Chapter 385 Yao Ming, Ye Si, Rockets, Supersonics and the Future

"It's a pity that the Sonics lost in the end."

"Yes's performance is good enough."

"This is the most magical first playoff journey I have ever seen in NBA history, even more magical than Magic's first championship."

"Rookie Yes can do what a rookie Magic does, but Magic can never do what Yes is doing now."

June 2, 2007, Houston, Rockets training facility.

The place was crowded and noisy.

Since being eliminated by the Phoenix Suns in the Western Conference semifinals half a month ago, the Rockets training facility has not been so lively for a long time.

However, the reporters and fans at the scene were not talking about the Rockets, but about the SuperSonics on the other side.

Listening to the chatter of the American media colleagues and Rockets fans at the scene.

As a reporter for Sports Weekly in Houston, Wang Yuanyuan is sighing a little now.

And his Chinese counterpart Yang Huahua from the Basketball Pioneer newspaper also frowned from time to time.

As a reporter from China, the SuperSonics and Rockets are both their home teams.

Wang Yuanyuan and Yang Huahua are certainly very happy that their home team can receive such attention.

This year's NBA is called the Chinese Year of the NBA in China.

Yao Ming was once only a few centimeters away from winning the regular season MVP trophy.

Ye Si is only separated from his position as the first player in the league by the accumulation of time.

Among the top ten superstars in the NBA, two are Chinese.

One of them looks like an NBA star.

The madness of Ye Si and Yao Ming in the NBA this year has made domestic fans and ordinary people ecstatic.

As journalists who have been stationed in the United States for many years, this is the first time that Yang Huahua and Wang Yuanyuan have felt the status of being valued owners in the NBA.

It doesn't matter if they're in Houston or Seattle.

They are the focus of their media peers.

Everybody knows,

They are fellow journalists.

Everyone also knows that he is not the kind of person who likes to chase attention.

It is impossible to get first-hand news from .

They can only start with the people around them.

The person next to Yes is Wang Han, a female reporter from CCTV.

The people around Yao are Yang Huahua and Wang Yuanyuan.

Establishing a good relationship with Yang Huahua, Wang Yuanyuan and Wang Han has now become a required public relations course for many media reporters in the United States and even the world.

Who is one of the two most talked about superstars right now!

Especially Yes!

He is the most watched sports star in the United States.

His name represents traffic.

His news represents sales.

Everything about him is so valuable.

Crazy value!

Because they spend most of their time with Yao Ming, Wang Yuanyuan and Yang Huahua are okay, and the public relations around them are not that crazy.

But Wang Han next to Yes is completely different.

As the 'closest' person to Yes, as long as Wang Han is willing, a bunch of handsome guys, black, white, yellow, brown, are waiting to publicize her.

But I have never heard of anyone successfully publicizing Wang Han.

Because of Ye Si and Yao Ming, the status of Chinese reporters in the NBA has been greatly improved.

Their current status in the NBA bodybuilding industry is completely different from that of the American reporters who shamelessly curry favor and PR in order to interview those superstars for first-hand news.

In the past, because they were squeezed out by their American counterparts, they could not collect first-hand news, and they always had to create some news of their own.

Yang Huahua has had a lot of news about original McGrady before.

Tracy McGrady is a Rockets player, and Yang Huahua can't get first-hand information and needs originality. It can be seen that other superstars are even more difficult to get.

What now?

There is no need for them to find first-hand information about those superstars. Those colleagues in the United States who had excluded them at the beginning exchanged with them the first-hand news.

Even if they don’t want it!

This is reality.

This is all because of Ye Si and Yao Ming.

Mainly because of Ye Si.

Because of Ye Si, they went from being really fucked up to being really comfortable now.

Since it's so comfortable, they should be happy.

However, I really can't be happy now.

Half a month ago, Yao Ming was eliminated in the Western Conference semifinals.

Last night, Yeas was also eliminated in the Western Conference Finals.

The Seattle SuperSonics lost to the Phoenix Suns 96-108 at home.

In the end, the Sonics ended their playoff journey this year with a score of 2 to 4.

In yesterday's game, Nash received 6 stitches on his brow and continued to play, which moved the world.

Even as Chinese journalists, they were very moved.

But it’s not the Chinese team that represents the Western Conference in the finals!

well!

Almost at the same time, Wang Yuanyuan and Yang Huahua sighed.

Of course, they have no one to blame. Yeas and the Sonics have performed well enough to enter the finals. This is just a fantasy.

Before the game, most experts felt that the Sonics would be swept by the Suns.

The two teams are indeed very different. Can the Suns be like this? It is very rare.

