Time flies, and before you know it, the season has played 43 games, the Hawks' 30-13 record, still one win ahead of the Nets, the Nets lost again, and were defeated by the Celtics at home, the Celtics used the contemporary Jordan plus a seventeenth or eighteenth pick a week ago to exchange for two extremely strong inside and outside players, further downplaying the role of Antoine Walker, and the strength has improved to a certain extent, and the past game narrowly beat the Nets at home, "helping" The Eagles are firmly in first place in the East.

At 12 p.m. on January 28, New York time, the All-Star voting ended.

At 12 noon on December 29, the NBA officially held a press conference to announce the starting list of this season's All-Stars!

Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Hotel, a group of Eagles didn't even go back to their rooms to put their luggage, but went to Raheem's room together, watched ABC Sports TV, and looked forward to the announcement of the NBA All-Star starters!

First up was the All-Star starting center.

O'Neal surpassed Kobe Bryant with 1.22 million votes and became the Western All-Star voting king, and was elected as the Western All-Star starting center without any suspense.

Mutombo narrowly defeated Jermaine O'Neal with 590,000 votes to become the starting center of the Eastern Conference All-Stars.

Next up are the strikers.

Tim Duncan in the West is in first place in the front with 890,000 votes and Garnett is second in the forward with 870,000 votes, and the competition for the two No. 21s has been fierce, and Duncan, who is on the verge of topping the West and has not been at the top of the MVP list since the beginning of the season, is slightly better.

The battle for the Eastern Strikers list is less intense.

Vince Carter won the All-Star vote king with 1.51 million votes! There is no suspense that the crushing level won the All-Star vote king again.

The second spot was also solid, with Sharif Raheem taking the Eastern Conference Forward's second All-Star starting spot with 750,000 votes.

In terms of guards, Kobe Bryant of the West is in first place with 1.15 million votes, and the gap with the second is also very large, and Francis is second among Western Conference guards with 570,000 votes, and the two partner All-Star Western Conference starting guards.

There is a fierce competition for the second spot in the Western Conference guard, followed by Gary Payton with 520,000 votes, Michael Finley with 440,000 votes, Stephen Marbury with 410,000 votes, and so on.

Eastern guards, as the Wizards completely gave up Kwame Brown and put him on the bench and occasionally did not give playing time, after the Wizards did not cultivate rookies, the record has improved slightly, God is a god after all, 39 still has the power to fight, occasionally win and win in the East, the record has reached the eleventh in the East, Jordan overtook Iverson at the last moment, with 980,000 votes to become the player with the most votes in the Eastern Guard, Iverson ranked second with 920,000 votes, and the two started together.

……

Raheem All-Star start!

The Hawks' teammates who came to Raheem's room cheered loudly, especially Jason Terry, although Raheem's vote from ten days ago to the second place in the Eastern Conference Forward, it has basically stabilized, but now that the All-Star starters are really confirmed, Jason Terry should not be too excited!

To maintain this record, it is impossible for coaches to vote without considering the fact that the first in the East has only one All-Star player and is still a starter, and the odds of selecting another All-Star from the Hawks are very high!

Raheem didn't say much, and he didn't say a word when he was selected as an All-Star starter...... Jumped up and danced a black tap, and a pair of leather shoes actually heard the sound of knocking on the carpet.

"Sharif, say it! You've become an all-star hotel in Philadelphia, and you've got all the money for your overnight stay! Emmanuol was a timely reminder of Rahim's promise.

"It's a bag! I'll also rent a car for you! Pick a car rental company! Raheem's words, to say the least, were 200,000 US dollars thrown out.

But it doesn't matter! A clause in Raheem's contract with Nike was triggered, and his contract changed from a 1 million ordinary star contract to a main star contract! The endorsement fee will be increased from 1 million to more than 3 million and extended for three years!

Ninety percent of NBA players have signed endorsement contracts with Nike, Adi, Reebok, Jordan and other sneaker brands, ranging from 10,000 US dollars a year plus providing several pairs of sneakers, to signed shoes plus tens of millions of endorsement fees.

As long as there is a slight possibility of NBA players who will be popular, there will be sneaker brands to sign with them, of course, the less famous and less valued the players, the less reasonable the endorsement contract will be, such as Emmanuor, which is 20,000 US dollars a year, but it will not be possible to change the endorsement brand for a long time, of course, if you enter the All-Star, sit firmly on the team's main team, and be selected for the best team or something, the endorsement fee of the year will be directly increased, and the new contract will be re-signed and extended for at least three years.

On the contrary, it is regarded as the main star from the beginning, and the star who is very popular at the beginning signs the contract terms are more relaxed, generally signed for a few years, and at most there is a matching clause after the contract expires.

