On July 1, 1997, in what would later be considered to be the day when the Celtics broke the curse and re-emerged, reporters from major sports media in the United States gathered in Boston because the Celtics' uniform team issued a notice on the day of the draft to hold a press conference on that day. △

However, most of the media didn't take the Celtics' notice seriously, and as a result, the reporters they sent were their own juniors, but the Celtics didn't care about this, as long as the major media sent people, everything was OK.

The Celtics set up a press conference stage on the side of the training stadium, where several staff members were busy, and before the reporters arrived, Jonny was standing there discussing something with Karl. Jonny's arrival has caused a lot of historical deviations, such as Karl, the old man who sacrificed everything for the Green Army, originally gave way to Rick Pitino this season, but perhaps it was Jonny's arrival, Karl did not leave, but Rick Pitino still served as the team's new head coach.

There is also a few players on the field not far away, who are practicing there, Chauncey Billups, this is no problem, originally the player who was selected by the Green Army. And Tim Thomas is different, it is worth mentioning that this Tim Thomas was still a talented high school student on the same level as Kobe Bryant in high school, but now, he can only give Jonny a hand.

There is also Big Ben, a future interior bug who originally needed to stay up at the small forward position for a season, may have a chance to usher in his glory in advance with the Celtics.

Of course, there are also the two players that Jonny is not familiar with, Mark Blunt and Eric Washington, who later briefly played as the starting center for the Celtics and Timberwolves, who was abandoned by the SuperSonics early in his career and forced to play in Europe. However, the appearance of Jonny has skewed his career, and he was not selected by the SuperSonics.

And then there's Eric Washington, a player with a good three-point hand, who had to leave for Europe after a few years in the NBA, and the Celtics appeared. For him to play for a team that is better at three-pointers, maybe the result will be different.

In short, Jonny has changed the world a lot.

The press conference was about to start and Jonny hid in the dressing room, he was the easter egg of the day and needed to play the finale.

And the voice in the microphone has already begun to be heard in the front, it is Carl introducing several rookies, and these rookies have been known by reporters at the draft meeting. For them, the only attractions are Chauncey Billups' scouting show and Tim Thomas's No. 6 show, and all the questions are thrown at these two.

Then, Carr announced the trade for Ben Wallace, which made the reporters even more uninterested, because again, the deal was also done in the draft, and who is Ben Wallace as a player? Even some reporters didn't know this big black man. And some reporters with a little more experience are even starting to regret coming to Boston for this press conference.

Soon, though, Karl smiled mysteriously. "We've just introduced you to our draft this year, there's a small deal to go, and I'm going to introduce you to a player who just joined the Celtics," he said. ”

Music rang out at the press conference, but the group of reporters in the audience were obviously not interested, and some of them were even yawning. Soon, though, they found that they couldn't keep their mouths shut.

"Oh——!"

"Oh my God——!"

At the same time, Karl shouted, "Let's welcome Jonny——! Li ——! ”

"Wow! How is this possible? Is John Gabriel crazy? ”

“oh！ no！ I think the editor-in-chief will regret that he didn't come in person! ”

"Jonny Lee is here in Boston! Oh my God, this is sure to be the biggest news of the offseason! Hahaha! ”

The scene of the press conference immediately resounded with a lot of discussions, which was very different from the previous dullness. Obviously, Jonny has proven himself with last season's stellar performance, and because of this, his appearance in Boston caused these reporters to surprise, after all, the Magic traded Jonny Lee, which is the equivalent of the Bulls trading Scott Pippen. Although there is a possibility, they still think: Magic must be crazy.

"So, please be quiet." Carl was very satisfied with the reaction of these reporters, and perhaps in his heart, getting this deal from Jonny has become his most proud move. "First of all, I'm going to give you a little bit of a talk about the deal, where we traded Anthony Walker, sign-and-trade David Wesley, and a first-round pick from next year, from the Magic for Jonny Lee, and two future first-round picks."

After hearing the details of the deal presented by Carl, the reporters suddenly realized.

"That makes sense, the Celtics are so ruthless, they don't have any good players on their team, except for Jonny Lee, of course." Several old reporters sighed with emotion, although the Celtics only sent away two players, but in fact, these two players are already all of the Celtics, this team that was bad last season, there are no good players, and Anthony Walker and David Wesley are the only two excellent young players in the Celtics team.

Add to that the fact that there is a good chance that it will be a lottery pick, so it's no surprise that the Magic agreed to the deal.

"The Celtics will build a team around Jonny Lee in the future, and we brought in Mr. Rick Pitino to coach the team" Karl introduced Rick Pitino next to him by the way, but Rick Pitino became the new head coach of the Celtics, which was announced earlier, so these reporters were not surprised.

