Liu Mang is in the headlines again!

In the last two minutes, he got 5 points and 1 assist, the strength carryed, and he was not soft at all at the critical moment, plus he even had a back-to-back score and a back-to-back strategy, especially the no-look-pass that was played according to the established tactics, which became the top of the five best balls of the day.

Although it was not as imaginative as Webb's ground-hitting pass that was caught in the third quarter and intercepted through the middle, the riotous casual pass, leading people with the ball, teammates cooperating tacitly, Ratlif blocking and dismantling in time, and Boozer accurately came to the receiving point after getting rid of the defense.

In particular, what made the media and online forums praise Liu Mang again and again is that he actually has a little back beating ability, although some professionals later analyzed that Liu Mang just caught Christie off guard with a not very skilled back beating, but at least he had!

Don't you see Jordan and Olajuwon becoming gods, do you rely on back fights!

With 27 wins and 24 losses, the Hawks' record surpassed the Wizards who had just lost and officially dominated the ninth place in the East, and they were only one win away from the Magic team, which was overtaken by the Hornets and directly collapsed to eighth in the East.

Ending a nine-game losing streak against the Kings, the Hawks didn't have a chance to celebrate, flew to Salt Lake City the next morning, had a day off in Salt Lake City, and then went back to California to play the Warriors back-to-back.

Sacramento is just over a 40-minute flight from Salt Lake City, and at 10 p.m., the Eagles arrived at their hotel in Salt Lake City.

"Did the people who arranged the league schedule get their heads in the sea when they were swimming in the summer? Isn't it okay to play three games directly in California? After entering the hotel, it finally warmed up, and Liu Mang couldn't help but complain.

"You can never guess what the people in the league are thinking." Kevin Wesley, who has a career spanning nearly 20 years, is used to it.

After Kevin Wesley returned to the Hawks, he lived a chic and comfortable life, his style of dressing was very popular in the Hawks, a team with a very high exposure, and the fashion brand he established became popular all of a sudden, not only selling well in the United States, but also beginning to have agents in Asia to negotiate with him.

With Liu Mang's popularity, the Eagles players have earned a lot one by one, such as Matt Barnes, who obviously has no chance to perform, is stunned to rely on his good figure, and several wolf bottoms brand signed a 2-year endorsement of 500,000 US dollars, Liu Mang, who also signed a 2-year 2 million US knife endorsement of this brand, is embarrassed to shoot commercials with him, Barnes has muscles that Liu Mang looks like a thin monkey, Barnes is too strong, and he is worthy of being the master who does not suffer losses when he is slow to play power forward in the later part of his career.

The Eagles complained a few words, and each went back to the room to put away their things, rested, played cards, worked out, played billiards, and was not afraid to leave the hotel to visit the snowy scenery of Salt Lake City.

Liu Mang went back to the room to take a bath, and after his body was completely warmed up, he came to the gym to warm up and practice the strength of his waist, abdomen and back.

After almost an hour of practice, it was almost half past eleven, Liu Mang was just about to go back to the room to take a shower and then go to eat some nutritious meals, a few hours after the gym, it is the best time to absorb food, eat some fiber, high-protein food, and grow much longer.

Once or twice will definitely not work, and the effect will be obvious after a period of time.

As soon as I put the gym equipment away, the phone rang, it was Stockton.

Liu Mang connected the phone: "Hi, John. ”

"Hi Ace, are you free? Out for lunch? Stockton's voice came from the other end of the line.

"Oh, great, I was just about to have lunch, where are I going?"

Someone's in for a treat! Of course, Liu Mang was disrespectful, but he didn't have the idea of being ashamed at all, someone had a treat, and the lunch money was saved!

On match days, the team has to include lunch and dinner, not match days, just eat by yourself, of course, breakfast must be available, included in the room fee.

"You live in the center of Hyatt, right? Carl and I came to pick you up......"

……

……

Liu Mang returned to the room and took a quick shower, dried the board inch, put on thick clothes, and ten minutes later, Stockton drove his big pickup truck to pick up Liu Mang.

Looking at Stockton, who is becoming more and more like an ordinary middle-aged man, and this pickup truck full of rustic atmosphere, Liu Mang can't connect this attitude to life with an NBA all-time assist king that almost future players can't surpass.

No time to sigh, there is no heating in the parking lot, it's too cold! Liu Mang hurriedly got into the car and couldn't help but exclaim: "Oh, John, your winter here is too cold, how the hell have you lived here for 19 years!" ”

"Ace, how is it, Salt Lake City is not bad, you see, the street is so quiet, you don't have to be afraid of people taking pictures when you go shopping." Stockton started the engine with a smile.

"I'm not afraid of being secretly photographed, and those paparazzi will also cherish their dogs' lives." Liu Mang complained.

"Haha, Ace, you're so interesting, in fact, Salt Lake City is good, you can just come and play more......"

……

The hotel where the Eagles stay is in the city center, Salt Lake City is quite small, how small is it, the urban area of the imperial capital of China is more than 1,600 square kilometers, Salt Lake City is less than 300 square kilometers, including a variety of villas, the big hotel is in the city center.

After driving for a few minutes, I arrived at the booked restaurant, which is a health club restaurant, and Malone had already ordered a meal and waited.

After sitting down and greeting for a while, the waiter at the restaurant saw that everyone had arrived and began to serve the food.