This has something to do with strength, because the NBA is also a place where star strength is king anyway, no matter how hype you are, you can't do it without strength.

Watching his teammates celebrate like crazy, Liu Mang said that he didn't want to sit with them, and this group of people didn't want to take him to play anymore.

However, the All-Star voting result surprised him, originally there was still a little gap between him and Maddie's votes, but when the voting was over, he actually got 690,000 votes, which was many, much more than Maddie's 610,000 votes!

Recently, the popularity of the Hawks has not only driven Raheem's popularity, but Liu Mang, who has been very controversial, has also attracted more and more attention, especially after ESPN and NBA official websites spared no effort to promote him as the youngest 40+ player in the NBA, his popularity has risen rapidly!

It seems that Liu Mang just feels that he is underestimating his popularity a little.

If Jordan hadn't come back, would he have been an All-Star starter?

Or switch to the west?

……

……

The main thing is to have faith! Many players, after a year of hard work, have greatly improved their strength and data, and have been selected by coaches to the All-Star bench or selected by fans as an All-Star starter or by the media into the best team, and then stabilized this performance, mainly because the recognition of others gave them confidence.

And some players broke out for a season, but did not get any honors, many people suddenly collapsed, and slowly disappeared in the NBA, although it is inconclusive, but it must have a lot to do with not being recognized.

Another month has passed, and Liu Mang's ability value has increased slightly, and his comprehensive ability has increased from 63 to 64.

The big improvement is not much, the comprehensive shooting ability has increased from 73 to 75, the strength will reach 60, and finally reached the passing line, and the speed has also changed from 87 to 88, before reaching the uncanny valley, the stronger it is, the speed will continue to increase, with Liu Mang's physical condition, the speed should be faster and faster.

But the weight, still 82 kilograms, playing games every day, and a lot of training on rest days, if you don't deliberately eat high-protein food accumulation, even if you eat junk food, Liu Mang's weight is difficult to rise.

For some things that can't be improved immediately, such as weight, strength, and jumping, the trainer's advice is to leave it alone and practice the things that can get better now without affecting your strength, such as expanding your offensive means, stabilizing your previous offensive methods, practicing your shooting, and so on.

Liu Mang now sees that he is ranked third in the number of all-star votes for division guards, and he feels the recognition of others, and his motivation has become stronger!

There is strength, and there must be hype, and Rahim is a well-known example.

Seeing that it has only been half a month since he sold himself to the world, Liu Mang was a little excited!

……

……

On January 30th, the last game of the Hawks' five-game away game, the away game against the Timberwolves, is also the last game of January, followed by the brutal schedule in February, 20 days and 14 games, the Hawks will think that the league is a obstacle.

The February schedule was sent to the players ahead of the Timberwolves game.

Although this comprehensive schedule was sent to the players before the start of the season, and some players also had endorsement activities, and business trips, etc., to let their agents arrange their time reasonably, but when it comes to players, not many people really remember who they will fight after a week.

Every day, the opponents of the study are changing, how can the head pay so much attention.

Take a look at the Eagles' schedule for next month to see why they're calling the league a obstacle!

From February 1st to February 12th, the Eagles had three back-to-backs, 8 games in 12 days!

Then the winter break began on the 13th, the All-Star Weekend from the 15th to the 18th, the last day of the winter break on the 19th, and the 9th to the 28th for 6 games!

No human rights!

The only way to use this season's record is to get the league to give them a better schedule for next season.

……

At five o'clock in the afternoon, the Eagles arrived at the Target Center in Minneapolis to prepare for the next game.

Timberwolves, one of the top five in the West! In the next two years, it will get stronger and stronger, until it reaches its peak and wins the first place in the Western Conventional Death and enters the Western Finals, and then it will flourish and decline and collapse directly.

The current Timberwolves are still on the rise, but their strength is already good.

Due to the Hawks' recent popularity and the fact that the Timberwolves have been a high-profile team since acquiring Garnett, the game between the two teams has attracted a lot of attention from fans and media.

Although there was no national live broadcast, Time Warner, which loves regional live broadcasts, broadcast the game live in Minnesota and Georgia, which is not bad.

For Garnett during the Timberwolves period, Liu Mang always felt that Garnett was trapped!

Properly trapped!

If it weren't for the timberwolves who died on their own, they would have risen a long time ago, but they were pitted by themselves.

That is the famous Timberwolves "Tragedy of the Prosperous Age".

In the summer of 1998, because the Timberwolves first signed a super contract with Garnett with a super cap salary of 6 years and 126 million at that time, there was no salary space, but they wanted to sign Joe Smith, the 95-year-old No. 1 pick who also had a rookie contract at the time and did not have a restricted free agent clause at that time, Joe Smith also wanted to partner with Garnett.

