November 7, 1997!

Wu Jianye, who disappeared from the public for nearly a year, finally appeared in front of the public again!

North America, Los Angeles, Staples Arena!

Today is the first home game of the NBA Lakers 97-98 season, Wu Jianye and Zhou Huimin sat in the first row near the commentary platform, holding a glass of Very Coke in their hands, while Zhou Huimin was holding a pack of popcorn in his hand.

Sitting on the other side of Wu Jianye is Cheng Long, who is promoting his new film "Rush Hour 2" in North America!

Cheng Long was released at the peak of his time last year, earning $178 million at the North American box office, making Cheng Long officially a top action superstar on a par with Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger in Hollywood!

"Director Wu, you really don't plan to make a comeback?"

Cheng Long sat next to Wu Jianye, and the curiosity on his face was undoubtedly revealed.

The success of "Inception" made the whole world want to see what kind of movie Wu Jianye would shoot next, but Wu Jianye announced a break for a period of time through the court culture, and I don't know how long the break will be, which makes everyone very curious.

"Watching the game, watching the game, I was looking for you to watch the game today, but I didn't want you to say this!" Wu Jianye was very interested in the game, but he was a little impatient with Cheng Long's question.

The main thing is that people call him almost every day during this time and ask when he will come back, which is really annoying!

Cheng Long sneered and said, "Then Director Wu, can you tell me whether that gyroscope stopped in the end, and whether it fell?"

Even though it has been more than a year since the release of "Inception", the debate about the final picture in the movie, whether the spinning top has stopped or not, has not stopped at all!

Wu Jianye asked Cheng Long rhetorically: "Do you think it has stopped?"

Cheng Long thought for a moment and said, "Stop, I read the domestic report before, and I think he discussed it very correctly!"

The comment on "Black and White Reflection" discussing whether the gyroscope stops not only aroused widespread recognition in China, but was later reprinted by Hollywood film magazines, and then caused a huge sense of recognition around the world.

Wu Jianye nodded, and said a little indifferently: "Then stop!"

"Poof!" Zhou Huimin couldn't help laughing when he listened to Wu Jianye's irresponsible answer on the other side of Wu Jianye.

In fact, after watching the movie "Inception", Zhou Huimin also asked Wu Jianye if the spinning top stopped, and Wu Jianye's answer was yes!

Cheng Long had a helpless expression on his face.

At this time, the lights in the arena dimmed, and the players began to enter, and today's game was the Lakers at home against the New York Knicks.

In fact, there were a lot of factors in this game that were later related to Huaxia.

For example, the current head coach of the Lakers is Silver Fox Del Harris, and later Del Harris became the head coach of the Chinese men's basketball team.

However, at this time, Wang Zhizhi is still not the main player of the Lakers, but a qualified bench player, last year's data was not bad, averaging 6.8 points, 4.8 rebounds, and 1.9 assists per game!

The New York Knicks also have two people who have some connections with Huaxia, first of all, their head coach Jeff Van Gundy later coached the Mosaic team, that is, Chairman Yao's head coach in the middle and late stages, and his dull tactics can be regarded as an assist that ruined Chairman Yao's career!

At the same time, Ewing, an All-Star center of the New York Knicks at this time, later joined the Mosaic team to be in charge of Chairman Yao!

In this game, the biggest highlight given by the media magazine is the confrontation between the big shark O'Neill and the gorilla Ewing.

As for Kobe, he is training hard for the Lakers' starters at this time!

Last year, the 96 golden generation entered the NBA, and the most well-known is the 76ers' AI, which scored 30 points in the first game of his rookie season, causing a sensation throughout the league.

At the end of the season, he won the best rookie of the season with an average of 23.5 points, 7.5 assists, and 4.1 rebounds per game.

At the same time, he was selected to the All-Rookie First Team, while Bryant was only selected to the All-Rookie Second Team.

After the game started, Wu Jianye sat there and watched the game seriously, the Lakers' bench was not far from Wu Jianye's position, Kobe Bryant and Wang Zhizhi were sitting on the bench at this time.

After getting the report on the Lakers, Wu Jianye knew that Harris didn't like these two youngsters very much, which actually had something to do with Kobe's first season.

Kobe, who has just joined the league, is keen on one-on-one games, which makes the veteran director Del Harris very dissatisfied.

