hotmtlnovel Chapter 448 The arrogant smile at the beginning of the chapter once again shook the alliance!
Chapter 448 The arrogant smile at the beginning of the chapter once again shook the alliance!
"Look, the director has focused the camera on Lin Tian! It's an incredibly long shot, a 360-degree rotation! We hope the camera can stay on the track a little longer, because the next time we want to see Lin Tian on the track might be at the Athens Olympics next year."
"The players have crouched down; they've gotten into the rhythm!"
"Lin Tian is in lane four. I wonder if his starting reaction time has improved recently? Will he be able to break the world record again tonight?"
"The contestants are ready! Let's wait a little longer..."
"The race begins! Lin Tian launches off! His reaction time is incredibly fast!"
"He's broken through! Lin Tian gained a clear lead at the 10-meter mark; he's ahead of everyone else!"
"Invincible! The distance has been completely widened! No one can keep up with Lin Tian! No one can pose any threat to him!"
"Lin Tian is still accelerating! He's still widening the gap! My God! Lin Tian has taken off!"
"He's off the ground! The closest person to Lin Tian is now more than 5 meters away! A huge advantage!"
"Lin...hey? Ah! What is Lin Tian doing! He's turning around! He's looking back!"
"He's looking back at his opponent! He's gone! He's crossed the finish line! First place! Absolutely first place!"
"A victory without any suspense! 9.89 seconds!"
"What a pity! Lin Tian didn't break the world record! But we can all see that it's not because Lin Tian wasn't good enough! It's because he turned things around!"
"He turned around when he was 10 meters from the finish line, which noticeably slowed him down! Although he still won, he didn't break the world record!"
"I believe that if Lin Tian doesn't turn back, he will definitely break the world record!"
Let's watch the replay again!
"That's too fast! It's incredibly fast! He's practically flying!"
"Look, just like that, he turned around! He seems to be looking for his opponent! He seems unaware of what he's doing; he needs to turn around to remember that he's in a competition!"
"Let's look at it from a different perspective. This time, let's follow these flying men from behind and see what they've actually done!"
"Starting, running, taking off, looking back... He's smiling! Lin Tian is smiling! He's smiling! I need a freeze-frame... Here it comes! A freeze-frame, let's freeze this frame, he's smiling! He really is smiling!"
"Confidence, absolute confidence! Unparalleled confidence!"
"Too easy! Completely effortless! Lin Tian didn't even use his full strength to win the championship!"
"Another noteworthy point is that his smile is truly captivating and incredibly handsome! I believe this moment will become one of the most classic and beautiful moments in the world of sports!"
"Congratulations to all our viewers! Congratulations on joining me in witnessing this unique and historic moment!"
Yang Jian's commentary was fast and powerful, effortlessly drawing everyone's emotions into the game.
Meanwhile, Lin Tian was already draped in the national flag, celebrating excitedly and receiving cheers and shouts from the fans in the stadium.
He continues to dominate the track and field!
Even during his celebration, several of the athletes who had just competed against him came over to take photos with him.
Lin Tian was simply too fast, so fast that he completely outpaced his opponents, so fast that they began to idolize him!
What is even more respectable is that in last year's BALCO laboratory case, many top athletes were brought down by doping issues, faced trial, and had to relinquish their honors.
Despite this, Lin Tian has not been found to have used any prohibited substances; at least for now, he is completely clean!
His achievements are well-deserved!
This is far more respectable than those champions who are just pharmacists!
Anyway, today, Lin Tian felt like he was playing against the 92 Dream Team in Barcelona.
Is this what it feels like to be the star among stars?
Unfortunately, the guys who had accompanied Sydney to watch her boxing match in 00 didn't come.
That would be true happiness if they came!
such a pity!
Jordan, Miller, Barkley, and others: I must be crazy to watch you show off!
After celebrating with various parties, the reporter from China Sports finally met Lin Tian and began the post-match interview.
"Brother Lin, how does it feel to win the championship again?" The interviewer was a very clever-looking young man. As soon as Lin Tian saw that he was a young man, he didn't even bother to ask his name.
Just show off a little and leave. Go back to sleep and don't waste your time.
"It's alright, as expected, nothing particularly surprising or exciting."
Are you satisfied with that score of 9.89?
"I'm quite satisfied. I got this result just by running casually, what's there to be dissatisfied about?"
"Brother Lin, why did you look back at the end? Aren't you afraid of being overtaken by your opponent?"
"No, I'm confident they were at least 7 or 8 meters away from me!"
