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After Zhuang Fei left La Crosse, he easily brought Stephen Jackson to the Minnesota Timberwolves without paying any price, and the contracts signed by CBA players are the kind of contracts that as long as they sign with an NBA team, the team must release them unconditionally, which is a very unequal contract. Even when Zhuang Fei left, the head coach of La Crosse welcomed Zhuang Fei again.

"Zhuang, do you really want to talk to this kid, and it's a 3-year 5 million full guarantee contract?" Although Stephen Jackson is a rookie in 1997, he has not played a game in the NBA according to the regulations, so he is equivalent to a rookie in 1998, as a rookie can sign 3 years and 5 million, which can be said to be the treatment of the first round, except for those rookies in the lottery area, Stephen Jackson's treatment is the best class. Take the Timberwolves' own team and his salary is lower than Pierce's, and higher than Rashad Lewis.

For a player who has never proven himself, only played in high school leagues, and also wasted 1 and a half years as a substitute in the CBA, how could he really get such a big contract? D'Antoni has been following Zhuang Fei to inspect Stephen Jackson, but Zhuang Fei and he have never watched Stephen Jackson's game at all, and they haven't even watched training, Zhuang Fei is really so confident?

You must know that because Zhuang Fei has cleaned several core players such as Marbury, Terry Porter, Tom Gugliotta, etc., and signed the unknown junior Nash at a high price, Nash's contract extension is 4 years and 20 million, it can be said that Zhuang Fei is now very controversial in Minnesota. Even in the United States, there is controversy.

Marbury for Pierce, a loss, abandoned Terry Porter for free, Tom Gugliotta is a big loss, and the annual salary of 5 million to sign Nash is to make the Timberwolves' already stretched salary space locked again, if the Timberwolves can spend tens of millions to get a star, they have nothing to say, but 5 million to sign a backup point guard, how to see how to lose. The chicken ribs that the people of the Sun Team ate tastelessly and abandoned were unfortunately discarded, and when they arrived in Zhuang Fei, they became fragrant and sweet.

This is also the reason why D'Antoni is worried about Zhuang Fei, Zhuang Fei is slowly eroding the trust of Minnesota fans in him through his cāo, and even now even Zhuang Fei's royal newspaper is a little puzzled by Zhuang Fei's cāo, although he did not directly criticize Zhuang Fei, but there are some soft nails between the lines.

"Nash? Stephen Jackson? Why does Zhuang Fei always like the Suns to play the rest of the players, I think he went to the Timberwolves is really condescending, he should go to Felix, then he doesn't have to find ways to find Suns players all over the world"

"In my opinion, he doesn't know much about the NBA, and there's no denying that he's one of the best head coaches in the NCAA, but the NBA and the NCAA are completely different, maybe in his opinion, Nash and Stephen Jackson are very good players for the NCAA team, but obviously the NBA has no less than 300 players of this level, and more than half of these 300 players have lower salaries than them."

"I see his future now, his future is in Phoenix, there is still a lack of an assistant coach there, you go and ask Mr. Danny Anji, do you need that Chinese" Xiao Daolan never missed the opportunity to humiliate Zhuang Fei, now is the time when Zhuang Fei is most controversial, and it is also the moment when Zhuang Fei faces the biggest crisis of confidence.

These are only external doubts, and the impact on Zhuang Fei is limited, but what can really affect Zhuang Fei is the distrust within the team, especially the management.

Zhuang Fei received a call from team owner Glenn Taylor the day after signing Stephen Jackson.

Glenn Taylor's office, in addition to himself, is the team's general manager, Kevin McHale. Seeing Zhuang Fei come in, Glenn Taylor was very enthusiastic, but Zhuang Fei could clearly see that it had cooled down a lot compared to when he first came. Because Glenn Taylor obviously had some yīn haze on his face.

"Zhuang, it's been hard lately" Glenn Taylor first personally brought Zhuang Fei a cup of coffee and motioned for him to sit down.

"The league has been shut down recently, and a lot of things have to be done in less than a month, which is really hard, you are the head coach of our team, you can't be too tired, there are some things that you can completely ask Kevin to do for you, Kevin has been working in Minnesota for a long time, he is fully capable of some less important things" Glenn Taylor said with a smile.

Zhuang Fei's hand holding the coffee trembled after listening to Glenn Taylor's words, and the coffee almost poured out. Glenn Taylor wants to share his power, the positioning of the NBA head coach and general manager is very vague, and it can be described in a few idioms, first, the store is a big bully, the general manager has a high authority, and the head coach has a low authority, then the general manager has the final say in all things, such as the current Nuggets, if D'Antoni accepts the invitation of the Nuggets to be the head coach, he can only be bullied, second, the away bullying store, the current Celtics and Timberwolves, Zhuang Fei and Pitino have high prestige, McHale gives Zhuang Fei a hand, and Pitino is even more absolute, The general manager and the chairman of the team simply took it all by themselves. The third is to live in harmony, everyone has similar prestige, and the division of labor and cooperation is like the former Bulls and the current Lakers.

Now Glenn Taylor means that he wants Zhuang Fei and McHale to work together, and he doesn't believe in Zhuang Fei's trading and signing abilities anymore.

Glenn Taylor's words embarrassed McHale, who was standing aside. Left or right. The boss said to Zhuang Fei today that he knew some of this in advance, and he often complained in front of the boss that he, the general manager, was not so happy and moisturized, but he personally had absolutely no dissatisfaction with Zhuang Fei.

Zhuang Fei turned around, his eyes looked at Glenn Taylor deeply, his face was not angry or happy, being stared at by Zhuang Fei made Glenn Taylor feel a little furious, and in the end, the owner of the Timberwolves still did not calm down.

"Zhuang, I'm not dissatisfied with your operation, but I hope you can discuss it with Kevin more, after all, he is the general manager of the team, you can't ignore his opinion, Kevin also has the right to deal with the team's affairs" Glenn Taylor's tone softened, and he said helplessly.

Zhuang Fei was stunned at first, this year's operation really ignored the team's general manager McHale, whether it was the draft or the signing, Zhuang Fei had the final say, and McHale had no way to intervene at all.

Zhuang Fei's control is too strong, although he does not have a nominal general manager, but he is indeed doing the general manager's business, although Glenn Taylor has a contract with Zhuang Fei before signing with Zhuang Fei, and Zhuang Fei has the final say in the team's affairs, but he doesn't want the team to become Zhuang Fei's word.

This is all a habit that Zhuang Fei developed in Vic Forest, Vic Forest does not have a general manager, everything is up to him.

The conversation between the three of them ended in nothing, Zhuang Fei had no intention of letting go, although Glenn Taylor was angry, but there was no way, McHale was the most embarrassed, this general manager didn't do it, it was better than an assistant coach. Rather than making a name for himself here, it is better to go elsewhere to develop, but when he thinks that this is his hometown, his intention to run away fades, and he is now extremely envious of his old teammate Larry Bird.

Although Zhuang Fei is very angry at the team's distrust of him at such a critical moment, he has no time to worry about these, because the new season is about to start, and the team needs to practice together now, most of the players of the Timberwolves are newcomers, and they need to spend a lot of time practicing each other's cooperation, and the Timberwolves are better than other teams in that these players do not have to practice physical reserves in a hurry, because under Zhuang Fei's orders, these players did not rest during the shutdown.

On January 10, 1999, this rì was the rì of the Timberwolves training camp.

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