Michael Leoncarr said, but the group of reporters were all staring at Jonny, clicking with the camera in their hands, and then waiting for Carl to announce that he was free to ask questions.

Soon, Carl got the reporters to do what they wanted: "Now, it's time to ask questions." Carl first pointed to the reporter from the Boston Herald, which was his own media, and of course Carl was going to ask them questions.

The Boston Herald reporter was excited, and when Carl mentioned him, he stood up: "Mr. Johnny Lee, about being a Celtic." What do you think? Obviously, this is an avid Celtics fan, and Jonny knows what this fan reporter wants him to say.

So Jonny smiled and replied, "I'm very happy to be joining the Celtics, it's a great team and he has the most championships in the league." There are so many great players out there, and my goal is to be the next great Celtic. ”

Jonny's answer pleased the Boston Herald reporter, who was clapping desperately.

But then, Jonny's task is difficult, not every reporter will ask questions like the reporter just now, and the next thing Jonny has to face is the difficulties of other media.

"Mr. Jonny Lee, I heard that you had a heated argument with the management of the Magic some time ago, were you traded because of this?" The ESPN reporter then stood up and asked.

This is a bit more difficult to answer. After all, if Jonny answers yes, then there is a good chance that he will suffer a lot of criticism after this press conference. But Jonny didn't care so much, he said directly: "Yes, we had an argument at the time because the Magic changed the head coach without telling me in advance, which made me angry. ”

Jonny's answer immediately excited the reporters in the audience, and then. A reporter from Yahoo Sports followed up and asked, "But it's just a change of coach, and the Magic won't make this deal." ”

"I don't know what they think. All I knew was that the Magic did trade me, and I didn't have contact with them for more than a week after I got into an argument, and then they called me. Inform me that I was traded. Jonny told the truth again, and the group of reporters nodded as if they didn't understand, and Jonny said that the transaction was here, and they could only ask about it here, and the rest depended on their own play.

And Jonny was asked about the trade. It was immediately a belly of fire, but looking at the group of excited reporters in the audience, Jonny's anger immediately disappeared, and then the reporters began to ask questions about Jonny's future after joining the Celtics, and of course did not forget to interact with Rick Pitino, and the two sang and ended the press conference.

After the press conference, the whole country was shaken!

"The Green Shirts have a new leader, and Michael Jordan has joined the team!"

"The Magic star has left the team and officially announced that he has joined the Celtics!"

"The craziest deal! Will the Celtics speed up the rebuild or lose all the games? ”

"The general manager of the magic has a brain pump? There is another secret to the departure of the superstar! ”

As soon as the major media outlets sent out their press releases, the eyes of the whole country were immediately drawn to it, but most of them were just excited about the deal, with only the local fans in Orlando and Boston reacting strongly.

At the entrance of the Amway Center in Orlando, there were thousands of sit-in protests, they were dissatisfied with the team's trade away Jonny, and played slogans such as "John Gabriel step down", but there are also Magic fans who believe that the new Anthony Walker has good potential and can make up for the team's weakness inside, and in this case, John Gabriel is understandable to replace Jonny.

However, this kind of fans are only a minority in Orlando, and a large number of Orlando fans think that John Gabriel should be sacked for the simple reason that in the summer of 1996, they let go of Shaquille O'Neal, and in the summer of 1997, they actually let go of the team's new star Jonny Lee, two stars in a row left, and the inaction of the Magic management made the Magic fans more and more dissatisfied.

Boston fans, on the other hand, reacted very differently from Magic fans, and they frantically expressed their excitement, such as Jonny's No. 11 jersey that just appeared in the fan's merchandise store, which immediately attracted Celtics fans to snap up, and for example, Jonny's star card that has just been released, most of which were sold in the Boston area.

In addition to these fans, there are many NBA stars who have expressed their views on the deal, Shaquille O'Neal, who has already established his own business with the Lakers, said: "Jonny was right to leave Orlando, although there is Disney there and there are lovely fans, but Orlando's management is really amateurish. Obviously, the Big Shark has long been dissatisfied with Orlando's management, and think about it, the reason why O'Neal left the Magic back then was because the Magic's management would rather give Anfernee Hardaway a huge contract than give the Big Shark a top salary.

And Anthony Walker, who just moved to the Magic, said he was happy with the deal. And looking forward to partnering with Anfernee Hardaway. But Anfernee Hardaway didn't seem to appreciate much, and like Jonny, Anfernee Hardaway was surprised that John Gabriel actually traded Joni, and in an interview with the media, Anfernee Hardaway said: "I really didn't expect the team to trade Jonny, it was a bad decision. I think sooner or later our management will regret it! ”

And when reporters asked questions about his new teammates, Anfernee Hardaway avoided answering.

