Coach: Coaching the Grizzlies at the beginning, playing the bantam

Chapter 233: unanimously elected FMVP!Offseason decisions!Landing in New York?

Lu Yong and Popovich stood on the sidelines and shook hands. The old man's face was gloomy and he looked very reluctant.

The Spurs lost the finals 1-4 cleanly, especially when the outside world was generally optimistic about the Spurs winning the championship. As a result, the 76ers were unable to fight back. Popovich felt very humiliated. He has always lived in the shadow of Lu Yong in the past few years. inside.

When Lu Yong coached the SuperSonics, it was a luxury for the Spurs to even break out of the Western Conference. This year, Lu Yong finally went to the Eastern Conference, but the two still met in the finals.

Popovich is unwilling to bow to young people, but reality has never let him go. This summer he is planning to recruit new players to strengthen the Spurs' inside line and strive to win back a championship next year.

The overall age of the troika is getting older. These two years are the Spurs' last window to win the championship, and he must make a desperate move.

If they don't spend money on signings, the Spurs will have no hope of winning.

10 minutes later, the finals MVP selection results came out.

艾弗森生死战砍下26分5篮板9助攻2抢断，系列赛场均23.4分4.6篮板7.6助攻2抢断，投篮命中率44.6%，三分命中率34.3%，全票当选总决赛MVP。

Garnett averaged 14 points, 11 rebounds, 5 assists, 1.5 steals and 2 blocks per game in the series, and his shooting percentage was 46.3%. His statistics were also very good.However, compared to gimmicks, Iverson's traffic is greater than him. Who the league awards the award to is not a multiple-choice question. Who makes this year Iverson's retirement tour?

Iverson received the trophy in high spirits and gave an acceptance speech in front of the camera: "I am very happy to realize my dream in the last season of my career. I am also grateful to the coaching staff and teammates for their help. This award belongs to everyone. Especially Thank you to head coach Lu Yong. Without him, the 76ers would have been eliminated long ago. He is the biggest contributor to the team’s championship. It is an honor to work with him."

After speaking, Iverson handed the microphone to Lu Yong beside him.

Lu Yong was wearing a light gray suit and his hair was pulled back with hairspray, looking like a star. "Allen is an amazing player, and coaching him is a very interesting experience. Winning the championship is never the credit of one person, but the hard work and perseverance of the whole team. Thank you to the players for their dedication and persistence. This championship belongs to everyone, thank you .”

Lu Yong's speech was relatively brief, but he received applause from all 76ers fans present.

The audience who watched the finals on TV also applauded, especially when they saw Lu Yong's calm look. He was indeed a famous coach who led the SuperSonics to two championships and was used to this kind of situation.

At the press conference, Popovich spoke to reporters as a loser.

Although he didn't have much favorable impressions of Lu Yong, the young coach, the outcome was already decided and there was no point in speaking harshly. It would only push himself to the forefront of public opinion, so Popovich still praised Lu Yong in front of the camera. "Lou is a very talented coach. No one in the league has won three championships at his age. I have never underestimated him. There is no doubt that the future belongs to him."

Popovich recognized Lu Yong’s coaching level. Even though this is an indisputable fact, it may not be easy to say it from his mouth.

The reporter asked again: "What do you think is the most amazing thing about Lu?"

"In my opinion, the most remarkable thing about him is not his tactics, but his training of new players and team building. In the past few years, he has picked up many potential rookies in the draft, and he can also recruit them in a very short period of time. To build a championship-winning lineup is definitely a great thing, you have to admit.”

Popovich sighed helplessly: "Especially this year's second-round pick Isaiah Thomas. He is only 1 meters tall, but he made a huge contribution as a starter in the finals. Lu's eye for seeing people and The way he develops is the reason why he can become a first-class coach, and apart from him, there is no other coach in the league who has this kind of talent."

Popovich was unconvinced, but he had to admit that Lu Yong was a talented coach.In his opinion, it was crazy to reuse Thomas, who was only 1 meters tall, in the finals, but it turned out that Lu Yong was indeed a lunatic, but everything was under his control.

On the 76ers side, a reporter interviewed Lu Yong and asked him to talk about his feelings about winning the championship.

Lu Yong talked a lot with a smile and distributed the credit to every player of the 76ers.

It is clear at a glance who is the biggest contributor to the 76ers' championship. Lu Yong does not need to brag about himself. Staying modest will help him find his next job, because the fans will take action.

Lu Yong chose to keep a low profile in order to avoid backlash from public opinion, but Iverson praised him fiercely.

