More than half a month has passed since the key battle of G6 of the NBA Finals.
The NBA has finally entered the offseason.
Players who have worked hard all season also choose to take a vacation to relax at this time. And those teams that were eliminated in the regular season also took this opportunity to go to the summer league to explore available newcomers and try to prepare for next season.
Zhao Feiyang is also not idle. Of course, he will not play in the summer league to earn a contract like ordinary players. Instead, he chooses to relax on the beach in Miami with LeBron James and Dwyane Wade.
Now he and LeBron James are both free agents.
The latter just announced a few days ago that he will jump out of the last year of his contract with the Heat.
As a result, either the Heat will spend a lot of money to continue to renew his contract, or the Heat will have no choice but to let LeBron James enter the free market.
LeBron James is at the peak of his powers after winning his third championship ring. No matter where he chooses to go, it will definitely be explosive news for the entire league.
Whether he stays or goes will definitely affect the entire free market.
In short, the initiative is completely in the hands of LeBron James.
Zhao Feiyang himself, faced with offers from no less than five teams, did not make an immediate choice. Instead, he decided to rest for a while to recover his physical condition.
Throughout the season, even a great guy like LeBron James couldn't stand it, not to mention that his physical fitness couldn't match that of LeBron James.
During his vacation, agent David Stock kept calling Zhao Feiyang to inform him of the offers from various clubs.
The most sincere among them is the Houston Rockets. The other party not only offered very generous conditions, but also expressed its willingness to support other Chinese players to play in the Development League with the Rockets and to carry out various cooperation with China.
In addition, the Golden State Warriors, who had contacted Zhao Feiyang before, raised their offer again.
The other party specially offered a three-year, 33 million contract in an attempt to lure Zhao Feiyang over. Although they already have Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson in their team, the team still needs to ensure the combat effectiveness of the second team.
They only made it to the first round of the playoffs last season, but that doesn't mean they won't have any chances in the future.
The Los Angeles Lakers are undoubtedly the most special of these pursuers.
After Zhao Feiyang's performance, the current Lakers regretted it. Just after the finals, they fired Byron Scott and sent Steven Scott to the Development League.
This move is a bit impulsive, but it is undoubtedly showing Zhao Feiyang's attitude. As long as he is willing to return to the Lakers, the Lakers can first send away these people who hate him.
In addition, the Lakers also made a three-year offer of 30 million, and promised that Zhao Feiyang would be the second core player besides Kobe Bryant, and would also guarantee his starting position. In order not to let him The position overlaps with that of Kobe Bryant, and they hope that Zhao Feiyang can play the number one position.
Not to mention Zhao Feiyang, even agent David Stock saw these remarks clearly. The Lakers said they wanted Zhao Feiyang to play the one position. In essence, they wanted to sign Zhao Feiyang with such immediate combat ability. But he didn't dare to offend Kobe Bryant.
As for whether Steven Scott will be fired in the end, as long as Zhao Feiyang compromises and returns to Los Angeles, these things may not necessarily be carried out.
Of course, firing Byron Scott will still happen.
This guy's team is really playing badly this season! Even without Kobe Bryant, that is by no means a reason to perform so poorly!
After some thinking, Zhao Feiyang also officially made a decision to meet with these teams separately before returning to China to participate in the national team competition, and then make a formal decision on which team to join next season.
at the same time.
China.
Yangcheng.
City Center Stadium.
While Zhao Feiyang was on vacation on the beach, an important game of the Stankovic Cup intercontinental basketball tournament was being held here.
The Stankovic Cup Intercontinental Basketball Tournament is one of the highest-level official international events held in China.
It was initiated by Dr. Cheng Wanqi, Chairman of the International Basketball Federation (FIBA), to commend FIBA Secretary-General Stankovic for his contribution to the development of international basketball, and the competition was named after Stankovic.
Of course, the above is the official explanation.
In layman's terms, in order to help the Chinese Men's Basketball Team warm up, the Chinese Basketball Association officials specially spent money to invite some teams to play in warm-up matches.
In fact, when the first Stankovic Cup Championship was held in 2005, there were still many teams participating.
At that time, the event had strong support from Li Yuanwei, the spokesperson of FIBA and the Basketball Association, with official background endorsement, and four levels of sponsors. It was still run according to the model of the world's top events.
The participating teams are also the main lineups of major national teams, and there are even NBA players from some teams participating.
Such a large-scale event lasted for a total of three times. These three times can be said to be the glorious moments of the Stankovic Cup.
However, after the 2008 Olympic Games, as China's domestic investment and attention to sports gradually showed a decreasing trend, the Stankovic Cup became increasingly lonely.
