Starting from the last bus in the NBA

Chapter 209 New Season

In the preseason, the Sonics were scheduled for four games, and the four opponents were the Grizzlies, Nuggets, Jazz and Trail Blazers.

They are all teams from the Northwest region of the United States, and they are basically divided according to the principle of proximity.

When playing against the Nuggets and Trail Blazers, it was at home, and the other two games were played away.

The teams have made their preseason appearances one after another, and the Sonics also visited GM Arena on October 10.

Speaking of the Grizzlies, they are actually somewhat similar to the Supersonics, and they have indeed been somewhat turbulent in recent years.

A few years ago, the team had just changed owners. Unlike the Sonics, the Grizzlies were somewhat turbulent.

No way, the Grizzlies are a new team after all, and there are no powerful stars in the team.

There are Gary Payton and Wang Hao in the Supersonic to stabilize the military spirit. Who can they rely on?Mike Bibby?
Especially now, Grizzlies owner Michael Heisley is very pessimistic about Vancouver's ball market and prospects.

It is said that he has been seeking to move the team back to the United States, and seems to have the support of the league.

It is under such circumstances that the Grizzlies' morale has long been messed up, and their minds have been different.

Players are not focused enough to play, and fans are not in the mood to cheer on the scene.

So, when the game started, there were only a few fans in GM Arena.

This scene made the Supersonic players look stupid. Although it was a preseason game, it was too exaggerated.

108:86
In the end, the Sonics won the game without bloodshed.

As for Wang Hao, he only scored 12 points, 3 rebounds and 2 assists.

There was no way, he only played 18 minutes in total, and he had just finished warming up before he was substituted.

It's also normal. For the preseason, there are only two functions, looking for the game status and inspecting the lineup.

The main lineup has been determined, but the substitute lineup has to be investigated.

As for the state of the game, before the warm-up is over, two three-pointers have been thrown. This state is very hot.

Next, the Sonics played against the Nuggets at home.

This time, Paul Westphal was even more rude and only allowed Wang Hao to play for 10 minutes.

It is estimated that if it is not at home, he does not intend to let Wang Hao play.

Old coin... oh no, the old fox is at it again.

Sure enough, Wang Hao really didn't play in the away game against the Jazz.

Not just him, including Gary Payton and Gorilla Ewing, both of whom have been sitting on the bench.

When the home team faced the Trail Blazers, it was still the case, and the three of them made a symbolic appearance.

In fact, it's not just the Sonics who do this, but also the Blazers. The starters basically didn't play much.

By the way, one more thing to say, the original Blazers lineup attracted Wang Hao's attention, Jr. O'Neal.

In fact, if the Sonics can introduce Jermaine O'Neal, it would definitely be a very good choice.

It's a pity that O'Neal signed a new contract with the Blazers last year, and the contract amount is not small.

It is definitely unrealistic to win Jermaine O'Neal for a small price.

To put it bluntly, Wang Hao is not in charge of the Sonics.

Sometimes the management of the Supersonic will indeed ask Wang Hao for his opinion, but this is just an attitude.

For example, in every trade or draft, the management will also ask Gary Payton for his opinion.

It's just that they can have suggestions, but they haven't made a decision.

If their proposal is not bad and the management is satisfied, it will be possible to realize it.

It's like this year's draft, and the Mavericks are drafted again, and the picks in the draft are not high, one is 17th and the other is 43rd.

So when Wang Hao has a suggestion, they will seriously consider it and observe the players.

Seeing what Quentin Richardson and Michael Reed are doing, it seems to be okay, so go for it.

However, if this year is the year of the draft, or if the draft pick is relatively high, the lottery area, or even the top three.

Did the suggestion work when you watched Wang Hao!
O'Neal went to the Pacers and laid the cornerstone for the Pacers' rise. It depends on when Artest will be in place.

However, Wang Hao is not worried.

Because of Wang Hao's appearance, he reminded Artest more than once not to be so irritable.

