Charlotte City Coliseum, which is the home arena currently used by the Buccaneers for the time being.

The reason why it is said to be used temporarily is because when Jordan and Richard took over the Pirate team, they had already decided to build a new arena as the home of the new Pirate army.

The Charlotte City Coliseum facilities are too old and too small to keep up with the times.

The previous Charlotte Hornets actually moved to New Orleans, which also had the reason why the arena was too backward.

George, the owner of the Old Hornets, wanted the city government to pay for the new arena, but they didn't negotiate and they eventually moved to New Orleans.

This kind of thing seems a bit fanciful, the team is going to use the new stadium, why should the government pay for it?

In fact, this is quite normal in the United States, even in China, it is actually quite normal, and the government has to generate revenue......

The team has to pay a lot of taxes every year, and this is where the government generates revenue.

Now that the old Hornets are running away, making Charlotte City City a little flustered, luckily, Jordan and Richard are here......

When the pirates negotiated with the city government to build a stadium, the city government was a lot smarter and helped the pirates contribute 70% of the funds to prevent the pirates from running away.

The arena cost about $300 million, but Jordan and Richard only paid a total of $90 million, or about $45 million each.

The arena has already been built, and it is estimated that when the season is over, the Pirates will be able to move into the new arena.

……

There wasn't much time left before the start of the game, but the stadium was not full, and the attendance rate was only about 70%.

It is estimated that when the game starts in a while, the attendance rate will be about 80%.

Richard sighed, Charlotte's ball market is really not very good, you must know that before this, whether it is the Trail Blazers or the Pistons, Richard will rarely encounter a situation where the attendance rate is less than 80%.

Although tonight is only the opening game of the preseason, but with the word opener, the general attendance will definitely not be low, and Richard feels that if it is left to the Trail Blazers or Pistons, it will definitely be full tonight.

The main reason for this is that the basketball atmosphere in Charlotte City is not good.

The Hornets joined the league in the expansion of the army in 87, and they did not have too deep a background, and in the past ten years, they have not won any too bright results, let alone the championship, and they have not even tasted the taste of the East Finals.

In addition, Charlotte has the NFL Jaguars, the NFL is the first of the four major sports leagues in North America, and the annual Super Bowl attracts the attention of countless fans, making it the most commercially valuable sports league in the world.

In this case, the malaise of the Charlotte ball market is quite normal.

It's no wonder that the Hornets ran away in the first place, and if the ball market was really good, they estimated that even if they hadn't talked to the city government about the arena, they would definitely stay in Charlotte.

"It seems that the development of the new army still has a long way to go, the first thing to do is to establish the right team culture, and secondly, we have to think about how to attract the attention of more fans." Richard pondered in his heart.

Building the culture of the team is a very important thing and it will be the main thing Richard will do for the rest of the season.

The team culture of a team determines their lower limit, which means that a team with a good team culture, no matter what, will not be very bad.

The Spurs are a team that illustrates this very profoundly.

The Knicks are the most obvious negative example......

……

There are many aspects to the team culture, such as the team atmosphere, such as the team style......

For example, the Pistons, their style is iron and blood, this is something engraved in the bones of the Pistons, even if a new player joins the Pistons, they will become iron and bloody.

……

Richard's goal now is to build the Hornets into a Pistons- or Trail Blazers-style team with an iron-clad style of play that is unstoppable.

……

When it was time for the players on both sides to start entering, Old Moning trembled a little.

Charlotte is where his career began, and as it stands, it could be where his career ended.

At the beginning, he and his aunt Larry Johnson played together for the Charlotte Hornets, and the two turned against each other because of the competition for the team's boss.

Later, Mourning was sent to the Heat, and the aunt did not end well, and was sent to the New York Knicks after a year.

This is also the reason why Mo Ning and Aunt fought on the court later, and the two have a grudge for a long time......

In the blink of an eye, ten years had passed, and Mo Ning seemed to feel like he had a dream.

In the past ten years, Mourning has experienced too much, had incomparable brilliance, and squeezed out O'Neill to be selected for a while.

also had a sad trough, diagnosed with kidney disease, and almost ruined his career.

Fortunately, I carried it, and I still have a chance to stand on the court.

