"Ah, this ......" Billups suddenly remembered that his agent had mentioned that the Rockets had offered him an offer to contract, but he hadn't paid much attention. Pen Fun Pavilion www.biquge.info he didn't know what to say for a while.

"I've always believed that you're one of the best point guards in this league, even if you're not as good as Jason. Kidd (a superstar point guard who just led the Nets to the Finals), but not far behind. Maddie continued; As the centerpiece of the team, I'm inviting you, my old teammate, Chauncey, to join our Houston Rockets. ”

After all, Billups has suffered setbacks, but his character is still relatively tenacious. He gradually calmed down and said, "Tracy, thank you very much for the invitation, and thank you for the Rockets for being willing to give me this opportunity. But my wish is to join a team with more strength. I'll seriously consider your suggestion......."

"Please listen to me, Chauncey." Maddie interrupted his polite remarks, "I know you're thinking about making an offer for the Pistons, don't ask me how I know." I was the same as you were in '00, full of anxiety for fear of making the wrong choice. We all know that a player can ruin his entire career by picking the wrong team. But coming to Houston was the wisest decision of my career. It is full of humanity and a sense of belonging, and the senior management is willing to renew the old captain's contract with a high salary until he is 40 years old, willing to sign Thorpe, the former champion, back to the team and hold a retirement ceremony for him, and willing to give the retired old Curry a job as an assistant coach. You won't find that anywhere else. ”

Billups listened to Maddie and seemed to see the scene of the fight in recent years. Yes, although the Wolves won more against the Rockets, the Rockets players were always so happy, always smiling at each other, facing the game, and they were not discouraged even if they kept losing. It seems that the Rockettes have what they are missing. "But Tracy, aren't there a lot of rumors that you don't agree with the manager? Is the relationship really good within your team? ”

"Hahaha." Maddie laughed out loud on the phone for a long time, "Chauncey, how can you believe it?" I have a pretty good relationship with Mr. Tomjanovich. It's the team's arrangement that I don't play enough minutes and I'm happy to follow that. Of course, I can't admit on the phone what the team has planned, you can see it yourself. Let me ask you, is there any team in the league that has more and better young players than Houston? ”

"You mean, you don't play so much because you ......." Billups swallowed the word "rotten" on his lips, and he said in surprise: "No wonder you came back alive after a few injuries, no wonder you played so little, no wonder the media said that the Rockets lost a lot but didn't lose many points." So you have a lot of good young players now. ”

"That's right! So we weren't as good as the Pistons last season, maybe not as good as the Pistons this season, but in the next two or three seasons, we're definitely going to be stronger than the Pistons, even better than the Lakers. Maddie continued to tempt Billups: "Chauncey, we have MVP-level superstar captains, championship-level head coaches, and very good management. They were very kind to the young players, especially Hakim who took care of me like a brother. We have Hakim and promising Yao on the inside, and we have great young players on the wings, just one good point guard. As long as you and I form a backcourt partnership, it doesn't take us 2 or 3 years to become a first-team team in the league right away. ”

"Don't talk about Tracy, please let Manager Dawson and my agent contact again." Billups, who had been frowning for days, smiled, "I'm very interested in what you said, let them talk about the contract." ”

***

When Billups' agent heard from Dawson that he was willing to add another $500,000 a year to the Pistons' offer, the deal went through.

On July 18, free agent Chauncey. Billups signed to the Houston Rockets for six years and $38 million, a deal that was later hailed as the most cost-effective signing in Rockets history (Billups signed to the Pistons for six years and $35 million).

"Jason, I don't have much confidence in the task you've given me. I've played with Chauncey and I don't think he has much potential. At first, even Maddie questioned whether the offer would help the team.

"Tracy, trust my data. Chauncey is the best point guard for you and Yao. And he's great off the ball, and when you're on the ball, no one dares to let him go and cover you. Yuanfei replied.

Of course, Maddie's lobbying and Dawson's offer are inseparable from Wang Yuanfei's strong advocacy. Now that the Rockets finally have a new team brain, the next step is to sign young players, but there is also a headache for Dawson: Reed signed a three-year, low-salary contract in 2000 that expires next year, and his agent has said he wants a big pay rise. Oku, on the other hand, is hoping for a high-value contract just as much as he did a year ago. Yuanfei decided not to participate in this kind of negotiation of the specific price, and let the old man Dawson do it himself. Reed is relatively easy to do, after all, he still has a lot of affection for this team. And Oku will always be a little envious when he sees the attention that compatriot Tekoglu has received in the past year.

