Don't talk trash to him.

Chapter 148 Tomorrow, you will announce to the media
Bill Walton said one thing wrong. The Suns actually had "Suwan" but they traded him this summer. It was also in this deal that the Pacers got Dio.

That is Joe Johnson, who has now become the "Eagle King" of the Hawks, averaging 20.2 points, 4.1 rebounds, 6.5 assists and 1.3 steals per game.

Johnson's development into an All-Star caliber player was within everyone's expectations, including the Suns.

But the problem is that if the Suns really match the five-year, $5 million contract offered by the Hawks, then even if they win the championship in the next few years, they won't make much money. And if they fail to win the championship, they will lose everything.

This was not only true for Phoenix, but also for Oklahoma City later on.

This is the tragedy of the small ball market.

The odds are just that big.

Even if you win the championship, that’s the limit.

Let’s not even talk about small markets, how about Boston?
Is it big enough?

Isn't the boss still planning to sell the team after winning the championship in 2024?
There are very few teams like the Golden State Warriors that can build a dynasty and increase their team's market value to the top of the league.

At least several conditions must be met.

First of all, although Oakland has a small population of only 40, which is less than the population of Indiana, the Warriors are backed by the Bay Area and are located in California, an economically developed area, and have promising market prospects.

This is something that teams from small cities can't compare to, like here in Indiana, there are rows of corn fields, and like in Milwaukee, the whole city is making beer. If you ask them to manage the economy, how much money can they make if the machines are running and smoking?

In addition, the Warriors already had a huge fan base before winning the championship.

This is the accumulation of their decades of playing "run and gun".

Otherwise, why do they say “you don’t have to be the best at playing basketball, but you have to be good at it”? Even though the Spurs have been working hard for so many years, the attendance in San Antonio is still not high.

This is something that big cities like Houston and Seattle cannot compare to. Although the cities are big, there are more white-collar workers there, who have no sense of belonging to the team, and the basketball atmosphere is not strong at all.
Therefore, the Warriors' success is difficult to replicate.

If small cities or big cities with average basketball atmosphere want to follow their path, it will be a dead end.

Of course, small markets don't dare to spend money like that.

Phoenix's strongest lineup no longer exists after Joe Johnson left.

Even if they added a "high-quality puzzle piece" like Stephen Jackson this time, the core problem cannot be solved. Even a "top 3D player" like Klay Thompson will find it difficult to help this team achieve a qualitative transformation.

After all, the "Buddha's light" cannot be on all the time.

In the fourth quarter, the Suns regained their stability. The Pacers also switched to the normal "five-man" mode, with Calderon and Dio controlling the team's rhythm and continuing the stalemate with them. Bill Walton has seen a lot of problems in the Pacers' lineup throughout the game, which are basically problems of tacit understanding. He said: "If this is the first time the Pacers use this lineup, they will be terrifying in the future. Maybe they will become the Pacers' 'trump lineup' this season."

As a veteran media person, he can more or less see the horror of the Pacers' lineup. To a certain extent, this is a completely enhanced version of the "Suns", and the Pacers' lineup fully possesses the single-core hard-core solution and defensive capabilities that the Suns lack.

There is no need to explain the single-core hard solution. Fans who have watched this game will not have any doubts about this. If you really can't figure it out, then go watch Su Wan's past videos and you can also find the answer.

Defensively:

The "forward mobile force" formed by O'Neal Jr. and Artest after losing weight can almost reach any area of ​​the half court to complete the defense in the first time.

Su Wan also has a good sense of assisting defense.

Even Bill Walton thought that if Suwan put more energy into defense, he could become a "best defensive line" player. But with Suwan's offensive ability, if he was asked to focus a lot of energy on the defensive end, not to mention Rick Carlisle, even Bill Duffy would not agree, it would be a waste of talent!

113 to 101, the Pacers, who lost to the Suns by 18 points in the previous game, took revenge with a 12-point victory in this game.

That’s 30 points in total.

And Coincidentally, Su Wan scored 30 points in this game!
In addition, he had 6 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals and 1 block.

The decrease in assists is because he has less ball possession. Suwan is now a very pure finisher.

Su Wan had no opinion on this. Whether it was Calderon or Dio, they were better than him as a half-baked player. He could only play spot passes after pick-and-roll, which was fundamentally different from these two people.

Both of them became popular in this game.