"To be honest, when I found Lu and planned to join forces with him last season, my goal at the time was very clear. As long as the 76ers could reach the playoffs, it would be considered a success. But I didn't expect that Lu's ambition and strength would not allow the 76ers to fail. In the playoffs, he led the team to overcome many difficulties and finally succeeded in winning the championship, all of which are his credit."

The reporter asked again: "If you had teamed up with Lu earlier, do you think you would have had the chance to win more championships?"

Iverson smiled: "Of course, I don't have confidence in myself, but I believe in Lu. It's hard to play under him, but the efforts along the way are worth it. If I could join forces with him a few years ago, I should at least I have three rings in my hand."

The reporter interviewed other players, and everyone praised Lu Yong tacitly, believing that he contributed the most to the 76ers winning the championship.

Lu Yong was sitting in the middle seat with no expression, but he was happy in his heart.

They are all flattering, but some words spoken from one's own mouth are different from those spoken by others.Iverson announced his retirement this summer. He will definitely leave the Philadelphia 76ers and join a big-market team.

The 76ers without Iverson are unattractive, and Philadelphia is not a suitable place for him to retire.

Taking advantage of this trend, Lu Yong is confident that he will get another record-breaking contract. Those praises and flattery will become an important bargaining chip for him to negotiate with the team.

He gained a lot from leading the 76ers to the championship. If he could only be regarded as a first-class coach before, now he is already a stable top coach.

That night, the 76ers will fly back to Philadelphia overnight and hold a celebration party at a well-known local hotel. Everyone will play hard all night long.

The news that the 76ers won the championship spread quickly around the world like snowflakes, and media from various countries reported news related to the 76ers.

Two days later, the 76ers held a grand championship parade in Philadelphia.

Many fans from out of town drove all the way to Philadelphia just to see Iverson on the float. The King of Philadelphia won his first championship in his retirement season, and his influence is naturally extraordinary.

Traffic in downtown Philadelphia was basically paralyzed that day, and surrounding hotels also made a fortune.Iverson stood on the float and looked at the mighty fans on both sides of the road and shed tears. He had only seen this scene in his dreams, and now it is a dream come true.The parade lasted all afternoon, starting from the entrance of the Philadelphia Arena and circling the main streets of Philadelphia. It was not until [-] o'clock in the afternoon that the crowd gradually dispersed, and the championship parade came to a perfect conclusion.

As soon as the parade ended, Lu Yong and the beauty flew to Miami Beach to start enjoying their vacation.

There will be no calm in the league this summer. It is no secret that he is preparing to leave Philadelphia. Managements of various teams have seized the opportunity to offer him an olive branch.

However, the season has just ended, and Lu Yong is not ready to get back to work so soon. He has to play for a few days to be worthy of this holiday.

In fact, Lu Yong only has a few choices for his next club. Just the rigid standards of a big market have blocked 90% of the teams. He has no interest in coaching the teams in small cities.

Chicago is a big city, but Rose's health was worrying, and the Bulls seemed unwilling to pay huge liquidated damages to waive Thibodeau, so Lu Yong was "passed" early.

The Lakers are also a big city, but the management was determined to create a combination of Kobe + Howard in the summer. They were so stubborn that even if Lu Yong went there, they couldn't stop it.Instead of having to worry about balancing the stars in the new season, it is better to join a team that can make the decision on its own to make a major lineup change.

It is absolutely difficult to win the championship with Kobe and Howard. The current Warcraft is too childish. It is annoying if they don’t play hard enough. Lu Yong still wants to live for a few more years. There are many right and wrong in the rich teams. This kind of bullshit He didn't want to get involved at all.

The Clippers are also an option. They just got Paul promoted to a luxury team last season, but he doesn't want to go because the current owner of the Clippers, Donald Sterling, is of Ashkenazi Jewish descent and the racial discrimination in this guy is very serious.Let’s not talk about whether he can like the yellow-skinned Lu Yong. Lu Yong doesn’t like him anyway. If it were the wealthy Ballmer, Lu Yong would have taken the initiative to contact the Clippers, but Sterling is obviously not worthy of Lu Yong. Brave support.

In addition to these teams, Lu Yong's other choice is the Knicks.

The Knicks' regular season winning rate last season barely exceeded 50%, ranking sixth in the Eastern Conference. Head coach D'Antoni resigned after 56 games.Now the Knicks are in urgent need of an excellent coach to lead the team out of the quagmire. No matter in terms of record, market, lineup or recruitment space, the Knicks perfectly meet Lu Yong's conditions for finding his next home and are the first choice in the summer.

