Champion Rules

Chapter 121, Section 117: Time is silent, yet it has changed so much (Seeking monthly votes!)
After acquiring Zach Randolph, the Detroit Pistons received another forward, Stephen Jackson.

This troublesome individual got into an altercation with several customers at a strip club in Indianapolis this summer. Jackson was punched by one of the customers, then hit by a car and rolled onto the hood. Driven to his wits' end, he pulled out a 9mm handgun, escalating the conflict into a shooting.

Although he did not injure anyone and claimed that he only fired into the air in self-defense, he still could not escape charges.

The Indiana Pacers, already in the process of rebuilding, almost immediately put this troublesome player on the trading block. Joe Dumars promptly initiated the trade process, giving up Michael Finley and Brent Barry to bring Stephen Jackson into the team, filling the frontcourt void left by Antonio McDyess' departure.

Joe Dumars's current state can be summed up in one sentence: I don't care what you do!

He doesn't care how wicked or disgraced a person is. As long as they have some ability, he'll recruit them without having to pay too much.

At the very least, we need to show Carmelo Anthony that he's making an effort to buy time for the rebuild.

With numerous blockbuster trades this offseason, the New York Knicks are destined to face many challenges.

With teams across the league rebuilding their rosters, fans are eagerly anticipating the start of the new season.

After completing his work at the Reebok Junior Training Camp, Lynch also began preparing for the new season.

He has rested long enough and enjoyed himself enough.

It's time to irrigate your overflowing talent with sweat.

Everyone else lacks the talent to use, but Lynch has more than enough.

Lynch needs plenty of time to fully realize the three talents he acquired during this offseason.

He continued to run a private training camp, and Trevor Ariza and Teodosic, as always, never missed a session, training with Lynch every summer.

While Lynch was sweating it out, Carmelo Anthony was also honing his skills in a training facility converted from an abandoned car factory.

This summer, Carmelo Anthony signed a six-year maximum contract extension with the Detroit Pistons, which will take effect in the summer of 2007 and is worth nearly $100 million – making him the first player from the 2003 draft class to sign a maximum contract.

But after signing a multi-million dollar annual contract, Carmelo Anthony didn't let himself go; instead, he threw himself into the training facility.

The scene of Lynch celebrating amidst a shower of confetti last season is his biggest motivation to keep training.

He knew that in this era, it was a matter of life or death for him and Lynch!
The two were sweating profusely, and LeBron James was also drenched in sweat.

He was drinking watermelon juice with his team under the Hawaiian sun, discussing the future of his career.

Unlike Carmelo Anthony, the owner of the number 23 jersey is standing at a crossroads in his destiny.

His think tank is engaged in a heated debate over the length of the contract, the clamor even drowning out the tides of the Pacific Ocean.

His team doesn't want James to be too closely tied to the Cavaliers. If he honestly signs a 5 or 6-year contract extension, it means that LBJ will spend at least the first 8 years of his career in Cleveland.

Therefore, if LBJ cannot succeed with the Cleveland Cavaliers, then the first eight years of his professional career will have been wasted.

How many eight-year periods are there in a player's professional career?
He can't afford to squander his prime like Karl Malone did, dying in Salt Lake City.

The correct approach is to cut your losses promptly when success is no longer possible.

To cut his losses in time, LBJ cannot be bound by a long-term contract.

For James and his close friends, one thing is certain: they all want to achieve something great.

In a way, it is this very point that has brought them to where they are today.

Therefore, they must find a way to give LeBron James more control on his path to greatness.

If Cleveland cannot make LBJ successful, at least LBJ will have the option to leave Cleveland.

Leon Rose proposed a scenario: "Everyone wants long-term contracts, but don't forget that Michael Jordan signed one-year contracts towards the end of his career, which gave him a lot of leverage. He could force the Bulls to remain competitive, or he could choose to leave as a second option. It turns out that for superstars with enough talent, they can ignore the income stability issues associated with short contracts. With LeBron's talent, he doesn't need to sign five or six years at once, and we don't need to be tied up by the Cavaliers."