He even analyzed with him what kind of tragic experience he would face once there was violence on the field.

When Artest heard it, he also swore that he was a peace-loving person and would never fight on the field.

However, this is just to listen to.

Taking a step back, even if Artest can control his temper, what about O'Neal's injury?

Jermaine O'Neal is not a glass man, but he is also plagued by injuries and has not had a full-time season.

You know, even Yao Ming had full attendance for two seasons and played more than 80 games in three seasons.

Only Jermaine O'Neal has played more than 80 games in one season, and more than 70 games, and only 6 seasons.

You know, as a high school player, O'Neal's career spanned 18 seasons.

There are too many injuries to core players, which is definitely a big blow to the team.

In the end, the Sonics achieved a record of 3 wins and 1 loss in the preseason, and the only loss was to the Trail Blazers.

After all, the Blazers are playing at home, and with so many fans watching, they still replaced the main players at the last moment.

The Supersonics' substitute played well, but there is nothing they can do about starting against the Blazers who are obviously stronger.

Let me say it again, in the four preseason games, Wang Hao, Gary Payton, and the gorilla Ewing only played more than 10 minutes.

With all the time given up and the role players fully examined, the results seem to be doing well.

The first is Rashad Lewis. After two seasons of polishing, he finally looks a little bit better.

In four preseason games, he led the Sonics in scoring, averaging 18.2 points and 4.3 rebounds per game.

As a big turret and a player who can fully release the space on the court, he looks good.

Then there are two rookies, Quentin Richardson and Michael Reid, who performed well.

Quentin Richardson has a certain ability to attack independently, and his breakthrough is not bad, while Michael Reid's three-pointer is very accurate.

Is not this nonsensical?

After practicing with Wang Hao for a month, if there is still no improvement, then there is a problem.

Coupled with a backup point guard Anthony Carter, it can provide sufficient firepower on the bench.

In addition, there is PJ Brown, who can play center and replace Gorilla Ewing at certain times.

And Rashard Lewis will also play the position of power forward at some point, in fact, this position is more suitable for him.

At the small forward position, Lewis' speed is too slow.

Don't forget about Brent Barry, this veteran can help the team to a great extent whether he is starting or coming off the bench.

In addition, on the bench, there are at least 3 centers of various heights and weights.

There are black and hard, and there are great pyrenes.

That's right, these are specially prepared by the Supersonic, and there is no need to hide it, just to deal with O'Neill.

As long as they can hold O'Neal to a certain extent when they are on the court, and send a few fouls.

This is very worthy of their salary.

Now, all the teams have adjusted in place, just waiting for the start of the new season opener.

On October 10st, US time, it was already November in China time, and the NBA started as scheduled.

The first thing to start is naturally the Lakers vs. Trail Blazers. The fans in the Rose Garden arena are ready for revenge.

When the Lakers walked into the arena, what greeted them was a tsunami of boos.

I have to say that the NBA officials have not done too much, arranging the Blazers' home court instead of the Lakers' home court.

According to NBA regulations, the first Lakers home game of the new season, they will receive the championship ring.

Watching the opponent award the championship ring and watching the championship flag go up, this must not make the Blazers players sick.

After all, if they were able to work harder and luckier, they would get 6 more points.

Then they are the ones who won the seventh game of the Western Conference finals, they are the ones who entered the finals, and they are the ones who won the championship.

Unfortunately, there are no ifs in the world.

All the Blazers need to do is look forward, focus on this season, and keep winning.

And the first thing they need to do now is to win this game.

It's a pity that at the beginning of this game, O'Neal once again showed his unsolvable offense.

Perhaps because he just won the championship, O'Neal is still very diligent in playing games.

Seeing that he was about to get the championship ring, of course he had to play well.

The Blazers once again fell into an embarrassing situation. Their defense was very good, but they couldn't prevent O'Neal.

----

Just after watching the opening game, the Sonics had to leave the locker room, and their game was about to start.

Like the Lakers, the Sonics play away games.

