Summer flies by quickly, August passes, September ends, and into October, the new NBA season is already on the agenda.

On the first day of October, the Pacers officially announced the roster for the 2014-2015 Pacers training camp.

The Pacers' training camp kicks off on Oct. 2 with a total of 19 players on the Pacers' roster.

Unlike the big battles between the Lakers and Clippers back then, the Pacers training camp opened quietly, and the team did not arrange a large-scale media conference, but only gave a half-day training open day for the media to take pictures and interviews.

But the reporters who came on this day can be said to be quite quite a lot.

In addition to local Indiana reporters, there are also media outlets in New York and Boston, as well as media outlets in China.

The reason the Pacers are getting attention is simple, because they have Li Liang.

At the same time, the news of Larry Bird's return as head coach also took many people around the league by surprise.

At that time, Bird said that he would only be a coach for three years, and no matter what the results were, he would not do it again.

Unexpectedly, Bird broke his promise.

But when you think that the Pacers are trading for Li Liang and making a desperate bet, then Bird's comeback seems reasonable.

So the first day of the Pacers' training camp was extraordinarily lively compared to the past.

Li Liang took makeup photos in front of the studio in the training gym, and he changed into the No. 28 jersey of the Pacers.

The Pacers' jerseys have undergone a major overhaul from last season, with the last time they did so in 2005, when their decorated player Reggie Miller retired.

There are several reasons for NBA teams to change their jersey styles, one is purely to change the taste and give fans a sense of freshness, after all, if you don't change your skin for more than ten years or decades, even classic players will feel tired.

For example, after the 1996 season, the Houston Rockets changed their jerseys and team logos from the classic scrambled eggs with tomatoes to cartoon logos and navy blue striped shirts in line with the trend of the time.

One is that there are relatively large changes in the team, such as the retirement of meritorious players, the departure of core players, transactions, etc., by changing skins to express "we are different from the past", to draw a line with the past.

For example, after James left the Heat in 2010, the Cavaliers immediately changed the jersey style as a response to James' "betrayal".

The reason why the Pacers changed the jersey style this time was "third" and was coerced......

Li Liang didn't feel very satisfied after trying on the Pacers' jersey, thinking that it was too monotonous, and hoped that the jersey could restore the retro classic stripe design of the past, and at the same time be different from the previous stripe style.

Li Liang made a request, can the Pacers management not comply?

And it's been a decade since the last overhaul, and management also decided it was time to launch a new jersey.

So after Li Liang's "review", the Pacers launched a new jersey for the new season, using the popular simple design and matching the classic stripe pattern.

The colors are still white, bright yellow and cyan.

In order to add Chinese elements, the designer even considered using a red jersey, but Li Liang vetoed it.

"Who told you that red is a Chinese element? Do Chinese use red? Yellow can also be a Chinese element, and the ancient Chinese emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties wore yellow...... Of course, there used to be some who wore red and black, so don't stick to the so-called Chinese elements, just look good. ”

Director Li gave the highest instructions, and the designer said that you are right, everything is up to you.

So, Li Liang put on the newly designed jersey on the first day of training camp and took a lot of makeup photos to endorse the Pacers.

Interested reporters will find that Li Liang's body is much stronger than last season.

The body became thicker, especially the shoulders became stronger, round and bulging, as if equipped with shoulder armor.

While nowhere near as exaggerated as Dwight Howard, it's also a lot stronger than it used to be.

The reporter stepped forward to ask Li Liang if he continued to strengthen his body in the summer.

Li Liang replied: "No, this is the effect of the new jersey, this is the design of narrow shoulders and waist, which will show the figure more, in fact, I haven't changed, I haven't made any progress at all." ”

The reporter is a little confused, what does this mean? No progress? I believe you're a ghost.

But when you think about it, it's possible.

Because Li Liang did not appear in the public eye throughout August and September, he did not appear in any training camp.

Many reporters approached Wei Dazhi through connections and asked about Li Liang's whereabouts, and Wei Dazhi's answers generally included the following:

"Sleep at home."

"Went out to play."

"Playing games with my girlfriend."

"It's time to harvest corn."

