NBA opening draw to twilight Shaquille O'Neal

Chapter 1134 Barkley: Gambling Addiction Again

On April 2017, 4, the entire streets and alleys of Portland were filled with posters of Wang Zelin.

People wearing Trail Blazers uniforms gather here, and the basketball court of the Rose Garden has come to the most joyous moment of the year.

This year, the Trail Blazers' playoff slogan is: "Beyond Legends!"

In the history of the NBA, there have been several teams at the level of three consecutive championship dynasties. The Bulls and Lakers have both established their own dynasties.

But if you want to win another championship on the basis of three consecutive championships, only the Boston Celtics have ever achieved it in history. The Celtics' eight consecutive championships can be described as shocking the past and the present, and it is an out-and-out legend.

As long as the Trail Blazers can defend and win the championship again this year, they will become the second team in history to achieve four consecutive championships since the Celtics!
That's why the Blazers officially launched the slogan "Beyond Legend".

It goes without saying who they want to surpass.

Who else but the Bulls and Lakers?

Of course, deep down in their hearts, they may not have the idea of ​​surpassing the Celtics for eight consecutive championships.

It's just that the eight consecutive championships are too far away from them now, let's start by surpassing the three consecutive championships first.

On the evening of the 16th, many Chinese fans who traveled thousands of miles to watch the Trail Blazers game could not help feeling:
If you haven't been to Portland, you will never know how exaggerated Wang Zelin's local popularity is.

More than 2 Portland fans have already dyed the Rose Garden Arena into a sea of ​​red.

They are neatly wearing a Blazers home jersey with Wang Zelin's number 36 on it tonight. Since the team mascot was replaced with Tian, ​​the Blazers' Tianchao Panda away jersey has hardly changed much in recent seasons.

The home jersey refers to the color structure of Celestial Red. The red jersey is celebrated with dragon scales and golden borders. The team logo is printed on the chest, and the number behind the logo is also a dragon scale pattern.

The away jersey is relatively simple, without so many bells and whistles, and is mainly designed according to the color of Panda.The shoulders and neck and the bottom of the shorts use black dots to represent the giant panda's limbs, and the rest of the background color is pure white.

The first round of the playoffs, G1, was held in the Rose Garden, turning the entire arena, including the entire ball room, into a sea of ​​red.

This made countless fans of Tianchao even more amazed, and at the same time, as compatriots, they also felt extremely proud in their hearts.

At least 50 stars from China came to watch Wang Zelin's first game of the playoffs tonight. From the moment they entered the Rose Garden Arena, they became part of the red ocean on the scene. Everyone forgot about the other purpose of this trip. Now everyone has only one identity, and that is—an ordinary Wang Mi!

At the same time, Chaotiantai and Tencent Sports also sent special personnel to explain the game on the spot.

Yu Jia and Zhang Lili were sent by Chaotiantai, Yang Yi and Wang Meng were sent by Tencent Sports, and Meina, who was a special guest and loyal Wang Mi, was a special guest of the Tencent Sports playoff team.

And just as the commentators were chatting before the game, the Rose Garden Arena suddenly exploded.

Everyone subconsciously took a fancy to the square, and their eyes were full of curiosity.

As the lights of the Rose Garden were turned off one by one, everyone's attention was attracted by Wang Zelin, who led the Blazers players to make their appearance on the field.

At this moment, there is no need for a DJ to guide at all, and Portland fans also know what they should do at this moment.

Cheers, cheers!
Cheers to the King of Portland!
"MVP—!"

"MVP—!"

"MVP—!"

According to the on-site decibel tester, the decibel level soared to 140 tonight!

Such exaggerated decibels are still the extreme tolerance of human ears, and if there is no psychological preparation and prevention work, it is easy to cause short-term deafness.

Sure enough, it is worthy of being No.1 in the league, even the appearance ceremony is so awesome!

Seeing this scene, the Tianchao fans who were watching the live broadcast on their mobile phones in front of the TV couldn't help but burst into tongues, their eyes were like copper bells, their mouths were slightly opened, full of excitement.

This also made everyone look forward to the next matchup.

……

On the court, the Rose Garden Arena gave the starting list of the two teams tonight.

Visiting Utah Jazz: George Hill, Joe Ingles, Gordon Hayward, Boris Diaw, Rudy Gobert.

