Chapter 1086 The transformation from Warcraft to Master Huo
After a short break, the dunk contest is about to begin.
The players participating in this dunk contest are Wang Zelin, LaVine, Gordon, Wiggins, Nance Jr. and Robinson III.
The participating lineup is already very luxurious, and the judging lineup is even more terrifying.
The appearance of Jordan, Dr. J, Wilkins, Kobe, and Howard completely ignited the atmosphere at the scene.
It can be said that the judges of this dunk contest are definitely the NBA, the most popular one in the history of All-Star Weekend. Whether they are active or retired, they have successfully won the dunk contest at least once.
Immediately, the players also appeared.
coming!
When the six people entered the stadium one after another, the enthusiasm of the fans finally reached the climax of the night.
Especially when Wang Zelin appears on the stage, the atmosphere and popularity can be described as roaring with gongs and drums! Firecrackers are blasting!
"Now let us invite...Wang Ze Lin!!!"
This is no longer a question of envy or jealousy. The entire Rose Garden Arena was like a volcano erupting in an instant. Wave after wave of cheers and shouts deeply shocked every player, reporter and media present.
Is Dute Meow crazy? Isn't it just a scene? Is there so much movement here?
Wang Zelin was not surprised by this. After all, this is Portland and his home court. He has long been mentally prepared for any situation.
After enjoying the cheers of the audience, Wang Zelin also high-fived the big guys sitting next to him one by one.
James patted his back and said, "Come on! My brother, I didn't sleep well all night just waiting for your dunk contest."
General George Qiao stood up and fist-bumped with Wang Zelin: "Have a big fight, Wang!"
Suddenly, a big hand suddenly appeared behind him and touched Wang Zelin's head vigorously. When he looked back, he saw the unsmiling stone Buddha.
"I told you before, the future is yours!"
Damn it!
Don't mess with me, the race hasn't even started yet, you guys are sending out poisonous milk one by one, in case the car overturns...
Impossible! Absolutely impossible!
Wang Zelin is still confident enough to win the championship.
Immediately afterwards, he came to the judges' seat and greeted the five judges at once.
Gang Leader Qiao glanced at Wang Zelin and said calmly: "Come on!"
In contrast, Black Mamba actually seemed extremely heartwarming at this moment: "GO! I'm looking forward to your performance!"
"Just wait and see, I won't let you down."
Wang Zelin replied with a smile and looked at the three judges on the left.
Wilkins and Dr. J both showed friendly smiles, and finally Howard. The two just looked at each other, and neither one spoke first.
In the end, it was Wang Zelin who took the lead to break the deadlock: "Long time no see, Howard."
"The same to you."
Howard also replied coldly.
After watching Wang Zelin leave, Howard was thinking about the content of the phone call he had with league president Bald Hua before the game.
That's right, the reason why Bald Hua chose to put Howard, whose reputation in the league is getting lower and lower, into the judges' seat is that on the one hand, he has accumulated solid honors in his Magic career, and on the other hand, he also took into account the conflict between him and Wang Zelin.
Therefore, Bald Hua hopes that after Howard joins the jury, he can give Wang Zelin a fatal blow at the appropriate moment.
In his opinion, Wang Zelin stepped on Howard to get the position in the early stages of his career. The conflict between the two can be said to be so intense that it is almost irreconcilable. No matter from which dimension you think about it, Howard must be one of the five judges.
The one who least expected Wang Zelin to win the championship.
But will the reality be what he expected?
Howard's incident stayed in Wang Zelin's background for a long time. It was not until Kobe's voice came from behind that he came back to his senses.
"Hey, Dwight, who do you favor to win tonight?"
At some point, Kobe had come down from the judges' table, came up behind Howard, and took the initiative to send a friendly signal.
Looking at this familiar face in front of him, Howard's thoughts were suddenly brought back to four years ago. At that time, he had just left the Magic and was at the peak of his career, while Kobe was mainly at the tail end of his peak.
