Basketball's No. 1 Anti-Fan

Chapter 415 Mamba out
The Kings selected Kentucky swingman Keldon Johnson with the 25th pick in this year's draft.

Johnson is 1 meters tall but weighs 96 kilograms. He is a standard 100D player and a very important addition to the Kings.

Although reality is not a game, as a veteran 2K Dynasty mode player, Hansen knows how to build a true dynasty team.

It is not about simply forming a high-scoring team to win, but about building a team with clear division of roles.

The Kings already have enough ball handlers, and Tatum also needs to develop his ball handling in the future, so it is naturally impossible to select players based solely on potential.

This was also reflected in the subsequent free market. This summer, Gay's contract expired and the salary cap increased, giving the Kings nearly 1500 million in salary space.

The Kings used this space to compete with the Clippers for players and signed Beverley with a three-year, $3 million contract.

The Kings' previous backup point guard was of average strength, but this time it's the perfect one.

And after completing the Gasol trade last season, Lu used more tactics of one big and four small, or even five outside, and Hield got a lot of opportunities.

More opportunities allowed him to produce better statistics, but also further exposed his defensive problems.

Especially during the playoffs, opponents targeted the Kings in this regard, which was also one of the reasons why Hansen's defensive consumption increased.

Beverley's addition can also alleviate this problem well.

Then, right after Hansen participated in the East World Cup, the Kings reached a deal with the Grizzlies.

After sending Markieff Morris, Labissiere and a future second-round pick, the Kings got Kyle Anderson.

Anderson made his debut with the Spurs and was a jack-of-all-trades player. After his rookie contract expired, the Spurs did not want to spend too much money to keep him. In the summer of 2018, he joined the Grizzlies with a four-year, $4 million contract.

However, in his first season with the Grizzlies, he averaged only 8 points, 5.8 rebounds, 3 assists and 1.3 steals per game.

Because his playing rhythm is different from that of others and his breakthroughs are like slow motion, he has the nickname "Time Lord".

But overall he is just a small role in the NBA, and it was this World Cup that really made him famous.

He joined the Dongda men's basketball team and, together with Hansen, helped Dongda reach the top of the world.

This is not a coincidence, or it is something that O'Neill's grandmother could have done with Han Sen.

Just as there is only a fine line between being omnipotent and being totally useless, in a sense, a jack of all trades and a useless person are also very similar. The only difference lies in whether he is in a suitable environment.

Anderson proved one thing in this World Cup, not how suitable he is for the Dongda men's basketball team, but that he and Hansen have a very good compatibility.

This is also the main reason why the Kings would make a trade at this point in time and are willing to send out Morris, the hero of last season's championship who renewed his contract in the summer.

Everything on the Kings team revolves around Hansen, so naturally they will do whatever suits Hansen.

There are several other popular teams in the league, the most watched of which are the Celtics and Pelicans.

After the loss last season, the outside world thought that these two teams would usher in major changes, or even fall apart directly like the Heat and Lakers before.

But that ultimately didn't happen.

Although Durant did not reach an early contract extension with the Celtics, he exercised the player option for the last year of his contract.

Irving renewed his contract with the Celtics with a 2+1, three-year, $3 million maximum salary contract.

Last season, they failed to make it to the finals because of Antetokounmpo's tripping. That was an unexpected factor and does not mean that their team is not strong. They decided to try again.

On the Pelicans side, the reason why James did not choose to run away again is very real, because he has nowhere else to go.

What Irving said at the beginning finally came true. No star is willing to be teammates with James anymore, and it is impossible for him to form a stronger team than the current Pelicans.

Of course, money still needs to be made. This summer, James opted out of his original contract and signed a three-year, $3 million maximum contract with the Pelicans.

To some extent, this contract can be regarded as James giving up the fight for the championship.

After all, the Pelicans couldn't beat the Kings last season, and it will be even harder to beat them in the future.

According to TMZ, James went to New York in the summer to find a well-known psychologist to ease the situation he is facing now.

Judging from the results, this psychologist is quite capable.

After all, if it doesn't work, James will run away to the East anyway.

In the new season, after the training camp started, all the players of the Kings were full of energy.

Although they reached the top last year, for most of the Kings' players, they were more led by Hansen.

So they hope to give the team more help in the new season.

Especially after Hansen said he wanted to bring a dynasty to the Kings, their desire became stronger.

Among them, Gay (full mid-level renewal) and Gasol Jr. (exercising player option) also played a positive role in sharing their dynasty experience with others.

All of this was presented in a very intuitive form after the start of the season.

The Kings started with a ten-game winning streak, directly breaking the best start in team history.

The momentum of Tatum and Mitchell, the experience of Gay and Gasol Jr., the lubrication of Beverly and Anderson, and of course the backbone of Hansen.

The Kings are still a young team like last season, but the speed at which they are growing is shocking.

At this time, people outside couldn't help but start discussing whether the Kings' newcomers were already outstanding, or whether Hansen's arrival made them even better.

Soon the latter argument prevailed, because both the changes in the Grizzlies and the Cavaliers proved that Hansen was the kind of core player who could truly make his teammates better.

However, when this question was posed to Han Sen, his answer was very simple and straightforward: "Because they are already very good!"

Han Sen chose these people himself, how could he not know their worth!
What he did was actually similar to what he did with the Cavaliers, just making them grow faster.

Among them, Tatum has made the fastest progress this season. His average points per game in the new season has increased to around 22 points.

He was left behind by Mitchell in his rookie season, but now he is the first to come out.

The most crucial factor here is talent. Tatum's talent is much better than Mitchell's. Otherwise, his ranking would not be much better than Mitchell's in the same draft.

