The Road to Stardom: Start as a Slam Dunk Master

Chapter 496 Changes in the situation

Just half a month passed by, and by the end of December, the SuperSonics had won their 25th consecutive victory of the season, with no opponent at their disposal.

Lin Dong's ability to control the field is so strong that even the most ordinary fans now have a feeling towards him that "as long as the ball reaches Lin Dong's hands, the opponent can give up defense."

The unstoppable offense, coupled with the increasing maturity of Chandler and Iguodala on the defensive end, and Sakuragi Hanamichi's defense already has a sense of success, making the Sonics' defense also monolithic.

The ultimate in both offense and defense, many teams have even involuntarily moved closer to the SuperSonics in the past two years in terms of drafts, team formation, tactical selection, etc.

The outside three-point ability of the entire league has been greatly improved. The frequency of shooting is like an epoch-making change compared to the past. The requirements for all players are also moving towards the "one-sided functionality" of the past. Comprehensive development.

Unlike the NBA of later generations, which became overall weak due to three-pointers, although the NBA of this era has increased outside shooting and small ball style, it has remained the same due to the particularity of the era and the habits of a large number of older generation players. With the league's always iron-blooded defense.

Coupled with the fact that the Sonics are too strong, the league must suppress it a little even if it doesn't look at Nike's face. Therefore, the overall whistleblowing of defensive standards is even greater than a few years ago.

Actions such as pulling and pulling are common on the court, especially when it comes to the Sonics, which is almost the famous "cylinderless" penalty throughout the league.

Whether it is Lin Dong or Iguodala, or Chandler and Rukawa Kaede, as long as they dare to shoot 3-pointers from the outside, it is almost certain that they will be violated. Even without thugs, physical confrontations and forced squeezing are endless.

This indeed caused a lot of trouble for the Sonics, and also caused the Sonics to lose its first game this season.

Since the last loss to the SuperSonics, Kobe Bryant has gone berserk and started to seize the ball in the team. This method is undoubtedly a kind of destruction to the Lakers themselves. Everyone's touch can't be opened, which is a waste of Yao Ming's basket. The firepower also wastes Nash's organizational ability. The entire team appears to be extremely unbalanced on both offense and defense.

After a full month of "chaos within the team," the Lakers' record has dropped to third in the Western Conference. They have gone from being the team most optimistic about defeating the Sonics before the season to being constantly criticized by fans. It is considered to be as good as the second round of the playoffs.

But it was against this background that the Lakers ushered in an extreme reversal.

On December 30, the SuperSonics faced the Lakers at home.

The SuperSonics have a well-organized staff, starting with Lin Dong, Payton, Sakuragi, Chandler and Iguodala, with Kaede Rukawa on the bench.

The Lakers have the same starting five as usual, Kobe, Yao Ming, Nash, Odom and Doug Christie.

But Kobe Bryant's way of playing suddenly changed... Kobe switched directly from the 2nd position to the 3rd position. He no longer asked for the ball, but devoted himself wholeheartedly to the matchup with Lin Dong. This Suddenly the distribution of possessions becomes reasonable.

With Dayao's offensive firepower being unleashed, Kobe was mainly involved in supporting the offense, which was completely different from letting him hold the ball by himself. It also made it impossible for Lin Dong to completely lock him down, thus liberating the Lakers' offensive power.

On the defensive end, facing the SuperSonics' lack of whistles for 3-pointers from the outside, the fierce pressing also caused the Sonics to miss frequently from the outside. They actually made 3 of 15 shots in the first half. After replacing Rukawa Kaede in the second half, they only improved to 5 for 13 shots.

Inside, Yao Ming and Odom teamed up, with Yao Ming playing against Sakuragi and Odom eating Chandler. In a two-on-two situation, the SuperSonics insiders couldn't take advantage at all. Even Sakuragi was good at rebounding. In total, we lost a few goals overall.

