"Nate, send this quote to Philadelphia."

At 9 a.m. on the 29th, at Pistons headquarters in Detroit, Troy Weaver handed his carefully drafted trade offer to assistant Nate Houston.

"Yes, sir." Houston hurriedly went out.

"I don't know if Philadelphia is willing to keep Barkley in the East."

Weaver wasn't sure at all, but he wanted Barkley very much.

Barkley + Rodman, although the interior has lost height, Barkley is a superstar who can play on the head of the three super centers, and his rebounding ability is also very strong, and it should be a good choice to play with Rodman.

The numbers received an offer from the Pistons, and general manager Billie King couldn't help but scoff, he is a man with a dream, how could he possibly keep Barkley in the East, of course, to be traded to the West.

Moreover, even if he is willing to trade Barkley to the Pistons, I'm afraid that after the trade is handed over, David Stern will veto it, right?

Stern is frantically playing his own signature, although the Pistons lost 2:4 in the Eastern Conference finals, but if it weren't for the injury factor, the Bulls really didn't have the strength to win, so how could Stern allow the Pistons to get Barkley?

"Hey, the offer is quite sincere, and we can talk about it again, so it shouldn't be a problem for them to add some chips."

He looked at the Pistons' offers, John Sely, Ulrich, plus a top-five protected first-round pick in '93.

He made a good calculation in his heart, Sailly and Ulrich are the main players of the Pistons, they are not very old, and they can also play the main team when they come to the number team.

It made him hesitate to keep Barkley in the East.

After thinking about it, he felt that these chips were not enough for him to keep Barkley in the East, because neither of these two people were the core of the team, and he wanted to exchange Barkley for a team core.

"Sir, they have responded."

At half-past nine, Nate Houston pushed the door in, but his face was not very good.

"What do they want?" Weaver asked calmly.

"They want an iron fist." Nate Houston smiled wryly.

"Shet!"

Weaver scolded, took the offer and looked at it, not only with an iron fist, but also with John Sely, plus next year's unprotected first-round pick, is this a robbery with a gun?

However, Barkley is in his prime, and he is really a little excited, and for the sake of his responsibilities as general manager, he still has to consider this trade offer.

If Iron Fist is traded, the Assassins can only return to the main lineup, join forces with Joe Dumas, plus the inside Barkley and Rodman, the lineup is also very strong, if there is this lineup last season, I am afraid that I will have the strength to kill the Bulls and realize the dream of three consecutive championships.

However, where can the current state of the assassins still play the main point guard?

After thinking about it for a morning, drinking six cups of coffee and smoking a whole box of cigarettes, he finally decided to veto the deal.

The reason is that Iron Fist really has potential, and the assassin can lead the team to two consecutive championships, and he feels that Iron Fist will have a chance in the future.

And once traded, if Barkley can't lead the team to win the championship, then as a clapper deal, he will have to take all the responsibility, and the boss is likely to fire him.

So can Barkley lead the team to beat the Bulls to reach the Finals? Can you lead the team to win the championship?

With Barkley's experience in Philadelphia for so many years, if he had the ability, would Philadelphia still trade him in his prime?

So he finally decided that he couldn't take risks, or continue to cultivate Iron Fist, looking forward to his future, more securely, and more certainly.

"Nate, tell them whether Iron Fist is for sale or the original offer, and next year's first-round pick can be protected."

After thinking it through, he commanded.

Soon, Philadelphia's Billikin got the news.

Tekken's strength and potential have been proven in the playoffs, especially in the Eastern Conference Finals series, a young man who can compete with Michael Jordan, who was hoping to get Tekken and complete the rebuild in one fell swoop, but unfortunately failed to achieve his goal.

But he didn't give up and handed in a new offer.

"Sir, Philadelphia's new offer, they're going to trade Barkley for Tekken." Nate Houston pushed open the door to Weaver's office again.

“……”

Weaver couldn't help but be stunned.

Barkley + Rodman + Ulrich + Joe Dumas + Isaiah Thomas, this main lineup, with offense, rebounding and defense, made his heart tremble, and he felt that he could do things with the Bulls.

Even if Isaiah doesn't work, Joe Dumas can play point guard, or let Isaiah play off the bench, or use Isaiah for a second-rate point guard.

John Sailly plays on the bench, and the entire Pistons can definitely go up a notch from the main team to the bench lineup.

"Do you want to gamble?"

His heart was really moving, his heart was beating fast.

The bet was won, and if he used this roster to take out the Bulls next season, he could even hope to be the best general manager.

With the Pistons and the Bulls, if he can interrupt the Bulls' three-game winning streak next season, he will definitely be praised by all Detroiters, and he doesn't want to do the position of general manager, and those fans will follow him.

"Nate, you go out first."

