Don't talk trash to him.

Chapter 158: The most dazzling boy in January, Kobe "slays" the dragon
On December 12th, a big event happened in Miami:
Pat Riley fired his disciple Stan Van Gundy and became the new head coach of the Heat.

The outside world was shocked. They didn't expect Pat Riley to really come out again, and to be so cruel as to fire his own trusted disciple.

Seeing these media people's inexperienced looks, Su Wan wanted to say:
Where is this?

Essentially, Pat Riley is the same type of person as Ainge, the future Celtics general manager.

When it comes to business, there is no emotion, including sympathy, towards the opponents’ players and head coach.

The Miami media cheered, and Heat fans shouted "It's dawn!"

main reason:

Before the start of the new season, the Heat, who were considered by many media to be the "top team of the new season", did not perform as expected. Half a month after the start of the season, they and the Pacers went from being the "double heroes" in the prediction list to the "double draw" of the new season.

But for the Pacers, with the return of Suwan, everything was solved and the team slowly regained its strength.

Especially after entering December, their fierce momentum once reached 12 consecutive victories, until before the "Christmas War", when they lost the first game of December.

The Heat are different. At the end of November, their winning rate was barely over 11%. In the first 50 games of December, they only had 12 wins and 8 losses. Now they are sitting in fourth place in the Eastern Conference, with no hope of breaking into the top three.

For Heat fans who are aiming to win the championship this season, this is a difficult result to accept.

The firing of Stan Van Gundy is understandable.

Then, before the end of 05, the league made another big deal that shocked everyone:

The Philadelphia 76ers sent "The Answer" Allen Iverson, a Philadelphia icon who had played for the team for ten years, to the Nuggets in exchange for Andre Miller, Joe Smith and two first-round draft picks.

Considering Allen Iverson's "superstar" status, this is almost a "half-sale, half-gift" price.

Andre Miller is pretty good, having won the league's "assist king" title, but that's all. Compared to Allen Iverson, he can't hold a candle to him. Now that he has become the main bargaining chip in this deal, it can only mean one thing:
The Philadelphia management wanted to rebuild, and Allen Iverson had officially reached the "bottom of the ninth inning" of his career. If he couldn't make a high-quality return to reverse the game, then the highest achievement of his career would almost be frozen.

This is what The New York Times said about the deal.

And as far as Su Wan knew, the New York Times' evaluation this time was very accurate!
After Allen Iverson joined the Nuggets, he seemed to form a "fierce" "golden duo" with Carmelo Anthony. Their offense was hot during the regular season and their record was very good, but they repeatedly failed to break through the first round in the playoffs. Finally, they were broken up in less than two years. Allen Iverson was sent to Detroit in exchange for Chauncey Billups.

Then Carmelo Anthony reached the peak of his career, and the "answer" that Allen Iverson wanted to find was shattered in the American night sky, just like the city of Detroit.

From then on, the NBA no longer had an "answer".

Su Wan is not worried about the future of his "idol".

But this is a "wake-up call".

Watch him build a tall building, watch him entertain guests, watch his building collapse...

A player's career is like "rowing against the current". When he can no longer move forward, that's when he starts to go downhill.

Allen Iverson in 97 and Suwan in 05;

Suwan will also play a perfect season like Allen Iverson did in 01, attracting countless fans to compete for him;
Of course, there may come a day when he is abandoned by the team like Allen Iverson.

Unless, he has always been at the peak, and at the most glorious moment, he made a gorgeous turn and retired successfully.

Just like Jordan's first and second retirements...

That's too difficult, but it's also what Su Wan is striving for.

Philadelphia fans could not accept Allen Iverson being traded and shouted "We don't want Andre Miller".

Miller heard this and responded in front of the media: "I don't want to play for Philadelphia either!"

Coincidentally, on December 12th, the Lakers vs. the Grizzlies.

Kobe was hit in the eye by Mike Miller during a breakthrough, and blood was all over his face. The referee called a timeout but did not call a foul. Kobe, who was vindictive, licked his lips slightly while the bleeding stopped, and then turned around and walked back to the court, as if he had made up his mind.

After coming on the court, he knocked Mike Miller to the ground with an elbow.

