"Oh, Tim, you're a real guy, you can't shoot this kind of shot." On the evening of May 29, 2008, Meng Xu, who was watching Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals between the Spurs and Lakers at home, after seeing Tim Duncan on the TV miss the opportunity to equalize, he covered his forehead with his right hand, leaned back on the sofa behind him, and grunted in his mouth.

"Senior, senior Tim, he must be too tired, he didn't have much rest from start to end of today's game, and he also has to face the Lakers' full baggage." Chris Paul, who was invited by Meng Xu to watch the game at home, also felt a little ruined when he saw the picture in front of him, but he didn't expect Meng Xu's senior, Odin's boss to be such a person in life.

"Is this an excuse? Look at how I abuse them in the finals. After glancing at Chris Paul, Meng Xu recovered as before, and sat there again and continued to watch the game.

In order to increase the influence of the Odin brand in the NBA, after the end of the regular season this season, Odin held a rookie training camp in Indianapolis, as Odin's contracted players, Chris Paul, Dwyane Wade, Andre Iguodala, Mike Conley, these people were also found by Meng Xu to stand for this training camp, and Meng Xu, who ended the Eastern Conference Finals, also took this opportunity to invite several of them to his home, get together together, after a meal and drink, Meng Xu took them to watch the Western Conference Finals between the Spurs and the Lakers.

Before the start of this game, the Spurs, like the Celtics, were 1-3 behind, but compared to the Celtics, they still played the fifth game on their home court, and the Spurs' situation was obviously worse, because they were going to play against the Lakers on the road, so before the start of this game, the voice of the Spurs was louder than before the game between the Celtics and the Pacers.

Perhaps because he felt that the overall situation had been decided, the Lakers, who were fighting at home, were obviously a little too relaxed at the beginning of the game, and were beaten 28-15 by the Spurs in the first quarter, and the physical Tim Duncan kept ravaging the Lakers' interior line, even if it was the double package of Paul Gasol and Ramar Odom, there was no way to limit Tim Duncan, but Paul Gasol, who was opposite Tim Duncan, sent an embarrassing data of 9 shots and 2 in a single quarter under the defense of Tim Duncan.

Just when Meng Xu and others thought that the Spurs would make persistent efforts to win the game in one fell swoop, the Lakers began to fight back in the second quarter, Kobe Bryant scored 10 points in a single quarter, and several of the Lakers' substitutes played them 14-6 when they played against the Spurs' substitutes, and Ginobili, who was pinned on by Popovich, was missing all the way and only scored 2 points in a single quarter, as for the Spurs' second-in-command Tony Parker was even more unbearable, shooting 2 of 8 in the second quarter, so at the end of the first half, In one fell swoop, the Lakers narrowed the gap from 13 to 6 points.

And in the crucial third quarter of the game, the Spurs will be sleepwalking collectively, Tim Duncan, who did not rest for a minute in the first half, was also a little powerless in the bag between Pau Gasol and Ramar Odom because of the decline in physical strength, and the Lakers also took the opportunity to overtake the score.

In the first few minutes of the fourth quarter, the Spurs were able to hold the Lakers with successive breakaways thanks to Tony Parker's continuous breakaways, but the Spurs' continuous iron play before the official timeout allowed the Spurs to completely bury the game.

"What the hell is this game?" After the game, Meng Xu couldn't help but curse a few words at the gang on the TV, collective sleepwalking, this is Meng Xu's evaluation of them, in the first quarter of the dream start of leading by 13 points, the Spurs finally lost to the Lakers by 7 points, and the more critical the moment the Spurs became more iron, smashing the basket loudly.

"By the way, Dwyan, Chris, you've been in training camp for a few days now, do you think there's a good rookie in the camp?" Meng Xu, who was not at all interested in the post-match interview that was going on on the TV, turned his head to look at the guys sitting next to him, and asked them what they had seen in the training camp by the way.

"I think Eric is good."

"I think Russell is good."

"I also think Eric is good, although Russell has better physical fitness and a more well-rounded style of play, but his style of play is a little too unique, and a lot of the rookies in training camp are reluctant to be teammates with him."

After Meng Xu began to ask, Chris Paul, Dwyane Wade, and Andre Iguodala all began to express their opinions, but Mike Conley remained silent as before.

Odin's main purpose in holding this training camp is actually to discover a few talented rookies, in order to recruit them to his command, in the previous years of rookie signing, Odin has been pressed behind Nike, Adidas, and Jordan, and can only be selected among the remaining rookies they pick, so Odin's management wants to find another way, after the end of the season, hold a rookie training camp, the first to start, generally speaking, accept Meng Xu's invitation, to participate in the training camp rookies, Psychologically, they must be biased towards Meng Xu, and in the case of a contract amount of about the same, they will definitely be biased towards signing with Odin, and the same is true for those rookies who participated in Jordan's training camp.

Although this year's top picks Michael Beasley and Derrick Rose both turned down Meng Xu's invitation, Meng Xu still found a few good seedlings in this rookie training camp, one is Indiana native Eric Gordon, and the other is Russell Westbrook from Los Angeles.

These two players are about the same height and weight, but their style of play is completely opposite, Eric Gordon has a certain breakthrough and organizational ability, but he is more suitable for playing without the ball, coupled with the autumn wind selflessness, so in the rookie training camp, most of the players are willing to be teammates with him, and Russell Westbrook is different, this guy likes to score and organize a grab, often grabbing the basketball and not letting go, so he is not likable in the rookie training camp, but Meng Xu doesn't care about these, He was ready to recruit Russell Westbrook and Eric Gordon all under Odin's banner.

"BOSS, can I discuss something with you?" Mike Conley, who was sitting next to him and had been afraid to speak out, asked Meng Xu in a very small voice after seeing that Meng Xu's mood was much better.

"What's the matter? I see if I can do it? Perhaps because he had just entered the alliance, in front of Meng Xu and these "seniors", Mike Conley has always been relatively cramped, and he can't even speak loudly, let alone ask Chris Paul like this, and he can't make such and such requests to Meng Xu at every turn, so this time is also the first time Mike Conley has made a request to Meng Xu, so Meng Xu decided that no matter what the request is, he will try his best to meet him.

"I wanted a couple of tickets to the finals, the first two rows of tickets were too expensive, $20,000 for one, I can't afford it with my current salary, I heard them say you get ten tickets for every game, so I wanted to 。。。。。。" As soon as Mike Conley spoke, Chris Paul, Dwyane Wade, and Andriy Iguodala were all staring at Meng Xu, it was obvious that Mike Conley was cheated by these guys again this time, Paul and Wade also wanted tickets to the finals, so they pushed Conley, an honest man, out as cannon fodder.

"They? Is it a few of you? After Meng Xu asked rhetorically, Paul and Wade immediately turned their heads to watch TV, while Iguodala kept shaking his head and denied that he had anything to do with the incident.

"Haha, isn't it just a few tickets, all ten tickets will be given to you, and you will divide them yourself."