In the last game of last season, when the Lakers and Jazz played overtime, Kobe Bryant took the initiative to ask Ying to come on the court and told Del Harris that he would definitely be able to shoot the ball!

At that time, the best player the Lakers singled out was rookie Kobe Bryant, and even Del Harris was no longer satisfied with Kobe's season performance, and finally agreed to Kobe's request.

At that time, Del Harris had no other choice after O'Neal had been sent off, and all the players had lost their fighting spirit.

As a result, Kobe Bryant ended the Lakers' 96-97 season with four threes!

After the season, the media's criticism of Del Harris and Kobe Bryant can be imagined.

At that time, some NBA players commented on Kobe, from a high school student to the NBA, like a CHU man, sharing a bed with a 40-year-old middle-aged woman with three children.

In the eyes of those veterans, Kobe Bryant is the CHU man, and he was laughed at fiercely.

At the same time, Kobe's family and friends are also very dissatisfied with Kobe's appearance, in their opinion, Del Harris has been refrigerating Kobe throughout the season, but at the most critical moment, he handed over the most important task of the team to Kobe, this is to watch Kobe make a fool of himself!

But in any case, there is definitely a contradiction between Kobe Bryant and the team's head coach Del Harris!

It can be seen from this game that although Kobe Bryant played 20 minutes as a substitute, Del Harris almost did not arrange any tactics for Kobe......

In the end, Kobe Bryant shot 1 of 9, plus two free throws, and only scored 4 points in the whole game, which is almost impossible for Kobe, the scoring maniac of later generations!

However, in the end, the Lakers won the game with their overall performance, and six Lakers scored double-doubles in the whole game, including Wang Zhizhi, who should have become a difficult brother with Kobe, Wang Zhizhi scored 11 points in this game and gave himself a good start to the new season!

After the game, Cheng Long left the stadium directly, and Wu Jianye took Zhou Huimin to the team's locker room!

However, Wu Jianye did not go in, this is the tradition of NBA teams, except for the team's personnel, no one else, even the owner, is allowed to enter the locker room!

"Otherwise, I'll go back at night, you big men are drinking and chatting together, and I don't know much about it!" Zhou Huimin said.

Wu Jianye nodded and said, "That's okay, I'll let someone send you back!"

After Zhou Huimin left, the group of spiritual boys also finished washing up and walked out of the locker room.

"Wow, Director Wu, can you tell me if that spinning top has stopped?" O'Neill, the big shark, was the first to walk out of the locker room, and he was very excited when he saw Wu Yeye.

O'Neal's contract with the Magic team expired last year and became the prey of the entire league, O'Neal's old club, the Magic team, was the most promising, but unfortunately in the end, the Magic team gave a humiliating contract, so that O'Neal completely parted ways with the Magic team and joined the Lakers instead!

In other words, the Magic team is indeed a strange team, born with a good sense of self, thinking that all stars are very eager to join their own team, and later the Magic team even almost signed Deng Dudu, who wanted to leave the Spurs, just because the Magic team did not allow Deng Dudu's wife to take their team's plane, and then Deng Dudu continued to stay with the Spurs!

Although Wu Jianye did not appear at the public franchise press conference, as the big boss of the team, he still invited O'Neill to dinner.

O'Neill's funny personality makes the two good friends!

"Didn't fall!" Wu Jianye replied casually.

"No, that's not the answer I'm looking for!" O'Neill said funny, "Even if you're the director of this movie, I can't trust you, I firmly believe that the spinning top has fallen!"

Wu Jianye smiled: "It's good if you're happy!"

At this time, Wang Zhizhi also walked out, and when he saw Wu Jianye, his face was still a little shy: "Director Wu, you are here!"

O'Neill grabbed Wang Zhizhi's shoulders and said, "Wang, how many times have I told you, you can't be so shy, you should be open, look at that 'love show maniac', don't worry, I'll grab a rebound for you!"

Wang Zhizhi nodded, but did not reply, O'Neill is like a big child who doesn't grow up, happy and angry, like is like, dislike is not like.

And Wang Zhizhi's shy temperament makes O'Neal like it very much, unlike the young man in the team who finds an opportunity like a dunk......

