bathroom to make a call, while Mourning was reading in the living room. After a while, Mourning saw David Falk coming out with a look of regret.

"What's wrong, David, what happened?" Mourning asked curiously.

"OH, Alonzo, it seems I have to change my suggestion, let's go to the Heat!" David Falk rarely thinks about the players.

"Why?" Mourning was even more puzzled, "The Hawks don't want to trade me anymore?"

"No," David Falk took out a laptop from his briefcase, opened his mailbox, clicked on the email after receiving it, turned the screen to Mourning, and said, "The Hawks are too young and too unstable, look at this."

Mourning looked at the news screenshot in the email curiously, and couldn't help laughing: "Kwame Brown? That fake No. 1 pick? No no no no, he is already the No. 1 center in the East, hahahahahaha... David, just go to the Hawks, buy out the remaining months of salary with the Raptors, hahahaha..."

"Ah?" David Falk didn't expect Mourning to react like this...

...

...

At noon on November 19, 2004, an ESPN TV interview was broadcast.

"I should be the starting center for this All-Star Game, because I'm very strong, very strong!"

"You mean O'Neal? God, I beat him 4-1 in the finals! You all saw it, without Kobe passing the ball to him, without Kobe deliberately shooting the ball into the basket and bouncing it into his hands, he can't do anything."

"Ben Wallace? Didn't you see how I swept him in the playoffs last year?"

"I scored more points than Ben Wallace, rebounded more than O'Neal, and had a better record than any center in the Eastern Conference, and there was no center with better statistics than me. My field goal percentage was 67 percent, first in the league. , This is a shooting percentage that O'Neal and Ben Wallace will never achieve. I am the number one center in the East, and I should be the starter in the All-Star Game!"

"..."

"..."

…

Kwame Brown made a lot of noise in the interview Liu Mang invited, and his main targets were O'Neal and Ben Wallace, two centers who are regarded as the first and second in the Eastern Conference. Ratliff's performance this year is also pretty good. , averaging 7 points, 5 rebounds and 2.7 blocks in 26 minutes per game, which is not much different from last season, but the attendance rate has become lower. There are no major injuries, but minor injuries continue. The Nets have played 25 games, and there are After seven games of injury, mainly because he left Liu Mang, Ratliff's popularity dropped significantly and there was no competitive threat.

Liu Mang's troublesome answer to Kwame Brown's interview was that in addition to Kwame Brown claiming to be the No. 1 center in the Eastern Conference, he also roped in Kobe fans to play off Kobe's popularity completely unreasonably.

The midday news on ESPN Sports Channel on the 19th aired an exclusive interview with Kwame Brown. The afternoon newspaper also published the interview. After ESPN officials also released the video and text report of the interview, Kwame Brown instantly became popular!

…

…

"Kwame! Tell me what you think?"

"Ace asked me to do this..."

"Ace? Are you and Ace the same? How could you learn to behave like this with Ace? Do you really think you are the number one center in the Eastern Conference? You%#%￥%￥%...don't do anything in tonight's game. Fight! Go get Nazir and Ace!"

After Coach Kruger saw the news, he immediately called Kwame Brown to the office and cursed him.

Kwame Brown now feels like he has been tricked by Liu Mang!

He himself didn't know how he said those words to the reporter at that time. In fact, after he accepted the interview and the reporter left, his legs became weak when he thought of what he said according to the script given by Liu Mang.

Now I regret it even more - the boss cheated me again!

Just when Kwame Brown was about to cry, the office door was pushed open.

Coach Kruger looked at the door angrily and saw that it was the boss. He could only put away his anger and asked: "Boss, what's wrong? Do you want to teach Kwame a lesson?"

"Teach Kwame a lesson? No, no, no," Price said with a smile: "Lon, Mourning is willing to take the initiative to buy out his contract with the Raptors and join us with a minimum salary."

"Ah? Why? Boss, aren't you willing to buy out Falke?" Coach Kruger immediately put Kwame Brown's matter aside and asked curiously.

Price pointed at Kwame Brown and said: "Farke said that Mourning wanted to teach Kwame how to play, and he admired Kwame very much."

"..." Coach Kruger glanced at the poor Kwame Brown and didn't know what to say.

The scene was awkward for a while. After dozens of seconds, Coach Kruger said to Kwame Brown: "Kwame, go prepare for the game tonight. There is no need to call Nazir. Call Ace over. The boss and I will I have something to discuss with him.”

"Uh...ok..."