Today, Kobe, who is about to turn 40, is still selected as an All-Star, still averaging 24 3 4 All-Star-level statistics per game, but he has bid farewell to the All-Star stage early.
Facts have proven that skilled players do retain their value and often become better as they get older.
However, Kobe happened to be in an era of data explosion that encouraged offense, which allowed him to still average close to 25 points per game.
Howard, who was opposite him, thought of all the conflicts he had with Kobe during his time as a Laker. It all seemed like yesterday.
But actually, that was already 5 years ago.
Time goes back to 5 years ago.
In the summer of 2012, the Lakers recruited players, first recruiting veteran Nash from the Suns.
At that time, Suns fans carried the slogan "It's okay Nash, you can leave" and supported Nash in joining a strong team to realize his dream of winning a championship.
It's a bit similar to when Timberwolves fans collectively expressed their support for Garnett to leave Minnesota and fulfill his championship dream in the last days of his career.
Obviously the same goes for Nash, and he deserves such treatment from Phoenix fans.
No matter how you look at it, the Lakers, who had just reached the Finals three times and won two championships, were the team that helped Nash realize his dream.
That year, I was 38 years old.
But just last season, he was still the absolute core of the Suns: he was the PG who ranked first in the league in true shooting percentage in the 2011-12 season; his long two-point field goal percentage ranked first in the league, and the second to fifth in this ranking were all
A big shooter who can catch and shoot, while Nash's shots are almost all off the dribble.
In addition, he averaged 10.7 assists per game, ranked second in assists last season, and is one of the league's top pick-and-roll performers. He can be called one of the NBA's representatives who get better with age.
In fact, speaking of it, there have indeed been many old monsters at the NBA No. 1 position in history who became more and more demonic as they got older.
Let’s not mention the players of the last century. As far as the new century is concerned, Kidd and Billups, who were contemporaries of Nash, and St. Paul in the future, all fall into this category.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! So, at that time, no one must have thought that he came to the Lakers to get a pension.
The Lakers got Nash in exchange for multiple draft picks, a trade exception and some cash.
Historically known as: Air for Nash!
It’s not over yet…
With the loud sound of "BOOM!", another major earthquake occurred in the alliance.
The Lakers made a four-way trade and acquired Howard, who just turned 26 years old. He is the league's number one center averaging 20.6 points, 14.5 rebounds and 2.1 blocks per game!
During the Magic period before this, Howard was among the top three defensive players in the WinShare league for five consecutive seasons... to be precise, he was ranked first for four consecutive years. In 2012, he dropped to third place due to a back injury and disagreement with coach Van Gundy.
In the 2011-12 season, he ranked first in defensive rebounding rate and second in total rebounding rate.
His pick-and-roll finishers ranked first in the league in the 2010-11 season and second in the league in the 2011-12 season. He is the most dangerous pick-and-roll player in the league.
On paper, this is an extremely defensive version of Stoudemire, almost shipped as a package with Nash.
What about the chips to exchange for World of Warcraft?
Basically equal to Bynum + draft picks.
Yes, you haven't heard. Gasol is still in the lineup and has not moved.
As a result, the Lakers' lineup became like this - Nash, Kobe, Artay and Sister-in-law Warcraft!!!
This lineup is awesome. What kind of super team are the Big Three?
The five giants are called super!
Regardless of hindsight, just looking at the entire public opinion environment at the time and the authoritative media's preview of the 2012-13 Super Lakers, we can see just how crazy this Lakers were back then.
TNT formed a team of Barkley, Webber, O'Neal, and Smith overnight to comment on Howard joining the Lakers.
The TNT team knows everything.
On weekdays, all kinds of arguments are sharp, and the mainstream public opinion in Love River is contrary. But back then, even Barkley and Webb believed that the Lakers could dominate the Western Conference with guaranteed minimums, and Webb even believed that the Thunder "cannot even come close" to the strength of the Lakers.
