"Joe, long time no see."

In the Staples Center, in the players' tunnel, heavy steps sounded in unison, and many Grizzlies players were entering, but Qiao Hai, who was walking at the back, was stopped.

Qiao Hai turned his head and saw that the person who stopped him was Mitch Kupchak, he raised his eyebrows and replied: "Long time no see, Mitch, is there something wrong?" ”

Michkupchak smiled: "Of course, if it's okay, I won't stop you." ”

Qiao Hai nodded and stopped completely.

In the corner of the players' tunnel, Mitch Kupchak took out his cigarette case and handed Qiao Hai a cigarette.

Qiao Hai waved his hand: "You know, Mickey, I don't smoke. ”

Mitch Kupchak smiled again: "Okay, after this game, come to my office, I invite you to drink champagne." ”

"What, you're going to help us celebrate the Western Conference championship?"

Michkupchak shook his head: "No, Joe, your mouth is so poisonous, I just wanted to tell you good news." ”

"What good news."

Qiao Hai asked, there was not much time, he didn't want to waste time, so he had to find out why Kupchak stopped him as soon as possible, but Kupchak was silent at this time, as if he was hesitating.

But after a few moments, he opened his mouth and said, "The day after you win this series, the Lakers will announce that Mr. Jerry West will step down as general manager and I will move from assistant general manager to general manager." ”

Qiao Hai was stunned for a moment, he didn't expect that the Lakers would make a decision so quickly, Jerry West stepped down as general manager, in fact, he put a cauldron on his back, Mitch Kupchak has been an assistant to the general manager all these years, no matter what, he will definitely be in the future.

It is not surprising that he is now in the position of general manager.

After just a moment, Qiao Hai raised his head: "It is indeed good news, Mickey, congratulations." ”

Mitch Kupchak smiled and waved his hand: "There's nothing to congratulate, the current Lakers are a mess." ”

Qiao Hai also kept smiling, he was not ready to answer, because if he took it, he didn't know how long it would take, and now Qiao Hai even suspected that Kupchak stopped him, did he just want to make trouble for the Grizzlies' pre-game arrangement? Don't give Qiao Hai enough time to lay out tactics and adjust strategies?

Seeing that Qiao Hai didn't answer, Kupchak hesitated again before he spoke: "Joe, come back." ”

Qiao Hai didn't hear it clearly all of a sudden, turned his head and asked, "What?" ”

Kupchak looked embarrassed, but the words had already been spoken, and he could only repeat them again, and added: "Joe, come back, Jerry is gone, the Lakers are my decision, as long as you come back, I can promise you any conditions." ”

This time Qiao Hai heard clearly, but he shook his head: "Thank you, Mitch, thank you for the invitation, but I did a good job in Vancouver......"

Kupchak also wanted to fight: "No, Joe, I can give you a lot of things that the Grizzlies can't give you, I know you value transfer rights, I don't want it, it's all yours, besides, Los Angeles is a big city, you can get better development here, and besides, I can give you a higher salary, three million a year, or five million?" ”

Qiao Hai shook his head: "Mickey, really, it has nothing to do with these, you should understand that no one will join a team that is defeated by themselves." ”

"Joe, then you should listen to our plans."

"What's the plan?"

"The Lakers only have one big contract for the long term, and at the end of this season, we will have a huge salary space, so we decided to bring in a third superstar to the team, and we have three goals at the moment."

Since Kupchak had already spoken, he was not prepared to hide it from Qiao Hai, he continued: "Grant Hill and Tim Duncan. ”

After a moment's hesitation, he spat out another name: "And Tracy McGrady, of course." ”

it!

Qiao Hai still didn't speak, but in his heart, he burst into a foul mouth, very surprised.

I have to say that in addition to Maddy, the other two Lakers are really likely to sign, at the end of this season, Grant Hill and Duncan will both expire their contracts, and so will Maddie, but as long as the Grizzlies win the championship, Maddie will naturally not go.

But it's hard to say about Duncan and Grant Hill, especially Hill, it is said that the Pistons have decided to give up Grant Hill and are not ready to renew Hill's contract for the reason that it is somewhat nonsensical - Grant Hill's style deviates from the Iron-blooded nature of the Pistons.

After thinking about it, Qiao Hai finally threw down a sentence: "I'll think about it." ”

Michkupchek also nodded, Qiao Hai said to think about it, this is also how it should be, such a major decision, no one will make it immediately.

Qiao Hai is indeed thinking about it, but he is not thinking about whether to accept Kupchak's invitation to return to the Lakers, but thinking about whether the Grizzlies want to get involved in the free market in 2000, when big fish emerged, in addition to Maddie on his own team, there are also Tim Duncan, Grant Hill, Rashad Lewis and others, should the Grizzlies get involved? That's a problem.

One more question, what if the Lakers get Grant Hill? Qiao Hai analyzed that Grant Hill should be the pinnacle of a weakened version of the defense, Scott Pippen, if the Lakers really get Grant Hill, the Lakers next season will not be so easy to deal with.

……

The race has begun.

The Lakers showed their tenacity, and as they said before the game, they were going to refuse a sweep.

Qiao Hai knew that the next step in refusing to sweep was to win the second game, and then drag it into a tie-break, and finally complete a big comeback, the Grizzlies naturally would not give the Lakers this chance, although he was thinking about other things, Qiao Hai's adjustment response still did not fall.

Kobe broke out, and Qiao Hai first used Madiga Shaun Marion's pinch, and Kobe Bryant was very aggrieved.

O'Neal's outburst was expected, and Qiao Hai didn't think about restricting O'Neal.

At the end of the first quarter, the Grizzlies led by three points.

The lead is not a big difference, Qiao Hai is not surprised, in the last game, the Lakers found a way to deal with the Grizzlies' run-and-bomb tactics, which is to use fast individual singles to reduce offensive time, increase the number of rounds, and improve offensive efficiency.

In order to catch up with the Grizzlies' scoring progress.

I have to say that such a change is still effective, but the problem is that Kobe and O'Neal are not iron men, and their physical strength will always run out at the moment.

Therefore, Qiao Hai is not in a hurry.

In the second quarter, the game continued to play, and the Lakers continued to focus on O'Neal and Kobe, among them, Kobe Bryant encountered the Grizzlies' infinite attack and struggled.

Qiao Hai found an opportunity and once again sacrificed the shark slashing tactic, forcing Phil Jackson to replace O'Neal.

Then, the Grizzlies pulled the deficit away and led by 11 points at halftime.

There will be no suspense in this game.