"Jim is a great head coach, he's probably one of the best in the current NBA, he's been a great first year with the Pacers, he's taken Larry Bird's place, he's going to be one of the hopes for a revival of this team, just like Joe Johnson, I think the Pacers fans will treat him the way they did Joe Johnson, they're all the future of the Pacers, and of course, for me personally, I'm looking forward to playing against all the great NBA head coaches, it's a wonderful thing”

"Because basically every head coach in the NBA has a lot of self-characteristics, and in that regard, I can learn a lot from these people, and in fact, whether it's Jerry Sloan, Pat Riley or Gregg Popovich, I've been helped and inspired a lot, and of course, Mr. Nelson is the same, and as a basketball coach, I'm enjoying this matchup, and I think Mr. O'Brien can also benefit me a lot in this round, of course. We're going to put on a great series for all of you, and I think we're going to give it our all for both the Boston Celtics and the Pacers, and when we give it our all, there's going to be a lot of exciting and interesting changes in the future."

On April 17, 2004, at the pre-game press conference of the first game between the Boston Celtics and the Pacers, Zhuang Fei looked at the reporters in the audience with a smile and said, and at this time, the head coach of the Pacers sitting next to him, Jim O'Brien, did not have Zhuang Fei's calmness, on the contrary, the head coach of the Pacers looked extremely cold. This is especially true when I heard Zhuang Fei say that he would go all out and give a wonderful series with the Pacers.

In fact, for O'Brien in the last month he was very painful, although he led the Pacers to a 41-41 record this season is considered by many people in the outside world to be a better performance, in this case, as Zhuang Fei said before, he has received a lot of praise, but these praises can not hide the fact that he is extremely disappointed, in the East, no team wants to meet the Chinese. That's true, especially for the Pacers, who are a young team. It also has a lot of potential.

But more importantly, this team will be inextricably linked to this Chinese whether it will be Oku or Al Harrington or the team's boss Joe Johnson, perhaps for this Pacers, his new head coach may not be as familiar as Zhuang Fei, of course, and such familiarity will make this Pacers difficult to do, especially in the individual play of these Pacers players, you know, Oku's average data in the Pacers this year is 14 points and 8 rebounds per game. It can be said that he is already a quasi-first-class center in the league. But the center averaged 8 points and 6 rebounds per game against the Celtics, shooting less than 35 percent from the field.

This is a completely third-rate backup center data, and in the game, this big center was almost overwhelmed by the Chinese when playing the Boston Celtics, everyone in the NBA knows that the Chinese is the ancestor of the NBA center around the forward tactic, and his use of this tactic is also the best, and it is precisely because of this that the Pacers' center originally had a certain advantage in the face of other NBA teams. Now it's a complete weakness, and Oku's struggles against the Boston Celtics are just one of them.

For the Pacers, the team's boss Joe Johnson and Al Harrington will also be abnormal when facing the Celtics, although it is not as serious as Oku's disorder, but it is also difficult to play the best strength, and it is precisely because of this that after the final round, when he learned that his team was ranked eighth, the head coach of the Pacers almost fainted, you know, in the East, the Pacers, the Bulls, the Cavaliers and the Hawks have not bitten until the suspense of the final round of rankings, Originally, the Pacers' performance in the second half was very good, and they once had a chance to replace the Hawks in the top four in the East, but in the end, they missed these opportunities, and in the end they could only hate to rank eighth in the East.

In the first round, they faced the Celtics who they least wanted to face, of course, the outside world did not put too much pressure on them, and in fact the management of the Pacers did not give him too much pressure, but the tolerance of the external environment does not mean that he has no ideas about this season, he desperately hopes that he can lead this team to go further this year, and the Pacers game does have such strength and possibility, but with the determination of the final ranking, such a possibility is basically 0, Now he can't think of how to beat the No. 1 team in the East, and he can't think of how to face the Chinese's targeted tactics.

The whole world knows that as long as this Chinese finds a way to target, even the head coach of the strongest team will lose very badly, such as in 2001, when the Ao Fat who cut 60+ in two consecutive games was targeted by the Chinese, it was completely abnormal in the next two games, such as Popovich and Spurs in the finals last season, when everyone thought they would finally win the championship, they were beaten by the Chinese again, and they were defeated all of a sudden, and now, O'Brien is actually very worried that his team will be taken away by this Chinese in this round of the series.

Although for him, or for the public opinion of the outside world now, being swept directly 4-0 by that Chinese is not a big deal or a disgraceful thing, because everyone thinks they will be swept, in this case, O'Brien can actually not have too much pressure, just like he wanted to go further in this year's playoffs, as a basketball coach, no matter what the reason, he does not want to have such a shameful playoff in his career, Even if his opponent is the Chinese who is in full swing, it is in this situation that the head coach of the Pacers has been completely caught up in his own thoughts lately.

Of course, at this time, Zhuang Fei naturally cannot know how complicated the psychological activities of this opponent around him will be, in fact, now neither Zhuang Fei nor the reporters on the scene have noticed the head coach of the Pacers, for Zhuang Fei, this is a very ordinary series, and for these reporters, they only have that Chinese in their eyes, especially after the Celtics officially announced a five-year contract extension with this Chinese yesterday, although this year is the first playoff game of the Boston Celtics and Pacers, But these people are more interested in Zhuang Fei's contract, because no one will be interested in a game that has lost suspense except for the dead fans of their respective teams.