He locked himself in his office all afternoon, except for the occasional Nate Houston to go in, and it was smoky, like a fog.

At five o'clock in the afternoon, Weaver finally made a decision, and personally called Billy King, and the two talked for twenty minutes.

……

It's July, and the Olympics are getting closer.

"Xiaoquan, if only you could play in the Olympics one day."

When watching the news broadcast that night, there was some news about the Olympic Games, and Zhou Jianguo said with envy and expectation.

"I'm not from a sports school, and now I guess no one knows about me." Zhou Quan shook his head and said.

"If I knew you were playing basketball now, I should have let you go to a sports school in the first place." Zhou Jianguo said.

"Go to a sports school, enter the city team and enter the provincial team, if you play, you do have a chance to join the national team, but you don't have a chance to play in the United States." Zhou Quan said with a smile.

……

At the beginning of July, the CCTV Sports Department finally figured out Zhou Quan's information, which he obtained from the NBA League.

Minister Ma Li and Xu Jicheng, Sun Zhenping and a group of people were a little surprised, they are now the people who have the most contact with the NBA in China, of course, through those videotapes sent, so they are the people who know the NBA the most in China, even more than the national team.

Of course, I haven't been in contact with it personally, just some highlights, this level of understanding is only very superficial, not as profound as Zhang Lili.

But even though it was very superficial, they were also surprised, thinking that Zhou Quan's strength would not be bad, and now that the Olympics were about to start, they felt that it was necessary to tell the relevant parties the news.

They had contact information with the basketball office, so they notified the basketball department of Zhou Quan's news, and a staff member answered the phone.

However, the basketball department was busy preparing for the Olympics and did not react to the news, and no one knew whether the staff reported the news, and CCTV did not know, and the matter was finally settled.

……

"Zhou, and the postman have finalized their affairs."

On July 12, Philip called from the United States.

"Tell me about it."

"We've already talked to the WBC to have a regular boxing fight in Los Angeles, six rounds, and they're going to arrange it for us. But the premise is that we must apply for a boxing license in California. ”

"What if I can't apply?"

"You can only go to some fighting tournaments, which don't require a license. Zhou, although you have practiced boxing at UCLA, but you don't have enough training time, so you will need to do some professional boxing training when you return to the United States. ”

"No problem, you ask Swilton to adjust the training plan."

“OK。”

……

The time soon came to the end of July, and on the 18th, in almost a month, Zhou Quan completed four trainings.

Ball control training, so that the ball control, ball sense, and breakthrough are each upgraded by one level, and now they are 92, 92, and 88 respectively.

Layup drill, make the layup up up one level, now it's level 94, this task can still be done once.

This is Zhou Quan's happiest, after the layup skill is improved to level 95, his finishing skills under the basket will reach the top level.

The step-back jumper is upgraded to level 87, and this task can be completed 4 times.

The toss has also been increased by one level, and now it is level 91, and it can also be done once.

The Olympics will start in a few days, and the time for Zhou Quan to return to the United States has arrived, and the ticket has been booked.

The next day, he drove his family to Hubei to visit his grandfather, stayed in Wudang Mountain for one night, and then separated from his family and flew from Hanwu City to the capital and then to Los Angeles.

At noon, the plane arrived at the capital airport, and when it came out, it happened to meet the departure of the Chinese Olympic delegation, and the team of several hundred people was very large.

Zhou Quan watched with others, if you want to say that you don't envy it, it must be fake, as an athlete, who doesn't want to fight with the national flag?

Don't you see that Isaiah Thomas has completely torn his face with Jordan and John Stockton for the sake of the national team?

He also saw the men's and women's basketball team, a large group of tall people together very conspicuously.

This year's men's basketball team is very strong, especially the emergence of external talents, and some domestic media even call this group of people the golden generation.

In fact, he himself is also very conspicuous, the shoe is 191 cm high, and he stands out among a group of ordinary people, and his dress is completely different from the style of wearing in this era in China, fashionable casual sportswear, plus a pair of handsome Iron Fist generation basketball shoes, and wearing a pair of very pretending sunglasses, in the eyes of others, he looks very foreign.

Yes, he said that he was foreign, and he was very handsome, and there were a lot of people around him who looked at him from time to time, especially some girls, who were staring at him.

"Keep up, keep up!"

Liu Yumin, director of the basketball department and leader of the Olympic basketball team, walked next to the team and shouted at the members of the men's and women's basketball team.

She also noticed Zhou Quan and couldn't help but take a few more looks. In these few glances, she saw something.

For example, Zhou Quan's basketball shoes seem to be very high-end foreign goods, and this kind of shoes cannot be bought in China, and the basketball shoes of the national team are specially bought from abroad.

Another example is the basketball bag that Zhou Quan is carrying, with the Skechers logo on it, and it obviously contains a basketball inside.

