"Welcome to the NBA regular season opener, the Milwaukee Bucks' home game against the Charlotte Hornets. Smith, next to me is Charles. Buckley & Shaq. O'Neill, today's game will be explained by the three of us. ”

"Seriously, this is the first time I've covered the national live-streamed opener of two non-playoff teams." Barkley got straight to the point: "But I'm sure most viewers know very well why this game is going to be broadcast live in the United States. ”

"It's to celebrate Charlotte's team finally getting back the name Hornets...... O'Neal said cheerfully.

In May '14, the Charlotte Bobcats officially changed their name to the Charlotte Hornets, reclaiming a name that had been abandoned by the New Orleans Pelicans.

Old NBA fans know that the New Orleans Pelicans were formerly known as the New Orleans Hornets. Paul rose to prominence on this team, and before that, the New Orleans Hornets played in Charlotte, and then the name was Charlotte Hornets, and then the team moved to New Orleans, and Charlotte didn't have a team until Charlotte Bobcats were established in '04.

Now, Charlotte Bobcats have changed their name to the Hornets, on the one hand, it can be regarded as a return to the roots, and on the other hand, it is also trying to use the nostalgic name of the Hornets to win more markets, after all, the popularity of the Bobcats has always been low in the NBA.

Of course, O'Neal was just joking, and the change of team name would not be taken seriously by the league and TNT TV, and it would not be possible to arrange a national broadcast because of this.

The opening game of the NBA is still very important, and there are many highlights, such as the Wizards vs Cavaliers, the Trail Blazers vs Clippers, etc.

The Bucks vs. Hornets, in terms of team strength and star market, are definitely not enough to support the opening game to be broadcast live in the United States.

The reason why it got the live broadcast in the United States is actually very clear to many people, just because of Wang Xiao.

Generally speaking, coaches are not popular, and they cannot be compared to players.

But Wang Xiao is an outlier.

All the players of the two teams combined, there is actually no one who is more popular than Wang Xiao, even if the scope is expanding, I am afraid that only the owner of the Hornets Michael . Jordan can crush Wang Xiao in popularity.

While his popularity is high, Wang Xiao's controversy is not small.

The Wizards have made it clear that they are willing to renew Wang Xiao's contract with a high salary.

However, Wang Xiao refused to renew his contract with the Wizards and ran to a team that was at the bottom of the league last season, saying that he wanted to increase the challenge.

This kind of behavior is simply a slap in the face of the manager of another team.

At a time when many coaches were desperate for a championship but couldn't, Wang Xiao was tired of being invincible in the Wizards, and instead ran to a bottom team to start anew.

This can't help but make many people curious about how Wang Xiao can cooperate with the Bucks.

The NBA is clearly a chicken thief, and so is TNT.

How could they not grasp such a topical situation?

As a result, the two teams that are not very popular and have a poor record ushered in the national live broadcast in the opening game.

……

Wang Xiao stood on the sidelines, looking around at the players in front of him.

"Don't be nervous, just play according to the tactics in pre-season and daily training."

In the preseason that ended not long ago, Wang Xiao used large-scale rotation as always, which made many people unclear about what the Bucks' starting lineup for the new season was.

However, the team's players and assistant coaches can feel it through their daily training.

Antetokounmpo. Antetokounmpo, the player who was placed in the C position when taking the makeup photo, was particularly valued by Wang Xiao.

In daily training, Wang Xiao has personally instructed his playing style many times, and arranged a number of sets of tactics with him as the starting point of attack, and most of them are based on breaking through with the ball on the outside.

This is very puzzling to the coaches of the Bucks.

Antetokounmpo did play point guard as a child, and he was skilled in ball control and had a strong ability to break through, but as he grew taller, his style of play gradually moved closer to the inside.

Last season, Antetokounmpo basically swinged between the small forward and power forward positions, and spent more time on the inside, which also matched his height of 2.11 meters.

But under Wang Xiao's hands, he looks like he treats Antetokounmpo as a point guard, and he touches the ball even more time in tactical design than Oladipo and Knight, the two guards.

With the change in Antetokounmpo's playing style, in the preseason, Antetokounmpo, who has been increasing the number and intensity of breakthroughs, has performed very well, averaging 23 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists per game in 6 preseason games, and opponents seem to have no resistance to his outside breakout.

However, it was only a pre-season game, and the opponent did not take it seriously, did not send the main players, and did not arrange targeted defensive tactics.

Most people still think that a player of Antetokounmpo's height is not suitable for a defender's style of play.

Only Antetokounmpo knew that Wang Xiao wanted him to be a point forward.

Previously, Wang Xiao had met Antetokounmpo alone, and clearly told him that he wanted to be the core of the team, hoping that Antetokounmpo would become LeBron in the Bucks. A point forward like James takes on the responsibility of attacking and partly organizing the team.

Antetokounmpo was stunned at the time, but he was surprised, but he simply said that he would go all out and not disappoint Wang Xiao.

He knows very well that this is an opportunity, and if he grasps it, he is likely to become a rising star in the league like Curry and George, after all, in front of him, he is the ace coach who can cultivate newcomers in the entire league!

Clenching his fists tightly, Antetokounmpo secretly said in his heart: "Look at it, coach, I won't let you down!" ”

……

The game starts with players from both sides jumping the ball.

The starting lineup on the Bucks' side is point guard Brandon. Knight, shooting guard Victor. Oladipo, small forward Chris. Middleton, power forward Giannis. Antetokounmpo, center Nikola. Jokic.

Hornets starting lineup: Point guard Kemba. Walker, scoring guard Marvin. Williams, small forward Michael. Gilchrist, power forward Cody. Zeller, center Al. Jefferson.

Judging from the lineup, the two sides are half-hearted, and the Hornets are even slightly better because they have an Al. Jefferson.

Although he has never been selected as an All-Star in his career, Al Brown. Jefferson is also a star in the eyes of many fans, after all, he is an interior player who can contribute 20+10 steadily.

It's a pity that this interior player is only 2.08 meters tall, and his playing style is unpretentious, unsightly, and unlucky, he has no strength but has not been selected as an All-Star.