The SuperSonics' performance has far exceeded their and domestic fans' expectations.

Originally, experts like them and domestic fans thought that the Sonics would be eliminated by the Mavericks in the first round.

I really didn't expect the Sonics to get to where they are now.

Leafs' performance in the playoffs drove reporters and fans crazy.

Scored 30+ points in 15 consecutive games in the playoffs, broke the playoff half-time scoring record, broke the second-highest scoring record in the playoffs...and so on.

Now, both domestic and American fans and experts are applauding Yees and the SuperSonics.

The key is the Houston Rockets!

The Rockets' performance in the regular season was so good that they are one of the favorites to win the championship this year.

And because the lineup is balanced and strong enough, the team has no obvious shortcomings, and the Rockets were even considered the favorite to win the championship.

Therefore, we really can’t blame them for bragging, nor can we blame domestic fans for having too high hopes.

The Rockets should not have been eliminated in the second round!

Ye Si has done his best to help the Rockets kill their biggest rival, the Mavericks.

As long as the Rockets defeat the Suns, they will meet the SuperSonics in the Western Conference Finals.

No matter who enters the finals, the Rockets or the SuperSonics, they will be happy, and so will the domestic fans.

But in the end, the Rockets actually fell off the chain again.

This is not the first time!

The blame lies with the Rockets' useless head coach Jeff Van Gundy.

How clumsy!

Domestically, Van Gundy has even been sprayed all over, and even expelled from the Earth.

Even in the United States, Van Gundy has encountered a lot of criticism.

Given the strength of the Rockets, even if they lose to the Suns in the end, it shouldn't be like this.

Fortunately, Jeff Van Gundy is also sensible.

After the Rockets were eliminated, he immediately resigned from Rockets general manager Dawson.

The reason why the Houston training facility is so busy right now is because this is the day when new Rockets head coach Rick Adelman takes office.

"Anyway, I don't have to see Van Gundy like that anymore!"

Wang Yuanyuan and Yang Huahua were full of resentment towards Van Gundy.

Amid the sound of cameras clicking, Adelman appeared at the training facility, accompanied by Rockets general manager Dawson and the three leading Rockets players, Yao Ming, Tracy McGrady and Roy.

The Rockets are now the most powerful player in the league, and Adelman is a famous coach in the league.

The impact of the combination of the two is still great.

Although the focus of the United States is now on Seattle, they are all comforting Yes, the chosen one who has just been eliminated.

But the Houston side is still very lively.

Looking at the lively reporters and fans below, Yao Ming had a smile on his face, but he felt sad in his heart.

He was reluctant to leave Van Gundy.

Van Gundy's poor performance in this year's playoffs was indeed one of the culprits in the Rockets' elimination by the Suns.

But Van Gundy was the mentor who trained him after all.

Van Gundy is really good except for the problem of adapting on the spot.

Although he was very sad to leave Van Gundy, Yao Ming still very politely accompanied the newly appointed head coach Adelman to complete this appearance.

"Dayao, did you talk to Ye Si on the phone yesterday?"

"It's clear. Little Leaf is in good condition. He even asked Ah Lian to go for a morning jog with him this morning."

After Yao Ming finished communicating with domestic reporters, he walked to the Rockets conference room.

"After Jeff leaves, I'm afraid the team will be completely different."

Yao Ming thought secretly in his heart.

His and McGrady Roy's status on the team will certainly not change.

But it’s hard to say for others.

Van Gundy is a defensive head coach, while Adelman is an offensive head coach.

Uncle Mu, Uncle Huo, Hayes, Ariza, Alston...etc.

The Rockets' rotation next season may change drastically.

It's not that he doesn't like Adelman.

As a person with a conservative personality, Yao Ming has always felt that the current situation of the Rockets is actually not bad.

The Rockets should give Van Gundy another chance.

The Rockets do intend to give Van Gundy another chance.

However, Jeff couldn't think about it and resigned.

I couldn't stand being laughed at.

"Yao?"

"I have no problem with trading Artest."

Yao Ming recovered from his sadness.

Now that time has entered June, the Rockets are already thinking about the new season.

Many lottery teams are now almost done rebuilding for the new season.

Even those eliminated playoff teams have entered the preparation period for the new season early.

The Rockets have just confirmed their new coach, which is relatively slow.

Because the Rockets changed their head coach, the team's reconstruction has been quite extensive. Even if the positions of the three core players remain unchanged, the workload is still huge.

And the players will have to go on vacation in a while.

So the team's general manager Dawson and the team's head coach Adelman called together several leading players to hold a working meeting about next season.

The first meeting was about trading Artest.