But at that time, the salary cap was only 26 million, Garnett's salary for the new season alone reached 16 million, and the Timberwolves only had 1.5 million space.

So at that time, the general manager of the Timberwolves and former Celtics legend Kevin McHale used his crooked brains and agreed with Joe Smith to give him a salary cap in three years and let him sign a three-year contract with a final salary, so that he could sign a Bird clause salary cap in the future.

McHale's "seamless" plan was finally discovered by the league in the summer of 2000 when he was preparing to extend Joe Smith's contract early, and the Timberwolves were fined five first-round picks at once, and they also directly terminated the contract between the Timberwolves and Joe Smith, and assigned Joe Smith to the Pistons.

If Joe Smith really helped Garnett's Timberwolves and what awards and honors he won, the key is that Joe Smith only averaged 13 points and 8 rebounds per game in his best year for the Timberwolves......

In this way, Ben came to 2000, had won the first 50 wins in team history, and Garnett entered his prime, but suddenly there was a good inside helper, and the team could not attract stars to join, but even the draft picks that could be selected to supplement the team were also punished for 5 years, and there were no draft picks until 2005.

Draft picks can be selected for rookie training, can be selected for immediate combat power, and it is also the best trading chip, which is gone all of a sudden, and the reinforcement of the Timberwolves was directly interrupted, and it is now in the first echelon of the league, but it is the weakest one, and it can't go up, and it can't go down, which is very embarrassing, and it is known as the "tragedy of the prosperous era" in the history of the Timberwolves.

In the best era with the best players, you have suffered a big loss by being greedy for a small amount of money.

……

After stretching, massage, warm-up and other things were done at the training ground arranged at the target center, the Eagles players asked the media to take some pre-game photos and began to enter.

Minneapolis is also a famous basketball city, where the first dynasty of the NBA was born, and the first superstar in NBA history showed his abilities here.

George McCann's retired jersey still hangs on the wall in the center of the target, but to the embarrassment of the Timberwolves players, the logo on it is that of the Lakers.

But even Garnett can't shake that George McCann is the city's greatest basketball superstar, and a statue of George McCann still stands outside the arena.

Because of the Lakers' success here in the 50s, Minneapolis' ball market has been very hot since the team was founded in 1988, even if it starts with six consecutive years of finishing in the bottom three in the West, they can afford to wait!

After waiting for almost 30 years, there is an NBA team in their city again, other fans dare not say, but they patiently support the team's resurgence, and they are more patient than the fans of other teams! It's not like Lakers fans who are going to die in three or five years.

Since 1995, when the Timberwolves drafted Garnett in the face of unfavorable people, everything has changed for them!

In 97, the team reached the playoffs for the first time in history! The first all-star start in team history! In 2000, for the first time in team history, 50 wins in the regular season!

It's all because of one person, Kevin Garnett!

When the Eagles players came out, the fans began to boo, and by the time Raheem was the last to come out, the boos were at their highest!

The Eagles players wondered, their own team and this team that is only 12 or 3 years old have no holiday, right?

That's the passion of Timberwolves fans!

It's not just that after many years of silence, they finally have an NBA team and finally become one of the strong teams, but also because this represents their attitude as a star!

After the Hawks' five starting ceremonies, the Timberwolves' starting ceremony began!

The first to play was Joe Smith, the team's second brother, who returned to the Timberwolves after playing for a year with the Pistons, but unfortunately the maximum salary was gone, only a 6-year 30 million contract, no way, the league did not recognize his Bird clause.

Although the player has caused damage to the team, the fans did not blame him and gave Joe Smith a loud cheer.

Next up are the Hawks' two guards, Eastern Conference All-Star Terry Brandon in '94 and '95, '97 Tanhua Show, and famous tramp Chauncy Billups!

Although these two are not as strong as Stephen Marbury who left for a big contract back then, the fans love them more and continue to cheer!

Next up is the No. 6 pick at the tail end of that draft heyday in '99, Spain's super talent, the league's first-line small forward Wally Szebiak!

. The last person in the G.F.F. order is about to come out.

The previous cheers of the fans seemed to be warming up, before Garnett came out, the live DJ did not continue to introduce, the big screen in the center of the dark stadium lit up before, and the picture of Garnett with his eyes closed appeared on the big screen, and suddenly, the wolf king's eyes opened and let out a loud roar!

The scene is boiling! The cheers reached their highest point today! Garnett walked out of the players' tunnel with a cold face!

Liu Mang couldn't help but boil his blood when he saw this scene, he felt it so much! It's really nice to play against an opponent like that!

"Ding...... Discover the skill Wolf Blood Boiling, from Kevin Garnett. ”