Kwame Brown didn't expect a turn of events! He thought he was going to be put on the bench by the coach. Although Muhammad did not have the peak performance of averaging a double-double in the 2001-02 season, he was still at his peak at the age of 28. With Liu Mang's "protection", he had no minor injuries. In troubled situations, it is still okay to give him enough playing time and average 10 rebounds per game. Many teams make offers to Muhammad every season. In 2006, Muhammad was only 29 years old when his current contract ended. It is easy to get a big contract, and there is no problem at all in using Muhammad as a blue-collar starting center.

But it seems that Coach Kruger doesn't plan to put him on the bench anymore. It seems that Mourning is going to teach him free throws... Kwame Brown feels that the ups and downs in life are too exciting.

Walking out of the head coach's office, Kwame Brown jumped for joy!

That's Mourning!

Although Ratliff is great, he is not good compared to Mourning. Before Mourning fell ill, he was a superstar who won the first team, first defense, best defensive player, and blocked shots in a single season!

"The boss is so awesome! Did he expect all this? Did he expect that I would be appreciated by Mourning when I fired at O'Neal like that?" Kwame Brown couldn't stop thinking like this, "Follow the boss and live a good life." It’s great!”

Kwame Brown flew to the training ground: Dear boss, your most loyal little brother is here...

…

…

After driving away Kwame Brown, who looked gayer than Iguodala, who was nicknamed "I'm gay", Liu Mang came to Kruger's coach's office and learned that Mourning was willing to take the initiative to buy out his contract and join. Mang himself didn’t even think of it!

He remembered that Mourning probably liked the Heat more.

But after thinking about it carefully, Liu Mang felt that Mourning seemed to have no choice but to join the Heat.

After thinking about it carefully, Liu Mang can tell that the relationship between Mourning and O'Neal is not that good.

Originally, Mourning would serve as a substitute for O'Neal, firstly because of the impact of injuries, secondly because he has a house in Miami, and thirdly because the Heat were ranked No. 1 almost from the beginning of the season in the original 2004-05 season. Ranked first in the Eastern Conference, the Pistons led by Larry Brown failed to fully utilize the strength of four All-Stars and a god-level single defense expert.

But the relationship between Mourning and O'Neal cannot be that good. O'Neal and Mourning are rookies in the same class, one is the No. 1 pick and the other is the second pick. Mourning lost to O'Neal at the beginning. Later, O'Neal was selected as the only one of the four centers. The center who entered the NBA in the 1990s was selected, and Mourning lost again.

Being defeated by the same person consecutively, or being defeated at a very important point in his career, and being defeated in something that cannot be changed, Liu Mang did not think that Mourning, who represented the tough guy players in the 1990s, would be willing to become O'Neal's substitute.

If it weren't for kidney disease, Mourning, who had just won the Defensive Player of the Year award in the 1999-00 season, had just turned 30 and should have been at his peak. However, he was reimbursed for the season starting in the 2000-01 season, and he went directly from his peak to Role players waste the golden years between the ages of 31 and 34 that still seem to be at their peak, otherwise they would not have hugged O'Neal for the championship and voluntarily given up most of the salary agreement to buy out.

Buyout and being laid off by the team are two different concepts. Cutting off means the contract salary is paid in full, while buyout involves negotiating how much money will be given for the remaining contract. Usually the buyout will result in the player receiving less salary.

After discussing with boss Price and coach Kruger for a while, Liu Mang suggested: "Boss, coach, I think it's better to trade."

"Why? We can wait for Mourning to buy out with the Raptors and then directly sign Mourning!" Price asked doubtfully.

"We have too many outside lines. We can take advantage of this deal to strengthen the inside lines and clean up the outside lines. Haven't you always wanted to make the outside lines less bloated?" Liu Mang wants to collect draft picks again...

Coach Kruger agreed. Liu Mang said that he knew it from the bottom of his heart. There were too many outside players, and most of them were first- and second-year players who were talented but had obvious flaws. The three players outside the 12-man roster should be veterans. It's only for the Lord, but the Eagles are all rookies and second-year players.

"Ace, who do you think is better to trade for? If we add a rookie, we may also get back a late first-round pick or a good second-round pick." Coach Kruger asked.

"Allen or Ariza." Liu Mang answered simply.

"Why?" Price asked curiously.

"I'm not as familiar with them as Caleb and Jose..."

It's such a simple reason, which can be seen from the difference in the surnames or first names used by Liu Mang when he calls the four people.

The players who are at the bottom, whether to stay or go, is just a word from the core of the team...