This is also the Rockets' top priority during the offseason.

Trading Artest was proposed by the team's new head coach Adelman.

Artest is a well-known thorn in the league.

Strong in strength, but a mess in the head.

At the beginning of this season, Artest was exposed by the media for abusing dogs. An NBA star does nothing bad but abuses dogs.

Don’t you know how crazy the American animal protection groups are?

Finally, the dog abuse incident is over. This time, instead of abusing the dog, I will abuse people.

At the beginning of the season, when the Kings' record was still very good, Artest was exposed to the news of domestic violence.

And in the end, Artest was arrested for domestic violence. This is real!

Not only was he sued, he was also banned from the league.

It can be said that this season, Artest has tricked the Kings to death.

The Kings this season are actually a pretty outstanding team.

Even if the Wild West doesn't make the playoffs this year, it definitely shouldn't be like this.

They were obviously a very good team, but they were fooled into the lottery by Artest.

After the season, the first thing the Kings did was to fire head coach Musselman, and the second thing was to sell Artest.

With Artest's strength, if the Kings didn't have a flaw in his brain, as long as the Kings let out the news and wanted to trade, a lot of teams would come looking for him.

Wherever they need to be peddled.

What's more, even though the king was selling it everywhere, he still couldn't find a suitable successor.

Simply sending Artest away would be a big loss if you don't want chips. If you want chips, it's hard to give them away.

Weak teams can't cure Artest, and strong teams don't want to add a time bomb to their team.

Artest's current situation is quite embarrassing, comparable to that of Rodman back then.

Artest cheated the Kings and Rodman cheated the Spurs in the same way.

In the end, the Kings took a half-circle and discovered that only the Lakers and their former head coach Adelman were interested in Artest.

However, the Lakers are now brewing a more important deal and cannot offer any valuable bargaining chips to Artest.

"The King's offer to us was Alston, Kirk Schneider, Bonzi Wells and our first-round pick this year."

This is the Kings' offer, which is always outrageous, but definitely not cheap either.

Alston is the Rockets' most important substitute.

Schneider was the No. 16 pick in the first round of 2004 and has great potential.

Bunch Wells was a former champion of the Kings. He played for the Kings for one season in the 2005-06 season. He faced the Spurs in the playoffs and averaged 23 points and 12 rebounds in the six games of the series.

In order to show his worth and get a bigger contract, Bunchwells rejected the King's offer and came to the Rockets.

Due to intermittent injuries last season and Roy's illness, his playing time was limited and his data was of course also very limited.

Still, the king seemed to miss him.

After all, Wells was the man who almost killed the Spurs on his own.

"Yao?"

"I have no opinion."

Roy in the conference room looked at Yao Ming.

Are you worried about Ye now?

When the Sonics were eliminated yesterday, he made a condolence call to Ye.

There is nothing wrong with Ye's mood.

There shouldn't be anything to worry about, right?

Just when Roy was a little curious, Rockets general manager Dawson continued to speak.

"The next thing is about the draft. Please let Darrell introduce it to everyone."

"As for the Rockets' draft targets this year, we will focus on supplementing the power forward position. However, because of Alston's departure, the backup point guard position is also indispensable. I plan to use the first-round draft pick to sign the University of Oregon this year. ’s star guard Aaron Brooks, with the second round pick I plan to sign Purdue University’s star power forward Carl Landry, and we are talking to the Spurs about trading the rights to Argentine star power forward Luis Scola. "

"This is information about Aaron Brooks, Luis Scola and Carl Landry. You can take a look."

Yao Ming picked up the information in his hand and frowned tightly.

As expected, Yi Shui's offensive player.

Compared with Van Gundy's emphasis on defense, Adelman's appointment has changed the Rockets' draft style.

It's not that Yao Ming looks down on these players, it's just...

In the NBA, defense wins championships!

"If all transactions and signings are completed, the following will be the team's temporary lineup, and we will supplement the remaining four spots from the undrafted and free markets."

"If you have any candidates, you can recommend them to me, and I will recommend them as appropriate."

Center: Yao Ming, Hayes, Mutombo

Power forward: Scola, Landry, Novak

Shooting guard/small forward: Tracy McGrady, Artest, Ariza

Point Guard: Roy, Aaron Brooks

Yao Ming looked at the extra document in his hand, his face expressionless, but his heart was full of regret.

The Rockets' fifteen players this season may not even have half of them next season.

This change is a bit too big.

However, this is the NBA. Constant in and out, splitting and reuniting are the norm.

He was the only Rocket left when he came to the NBA.

The team's preparation meeting for next season ended with various mixed emotions. Yao Ming was ready to leave with McGrady and the others.