A lot of opportunities were wasted on the outside, and they were at a disadvantage on the inside. Even Lin Dong scored 67 points alone in the end, but it was of no avail. At 114:117, the SuperSonics ended their 25-game winning streak by 3 points.

The Zen masters off the court were naturally surprised and delighted, and the Lakers fans were also cheering. They didn’t know why Kobe suddenly changed his gender today. Is it because of his obsession with the Sonics? Or is it because only playing with the Sonics and facing Lin Dong can Kobe Bryant let go of his face and pride?

Most people guessed this way, but in fact, apart from Kobe himself, the only person who knows the reason for his choice best is probably Lin Dong.

That guy listened to what he said...

At this level, you have to be yourself instead of blindly imitating and targeting your opponents.

This month of crazy offense and seizing the ball is because Kobe wants to regain the offensive touch he has lost for two years, and in order to target Lin Dong, he deliberately hides the deepest offensive desire in his heart.

He had to be himself first before he could seek transcendence, and only by transcending himself first could he possibly surpass Lin Dong.

This is the path chosen by Kobe Bryant. In addition to the state of the SuperSonics perimeter in this game, he was also caught off guard by the sudden changes of the Lakers. This does not explain too many problems. Therefore, whether Kobe's adjustment will work in the end, that is still Depends on the playoffs.

Of course, this battle also woke up many blind SuperSonics fans, woke up countless teams in the league who were afraid of the Sonics, and also woke up the Sonics themselves, who were already a little drifting after a winning streak.

When it comes to the overall paper strength of a team, Lin Dong feels that the current SuperSonics are stronger. After all, each position is more evenly matched and has better coordination. It also has its own upper limit that can further increase the average points.

But that doesn't mean the Sonics are invincible.

With a certain degree of intervention from the league and referees, the Lakers successfully blocked the SuperSonics' outside perimeter. The SuperSonics' pitchers must adapt to this and adapt to outside shooting under such defensive intensity.

It's a good thing, a huge good thing.

Otherwise, if you really have to wait until the playoffs, the Western Conference Finals or even the Finals to suddenly discover this, you won't even have the chance to adjust.

Of course, the league cannot wait until then to suddenly adjust the penalty scale, otherwise they will be called a dog.

This can be regarded as a competition, a competition between the Sonics and all teams and even the league.

The league has already drawn down the penalty scale. The main purpose is of course to allow fans to adapt to this so as to avoid causing trouble in the playoffs, but it also gives the Sonics a chance to adapt.

We need to hurry up and strengthen the anti-interference ability of the team's internal and external lines...

The Lakers' defeat of the SuperSonics was a shot in the arm for all teams in the league, and it also aroused a lot of heated discussion and excitement among fans across the United States. Although there are already many "Lin Black" who have turned from fans to fans. , but even Lin fans hope that their opponents will be stronger, otherwise it won’t be that interesting just to watch the Supersonics abuse others and have a one-sided game.

It is foreseeable that all teams will learn how strong the challenges the Sonics will face from the outside.

At the same time, the Cavaliers, who lost LeBron in the East, continued their winning streak.

LeBron's departure does not seem to create too many problems for this team. After all, the combination of O'Neal + Kidd + Wade is already at the Olympic team level.

Except for one loss to the SuperSonics at the beginning of the season, the Cavaliers have been winning consecutive games since then, and won without any suspense. They even defeated the Lakers. Currently, the Cavaliers have 25 wins and 1 loss, ranking the same as the SuperSonics in the league record list. At the top of the list, and the 25-game winning streak is still going on, it has not only created the longest winning streak in the history of the Cavaliers, but also has a strong tendency to continue to expand this winning streak.

Currently, the team in the league that has the best chance of beating them is the SuperSonics, but according to the schedule, the game between the two teams will have to wait until the end of January, which is already more than a dozen games later.

At present, fans from all sides and even football commentators are extremely optimistic that the Cavaliers can break the SuperSonics' previous historical record of 34 consecutive victories. They have even... almost forgotten about LeBron.