The referee gave him a "flagrant foul" and the official added a two-game suspension to him after the game.

He was shocked by this and asked the official: "Why didn't I get a foul even though he (Mike) shot my eye?"

Then he received a fine of $1.

Barkley said: "I seem to see a lot more Su Wans in this league all of a sudden."

Su Wan on Facebook: Ah yes, yes, blame me, blame me!

The NBA's 05 year ended in this violent atmosphere.

On January 1, the first day of 1, the official "Best of the Month" for December was announced.

Suwan averaged 29.8 points, 5.2 rebounds, 3.4 assists, 1.8 steals and 1.2 blocks per game, with a shooting percentage of 48.7%, a three-point shooting percentage of 32.3% and a free throw shooting percentage of 81.4%. While leading the team to a record of 13 wins and 2 losses, he won the second "Player of the Month Award" in his career and the first in the new season.

The player who won the "Player of the Month Award" together with Suwan was Dirk Nowitzki of the Dallas Mavericks.

After "Little General" Avery Johnson took office, he managed the team's defense with an iron fist, which has achieved certain results since the end of last season, allowing them to fight the Rockets for seven games.

After a series of trade adjustments in the summer, the Mavericks formed a "new three musketeers" headed by Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Kidd and Josh Howard. They are currently ranked first in the league with a record of 26 wins and 4 losses.

整个12月份，小牛队的战绩为14胜2负，德克-诺维斯基场均可以拿到27.2分9.3篮板3.3助攻1盖帽，场均投篮命中率47.2%，三分球命中率30%，罚球命中率91.2%！

In the Western Conference without Tim Duncan, he and the Clippers' Brand became a rival at the power forward position.

Brand has also made great progress!

As for Kevin Garnett...

Most media outlets said that it would not be too late to discuss his performance on the court and whether he could compete with Nowitzki after the Timberwolves climb out of the position of "second-to-last" in the Western Conference.

Moreover, if we really compare the two players in terms of salary and other aspects, Kevin Garnett is really incomparable.

Dirk Nowitzki only makes $1384 million this season, while Kevin Garnett is the highest paid player in the league with $2112 million.

With such a high salary, the Timberwolves are ranked second to last in the Western Conference...

Yes, this is very "iron-blooded"!
The two biggest scams in the NBA:

Kevin Garnett's iron blood, LeBron James' versatility. Many media said that Dirk Nowitzki ushered in the peak season of his career.

In fact, he is also Suwan's biggest competitor for the regular season MVP.

Currently, the two are ranked first and second in the regular season list respectively.

After Suwan returned from suspension, he led the Pacers to a strong rebound and quickly climbed to the top of the regular season MVP list, surpassing all other teams until now.

The Dallas media was very dissatisfied, believing that Suwan was "taking shortcuts" and that Dirk Nowitzki's role in the Mavericks would be even more important than his.

The Indiana media has now inherited Suwan's anger and directly stated: "Since you are so confident, you can let Dirk Nowitzki rest on the bench for half a month to see what the Mavericks' loss of him will have. Then wait for him to come back and see if he can lead the Mavericks to rebound quickly like Suwan did!"

Listen, is this human language?
The Mavericks are on such a good momentum right now, who would want to suspend their core player for no reason? Just to prove how important he is to the team?

and……

Team chemistry is a very mysterious thing.

If you say it is there, it exists; if you say it is not there, it is gone.

Just look at the Timberwolves' brief glorious period in the 03-04 season.

They were not strong from the beginning of that season, but after an internal team dispute in December, they suddenly went on a winning streak and became unstoppable, eventually becoming the No. 12 team in the Western Conference that season.

But in just one summer, the players were still the same, but the team's combat effectiveness quickly dropped to the point where they couldn't even make the playoffs.

Those corn growers in Indiana are damned!
Suwan was not surprised by the targeting of the Dallas media.

This is common in the league.

If they want their city's stars to win awards, besides praising their own players crazily, they will also do all kinds of things to pull down and suppress their competitors.

This is similar to the idea of ​​the later "Fan War".

