NBA: Yao Ming at his peak returns to his rookie season

Merry Christmas, Yao.

competition is over.

Kobe met Yao Ming in his new private locker room.

The reason this lounge exists is because Kobe often trains alone in the arena, and the team's new general manager, Kupchak, made a special exception to prevent complacency—oh, I mean, to build a good relationship with the players.

As someone who just betrayed his mentor, Jerry West.

That was very thoughtful of them.

The Lakers' loss this time was very unfortunate.

They still lost in overtime.

The Kings' Russian roulette-like fast-paced offense broke down the Lakers' defense.

This greatly reduced Kobe and Shaq's physical strength.

今天科比砍下36分7篮板2助攻，但是其中31分来自于前三节，而最后一节的命中率科比被压制到了28%。

The team failed to secure a victory at home.

After the game, the home DJ gave the somber fans a much-needed boost by giving Yao Ming a close-up shot in the crowd.

The stadium lights at Staples Center gave it a close-up for a full 18 seconds!

The fans cheered for victory; those 18 seconds were all for Yao Ming to shine.

After the game, Kobe pushed past the reporters, went to Yao Ming, shook hands with him, and wished him a Merry Christmas.

Kobe was really very green back then.

He's not yet adept at handling complex interpersonal relationships; after all, with Shaquille O'Neal as his leader, those problems don't bother him.

"Merry Christmas to you, Bryant! That was a great shot!"

"Great? It's alright, okay. I'm not happy at all. What's the point of being happy if you can't win a game?" Kobe said as he slumped onto the sofa.

Well, if you keep talking like this, Yao Ming will understand why he and Shaquille O'Neal had a falling out.

With Yao Ming sitting opposite Kobe Bryant, the conversation between the two naturally turned to basketball very quickly.

"Yao, do you really enjoy training? Eight hours a day?"

"It's not that I like Bryant, nobody likes training, well, maybe Ben Wallace is an exception. I train because I need to train, I need to win, my body needs more strength and more active muscles!"

Kobe hadn't expected Yao Ming to be so blunt, but he still asked curiously, "What is active muscle?"

The current timeline is December 2002, which is about to become 2003.

However, the concept of "active muscle" was published in a medical journal in 09 and then began to appear in major sports events in 12.

The topic has certainly generated a lot of buzz.

Yao Ming started to quietly show off.

He began to use methods from sports medicine, traditional Chinese medicine acupuncture, and Chinese body conditioning to open the door for Kobe!

Yao Ming knew Kobe Bryant.

If this bait is thrown in, Kobe will definitely fall for it!

Sure enough, Kobe excitedly grabbed Yao Ming and ran into the Lakers' training room amidst the flashing lights of the reporters!

The most outrageous scene of this Christmas Day game has emerged: after the Lakers lost to the Kings, O'Neal and Webber were still interviewed after the game.

Kobe Bryant actually took Yao Ming to the Lakers' training room.

Kobe was very, very interested in the training methods Yao Ming mentioned.

As long as Kobe is interested enough, Yao Ming is confident that after his negotiations with Adidas fall through, he can persuade Kobe to come to Adidas King!

What does Adidas's rejection of Kobe have to do with my Adidas King?

The next day arrived.

Yao Ming and Kobe Bryant undoubtedly made headlines.

Immediately following, a major deal appeared in the Houston Lifestyle newspaper, which took place last night.

Yao Ming never expected that while he was secretly dating Kobe Bryant, the Rockets would pull a huge stunt on him!

Milwaukee Bucks superstar Glenn Robinson joins Houston!

Upon arriving at the arena, Yao Ming desperately wished he were dreaming, but unfortunately, Francis, who had casually hooked up with a fan the night before, told him that it was true and that the arena had already made it public.

"My God, that's Glenn Robinson! Fantastic, Yao, we're about to take off!"

take off?

Yao Ming is feeling a bit airsick right now.

How did this NBA's most consistent 20-point scorer in history end up coming to Houston? Is Atlanta no longer a good option?

Glenn Robinson joining the Rockets and creating a lineup with two number one draft picks is definitely big news.

Although Glenn Robinson is over 30, he is still in the twilight of his prime.

Last season he averaged 20.7 points, 6.6 rebounds, and 3 assists per game, which were very impressive. He ranked sixth on the small forward list.

As a super musketeer of the 90s.

Although Big Dog's NBA career didn't have any particularly outstanding achievements, he was indeed very famous in the 90s, and was in the All-Star position for many years.

