Waben pushed the door open, and Aaron's sturdy figure appeared in his field of vision.

The three-point line is at the top arc, the left and right wings at a 45° angle, and the baseline on both sides, and there is a basketball cart parked on each side, and Allen keeps running between these five places, picking up the ball and shooting quickly, and quickly running to the next position after landing, without stopping for a moment.

There were twelve basketballs on each basketball cart, and he threw sixty balls in a row before he stopped, wiping his sweat to pick up the ball.

Hua Ben didn't bother him, and when he stopped, he said, "Hey, Tony, why don't you go to dinner?" ”

Aaron looked back at him, with a sincere smile on his face, and said, "It's nothing, I'll practice for a while." You know, Ben, I'm in a bad position right now, and I've got to have something that I can get my hands on, like a three-point shot. ”

Hua Ben nodded, picked up the backpack and looked for it, and sure enough, he found the wallet. Holding his wallet, he waved his hand and said, "Tony, let's go, I'll have a treat today, let's go have something to eat together." ”

Aaron hesitated for a moment and said, "Ben, can I delay you for a while?" I want to ask, is it because I don't have a place in the team? ”

Of all the players today, he had the least playing time and didn't get anything but one turnover.

Hua Ben looked at the anxious Allen, and said with a deep groan: "Tony, I am your captain, I won't say anything, believe me, you have a place in our team, a very important position!" We're a new team, there's a lot of chances, Toney, you have to believe in yourself and believe in the team, maybe you're not a starter, but you're going to have a place. What's more, how many rookies can start? ”

With a relieved smile on his face, Aaron nodded and said, "I know, I know, Ben, I'm a rookie, I have a clear position for myself, I will work hard, thank you." ”

Huaben smiled, waited for Aaron to change his clothes, and walked to the parking lot together.

Padin lay on the front of the car, and when he saw the two of them, he said weakly: "Boss, you're starving, I thought you were sleeping in the training gym." ”

"What about Andrei?" Hua Ben asked in surprise, didn't he see that kid, couldn't he wait to run away?

Martin hurriedly said: "There is a girl who came to Andrei, it seems to be his fiancée. He was afraid that Iguodala's attitude of parting would anger Huaben, so he tried to find as many reasons as he could.

What is there to be angry about these little things? What made him angry was when Jordan handed him the schedule at the end of September.

"What? Our regular season opener was against the Pistons?! Or away?! The second game is to play the Heat? , what the hell is the Alliance? Damn it! Game 3 against the Houston Rockets? What the fuck is this? Are we a new army or an iron army? Wabben jumped to his feet in Jordan's office and scolded.

Jordan swallowed the smoke with a cigar in his mouth, looking at his expression, it was not easy, these three battles were not easy to fight.

"Houston is fine, the other two," Jordan said, shaking his head.

"Michael, the latest deal news!" Bobcats assistant coach Kevin Brown. Bert pushed open the door and exclaimed, "It's so exciting"

Jordan coughed, interrupted Bert's words and frowned, "Hi Kevin, can you knock on the door before you come in next time?" Hua Ben pursed his lips and looked at a blonde stunner sitting at another table, this is Jordan's secretary, who used to be a graphic model, and today he is here, otherwise Bert may not see anything when he pushes the door open.

Bert shrugged, "Okay, but if you get the same news as me, it won't be so easy." What's new, Houston and Orlando have officially reached an agreement, and the two teams have made a player trade for up to seven players, and the Rockets get Tracy. McGrady, Juan. Howard, Tyron. Lu and Reis. Guy Nice, while the Magic got Steve. Francis, Mobley, and Kevin. Cato. ”

Hearing the news, Jordan was taken aback: "Damn, it's unbelievable, these two teams are crazy? The contest was about to start, but they made a trade! Don't they have to practice together? ”

In fact, the most important thing is that Jordan's favorite Maddie was cut off, which hurt the gang leader a lot.

Waben secretly said that it was finally here, and he remembered that Maddie went to the rocket in 04, but there was no news. It's not without news, the whole league knows that the Magic want to trade Maddy to develop Howard with all their might, but the Magic want a good price and have negotiated more than two dozen teams all summer, but it has not been decided. The Bobcats also participated in the bidding, and the Magic team was open, saying to Jordan that you give me Big Ben + Padding + rookie Iguodala, and I will give you Maddie and Howard, and Jordan scolded his mother on the spot.

For Maddie, Jordan is really bullish right now, which is a bit speechless. As early as the end of the 1997 draft, the Bulls planned to trade Pippen for Maddie from the Raptors, and the Bulls' uniform team at that time liked Maddie very much and was even willing to eat some of the Raptors' garbage contracts for it. But Joe's gang leader resolutely resisted, and at one point there was a voice of 'trade Pippen and I retire', and as a result, even if Pippen was not traded, he retired in his second season, and let go of the talented striker swingman.

The Magic are hell-bent on developing Howard, and the deal doesn't just take into account the player's abilities. From the perspective of ability, the Magic suffered a big loss, Francis and Mobley are getting worse after leaving the Rockets, the former is okay, and in the first season of the Magic, he can still win an average of 20+5+7 results per game, but it is the first season, and the second season was packaged and went to New York. What about Maddie? Although he is no longer the scoring champion, he is still an All-Star starting guard.