Maverick Carter shrugged: "One-year contracts? What if LeBron gets injured? How will his next contract be guaranteed? That's too risky; it could cause our business empire to collapse instantly!"

"We don't have to sign one-year contracts; we can just sign shorter ones than other rookies. For example, we could sign a five-year contract with a player option after the fourth year. Or we could sign a four-year contract with the player option exercised after the third year. Shaq won a championship after leaving Orlando, and LeBron might succeed in Cleveland, but if not, we need to keep an escape pod like this."

The murmurs of the crowd gradually faded into the background as LeBron's gaze swept across the emerald sea, fixed on the distant horizon.

He was struggling internally.

He hopes to bring the championship to his hometown, a dream he's had since childhood.

On the other hand, he didn't want to, or rather, dared not, challenge his own destiny.

He doesn't have the courage of Reggie Miller.

He didn't know what he would do if he couldn't succeed with the Cavaliers.

Will he become an eternal symbol of Ohio, or a monarch who controls his own destiny?

"LeBron, what do you think?" Leon Rose, who advocates for short-term contracts, glanced at LBJ.

Maverick Carter answered for him directly: "LBJ will win a championship in Cleveland. It's his chance to become a legend, and it's a goal he's had since he was a child."

Carter was confident because he believed that the damn agent didn't understand LBJ at all.

In fact, Leon Rose has always been an "outsider" in James' team.

LBJ's ultimate plan is to develop his close friend Rich Paul into a top agent, so that everyone on LBJ's team will be his own people.

So, Leon Rose was just a stepping stone; Maverick Carter didn't fully trust him. James unconsciously ran his fingertips along the condensation on the glass: "Enjoy the sunshine, gentlemen. Who dares say I'll never succeed in Cleveland? We have Jermaine, we have Tayshaun, we have Coach Larry; we're competitive. Maverick is right, bringing a championship to Cleveland is my dream. So, I won't sign any short-term contracts."

At that moment, these words came from his heart.

Time flies, summer has passed, and maple leaves have turned the North American land red.

September has excited basketball fans across North America as the new season approaches.

Chinese fans are eager for Lynch to avenge his loss to the Spanish team.

At this year's World Championships, the Chinese team, as Olympic champions, barely made it out of the group stage.

Without Lin Qi, the strength of the entire Chinese team is not on the same level as the team in 2004.

Spain ultimately became world champions at the Saitama Super Arena, defeating Greece 70-47 in the final in a stunning upset.

In an interview, Pau Gasol laughed and said, "Yes, the final was easier than we expected. I respect the Greek team, but we obviously played better. In fact, our initial opponent in the final was the Chinese team, and we prepared a lot for that. But obviously, they weren't as strong as we thought."

"If Lynch were on the Chinese team, what do you think the result would be?"

"The Chinese team may make it to the finals, but I think we will still be the champions."

This Catalan-born Spanish star certainly wouldn't say anything nice about Lynch, who came from Real Madrid.

For European players, some grudges are ingrained in their very being.

These fiery remarks instantly ignited Chinese basketball forums. Although Lynch did not respond to Pau Gasol, Chinese fans believed that given Lynch's personality, the Memphis Grizzlies would definitely have a tough time next season.

Meanwhile, Zach Randolph and Stephen Jackson went to Detroit ahead of time, and reporters photographed them looking for a house.

The Detroit Free Press kicked off its media onslaught with the satirical headline, "Guess if they can behave for a week."

The Detroit media believed that these two notorious individuals would turn Motor City upside down, and they were ready with their cameras and microphones to scrutinize the two new recruits with the same scrutiny they would show to criminals, even though they had only just arrived.

"Imagine Zach Randolph, the founder of 'graveside rave,' taking a day off to attend a relative's funeral, only to be photographed by the media at a strip club in Detroit. That would be enough to give the media plenty of coverage for days," the columnists predicted excitedly, their words brimming with a thirst for scandal.

(When Randolph was with the Trail Blazers, he asked for leave on the grounds that his aunt had passed away and he had to attend her funeral, but he was caught by reporters at a strip club.)

After all, such a scandal is enough to make all the media outlets rave about.

The news pages of the car city seem to have reserved space for this pair of "troublesome brothers" to reenact their absurd drama.