It wasn't until a piece of news emerged that LeBron was brought back into the public eye.

First, on New Year's Day, January 1st, Nike officially announced the news that Lin Dong had terminated his contract with Nike, which caused a sensation across the United States.

Before this news came out, everyone was waiting for Nike to offer Lin Dong the highest sky-high lifetime contract ever for an athlete. Many good people were even speculating on whether this contract was worth it. How much is it? It is predicted that it will be worth more than 1 billion at least once, and as for its lifetime value, it may be as high as tens of billions of dollars.

Unexpectedly... the contract was terminated?

Is Lin Dong asking too high a price? Is it because Nike can't afford it?

And while a large group of melon-eating people were still dumbfounded and confused, several news items dominated the screen one after another.

——Nike's 3rd generation Dragon shoes have been discontinued and banned from sale. The official price has fallen below a new low and is being sold off in large quantities.

——Nike’s sky-high endorsement contract, worth US$1 billion over 7 years, signed with Cavaliers superstar LeBron James!

Breaking up with Lin Dong and then getting close to LeBron?

You know, it was because of Lin Dong that Nike gave up on LeBron and gave up the 7-year 90 million contract, but then they turned around and gave 1 billion in 7 years...

Fans across the United States watched dizzyingly, one big melon after another.

——The inspirational LeBron went to Japan for special training in hell, just to defeat Lin Dong!

——Olajuwon’s big dream footwork teaching, Tim Graver’s crazy power teaching! Earl Lloyd's personal training classes and nutritional packages, the secret to getting stronger! LeBron is undergoing a transformation!

Needless to say, Big Dream, fans across the United States know his name as the crazy devil trainer. Some young fans don't know much about Tim Graver, but senior NBA fans have admired his name for a long time.

This guy was Michael Jordan's exclusive physical trainer. He was also the originator of the so-called "personal trainer" and a master in physical training!

And Earl Lloyd, who was the first black player in the NBA and the first black coach in the NBA, went to Japan after retirement and disappeared from the public for a while. It wasn't until Lin Dong's rise that we knew this guy was there. A basketball training school opened in Japan, and it became very popular because of it. In the past two years, it has begun to be hyped as a Taishan Beidou-level figure in the training industry.

The training team behind this... is simply scary to death. Coupled with LeBron's sudden disappearance, coupled with Nike's $1 billion signing, it suddenly raised the expectations of fans across the United States and even the world. They were all pulled up.

Giving up the regular season to go to training, with such a terrifying training team standing behind him, how strong can such a LeBron be when he returns?

Ordinary fans may not be able to predict, but they have a "beacon". Nike is willing to spend 1 billion US dollars in 7 years to sign a guy like LeBron who has not even completed his rookie contract, which shows that it is optimistic about LeBron. Will Nike’s vision be bad? From Jordan to Lin Dong, Nike has never been missed!

This gives those fans across the United States who still want to see Lin Dong lose finally have something to say - even if you don't believe in LeBron, you have to believe in Nike's vision!

Just as the topic of LeBron became popular, on January 5, another piece of news suddenly exploded like a bomb dropped on a calm lake.

——Lin Dong joins hands with Plank to renew Under Armour’s reputation and become Under Armour’s lifelong spokesperson!

All those who knew and those who didn't understood were all confused.

what's the situation?

Lin Dong just terminated his contract with Nike, but turned around and actually got on well with Under Armor?

That's Under Armour...it was delisted two years ago after being listed on the market. Its annual market sales, which originally reached 500 million, suddenly shrunk to just over 10 million, and it was on the verge of bankruptcy!

Such a small workshop actually 'defeated' Nike and signed the hottest basketball superstar on the planet today? !

Why? Is Plank younger and better at licking than Phil Knight?

God, is the world too crazy, or is there something wrong with my eyes?

Did the newspaper print it correctly?