卡尔德隆的数据定格在8分2篮板6助攻，投篮命中率50%；迪奥8分4篮板5助攻；

The statistics are not impressive, but the deep impression they left on the audience on the court is higher than the statistics.

Of the 29 teams in the league, there are no more than two teams that can control the tempo in front of Steve Nash and not fall into the Suns' rhythm. And the number of teams that can keep up with the fast-paced offense of the Suns can be counted on one hand.

Now the Pacers have done it with these two unknown newcomers.

Facing the camera, the expressions of the two people also reveal their personalities.

Calderon was very excited. After two years in the NBA, he finally had a chance to shine. He also knew that as long as he continued to maintain his current performance, he would continue to be surrounded by more reporters.

Dio's reaction was completely different from his. As soon as the game was over, his laziness came back and he didn't look nervous at all. The reporter who interviewed him was very puzzled, as if he saw me following the "Sage Time".

Suwan waited for Calderon to finish the interview and asked, "How do you feel?"

Calderon said honestly: "I feel like a star."

Su Wan said: "This is the exposure of the defending champion. Now I can officially tell you, welcome to join Indiana, let's win the championship together this season!"

Calderon nodded. He could feel that he was slowly becoming an important part of this team.

Su Wan returned to the bus and Artest arrived early again. He was sitting there playing with his phone. When he looked up and saw Su Wan, he forced a smile.

Su Wan: ???
The Pacers players returned to the car one after another, leaving only O'Neal Jr. pretending to be cool in front of the camera, no, accepting an interview.

He got a "double-double" of 25 points and 13 rebounds today, surpassing Stoudemire's 21 points and 10 rebounds.

Reporter: "Jermaine, we can see that you played like another Amare in this game..."

O'Neal's smiling face suddenly stopped smiling. He interrupted the reporter and said, "I am not another Amare. I entered the league six years earlier than him. I have a championship ring. When I first came to the Pacers, I played the same way I do now. But I have more than just these abilities. If I really want to say, I should be an enhanced version of Amare..."

He reminded reporters that the chicken came before the egg; O'Neal Jr. came first, then Stoudemire, and the logical relationship cannot be messed up.

The reporter was confused. He had only said half a sentence, but how could this guy say so much?

But O'Neal's words are bound to cause dissatisfaction in Stoudemire, but he still gained something.

The next day, just as the reporter expected, Stoudemire was very dissatisfied with what O'Neal said. The two of them exchanged insults from a distance, and a "war of words" between top inside players with similar styles began.

However, the "war of words" between these two people can only be regarded as a minor episode.

The Pacers' victory over the Suns is the source of the heated discussion.

This is the second game between the Suns and the Pacers. Everyone knows how badly the Pacers lost in the previous game.

A full 18 points. With Su Wan's return, it would be very difficult to make up for this 18-point gap.

After all, the NBA is not a place where 1 plus 1 equals 2.

Sometimes, 1 plus 1 is less than 1.
But Su Wan, surprisingly, performed a wave of 1 plus 1 is greater than 2...

If the first game after his return was a pure display of Su Wan's personal ability, then the second game was a reflection of Su Wan's leadership ability.

Calderon and Dio did not just get the chance to play in this game. They had gotten the chance to play in the previous six games without Suwan, but neither of them left a deep impression.

Instead, it was Su Wan who did it in the second game after his return.

This only shows that Su Wan’s return motivated them.

There are also some media outlets that still insisted that the Pacers were just "a last gasp" after their victory over the Grizzlies, but now they are silent.

Of course, they are only silent temporarily, but don't give them a chance. Once they find a chance, they will definitely jump out again and "bite" hard, just like ESPN's Bill Simmons. When he finds an angle, he will immediately jump out, like a toad sticking to your feet, which is really disgusting.

Only if the Pacers continue to win can these "clowns" shut their mouths forever.

Normally, there wouldn't be so many doubts about the defending champions in previous years, which was mainly due to the Pacers' championship process in June.

Although they had led the Spurs 2-1 before the "Conseco incident" and had a 10-point lead in the third quarter of Game of the series, this group of people insisted that if it weren't for the "Conseco incident", the Spurs might have been able to reverse and win the championship.

But no matter what, the two consecutive victories have alleviated the Pacers' sense of crisis.

Walsh has been sleeping much better lately.

As for Big Bird…

This birdman was not nervous from beginning to end. He had 6 win and 1 losses in the first 5 games. When Walsh ran to find him, he waved his hand calmly: "It's okay, it's okay, don't worry!"

