Healthy basketball, starting from eating the old Lakers F4

For the Bulls players, the season officially ends after the finals.

However, there is still one more process to go before the holiday, and that is the championship parade.

This year is similar to the previous two years, but there are some differences.

The similarity is that in addition to commending the heroes who contributed to the championship, they also have to see off a group of teammates who are about to leave the team.

Although the official departure will have to wait until the opening of the player free market in early July.

Wait for the Bulls to give up the team option, give up matching the contract, or just make a qualifying offer, wait for other teams outside to take over, and then those players will start a new career.

However, the four players who are about to leave the team this year are all members of the Bulls dynasty who participated in the three consecutive championships in the past three years and made great contributions.

Three of them are rookies selected and trained by the Bulls themselves.

Whether from an emotional or interest perspective, this is something that the Bulls management, players, and fans find difficult to give up.

All I can say is, all good things must come to an end.

Because last summer, the Bulls management had completed the maximum salary contract renewal work with Durant and Curry.

So this summer, the Bulls' salary cap space is very unhealthy.

Although they can still renew their contracts using the Bird rights cap, the luxury tax for the new season, as well as the team's operating plan and season goals, do not support the management in completing the contract renewal with Ohashi, Big Head and Lowe.

Then, they can only do what they have done in the past and let go of the championship puzzle they have cultivated and send talents to other teams in the league.

If any other team did this, it would be very stupid.

But for the Bulls, it is still acceptable.

First of all, the second time is new, and the Bulls have been doing this for more than ten years, and during these ten years, the Bulls have won the most championships in the entire league.

Secondly, the Bulls basically let go of the pieces of the championship puzzle. Even though they trained their winning methods and playoff experience, they did not train them as core players.

Winning the championship is not an easy thing.

Winning the championship is not just about adding up the individual strengths of the stars and making them one of the best in the league.

Just because a team has the strongest overall strength doesn’t mean it will be able to defeat all opponents.

A championship-contending team needs more than just a group of championship puzzle pieces.

There must also be sufficiently outstanding core players with a championship heart - enough leadership and influence to lead the team to win the championship.

Back then, Duane also learned some championship experience from O'Neal, and then he led the team alone for several years and summed up a set of practical skills.

Curry and Jokic both relied on Durant's words and deeds for several years to gain some understanding and move forward.

Over the years, the Bulls can be said to have monopolized this extremely valuable and rare championship experience and skills.

Other championship contenders have strength on paper, but not many stars have leadership skills close to Duane's.

Even though Duane's personal strength has declined, his game experience and leadership in the locker room have been of great help to the Bulls in winning the championship in recent years.

Not to mention, the Bulls have qualified successors.

Whether it's Curry or Jokic, whether it's the regular season or the playoffs, they can show unparalleled influence on the game as long as they step on the football field.

Normally, if a star wants to have this level of influence in the game, he needs to do it step by step, starting with the regular season MVP, then continuing to demonstrate his influence in the playoffs, and gradually consolidating his dominance.

Only when he has the ability to win the regular season MVP and the Finals MVP in a single season, he will gradually understand the leadership required to lead a championship-contending team to win the championship.

Of course, some people are different.

Take rookie Duncan for example!

As early as in college, Duncan already understood how to help the team win one tough victory after another, how to lead a team with no championship experience to success, and lead them to win the championship.

Therefore, Duncan does not need to enter the NBA and then undergo systematic study to consider how to lead the Spurs to win the championship.

When Duncan joined the Spurs, he already had a championship plan in hand and began writing "How to Lead the Spurs to Win the Championship."

Duncan was mature beyond his years and well prepared, so not long after entering the NBA, he brought the winning culture and championship experience to the Spurs, and brought the rookie coach and stat-brushing superstar teammates the championship they had always dreamed of.

Looking at Duncan’s predecessors, Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Olajuwon, and O’Neal, do they have strong personal abilities?
Olajuwon, who has the worst honors, seems to be better than Duncan on both offense and defense.

But who is more successful in their career? Who has more honors?

Don’t talk about how bad Duncan’s teammates are. Olajuwon’s teammates have always been good.

During Olajuwon's peak seasons, the team configuration was even better than Duncan's.

In the same season when a single core player won the championship, if you compare the teammates of Olajuwon in 94 and Duncan in 03, Olajuwon's teammates are actually better than Duncan's.

Not to mention, Duncan's subsequent teammates who helped him win the championship were all trained by himself.

Let's take another counter-example - Durant, is his personal ability strong? Even though he has won a championship, he has not yet developed his own set of championship experience.

Leading a team alone by copying others, he ended up drawing a dog instead of a tiger.

Many stars have played in the NBA for their entire lives but still don’t understand the difference between 5V5 and 1V1.

From this aspect, we can see that there are obvious levels between stars, and their strengths cannot be compared simply by looking at the data.

The Bulls have the league's top stars, so it wouldn't be a pity if they let go of some potential superstars.

Maxima often has it, but Bole does not often have it.

