am i proud?

Chapter 228 What Summer League Playing?come to me hi!

The matter of finding a house still has to be pushed back a little bit, because the door to the NBA free market officially opened on July 7.

Just at 7 am on July 1st, the Los Angeles Clippers held a small press conference, officially announcing the official joining of last season's MVP and two-time FMVP winner Wang Dalin.

There was also a small signing ceremony at this press conference. A player officially signed to join the Clippers. He was Eddie House, Wang Dalin's best friend during his rookie season.

Wang Dalin and House haven't seen each other for a long time. The last time they met was on February 2 when the Pistons played against the Heat at home.

House didn't expect that he could be teammates with Wang Dalin again, and he looked extremely excited. He was holding his No. 55 jersey when taking pictures, and his face was about to burst into laughter.

Wang Dalin finally got his wish and put on the No. 7 jersey... He had been wearing No. 8 for the past three seasons, but he still liked No. 7 the most, but he couldn't choose this number for various reasons.

Although Kobe was his idol in his previous life, there is nothing wrong with wearing his No. 8 jersey, but deep down in his heart, he still longs to be a "bad guy" like Kevin Durant, so he has always had a soft spot for Du Xiaoshuai's No. 7 jersey during the Nets period.

Moreover, his current style of play and various skills are getting closer and closer to the peak "Reaper", otherwise why would the fans nickname him "Reaper"?
If you count the blessing effects of many star skills, he is now even more terrifying than the peak Durant.

The outside offense is estimated to be similar, but the inside offense Durant is definitely not as good as him... Du Xiaoshuai's physical strength is not top-notch in the small ball era of later generations, and he definitely does not have more than 90.

After signing the contract, Wang Dalin had a sumptuous lunch with House, and then the two found a housing agency together, planning to solve the accommodation problem first.

Eddie House didn't make much money in the first three seasons, and his commercial endorsements were pitiful, so he didn't plan to buy real estate in Los Angeles.

Housing prices in Los Angeles, no matter how low they are, are much higher than those in Detroit.

Wang Dalin spent US$50 on the villa on the Detroit River, and the current price is estimated to have fallen below 40... Detroit’s real estate environment, it’s tears to say too much!
With House's net worth, it is not unaffordable to buy a three-bedroom house in downtown Los Angeles. However, he and the Clippers only signed a two-year, $2 million contract. He doesn't know how long he can stay here, so he decided to rent a house first.

This is the dilemma that most bottom-level players in the NBA have to face... On the surface, they are all millionaires, but in fact they only have so little money after tax deductions, and it is difficult to buy a decent house.

House just wanted to rent a two-bedroom apartment in downtown Los Angeles. The request was very simple. The staff of the housing agency quickly selected several apartments for him and took him to see the apartment.

Wang Dalin was in more trouble. He went to Beverly Hills with the manager of the real estate agency to see several big villas, but he was not very satisfied... It's not that these houses are not good, but he is looking at things with the eyes of later generations.

How can the general housing design and decoration concepts in this period of 2003 compare with those in 2021?
What's more, many of Beverly Hills are old houses from the last century, and some are even antique villas from the 20s. Although their interior decorations are extremely luxurious, their exteriors really don't look good, and they look a little dusty and old.

Maybe the aesthetics of foreigners and Chinese are different. Anyway, Wang Dalin just doesn’t like this kind of old house that looks old... and it’s not that big, and it has to be made into a European-style castle. Is it strange to look good?

He prefers a mansion that looks cool, just like the mansion on the cliff by the sea where Iron Man was blown up in the Marvel movie, it looks full of modern technology.

In fact, Beverly Hills also has a lot of good houses with cool appearance, but most of those houses were built after 2010, and there were really few houses at this time in 2003.

So he had no choice but to first rent a small villa in the "flat area" of Beverly Hills, which is located south of Sunset Boulevard. The terrain is relatively flat, and the housing price is indeed much cheaper than those luxury villas in the middle of Beverly Hills.

就像王大林租的这套别墅，总共有2个会客厅、1个餐厅、1个厨房、4个卧室、1个书房、3个卫生间，建筑面积有500多平米，还外带一个面积超过300平米的庭院，每月租金才2万7000美元。

It's not impossible to buy it if you have to, and the price is only more than 280 million US dollars, but Wang Dalin doesn't think it's necessary.

Renting this villa is only for a temporary stay, he must still buy a house, and he must buy a big villa, now it seems that he can only look at the off-plan property.

