While Andy and Rachel were making adjustments, trades and signings were also happening in the league.
Among them, the biggest impact was the Sharks' journey east. The Miami Heat sent forward Caron Butler, Odom, center Grant and a future first-round draft pick in exchange for the Lakers' Shaquille O'Neal.
This is the third blockbuster deal in the league this summer after Tracy McGrady left for the Suns and Kidd joined the Rockets. It even far exceeds the previous two deals in terms of influence. In a sense, this deal changed things in the league.
pattern.
NBA lawyers finally approved the deal on July 14, local time, thus ending O'Neal's eight-year career in Los Angeles. This was also the most significant deal for the Heat in 17 years.
For the Heat, being able to exchange O'Neal is definitely a big deal for the team. They hope that the 7-foot-1, 340-pound center can transform the Heat into a team with the ability to compete for the championship. You know, in the Heat
In its short 16-year history, it has only reached the Eastern Conference finals once. Last season's regular season record was 42 wins and 40 losses. It is obvious that the arrival of O'Neal suddenly made it the most attractive sports team in South Florida, and many veterans were left empty-handed.
And free agent favor.
The superstar brought a sensation to the ball market. The Heat first gave O'Neal a city-wide tour (this is a fake word), allowing all Miami fans to witness the most powerful giant in the league.
The arrival of the game naturally caused a explosion in the sports market. The sales of Miami Heat tickets were extremely hot, and the package tickets were sold out quickly.
In addition to acquiring three powerful players, the Lakers' deal also released huge salary space. O'Neal's salary next season will be 27.7 million U.S. dollars, and the 2005-06 season will reach an astonishing 30.6 million U.S. dollars. Without O'Neal
With the huge contract, the Lakers can more easily renew Kobe Bryant's contract.
The only people who were not happy were the people in Orlando. Miami and Orlando both belong to the state of Florida. O'Neal was once the darling of Orlando, but now he went to show off to his neighbors. Although the people in Orlando said they were nonchalant, they were inevitably sour in their hearts.
After the three bombshells came up, the bosses of the entire league couldn't sit still, so they took action one after another.
The Atlanta Hawks first signed and then traded Stephen Jackson (six years, US$40 million) to the Pacers Harrington. So far, the Pacers have finally gathered the three great players from Auburn Hills.
After the Lakers sent away O'Neal, they signed a seven-year, $136 million contract extension with Kobe Bryant.
The Spurs are also trying to make a comeback. They first renewed Ginobili's contract for 6 years and 52 million US dollars, and then renewed Bowen's contract for 3 years with 12 million US dollars. The contract extension between the Spurs and Bowen directly changed the future of many NBA players.
career.
The defending champion Detroit Pistons, on the other hand, know very well that failure to advance will lead to retreat. They first signed a five-year, $57 million contract extension with free agent power forward Rasheed Wallace, and then signed powerful insider McDyess.
Grizzlies re-sign Gasol...
When the news reached Edison's ears, Edison just said lightly, "It's going to rain, my mother is going to get married, and what's supposed to come will come." Then he continued to live with Rachel.
.
But good times are always short-lived. Carefree days are like shooting stars, passing by in your life. Just like sleeping, 8 hours have passed with your eyes closed and opened, but for
To you, yesterday seems like the last second.
Anderson and Rachel had a happy (it's "happy" not that word) sweet, fulfilling and romantic summer. Then Rachel returned to Canada due to work to participate in the filming of Ang Lee's "Brokeback Mountain".
Edison ushered in the start of training camp for the new season.
Under normal circumstances, the NBA usually starts in November every year. The special situation is to catch up with labor negotiations, so no one knows when the new season can start...
Each team usually starts the training camp for the new season in October, and players return to the team one after another. Conduct a simple physical examination to see if your body is out of shape after a summer of training, and then train based on the test results.
The teacher arranges corresponding training content for each player so that the players can get back to the game state as quickly as possible.
Then play a few preseason games, usually 7 to 8 games. The purpose of preseason games for each team is very simple, just to run in the lineup, enrich the playing style and test the competitive status of new and old players. The main thing is
To test the strength of the substitute players, the main players played less in the preseason in order to avoid getting tired before the game.
For the league, preseason games have greater significance.
First, we will build momentum and warm up for the new season. Through about 20 days of pre-season games, fans and media will be attracted back to the stadium and let them gradually enter the state of watching the games. If there is no pre-season game and the game starts directly, then a period of pre-season games will begin.
The attendance rate will definitely not be ideal, which will affect the league's financial statements.
Second: Promote the NBA and expand its overseas influence. What Stern has always done is to expand the international influence of the NBA, because he knows that no matter how hard he works, he can never surpass the local influence of the NFL (football) and MLB (baseball).
, so to achieve greater benefits, we can only aim higher and look around the world. So Stern worked hard to promote the internationalization process of the NBA, from relaxing the entry of foreign players to allowing players to participate in the Olympic Games, all for this purpose.
With the further maturity of the NBA's business operations and the acceleration of the internationalization process, in order to cater to the tastes of international fans and expand overseas markets and other factors, the NBA has sent many teams to play preseason games overseas, including Japan, Mexico, Spain, and France.
Other countries have hosted such competitions.
Now we turn our attention back to Orlando's training camp for the new season.
Before the players have been assembled, the team's coaching staff has already expired.
There are many problems in this world that you cannot think of in advance. For example, Edison has discovered a problem now, "the team does not have enough coaches."
For NBA teams, the general coaching staff configuration is: 1 head coach, 1 assistant coach, plus 4 to 5 coaches or trainers.
The Magic now have Edison as head coach and assistant coach Thibodeau. However, there are only three trainers: center coach Ewing, chief trainer Nelson who was hired from the Suns, plus veteran Joe Rowe.