Home team Portland Trail Blazers: Damian Lillard, Will Barton, Nicolas Batum, Nikola Jokic, Wang Zelin.

This is the first game of the Trail Blazers in this year's playoffs. In the words of Coach Terry, everyone must play the momentum of being the defending champion of the dynasty team in the first game, and win the opponent in one go.

Assistant coaches such as David van der Poel agree.

There is an old saying in China called a good start. In fact, there are similar sayings abroad.

After all, everything is difficult at the beginning, and getting a good start will be more conducive to the next great cause of defending the title.

On the home side of the United States, ESPN and TNT also sent their ace combination to come to the scene to explain.

ESPN sent a combination of Reggie Miller + Chris Webber, plus a special guest McGrady who has just retired for a few years and has not turned into a fat wheat.

On TNT's side, Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith, the golden pair, are naturally responsible for the on-site commentary.

On the TNT live broadcast, Barkley said: "Although what I say next may be a bit cruel to the young people of the Jazz, the truth is so skinny. With all due respect, the Trail Blazers want to pass this round of the series and sweep at most 5 gentlemen. Of course, the possibility of a direct sweep of 4:0 cannot be ruled out!"

Kenny Smith on the side did not deny Buckley's statement, nodded slightly and said: "There is no way for this. Who made them meet Wang Zelin? But I am very optimistic about Gordon Hayward. I think that even if the Jazz are swept away, Hayward can still deliver good results."

"Oh!"

Hearing this, Barkley suddenly became interested, and his gambling addiction relapsed.

After pondering for a while, he looked at Smith and asked, "Kenny, do you still remember that kid Hayward's performance in the regular season?"

"Of course," Smith nodded, and then blurted out, "If I remember correctly, Hayward played 73 games for the Jazz during the regular season and started all of them. He averaged 21.9 points, 5.4 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 1 steal per game. He was also selected as an All-Star for the first time in the middle of the season. In my opinion, he is definitely the best among the young strikers in the league."

Gordon Hayward, born in 1990, was selected by the Jazz with the ninth overall pick in the first round in 2010. This season is his seventh year in the league, and it is also a year of great harvest in his career.

You need data, data, record, and even the All-Stars. At the age of just 27, Hayward has gradually entered his peak period, and the future is bound to flourish.

It's just that when this word reached the ears of the fans, everyone couldn't help but feel a little weird.

If Hayward is the leader of the younger generation of Feng County, how should he evaluate Wang Zelin, who entered the league two years later than him at the age of 24 and a half and has already completed several honorable harvests?
Everyone's brains froze for a moment, and they quickly put this idea behind them.

Forget it, don’t compare yourself with that pervert Wang Zelin. There are countless super giants in the history of the NBA, and one of them counts as one. It is difficult to compare with Wang Zelin of the same age, let alone Gordon Hayward, who can only be called an All-Star seedling?

When the camera returned to the TNT live broadcast booth, Barkley naturally didn't know what the fans were thinking. He looked at Smith, who was touting Hayward, and immediately wanted to see him.

"Kenny, since you are so optimistic about Hayward, why don't we take a bet, what do you think?"

Then without waiting for Smith to answer, he continued: "Let's bet on whether Hayward's stats tonight can surpass the regular season? The bet is not big. The loser will be in charge of supper every night from today until the end of this year's finals. What do you think?"

"Let's say it first, I bet Hayward's data tonight is not as good as the regular season."

According to the arrangement of TNT executives, golden partners like Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley are almost bound together during the playoffs this year. They not only have to comment on all the games of the Blazers, but also the games of those teams that also have the appearance of champions.

Barkley's bet isn't big, but it's definitely not small either.

Just looking at Barkley's figure, one should know that he must eat more than ordinary people in private.

According to Barkley's personality, if he really wants to win, after the commentary of each game, he must beat Smith hard.

One or two meals is nothing, but for two consecutive months, Smith is a little worried about his pocket.

But thinking that the two of them are live broadcasting now, and there are countless fans watching him in front of the screen, he must not be cowardly at this time, he must be stunned.

The reason why fans like to watch their live broadcast is that besides the humorous and professional commentary method, it is naturally inseparable from the sudden effect of the show in the commentary booth from time to time.

So in any case, Smith now has to bite the bullet and continue.

I saw him calmly said:

"I accepted this bet. I believe in Hayward, and I bet his data tonight can surpass the regular season."