The second is playing style. Mitchell is still a ball-holding player, but Tatum can play with or without the ball, which means he is destined to get more opportunities in the game.

This also means that when it comes to the All-Star selection for the new season, Tatum's number of votes has increased by a whole level.

Although the fierce competition in the Western Conference frontcourt prevented Tatum from being selected for the starting lineup, he was eventually selected by the coach to be in the bench lineup, which was also his first All-Star selection in his career. It is now the end of January, and fans are already looking forward to the new season's All-Star Game.

However, on the 26th, a piece of news caused an earthquake in the alliance.

Han Sen received the news after getting off the plane.

Kobe Bryant died in a helicopter crash while on his way to a game with his daughter Gigi.

Han Sen was stunned for a long time when he heard the news.

After those experiences at the Mamba Academy and seeing Kobe use cars instead of helicopters as a means of transportation, he thought such a thing would never happen again.

But eventually it happened.

After coming to his senses, Hansen learned more details: Because the game was very important, Kobe didn't want his daughter to be absent, so he finally decided to use a helicopter to rush the time, but it happened to be foggy and crashed into the mountain.

The basketball world was immersed in sadness that day, and Hansen was also asked this question during the post-match press conference.

His eyes soon turned red.

He was not a Kobe fan in his previous life, but in this life, he and Kobe became acquainted with each other. Instead, after Kobe retired, their relationship improved a lot and they became friends.

So it would be a lie to say I'm not sad.

However, the dead cannot be resurrected, and Hansen cannot change anything.

"I will fund the Mamba Academy so that Kobe's Mamba spirit can continue."

This was all Han Sen could do.

A few days later, Hansen attended Kobe's funeral.

“Maybe God just wants to play basketball.”

Hansen was invited to give a speech like Wade did at Thomas' funeral, and he also said something touching.

Because of Kobe's death, this year's All-Star Game also had more elements that paid tribute to Kobe, such as a 24-second offense violation on the first offense of the opening game for both teams, and the team that scored 24 points first in the last quarter won, allowing fans to see the most intense quarter of the game in recent years.

Then, just as the fans were still immersed in this wave of sadness, the epidemic came.

The league initially wanted to control the situation through stricter testing. After all, the result of suspending the game is no different from shutting down the game.

But in the end, not only the players but also the fans began to suffer large-scale infections, and the league had to announce a suspension in early March.

Han Sen also had a forced "vacation".

The impact on the Kings is huge.

Because their record this season was excellent, there was a high probability that they would break the best record in team history, and even have a chance to challenge the best in history, and then it all came to an abrupt end.

No one knows how much strength the Kings can maintain after the epidemic returns, knowing that its impact on athletes is huge.

However, the good news for Hansen is that the epidemic has forced more people to stay at home, and the e-sports he previously invested in has ushered in a wave of development.

This is a sport where large-scale competitions can be held online.

Hansen, who served as an investor, also became an ambassador for the e-sports project, and he even came out to play the game and competed on the same field with Davis, giving the moldy fans something to watch.

Of course, Hansen's focus is still on training. He even set up an instant communication group to urge his teammates to train, and paid salaries to teammates with minimum salary and two-way contracts.

At the beginning of the lockout, Atkinson once suggested that Hansen give money to the bottom players in the league to increase his personal influence.

Although the shutdown was caused by the epidemic, the result is the same. Under the national conditions of the United States, those low-level NBA players who have lost their salaries will face financial difficulties due to the loss of income.

However, Han Sen did not accept his suggestion.

Although he earns a lot of money now, it is not yet to the point where he has to pay for the league. All he can do in the league is to take care of his own business.

And this is also done to keep the Kings competitive.

As for outside the alliance, although Hansen, as a time traveler, could not stop the epidemic, he still donated a large sum of money to the University of Tokyo to fight the epidemic.

Time flies and it is now the end of July. After more than four months of suspension, the league finally resumed.

However, this is a closed-type park competition, which means that all teams compete in one park without spectators.

Obviously, this is a stopgap measure, but for fans it is already a big step forward during the epidemic.

Moreover, not all teams will participate in the park competition, because it is no longer realistic to play one game at a time according to the original schedule, so the qualifying games and playoffs will be held back in the park.

As for the qualifying round, there will be 8 games played, and the playoff ranking will be determined based on the previous regular season results. Naturally, there is no need for those teams that are in a bad state to participate.

So in the end there were 22 teams participating in the park, 11 each from the East and West.

After arriving in Auckland where the park is located, Hansen discovered that life in the park is not boring at all. There are cinemas and entertainment programs everywhere, which is completely different from what James said in his "History" that it was like being in prison.

Of course, it cannot be compared with the extravagant life of the stars. It is difficult to go from extravagance to frugality, which is also a challenge for them.

However, the Kings were not affected too much in this regard. After all, except Hansen, the others were not very close to being stars.

Tatum, the only player selected to the All-Star team this year, is also an excellent student.

In fact, the one who has changed the most after this epidemic is Tatum. He has become much stronger than before the epidemic.

It can be seen that not only did he not fall behind in training, but he used this opportunity to greatly improve himself.

In addition to the physical changes, he seemed to have become much more mature.

Han Sen could more or less guess the reason for his change.

Many people grow up after someone they care about passes away, usually a close relative, and for Tatum that person was Kobe.

Although he is an outlier, Kobe's influence on him is no less than that of James.

In fact, thanks to Hansen's efforts during the epidemic, other players on the Kings are also in pretty good shape after returning.

Thanks to this, the Kings ended the park qualifying round with an 8-game winning streak and were the only team to win all the games.

(End of this chapter)