The Hawks' ability to acquire Artest has a lot to do with the fact that the Rockets and Mike Bibby have negotiated a sign-and-trade.

The Rockets have formed the strongest lineup since their two consecutive championships. It is true that some old fans are excited, but there are more complaints.

At that time, the 30-year-old Nash was not given an annual salary of 10 million, but only 9 million. At that time, the Rockets still had some big contracts, and only trade exceptions were available, and they were only 9 million away from the luxury tax threshold. The Rockets' 1 million

He refused to pay the luxury tax. Of course, this had a lot to do with the luxury tax threshold of less than US$60 million at that time.

But now Mike Bibby, who is also 30 years old, has been given a two-year, 22 million dollar contract... At this time when the subprime mortgage crisis broke out, the current 10 million U.S. dollars may be more valuable than four years ago, and it is still 11 million U.S. dollars per year.

…

According to the new salary cap announced on July 10, the salary cap for next season will only increase by US$1.13 million to US$64.79 million. The salary cap that has grown wildly in the past seven or eight years at the beginning of the century has basically reached its end.

This is a sharp increase of three to four million US dollars every year, which has a lot to do with the subprime mortgage crisis.

The starting point for the luxury tax is US$75.91 million. By using the Hawks' trade exception to sign first and then exchange for Mike Bibby, Iguodala's new contract took effect and acquired Lewis...the Rockets' salary reached US$70.96 million.

knife.

Fortunately, Morey has been recruiting some so-called "high-powered basic salary" substitutes every year. After they traded Artest for two and signed rookie Joe Alexander, they have now assembled a 15-man roster. No need to

Worried about paying the luxury tax this season.

However, even without paying the luxury tax, the salary of more than 70 million has also broken the salary record in the history of the Rockets!

Morey looked at his boss's excitement and felt that his boss must have been tricked by aliens!

So excited to spend so much money!

Originally, the Rockets could have acquired Mike Bibby by trading someone else. In addition to their good relationship with the Hawks, the reason for making this trade was that Gay's agent was dissatisfied with Gay being a substitute, forcing the Rockets to make a decision.

, either trade it, or give Gay his rookie year position.

This agent is Schwartz... Of course, Schwartz doesn't just do this because he has a good relationship with the Hawks. Gay continues to play as a substitute, which is not a good thing for Schwartz as an agent and will greatly affect his future contract.

Already.

Everything was planned by Coach Kruger, although dozens of precious hairs fell out...

Maybe Artest is much better than Gay at this stage, his role is more powerful than Iguodala's, and his role on the court is second only to Bynum.

But Artest returned from strength to strength, and it was indeed because of Artest that the Rockets were able to win 50 games last season. But it was also because of Artest that the Rockets suffered a lot in the past month or so.

The Rockets are faced with two problems. Mike Bibby is worried about Artest's character.

But now, being able to sell another favor to the Hawks, in addition to getting a former Hawks star, can help the Rockets maintain their popularity in China. They got Iguodala before, which is a good continuation.

With the popularity increased, and with the addition of Gortat, who is nicknamed by Chinese fans as a "professional pig farmer", the continuity will be even stronger!

Originally, the Rockets wanted to poach Wang Zhizhi from the Lakers, but the importance of the space-time three-pointer was much greater than the original time and space. After the Lakers sent away the ski man with many problems, they refused to let Wang Zhizhi go and would rather spend the salary cap.

The Rockets had no choice but to give up and settle for the next best thing, the handsome CIC Gortat.

A three-party trade may activate the potential accumulated by the Rockets over the years. At the same time, it may allow the Hawks to reach another peak after the decline in large-scale transactions. The 76ers also avoid losing Mike Bibby in vain.

The media commented that this was a rare win-win deal this summer.

…

…

It was rare for Yao Ming to have a ferocious look on his face at the beginning of the game.

That expression seemed to say: "How do you want to die?"

Forget it, there is still a world basketball superstar who is undoubtedly the best player in the world today, and can even hit the top three in history, performing a dunk.

Even though Kirilenko has been playing in the NBA for so many years, it is rare to see such an excited Liu Mang.

"Why! Why are we the ones injured?"

Kirilenko wants to cry so much!