"Okay, then it's settled."

Barkley replied with a smile, his eyes full of anticipation.

Seeing this, Smith couldn't help curling his lips, but thinking of Wang Zelin's terrifying sense of defensive oppression, he still couldn't help but worry about Hayward.

Looking at No. 20 of the Jazz on the field, he murmured in his heart: You must have lived up to expectations when you were young, but I supported you in front of tens of millions of fans. Don't let me down.

Smith cares more about his face than his purse.

After accepting the bet just now, he immediately found a solution to the nuclear explosion problem.

If he was really going to lose, at worst, after he went back, he would just have to ask the bosses of TNT to reimburse him.

He wasn't worried at all that TNT executives would disagree, just jokingly, when Barkley offered to make a bet, TNT's ratings immediately rose by a few percentage points.

Those are all green banknotes!
Compared with the rising ratings, what is it to treat Barkley to supper for two months?

……

The camera returns to the scene.

As for the fans at the scene, amidst the terrifying cheers, the Portland Trail Blazers vs. Utah Jazz in the first round of the 2016-17 NBA Western Conference playoffs officially began.

In front of the benches of the two teams, the starting lineups of both sides are already in place, and they can play immediately after the referee blows the whistle.

At this time, Wang Zelin learned of the bet between Barkley and Smith just now from Harrell, and he was immediately happy.

I remember that a few seasons ago, Barkley publicly stated in front of the media that he would never make these weird bets again.

Unexpectedly, that guy couldn't help but break the precept!
Wang Zelin secretly laughed in his heart, but Barkley's sudden bet on that cunning treasure really made him have other thoughts about tonight's game.

He was thinking, what is it to let Barkley win once?Or let him continue to lose?

After thinking about it for a while, he made a decision in his heart: he wanted Barkley to win once.

Anyway, since his rookie season, Barkley has always shown himself as a loyal king.

There is a saying that a gentleman talks about deeds regardless of his heart.

Even if it's a fake, people have been here for so long, almost four or five years, as an idol, you have to give back to your fans no matter what?
Thinking of Barkley, he had made bets with others many times before, but he ended up losing in the end.

From player to commentator, from his career to his retirement, Barkley seems to have always been a loser and background, which is a bit pitiful.

So this time Wang Zelin had a whim and decided to let our Sir Charles Barkley feel what it's like to be a winner.

As for whether the Trail Blazers have the ability to limit Hayward's data tonight to within the regular season?

Just kidding, even if Wang Zelin doesn't play, just relying on Barton, Batum, Beverly, Harrell and other strong players can control Hayward into obedience.

That's why he dared to say that the result of the bet between Barkley and Smith was in his own mind.

Looking up at the big LED screen at the scene, there are still 2 minutes before the game, which is enough.

Next, amidst the curious eyes of the fans in the frontcourt, Wang Zelin called a group of teammates to his side, as if he was plotting something?
At the same time, the Jazz bench on the other side.

"Ah Joe!"

Jazz star Gordon Hayward suddenly felt a chill behind his back and couldn't help yawning.

For some reason, he always had a bad feeling.

The Jazz are so leisurely without the Blazers, so naturally, few people pay attention to the bet between Barkley and Smith.

You must know that their opponent tonight is the Trail Blazers, the strongest defending champion in the league. In order to deal with this round of the series, the attention and focus of everyone in the Jazz team is on the Trail Blazers. They don't care about what happens off the court, and they don't bother to care... and the staff are the same.

This has led to the fact that now no one in the Jazz knows that Barkley is a gambling addict just now, and he actually made a moth off the court.

Just when Hayward was thinking wildly, there was only a beep from the field, and the referee suddenly blew the whistle to start the game.

Is it finally about to start?I can't wait!
Wang Zelin, let us do a good job today!

Hayward held his head high in an instant, exuding strong self-confidence, and was about to call his teammates to his side to cheer for each other. Suddenly, he glanced at the opposite bench and saw a group of pioneers headed by Wang Zelin The big man suddenly showed a weird smile at him.

hiss!
Hayward couldn't help taking a deep breath. Even if he didn't know what happened on the other side, just because of the strange expression of the Trail Blazers player, a deep sense of uneasiness suddenly appeared in his mind again, and his heart was so fast. Mentioned throat.

(End of this chapter)