Anyway, it was all the rhetoric back and forth, and finally some media asked for Ruth Lee-related news to increase traffic, and could only say "It is said that Bruce Lee is driving a tractor in Indiana and harvesting corn fields, and he has bought a lot of land in India, maybe there is a possibility of staying here for a long time?" ”

This kind of news is simply nonsense, when did you buy the land?

It's just that I went to the farm and drove back the tractor, and I just got over it.

And he didn't dare to let his father know, knowing that he had to endorse the tractor advertisement and push the tractor business to the big corn state.

So think about it, maybe Li Liang really didn't make progress in the summer? It's not bad to just keep it at the same level.

In the afternoon, media hours ended, and the Pacers began their first practice session of the new season.

Bird was wearing a white coaching T-shirt with a whistle around his neck, and he looked very unhappy with his face drooping.

He's not happy, he doesn't want to be a coach, he's annoying, he's tired, he's troublesome.

But Li Liang asked him to do it, and he couldn't help it.

The entire walker was unanimous and was trying to meet Li Liang's various demands.

Li Liang asked for a lot, but most of them had nothing to do with money or privileges, so the boss waved his hand and asked to meet them as much as possible.

"Beep!"

Bird blew the assembly whistle and the whole team gathered for the first day of training.

There are 19 players, and compared to last season, except for George and Masinmi, who have been replaced by Li Liang and Vitesse, the others have not changed much.

The core lineup has been retained, plus some short contracts, and the basic combat power is still guaranteed.

Everyone stood in a row, looking straight at Bird.

Li Liang stood in the middle, not moving forward or backward, and next to him stood Stephenson—Fenson glanced at Li Liang from time to time, not knowing what was going on in his head.

Everyone was waiting for Bird's announcement for the new season, but Bird held back for a long time and said, "OK, let's start training, let's listen to Coach Vogel and Coach Brown." ”

After saying that, Bird ran to the sidelines and found a stool to sit down, which meant that Lao Tzu didn't care, I just wanted to sit, I should have sit.

Li Liang is full of question marks, Larry, you are coaching like this? What's the use of asking you? You might as well let me do it.

Actually, Larry Bird sitting on the sidelines really works.

When he is the manager, even if he looks at the players without saying a word, the feeling of the players is different.

This is Larry, and his story is familiar to any NBA player.

Even if he is just a mascot, he has a strong role.

In fact, when Bird was a coach, he was in this style of "throwing his hands in charge", assigning the main work to his assistant coaches, and he was responsible for controlling the overall situation and rallying people's hearts.

Even in the middle of the game, when a timeout is called, Bird will hand the tactics board to the assistant coach, let the assistant coach draw the tactics, and he will rest on the sidelines.

That's it, he won the best coach, where do you go to reason.

The team's collective training began under the guidance of Vogel.

Before training camp began, Vogel had just signed a contract extension with the Pacers as an assistant coach.

Bird has made a commitment to give Vogel the manager's position whenever necessary.

As for Mike Brown, Li Liang's good partner and good follower followed him all the way from Los Angeles to Cleveland, and from Cleveland to Indianapolis.

The sight of such a coach running around with his players is truly unprecedented in the history of the NBA.

But Mike Brown is happy that his goal now is not to be a successful coach, but to develop a great player.

Throughout the summer, only the system and Mike Brown trained with Li Liang.

Only Li Liang himself and Mike Brown know what kind of progress and results Li Liang has achieved after 2 months of special training.

Mike Brown is convinced that Li Liang will shake up the league again in the new season.

"Mike! I want to drink water, get me a glass of water. ”

"OK, OK, I'll go right away."

The first thing was tactical training, and halfway through the break, Li Liang asked Brown to pour water for himself.

Stephenson watched from the sidelines, feeling a little unpleasant.

You're also a player, why does the assistant coach pour water for you?

Stephenson doesn't have many other advantages, but he is no worse than anyone else in not admitting defeat.

He couldn't hold back the fighting spirit in his heart, and took the initiative to walk to the sidelines, Li Liang came to him, and said, "Hey Bruce, let's make three points?" ”

Li Liang took the water from Mike Brown's hand, took a sip, and didn't look at Stephenson or speak.

After drinking the water, he handed the water bottle to Mike Brown, then turned around, stood outside the courtline, and threw a shot at the basket.

"Huh!"

in.

Then Li Liang looked at Fensen, gave him a look, and walked away.