Later, the participating teams were either not the main players, or were improvised teams, or even youth teams were sent to compete.
When the strength of the participating teams becomes watery, a vicious cycle will result.
More strong teams stopped coming, and sponsors were unwilling to continue investing money. The prize money for the Stankovic Cup was initially US$100,000, and was later reduced to only US$30,000, even if the player selected for the best team of the event , and the prize is only $1,000.
More importantly, this event is not a regular FIBA competition and cannot allow more teams to change the world rankings through points.
As a result, the Stankovic Cup, which gradually became useless, no longer received the same attention as it did at the beginning.
Despite this, in order to practice the Chinese men's basketball team well and get them into the state earlier, the Basketball Association officially invited several teams to participate in the competition.
This game is the first game of the Stankovic Cup, and it can also be called the opening game.
The two participating parties are the Chinese Men’s Basketball Team and the Philippine Men’s Basketball Team.
Like the Chinese men's basketball team, the Philippine men's basketball team also successfully qualified for the World Cup with the help of naturalized players.
Such a warm-up match, to some extent, can indeed help the Chinese men's basketball team warm up.
However, what no one expected was that before the game, it seemed that the Huaxia Men's Basketball Team could surely win the game. It stumbled from the first half, and in the second half, it was led by the opponent's nose and continued to counterattack.
The naturalized European foreign players of the Philippine team are not very famous. At least before this game, many people did not know who these foreign players were.
It just so happened that these few foreign players made the national men's basketball team unable to fight back.
In the last 1 minute and 30 minutes of the game, the score between the Philippine Men's Basketball Team and the Chinese Men's Basketball Team was 83 to 70. The 13-point gap could almost declare the "death penalty" of the game. This is not the NBA, and the rules are also FIBA. There are not so many. Miracle, there are not so many individual performances that can be staged.
Let alone 13 points, even if it is only 10 points, it may be difficult to reverse it with only this little time left.
The team's new coach, Ma Lei, had a livid face. During the timeout, he often reprimanded these players with a look of "hating iron but not steel".
"Hit your ass!"
"If you can't beat a Philippine team, why don't you just naturalize two or three players? What's so great about it? Is this cowardly?"
"With your style of play, I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to beat you without those two or three naturalized players..."
"I'm so bullshit on weekdays, thinking I'm great. I don't practice properly even when I'm not allowed to practice, and even talk back to me... I think I'm a first-rate star in the league... .As a result, you really fell apart when you entered the international league...now do you understand what your level is?"
Ma Lei was not polite at all.
As the new coach of the China Men's Basketball Team, he got this position only through Xin Guotao's relationship.
Originally, the national team decided to find a foreign coach as the head coach, but after a search, either the other team asked the Lions to ask for it, or the other team heard that the Chinese men's basketball team waved their hands.
This also made the top executives of the Basketball Association responsible for this matter finally decide to find one of their own as the team coach. Anyway, they will lose. Spending tens of millions to find a foreign coach to win one or two more games is better than using one of your own people to lose one or two more games. What difference does it make?
After some searching, it was finally determined that Ma Lei would be the team's new coach.
On the one hand, he has the support of Xin Guotao and has a relatively solid background; on the other hand, he himself has coached a CBA team and has no shortage of professional experience. Later, he was responsible for some affairs of the national team, so he has been in charge of the national team. A ray of light and heat.
Judging from his resume alone, he is indeed one of the people qualified to be selected as the head coach.
However, Ma Lei has a bad temper and always likes to scold his players, which makes his relationship with most of the team not very good.
But he didn't care, he didn't care, and he didn't intend to maintain the so-called relationship.
This time he is playing as the head coach. No matter what the players think or what opinions they have about him, they can only listen to his words and cannot conflict with him head-on.
No one would do that, no one would dare.
After the reprimand, the players lowered their heads and did not dare to look at him. Even Yi Jianlian, who was the core of the team, did not dare to refute. He could only keep his mouth shut and remained silent along with the others.
After the timeout ended, the core of both sides appeared again.
In the next few minutes, no miracle happened. The Chinese men's basketball team successfully lost to the Philippines. Although the score difference was only 10 points, countless Chinese fans at the scene broke through the defense in an instant.
As soon as the game ended, the audience was filled with curses. Some of the angry fans even took out their mineral water bottles and threw them at the players passing by the tunnel.
This move also caused chaos at the scene.
The disastrous defeat in the first game also successfully put the Huaxia Men's Basketball Team on the hot search list, instantly attracting countless mocking firepower.