As for the show-loving maniac in O'Neal's mouth, it is actually Kobe!

Kobe Bryant in his rookie season is like an energetic man with no place to vent, Sakuragi Hanamichi, who has just joined the Xiangbei basketball team, wants to end his offense with a dunk whenever he has the opportunity.

said that Cao Cao Cao arrived, at this time Kobe Bryant also changed into civilian clothes and walked out, and after seeing Wu Jianye, his face showed a trace of embarrassment.

"Director Wu, today's performance ......"

Wu Jianye smiled and said, "It's okay, if you have anything to say, let's talk about it at the hotel later." After speaking, he said to O'Neill: "We are waiting for you at the hotel!"

O'Neal, as the team's top star, is naturally going to participate in the press conference after the game, but Kobe and Wang Zhizhi do not have this treatment!

In a high-end Western restaurant in Los Angeles, Wu Jianye, Kobe Bryant, and Wang Zhizhi sat here, Wang Zhizhi was shy and reluctant to speak, and Kobe Bryant was entangled in his bad performance tonight at this time.

If Wu Jianye hadn't let him come out, Kobe Bryant at this time would definitely be practicing for himself!

The night before the 96 draft, Wu Jianye also invited Kobe, telling him that he was very optimistic about his future, and told Kobe that the team had decided to bring Kobe Bryant to the Lakers through a trade with the Kings in this year's draft!

This is also the first time Kobe Bryant has met Wu Jianye!

Later, the two talked on the phone many times, which made Kobe very moved, after all, Wu Jianye, as the owner of the team, was able to treat himself as a newcomer like this, which made him a little flattered!

In Kobe's view, Wu Jianye later found LUCK Sports, which is now one of the top three sports brands in the world, to sign Kobe, and promised to make signed sneakers for Kobe!

This is also another important reason why Luck Sports was able to sign Kobe Bryant in the competition between Nike and Adi!

It's just that Kobe Bryant doesn't understand very much that in the contract signed with Luck Sports, he is not allowed to take a helicopter......

Under the huge endorsement contract, Kobe Bryant also signed this contract.

"Don't care what people say, I'm sure you'll be a player like Michael Jordan in the future!" Wu said.

If it were other young players, it would have been a little scary to hear someone compare them to Michael Jordan, but in Kobe's view, this is what he has been chasing.

So Kohlon nodded solemnly and said, "Well, I haven't done a good job of this offseason, thank you!"

Wu Jianye smiled: "It's okay, Jordan's side also has to train, it's not difficult to add you to one, and you can refuse Spike Lee's invitation for your own training, which is not something ordinary players can do!"

With Kobe Bryant's four threes, the end of the 96-97 season, Kobe's performance in the last game was not good, but in the case of the NBA league's deliberate momentum, Kobe Bryant has become a high-profile star, but the loss in the last game of the season still made Kobe very annoyed.

Later, Spike Lee invited Kobe to participate in his movie, and Kobe Bryant refused Spike Lee's invitation to train and improve his skills, and later Spike Lee invited Ray Allen to participate......

By the way, although many people say that Spike Lee is a very good director, it is like that in Wu Jianye's opinion.

And Wu Jianye then called Kobe Bryant and told him that he had invited Jordan to train with Kobe in the offseason, which was really a good opportunity for Kobe, who had always regarded Jordan as his goal.

Later, when Jordan talked to Wu Jianye about Kobe, he said: "I have never seen a young man who can train so hard, and he will definitely become the best superstar in this league in the future!"

Hearing Wu Jianye praise himself, Kobe Bryant showed a hint of a smile.

Wu Jianye persuaded Wang Zhizhi again to let him let go of some of his own personality, such a dull personality is indeed not conducive to his integration into the team culture.

While the three were chatting, O'Neill also rushed over to the arena.

With O'Neal's big treasure, the atmosphere is naturally lively, for O'Neal, Kobe Bryant at this time is not a threat to himself, so although he doesn't like Kobe's style of play very much, there is not much contradiction.

The four chatted until late at night, O'Neill suggested that everyone go to the bar together, and Kobe Bryant said that he would go back to bed early, because he still had to train tomorrow, although Wang Zhizhi did not say it explicitly, but it was also what he meant.

Wu Jianye didn't agree, and in the end he had to go back to his own home!