First of all, the Knicks have Anthony, the former league scoring champion, who has a star foundation. Last season, he averaged 25 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists and 1 steal per game, which is good.

Secondly, Knicks owner James Dolan is famously wealthy. In order to win the championship, let alone pay luxury tax, he will do anything even if he loses money. After all, the Knicks owner is only one of his many identities.

Of course, the Knicks team is located in the center of New York. It is impossible to lose money. No matter how bad the record is, there will be profits. The NBA's largest market is not just a boast.

Most of the Knicks management are puppets, including general manager Glenn Wald. The only one who can intervene is veteran Donnie Walsh, but the real talker is Dolan.As long as Lu Yong can gain Dolan's trust and authorization, he can easily put together a luxurious lineup to win the championship without having to participate in the nonsense of the Lakers management.

Anthony led the team to the second round at most, but the situation was different after Lu Yong joined. He has ideas and candidates in his head, and the management has money and courage. Together with the Knicks, they are destined to be a super strong team.

The most important thing is that the Knicks are not only located in New York, but also have their own television station.The owner, James Dolan, is the president and CEO of American Cable Systems. As long as there are results, attention and support from the league are not a problem at all.

Lu Yong still likes the city of New York. The only thing that is difficult to maintain is probably the fans, but this little thing is not a problem at all in Lu Yong's eyes.

He is good at arranging offense, and he doesn't dare to pat his chest to guarantee winning the championship, but it is trivial to lead the team to play a gorgeous offense.New York fans can't fault him, because apart from him, there is no other active coach in the league who can lead the team to average 115 points per game.

What Lu Yong has to do now is to wait for Dolan and his confidants to "invite" him and take the initiative in his hands.

On the other hand, Knicks owner James Dolan has not actively contacted Lu Yong yet because the teams Lu Yong has coached must delegate power to him.

Dolan has no other bad habits, but he likes to participate in management decisions. He has been given a lot of junk contracts, and in the end his subordinates have to take the blame for him.

尼克斯在2000年初战绩不佳，詹姆斯-多兰在管理上的失策是很大原因。尼克斯在99年打入总决赛后，成绩逐年下降，球队自03-04赛季到09-10赛季期间都没有打入季后赛。

In 2007, NBA commissioner David Stern also criticized Dolan's management of the Knicks, saying "they didn't manage the team intelligently."

The main criticism was that Dolan gave Knicks shooting guard Alan Houston a six-year contract worth $2001 million in 6.At the time, no other team was willing to offer Houston more than $1 million.

Houston retired after just four seasons after signing a lucrative contract with as much as $4000 million left on his contract.

Spending large sums of money and signing junk contracts is an indelible stain on Dolan's management career, but apart from that, he is indeed a good boss who is both willing to spend money and informal. These can help Lu Yong pursue career honors.

In fact, there is a reason why Dolan likes to give junk contracts to players. At his level, money is just a series of numbers. He prefers to participate in the process of team building and find fun than making money, so he often makes mistakes.

Hiring Lu Yong as the head coach is definitely a good idea, because he is an accurate judge of people.

The only thing Dolan is worried about now is that Lu Yong will have too much power after joining and will not be able to control him in the future, and conflicts may even break out.

Dolan's idea is not unfounded, because Lu Yong will hold the power in his hands when joining any team, and salary is secondary.The rigid condition for his willingness to join the Knicks was that Dolan transferred the rights to build the team until he felt that the Knicks were prestigious enough and wanted to come and play in person. At that time, the two of them parted ways.

The Knicks under Dolan's management have been terrible for many years. Since "Gorilla" Ewing retired, even making the playoffs has become a luxury.Dolan is now eager to produce results, which is why Lu Yong is confident that Dolan will contact him sooner or later. For the Knicks, Lu Yong is the savior of the team's turnaround, but for Lu Yong, the Knicks are just the first choice for next player.

Lu Yong is not in a hurry, because he has many choices besides the Knicks.

Prior to this, the management of the Lakers, Nets, and Warriors had all made high-quality offers for him.

Among them, after the Nets moved to Brooklyn, they were only separated from New York by a river. Maybe in two years, Boss Tsai will buy the team in advance and he will consider playing there, but now the Nets are too chaotic. They just bought the team not long ago. The Russian boss Mikhail Prokhorov has money but no brains and refuses to listen to advice. Lu Yong does not plan to wade into this muddy water for the time being, and only regards him as a brick to knock the Knicks.

Dolan's sense of crisis will only get worse as time goes by, and Lu Yong can afford to wait.

(End of this chapter)