Reborn in 96, I started by taking charge of the Dallas Mavericks.

As Chen Fang predicted, the Spurs changed their defensive tactics after the game.

Whenever Kobe gets the ball, Spurs players double-team him.

After several unsuccessful attempts to break through the double team, Kobe decisively chose to pass the ball.

But at this time, the Mavericks' point guard was not Nash, but veteran Derrick Harper.

This summer, Chen Fang's crazy moves led to the complete rebuilding of the Mavericks.

At his request, Don Nelson did not pursue those star players in the free market, but instead signed a number of veterans.

Derek Harper, a former Mavericks player, returned to Dallas this season and signed a one-year, $130 million veteran contract with the Mavericks.

Chen Fang's decision to sign veteran players instead of chasing star players is not because there were no big names in this summer's free agency market.

Instead, he wanted these veterans to mentor Kobe and his group of rookies.

Besides this reason, Chen Fang had another purpose: to free up the team's salary cap so that there would be enough salary space to renew contracts with Kobe and others after their rookie contracts expired.

The aging Derek Harper was not as offensively threatening as Nash, so the Spurs chose to leave him open.

With no Spurs defenders within two meters of him, Derek Harper had no reason not to shoot when given such an open opportunity.

But he didn't seem to be in good form when he first came on the court, missing an open three-pointer and giving the rebound to the Spurs.

The Spurs were on offense, and Wilkins drove to the basket, but was closely guarded by Kobe.

At this point, the Mavericks' defense switched to a 2-3 zone defense, and whenever a Spurs player drove to the basket, the Mavericks players would immediately collapse into the paint.

Actually, breaking a zone defense is very simple. All you need is a big man who can pass the ball to stand at the free-throw line, and you can create a lot of open looks by running around that big man.

Unfortunately, that's where things go wrong.

The only big man on the Spurs roster who can pass the ball is sitting down there watching the game.

Without a big man capable of passing the ball at the free-throw line, the Spurs players were forced to rely on outside three-pointers against the Mavericks' zone defense.

Shawn Bradley grabbed the rebound and passed the ball to Kobe. Kobe dribbled up the court, faced Wilkins' defense, and launched a three-pointer.

brush!

The basketball grazed the net and went out of bounds.

Seeing this goal, Chen Fang sat on the bench and slapped his forehead in exasperation.

Just what I feared most came to pass; in the end, I couldn't escape the curse of not getting any food.

Oh, no, the ball grazed the net, so it shouldn't count as an airball.

Seeing his shot go out of bounds, Kobe looked at his right hand in disbelief.

After the preseason ended, Chen Fang began to train Kobe Bryant in targeted shooting drills, which were very effective, and Kobe's shooting improved significantly.

This boosted his confidence in official games, making him more willing to shoot on the court.

Shooting against a defender is different from shooting when you're open; the same applies to games and training.

He can maintain a very high three-point shooting percentage in training, but in actual games, his shooting percentage is still affected by interference from opposing defenders.

However, Kobe was not discouraged by this small mistake and turned his attention back to being more focused on defense.

The Spurs attacked again, and Wilkins, who had just successfully put the ball down for Kobe, started actively demanding the ball on offense.

Seeing this, his teammate immediately passed the ball to Wilkins.

After receiving the ball, Wilkins signaled to his teammates to spread out, as he wanted to take on Kobe one-on-one.

Upon seeing Wilkins' gesture, the other four Spurs players moved to the left side of the court, leaving the right side entirely to Wilkins and Kobe.

The other Mavericks players initially wanted to double-team Wilkins, but Kobe reprimanded them.

"Don't come any closer, I can manage on my own!"

Wilkins naturally heard Kobe's words, and he smiled faintly before leaning against Kobe and starting to back down him.

Wilkins is 2.01 meters tall, only 3 centimeters taller than Kobe, and their weights are also very similar, so Kobe is not afraid of Wilkins' post-up game at all.

But Wilkins has at least played in the NBA and European leagues for many years, so he does have some experience on the court.

He leaned his shoulder down, then suddenly exerted force from his waist, turned around, and threw a fadeaway jump shot.

Even though Kobe made a desperate save, he ultimately couldn't block the shot.

The Spurs pulled back 2 points, narrowing the gap to 10 points.

After Wilkins scored a goal, Kobe's competitive spirit kicked in, and he also wanted to take on a one-on-one situation.

At the other end of the court, Kobe followed suit and responded with a fadeaway jumper to Wilkins.

Fortunately, unlike the previous three-pointer, this ball went smoothly into the net.

The Spurs attacked again, and this time Wilkins successfully drew the attention of two Mavericks players with his breakthrough. He then decisively passed the ball to his teammate lurking in the corner.

However, the Mavericks' defense was very effective in extending the defense, giving the Spurs no space to shoot.

In the end, the basketball returned to Wilkins' hands once again, with only 8 seconds left on the shot clock.

With only 8 seconds left, it was too late to reorganize a tactic.

He had no choice but to go it alone.

Wilkins dribbled the ball on the perimeter, glanced at the Mavericks' defensive formation, and immediately started his drive towards the paint.

But the next second, the Mavericks' defensive formation immediately collapsed.

Left with no other option, Wilkins had to return to the three-point line once again.

With 24 seconds left, he had no choice but to force a three-pointer.

As soon as he released the ball, he knew it wouldn't go in, so he decisively returned to defense.

As he retreated to defend, Wilkins glanced up at the score and felt a sense of powerlessness.

"Maybe I shouldn't have come back!"

At that moment, Wilkins realized how foolish it was to choose to return and join the Spurs.

Why not just stay in Europe?

Why come back to the NBA to suffer such humiliation?

Is the food in Europe not good enough? Or are the women in Europe not beautiful?

If it weren't for that damn buyout clause, Wilkins would have loved to take off his Spurs jersey right now and take the next available flight back to Europe.

Wilkins came to the Spurs hoping to ride the coattails of a super team, but who would have thought that in the very first game of the new season he would become the team's star player?

What is this?

In Chen Fang's view, the outcome of the match was already decided at this point.

The only suspense is how many points the Mavericks will win.

Chen Fang certainly hopes to get off to a good start to the new season with a big win.

The Spurs' thinking was that they had to lose this game, but they couldn't lose too badly.

This is tough on Bob Hill. It's easy to lose: just field all the substitutes.

But you can't lose too badly, which makes it a difficult situation.

It took Bob Hill two whole quarters to finally figure it out.

That means setting a trap at the beginning, then rising up and chasing. In this way, even if the game is lost, the team saves face and can also build an image of the team being tenacious and never giving up.

This is a win-win situation!