"This kid plays basketball? The conditions at home are so good! In the blink of an eye, she and Zhou Quan staggered.

……

On the afternoon of the 22nd, Zhou Quan arrived in Los Angeles and was picked up by Roger Philip.

"Zhou, you played 20+10 data in the East Finals, from the end of the East Finals to the present, the sales of sneakers have been okay, and I think there is no problem with eight million dollars in the second year."

"That's good."

This is also good news, and Zhou Quan is quite happy.

Next, he stayed in Los Angeles to train, and Philip and trainer Swilton had everything arranged.

Strength training, technical training, at the same time.

In addition to these, Philip also found him a professional boxing gym where he trained professionally for three hours a day.

"Zhou, don't be careless, there are media reports that Oakley and Larry Johnson have been boxing training every day during this time." Philip reminded.

"Don't worry, I won't be careless." He was serious.

He mainly trains boxing pace, dodge, and actual combat in the gym.

There is very little strength training, and the postman and others who fight with him are all insiders, and the muscle explosiveness is not as good as him, that is to say, the punch speed is not as good as him, so there is no need for professional boxing strength training.

With a full-level spatial imagination, he has first-class striking accuracy, but he also needs first-class dodging ability to strengthen his defensive ability.

And the full-level spatial imagination also makes his dodge ability very strong, but it also needs the cooperation of boxing pace.

Needless to say, the only way to turn one's potential into strength is to do so.

On the 23rd, a schoolgirl a few years older than him contacted him, named Cheng Lin, who sang Xintianyou, the first female pop singer in China, who went to the United States to study after falling out of love in 90, and worshipped Michael Jackson and Madonna's teacher Sass Riggs as a teacher at UCLA, and had contact with him.

"Zhou Quan, have you come back from China?"

"How do you know?"

"Look at the news, the Rocky media has reported it."

"Oh, senior sister, are you okay? It's okay to come out and get together. ”

"Yes, there's time. But Zhou Quan, are you embarrassed to put your senior in front of me? I'm half a round older than you, and you're a year ahead of me when you enter UCLA. ”

"That junior, from the time you entered UCLA, our name was decided."

"Name, you ghost!"

……

On the 25th, the Olympic Games began.

On this day, the NBA league's trade freeze period ends, and the team can officially trade.

At the same time, the league announced the salary cap for next season, which is $140,000, an increase of $1.5 million from last season.

However, the NBA has not yet introduced a luxury tax system, which means that according to some rules, such as the veteran treaty, teams can renew eligible players beyond the cap, and the part of the salary in excess of the salary cap will not be subject to any luxury tax.

However, the team cannot exceed the salary cap to sign players who are not on the team.

……

David Stern had just sat down in the executive chair in the morning when Special Assistant Hawk Houston brought in a cup of coffee and placed a large stack of trade applications on his desk.

"Thank you!"

While drinking coffee, he looked at the trade application, approved several copies in a row, and was stunned when he picked up the seventh trade application.

"Barkley's single-change right? What does the piston want to do? ”

He immediately put down his coffee cup and began to study the Pistons' lineup, and his brow furrowed at this study.

"No, if Barkley is allowed to go to the Pistons, with the Pistons' roster, the Bulls will probably not be able to get this deal next season?"

Iron Fist's strength is good, but there is still a long way to go from Barkley, if Barkley is allowed to replace Iron Fist as the core of the Pistons, plus the original lineup of the Pistons, then the Pistons' strength must not take off?

What he is thinking about now is to win Jordan, and the best way to win Jordan is to let him win the championship, keep winning the championship, preferably a three-in-a-row dynasty, and the Bulls have won two consecutive championships, and they are very hopeful of winning the championship next season.

"The deal was vetoed by the Alliance? What's with? ”

At nine o'clock in the morning, Weaver received a notice from the league and was stunned.

"Basketball reasons, the league informed you so." Nate Houston said.

"What shit is this?" Weaver burst into foul language.

He stood up, walked around the office briskly, calmed down, and ordered, "Nate, this transaction must not be leaked, you know?" ”

"Yes, sir."

Nate Houston nodded hurriedly, but he reminded: "Sir, the Philadelphia side, as well as the Alliance side, may also leak this matter." ”

"Then we can't take care of it."

Weaver said helplessly, and then scolded: "Damn the league, what the hell is the reason for basketball?" ”

The league vetoed the deal, and the news caught him off guard.

It wouldn't be in the way if the trade was vetoed, but if the news leaked and let Tekken know that the team wanted to trade him, it would be troublesome, and Tekken would most likely have a different heart and probably won't support his work anymore, and Detroit fans will scold him.

On the Philadelphia side, Billikin was also very disappointed and had to turn around looking for other trade possibilities, and this is when the Suns sent their offer.

(End of chapter)