He can understand Yao Ming's feeling of wanting to vent after feeling a huge threat, and he can also understand Liu Mang's excitement of losing the top three small forwards in the league and getting the best defensive small forward in the league.

But Kirilenko was even more desperate. This miserable situation actually happened to him!

I just won the European Championship last year and became the King of Europe... But in the opening game of the men's basketball event of the largest Olympic Games in history, I faced an excited Liu Mang and an angry Yao Ming...

…

At 4:30 in the afternoon, the Imperial Capital Olympic Sports Center Gymnasium, a standard Olympic competition venue that can accommodate 6,500 spectators, arrived.

There are a few seats in the auditorium, but this arena is of extraordinary significance to Chinese basketball players. It was the first gymnasium in Chinese history to have modern basketball equipment at that time. After renovation last year, it became the men's stadium for this Olympic Games.

The opening venue for the basketball tournament.

In fact, there are fewer seats, which is more pleasing to the fans at the venue. The cheapest tickets are also on the second floor. There are no bleacher tickets, so you can clearly see the players in the stadium.

Amid the cheers of the fans at the scene, the players of the two teams entered the field and prepared for the game.

Sometimes it's really impossible to judge the opponent's true strength by just looking at the ability evaluation of the opponent's players.

Compared with the lineup, except for the fact that the Russian team does not have superstars like Liu Mang and Yao Ming, the other positions are really not worse than the Chinese team, but after the game started...

This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! 15 to 4 in the first quarter...

The Russian team only scored 4 points in a single quarter!

Of course, single-digit scores in a single quarter often occur in international competitions. In last year's European Championship, Serbia, as powerful as Serbia, was beaten 11-0 by Lithuania in a single quarter in the group stage. It lost nothing. Even in the original time and space, 2010

The Spanish team, ranked second in the world this year, also had a 0-point performance in the last quarter.

But if you really encounter an opponent who scores single digits in a single quarter, last year's King of Europe scored single digits in a single quarter...

The Chinese team, which scored 4 points in a single quarter against its opponent, was shocked!

Liu Mang knew that the other party was prosperous and declining, but he never expected that the other party would be so bad!

If there is anything else to see about the Russian team, it is probably the defense, which is a very tough style of play and excellent defense.

In the second quarter, the Russian team showed signs of improvement, scoring 14 points in a single quarter, and defended the slightly careless Chinese team to only 12 points in a single quarter, narrowing the point difference to single digits in the first half.

.

However, in the third quarter... Yao Ming, who had been brewing for half the game, started to go berserk.

If you hold the ball, hit it, hit the opponent's inside line and dunk, double teaming won't work!

Yao Ming, the most ferocious killer in the world of basketball today, with Liu Mang, Zhu Fangyu, Wang Shipeng, and Yi Jianlian on the outside to open up space, he beat the opponent 13 to 10 in a single quarter. The Chinese team scored 22 in the third quarter.

A single quarter score of 10!

After three quarters, the Chinese team opened the score to 49-28, leading by 21 points!

In the end, led by Liu Mang with 16 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists and 4 blocks, Yao Ming with 20 points and 6 rebounds, Yi Jianlian with 7 points and 14 rebounds, and Wang Shipeng with 12 points, the Chinese team defeated Russia with a huge advantage of 70 to 43!

…

…

27 points difference!

The countries in Group A that were watching the showdown between the two strongest teams in Group B were terrified!

Russia was last year's European Championship champion! They were beaten so hard by the Chinese team that they couldn't even fight back!

This is simply too exaggerated, so exaggerated that it is unimaginable!

Liu Mang began to feel grateful to his opponent. Last year, it was the Russian team that defeated Serbia first in the semi-finals, and then Serbia lost to Croatia in the qualifying match. As a result, Serbia ranked seventh in Europe and lost the qualification to enter the Olympic Games.

The mysterious collapse of the Russian team this year is exactly the same as the original collapse trend in time and space, and it collapsed in the first game.

Liu Mang knew that Russia would collapse, but the rest of the Chinese team did not. Maybe the Russian team themselves did not expect it.

Confidence! Defeating the Russian team so easily gave the Chinese team players greater confidence!
Chapter completed!