Of course, the Internet was more developed at that time, and the means of playing were more diverse. Sometimes they would not criticize openly, for example, if a certain drama became popular, as competitors, they would not openly say how bad the drama was, but would say how good the other actors in the drama were.

Just like the most classic sentence in a certain group, "Paul Gasol was recognized as the best power forward in the league at that time."

But often because their own main players are not strong enough, they cannot praise too much when they praise them, and they must leave room for improvement. Even a set of classic theories was born. The first sentence is: Tim Duncan can be strong, but not too strong, because he shaved xx's head once and once in the finals...

Compared to them, the Dallas media is still in its initial stages. On the contrary, the Indiana media's sarcasm is very much in line with Suwan's approach.

This is the power of role models!

Indiana, just learn it, and once you learn it, no one else will say a word!

It is also for this reason that Su Wan ignored the Dallas media.

In the first game of January, the Pacers continued to maintain their strong performance. They easily defeated the Orlando Magic and completed their revenge.

Howard, who boasted after completing the buzzer-beater with Francis' "half-court three-pointer" last time, only scored 14 points and 8 rebounds in this game. His performance was completely suppressed by O'Neal's 25 points and 12 rebounds.

He was speechless after the game, but O'Neal was not going to let him off easily: "If it's just a performance like this, it won't attract media attention. Sometimes, when no one pays attention, you still have to find out what went wrong!"

As for Su Wan, he ignored Howard from beginning to end.

Although they were drafted in the same year, they were not on the same level at all, and ignoring them would only make the 04 No. pick even more angry and humiliated.

It was thanks to him that Su Wan opened "The zone" tonight.

最终苏万24投13中，三分球球3投1中，罚球4罚4中，全场砍下了31分，还有6个篮板跟2次助攻2次抢断以及1次盖帽。

This block is a big one for Howard.

Seeing Suwan's performance in the first game of January, Barkley said: "Obviously Suwan has made great progress this season!"

Kenny Smith nodded in agreement, and he also pointed out the difference between Suwan this season and last season: "This season, Suwan is more focused on scoring. When the ball comes to him, his first goal is to put the ball into the basket."

"His current playing style is a very pure forward-guard swingman!"

"And whether it's his breakthrough or shooting, it's better than last season, especially his mid-range, which is much more stable than last season."

"He seems to be practicing his ability to catch and shoot recently. Although holding the ball is still his best and most frequent way of attacking, we can see that in the last two games, the frequency of his mid-range and three-point shots after catching the ball has begun to increase. He will have 4 to 5 shots of mid-range or three-point shots after catching the ball in each game."

"The number of times is not many, and now it seems that the efficiency is not good enough, but don't forget that his mid-range shots were also trained in this way!"

Bill Walton analyzed the Pacers' recent strength from the team's perspective:
"Su Wan's growth is undoubted, and this is something I have always emphasized!"

"But at the same time, the addition of Jose Calderon and Boris Diao is also key to the transformation of this team."

"Now their small lineup has become more and more skilled. Many times, they rely on that small lineup to pull away from their opponents. I originally gave an inappropriate example. I think they can be regarded as an enhanced version of the Suns. Now I must reiterate my point of view. This is the enhanced version of the Suns!"

On the offensive end, Dio and Calderon made up for the weakest link in the organization.

As for the defensive end, the Pacers' defensive system, with Artest as the defensive spearhead, focuses on "soft and hard" on the outside and "super mobility" on the inside. Artest, O'Neal Jr. and Suwan have formed more tacit understanding.

Their three-man double-team seemed to remind people of the "Qiao Pi double-team" of the past, with a full sense of oppression.

It is also because both Suwan and the team have made great progress compared to last season and filled the original shortcomings that the Pacers have once again won seven consecutive games.

In the following games, Suwan scored 3 points or more in three consecutive games, including one game with 30 points or more.

But he is not the most eye-catching guy in the league.

But:

Kobe Bryant!

禁赛归来，他的火力达到了新的高度，三场50+、4场40+、2个制胜球、连续62记罚球全进、第四节场均14.8分……

On January 1, his solo show reached its peak:

He made 46 of 28 shots, 13 of 7 three-pointers, and 20 of 18 free throws, scoring 81 points and leading the team to "slay" the dragon!

(End of this chapter)