Chapter 21 Playing Philadelphia
At noon, Jerry Krause arrived in Philadelphia. As soon as he got off the plane, he learned the news of Wang Tiejun's signing from the media and was very disappointed.
Since there was no hope, he could only return to Chicago without even leaving the airport.
The media began to hype this signing, and it was generally believed that the Suns made a failed signing because a Chinese person was definitely not worth a contract of more than 8 million US dollars, with an average annual salary of more than 2 million.
The news that Jerry Krause wanted to poach Wang Tiejun was also reported by the media, which had some negative impact on the Bulls. The media speculated that the Bulls management wanted to clean out main center Billy Carter-Wright.
Some reporters found Jordan and interviewed him.
"Michael, do you know that perverted coolie from China?" a reporter asked.
Jordan was stunned. The Madison Square Garden spanking incident had been hyped by the media for quite some time. He certainly knew about it, but he didn't know why the reporter asked him questions about the Chinese man. He didn't know the Chinese man, he only knew that he was a perverted laborer, and this was all reported by the media.
After a few words, he said, "Yes, I can't help but know about it because the media always reports about him. I know that he spanked John Starks. It was really perverted, an excessive and disgusting thing."
"Michael, did you watch his game last night?" the reporter asked again.
"No, why should I watch his game?" Jordan asked puzzledly.
He didn't think that a Chinese person would have any strength, and the media didn't report on the Chinese person's strength at all. He had no way of understanding it, nor did he want to understand it.
"Michael, do you think the management's plan to bring in perverted laborers is correct? Is Cartwright going to be purged?"
“That’s management going crazy.”
Jordan and Jerry Krause have always had a big conflict, so Jordan immediately denied it and said, "No, I think Billy can still play. He has been my teammate for many years. I don't want a perverted laborer to come to the Bulls and share our third championship."
"Michael, your contract this season is $4 million, and the same is true for next season. Do you think it is the right decision for the Suns to offer him a four-year contract worth more than $8 million?"
"I think Barkley will be disappointed again." Jordan said meaningfully.
"Why?" the reporter asked.
"Because the Suns' salary space was taken up in vain, they could have signed another star center." Jordan laughed.
Similarly, some reporters also interviewed Pippen.
"Scottie, do you think that perverted coolie deserves the same salary as you?" asked a reporter.
Pippen is now on his second contract, for seven years and $20 million. The first year was $2.77 million, and this year is $3.43 million, not much less than Jordan, but this is the highest year. From this year Although he will regret it in the future, he is still very happy now.
However, everyone is afraid of comparison. Now that he knows that a coolie can earn an average of more than 2 million, the happiness in his heart is gone.
"I don't understand what the Suns management is thinking. With that kind of money, they can find a better player in the free market with their eyes closed, right? I don't believe a Chinese person is qualified to play in the NBA. That's such a surprising and irrational decision."
He said in a mocking tone.
"So have you ever seen him play?"
"No, I'm not interested in the coolie competition. I'd rather watch the strongman competition."
…
At 4 p.m. on December 29, the Suns arrived in Philadelphia.
When talking about Philadelphia, we have to talk about Barkley.
The D-League is Barkley's home team. He played here for eight seasons and made the playoffs six times. After failing to make the playoffs last season, he was traded to the Suns by the D-League.
Returning to Philadelphia, he felt a little complicated and emotional.
During the offseason, the digital team first contacted the Lakers, not the Suns. He thought he would go to the Lakers, so he was very happy and even had a party to celebrate. But before the party was over, his agent told him that he was traded to the Suns.
After arriving at the hotel and settling in, it was already dinner time.
Sitting at the dining table, Barkley casually asked Wang Tiejun: "Old K, I heard you don't have an agent?"
Lao Wang shook his head and said, "I don't want anyone to share my money. Even if you point a gun at me, don't try to take a dollar from me."
"Haha..." Everyone at the table burst into laughter.
Barkley nodded and kindly reminded: "If you want to find an agent, make sure you find a reliable one."
At this time Kevin Johnson laughed and said: "Yes, don't learn from Charles, he has been cheated before."
"Brother, have you ever been cheated ?" Lao Wang asked in surprise.
Barkley smiled bitterly: "After I entered the league, my first agent took all my money and only gave me $15,000 a month for living expenses. The rest of the money was invested. Then I never saw them again. After four seasons, I went bankrupt."
"Haha..." Laughter broke out again at the table.
"Brother, you actually worked for four years for nothing. Your IQ is worrying!"
Lao Wang made a joke but thought in his heart, Brother Hei’s IQ is really not that good.
However, it was also the first time he heard the word "investment". He didn't quite understand what it meant. He had to learn more about it in the future to avoid being cheated.
After dinner, after resting for half an hour, Wang Tiejun started today's strength training, which lasted for a total of two hours.
He has three systematic training methods at hand, and he has to complete 300 hours of training within two months, an average of 5 hours a day, which actually puts very high demands on his physical fitness.
Fortunately, he had been doing heavy physical work for several months, and his physical fitness was indeed good, reaching level 90. He trained less on days when there were competitions, and trained more on days when there were no competitions. By allocating his training time well, he was able to persevere.
On the afternoon of the 30th, the Suns arrived at their home stadium in Philadelphia early.
This season's Digital Team is almost equivalent to a reconstruction because of the trade of Barkley.
Of the five starters, three were starters for the Suns last season: center Andrew Lang, power forward Tim Perry, and All-Star shooting guard Jeff Hornacek.
Among them, Hornacek is the main bargaining chip in the transaction. He averaged 20+5+5 All-Star data for the Suns last season. He is very strong, especially his three-point shooting percentage was as high as 43.9% last season. He and Kevin Johnson's backcourt partnership is the league's top backcourt configuration.
Head coach Paul Westphal has already thought about it. Since the main center of the Digital Team, Andrew, is just a blue-collar player and his strength is similar to that of Mark West, he plans to give Wang Tiejun some opportunities to shoot in this game.
According to Lao Wang's technical characteristics, a stretching tactic was arranged to allow Lao Wang to enter the basket and play one-on-one against Andrew Lang.
Now that it has been decided to train Wang Tiejun, he must be guaranteed playing time, shots, ball possession, tactical position, etc. Otherwise, how can he be trained?
Of course, the intensity of the training will depend on Wang Tiejun's performance. If he shows great potential, then the power will definitely be great.
In the afternoon training session, the Suns conducted relevant tactical training, including the stretching tactics arranged for Wang Tiejun.
However, the training effect was average, because among all the inside players of the Suns, no one could compete with Wang Tiejun.
Including Mark West and Oliver Miller, they were all avoiding strong confrontations with him because they had suffered enough in strong confrontations with him in previous training.
In this situation, he easily got to the basket, so it was impossible to simulate a real confrontation environment.
This situation also made Colangelo and Paul Westphal more determined to make Wang Tiejun the team's main center.
This training session clearly indicated that Wang Tiejun's position in the team was completely different from that in the previous two games, and everyone knew it.
