Before the start of the game, in the final preparation stage, both teams shot from the half-court on their respective benches, sprinkled magnesium powder, held the ball to the opposite side, did pull-ups, and

An expressionless No. 21, who had been abandoned by his teammates, hugged the ball, rubbed it, walked to the opponent's side, and hung it on the basket.

The shooters from both teams stopped helplessly.

There was a man with long hair, No. 20, looking at the weirdos from the two teams on the field, feeling that this was different from the NBA in his dreams!

Our team has a weird poker face and loves to encourage him. Ever since he returned to San Antonio after playing in the Olympics, he has often encouraged him.

Even if he encouraged him, he often touched his head, which made Ginobili feel that something was wrong, as if something had been stolen. But he used to be in the Italian league and his salary was very low, only 170,000 euros a year.

, it’s incomparable to the millions of euros a year that the NBA goes out to dig for gold.

The main reason is not to mention the low salaries in Europe. For the players who are trained by the youth teams, there are huge liquidated damages, usually five to ten times the salary, so two years after being selected by the Spurs,

Ginobili had the opportunity to join the NBA.

Otherwise, given his strength, Popovich would not want him to go to the Spurs for a tryout. Even if the Spurs don't want him, it would not be difficult for him to go to another team for another tryout, or play in the summer league, and join the NBA.

Although NBA teams can use draft picks to directly select players who are 22 years old or older or who have played for four years without the player's consent, first-round picks must decide whether to sign a contract that year, and second-round picks can only have the right to sign a contract.

It lasts for 4 years, after which the players can voluntarily give up this signing right.

Ginobili was selected in 1999. The summer of 1999 is considered the first year. That is, if the Spurs did not sign a contract with Ginobili in the summer just past, Ginobili can start the preseason of the new season.

Join any team.

The NBA does not allow undrafted players to join the NBA. You must be selected or "undrafted" to become a free agent.

Of course, it is actually quite easy to lose the draft. If you are 22 years old or older, you automatically have the right to participate in the draft. If no one is selected, you will definitely lose the draft. In other words, as long as you are not an American student, you can freely join any team at the age of 23.

Therefore, Ginobili joined the NBA after three years of poverty in Europe. He felt that he had nothing worthy of being stolen by others, and it always felt strange.

Before Ginobili joined the NBA, he believed that the Spurs were a well-disciplined team. However, when he arrived at the Spurs, the boss liked to touch his head. He could not play very well, but he liked to practice drums when he had nothing to do. Shi

Steve Smith holds concerts with Big Boss every three days. Of course, the audience is only a few members of the team, and the magic sound is so loud that no record company dares to give these two a concert.

During the preseason, before every game, Ginobili would see his boss wandering around in various positions on the court, on the opponent's side, on his own side, and sometimes he would stare at the referee, only to be kicked away by the referee.

But the strange thing is that Ginobili himself gradually feels that such strange things are normal, so normal that he almost ignores the team boss.

But overall, the opponent is normal and not that strange.

But today, Ginobili found that his opponent had also become strange!

Sprinkle magnesium powder?

Aren't you afraid of getting lung disease?

You're 1.88 meters tall and you're doing pull-ups? Who can you provoke with those little arms and legs?

There was also a gorilla who seemed to be the best defensive player. He ran to the opposite side of the technical stage and screamed at the fans, "You don't wear No. 21, why are you yelling!"

There was also a guy nicknamed Big Dog, who pushed his boss away from the opponent's basket with an "I'm awesome" and arrogant expression on his face.

By the way, Ginobili suddenly felt that something was missing. It seemed like that young Chinese senior. Where was he?

Ginobili turned his head to look for the opponent's young senior who was known as the strongest rookie in history. As soon as he turned his head, he was startled and almost fell to the ground!

As soon as Ginobili turned his head, he saw a Chinese man with short hair standing very close behind him staring at him, with a curious look on his face... Damn! There was no sound of footsteps when he was walking... It seemed that the sound in the scene was so loud that he couldn't hear the footsteps.

No sound, unless you are running at full speed, but this elusive and scary thing will scare people to death, okay!

Ginobili looked horrified, but Liu Mang's attention was entirely on Ginobili's hair.

Liu Mang was very curious about this lush and lush hair. What would it take to become bald?

impossible!

It’s impossible for NBA players to eat poorly, and it’s not like black people are born with hairline loss early. Relatively speaking, white people have the least amount of Mediterranean. This has a lot to do with genetics, and people who know Mediterranean will show signs of it in their youth.

Usually hair loss is severe in the 20s, such as Boozer.

And Ginobili, who is now 25 years old, has obviously passed that age, and his hair is still so lush, but why did he go bald at the age of 27?

"Hello, Manu, my name is Ace, let's meet you!" Liu Mang took the initiative to extend his hand to say hello.

"Ha...Hello, I'm glad to meet you too." What Ginobili said was quite contrary to his will. He was almost frightened to death, but he was still in a foreign country, so he was so humble and developed.

Ginobili waited uneasily for what Liu Mang would say. Although he is 25 years old and has become famous in international competitions, as a European and South American player, it is not easy to get along in the NBA, just like Chinese players.

of.