"During the run, did you observe your opponents and see the distance between them and you?"
"I observed them before the race started, but after that, they disappeared. They were all behind me and I couldn't see them. There was nothing I could do."
"When you were almost at the finish line, you turned around and smiled. Were you smiling at the runners behind you?"
"Oh no, they're all running for their lives, how could they see me laughing? I'm here to make the audience laugh, consider it a gift I'm giving to the Chinese audience."
amount……
How should I respond to that?
The young man was stunned. Lin Tian's series of interviews seemed like a smooth and unhesitating outburst, but upon closer listening, one sentence seemed to be trying to show off three times over!
But Lin Tian truly had the ability to pretend, and he also had the absolute confidence to look back!
After all, in the 100-meter final, a race where the difference is in fractions of a second—no, between fractions of a second—how do you look back?
If you're not careful, you might turn around and fall flat on your face. How will you ever be able to face anyone again? Or what if you turn around and find someone has overtaken you?
That would have been a joke!
But Lin Tian was confident, and he succeeded!
It didn't become a joke, it became a legend!
"Well, on behalf of the Chinese audience and your fans, thank you?" The young man, somewhat confused by Lin Tian's outburst, scratched his head and offered a rather unprofessional ending.
As for Yang Jian, who had been listening to the interview the whole time in the studio, he was a little embarrassed at this moment. He scratched his head in perfect unison with the young reporter, saying, "Lin Tian really always manages to surprise us!"
"If he accepts this interview, I think it can be included in the list of 'Top 10 Interview Moments of Chinese Sports Athletes'."
"If someone were to make this list!"
"In conclusion, congratulations to Lin Tian, congratulations to the Chinese Athletics Team, and congratulations to Lin Tian's fans! That concludes today's live stream. See you next time, friends!"
After winning the 100-meter gold medal, Lin Tian has accumulated enough points to officially qualify for the Athens Olympics next year.
At the very least, for the next year, Lin Tian won't have to worry about running anymore, nor will he have to take time to participate in any 100-meter races.
As Lin Tian walked back to the locker room and arrived at the area where the Chinese athletes were gathered, he noticed that Liu Xiang, who had been very flamboyantly wearing his 110-meter hurdles bronze medal around his neck, had quickly hidden the medal inside his clothes.
But Lin Tian wasn't about to let him off the hook.
He waved for Liu Xiang to come over and then handed him the gold medal.
"Let's switch. I have several gold medals, in basketball, boxing, and running, but I don't have a single bronze medal. Let me collect them."
"Brother Lin," Liu Xiang said with a bitter face, "stop messing with me."
"Young man," Lin Tian shook his head, putting away the gold medal, and said, "Don't you know that a few years ago I directly accepted the MVP trophy that Jordan gave me?"
"Do you know how many meals he treated me to after I won his MVP trophy before I returned it to him?"
"Remember my experience: next time someone tries to test you with something like this, first get their gold medal, hide it, and then say something else! Got it?"
"Hey, hey, don't corrupt Xiao Liu!" Yu Weili immediately protested, "He's one of our favorites to win gold in Athens, a promising talent! We're counting on him to bring glory to our country!"
"I was imparting the most advanced life experience to him! How did it turn out to be a bad influence?"
……
Bird, who was originally extremely worried about various contract renewals and signings and didn't know what to do, just remembered that it seemed to be the time of Lin Tian's 100-meter final, so he turned on the TV to see Lin Tian's performance.
But how to put it? The time for the 100-meter race is only about 10 seconds, and you can miss it completely if you're not careful.
If you don't wait in advance, it's really difficult to turn on the TV and see a bunch of people running around.
For example, Bird wasn't so lucky; he missed those incredibly exciting 10 seconds.
But he was also quite lucky, because when he turned on the TV, he happened to see TNT giving Lin Tian a close-up shot.
It's a close-up of him running and turning back to smile.
He was grinning from ear to ear, showing how happy he was.
"puff!"
Bird sprayed water all over the TV, cursing under his breath, and then turned it off.
"What the hell!" Bird cursed, no longer even wanting to worry about helping the team strengthen its roster. How so?
The Pacers' situation this year is quite dire.
Simply put, it's been hollowed out!
Ben Wallace ultimately accepted Detroit's offer of $44 million for four years, while Bird was clearly unable to match the $10 million annual salary, and could only watch as Ben Wallace embraced the Motor City. This tough guy has finally found his ultimate home.
