"Boss, are you going to make a comeback with the Mavericks?" Once inside, Jokic asked impatiently, his face full of anticipation.

Xu Yong nodded: "The specific time has not yet been decided." ”

Although the best plan is to return next season, he does not rule out the possibility of returning early if he is in good form quickly.

After all, now that the NBA market is shrinking, and the cancellation of the [vertical jump rule] will bring pain, it would be good if he could come back soon.

At this time, the smile that could not be hidden when a person was still at the door.

"When DeMar heard that you were coming, the smile on his face never disappeared." Jokic couldn't help but complain at this time.

Xu Yong also looked at DeRozan with a smile when he heard this, and then opened his hands and hugged him tightly.

The Devil's Four Musketeers back then, and the last person to become Xu Yong's teammate would be DeRozan, who would have thought?

But after hugging, Xu Yong found that the smile on DeRozan's face was gone, replaced by red eyes.

Look at the child who is excited.

Xu Yong reached out and patted DeRozan on the shoulder, and then asked them to sit down and talk.

It's been a long time, and they have a lot to talk about.

……

Jan. 8, American Airlines Center.

Xu Yong wore a suit and leather shoes and appeared in the arena with Ballmer.

When he walked out of the tunnel, the fans on both sides were already shouting excitedly.

And when the camera was given to him and his figure appeared on the large LED screen, the American Airlines Center instantly fell into a boil.

Xu Yong has not been to the NBA since retiring, and this is his first appearance in the NBA after a year and a half.

Although he was wearing a suit and tie, the dreamlike scene was crazy enough.

Xu Yong smiled and stretched out his hand to greet the fans, and then greeted the Mavericks players one by one, and finally sat in the second row of the audience.

Next to him sat Ballmer, surrounded by several security personnel.

This is the legendary SVIP slot that is not in the VIP box.

The players on the field are still warming up, in addition to the players on both sides, from time to time celebrities come to greet him and take photos.

Is it Dallas where celebrities like to watch games?

The answer is obviously not, it was Xu Yong's possible appearance tonight that made them choose to come here.

Celebrities need exposure to maintain their popularity, and Xu Yong is undoubtedly the existence that can attract the attention of the outside world the most now.

It wasn't until the opening ceremony that Xu Yong finally became idle.

He finally had a chance to take a closer look at his future teammates.

The Spurs started as the visitors, and one of their starters caught Seo's attention was Doncic.

Leonard and Aldridge are not among the Spurs, and the Spurs were completely messed up last season.

Although the league didn't sign them in the end, they also ended up picking 19-year-old Slovenian Luka Doncic with the No. 3 pick.

Considering their previous precedent of selecting Parker and Ginobili in succession, this makes sense.

Then there is the Mavericks.

Starting point guard, Drent Wright.

Xu Yong's understanding of him before was really limited, but in the previous exchange, Ma Long had already introduced some core players.

Wright won a basket of honors in high school, what Bob Cousy Award, the best team in the United States, the best defensive team of the American Basketball Coaches Association, etc., and was known as the No. 1 point guard in the United States at the time.

Standing at 1.96 meters tall in shoes, he excelled at breaking, passing, and defending, but exposed his inconsistent shooting in college and was eventually drafted by the Raptors with the 20th pick in the first round in 2014.

This is his fourth year as a rookie, as the Raptors can't afford to renew his contract right now, and eventually added him to the previous DeRozan trade.

His performance in the NBA for three years is basically in line with the original scouting report, so he is also known as the next Shaun Livingston.

However, after arriving at the Mavericks, when he got to Jokic's side, his shooting suddenly became accurate, averaging 1.8 three-point attempts this season and shooting 38.1% from the field.

Starting point guard, Wesley Matthews.

Matthews was the coveted 3-and-D guard for Cuban when he was still with the Trail Blazers, and his three-point shooting and defense were very strong.

However, his shortcomings are the older rookies and the height favored by shooting guards, who is the same height as Wright.

And with the decline of physical fitness as he gets older, the 32-year-old is now a significant decline in defensive ability, but he averages 6 three-point shots per game and a 38% shooting rate, which can still provide production-level outside scoring.

Of course, his biggest problem comes from the contract, and his $18.62 million contract this season is a super premium contract as a degraded 3D player.

Small forward, DeRozan.

Because Matthews couldn't play the No. 3 position, DeRozan began to gain weight to play the No. 3 position after arriving in Dallas.

