Training day.
Generally speaking, any player who may be traded will not choose to continue to come to the arena for training. But Maurice Williams, who was put on the trade shelf, was different. Even though he knew he was leaving, he still came to the training hall on time to maintain his condition.
The training hall is usually empty at noon, and Maurice Williams enjoys the refreshing feeling of training alone.
Bang bang.
In the empty stadium, Maurice Williams practiced various moves while running.
Uh-huh.
When a precise three-pointer was thrown into the basket, Maurice Williams finally smiled on his tense face.
"Alas! I am old!"
"If I had been like that with the Cavaliers... I could have shot a lot of three-pointers like this..."
Thinking of the Cleveland Cavaliers, Maurice Williams felt a little confused. The peak of his career was right there, next to that man.
At that time, a group of them gathered around the young LeBron James and formed a team to compete for the championship.
The team atmosphere is great and everyone is eager to win the game.
They won first place in the Eastern Conference and also made it to the Eastern Conference Finals and fought their opponents in six games. It is a pity that the Cavaliers, who were unstoppable that year, failed to defeat all their opponents. In the Eastern Conference Finals, they faced the Orlando Magic with Dwight Howard, and ultimately lost to their opponents 2-4.
Maurice Williams averaged 17.8 points per game that year and 16.3 points per game in the playoffs.
He is the second scorer on the entire Cavaliers team besides LeBron James.
"It's a pity that everything can't go back..."
Maurice Williams sighed, even though several years had passed, his heart was still full of regrets.
"If that guy LeBron doesn't leave, our lineup will definitely not collapse...The Cavaliers management will definitely not choose to rebuild..."
"It's just... If LeBron hadn't left, I'm afraid he wouldn't have won the championship at all... Minneapolis is a city no one wants to come to, and Cleveland is Why not? Even with LeBron, who wants to go to a place like that?"
Maurice Williams was extremely melancholy, and suddenly sat down on the chair on the sidelines and sighed.
People are always like this. The worse their life is, the more they like to miss the past, especially the highlight moments of the past. Thinking of his extremely confused future, Maurice Williams suddenly became depressed.
“Who knows how many more years I have in my career?”
Just when Maurice Williams looked lonely, a staff member suddenly appeared at the door of the training hall. He waved to Maurice Williams and shouted, "Hey, man, the locker room was robbed just now. ...I'm afraid all your things are lost..."
"What?"
Maurice Williams was a little unbelievable when he heard this, "This is the team's training facility? How could it be stolen? Damn it, my phone is still in the cabinet..."
After cursing a few words, Maurice Williams ran towards the locker room without even having time to pick up the basketball.
However, a few minutes later, when he opened the locker room door, he was stunned by the scene inside!
"What's happening here?"
The locker room was crowded with people, most of whom were his teammates, and the rest were the team's assistant coaches and some staff.
In the middle is a small cart with an oversized cream cake on it. The cake has his own face printed on it and the words Happy 33rd Birthday to him.
All the candles were lit and everyone sang the birthday song at the same time.
"Happy birthday to you...Maurice..."
Everyone shouted in unison.
Maurice Williams was a little moved.
He cried and laughed at the same time, and wiped the tears from the corner of his eyes with his right hand, "Damn it, you guys... I thought my cabinet was really stolen..."
"Thanks to all you 'nasty' guys..."
Maurice Williams blew out the candles under the watchful eyes of everyone, and even closed his eyes to make a wish. After cutting the cake, the entire dressing room was in complete chaos.
The players picked up the cakes and smeared each other wildly, and even lifted today's "birthday boy" Maurice Williams to make pranks. Even the assistant coaches could not avoid it. The atmosphere in the entire locker room has never been so relaxed. .
After finally waiting for everyone to get tired of tossing, Kevin Martin called Maurice Williams, who had a face full of cakes, outside.
"Morris, did you know? Today's 'surprise' was brought about by Zhao... He knew that today is your birthday, so he called the rest of us together to help you celebrate your birthday. ......."
"Man, he's not a nasty guy, I've talked to him personally and he understands what we're doing..."
"He hopes that we can all come back! I have promised him, and I think you can do the same. As long as you are willing, he will go and tell Mr. Philip... Let us put aside our previous grudges together. Let’s compete for the championship…”
As soon as these words came out, Maurice Williams, who was still very happy, immediately calmed down.