Oku's greedy agent insisted on asking for a larger contract of more than $5 million over 2 years, but fortunately the Rockets acquired Yao Ming in the draft, and Magloyle played well before, Dawson was more confident in the negotiations, constantly retorting the other party and saying that the Rockets now have 3 excellent centers, and they are not worried about Oku's reluctance to join.

After Dawson's efforts, Oku finally agreed to join on Aug. 20 with a two-year, $2.1 million contract at a low salary. Of course, this contract is already well above the base salary of most second-round rookies.

Another concern for Dawson is the lack of personnel, with Williams leaving due to the retirement of Thorpe and Curry. Only Yao Ming was added to the draft, and the total number of Rockets was not large. Yuan Fei is not worried about this, anyway, there are still draft picks for next year, and it will be enough to add them next season. What's more, the number of players is small, but almost all of them have rotation strength, so he instructed Dawson to sign a fringe player enough. On Sept. 26, Dawson re-signed Terry Brown with a base salary of $390,000. Brown. On October 20, Yao Ming officially signed a three-year plus one-year team option with the Rockets (the team option is that the team has the right to choose whether to continue the contract at that time), expanding the Rockets' roster to 13 players. At this point, the construction of the new season of the Rockets is complete. The total salary of the team reached more than 37 million, which was not only reinforced, but also successfully compressed within the salary cap (temporary, the settlement is subject to the last day of the regular season). Boss Alexander highly appreciated the work of Yuanfei and Dawson.

Several other teams associated with Billups have been miserable, with the Pistons forced to continue using Chakey after a failed poaching attempt. Atkins started, but they traded the team's leading scorer Stackhouse for the Wizards' Richard Brown. Hamilton. And the Wolves, who lost Billups, did not catch up with Andrew. Miller had no choice but to sign (a free agent from the Magic) Troy. Hudson, a mediocre point guard, came to put out the fire.

The Rockets' summer operations have satisfied Yuanfei, but they have not satisfied the local Houstons fans. Many fan groups have voiced their protests against the arrival of Billups, believing that the young Parker has played well last season, and it would be good if he signed a superstar point guard, and an ordinary player like Billups who is not up or down will only reduce Parker's playing time and delay the development of Parker.

The media has also questioned the Houston deal, and even ESPN, which has always been the most optimistic about Dawson, has expressed doubts. One of their columnists noted: "The arrival of Yao Ming will only seriously affect Magloyer, who played well last season. There's no denying that the big man in the East has a lot of potential, but his lack of reach doesn't mean him to become a super center. Since the Rockets lack a guard, why don't they directly develop Jay who was drafted in the draft. What about Williams? It's incomprehensible to swap Jay for Yao with two draft picks and go back and strengthen the guard in the free market. What's even more incomprehensible is that they gave Billups a huge six-year contract, which will seriously affect the development of newcomer Parker. I don't understand why Dawson is so bullish on Billups – a player who hasn't lived up to his talent on all five teams. ”

And "Sports Illustrated" is relatively more optimistic about the rockets. They even used Yao Ming as the cover character to do a special feature "the.-yaoming" (real events). The author believes that Yao Ming could become another dominant super center after Olajuwon and O'Neal. Maddy, on the other hand, already has the same quality as Kobe, Carter and Iverson, and the only thing the two-time All-Star lacks is the lack of good teammates to push him to great results. The promising Rockets have an average age of 24.1 years in the new season, second only to the Cavaliers and the second youngest in the league. Under Maddy's leadership, as long as the little giant Yao Ming grows smoothly, the Rockets will have the ability to return to the playoffs in the next 1 or 2 years. But the author is also critical of the Rockets' summer trade, arguing that Magloyle and Parker were the Rockets' biggest takeaways last season, and that the whole job of management this summer was to bring in Yao Ming and Billups to share their playing time. This may prove to be a dizzying construction scheme in the future.

This time, Alexander firmly supported Dawson and Yuanfei in the face of pressure, and he stated in an internal meeting that it didn't matter what the media said, and the Rockets didn't need to change the current roster easily. Tang Shuai is even more slick, he said in an interview with the media that he is very satisfied with the operation of the management in the summer, and this season will definitely achieve the goals that he failed to achieve last season and make the playoffs.

Most people thought that when the old foxes were playing official again, and the Rockets were struggling to make the playoffs, this team really started.

On October 29, 2002, the new season began! Rocket departure!