……

The players on both sides began to enter, and Mourning's entry made many old Charlotte fans cheer, this is their Charlotte star who went out, and now they have given the old Mourning the respect he deserves.

As for Richard's entry, although Charlotte fans also cheered, they were not as loud as Moring's cheers.

Charlotte fans have a grudge against Richard.

If Richard hadn't traded Kobe Bryant, they felt that the Hornets would definitely have a good harvest, not to mention the championship, at least they could reach the Eastern Conference finals, right?

But because of Richard, Kobe, a duck to his beak, flew, and they must be full of resentment towards Richard.

Of course, because a long time has passed, their resentment against Richard is not so deep, otherwise, what greets Richard now is definitely not cheers and cheers, but boos one after another.

……

"Guys, tonight was just a pre-season, but for some of you guys, it was your career debut, and I want you to take it seriously."

"We're playing inside tonight and I'm going to see the defensive intensity on the court!"

"We must defend well, this is the foundation of our team!"

The game was about to start, and Richard gave the players one last command.

If you want Milicic to boost his confidence, it is natural to let him play decent statistics, and if there is no data, where does the confidence come from?

"Darko, I want you to open your mouth and take the initiative to ask for the ball sometimes, it's not just a right of an inside player, it's your obligation!"

"These are your teammates, you can rest assured that you can give your back to their brothers, don't have any scruples, even if you say something wrong or do something wrong, no one will laugh at you."

"You are the person I value Richard, I Richard has never looked away, I hope I won't make an exception for you!"

Before entering the stage, Richard pulled Milicic again and whispered something.

Richard didn't expect these words to wake up Milicic directly, it will take a process, and it will take a long time.

……

The starting lineup of the Pirates is center Vallejo, power forward Milicic, small forward Iguodala, point guard Ariza, and point guard Payton.

There are no big problems with the lineup, and no one can find fault with it.

This is actually the best starting lineup that Richard can make at the moment.

Ariza has a nickname called Tieza, which means simple and clear, and there is nothing wrong with this nickname.

Ariza's three-point shooting rate is indeed relatively iron, and he has only one season in his entire career with a three-point shooting rate of more than 40 percent, and most seasons have a three-point shooting rate of more than 30 percent.

The three-point shooting in his rookie season, that's even more impossible to watch, to be precise, Ariza's rookie season has almost no three-point ability.

However, in the month of the training camp, Richard specifically asked Ariza to work hard to learn defense with Payton while sharpening his three-point shooting ability to the greatest extent, which may make Ariza's three-point shooting ability improve in his rookie years.

Clearly, Richard is poised to take Ariza's path as a 3-and-D player, which is the best route for Ariza.

As for Iguodala, his overall strength is not a little stronger than Ariza's.

Under normal circumstances, it took less than two seasons for Iguodala to join the Philadelphia 76ers management to abandon Iverson and establish him as the cornerstone of the team's rebuild.

The reason why this can be done, Iguodala must have a shining point in him.

The first shining point is the strong ability to make damage under the basket, Iguodala in his rookie season, the shooting rate under the basket is as high as 70%!

It's such a terrifying concept that even James' rookie season didn't reach that level.

James' shooting percentage from the basket in his rookie season was almost exactly 10 percentage points less than Iguodala's.

The breakthrough ability of the first brother in his rookie period is so terrifying.

The second shining point is that in addition to his strong breakthrough ability, Iguodala also has a good basket.

This is quite scary, the three-point shooting rate of more than 33% from the outside is certainly not particularly good, but a third of the three-point shooting in his rookie season is actually quite good.

Also compared to James, James' three-point shooting in his rookie season was less than 30%.

The last shining point is the strong defense.

In his rookie season, he had a defensive efficiency rating of 102 and an offensive efficiency rating of 110.

In other words, Iguodala can score 110 points per 100 rounds, and the opponent who can defend only 102 points.

Still compared to James, James' defensive efficiency in his rookie season is actually good, with 104 points, but the offensive efficiency is only an embarrassing 99 points......

It's fair to say that Iguodala's rookie season was pretty good in any way, and it's no wonder that Philadelphia 76ers management decided to use him as a cornerstone for a rebuild.

That's why Richard didn't have to trade the Clippers before.

Such an excellent Iguodala is, in Richard's opinion, very valuable, at least a lot greater than Okafor.