Power forward, Dwight Powell.

Powell is 2.11 meters tall and has an arm span of 2.15 meters in shoes, belongs to a slender athletic interior lineman, and is a second-round pick that the Mavericks have been cultivating, and can play as a starter in the NBA, but his talent is limited.

Center, Jokic.

Counting the bench, veterans Jose Barria and Devin Harris, who are now sitting in front of him, small forward Dorian Finney Smith, interior space power forward [German fellow] Maxi Kleber, and the lottery show that also followed DeRozan to the Mavericks, third-year player [Botou] Jacob Poeltl, are the core rotation players of the Mavericks.

In general, it's Jokic and DeRozan, with a bunch of veterans and rookies.

The Mavericks just lost to the Trail Blazers three days ago, and this team desperately needs a win against a tank team like the Spurs.

However, after the start of the game, the Mavericks were a bit of a stalemate with the Spurs.

Doncic played too well.

Xu Yong's cognition of Doncic before his rebirth was phased, and that fat Doncic had lost his qualification to compete for the best player in history in his eyes, but before he was fat, especially when he was a rookie, Doncic played too aura.

You look at the confidence and calmness of his demeanor and throwing, and that ability to control the court and basketball talent beyond his age, it doesn't look like looking at a 19-year-old player at all.

However, the Mavericks also have a lot of problems playing here.

Jokic doesn't seem to be able to get used to the cancellation of the [vertical jump rule], and he is always prone to getting entangled with the opposing center when he catches the ball under the basket.

Of course, with Xu Yong's understanding of Jokic, the latter is likely to be able to adjust back, although it will take some time.

The bigger problem still comes from DeRozan, I don't know if it's because of the change to the No. 3 position, or because of his lack of self-confidence, DeRozan is more hesitant to play.

Hesitation leads to defeat, and that's just as common in basketball.

During the first intermission, Xu Yong couldn't help but get up and call DeRozan to him, encourage him for a while, and finally hammer him in the chest.

However, coming back in the second quarter, DeRozan's performance did not improve much.

The game ended in a surprise defeat for the Mavericks.

Doncic played the best game of his rookie career, with 29 points, 8 rebounds, 12 assists and 2 steals.

In this eye-catching game, Doncic showed his superstar potential, and also ruined Xu Yong's "debut".

After the game, Jokic walked up to Xu Yong and apologized to him: "I'm sorry boss, I ruined a good thing." ”

"Take your time, Nikolai, it's just a game." Xu Yong's state of mind at this time was relatively peaceful.

He is now neither the player who can play nor the coach who can command from the sidelines, but the owner of the team.

Or to put it another way, management.

As a player, he knows the relationship between management and players, even if the positions are reversed now.

What kind of words to say in what position, this is also what Xu Yong has realized during his retirement.

Then, just a week later, he was a little unable to sit still.

The Mavericks suffered a losing streak.

The problems that came to light against the Spurs that night are still there.

Jokic has adapted a bit, but DeRozan continues to slump.

When they met that day, Xu Yong didn't feel anything big wrong about DeRozan, but now it seems that DeRozan has changed a lot.

However, this also explains why the Raptors sent DeRozan away so easily, and even did not hesitate to take two potential players.

You must know that in terms of trade value, Leonard hasn't played well for two seasons in a row, and the trade value is at least discounted.

On an off-season day, Xu Yong invited DeRozan and Jokic to his home for dinner.

This time he paid more attention to DeRozan and found that DeRozan always lost his mind, and always had a sad look on his face when he sat alone.

Only when talking about the game will his emotions be relatively high-pitched.

Xu Yong also remembered that the day he first arrived at Dallas, they also talked more about the game.

He could clearly sense that DeRozan was having some psychological problems.

In particular, as a reborn, he knew that DeRozan had suffered depression in history.

He had thought that his presence had changed all that, but now it seemed that it hadn't.

After eating, Xu Yong chatted with DeRozan alone for a while.

Because he didn't understand psychology, the conversation between them didn't go too deep, but Xu Yong finally convinced DeRozan, and then he asked Shipp to find DeRozan a good psychiatrist.

A few days later, through communication with the psychiatrist, Xu Yong probably knew about the situation DeRozan was now facing.

After he knew what DeRozan was facing, there was a lingering sadness in his heart.

Last season with the Raptors, DeRozan suffered a major blow in his life in addition to his conflict with Antetokounmpo, his father, who had a serious kidney disease, died.

