On October 25, 2003, in the lobby of the Boston Celtics media room, as the defending champion of last season, today, the team's departure ceremony for the new season has attracted great attention, even compared to the Lakers' departure press conference two days ago.

In fact, it is impossible for the Lakers to keep a low profile this season, this team is now known as the team with the strongest team in NBA history, and now almost everyone in the NBA is the focus of everyone, what this team will play in the new season and even whether the Celtics can successfully defend the title in the new season has come to attract attention.

In this case, the Boston Celtics have been very low-key since they came back from China after playing the Chinese game, low-key training, low-key preparation for the preseason, and also low-key preparation for the new season, of course, although Zhuang Fei consciously kept this team away from the current Lakers' edge, but it is obvious that even if Zhuang Fei is low-key, this team is also the NBA champion last season and the defending champion this season, in this case, It is impossible for Zhuang Fei to get rid of the possibility of others comparing him with the Lakers.

And in fact, what if the Lakers' lineup, which is known as the strongest in history, can reflect its value? Isn't it just beating the Celtics and then topping the NBA championship to show the value of this lineup? In this case, today's kick-off press conference for the Boston Celtics season was supposed to move forward in a low-key manner. But obviously, not everyone is willing to let them keep a low profile, so judging from the current situation in the media room, almost all of them are full of reporters, which also makes Zhuang Fei, who came in, a little extremely surprised, after all, the Lakers are too hot now. Although the Boston Celtics are the defending champions, whether they are popular or other aspects, they are still much worse than the Lakers, and in this case, Zhuang Fei does not think that his press conference today can cause him more sensation. But it's clear that he's underestimating his 'status' in the hearts of these journalists.

"Mr. Zhuang, can you tell us about the Lakers this season? Have you ever wondered what this team will be like this new season? Are you scared? Almost as soon as Zhuang Fei sat down, a reporter in the back row below couldn't wait to stand up and then asked Zhuang Fei excitedly, and at this time other reporters also looked at Zhuang Fei with a smile after hearing this question, for this year's Lakers, the coaches of many teams in the league have their own opinions, or in addition to this Chinese, other head coaches have expressed their opinions.

Some of these NBA head coaches condemned the Lakers' shamelessness and expressed their helplessness, while others expressed their envy and jealousy by the Lakers. But more often than not, it expresses fear of the Lakers. It's a team to be feared enough to be seen, but it may not be intuitive from the perspective of many NBA head coaches.

But from the perspective of various bookmakers, it is very quantitative, in the new season's odds to win the championship, the Boston Celtics as the defending champion is 1 to 4, ranking second among all 29 teams, and the first is the Lakers, which has recently been jokingly called by fans to form an all-star team The odds of winning the championship are an astonishing 2 to 5, which can be said to be higher than the Boston Celtics, and it is still much higher. As the defending champion, it is not very common to be looked down upon in the new season, and perhaps the last time such a situation occurred was 8 years ago when the Rockets won the championship, but basically they have always been looked down upon.

Under normal circumstances, the defending champions would be the favourites for the new season, but this year, that is no longer the case. The Lakers launched a counterattack, which is why most people believe that this team can beat the Boskai Walters this season. So in the face of such a situation, Zhuang Fei chose to keep a low profile and not respond, he never responded to questions about the Lakers, nor did he let the Celtics players respond, but now, Zhuang Fei is impossible to escape.

"A very good team, they are one of the best teams in the NBA, they have been the top team in the NBA since five years ago, and this year, they are stronger than in previous years, as you said, this is a very difficult team to beat," Zhuang Fei, who had been smiling, said with a smile as he stared at the questioning New York reporter.

"Are you afraid? Do you think your team will be able to beat them next season, and do you still think your team is the best team in the NBA? Almost at the same time as Zhuang Fei finished speaking, the New York reporter who had just asked the question was also the first to ask again, and at this time, the New York reporter seemed to be a lot more excited, he was not satisfied with Zhuang Fei's answer just now, it was a standard answer that avoided the important and trivial, and this time the New York reporter directly forced the question.

This is also what makes Zhuang Fei's eyebrows on the stage also lightly raised, for him, the last thing he wants to answer this year is the Lakers' question, the impact of public opinion on this team's huddle this year is almost unbelievable, no matter what Zhuang Fei thinks of this team, it will make the Boston Celtics fall into the same media whirlpool as the Lakers, this is not what Zhuang Fei wants, the media whirlpool has the Lakers is enough, he doesn't want the Celtics to join in the fun.

"Scared? I don't think there has ever been such an idea, the Lakers are a great team, and they have always been a strong team, for us they are not too different from the past, the relationship between the Celtics and the Lakers is impossible to use the word fear, no matter how the Lakers are, the Celtics will have their own unique attitude towards the Lakers, of course, it is difficult to say the strongest team in the NBA this year, maybe you will think it is the Lakers, but I think the Spurs are also strong, and of course there are Grizzlies, we are also very competitive, So it's not answered," Zhuang Fei still smiled, looked at the New York reporter in the stands, and continued: "Although I can't answer which team is the strongest this year. But I think I can tell you which team is the weakest, and I think for now, the New York Knicks should be the biggest picks for next year's No. 1 pick."

