Chapter 347: Team Establishes Prestige
"What's wrong? Is there a problem?" Yang Mo looked up at Isaiah Thomas and asked back.
"Harrington has only one year left on his contract. I think he was the best offensive player on the team last season. If he leaves, the team will not have a true scorer." Isaiah Thomas expressed his thoughts truthfully.
Hearing this, Yang Mo carefully looked at the lineup again, frowned even more, and said, "To be honest, I really don't know what D'Antoni is thinking. There are twelve players, six of whom are forwards, plus me, that's seven. There is only one center who can stand in the penalty area, Milicic. This is too unreasonable."
Isaiah Thomas heard this and shook his head in distress, saying, "I don't know what the plan is in his head. I only know that we have to tear it down and rebuild now."
"Can all these players be replaced? I think this is a terrible lineup." Yang Mo said very directly.
"Um... this is difficult, man. After the training camp starts, you contact them first. Whoever you don't like, I will trade them. Everything is up to you and I will be responsible for the specific operations. How about it?" Isaiah Thomas directly clarified the division of labor between the two, acting like the best partners.
"This is the only way. I hope these guys can give me a little surprise and not let me kick them all away." Yang Mo muttered and put the list of players into his pocket.
Then, after exchanging a few pleasantries, he turned and left. When he walked out the door, he saw D'Antoni walking towards him. Yang Mo wanted to talk to him for a few more words, but this guy just smiled at Yang Mo and walked away.
It is not difficult to see from this action that D'Antoni does not like Yang Mo, and there is no place for Yang Mo in his tactical system. I don't know if it is because Yang Mo taught him a lesson when he led the Heat last season.
Yang Mo just shrugged his shoulders and didn't take it seriously. He is no longer a young man who just entered the NBA. If D'Antoni really wants to go against Yang Mo now, he will definitely be the one to leave. After all, Yang Mo is a shareholder of MSG, and the team has already established him as the core. These days, it is not uncommon for stars to drive out head coaches. D'Antoni really has nothing to jump about. He only has a set of run-and-gun tactics to conquer the world. Strictly speaking, he is not even a first-line head coach. What the hell is this?
D'Antoni doesn't really dislike Yang Mo. After all, a healthy Yang Mo is indeed a quasi-first-tier star who can turn the course of the game on his own, and his talent in running and gunning is amazing. The reason why he has a grudge against Yang Mo is entirely because of Isaiah Thomas. He regards Yang Mo as Isaiah Thomas's man. And Isaiah Thomas is the one who took away his position as general manager. Before, he was the head coach and general manager of the Knicks, and had full control over the team's life and death. Now, Isaiah Thomas is back, and his status has plummeted. He has become an ordinary head coach and has to live by Isaiah Thomas's face.
With such a huge gap, it is impossible not to have some negative emotions. After all, he is not a saint or a gentleman.
Three days later, the Knicks players officially assembled, marking the official arrival of the new season, and opened for media interviews on the same day.
After taking the team's family portrait, Yang Mo was surrounded by a large group of New York media.
As the largest city in the United States and even the world, reporters in New York are naturally a little arrogant, so their first question to Yang Mo was very critical: "Yang, the Knicks have made you a new core player. Do you think you can carry the hope of New York City on your shoulders with your ability?"
"Of course, why not?" Yang Mo asked, tilting his head, "I came here to lead the Knicks to glory. Although everyone thinks the Knicks are a bad team now, it doesn't matter. With me, they will become a championship-level team within three years."
"We will get LeBron James next year, so I am very confident in what you said about becoming a championship-level team in three years." A reporter said this immediately.
Obviously, the Knicks reporters still did not regard Yang Mo as the savior of the Big Apple. In their view, Yang Mo was at most Robin beside Batman. They positioned Yang Mo as a second-in-command, nothing more.
However, Yang Mo did not come all the way here to be the second in command. And it was really impolite and unfriendly to mention LeBron James' name in front of him, so he immediately said: "LeBron James can't save New York, only I can. In a month, you will find out how stupid you are now!"
Having said that , he turned and left.
Yang Mo was not afraid of offending these uncrowned kings. He had already fallen out with those basketball commentators, and he did not expect to see any positive news about himself in the sports newspapers. These reporters wanted to show off their power, but they were totally wrong. Other players might be afraid of the media's criticism, but Yang Mo would not accept it. In the past year since his debut, he has been scolded by the sports media. In the end, he was still beaten by those idiots with pig heads.
Yang Mo left the training hall without looking back, went straight to the locker room, and lay down on the comfortable massage chair to close her eyes and rest, not paying any attention to the reporters who were complaining and scolding outside. They could do whatever they wanted, anyway, it was not Yang Mo's body that was being upset.
Yang Mo was lying on the massage chair humming a song for a while, and Jordan Hill and Tony Douglas, rookies with big hair , came in first. After all, they didn't have many reporters to interview. When they came in and saw Yang Mo lying there humming a song, they looked at each other, hesitated for a moment, and ran over to greet: "Super Yang, my name is Jordan Hill (Tony Douglas), please give me your guidance in the future."
