"Dazhi, are you going to go back to China, or are you going to stay and watch the game?" Zhou Quan called Da Zhi, and Da Zhi said, "Brother, I'm going to stay and train." ”

"That's fine, let Rogge set you up with two good trainers. In addition, you have to keep up with your strength training, you have a lot of weight now, but your muscle mass has not kept up, and your ability to fight is not strong enough. Zhou Quan said.

"Okay, brother." Great to the road.

"That's it, I advise you to rest for a while first, you can't start training right away, you can go back to China first, see your family, and then Da Yao will also come over to see Xidu, you and him come over again, what do you think?" Zhou Quan said.

"Okay, then I'll go back to China in two days." I thought about it and agreed.

"I've got a personal training venue here, and you come to Seattle." Zhou Quan said.

"Brother, that's too much trouble for you." Grateful to the authentic.

In the evening, Zhou Quan made a phone call to Da Yao.

The domestic CBA has long ended, and a few days ago, Da Yao contacted Zhou Quan, and Zhou Quan asked Da Yao to come over to watch the West Final, which was exposed by the way, which was conducive to the next draft.

Da Yao's draft prospects are very good, and there are not many outstanding rookies this year, namely Kwame Brown and Tyson Chandler.

Chandler is a popular candidate for the top pick, Kwame Brown is a high school student, and the draft prospects are not as good as Chandler's, and in major media, Yao Min has always been a popular candidate for the top pick, similar to Chandler.

Yao Min also has a lot of confidence in himself, because Tyson Chandler is also a popular candidate.

In '97, he attended a training camp in the United States, and it happened that Tyson Chandler also participated in that training camp.

The reason why he wanted to participate in the NBA was also because someone told him at the time that he could enter the NBA with Tyson Chandler's talent, and he beat Chandler in training camp, and it was Tyson Chandler who gave him the confidence to enter the NBA.

Now that Chandler is the favourite, he has confidence in himself to become the top pick.

"Da Yao, did you contact you?"

"Not in the past few days, brother, what's the matter?"

"He's going to go back to China, and you can come over together then."

"Okay, okay, then I'll contact him later."

"Well, by the way, how are your English listening and speaking skills?"

"It's okay, I've stepped up my practice, and my agent has been speaking American English to me every day for the past few months."

"That's okay, you're a little stronger than Da Zhi, he's been here for almost a year, and I heard that his ability is not good."

"Brother, how is Dazhi's performance?"

"It's okay to get into the Mavericks' rotation, and if you practice well in the offseason, you should be able to stand firm in the league."

"That's great!"

……

On the 4th, the league announced the winner of the MVP, and Zhou Quan won this honor for the fourth time.

On the 5th, the second round of supersonic begins.

Everything went well, the first game was won, 88:102, and the SuperSonics won by 14 points.

On the 6th, the other three groups of competitions began.

Zhou Quan watched the game between the Spurs and the Lakers, who won and lost in the East, and he didn't pay much attention to it.

The home of the Spurs, the opening jump ball, O'Neal won Duncan, and the Lakers attacked.

O'Neal approached the basket, received the ball with his back to Duncan on the left side of the basket, and then scored a near-two-point hook. Then David Robinson hit a high jumper and hit a ball.

O'Neal was in the low post on the left wing, but made a mistake when receiving the ball, Duncan got the ball, the Spurs counterattacked, and he eventually hit a shot.

O'Neal attacked again, and it was a nearly two-point hook, but he was blocked by David Robinson, although there was no cap, but the iron was hit, Duncan grabbed the defensive rebound and the Spurs counterattacked, the Spurs starting quarterback Antonio Daniels shot iron, Cobra Grant grabbed the defensive rebound, the Lakers counterattacked, and Grant hit the iron with nearly two points.

"The defense is very hard!"

In the previous attacks of the two sides, Zhou Quan saw the Spurs' strong penalty area defense, the Spurs' twin towers constituted the league's strongest interior defensive barrier, O'Neal only scored one goal in three attacks, and none of them successfully entered the basket.

He believes that if the Lakers want to win, they must limit O'Neal's shots, and it's okay to pass the ball to O'Neal, but O'Neal should play inside and outside with Kobe, attract and compress the Spurs' bag defense, and then split it in time and let Kobe make a shot.

Next, the Lakers played poorly, after David Robinson grabbed the rebound, Duncan scored a goal, then Kobe Bryant hit the iron, the Spurs grabbed the defensive rebound, Duncan shot a shot again, and then Kobe Bryant had consecutive turnovers, and in the first four minutes, he was beaten by the Spurs eight to two, six points behind.

The Lakers called a timeout, and then Bryant hit the iron twice.