As soon as Zhuang Fei's words fell, all the reporters in the audience laughed out loud except for the New York reporter who stood up first and asked, the New York Knicks renewed the team's three-in-command Odom this summer, which made this team almost become the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Marbury, Alan Houston and Odom The contradictions between the three are almost known to everyone in the league. In this case, there is no problem that the team, which may have to pay hundreds of millions of annual salaries in the new season, is the weakest team in the league. At the very least, the Raptors, the former weakest team that got Anthony, is not something that the Knicks can compare. And Zhuang Fei also smiled at the corner of his mouth after seeing the New York reporter who had been provoking him sit down angrily.

"Mr. Chong, you won the team's 17th championship trophy last season after 17 years, and the last time the Boston Celtics defended their title was in 1968-1969. It's been 35 years now, what do you think the Boston Celtics are aiming for this year, to defend their title? It seems that for now, most Celtic fans think your team can defend the title."

After the reporters in New York sat down, the press conference was also back on track, and the reporters who asked questions also became reporters from USA Today, today is the press conference at the beginning of the new season of the Boston Celtics, for these reporters they have a lot of questions to ask Zhuang Fei, for example, this time the reporters of USA Today and the reporters in New York are not much different in the essence of the questions. However, it is clear that the way the two ask questions is very different.

"Of course. We've always worked hard for the championship, that's my code of conduct, whether it's in Wake Forest or in the Timberwolves or now the Boston Celtics, the goal I'm working for is for the championship at all times, no matter how the opponent or ourselves, I think the Celtics fans are right, and I'm glad they can continue to support us" After Zhuang Fei finished with a smile, the reporter from USA Today also sat down, This is also the beginning of today's press conference.

"Mr. Zhuang. Speaking of Dwyane Wade, he seems to have had a hard time with the Celtics, he hasn't been great in the previous preseason games, do you think he can replace the vacancy that Arenas left? Do you regret taking the team's No. 3 pick over Milicic in favor of him? ”

The recent Boston Celtics preseason performance is very worrying, at least it is very worrying for many Boston Celtics fans, since the return of the heavy China game, basically the Boston Celtics preseason is to let the team's substitute players play, like Yao Ming, Maddie and Xiao Ao such an absolute core game is actually only playing one quarter or so, in this case some young players of the Boston Celtics such as Wade, Prince, Mo Williams and Haslem and Chris Anderson get a lot of playing time.

For the Boston Celtics, basically everyone knows that this is to allow players who are busy in the offseason and represent their respective national teams to get more time to adjust, and this is also to protect these players, although Zhuang Fei's approach does not have any problems, but it is obvious that this is the price to pay for the team's record, at least in the past 7 preseason games, the Boston Celtics are only 3-4, Wade, who has been the leader of the second team this season, has been average in his last seven games, and this year's No. 3 pick has averaged 34 minutes per game in his last seven games, the most of any player on the Celtics.

But he can only contribute 14 points and 6 assists per game, and the shooting rate is also a dismal 44%, in fact, this kind of performance is not bad for the No. 3 show in the average year, but it is too far from other rookies this year, this year's champion Anthony led the Raptors to a 6-3 record in the preseason, and his personal data is an average of 24 points, 7 rebounds and 3 assists per game in 32 minutes per game, while James played an average of 19 points, 6 rebounds and 7 assists in 30 minutes per game in the Hawks. Even the European interior Milicic who is focused on cultivating by the Bucks behind Wade is playing an average of 28 minutes per game and playing an average of 14+10 data per game, which can be said to be the worst among the rookies in the previous few this year, both in terms of record and personal performance. So recently, there have been a lot of ridicule of Zhuang Fei, and it is obvious that at present, Wade's performance is not worthy of his No. 3 pick.

'Wade is a very good young man, he's always looking for the best way for him to play, and now it's unfair to compare Wade to LeBron and Cameron or Milicic or other rookies, Dwyane's role is different now, his teammates have been different in the last seven games, and in this situation he needs to readjust to his teammates in every game, and we've started different in the last seven games, so I think it's a challenge for any player. And in fact, he's done a really good job and I think when we start the new season, when we have a stable squad he will be able to play what you want, or he will play beyond what you expect. ”

Zhuang Fei was not as worried as the reporter below imagined at this time, but still smiling, and it seemed that he was not worried about Wade's recent performance at all, but in fact, Zhuang Fei was indeed not worried about Wade's performance. This is quite normal.

"As for the question of whether Wade can replace Arenas in the new season, I don't think it's too big a problem, the reason why we chose Wade this year is to let him replace Arenas, Gilbert is a great player, and Dwyane also has all the conditions to become a great player, I think he will do a great job in the new season" Finally, Zhuang Fei also expressed his views on this year's No. 3 pick.

Today's press conference after Zhuang Fei answered all the normal questions of his own team, it is not surprising that Zhuang Fei fell into all the reporters' questions about the Lakers, although the reporters in New York have asked at the beginning, but it is clear that for the Lakers' Celtics this year, it is far from being only those, in this case, the press conference that was originally prepared to be only 1 and a half hours was stunned for 3 or 3 hours, as the champion of last season, Zhuang Fei really can't just throw his hands away, After all, the demeanor of a championship team still needs to be maintained. In this case, Zhuang Fei also gritted his teeth and answered all the questions from reporters on the scene.

And after the Boston Celtics press conference for the new season, the Boston Celtics are only two days away from their first regular season game against the Heat on October 28 next season. (To be continued.) )