Yang Mo opened his eyes and looked at them twice, nodded, and said: "You are the rookies this year, right? I was the same as you last year, I hope you can..."
Before Yang Mo could finish her words, an angry shout came from the door: "Rookie, go buy me some water! I'm dying of thirst."
The two of them glanced at the door, then looked at Yang Mo who was interrupted.
Just as they were about to go out to buy water, Yang Mo slowly stood up, turned around, and saw Eddy Curry standing at the door with his eyes wide open and a fierce look on his face.
When Eddy Curry saw Yang Mo, he subconsciously dodged and dared not look her in the eye. After all, when the two met last season, he was beaten badly.
"Are you thirsty?" Yang Mo glanced at him and asked indifferently.
"Cough." Eddy Curry pretended to cough and said calmly, "My mouth is a little dry."
"I'm thirsty too." Yang Mo said indifferently.
When Eddy Curry heard this, he thought about it with his fat head, and quickly shouted to Jordan Hill and the others, "Why don't you go buy some water? The boss is thirsty, didn't you hear me?"
"Okay, okay." The two rookies quickly agreed to go buy water. At this time, Yang Mo reached out to stop them and said to Eddy Curry: "I mean, you go buy water."
"Ah? I'm going to buy water?" Eddy Curry was a little confused and tried to correct Yang Mo's thinking: "But, according to the rules, the rookies buy water."
"My rule is that whoever is the fattest gets to buy water. Are you dissatisfied?" Yang Mo's tone was still calm, but he was subconsciously snapping his fingers. The sound reached Eddy Curry's ears, and he was so scared that he thought the violent demon Yang Mo was going to blow his head off. He quickly nodded, "Okay, okay, okay, I'll go buy it, I'll go buy it."
Having said that, he quickly turned and left.
After driving away the annoying Eddy Curry, Yang Mo lay back in the massage chair.
"Thank you, Super Yang!" The two of them quickly expressed their gratitude to Yang Mo.
"Your extra points on the court are the greatest thanks to me." Yang Mo said with a smile: "In my eyes, you are people who can contribute to the team, so I favor you. As for that fat guy, he will be pardoned in a few days to prevent him from polluting the fresh air in our locker room."
"Well, we will definitely play well." Both of them nodded. They subconsciously breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that the legendary violent devil was not that scary. In the past, they thought it would be very unpleasant to play under Yang Mo, but they didn't expect Yang Mo to be so kind and speak for them. They immediately had a good impression of him and their loyalty soared.
After a while, the other players came back one after another. Some came over to say hello, while others ignored Yang Mo lying on the massage chair. Obviously, some people in this team were not particularly convinced of Yang Mo.
Yang Mo did not speak immediately to correct the attitude of that group of people until the breathless Eddy Curry bought the drinks back.
After taking the drink from Eddy Curry, Yang Mo slowly stood up, looked around, patted Eddy Curry on the shoulder, and said, "You did a great job. Remember that I am the leader of this team, unlike some people who don't understand the hierarchy."
As soon as Yang Mo finished speaking, his eyes swept directly towards Jared Jeffries and Larry Hughes. The two of them had been telling jokes very loudly as soon as they came in. Sometimes they greeted this person, and sometimes they asked the rookie to carry the bag. They all acted like big brothers and did not take Yang Mo seriously at all. They even provoked Yang Mo intentionally or unintentionally. It seemed that they wanted to find out Yang Mo's background through their first meeting.
Yang Mo looked at the two men, and the two men looked back at Yang Mo, their eyes were very sharp, and they looked tit-for-tat.
"Team leaders are not spoken of, they are earned through playing." Larry Hughes responded with disdain: "When I was in Cleveland, even LeBron James respected me very much. Why are you putting on airs in front of me now?"
"Very good." Yang Mo nodded, clapped his hands, gave Larry Hughes a thumbs up, and said, "I like people like you who speak directly. Let's put it this way, if you two losers can defend me once in three attacks, I will listen to you in the future. If you can't, you will sit on the bench from today until you are traded, how about it?"
When Yang Mo said this, there was an uproar in the locker room.
Want to go one against two? Although Jeffries and Hughes have passed their prime, they were both defensive masters after all. Hughes even won the title of steals king. Isn't it too arrogant for Super Yang to challenge like this?
The other teammates thought Yang Mo was arrogant, but Yang Mo was fully confident in himself. Today , he came here to establish his authority. If he failed to intimidate these guys the first time, he would never expect them to obey his orders in the future.
"Okay, come on!" Jeffreys slapped the cabinet, stood up, and looked like he was going to kill Yang Mo directly.
Larry Hughes also looked eager to try: "Since you want to humiliate yourself, then we will help you. When the time comes, don't cry when you lose."
"Oh, come on then."
Yang Mo sneered, turned around and walked towards the basketball court.
Larry Hughes and Jeffries quickly followed.
The rest of the team members quickly caught up. They were not just joining in the fun of this match, after all, it would determine who would be the boss of the team in the future.