He also led the team to end McGrady's playoff dream for the first time.

McGrady's first playoff run was dominated by Big Dog, who made some very aggressive moves in that game.

It was the kind of beating that almost gave McGrady nightmares.

However, this "big fish" was actually a trap. Yao Ming knew that Glenn Robinson would be traded this season, but he never expected that he would be traded to the Rockets like this!

What terrible thing happened?!

……

The camera pans back.

The trade for Rasheed Wallace has been dragged on for a long time by several teams.

The Spurs were the first to withdraw.

They ran out of chips.

Dawson's move to acquire Steve Jackson, along with a decent draft pick, was a small concession to the Spurs who voluntarily withdrew.

So the teams that remained were the Rockets, Pistons, and Magic, who were then engaged in a final bidding war with the Trail Blazers' general manager, Bob.

The Magic's offer was Grant Hill, Dan Granger, and Mark Aguirre.

Grant Hill has just announced his return and is currently averaging 28 minutes per game, scoring 17 points, 3.5 rebounds, and 5.5 assists. He is the kind of player who has made a triumphant comeback.

It is also because of him that the Magic are more favored by the league this season.

Grant Hill and McGrady are definitely a super gun duo!

The Magic's trade of Grant Hill, along with power forward Dan Granger, was a fairly sincere offer, except that Mark Aguirre has a two-year, $1360 million bad contract.

This deal is all show and no substance.

Next up is the Detroit Pistons, whose assets include Okur, Clifford, Jonbari, and a second-round draft pick.

Chombarri has two years left on his contract and averaged 5 points and 3 rebounds per game last season.

It's not a bad choice to use them as meat shields.

Okur's $420 million and Clifford's $660 million annual salary are both considered high-quality resources, and Clifford, a shooting guard at that time, performed quite well.

Finally, there's the Rockets.

The Pistons provided two high-quality resources, the Magic offered a scratch-off chance, but the Rockets' situation was quite abstract.

Dawson initially proposed a trade involving Cato, Mobley, a first-round pick, and a first-round pick swap in 06.

The call was immediately disconnected.

Both Cato and Mobley are injured and currently untradeable. Who the hell would agree to this?

When one plan failed, Dawson proposed a second one.

The Rockets traded away their seven best-performing players, excluding their two core players, Francis and Yao Ming.

This includes Percy Jane, Eddie Griffin, and two future first-round draft picks.

Dawson wanted to finalize the deal.

They also won over the Bucks and Wizards, who originally had no particular interest in the project.

This operation of exchanging small change for larger bills requires a high level of skill.

This is also the first mega-trade involving more than four teams in the league in four years.

More importantly, the Trail Blazers didn't actually lose out. The reason they fell out with Rasheed Wallace was because he was a rebuilding team.

Dawson himself acquired two draft picks in this round.

The trade proposals with the Bucks and the Wizards both included first-round draft picks.

The final result will likely be that the Trail Blazers get two bad contracts they can waive plus four first-round draft picks.

That's enough to trade for an All-Star player.

Dawson was initially quite confident about the trade, and the discussions were almost complete. They planned to announce the specific details after Christmas and finalize the complex multi-party trade process before the All-Star Game.

totally unexpected!

Glenn Robinson stirred things up around this time.

I pulled a big one.

He was originally due to sign a contract next season, and they had already agreed to sign a four-year contract totaling $46 million.

But he ignored his coach's orders and went to Las Vegas during Christmas.

He lost a large sum of money in one go.

Due to financial difficulties, Glenn Robinson reneged on the contract and demanded a $5300 million deal. He said he wouldn't sign unless he received that!

Is he crazy?

The Bucks' management was furious.

Glenn Robinson has been putting in little effort in 80% of the games over the past two seasons, so giving him $4000 million is already a concession because he was the Bucks' own number one draft pick.

They had to pamper the top student they chose, even if it was through tears, and gave him a high salary.

Now they're turning around and biting the hand that feeds them!?

Finally, with the attitude of "you did this once, I'll do that again," the Bucks unilaterally broke the contract and told Rockets general manager Dawson, "Do you want your potential All-Star scorer? He's cheap. If you agree, we'll send him over—just Percy Jane and one first-round draft pick!"

They were originally pushing for a trade with the Trail Blazers.

But Dawson was surprised to hear this.

With Yao Ming's performance, what difference is there between the Rockets' draft picks and worthless paper?

So they said, "Okay, okay!"

The two of them happily stood Bob up... and the poor, innocent genius was also caught in the crossfire.