However, the Magic want Francis, and there are also considerations in terms of popularity and locker room atmosphere. Francis is a well-known leader in the NBA, and of course, even more famous is the current Huaben. Howard is still a rookie, and to protect him, you have to have a good big brother, and Francis is a good candidate. When the monster grows up, Francis's mission will be over, and then it can be kicked away.

"Do you still think Houston is easy to deal with?" Huaben jokingly said to Jordan, and after that, he left the head coach's office with the schedule, and the rookies didn't know what kind of test they would face in the new season.

In fact, this is also a feature of the NBA, and for publicity reasons, the first week is generally a strong conversation. The Bobcats can meet such three popular teams in a row, which is not unrelated to the importance of the league.

On October 9, 2004, the preseason officially began, and from this day, the NBA's 2004-05 season began in full swing.

This season, the Bobcats have a total of 8 preseason games, in fact, Stern has already given face to this new team, the Bobcats have no strong teams in the preseason, and the 14 teams that did not enter the playoffs last season, the Bobcats can meet six, and the first four games were all held in Charlotte, which is a good warm-up opportunity for these rookies.

Not many fans watched the preseason game, after all, it was just a warm-up for the regular season and a run-in lineup, unless it was a game like the Rockets and Kings in Shanghai, China.

Out of the NBA's globalization strategy, Stern officially began to promote NBA overseas games, such as Milicic's Pistons going to Serbia and Montenegro to play their first game with their men's basketball team, such as Yao Ming's Rockets and Liu Wei's Kings to play in Shanghai.

For the overseas game between the Rockets and the King, the media report is described as 'a crowd of people, a sports event', many fans even buy tickets at the ticket hall from midnight in order to see the NBA's style, and they sleep directly there with their covers, and the queue once exceeded 500 meters!

This news made Hua Ben very angry, and he shook the newspaper and said to Wang Zhizhi: "How unfair, how unfair?!" Why did the Kings go to play overseas? Why don't we go? Dazhi, do you think this is discrimination? They have a Liu Wei in Sacramento, don't we have Chinese players here? Why can they go and make money, we uh no, all in all, this game should be played by us. ”

Wang Zhizhi said slowly: "Liu Wei is a player of the Shanghai Sharks, and Yao Ming is a teammate, I am different, hehe." In fact, what he wants to say is that he offended the Basketball Association not by a group of stars who help him speak, if he can't play in the NBA and without the support of domestic fans, then the Basketball Association and him will never be over.

The conversation between the two is very interesting, Hua Ben speaks Chinese, Wang Zhizhi speaks English, and both of them speak non-standard, Hua Ben has to turn around to avoid being suspected of how to speak fluent Chinese, Wang Zhizhi is not good at speaking English.

"Then Liu Wei is also a Kings player? Damn, if he can play a full season in the NBA, you can find me. Huaben smiled disdainfully, in fact, this kid was cut after the preseason, and the king just used him as a gimmick to make eyeballs.

Wang Zhizhi smiled, tied his shoelaces and prepared to walk out of the locker room. Yes, the game is about to start, and in the first game of the preseason, the Bobcats will face the Magic, who had the lowest record in the league last season.

According to the regulations, Jordan took the lead, and when the gang leader walked out of the players' tunnel in a silver suit in a chic and handsome manner, Charlotte's fans let out a huge cheer. Jordan smiled and waved around, the stud folds on his ears glowing.

Maybe it's the first game of the Bobcats, maybe the preseason tickets are cheap, maybe the Charlotte fans take revenge on the Hornets who betrayed them, or maybe it's because Warburn is really attractive, Time Warner Center has a decent attendance, with 20,000 seats packed, but fans rarely wear Bobcats jerseys, but many wear Duke's classic blue or North Carolina's classic blue and white jerseys.

Hua Ben was the last to play, and the fans gave him a cheer that he did not lose to Jordan, and the fans on both sides of the aisle held up billboards of their own making, which read:

"Welcome to Charlotte, King Bobcat!"

The bobcats' mascot Lufus jumped up and high-fived Warburn, the humanoid bobcat was covered in orange fluff and big sunglasses on his face, looking cute and cute, and many fans took pictures of him.

Because it is only a preseason, the team does not hold an opening ceremony, which has to wait until the start of the regular season, so directly after entering the stadium, the national anthem is played, the national flag is raised, and the head coaches of both sides sign up.

Jordan carefully drew up the first starting lineup of his career: Oku at center, Wabben at power forward, and Gerald at small forward. Wallace, playmaking guard is Pattin, and shooting guard is Iguodala.

Seeing this list, the Magic's head coach Johnny . Davis grinned and wanted to laugh, except for Huaben, the other four were all iron benches last season, and he said lightly: "Look, this game is a gift from God for us to enjoy the lads." ”

The Magic players laughed.

Their starting lineup is: center Monster Howard, power forward Kevin. Cato, small forward Turkoglou, playmaking guard Francis, shooting guard Mobley.

(To be continued)