After Ben Wallace left, Bird originally planned to do everything he could to keep Arenas. He was even prepared to offer Arenas a four-year, $30 million contract, which was the highest he could estimate, and then use reasoning and emotional appeals to persuade Arenas to stay with the team.
But just as a confident Bird was about to start negotiating a contract extension with Arenas, news from Arenas came like a bolt from the blue.
The Golden State Warriors offered Arenas a four-year, $48 million maximum contract!
This contract is even larger than the contract of Ben Wallace, a multiple Defensive Player of the Year and All-Star player!
exaggerate!
Unbelievable!
It's worth noting that while Arenas has had many impressive performances in the past two years, delivering numerous thrilling moments, including game-winning shots and the Rising Stars MVP award, his performance has been remarkable.
But to be honest, he's averaging less than 10 points per game!
Yes, it's because the team has two legends like Lin Tian and Jordan, so Arenas didn't have much room to perform, and his playing time was fragmented.
But the Warriors offered a 4-year, $4800 million contract?
Anyway, Bird thought they were crazy!
Bird's response was certainly not to match the contract. He hadn't even matched the contract with Ben Wallace, so how could he match the one with Arenas, which had a higher amount?
He could only call Chris Mullin, the Warriors' current general manager, who was also his old friend and had played for the Pacers for two years.
"You're having another drinking fit, aren't you? Giving out contracts when you're drunk? Are you crazy? Giving such a big contract to a backup player, Chris, let me tell you, if you give out a contract when you're drunk, I'll give you a chance to make amends."
"Larry, the best way to describe your current state is with a phrase Lin taught me back in the day," Mullin said with a grin: "Impotent rage!"
"Fuck!" Bird cursed again before hanging up the phone. What could he do? He couldn't exactly curse Arenas to lose money on this contract; Arenas was one of his own.
Unable to vent his anger, Bird could only make a phone call to Joe Dumars, the current general manager of the Pistons and another old friend who had played for the Pacers for a year.
"Joe, have you caught that idiot Isaiah's brains? You're giving Ben such a huge contract, aren't you afraid your boss will tear you apart? Just like Isaiah, he was fired by the Torontonians last month, right? Watch out, your next step is to be fired too!"
"You damn idiot, I can hear you!" Isaiah Thomas's voice came through the phone. "I'll skin you alive! I'm telling you, I'll be back on my feet in no time, I'll find a new job anytime soon!"
"How did you find a new job? By spending so much money on your Toronto team, never making the playoffs in all those years, and having a terrible draft record? Your resume is pretty bad!"
"Listen to me, find a team that's hiring assistant coaches and send them your resume. After all, you did a pretty good job as an assistant coach, you even won a championship! Or you could come work for me, and I'll have Rick clear out a lead assistant coach position for you, how about that?"
"Get lost!"
This time, it was Thomas's turn to angrily hang up the phone.
Bird also felt: That feels good!
It's so comfortable!
Sometimes, the way to relieve feelings of sadness is not necessarily to defeat the person who hurt you.
You can get happiness just as easily as hurting or defeating another person!
But happiness is fleeting.
With Ben Wallace and Gilbert Arenas leaving at the same time, coupled with Michael Jordan's retirement, the Pacers suddenly lost three key rotation players, leaving them with a severe shortage of personnel.
In order to fill roster gaps, Bird actually put together two teams to play in the Summer League this year!
There were a few players who performed well, but that was only in the Summer League. It's hard to say whether they can perform that well in the regular season!
Bird still needs to find a way to strengthen the team!
Normally, the Pacers have all the future draft picks in their hands, which is a pretty good deal, but how should I put it?
The Pacers' current situation is not normal.
As a dynasty team, a team that has won 5 championships in the past 6 years, there aren't many teams willing to make a trade with the Pacers!
Moreover, without exception, all of these guys willing to trade with the pedestrians offered high prices, clearly indicating that they wanted to rob you!
Their meaning is very clear: if I want to do a deal with you, I'm going to rob you, otherwise I won't play along!
This is one of the predicaments that makes it difficult for a dynasty team to continue.
If they can't trade for suitable players, they can only rely on internal scouting and searching the free market with their meager salary cap space.
With the team's salary cap fully filled and luxury tax still due, Bird's only remaining option is a full mid-level exception worth $500 million per year.
$500 million to fill the void left by the departures of Ben Wallace, Gilbert Arenas, and Michael Jordan.
If someone were to assign Bird this kind of task in NBA LIVE's Dynasty mode, Bird would simply throw a chair at that person's face.