And just a few months later, he was waived by the Raptors, who had played for nine years.

After confirming that he was traded to Dallas, his fiancée Morrison finally chose to break up with DeRozan because the two were already getting together less and more and didn't want to be in Dallas, a city full of discrimination, and also took DeRozan's two children.

This separates DeRozan not only from his own father, but also from his own children.

Family affection, love, and the triple blow of career are difficult for ordinary people to bear.

Xu Yong asked the psychiatrist to help DeRozan dredge his mind.

The psychiatrist knew Xu Yong's influence and said something very realistic.

"The dredging of psychological problems is like a painkiller, which can treat the symptoms, but not the root cause, and if you want to really get out, you still have to change his situation."

This sentence touched Xu Yong, because he remembered an old man.

James also used to find a top psychiatrist when he was still playing for the Heat, and he was exposed after he left the Heat.

It turned out that the psychiatrist didn't work, because James was not able to change the status quo of being beaten all the time.

If you can't change reality, then no matter how good the psychological dredging is, in the end, it is actually just self-paralysis.

But the reality is so easy to change, Xu Yong can't resurrect DeRozan's dead father, and there is no way to make DeRozan's wife change her mind.

No, not all of them.

On the same day, Xu Yong increased the frequency of his training.

At the very least, he has what it takes to change the status quo for the Mavericks.

It's February.

Although the Mavericks did not experience another losing streak, the overall record still fluctuated a lot.

Although the current Jokic is strong, he is far from the level where he can take charge on his own.

And basketball is a five-person sport, the overall strength of the Mavericks is not so strong, and DeRozan's state has been dragging down.

Not only the Mavericks, but the NBA is also experiencing the pain caused by the cancellation of the [vertical jump rule].

Xu Yong's appearance in the Mavericks once detonated the basketball circle, but because he didn't play after all, that effect quickly faded.

"We need Xu on the court, not on the sidelines." This is also the voice of the mainstream media.

At that time, Xu Yong didn't understand why Jordan chose to come back in a hurry at the end of the season, especially after Jordan came on the court, it was obviously not right, but now he completely understands.

Maybe Jordan had the same idea as him at first, but when the hope of the whole village weighs on you, some choices are involuntary.

Especially that kind of pressure and anticipation is not one day, but every day, and it is increasing every day.

Finally, Xu Yong found Ballmer and told him that he was ready to make an early comeback.

"You don't need those voices in the world of accidents." Ballmer is still very calm, he didn't want Xu Yong to follow in Jordan's footsteps from the beginning.

Because to be honest, the current Mavericks plus Xu Yong, who is in unknown form, is not a championship-level team, and his initial plan was also aimed at this offseason.

"I'm not just for those voices." Xu Yong gave an explanation, but did not say it explicitly.

Ballmer finally agreed, because he had said from the beginning that he was working with Xu Yong, and cooperation was based on respect.

At Ballmer's beckoning, Nelson Jr. began to push for a trade with Matthews as the main body.

Matthews' trade market is small, after all, there are close to 20 million 3-and-D players, and the defense has slipped down, which is the type of team that can't afford to win the championship and don't want to play bad (after all, you can't expect a 3D player to sell tickets).

But fortunately, Matthews' contract is in the last year this season, and a little bit can still be given away.

Originally, Xu Yong's plan was to come back in time for the Warriors before the All-Star break, so that both the topic and the success of the game would be guaranteed.

Unfortunately, Matthews' contract is also a bit troublesome to deal with (historically, the deal didn't go out and was eventually bought out, and if it had been handled well, it wouldn't have dragged on until now).

Xu Yong finally spoke to Tatum.

After learning of Seo Yong's plan, he also began to push the deal behind his back.

Finally, before the trade deadline, the Mavericks managed to reach a three-way deal, and after posting a first-round pick and a second-round pick for next year, the Mavericks sent Matthews to the Knicks and Suns with a head, and finally squeezed out a salary cap space.

After the Mavericks completed this wave of operations, everyone was actually aware of what was going to happen.

Shortly after that, the Mavericks officially announced that Xu Yong would resign as the owner of the Mavericks and sign a 1+1 contract with the Mavericks as a player.

His signing is a free agent and does not require league approval.

And the Mavericks also officially announced the time of Xu Yong's game, which is the first game after the All-Star break, against the Lakers.

All encounters are reunions after a long absence.

(End of chapter)