Liu Mang looked at the plates of "forage" served one after another, so desperate! He didn't expect to come out to make an appointment for lunch, but it was still a nutritious meal!

Stockton and Malone are older, they need a reasonable diet to maintain their condition, more demanding than Liu Mang's young diet, they haven't eaten junk food in the past three or four years, they can still eat it occasionally when they are young, they can't touch it in recent years, and carbonated drinks are even more insulating.

Forget it, someone has a treat, Liu Mang still eats a lot.

When the meal was almost finished, the waiter removed the plate and brought up the black tea and vegetarian sugar-free snacks after the meal.

The three of them began to chat after the meal.

"How's it going, Ace, the snow in Salt Lake City is good." Malone looked out the window at the silver-clad town and said.

The restaurant is on the fourth floor of the gym, which is a relatively high place around, and most cities in the United States are not tall, except for the top ten big cities, most of them are not high-rise, of course, compared with Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.

It's this question again, Liu Mang just complained to Stockton in the car, what the hell is Salt Lake City, don't you have a point in your heart!

Liu Mang looked out the window and said, "The snow scene is very good, but it's too cold, I'm a southerner, I'm not used to it." ”

"Haha, Ace, you'll get used to it after staying here for a long time, you can come and play more when you have time, maybe you'll like it here." Malone laughed.

"Probably......" Liu Mang felt that these two old men had really been partners for a long time, and their skills in awkward chatting were the same.

After chatting awkwardly, Malone suddenly said a little sentimentally: "Ace, I'm worried now, if John and I retire, will anyone come to Salt Lake City?" ”

Salt Lake City is known as a small city of ice and snow, it is really not a random name, the winter here is indeed too cold and too long, because it is located on the plateau, surrounded by mountains and rivers, the winter weather is very distinctive, first three or five days of heavy snow, often with a small tornado, the temperature drops to minus 20 degrees, the extreme point minus 30 degrees, and then it does not rain or snow for more than half a month, the snow can not melt, it is unbearable cold, but from the end of November or early December, the snowfall season in Salt Lake City begins, That is, not long after the start of the NBA regular season, the snow season began, and then spring began to arrive in mid-March, and now at the end of February, it is no longer the coldest time in Salt Lake City, the temperature is more than ten degrees below zero, and the coldest time is close to minus 30 degrees, and it can be even colder in the event of a snowstorm, and it is possible to have more than 30 degrees below zero.

That is, for most of the regular season, Salt Lake City is all ice and snow, which is similar to Toronto, the northernmost part of the NBA, and the key is that Salt Lake City is still a small city, and it has just been held for a few months after the Winter Olympics, and there are no tourists here.

If there are no tourists, there will be no popularity, no popularity, only local people buy tickets, tickets are naturally not expensive, the Jazz team will not make any money, the Jazz team will not make any money, the salary given to players will often not be the highest level in the league, and unpopular players also do not have much additional income, and then there will be no stars willing to join, no stars will join no new fans like Jazz, no new popularity, there will be no income, forming a vicious circle.

Liu Mang thought that it seemed that since the Jazz team was founded, no superstar at the peak of the team had joined, and even talented young free agents, no one considered this traditional strong team.

Even in the future era of information explosion, the impact of the difference in the size of the city is becoming smaller and smaller by the developed communication technology, and no star is willing to join the Jazz.

It is estimated that it is mainly because of the weather here, as well as the rare entertainment activities here, so cold, most people stay at home, except for Kevin Wesley, who wants to find inspiration for dressing everywhere and runs out to collect wind.

Liu Mang can see that today, these two old men who are about to retire are recruiting him!

Well, I have a lot of respect and gratitude for the two seniors Liu Mang, but this kind of thing related to his career, Liu Mang will not make a promise that does not conform to his heart because of this.

Liu Mang organized the wording and said: "Descendants have their own blessings, John, Carl, you don't have to worry about this city, there will be a group of people who will appear after you retire, so that this team will reach a more brilliant time than you have created." ”

The refusal was so tactful, Malone and Stockton looked at each other and smiled, they didn't have much expectations, but they were still rejected, which was also something that could not be helped.

That's Atlanta! In the year since Liu Mang joined the Hawks, the Atlanta ball market is getting better and better, Atlanta is already the ninth largest city in the United States, the NBA market has not been fully developed, and the popularity can only get better and better, where is Salt Lake City can compare.

But this young man is really polite, and he refuses to be so cultured, and the sentence that descendants have their own descendants, Americans who don't understand Chinese culture, listening to this, feel too cultured.

Liu Mang looked at the helpless and free and easy two seniors, they recruited themselves, and they had to show themselves a little bit, right! Gifts are still exchanged!

"John, Karl, you see, you don't have much chance of winning the championship, do you want to think about fighting for another year next year, coming to Atlanta, and we will win the championship together?" Liu Mang tentatively solicited it.

Liu Mang wanted to try to solicit on a whim, but in terms of language, it was not as tactful and "cultured" as the response he gave after careful consideration just now.

Malone and Stockton's faces fell in an instant, you stinky boy, don't you want to be so direct! Our two old men have persisted for 19 years and haven't left, but they still haven't won the championship, and this year it looks hopeless, but don't you know if you see through it?

"No, I'm not going east." Malone directly refused.

Stockton was a little better and smiled: "Later, we are still opponents this season." ”