The Bulls have a championship core. Although it will take some time before the next championship, as long as they spend time training or recruit enough championship puzzle pieces, they can start the next championship journey.

Of course, the championship parade has just begun, which is the end of the three-peat. At the end of the parade, when the players are about to take the stage to give speeches, the Bulls staff specially arranged some programs to thank and send off the heroes who are about to leave the team, represented by Anthony.

In the end, as Anthony's best brother, Duane personally hung a farewell wreath and a specially made gold medal commemorating the Bulls' three consecutive championships for Anthony.

As for Daqiao, Datou and Lowe, I'm sorry.

On the one hand, they cannot say goodbye publicly for the time being. Although their departure is a tacit and well-known fact, at least they are still part of the team now, and the free market has not yet opened in early July.

On the other hand, the championship parade is still going on. Today is a happy and festive day. We should not say anything that would spoil the mood at this time or in this occasion.

In addition, there are historical reasons. There have been players who left the team after winning three consecutive championships in the past, but the Bulls did not do anything special for them.

So this time, there won’t be any special treatment.

All in all, migrant worker Anthony was the big winner of this championship parade.

This season, the Bulls and teams across the league not only organized a retirement tour for him, but also put a perfect end to his career.

Anthony is a little reluctant to leave the Bulls. On the one hand, he is reluctant to say goodbye to the battlefield where he has fought for more than ten years. On the other hand, he doesn't know how to say goodbye to his good brother Duane.

After the championship parade, Anthony approached Duane and asked, "Brother, how long can you play?"

"Oh, maybe I can help my son enter the NBA!" Duen sighed.

"What? You can still play for 10 years? Are you going to play until you are 50?" Anthony was shocked, his mind full of question marks.

"Of course not, my personal ability and physical condition do not allow me to do so, but they gave too much.

You have also felt the changes in the league over the years.

The environment now is completely different from when we first entered the league.

Today, NBA's ratings have fallen to the bottom among the four major leagues in North America.

Even in terms of influence, it is not as big as the MLB baseball league, and is only slightly higher than the NHL ice hockey league.

This means that there are fewer and fewer young fans watching the NBA, and in another ten years the NBA may not attract many young fans.

Then the group that supports NBA ratings and consumption is only the old fans who pay attention to us old guys.

I think that in order to consolidate this group of old fans, the league will not allow me to retire.

At least until someone can take over the fans behind me before allowing me to retire.

I don’t think anyone in the league can do that until my son gets to the NBA.”

Dunn explained it to Anthony.

Anthony nodded and then said, "Your son was born too late! Maybe after my son enters the NBA, he can attract a large number of fans from you by interacting with you."

“No problem, I don’t mind.

Also, I don’t know whether my son really wants to play in the NBA.

He was starting to lose control and become less cute.

Most importantly, he has a very rich dad, and he doesn’t need to enter the NBA to get the life he wants.”

Dunn shrugged and started joking with Anthony.

To be honest, if the league wants to create the gimmick of having Duane and his son on the same stage, it will probably take a long time.

Duane is different from black players. Many black players already have sons before entering the NBA, or start reproducing during their rookie contracts.

Du En was not that casual. He had been taught since childhood to have children late in life and to raise them eugenics, so he got married and had children when he was nearly 30 years old under the urging of his family.

The little guy is only eight years old now, and he is planning to start playing professionally this year, starting with the AAU (American Amateur Athletic Union).

The youngest age group in AAU is U8, and they basically play one game a week until the tournament, when they play three or four games in a week.

In general, we can play 50 to 60 games a year, which can provide good training and growth for both primary and middle school students.

Since I’m still young, I might as well experience the atmosphere in the amateur competition.

If you have been playing for a few years and feel like you don't want to play professionally, there's nothing wrong with becoming an internet celebrity. After all, you have an advantage over ordinary people.

By the way, after the championship parade and saying goodbye to Anthony, Duane also started taking his children to participate in the competition.

This incident caused a stir both at home and abroad, but the heat did not last long.

On the one hand, Duan behaved too normally. If he cheated or made a fool of himself, he might attract more media attention for a long time.

On the other hand, the little guy doesn't have any external cheats like Duane, and he is still young. The physical development of the Asian race is a little slower, so he can't rely on his body to play, and he even suffers a disadvantage in physical confrontation.

In this situation, if one wants to defeat his peers by relying on skills but is unwilling to practice hard, his performance will naturally be mediocre and will not meet the expectations of most people.

Duane didn't care too much about it, and he didn't even care about the Bulls' various operations in the summer.

The Bulls management did not make any moves this summer, and their main focus was on the draft.

In the end, they only picked Walker Kessler, who was quite decent.

In the new season, the Bulls' starting lineup is basically Curry, Cameron Thomas, Wiggins, Durant, and Jokic.

Bench lineup: Rivers, Aaron Wiggins, Herbert Jones, Shen Jin, Kessler.

In short, we mainly focus on two lineups, focusing on the old and the new, and training rookies.

Time soon came to late September, and the Bulls training camp opened again. (End of this chapter)