If the Chinese players' start in the NBA was not as amazing as Liu Mang's rookie year, Yao Ming and Wang Zhizhi would not have had a good start from the beginning of the new season. In his debut, Yao Ming faced the Wizards led by Jordan, although he only scored 3 points.

He scored 0 points and made 0 of 9 shots, but his teammates still trusted him and gave him many shooting opportunities. In the end, he scored 3 points and 10 rebounds with free throws. This performance was much better than the No. 1 pick's debut performance in the previous two years, and he had the trust of his teammates.

, Yao Ming also played more actively, which was much better than Liu Mang's impression of Yao Ming's poor debut.

This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! Ginobili is already prepared to be ridiculed. When he played against the Kings, he was almost cried by the All-Defensive Team-level Doug Christie.

He's 25, and he's just a rookie in the NBA. To become a veteran, he has to go through being tortured into a dog by Kobe Bryant in the 2004 playoffs before he starts to evolve into the monster who almost won the 2005 championship MVP.

But……

Ginobili saw Liu Mang coming over to say hello, looked at him for a long time, then turned and left...

Just like that... gone...

In fact, Liu Mang simply wanted to get to know the future Mr. Demon Sword, and see that this guy who played until the age of 41 is still the best key man for the Spurs from the East to the West. It’s just that Mr. Demon Sword doesn’t look like he has hair.

What a monster, all Liu Mang's attention was focused on his hair.

He didn't understand why, so he left, forgetting to say hello to Ginobili.

Ginobili is going crazy!

These guys in the NBA are all weirdos!

…

…

The game is about to begin, and with the cheers of the fans in the audience, the two teams take the field.

For the Eagles, new ones are released, Jason Terry, Glenn Robinson, Raheem, Muhammad, and Ratliff are on the court.

On the Spurs side, the second-year Parker is beginning to step onto the stage that belongs to him. Gold will always shine. Stephen Jackson, who was abused by Liu Mang last year and doubted his life, has made it through hard training, hard work and outstanding performance in the preseason.

, was promoted to the position by Popovich.

The Spurs' lineup is Parker, Bowen, Stephen Jackson, Duncan, and David Robinson.

Watching Ratliff win the jump ball over the Admiral's head, Liu Mang was surprised!

Looking at David Robinson, who was running back as fast as Ratliff at half-court speed, Liu Mang had to lament that time is like a butcher's knife, and he became soft...

Jason Terry advanced with the ball. According to the tactics at this time, he should hand the ball to Raheem, the team's number one player. After all, Raheem is the only one in the Eagles who has a chance to break up with Duncan.

Arm-wrestling top stars.

However, Glenn Robinson, who was supposed to play an off-ball pick-and-roll with Muhammad at this time to look for open opportunities, actually asked for the ball directly from the top arc!

What does this guy want to do?

Jason Terry hesitated and passed the ball to Glenn Robinson, then took over Glenn Robinson's role and moved with Muhammad.

The purpose of the movement is to open up space for Rahim, and then the ball holder at a 45-degree angle will connect with Rahim inside and outside. If Rahim is not double-teamed, he will eat it alive. If he is double-teamed, he will score the ball to the basket or

Outside the three-point line.

However, after getting the ball, Brother Big Dog continued to dribble under his hips. Not to mention, Brother Big Dog was really strong, with perfect footwork and body control. He swayed Bowen away, rushed to the free throw line, and stopped mid-range.

Shot and hit.

What a great talent!

Although this goal is not tactically awkward at all, and it is not Liu Mang's kind of singles that seizes opportunities when the opponent's defense leans towards Raheem, he just relies on his talent to play hard, but it is a good goal if it is scored.

After all, the rest of the Eagles are used to having a teammate like Liu Mang.

After Glenn Robinson scored, he ran back to the half court screaming in excitement. The sound sounded like a wolf and a dog, and it was hard to distinguish.

The Spurs attacked, Parker dribbled the ball honestly, and passed the ball to Duncan honestly.

Duncan leaned against Ratliff outside the three-second zone and waited for David Robinson to pull the baseline to the other side, almost close to the three-point line, before Duncan started playing singles.

Facing Ratliff, Duncan did not choose to fight hard. Instead, he used solid basic skills and used the movement of his feet to grind down bit by bit and drive Ratliff's solid defense bit by bit. Seeing that he was about to turn his back in five seconds.

When it arrived, Duncan really got into the three-second zone, turned around and made a layup, avoiding Ratliff's block and throwing the ball into the basket.

Classic center one-on-one!

This feeling of déjà vu is the same as when Olajuwon was at his peak in 1993 and Mutombo, who was said to be 27 years old, played against each other in the regular season in 1993, except that there were five more seconds of back-up play.

It was the Eagles' offense again. This time Glenn Robinson directly asked for the ball to advance past half court, and then broke through Bowen again and hit a mid-range pull-up jumper.

Just jump high, rely on speed and explosive power, Bowen is really unstoppable!

In fact, Bowen has a great characteristic, that is, at the beginning of each game, his effectiveness in defending the opponent's outside stars is very average. As the game progresses, the referee's attention slowly shifts away from him, and his defensive power is reduced.

Big.

Glenn Robinson scored 4 points in a row in the opening game!
To be continued...