Ben Leibowitz and other reporters began to look forward to whether the Lakers can break the Bulls' 72 wins...
In fact, before the start of the 2012-13 season, 95% of fans generally felt that the Lakers were invincible.
The protagonist who pushed the whole public opinion to the extreme and to an unprecedented climax was naturally the one who led the team to the finals in his prime and was shaved 4-0 by his old opponent. Then he had to be forced to do it because of conflicts with the management.
Shaquille left for the big city...
Well, the script for Howard joining the Lakers was too similar to the script for Shark joining the Lakers in the mid-to-late 1990s.
I can't say they are exactly the same, I can only say they are completely consistent.
If we use the favorite theory of Sakura people who are living a good life to comment on this transaction, that is - fate!
Or maybe it’s bloodline theory!
An overly strong sense of fate came over me, and I opened the history book of the last and most powerful center of the Purple and Gold Army. In addition to the ancient great George McCann, he was a self-produced and self-produced super center, and he was also the first superstar in NBA history.
, the first super center, the founder of the proper center.
The great centers that followed, such as Marshal, Sky Hook, and Shark, were all legends who eventually became part of the Zijin bloodline for various reasons.
Everything is pointing to: the next stop of the dynasty!
At that time, Lakers general manager Kupchak said at the press conference when Howard joined:
"We hope that in ten years we will have the opportunity to hang a jersey in the Lakers Arena with the name Dwight Howard on it!"
Familiar recipe, familiar taste.
If everything goes according to normal predictions, it will be Shark 2.0!
There was also a famous and classic scene in the news report about Howard joining the Lakers that year:
A Lakers fan wearing a purple and gold jersey and a baseball cap shouted in front of the Staples Center gate of the Lakers' home stadium - With such a lineup, my mother will win the championship!
The subsequent development was very clear to everyone. All fans were looking for the mother of the Lakers fan...
Ahem, let’s get down to business.
That year, the Lakers had 0 wins and 8 losses in the preseason and started the regular season with 1 win and 4 losses. In the great showdown between old and new centers that was considered comparable to the "Yao Shark's first game" with the Trail Blazers, No. 1 center Howard
He was beaten in all directions by a rookie Wang Zelin.
It was also from that battle that the alliance's scepter began to shift, slowly flowing to Portland, and was eventually controlled by the young man from China.
In the subsequent regular season, as the Trail Blazers youth team became more and more dark horse, the entire Western Conference had to quickly clean up.
In order not to be swept away by the wave of the new era, teams in the Western Conference that aspire to the playoffs have to follow the footsteps of the Blazers' youth army and conduct a new round of team elites.
Compared with other teams, this seemingly famous Super Lakers is actually too decadent and they can no longer keep up with the times.
Even if Kobe swears in the middle of the season, he will definitely lead the Lakers into the playoffs!
But the truth is cruel. When the wheels of history roll forward, Kobe Bryant, the Black Mamba who was once the league's number one player, has to break his promise this time.
The Lakers ultimately didn't make the playoffs like Kobe exploded.
Yes, at the beginning of the season, the Super Lakers were considered to be the champions, but in the end they failed to even make the playoffs.
Fans of that era witnessed the bleakest moment in the history of the purple and gold jersey, and at the same time the most chaotic moment.
From a current perspective, if we sum up the 2012-13 Lakers in one season, the luxurious Purple and Gold Army mainly lost in the following points:
The first is injuries.
The Lakers suffered 17 injuries throughout the season, and different players missed a total of 176 games due to injuries. Everyone in F4 suffered serious injuries.
There is no need to go into too much detail about Kobe, as he was slightly injured and could not get out of the firing line.
Howard played with a shoulder injury and a back injury, and had to come back several months early for the sake of record.
My sister-in-law injured her foot and had a concussion.
At that time, I was basically living with injuries. I had pain in my back, a broken leg at the beginning of the season, and a broken hamstring.