Go play with eggs!
But now, Bird must carefully search for suitable candidates among free agents.
Looking for guys who are talented, have a championship drive, and can accept an annual salary of around $500 million.
Difficult! Extremely difficult!
Of course, championship-caliber teams also have an advantage when recruiting players in the free market. Many veterans who become free agents and crave a championship are willing to lower their value to join the team and compete for the title.
Of course, there are veterans like this this year too!
For example, Gary Payton, who's supersonic!
"No, I'm doing great in Seattle. This is my home, and I'm never leaving! I've decided to live out my days here! As for the championship, forget it, I'm too old, Larry."
Payton, pass!
And then there's Malone! The Pacers' arch-rival for the past few years, Malone, who has been constantly on the move and is known as the league's number one mercenary!
"Idiot." Malone cursed after hearing Bird's words and hung up the phone immediately.
He is a villain, a scoundrel, and undeniably dirty and dark.
But he still has his bottom line; he would never do something like defecting to the enemy!
Even less than three days after Bird was rejected by Malone, Malone announced that he would return to the Jazz, back to where his dream began!
After years of wandering and chasing his championship dream with the Heat, Magic, and Lakers, only to fail each time, Malone has decided to give up this time.
He made the same choice as Payton.
He's going back to Salt Lake City to fight his little brothers for another year.
Besides these two, there are other players willing to join the Pacers, but those players are either too old to walk without a cane or have long lost their ability to be relied upon.
None of them were people Bird would approve of.
Anyway, Bird was really worried sick. He looked at the list of free agents over and over again for a long time. In the end, he even considered going to overseas leagues to see if he could find anything. Then, a guy actually came to him on his own initiative.
"I heard you're looking for a forward?" A deep, resonant voice came through the phone, but Bird didn't recognize it at first.
"I forgot to introduce myself, I'm Ron Artest!"
Ron Artest, the Beast!
Upon hearing this name, Bird's eyelids twitched violently for some reason.
He had a bad feeling; he felt that this guy had ill intentions and would bring misfortune to Indiana.
Despite a very ominous feeling in his heart, Bird did not hang up the phone.
After all, Artest is definitely a high-performing player in the league! Last season with the Bulls, he averaged 13 points, 5 rebounds, and 2 assists per game, along with a whopping 2.5 steals!
He is strong and powerful, like a wild beast, which is where his nickname comes from. At the same time, this guy also has good breakthrough and shooting abilities. Last season, his three-point shooting percentage reached 37%!
At the same time, with his height and physique, he can also play inside when Webber plays center and the team plays a 1 big man and 4 small men lineup. At the very least, Artest's physique is no weaker than 70% of the big men in the league!
But of course, this guy also has his share of problems. He has an eccentric personality, gets easily angered, and is a typical troublemaker and shrew!
At the same time, this guy's biggest characteristic is recklessness! Extreme recklessness!
In the summer of 01, when Jordan was training in Chicago in preparation for his comeback with the Wizards, Artest was so excited that he went all out to match up against Jordan, and then...
He broke Jordan's ribs with a shoulder bump, almost preventing Jordan from making a comeback.
This double-edged sword, if used well, is an absolute heavy warhammer that can crush the opponent; if used poorly, it is a time bomb that can blow up the team's own locker room.
This is why this guy hasn't found a job yet and even has to actively seek employment.
I heard he caused a lot of trouble in the Bulls' locker room. Otherwise, no matter how stupid the Bulls are, they wouldn't have refused to give him an offer, which is equivalent to giving up on him directly!
"Why did you come to Indiana?" Bird didn't rush to answer Artest's question, but asked first.
"Because I find it hard to control myself, I often cause trouble, but I have to say, I don't want to cause trouble. I don't think I'm a troublemaker, I don't think I'm hopeless, and I don't think I'm unteachable."
"I just want someone to keep me in check and stop me from getting into trouble. Looking at the whole league, I think only Lin has that ability! I think he can stop me from going crazy, let me play properly, and be my true self."
Bird was shocked by Artest's surprisingly candid job application brief.
Are there still people looking for jobs like this?
With an opening line like that, you're guaranteed to never find a job!
And judging from his description, this guy wasn't there to look for a job or to continue playing basketball.
This is like locking yourself in a prison, and Lin Tian is the prison guard or warden.
But after thinking about it carefully, Bird realized that the kid was actually quite creative.
"But your salary..."