And the media are watching the excitement, and naturally they will also put forward their own opinions on this deal. Because when the Celtics held a press conference, the leading expert reporters of the major media did not attend, so they could only express their opinions from the transaction and a small amount of interview materials, and in order to get more detailed interview materials, they are still pestering Jonny and John Gabriel.

As for the deal, Adrian Wonarowski, who is already a leading reporter for Yahoo Sports, said: "This deal is good for both parties. Jonny Lee is a player who can be the cornerstone of the team, while Anthony Walker will only be an All-Star at best, and for the Celtics, they didn't get Tim Duncan, but getting Jonny Lee still allowed them to regain the cornerstone of a team around which they can build a team. And for the Magic, Anthony Walker could bolster their weak interior line, plus David Wesley. The strength of the magic may not be decreasing, but increasing. Adrian Wonarowski sees it as a mutually beneficial deal.

However, some experts do not think so, USA Today's reporter Sam Amick believes: "The Magic and the Celtics have made a big deal. For the Magic, the deal got them a future All-Star and a really good role player, and they sent another All-Star, and for the Magic, they made a lot of money. Because they also got a first-round pick for the Celtics next year, an All-Star in exchange for another, plus a role player and a lotto, yes, a lotto. According to the current lineup of the Celtics, it is Jonny who leads a bunch of teammates who are not in the stream, and such a lineup will not enter the playoffs at all! So, to sum up, Magic really makes a lot of money! ”

Sam Amik's remarks quickly sparked controversy across the United States, but one thing was unanimous, the Celtics couldn't make the playoffs next season, and no one believed that Jonny could lead a group of CBA teammates to the playoffs, and the focus of their arguments was whether Jonny could be equated with Anthony Walker.

Jonny has been in Boston these days, negotiating with the team's management about the roster for the new season, as those reporters said, the Celtics roster has been completely overturned, and there may be players left from last season's players, but most of them have left after their contracts expired.

The players left last season are Di Brom, Dana Barros, Greg Meiner, and Pevis Ellison, and according to the current situation, even whether these four players can stay depends on the opinions of Jonny and Rick Pitino. However, Di Brown and Dana Barros, two players who excel at three-pointers, should stay.

DeBlanc was the leading scorer for the Celtics in previous seasons, and he propped up the team's offense during the Green Shirts' slump, but injuries in recent years have left Di Bron without his previous form, making only 21 appearances last season, and his role in the team has been completely reduced to a bench.

Dana Barros joined the Celtics in the 1995-1996 season, and was the team's main bench in the first two seasons, and even almost competed for the best sixth man last season, and he averaged 1.8 three-pointers per game last season, so there should be no problem to stay.

And Greg Meiner, who is the spring man, is different from them, Greg Meiner does not have excellent three-pointers, the defense is not too good, the possibility of staying is almost none, and the Celtics are likely to use him to make a trade. And the same is true for Pevis Ellison, who mainly plays power forward, injuries in recent seasons have made Pevis Ellison no longer as brave as he used to be, you must know that in the 1991-1992 season, Pevis Ellison got 20+11 data. Perhaps the Celtics will keep Pevis Ellison as an interior backup, but Pevis Ellison, who is on the high side of the contract, is more likely to be traded.

In addition to these four players, the only players left for the Celtics are Chauncee Billups, Tim Thomas, Mark Blunt and Eric Washington, who were drafted and replaced, and Ben Wallace, who was traded for Jonny's request. With the addition of Jonny, the Celtics only have 10 players on the team, which is completely different from other teams with seventeen or eighteen players at this time, so in the Celtics' training gym, the Celtics signed a large number of trial contracts, hoping to find the right role player.

And the Celtics' search for the free market has not stopped, at present, it seems that the Celtics' interior line is very lacking, in the eyes of Rick Pitino and Karl, the Celtics' interior line is almost unavailable, but in fact, the free market is not much better, big players will not come to the Celtics, and those small minions Celtics can't look down on it, so the signing of free agents is slowly delayed.

By the time the summer league started, the Celtics didn't sign a single player! They had to send a team dominated by rookies and players on trial contracts to the summer league in Las Vegas, but Jonny didn't make it, and with his current status and quality, there was no need to waste time.

With the team traveling to Las Vegas, Jonny chose to travel to Los Angeles to meet with Sega for his last endorsement contract of the offseason, and then the Celtics arranged a team of trainers for Jonny to train him in California after the endorsement negotiations were over. (To be continued, please search, the novel is better and updated faster!)

ps: 5000 words big chapter, wait for another chapter, ask for votes to support