Maddie eventually relented and withdrew from the dispute over the contract extension. He was interviewed by the media and publicly said that he did not care about the timing www.biquge.info of the contract renewal, and he was now more focused on the upcoming new season.

And then Yuanfei will have to pay for it, just like the story he told to Alexander about buying horse bones, what the Rockets need at present is not only to renew the old players, but also to show the sincerity of being willing to pay to renew the contract to avoid a public relations crisis.

On October 31, the Rockets successfully signed a six-year, $45 million contract with Richard Brown. Jefferson signed an early contract extension so that Jefferson would play for the Rockets until 2011. The starting salary of 6 million yuan in this contract is significantly higher than that of the middle class, which meets the expectations of young players and allows the team to maintain a certain degree of flexibility.

Many media reported on this, and most of them thought that this signing was reasonable, although Jefferson was far from being a big star and this contract was not cheap, but he was down-to-earth and diligent and played seriously. The Rockets lost Gerrard. After Wallace, Jefferson will be their main choice for the No. 3 spot, and signing on a long-term contract is a good thing.

Such a signing at least blocked the negative voice of public opinion, and the Rockets management finally did not usher in the new season amid the accusations of "stinginess" and "slamming the door". As for Parker and Turkoglou, although it is inevitable that there will be some losses, seeing that the team has made a move to renew their contracts, and the renewal price is not low, they have some expectations for the future. In this way, the contract renewal turmoil in the team can be regarded as being suppressed for the time being under the grace and power of Yuanfei.

For Yuanfei, the offseason after winning the championship has exposed more problems than in previous summers. The last regret is that this year's rookie Spanoulis didn't get his wish. Spann has one year left on his contract with parent club Athens Marrosi, and the NBA league has a limit on the buyout fee that teams can pay to their parent international players, and the extra fees on top of this limited fee have to be paid by the players themselves (in the 16-17 season, for example, the league stipulated that the buyout fee was $650,000). Assuming that Zhou Qi's original contract with the Xinjiang team stipulated a buyout fee of $1 million, Zhou Qi would need to pay $350,000 out of pocket to buy out the original contract and join the NBA). Spann was just a second-round pick, and his meager salary was too extravagant to pay for a hefty buyout. And Yuanfei faced the hard rules of the alliance, even if he was willing to pay for it, there was nothing he could do. If the team risked a large salary for a rookie like Span, who didn't play a game, it would make up for the loss of his buyout fee, but it would draw resentment from the team's veteran players.

However, the two sides reached an amicable initial verbal agreement, and Spann is expected to join the Rockets next season after his contract ends. As a result, the Rockets have only 12 players on their roster this season, and after Dawson's operation, the Rockets signed an undrafted rookie, point guard Andrew from Seton Hall University, to a one-year contract. Barrett. The player is only 178cm tall and is difficult to rotate from a physical point of view, and he was signed purely to add a little more insurance to the team's weak No.1 position. In this way, the final roster of Rockets players is determined as:

Player/Position/Age/Salary ($10,000)

McGrady/Shooting Guard/25/

Reed/Shooting Guard/25/600

Billups/Point Guard/28/595.5

Yao Ming/Center/24/443.7

Bosh/Power Forward/20/283.4

Jefferson/Small Forward/24/233.2

Tekoglu/Small Forward/25/219.5

Wang Zhizhi/Power Forward/27/210

Purzbilla/Center/25/200

Parker/point guard/22/169

Vallejo/Centre/22/83.6

Battle/Centre/29/70

Barrett/point guard/22/38.5

On November 2, 2004, the new season finally began. The league has always attached great importance to the two important time points of the opening game and the Christmas war, and will arrange more important games on these two days. This day was certainly no exception, and although the league only scheduled three games, it was all eye-catching. The traditional two strong Mavericks vs. Kings, the newly rebuilt Lakers face the playoffs newcomer Nuggets, and more importantly, of course, the repeat of the Finals - the Rockets take on Detroit to challenge the old rival Pistons.

Detroit is difficult to play on the road, especially against the enemy, the Rockets. The Pistons started with the five Tigers lineup from last season, while the Rockets missed Billups with a sprained ankle in practice, and the lineup was Yao Mai Duo plus Bosh, Jefferson, and Parker.

The Pistons have bolstered their interior line in the summer, bringing in former All-Star three-team power forward Antonio. McDyce and '90 draft pick and former All-Star center Derrick Brown. Coleman. Dumas originally expected these two veterans to strengthen the interior to contain Yao Ming and overcome the Rockets' weak No. 4 position, but he didn't expect the 37-year-old Coleman to be in no better shape than back then, he was plagued by injuries and difficult to play, and the original first interior substitute Campbell is also 36 years old and gradually aging. The Pistons' interior advantage is not as obvious as it seems.

The course of the match was completely unexpected, with Bosh gaining a lot of weight after training hard in the summer, and getting tougher against Rashid. Bodiloga went to the Olympics in the summer and was very tired and not at all in top shape. The Pistons' two strong points did not have an advantage, but the Rockets felt even worse, and they ended the half with a 38-41 deficit after hitting the iron repeatedly. Maddie scored just three points on 1-of-8 shooting.

As soon as Tomjanovic walked into the dressing room, he immediately asked Maddie with concern: "Tracy, how is your injury status?" The boss instructed me that if you are not 100% cured, we will prioritize your recovery and you can go down and rest. ”

"The knee is not a big problem, it may be that I don't dare to exert force after recovering for a long time, and my movements are a little deformed and my shooting is not accurate." Maddie admits with some embarrassment: "Due to injuries, the summer training is not very regular, so I can only adjust slowly. ”

"Well, I'll reduce your playing time moderately in the second half." Tang Shuai didn't say anything, but he was vaguely dissatisfied in his heart. There are too many examples of young players who have achieved some results and become fallen geniuses without training hard. Far from it, let's talk about Coleman in the opponent's team. When he first debuted, he was amazingly talented and was considered a super interior player who could succeed Malone and Barkley. As a result, he drank heavily, fought and was lazy in training, and eventually became a third-rate player.

Maddie recovered in the third quarter, scoring 7 points on 3-of-6 shooting, but the iron was like an infectious disease, and it infected Yao Ming again. Da Yao faced Daben, who was a head shorter than him, and shot 0 of 4 in a single quarter, and only scored 2 points on free throws. As soon as Bosh went to rest, Wang Zhizhi was beaten by Rashid. Parker was in bad shape, but Tang Shuai didn't dare to replace him, because the only substitute in the No. 1 position was Barrett, who was not strong. Seeing that Parker was really not good, Lao Tang finally tried the backcourt combination of Reed + Maddie, but because Maddie was not in good shape, it did not have any organizational effect. Due to the lack of good passing, the Rockets' outside shooters have few shots, despite their decent shooting percentage.

In the last half of the quarter, Lao Tang finally replaced Yao Mai, and he would rather lose than let the players bear the hidden danger of injury. The Rockets bench held up the situation and saved the dignity to the end. At 85:91, the Rockets lost away. Maddie scored only 18 points on 6-of-18 shooting, and Yao Ming only scored 7+10 on 2-of-9 shooting. To make matters worse, the Rockets had just eight assists in the game, while the Pistons had 20 assists. The defending champions started the season with a one-man defeat in a teamwork defeat.