Gewski. Originally, the other four trainers left for various weird reasons, such as "World of Warcraft has started closed beta testing", "I got divorced from my wife", "I was abducted by aliens and was depressed", God knows
What exactly did they do, but the result is that the Magic still need to find at least three more coaches (or trainers).
In the NBA team, trainers are indispensable. The trainer's job is boring, but the trainer plays a decisive role for the players. But what NBA players encounter is the devilish training of the trainer. The trainer is very important to the players.
There is absolutely no mercy, so when they are "abused" by trainers, NBA players' expressions are painful, but after the pain is over, they will be even better on the court. All the trainers need to do is to train the players repeatedly, and when the players are shooting
As his defender, he repeatedly picks up the ball, passes the ball, and defends for the players. During physical training, he performs various stretches and relaxations for the players before the game, so that the players can be fully prepared before the game to avoid increasing the number of players.
The risk of injury. For this reason, many big-name players even spend a lot of money to hire personal trainers.
In Edison's memory, there were two most famous trainers in the league. One was Aaron Nelson who is now on the team, and the other was Eton LaVine.
Generally speaking, trainers are divided into two categories: physical training and technical training….
Nelson belongs to the first category, physical training, and he is the pinnacle of this category of trainers. What he is good at is improving players' physical fitness, strength, explosive power, flexibility, etc., as well as various warm-up exercises and training before games.
Muscle relaxation after the game and recovery training for injured players.
So Nelson usually leads a group of people to warm up every day, and then gives a targeted training plan based on each person's physical condition. For example, if your upper limb strength is insufficient, he will ask you to lift dumbbells; if your lower limb strength is insufficient, you will
Lift your legs with weights; if your waist and abdominal strength is not good enough, do sit-ups, etc. It can be said that this kind of trainer is people-oriented, and his main goals and targets are human muscles and bones. Therefore, this type of trainer often does not
They are not limited to one sport, they can cross boundaries, such as Nelson, who can help with physical testing for the entire U.S. Olympic team, no matter which sport.
Another type of trainer focuses on technical movements. Is your dribbling posture correct? Are your shooting movements standard? How should you exert force when turning? If you have the above problems, the technical trainer will give it to you.
Your method is correct. In short, they mainly focus on polishing the players' basic technical movements. Compared with physical trainers, technical trainers are more specialized. Basketball players can only teach basketball, and football players can only teach football. It is difficult to work across boundaries.
How to put it this way, technical trainer-assistant coach-head coach is actually a one-stop service in the field of basketball.
The head coach's job is generally to decide which tactics to use in the game. It's like a university professor. When a question is asked in front of him, he says he should first use Lagrange's theorem, then Taylor's formula, and finally Fermat's theorem.
Put it into practice and the answer will come out.
The assistant coach teaches the players what various tactics are, how each tactic should be positioned, and how to move. It is like a mentor. He will tell you how to apply Lagrange and how to apply Taylor's formula.
The technical trainers are more basic, they are like teaching assistants. They just leave it to you, Taylor's formula, what exactly is Lagrangian, and what is its content.
And Ewing is equivalent to a senior. He will tell you what is the key point and how to make cheat sheets so that you can get good grades faster.
Of course, there is another type of person who has physical skills on his shoulders, but this kind of person is relatively rare, but Thibodeau is one.
As mentioned before, Edison remembered two trainers. Nelson was the physical trainer, and the other Eton Lavin was the most famous technical trainer later.
Originally, the Magic had enough trainers, and the Magic's main problem was injuries, so Edison didn't set his sights on Eton LaVine. But now that there is a shortage of trainers, Edison thought of him first.
Eton LaVine is an anomaly among trainers. He has neither played professional basketball nor any NBA coaching experience, but he has a way to make LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony and Chris Paul do what they say.
In NBA circles, the emergence of LaVine has caused a stir. Some team coaches, such as Eddie Jordan of the 76ers, regard him as a consultant. Jordan once had difficulty in controlling the NBA when he coached the Wizards a few years ago.
Landon Haywood. The center shared playing time with Etan Thomas, but both of them were dissatisfied. Jordan suddenly remembered: "Brandon likes to work with LaVine, so I went to ask him, 'You are
How do you maintain a good relationship with Brandon?'" LaVine explained that Haywood just wanted to participate: "You think he is challenging your authority, but actually you just need to ask his opinion. Brandon is a strong person.
If you are a smart person, give him a little more autonomy." Jordan took this advice to heart, "I took it as my code of conduct towards Brandon, and in the end we established a very good relationship."….
However, in this world, some people like you and some people hate you. Other coaches sneer at LaVine because he is not a member of the so-called basketball fraternity. For example, Larry Brown is particularly dissatisfied with him.
Yes, LaVine has never played, nor is he a disciple of any legendary coach, nor has he been an assistant coach. But his players and clients don't care about this. They welcome LaVine and regard him as a high-ranking NBA coach.
An alternative to tradition. LaVine also earned the nickname "The Basketball Whisperer" for his ability to make superstars obey.
(As an extra aside, many people later spread the word about Eton LaVine because he pointed out that James' dribbling was not good. In fact, I want to say that I can see that James' dribbling is not good, otherwise why would he always take 4 steps?
A layup is obviously a matter of dribbling rhythm.)
Fortunately, Eton LaVine has not yet become the famous superstar trainer in the league. Now he only makes friends with some children to play basketball, and occasionally coaches college students. So Edison came to visit in person, and Eton LaVine said
"Paul did not think that his ministers were despicable, but he was in vain. He looked after his ministers three times in a shabby room, and his counselor asked him about basketball. He was so grateful that he allowed Paul to drive away."
Then we found two relatively comprehensive professional trainers through Lao K's relationship, so Orlando's coaching team was completely formed.