He hesitated for a long time, and when he was about to respond, Zhao Feiyang appeared in front of them.
"Maurice, I admire your focus on the game. I don't think we should be enemies... Man, we can definitely be teammates fighting side by side..."
When Maurice Williams saw Zhao Feiyang appearing, he first expressed his gratitude for what he had done.
"Zhao, I'm grateful for everything you did today...Man, thank you very much. No teammate has helped me celebrate like this before..."
"Actually, I don't hate you. As Kevin said, there is no irresolvable grudge between us... I want to leave just because I am tired of life here, and I don't want to stay in such a world of ice and snow." The place......."
"Frankly, I don't like the climate in Minneapolis, nor the culture of the team... More importantly, the team has too many defenders... This Everything I hope to escape from..."
"So I'm sorry, I can't stay any longer. Now that I have such an opportunity to leave, I can only dream of it..."
When Morris Williams said this, Zhao Feiyang stopped persuading him any further.
Everyone knows that if you hate a city, it will be difficult to stay here forever.
Maurice Williams changed his usual indifference and this time took the initiative to walk up to Zhao Feiyang and give him a high-five and a hug.
"Man, you have great talent, and I think you have every chance to lead the Timberwolves to rise..."
"I hope there will be opportunities to continue playing against each other on the court in the future..."
"Me too, no matter what, Maurice, I wish you all the best in the future..."
It was through this opportunity that Zhao Feiyang and Maurice Williams successfully reconciled.
In the next few days, the Timberwolves management decided to trade Maurice Williams, and they quickly found a suitable next home for him, which was the Charlotte Hornets in the Eastern Region.
After the deal was reached, Maurice Williams left Minneapolis that day.
His departure did not affect the morale of the Timberwolves. On the contrary, it also made the originally crowded back line slightly more spacious.
Kevin Martin's timely return can be regarded as completing the last piece of the Timberwolves puzzle.
Head coach Philip Saunders also put him on the second team, giving him more ball rights and also allowing him to successfully support the bench team.
After the team's lineup stabilized, the Timberwolves, who had a good record, continued to work hard. In the next ten games, the Timberwolves recorded a rare 8 wins and 2 losses. Except for the two super teams, the Houston Rockets and the Los Angeles Clippers, there was no other team. Except for being able to beat them, other teams, even those ranked higher than them, eventually lost to them.
After these ten games, the Timberwolves' record has successfully climbed to eighth in the Western Conference.
They have touched the threshold of the playoffs, which also made the former Buddhist Timberwolves fans excited. Many people are looking forward to the team setting another record and striving to win more games.
In agreement with them, the Golden State Warriors, which had been losing constantly before, finally recovered. After Stephen Curry's injury completely recovered, the team finally started winning, and stopped the decline with a wave of three consecutive victories. This trend has also gradually stabilized the ranking that originally fell to fourth in the Western Conference.
Meanwhile, the annual All-Star Game finally arrives.
This time the All-Star game is held in New York City, which is the home city of the Knicks and one of the most prosperous metropolises in the United States.
Before the official arrival of the All-Star Weekend, the NBA's official voting process has also started long ago.
Fans are naturally very enthusiastic about this annual event, and they are more likely to vote for their favorite stars in the voting process.
At the top of the list are naturally stars like LeBron James and Stephen Curry. In addition to them, there are also Kobe Bryant, Anthony Davis, James Harden and Bregg Griffin. Someone who ranks particularly high.
Among this series of names, there are two names that have attracted special attention from Asian fans.
One is Jeremy Lin. At this time, he has gone to the Los Angeles Lakers, but his performance is far behind compared to before. This season, he averaged 11.2 points per game, which is not bad, but not as good as fans expected.
He didn't receive many votes, and he was in an awkward position, that is, he was just about to fall out of the All-Star position but just a little short of it.
Compared with Jeremy Lin, Zhao Feiyang's ranking is slightly higher. Originally, Chinese fans voted extremely crazy and gave him the third position in the Western Conference in the first round, but unexpectedly, his ranking continued to decline.
Although many Chinese fans supported him, they did not like his Timberwolves team, so they did not vote for him, leaving Zhao Feiyang in seventh place in the Western Conference.
If the number of votes cannot be increased, he may end up being a substitute in the All-Star Game.