"I don't care about salary," Artest said bluntly. "Some teams offered me $800 million a year, but I didn't want to go because I know that if I can't find someone to manage me, this contract might be my last."
"To be honest, I have bipolar disorder and get angry very easily. My doctor told me that there are two ways to control my temper: one is to find someone or something that scares me, and the other is to keep myself calm and quiet, take deep breaths, practice yoga, and learn to relax."
"I think the latter method is too difficult, so I chose the former."
"So, I can accept a lower contract; I want to play basketball!"
Good guy!
Bird couldn't help but give Artest a thumbs up again for what he said, and he also directly said he had a mental illness when applying for a job.
Amazing!
Just a moment ago, Bird thought this kid was just creative, but now he thinks this kid is absolutely a genius!
However, having said that, Bird no longer hesitated or asked any more questions.
I understand the motivation, the goal, and the situation.
Then just accept it! What can I do but refuse?
The only problem is that we have to make things difficult for Lin Tian. Next season, we need to make Lin Tian completely subdue this kid, to the point that even if the two of them are separated for 3-5 years, he will still tremble at the thought of Lin Tian. That would be about right!
Okay, let's do it this way!
Next season, give Lin Tian a brand new job!
Tame wild beasts!
"But we only have the full mid-level exception, which is $18 million over four years. You know the rules. No matter how much money I want to give, I can't, unless I want to be penalized like Minnesota and lose three draft picks."
"To be honest, this price is much lower than what you can actually get on the market. So, is there any problem with the price?"
"No problem." Artest's voice remained deep and steady: "Four years, $18 million full middle-class status, it's settled. It was a pleasure doing business with you, Larry, really a pleasure! Much more pleasant than chatting with that fat bastard!"
After hanging up the phone with Artest, Bird breathed a long sigh of relief. The frustration and irritability of the past few days had vanished with Artest's arrival, and Bird's offseason mission was complete.
The money that needed to be spent was spent, and the money that needed to be saved was saved. Anyway, Bird would give himself a 90 out of 100 for his work this offseason!
The remaining 10 points were deducted from the owners, the Simon brothers. If it weren't for those two guys, I could have easily taken down Arenas and Ben Wallace, and also won against Artest.
The mighty team continues to forge itself!
Next, we just need to wait for training camp to start, and then we can properly streamline the last part of the team's roster, and the Pacers' roster for the new season will be finalized.
But those minor repairs won't affect the overall situation.
The Pacers' current salary figures are: Lin Tian $3277 million, Webber approximately $1700 million, Christie $600 million, Artest $450 million, and Miller $450 million.
Barring any unforeseen circumstances, these five players will become the Pacers' starting five for next season.
Their combined salaries totaled $6500 million, which not only certainly exceeded the luxury tax threshold but also occupied approximately 80% of the team's salary cap.
The remaining 10 players on the team are all on minimum contracts or rookie contracts, with each player earning between $70 and $150 million. These 10 players will take up approximately $1200 million in salary cap space.
That's about it for the Pacers' total salary this season, around $7700 million!
This time, the Pacers' total salary cap has finally dropped to third in the league, second only to the Timberwolves, who just formed a new "Big Four" with a total salary of $83 million, and the Trail Blazers, whose salaries are still high but have finally fallen below $100 million with a total expenditure of $85 million.
Hmm... looking at those two teams, Bird once again felt that he was of a high level and had great ability!
Those two lousy teams have such high salaries. Look at me, with a stroke of genius, one team still has top-notch fighting power, while the other team's salaries aren't even the highest in the league.
What exactly is a top-tier international manager?
After getting everything sorted out, Bird finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Finally, only the final finishing touches remain!
Bird originally wanted to call Lin Tian immediately, but after thinking about it, he figured the guy was probably celebrating right now, so whether he had his phone or not was irrelevant.
Therefore, Bird decided to postpone having Lin Tian teach Artest a lesson until tomorrow.
Bird will also tell him some of the latest news from the league at that time.
For example, in addition to acquiring Allen Iverson, the Timberwolves also managed to get Sam Cassell, a veteran player. Their starting lineup is now truly flawless and frighteningly strong.
Another thing is that the Magic have actually started trading Duncan!
After nearly a summer of sales and receiving various offers, the Magic's general manager suddenly made a comeback.
Hehe... I'm not selling anymore! It's just for fun, just for laughs!
The Magic's insane decision has left the entire league rolling its eyes.
With a management team that's like a madman, constantly changing its mind and issuing orders, there's no way they could win a championship! (End of Chapter)