But Carmelo Anthony spoke up for them on a radio show.

“I don’t think there’s anything wrong with Zach and Steph. They are both excellent players and misunderstood fighters. I think they are an important addition to the Pistons and key to our return to the throne. They are not the problem, they are the answer.”

This mature declaration, so different from his first three years in the professional career, made all the reporters realize that the once-pampered Carmelo Anthony, after experiencing the pain of his dynasty's collapse, had been tempered into the sharp edge of a steel leader.

He no longer used youthful excuses to cover up his predicament, but instead took a do-or-die approach by bringing controversial players under his wing.

At the same time, Lynch officially released the first generation of sneakers in collaboration with former Nike designer Tinker Hadfield, the "Kirin 1".

This sneaker abandons the previous "Caesar" series promotion and instead uses a more Chinese-style name, which also echoes Lynch's name.

The "Caesar" series will continue to release new shoes, but they will be launched as more affordable, mass-market sneakers. In other words, Lynch's signature shoes will simultaneously capture both the high-end and lower-end markets.

To promote the sneakers, Reebok also designed a slogan that was memorable and precisely targeted the admiration of the younger generation for the strong:
“The Qilin only responds to a wise and virtuous ruler, and clearly, I am one of them.”

These sneakers were released at the height of Lynch's popularity, and unsurprisingly, they became a global sensation.

According to data from Footwear News, the shoe topped the global sneaker sales charts in its first month with overwhelming force, leaving Nike's Kobe Bryant signature shoe, LBJ 3rd generation, and Carmelo Anthony Melo 3.0 far behind.

Stephen A. Smith even boldly stated that Adidas's plan to join forces with Reebok to crush Nike might still be achievable, but it certainly wouldn't be the Adidas-Reebok group they envisioned; rather, it would be Reebok-Adidas. Indeed, Lynch reversed everything for them. Even if an acquisition had occurred, it would now be Reebok acquiring Adidas!
The huge success of the Kirin 1 caused Nike's stock price to drop by 2.3%. As Nike's biggest brand ambassador, LeBron James felt a huge sense of frustration watching his shoe sales lag far behind those of Lynch, Melo, and Kobe.

The day before the start of the new NBA season training camp.

Carmelo Anthony had dinner with Stephen Jackson and Zach Randolph, and the young Melo was painting a picture of the team's future. He had gone from being led by Billups to leading others.

Lynch, with the air of the King of New York, told reporters that "the championship banner will still fly," having transformed from a challenger into a monarch.

LeBron James then called Leon Rose and said, "Tell Cleveland that I agree to an early extension, but only a 2+1 contract. You're right, Leon, we need to reserve the right to move at any time."

He completely changed his mind.

He could no longer tolerate these setbacks; his obsession with bringing a championship to Cleveland was being overshadowed by his personal determination not to fail. His earlier statement about wanting to bring a championship to Cleveland was heartfelt, and his current desire to sign a short-term contract is also genuine.

With their own transformations, these three young talents, completely different from when they first entered the league, began their 06-07 season, continuing to write their story in this era.

Time is silent, yet it quietly changes many things, alters the trajectory of fate, and answers many questions.
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Opening game: New York Knicks vs. San Antonio Spurs. Hopefully, Lynch is ready to face the world's most formidable defensive frontcourt duo. — Sports Illustrated

I feel like I've finally found my true home. I've never had the chance to fight for a championship in my career, and now that I have it, I will cherish it. — Zach Randolph, in a rare move, expressed his anticipation for the new season during an interview.

"I don't care about anything else, but no one can touch Melo next season." — Stephen Jackson threatened the entire league in a press interview.

I don't think there's a problem with that. Forget about the contract, let's focus on the game. I guarantee we'll soar this season. — LeBron James avoided the question of "why only short-term contracts," and then offered another "guarantee" like he was wholesaling secondhand goods.

"You can ask God this question. How do you ask God? You have the chance to talk to God right now." —Stephen Marbury pointed to Lynch beside him when asked at the new season's media day how the Knicks would break through the combined blockade of Tim Duncan and Ben Wallace.

(End of this chapter)