"Mr. Zhuang. Why did you sign a five-year contract with the Boston Celtics, can you tell us a little bit about your contract? Like an annual salary or something."

Almost after asking Zhuang Fei some innocuous questions about the game, these reporters began to focus on the new contract signed between Zhuang Fei and the Boston Celtics, yesterday the Boston Celtics officially released the news, just saying that he signed a five-year contract with the team's meritorious coach Zhuang Fei, as for the details of the contract or the amount of the contract has not been announced, and for many people. It is difficult to understand why Zhuang Fei extended his contract with Celtic for 5 years.

After all, in the NBA, basically neither the team nor the head coach will sign such a long contract, most of them are two-year or three-year contracts. There will be a lot of shackles on a long contract, after all, in the NBA, the head coach is not a stable iron rice bowl, and it is not good that one day the boss of the team will be dissatisfied with the head coach, if he signs a long-term contract, it will be difficult to do, of course, for Zhuang Fei, it is not the reason why the team dumped him, but the reason why he dumped the team, after all, five years is also very variable for a team. If you sign a long-term contract with this Chinese. The owner of the team suddenly stopped investing, which is even more tragic, of course, these reporters are very concerned about why Zhuang Fei will renew his contract for five years, and they are also more concerned about the annual salary of Zhuang Fei's contract.

Zhuang Fei's last contract was signed with the Celtics for 3 years and 36 million, and everyone knew that when Zhuang Fei left the Timberwolves, there were three contracts on Zhuang Fei's table at that time, one was 200 million for 10 years for the Trail Blazers, and the other was 50 million for 3 years for the New York Knicks. The other is the Celtics' 3-year 36 million, and no matter which contract Zhuang Fei accepts, he will be the highest-paid head coach in the history of the league, and in fact, basically all NBA head coaches at that time hoped that Zhuang Fei would go to the Trail Blazers, because if Zhuang Fei's annual salary can reach 20 million, the salary of all NBA head coaches is likely to double directly.

And even when Zhuang Fei agreed to the Celtics' invitation to many people unexpectedly, the lowest contract of the NBA head coach was more than 2 million per year, and the general annual salary soared to 4 million, you know, before Zhuang Fei signed with the Celtics in 2001, the highest annual salary in the league was just over 5 million, and there were only less than 5 people in the league with an annual salary of more than 4 million, and even if it was more than 3 million, it was only less than half of it. In fact, most head coaches have contracts of more than one million, and many head coaches have a minimum of one million a year of agency contracts, which can also be seen from the impact of Zhuang Fei's contract on the league.

It can be said that if Zhuang Fei had accepted the Trail Blazers' offer of 20 million annual salary, then most of the league's head coaches' contracts would now exceed 5 million, so almost all the head coaches in the NBA are now staring at Zhuang Fei's contract, perhaps not only the head coach, but also the NBA's agent bosses, in this case, the Boston Celtics' official statement yesterday is naturally unsatisfactory. Because they hide Zhuang Fei's salary.

"Why did you renew your contract with Celtic for so long? Because the Celtics can give me everything I want, I can't find a reason for me to leave" Zhuang Fei smiled and thought about it and then said: "As for the annual salary you care about, this is a very complicated issue, because my contract with the Celtics does not involve a very accurate annual salary range, if according to the provisions of the contract, my annual salary next year will be 16 million, as for the future, I don't know, I only know that the terms stipulated in the contract are that I will always earn more than the player"

Zhuang Fei didn't make any more superfluous explanations after he finished speaking, but in fact, when Zhuang Fei said that his next annual salary was only 16 million, Zhuang Fei could obviously feel the flash of disappointment in the eyes of these reporters, after all, for Zhuang Fei, if he just wanted 16 million, he could get it three years ago, and as long as he was willing, even if it was an annual salary of 30 million, there were a lot of people in the league who were willing to pay, such as the NBA richest Trailblazers boss, For example, the former Lakers owner Old Bass claimed that as long as Zhuang Fei is willing to come to the Lakers, they are willing to Zhuang Fei's contract with an annual salary of 30 million, and it is also after tax, a record of 70 wins four times in six years, and three championships in five years, he is the most famous basketball coach in the United States and the world, he is worth this price, at least if someone gives Zhuang Fei an annual salary of 50 million, it will not be surprising, but it is obvious that the price of the Celtics is still low, of course, These reporters paid more attention to the specific amount that Zhuang Fei said, and did not pay attention to the one that Zhuang Fei said later, he will always be the highest annual salary in the Celtics.

Of course, perhaps for these reporters, they just need a number, and as soon as Zhuang Fei's contract amount comes out, it is estimated that soon, the salary of the head coach of the league will rise again, of course, it will definitely not rise as directly as the last time, and unconsciously, in just a few years, Zhuang Fei has become the benchmark for all head coaches in the NBA.

Just like this game in the pre-game press conference, all the reporters were Zhuang Fei Zhuang Fei's personal problems, this game with the Pacers seemed to these reporters to be a serious lack of suspense, and in fact, after the start of this game, the process of the game was actually very much in line with the speculation of these reporters, in the first game of the playoffs with the Celtics, none of the Pacers players performed normally, and the team's shooting rate was only a little over 30%.

In the end, the team only scored 79 points in the whole game, while the Celtics scored 114 points, it can be said that the game lost suspense in the third quarter, of course, this game is not without harvest for many people, at least the Chinese fulfilled his pre-game promise, he is indeed letting his team go all out. (To be continued.) )