The Lakers' F4 on paper is actually often F3, F2... and in the most serious cases, only F1 is left.
Secondly, the tactical system is chaotic.
The Lakers went through a coaching change that season, from Mike Brown's Princeton style of play to D'Antoni's fast-break running and gunning style.
The latter is especially outrageous. You must know that except for Howard, the average age of the other old guys in the Lakers lineup is 34 years and 91 days.
Are you sure it's not really a joke that such an extremely aging classic car wants to race around at the speed of a Ferrari?
But that's what D'Antoni did, and then the Lakers' record, which had been able to maintain around 50%, suddenly took a turn for the worse. At the worst time, they almost fell to 11th in the Western Conference.
In desperation, after suffering a losing streak at the end of January, the Black Mamba became angry and took the lead in reacting and began to return the basketball game to its original state.
That is, relying on the personal abilities of the stars to solve problems.
Not to mention, there isn’t much else about the Lakers other than a bunch of stars.
After the All-Star break, our record was close to 60%, and by the end of the season it was actually close to 50%.
It's a pity that the hole in the front is really too big, and it can't be filled back no matter how much it is filled in the back.
Then there's the management chaos.
This is particularly direct, as Lakers owner Jerry Buss is critically ill, and the power game between Buss Jr. and his sister Jeannie Buss has intensified, eventually affecting the entire Lakers team.
The final reason lies with Howard.
Even though he was affected by a back injury this year, Howard still averaged luxurious data of 17 12 2 per game. Looking at the data alone, even though his position as the league's number one center has gradually become unstable due to the strong rise of Wang Zelin, he is still at the top of the list.
Ranked among the first-tier centers in the league.
The most criticized thing is actually his obsession with low post shots.
In the 2012-13 season, Howard's post-ups accounted for 45% of his total offense. In other words, nearly half of his offenses were post-ups with the ball. However, he could only score 0.74 points per round through post-ups.
Ranked 121st in the league, with a poor shooting percentage of only 44.5%.
But in fact, all of Howard's technical characteristics are completely designed for pick-and-rolls.
Now that the team has Nash, a famous pick-and-roll master in history, he doesn't like pick-and-rolls and is obsessed with post-up play. This is the most difficult thing to understand.
It was also the main reason for the constant conflicts between him and Kobe in the second half of the season.
As for the reason why Howard's real name was beaten back then, there is still no reasonable explanation.
But later in an interview with Nash, he said: Maybe it was the various experiences after coming to the Lakers that reminded Howard of the last super center O'Neal who joined the Lakers. However, O'Neal didn't like Howard very much from his playing days to his retirement.
Therefore, Howard, who is in the remaining critical period, wants to prove that he can attack for a long time, and at the same time, he also wants to slap O'Neal hard in the face.
The result is that Howard clearly has the league's most dangerous pick-and-roll finishing ability, and Nash happens to be the league's strongest pick-and-roll initiator. The original match made in heaven actually fell out on the court.
It really makes people sigh with emotion about the magic of reality.
The final outcome was that Howard left the Lakers and fell from the top at a young age.
The conflict between him and Kobe became more and more intense under the media's fanning.
During several seasons with the Mosaics, every time they played against the Lakers, Howard and Kobe would inevitably have a verbal conflict.
If Wang Zelin was the person Howard hated most in the past season, then Kobe Bryant would definitely rank second.
But now, looking at Kobe's kind smile, Howard was really in a daze for a moment.
After experiencing the struggles and troughs of the Mosaic team, and now wandering to the Hawks, thinking about the past, Howard suddenly discovered that he actually missed the time when he joined the Lakers and missed every quarrel with Kobe.
Howard finally let go of all the grievances he had with Kobe. At this moment, the once happy Monster also completed his transformation into Master Huo.
And this is a path that Bald Hua never imagined.
Later, Master Huo also smiled sincerely: "Long time no see, Kobe!"