In a short period of time, I came to Vancouver twice, which is really not a good itinerary.

In Vancouver in November, the temperature is already very low.

The corresponding result is that many fans are not interested in going out at all, so they can't cheer for the team.

What's more, based on the strength of the Grizzlies, the possibility of losing is very high, which further dampens the enthusiasm of the fans.

In fact, the number of fans today is actually quite a lot, and the attendance rate of the entire GM Arena exceeds [-]%.

However, to the embarrassment of the home team, many of them were wearing Sonics jerseys.

Having said that, Wang Hao has to complain that the Supersonic jersey is really ugly.

It turned out to be a player with green as the main color. Don't you know that this color is very unfriendly?

Gary Payton was very happy with the Sonics' jersey color scheme, and as a result, something went wrong.

Fortunately, today is an away game, and the Sonics are wearing mainly white players, which is barely okay.

The owner of the Grizzlies, Michael Heisley, is also in the arena box, but now his face is very bad.

The team's attendance is low, but there are still so many fans supporting the visiting team.

"Eriksen, look, I knew Vancouver couldn't do it, what kind of fans are you guys?
I have a home team but I don't support it, but I want to support the visiting team. We choose Immediately, which is a correct choice. "

Heisley complained loudly to his assistant that he couldn't wait to leave Vancouver.

Of course, there is one thing that needs to be finalized now, and that is where will the Grizzlies go?

Although he is his own boss, as an assistant, Eriksson still has to speak honestly.

"Boss, maybe we can't blame them?"

Looking at the puzzled eyes of the boss, Eriksson quickly said: "Most of these are local Chinese.

They usually shouldn't watch the game, this is just to cheer Wang, the Supersonics are their home team. "

Hearing this, Heisley looked at Wang Hao unconsciously, full of interest and affection.

As an owner who loves basketball, he naturally knows Wang Hao's current strength in the NBA.

But he never expected that Wang Hao would have this kind of appeal, which could affect the entire American and even Canadian markets.

He was even thinking, if Wang Hao is willing to come to Vancouver, can he save the Grizzlies market?

Well, this is a bit overthinking.

Not to mention that it is impossible for Wang Hao to come to Vancouver, even he is not willing to keep the team here.

However, Heisley still sighed very much.

The last player with such charisma and the ability to attract the attention of the United States was Michael Jordan.

Wang Hao didn't expect that there would be so many Chinese friends who came to watch his competition today.

During the preseason, he thought that there were enough Chinese fans at the scene, but unexpectedly...

"Wang Hao, Wang Hao!"

"Wang Hao, come on!"

……

"thank you all!"

Listening to the sound of cheering and cheering in a familiar language, Wang Hao also waved quickly.

"Wang, my God, are these all your fans?"

The NBA has also held various activities. As an NBA star, he has also met with fans.

It's just that most of the time there won't be too many fans.

Not to mention Gary Payton, even those popular superstars are actually similar.

To put it bluntly, there are a lot of Americans, but that's it.

What's more, most people are interested in sports, but what they are interested in is not necessarily basketball.

Even if it is basketball, people may not be willing to participate in activities.

Of course, there is another important reason. As long as you live in a city with NBA teams, seeing NBA stars is nothing special.

"What is this? Gary, Patrick, if there is a chance, I will take you to Huaxia next year and let you see what a big scene is!"

"Well, if we have a chance, we have to go to Huaxia to take a look."

At this time, Field also came over and said: "Wang, I think the Grizzlies should give you a part of the ticket revenue.

No, not just the Grizzlies, but every NBA team, you helped them increase attendance. "

"It's a beautiful idea."

However, Wang Hao knew that this was impossible. To improve the attendance rate of the entire NBA by himself was something only Jordan could do.

After Jordan, another one who did this was Kobe, who was about to retire in the last season.

As for Wang Hao, at most he can do it in certain cities.

Vancouver, as one of the largest gathering places overseas, makes this possible.

(End of this chapter)