McGrady and Roy are now in a very good mood.

However, he still needs a few days to adjust his emotions.

Now he has not recovered from the mentality that he was eliminated in the semi-finals and the team is about to fall apart.

"Yao!"

Um?

"What's wrong with Mr. Adelman?"

Yao Ming, who was about to leave, looked puzzled at his new head coach Adelman who stopped him.

"Yao, I watched the series between the Suns and the Rockets, and I also watched the series between the Suns and the SuperSonics. The rhythm of offense and defense is incredible."

"...?..."

Yao Ming still had a question mark on his face.

"Yao, I hope you can lose weight next season."

Lose weight?

Seeing the extremely serious expression on Adelman's face, Yao Ming's face darkened.

Losing weight was not a priority for him, and it had never even been something he should consider.

For him, losing weight means reducing his dominance in the paint.

Seattle, Ye Si's lakeside villa.

After losing to the Suns last night, Ye Si didn't go out again.

It’s not about hiding in a corner and licking your wounds.

The result of losing to the Suns was regrettable, but it was not enough to make Ye Si lick his wounds.

In this series, he tried his best.

In this series, his teammates also tried their best.

Since he has tried his best, he is willing to accept any result.

It's just to avoid the limelight.

Now that the finals matchup has been announced, NBA news still revolves around him.

Wang Han came to Ye Si's house early this morning.

She was very worried about Ye Si's mood.

After all, Ye's performance in this year's playoffs was too good.

Throughout the 15 games of the playoffs, Yeas averaged 43 points, 8 rebounds and 3 assists per game.

Scored 30+ in 15 consecutive games!

Averaged 40+ per game in two consecutive series!

According to USA Today, this is one of the greatest individual performances in NBA history.

Before this year's playoffs, the American media had been boasting that "no championship will surpass Kobe, and one championship will surpass Jordan."

Such praise by the American media is also Ye's biggest black spot in the United States.

Now, even those extreme Black Leaf people on the Internet will no longer use this sentence to Black Leaf.

Black can't move!

Let’s not talk about the future.

At the very least, it’s not moving now!

There are really no dark spots in Ye's performance in this year's playoffs.

Those black coconuts are so suffocating now.

They were holding it back and wanted to see Ye Si sad and sad after being eliminated.

But as someone who recorded Ye Si's daily life in the villa in the middle of the lake, after she posted the clips of Ye Si's activities on YouTube, both coconut powder and coconut black were quite surprising.

Running, practicing, then running, then practicing, and doing some weird things from time to time.

This is what Ye Si used to do every day.

After losing to the Suns, Yeos was no different from usual.

"Yes, are you really not sad?"

"Not upset."

"Are you really not sad?"

"Not sad."

"Then you want the championship?"

"think."

Ye Si lowered his head and was looking at the rookie trial list sent to him by the team's general manager.

The Sonics have three draft picks on their hands this year.

The second pick in the first round, this is the draft pick from the Bucks.

The 22nd pick in the first round and the 39th pick in the second round are both SuperSonics' own picks.

After the series between the Sonics and the Suns ended, the Sonics' offseason strategy officially started.

Because the Sonics now have too many junk contracts and their space is pretty locked up, the draft is the most important task for the Sonics in the offseason.

And almost all the talents participating in the 2007 draft have gathered in Seattle.

The list in Ye's hands includes almost all the popular rookies.

Except for a few people, such as Auden...

Oden is currently not participating in any workouts organized by the team.

Auden, who was always in a depressed mood, kept wandering around.

Jerry West finally found him yesterday, and he was tricked into going to Memphis early this morning.

Except for Oden, all rookies participating in this year's draft have a chance to enter the SuperSonics.

High-end rookies can compete for the Sonics' No. 2 pick in the first round.

Mid-range rookies can compete for Seattle's 22nd pick in the first round.

Low-end rookies can compete for the Sonics' second-round pick, No. 39.

For any rookie right now, entering the Sonics is a huge opportunity.

Especially after the playoffs, the desire of the 2007 rookies to join the SuperSonics has increased rapidly.

The city is good, the team is good, the boss is good, and the competition within the team is low. According to American experts and media, the Sonics are short of people. They are short of everyone. As long as you have the ability, you can kick Rondo away. , squeezing David Lee away.

Even SuperSonics general manager Presti found it incredible that the team received so many trial applications.

As a result, the current scale of trials at the SuperSonics training camp is larger than the annual rookie training camp in Orlando.

It turns out that there are more people coming to participate in the trial training, so there are more people to choose from.

Yeas is looking forward to seeing these guys in training camp tomorrow.