"Why should I join Celtic? Because Celtic is a team full of talent and energy, they have a big future and a bright future. ”

"The Pacers did contact me and offered me a 3-year, 20 million contract, but I didn't hesitate to turn them down, in this league, all teams will consider invitations, but only the Pacers, and not only will I not join the Pacers, I will do my best to help the Celtics beat the Pacers!" On August 1, 2003, at the TD North Shore Garden Arena in Boston, the Celtics held a grand signing ceremony for Gary Payton, and Gary Payton, a seven-time All-Star, six-time All-Star and nine-time All-Defensive All-Defensive Team, will officially join the Celtics today. With the Lakers losing the Finals, the sensational Big Four officially disintegrated, although compared to O'Neal and Kobe, Payton's influence in the free market is not so great, but Payton still received invitations from many teams, especially the Pacers, who lost their main point guard, and launched a crazy chase for Payton, but the result was eye-popping, Payton refused the Pacers' call, gave up a higher salary, and a stronger defending champion, signed a 2-year, $8 million contract with the Celtics, so many people are puzzled by Payton's choice, although today is the day when Payton officially joined the Celtics, there are still "blind" reporters who asked this question, and Payton's answer was also very simple.

Gary Payton, who is 35 years old this year, really needs a championship, otherwise he would not go to the Lakers with the notoriety of "hugging his thighs", Malone retired, O'Neal jumped out of the contract, after Kobe Bryant applied for a trade, the Lakers no longer had the strength and potential to compete for the championship, so Payton, whose contract expired, chose to find another place to continue to pursue his championship dream. Originally, when Payton received an invitation from the Pacers, Payton's agent tried his best to persuade Payton to join the Pacers, a 3-year $20 million contract, although it is nothing compared to a big contract of 80 million or even hundreds of millions this summer, but for the current Payton, it is also a good offer, and the Pacers are the defending champions, although the Pacers are now facing a lot of poaching from other teams in the league, but as long as Meng Xu is still there, Jermaine O'Neal will be left, The Pacers remain the top contenders for the championship. But Payton said, I can stay with the Lakers, I can go to the Spurs, I can go to the Mavericks, I can go to all the teams in this league, but I just can't go to the Pacers, because we just lost to him, even if I am getting farther and farther away from the championship, I will not go to the Pacers, I do want the championship, crazy want the championship, but I also have pride, I also have my backbone.

In the end, at Payton's insistence, Payton's agent rejected the Pacers' invitation, since he couldn't go to the Pacers, then he could only choose from the remaining strong teams, but the Spurs, Mavericks, and Pistons all have a very good point guard, even if Payton voluntarily took a salary cut, he could only be on the bench, and with Payton's pride, it was naturally impossible to go to the bench, so he picked and picked, and Payton finally chose the Celtics. Although the current strength of the Celtics is not up to the level of the league's first-class teams, the Celtics have reached the division semifinals for two consecutive seasons after the cardinals re-emerged.

Although Payton rejected the Pacers' offer and Andre Miller rejected the Pacers' offer because he wanted a multi-million contract, the Pacers are not completely without gains, at least not to worry about the head coach. On the same day that Payton announced that he would join the Celtics, the Pacers announced on their official website that they would be the head coach for the new season, former Pistons head coach Rick Carlisle, who had been an assistant coach to Larry Bird for 3 seasons, officially joined the Pacers, and the two sides signed a 3-year contract.

And Rick Carlisle contacted Meng Xu, who had returned to China, by phone as soon as he became the head coach of the Pacers, Rick Carlisle made a guarantee to Meng Xu on the phone for the new season, and also asked Meng Xu some questions about team reinforcements, and after ending the communication with Meng Xu, Rick Carlisle rushed to Portland non-stop to communicate with Jermaine O'Neal in person, although the Pacers still have a lot of work to do, but there is no doubt that the successful renewal of Jermaine O'Neal, is the most important job at the moment.

Jermaine O'Neal is also very contradictory now, the Pacers have everything they need, staying in the Pacers can not only win the championship, but also get a big contract, it's simply the best of both worlds, but Jermaine O'Neal's agent has been persuading Jermaine O'Neal to leave the Pacers and go to a team that can be his own boss, according to the agent, even if you win more championships in the Pacers, you are also Meng Xu's little brother, and you will never be among the league's first-line stars. According to Jermaine O'Neal's stable performance in the past two seasons, some teams in this league are willing to send big contracts, especially the New York Knicks, after the Spurs offered Jermaine O'Neal 6 years and 90 million, the Knicks also joined in, and were willing to give Jermaine O'Neal 6 years and 96 million US dollars, so Jermaine O'Neal has no worries about going at all now.

Although the agent's words are very reasonable, Jermaine O'Neal also has his own concerns, facing the Lakers in the finals for two consecutive seasons, and after being abused by O'Neal every year, Jermaine O'Neal is now also starting to die, what punch Duncan kicked O'Neal, Jermaine O'Neal doesn't want to go at all now, although Jermaine O'Neal has now begun to be called the "fifth big forward" by the media, but Jermaine O'Neal is very calm, his own strength is clear, the Pacers in front of him, On the defensive end, Mutombo helps him top and assists in defense, and Meng Xu helps him make up for his leaks, and on the offensive end, he doesn't have to worry about himself, no matter when Meng Xu is in front, as long as he clocks in and out of work every game, scores about 20 points, and grabs more than 10 rebounds, even if he completes the task, so Jermaine O'Neal knows very well what kind of situation he will face after changing teams, especially after not having teammates like Meng Xu and Mutombo, His friend Maddie is a very good example, although Maddie is the boss and core of the Magic, but when chatting with Maddie, Maddie is very envious of himself, envy that he can have such a powerful teammate. And after experiencing the dark years of the Trail Blazers early in his career, Jermaine O'Neal was also very afraid that after he changed teams, he would be like in the Trail Blazers. As a result, Jermaine O'Neal has always wavered on the question of whether to stay or leave, and even ran straight from Indianapolis to Portland in order to calm himself down.