Seeing this, Zhou Quan also admired Kobe Bryant and continued to hit iron, but this kid still did not hesitate to shoot, there is a killer momentum, although the talent is not as good as Jordan, but there is indeed a chance to catch up with Jordan.

But then, Kobe Bryant's hand came out, how to shoot, how to have, after the first quarter, the first three shots were zero, but the back six shots were six, the whole quarter was 6 of 9 shots, 1 free throw 0 hits, and 12 points were down.

O'Neal only shot 3 of 5, just as Zhou Quan thought, reduced his shots, only scored 6 points, and made no free throws, because of the defense of the Spurs' twin towers, he easily couldn't get into the basket, and even if he did, he couldn't catch the ball.

Relying on Kobe's offense, at 24:17, the Lakers led the Spurs by 7 points in the first quarter.

Zhou Quan watched the game, and in the end, Kobe Bryant shot 19 of 35, with a shooting rate of 54.3%, 1 of 2 three-point shots, 6 of 8 free throws, and 45 points, 10 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal, 1 block, 4 turnovers and 4 fouls.

O'Neal shot a lot less than Kobe, 11-of-22 shooting, under the defense of the Spurs' twin towers, the offensive efficiency is not as good as Kobe, and it is also lower than his shooting percentage in the regular season, this season he shot 57.2% in the regular season, plus 6-of-8 free throws, and got 28 points and 11 rebounds.

The OK duo combined to contribute 73 points and 21 rebounds.

Duncan and David Robinson scored 28 points and 14 points, respectively, while shooting 52.6 percent and 37.5 percent, respectively.

In this game, David Robinson is no longer much of a threat on the offensive end, but on the defensive end, the effect of assisting O'Neal is okay.

But no one on the outside of the Spurs could prevent Kobe Bryant, and he was blown up with a mid-range shot, which was the only reason why the Spurs lost.

In the other two games, the Raptors beat the numbers on the road and the Bucks beat the Hornets at home.

Vince Carter scored 35 points, and all five players on the team scored in double figures, two of whom were 20+.

Backup guard Dell Curry stepped up and shot 7-of-12 from the field, 4-of-9 from three-point range and 2-of-2 from the free-throw range for a 20-of-2 shooting.

On the side of the digital team, Iverson only made 11 of 34 shots and shot only 32.4%, but he was infinitely lethal, making 12 of 15 free throws and scoring 36 points.

It's a pity that Iverson's offensive efficiency is still low, the consistency of the shot is too poor, and Siolatrife's season reimbursement is missing, and half of the defense is missing inside, allowing Vince Carter to score 35 points and finally lose by 3 points.

The next day, Bryant was praised by the media.

But in the media reports, Zhou Quan has become the focus, which is a bit noisy.

The Los Angeles Times reported: "The Lakers adopted the tactics that the Iron Fist King said, the big shark O'Neal cut his shots, and Kobe Bryant became the Lakers' main attacker, blowing up the Spurs with a mid-range shot." The match went as expected by the Tekken King......"

The New York Times reported: "The Iron Fist King dominated the Lakers-Spurs game, and his tactical concept was extremely successful, and Bryant's mid-range shot became the key to the Lakers' victory over the Spurs......

"Whoa!"

In San Antonio, in the restaurant of the hotel, O'Neill threw the report in his hand and said dissatisfiedly: "These shit media will only hold the stinky feet of that kid with an iron fist." ”

Phil Jackson picked up the newspaper O'Neal had thrown away and flipped through it, with no expression on his face, but some displeasure in his eyes.

He agreed with O'Neal's words, because the tactic of Kobe Bryant as the main attack was a tactic he had set a long time ago, and it had nothing to do with Iron Fist at all, but Iron Fist saw through his tactics and said it.

He was dissatisfied with the Iron Fist King announcing his tactics to the public, the Iron Fist King must have bad intentions, and hoped that the Spurs would be prepared, but unfortunately the Lakers still won the G1 battle, and no one on the outside of the Spurs could prevent Kobe, which was a hard injury in the lineup, and the Spurs could not prevent it even if they knew how the Lakers played.

But in fact, he was wrong, Zhou Quan actually hoped that the Lakers would enter the Western Finals, because he thought that in terms of lineup restraint, supersonic would be more sure to beat the Lakers.

Although Kobe can blow up all the outside line of the Spurs, he can train Kobe Bryant, and the supersonic Spurs may have an accident, after all, the twin towers together are too advantageous on the inside.

Bryant wasn't here, he was having breakfast with Vanessa at another restaurant.

Now he has a stiff relationship with his teammates and management, rarely talks in the locker room, is a loner, and pays no attention to anyone.

Next, the second round continues.

On May 11, the SuperSonics finally swept the Kings 4-0 and reached the Western Conference Finals.

The next day, the Lakers also swept the Spurs and met the SuperSonics in the West.