Walsh really wanted to kick him twice at that time.

Of course, it turns out...

It's indeed okay!

But Walsh insisted that Larry Bird didn't really have a plan in mind. He just had the "aftereffects of showing off," a habitual habit of showing off, and he had to pretend to be calm even when he was anxious.

After defeating the Suns, the Pacers have a better atmosphere and are more confident.

After all, the No. 1 team in the Western Conference won, so they wanted to ask:

Who else?
They won consecutive games and their winning streak lasted until they won 5 games in a row. Then, they lost to the Magic team, whose players were in great form, by one point in a back-to-back game. If it weren't for "Big F"'s buzzer-beating three-pointer from halftime, they would not have lost the game.

However, losing is losing, and Su Wan is not someone who can't afford to lose. When Francis made this "super long three-pointer", he gave a thumbs up.

It’s just that the atmosphere after the game was not so harmonious.

Howard, who scored 20 points and 14 rebounds in this game, said directly to the media: "I hope everyone can see that the 04 class is not just Sue, there are other outstanding newcomers. We have changed a lot since our rookie season."

In fact, the "we" Howard mentioned was himself.

In the second season of his career, he has averaged 16 points, 12.5 rebounds and 1.5 blocks per game so far, showing signs of developing into a top inside player.

But his exposure in the media is still almost the same as last season, which makes him very depressed.

In this game, he defeated the Pacers, who had played back-to-back games, and he finally found a chance to vent.

When Su Wan heard that he was looking for trouble after the game, he just repeated it twice: "OK, OK!"

This beam can be regarded as knotted.

After hearing about this, O'Neal, in order to avenge Su Wan, complained: "To be honest, I've never seen anyone fart so much during a game!"

But Howard just laughed and said, "This is my secret weapon. No one can imitate it. Jermaine is just making excuses for his slump tonight!"

O'Neal Jr. only had 15 points and 7 rebounds tonight, which is indeed a big gap compared to his 23 points and 13 rebounds in the previous winning streak.

What surprised Su Wan was that Artest did not take the opportunity to make fun of him.

"Is your uncle here?"

"what?"

"Nothing, Ron, you've been acting weird lately!"

On the plane back home, Su Wan saw that the others were playing Texas Hold'em together, but Artest was still sitting alone by the window, so he took the initiative to talk to him. But Artest obviously didn't want to talk, so he put on an eye mask and pretended to sleep.

"Okay, Ron, you just feel like the reporters are interviewing other people and you're being ignored!"

Artest took off his blindfold and looked at Su Wan in disbelief, as if to say:
How did you know?
Su Wan didn't know at first, but after Howard complained to the media today, he suddenly figured it out. And he knew very well that Artest originally asked to be traded in front of the media because he felt that his exposure was not as good as O'Neal's.

Then there was an uproar.

O'Neal Jr. and Stephen Jackson both denounced Artest for having no "morality".

After all, they all missed the chance to win the championship last season because of Artest's impulsiveness. And these accusations completely drove Artest, the "ostrich", away.

Now that they have changed their playing style, O'Neal, whose impact under the basket is even greater than that of "Little Bully" Stoudemire, plus Suwan, who ranks in the top ten in the league in scoring with an average of 27.4 points per game, and the recently emerging "ball-holding duo" of Calderon and Dio, have made Artest's exposure in front of the media much lower than during the same period.

Every time Artest got back on the bus or returned to the home team's locker room, he looked at the empty seats and felt extremely depressed.

He knew that he did not have Su Wan's influence, but he did not want to be an invisible person.

But he promised to win the "three consecutive championships" with Suwan and O'Neal, so he killed the idea of ​​applying for a trade. - This is the saying "If you are close to vermilion, you will be red." Following Suwan to conquer the world, Artest's mind has become much stronger and he is no longer the "ostrich".

It's just that he doesn't know how to break the current predicament.

Since Su Wan knew about this matter, he simply spoke frankly and complained madly, and finally said: "Su, I want exposure, I want to return to the All-Star stage, what do you think I should do?"

Su Wan said: "It's very simple!"

"Hmm?" This answer was something Atai didn't expect. He had been thinking about the dilemma for so many days but couldn't find a solution, but Su Wan actually said it was very simple.

"Tomorrow, you will announce to the media that you will become the first small forward in NBA history to win two Defensive Player of the Year trophies!"

Artest: !!!
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(End of this chapter)