However, after Rick Carlisle went to Portland and found Jermaine O'Neal, after continuous persuasion and communication, and after Meng Xu, who had returned to China, also called Jermaine O'Neal repeatedly, finally on August 10, 2003, Jermaine O'Neal and the Pacers officially reached a contract extension, 7 years and $106.3 million, after the renewal is completed, from next season, Jermaine O'Neal will become the highest-paid player in the Pacers.

After Jermaine O'Neal completed the contract extension, the soap opera about Shaq O'Neal finally settled, and in a big deal involving the Lakers, Heat and Wizards, a total of 7 players, O'Neal left the Los Angeles Lakers who played for 7 seasons and returned to the East. In this big deal, the Lakers adopted a sign-and-trade approach, first signing a six-year, $130 million contract with O'Neal, and then sending O'Neal and Devin George, getting the Wizards' "parallel top" Kwame Brown, and organizing guard Juan Dixon and next season's first-round pick, as well as the Heat's Brian Grant, Lamar Odom and next season's first-round pick, while the Wizards sent Kwame Brown, Juan Dixon and next season's first-round pick, Got the Heat's Caron Butler and the Lakers' Devin George. The Heat, for their part, sent Brian Grant, Lamar Odom, Caron Butler and a first-round pick, a second-round pick, and got Shaq O'Neal.

In the choice question of O'Neal or Kobe, the Lakers finally chose a younger Kobe, after O'Neal was traded, the Lakers' head coach Phil Jackson also held a press conference, announcing that he would resign as the head coach of the Lakers due to physical reasons, after O'Neal left and Phil Jackson resigned and left, Kobe Bryant had no reason to leave, and finally under the persuasion of the Lakers management, Kobe withdrew the transfer application and publicly issued a statement, saying that he would stay in Los Angeles forever.

Although in this summer, the league has appeared Duncan, Kidd, Shaq O'Neal, and Jermaine O'Neal four hundred million Mr. 400 million, but recently, all the limelight in the free market has been stolen by a second-round pick, 01-02 season, the Warriors selected Gilbert Arenas with the first pick in the second round, under the tutelage of Mike Budenholzer, With 18.3 points, 4.7 rebounds and 6.3 assists, Arenas was voted last season's Most Improved Player and became a quasi-All-Star. However, because the second-round pick can only sign a two-year contract, Arenas has become a restricted free agent this season, and it is said that for a player like Arenas, the Warriors will definitely do everything possible to stay, but the Warriors can only watch Arenas join the Wizards now. It turns out that under the existing rules of the league, the Warriors, whose salary has exceeded the upper limit of the salary cap last season, can only offer a contract with a starting salary of 4.9 million for the second-round pick Arenas at most. In the end, the Warriors could only watch the Wizards sign Arenas.

The Warriors, who felt greatly wronged, appealed to the league, but the contract between the Wizards and Arenas has come into effect, and the league has nothing to do, but it is said that after a period of research in the league, in order to avoid this situation in the future, the league is ready to formulate a new agreement called the "Arenas Clause", in the history of the NBA league, there have been many things that have changed the rules because of a certain player, but those players, whether it is George McCann, Wilt Chamberlain, Bob Cousey, Or Shaq O'Neal is one of the best players of an era, but now the league has modified the rules for a second-round rookie, although Arenas performed very well last season, but he is far from the best, obviously far away, therefore, after the rumors that the league will introduce the "Arenas Clause", it immediately became the object of everyone's discussion on the cusp, and even O'Neal's joining the Heat was overshadowed.

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"Xiao Meng, this year's Asian Championships is related to the quota for participating in the Olympic Games, so there must be no mistakes!" Just after returning to China, Meng Xu, after ending this year's Asian tour, just rushed to the national team to report, the national team head coach Jiang Quan tightly grabbed Meng Xu's hand, the first sentence after seeing Meng Xu, is about the upcoming Changchun Asian Championships, due to the loss to South Korea in last year's Asian Games, in addition to the fiasco in the World Championships, the Chinese basketball world directly had a major earthquake, so the new leadership of the Basketball Association after taking office to Jiang Quan's first task, is to get up from where he fell, We must have a humiliating victory over South Korea at this year's Asian Championships. Since the leaders have already given a death order, Jiang Quan naturally does not dare to be careless, and only the champion of the Asian Championships can participate in next year's Olympic Games, so the Changchun Asian Championships cannot afford to lose.

"With me and Dazhi, and Da Yao here, there must be no problem." In the final of last year's Asian Games, Meng Xu also watched it, the strength of the South Korean team was really good, but after the referee was obviously biased, and the Chinese men's basketball team lacked himself and Wang Zhizhi, the Korean team won very thrilling, so after the return of himself and Wang Zhizhi, this year's Asian Championships will definitely be nine out of ten.

"It's good to have confidence, the Asian Championships are about to start, we don't have much time left, you have to hurry up and get used to your teammates and tactics."