The Lakers completed the sweep of the Spurs, sweeping away the bad luck of being swept by the Jazz, Spurs, and SuperSonics in the previous three seasons, and was widely praised by the media.

Kobe Bryant became the key to the Lakers' sweep of the Spurs, averaging 42 minutes per game, 33.3 points, 7 rebounds, 7 assists, 1.5 steals, 0.8 blocks, 2.8 turnovers and 3.3 fouls, shooting 51.4% from the field, and 35.7% from three-point range, averaging 5 of 6.5 free throws per game.

O'Neal averaged 39 minutes per game, 27 points and 13 rebounds.

For the Spurs, Duncan averaged 42.3 minutes per game, 23 points, 12.3 rebounds, 4.3 assists, 1.3 steals, 4.3 blocks, 4.5 turnovers and 4 fouls, playing a top offensive and defensive performance.

It's a pity that David Robinson's performance is not satisfactory, averaging 29.8 minutes per game, 14.3 points, 10.8 rebounds and 2.8 blocks, and the shooting rate is only 40.7%, which is no longer a super center.

Guard Antonio Daniels averaged 19 points per game, the Spurs' second-highest scoring point, but unfortunately his shooting percentage was only 40.7% like David Robinson, far inferior to Kobe.

This series made Kobe Bryant's name and popularity reach the height of Iverson, making him more popular in Los Angeles.

He is a rookie of the Lakers, and Los Angeles fans recognize him because of his super performance in this series, surpassing the big shark O'Neal in one fell swoop.

"The OK combination is at its peak, and Big Shark and Peter Pan will join forces to attack the hegemony of Iron Fist." Los Angeles Times.

"The OK duo is averaging 60 points, 20 rebounds and 9 assists per game, and they are already the most terrifying inside and outside combination in this league, not even one of them." Miami Daily News.

"The OK duo has surpassed the inside and outside combination of Tekken and Big Ben, and they have the strength to end the Iron Fist era." New york times.

Magic Johnson spoke to the media in Los Angeles and said: "We have strong confidence in the next Western Conference finals, as long as Kobe Bryant averages 20+ per game on the head of the Iron Fist King and hits 40% from the field, we have a chance to beat the SuperSonics." ”

LA TV interviewed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and asked, "Karim, do you think this Lakers team already has what it takes to challenge the supersonic and challenge the Iron Fist?" ”

Abdul-Jabbar said with a serious look: "Kobe Bryant did play a very beautiful series in the second round, but remember that his opponent in the second round series is called Antonio Daniels, not the Iron Fist King.

And in the Western Finals, he will face the Iron Fist King, and he is a Iron Fist King who has reached the peak of his career in offensive efficiency, more efficient than Jordan's peak season, and more powerful than Jordan's defense.

In the face of such an iron fist, I don't think Kobe Bryant should have any luck, and the Los Angeles media should also be sober. ”

"Karim, do you think Kobe Bryant still can't beat the Iron Fist level?" The journalist asked.

"I said that he can get past the Iron Fist King now, he can fight with the Iron Fist King, and he can explode with the Iron Fist King, do you believe it?" Abdul-Jabbar asked rhetorically.

"......" the reporter was speechless.

Abdul-Jabbar said: "When the Bulls were at their strongest, Jordan was able to form a mutual blow up with the Iron Fist King, so he snatched the '94 championship from the Iron Fist King, but after that, the Iron Fist King went even further, and he was defeated by the Iron Fist King for three consecutive years.

And the current Kobe Bryant is far from reaching the strength of Jordan at his peak, which we must have a clear understanding of.

Only by making all the psychological preparations, can we travel lightly, and can we face the supersonic speed and the Iron Fist King with the best mentality. ”

The reporter thought for a moment and asked, "Karim, what do you think of the current Iron Fist King?" ”

Abdul-Jabbar pondered for a few seconds before saying, "Since Michael Jordan retired, in fact, the Iron Fist King has lost his opponent, the real one-of-a-kind.

He is ruling over a new era, from the past nineties to the current one, and the entire alliance will live under his supremacy.

Neither Iverson nor Kobe Bryant are now at Jordan's level, and they are not qualified to challenge the hegemony of the Iron Fist King. ”

"The Iron Fist era is still the same, and the OK group will only struggle to survive under the hegemony of the Iron Fist King." The Seattle Times.

"An iron fist is enough to crush everything!" The Seattle Post.

The Los Angeles media touted the OK combination, and the Seattle media, although far less influential than the Los Angeles media, was not to be outdone.

Next, the second round continued, and the remaining two groups both scored a tiebreaker, and finally the Philadelphia Digital team and the Bucks both reached the Eastern Conference finals.

The Western Finals began on May 21, and the Eastern Finals began on the 22nd.

(End of chapter)