There are also off-plan houses in the United States, but you only need to pay a deposit of 1.5 US dollars to buy an off-plan house in the United States. After the house is in hand, you can pay the rest of the money, which can be mortgaged or the full amount.

Housing intermediary companies only sell existing houses. If you want to buy off-plan houses, you have to find a real estate brokerage company.

Wang Dalin found a real estate brokerage company, but he didn't expect that there was a boy of yellow race among the brokers of this company, so he called him to serve him.

"Darling-Wang? Is it really you? I just saw you and I couldn't believe it's real...I'm so excited!" This young man was obviously a football fan. After seeing Wang Dalin, he was so excited that he couldn't help himself, even uttering Northeast dialect.

"Are you from the Northeast? It's great, you can still meet your compatriots here!" Wang Dalin saw that there were people of yellow race who were just trying, but they turned out to be Chinese.

This is great, fellow villagers are naturally kinder than others when they meet fellow villagers.

The name of this guy from Northeast China is Chen Huiying, which sounds a bit like a woman's name at first glance, but he looks quite majestic and upright when he writes it out. Fortunately, he is tall and handsome, and he really looks like "Huiying".

"Darling, what kind of house do you want to buy? Can you tell me... the more detailed the better!" After the two exchanged pleasantries, Chen Huiying immediately went to work, showing her professional side as a real estate agent.

Wang Dalin thought for a while, and said: "First of all, there must be enough rooms, at least six bedrooms, a large living room and dining room, and more bathrooms."

Chen Huiying recorded them one by one, and the interface asked: "How about the house style? Do you like European style or modern minimalist style?"

Wang Dalin said: "Of course it is a modern and simple style. It is best to have a more dazzling appearance and a sense of technology."

Chen Huiying said with a smile: "Understood... Do you have any special requirements for supporting facilities such as gardens, swimming pools, and tennis courts?"

Wang Dalin said with a smile: "Gardens and swimming pools don't matter, but I don't need a tennis court. What I want is a basketball court, preferably an indoor basketball court!"

Chen Huiying frowned: "Indoor basketball courts are rare... I can only help you find some houses that are under design."

Wang Dalin was a little puzzled and said, "The house being designed? Do you mean that I can still participate in the design of the house?"

Chen Huiying smiled and said: "Of course! You paid for it, so of course you can appoint them to modify some designs for you!"

Wang Dalin said with a smile: "This is equivalent to that I can customize my own house?"

Chen Huiying smiled and said, "That's right, but the price of this kind of house must be higher than that of ordinary off-plan houses."

Wang Dalin said with a smile: "As long as the house meets my requirements, money is not a problem."

Chen Huiying asked again: "What about the location... Which location do you want to buy?"

Wang Dalin thought for a while and said, "Let's go to Beverly Hills, where the security and privacy are better."

Chen Huiying thought for a moment, turned on her laptop, logged on to a website, searched a bit, then pointed to the computer screen and said, "Darling, what do you think of this house?"

Wang Dalin took a closer look. This is a large villa under design located on the hillside of Beverly Hills. It covers an area of ​​more than 6200 square meters, and the building area is as high as 2300 square meters. It is definitely a luxury house in a place like Beverly Hills.

Wang Dalin nodded and said, "This one is really good... But I just saw that there is still a vacant lot below for sale, right?"

Chen Huiying immediately clicked on the sale page of the piece of land that Wang Dalin mentioned, and said with a smile, "That's right, the location of this piece of land is very good. You can overlook the entire area of ​​downtown Los Angeles. If the weather is good, you can also see the sea...the area is more than 125000 square feet (about 11613 square meters), and the price is 325 million US dollars...Why, you want to buy land and build a house by yourself?"

Wang Dalin smiled and said, "Why, can't you?"

Chen Huiying said with a smile: "Of course, I can also introduce you to a professional construction company, and then you can ask them to design according to your requirements."

Wang Dalin smiled and said: "Okay, let's do it like this!"

The procedures for buying land in the United States are very simple, but the individual housing design needs to be approved by the city government, which may take two or three months longer, so the construction of new houses cannot be started for a while.

However, with the help of Chen Huiying, Wang Dalin bought the land first, and then found a reliable construction company under his introduction, and explained his needs to the designer in detail.

He didn't have much demand, but besides his own housing, he had to build a modern indoor basketball stadium.

……

The matter of the new house could only wait slowly. Wang Dalin went to the hotel to pick up his luggage, and first moved into the rented small villa.

In the next period of time, Wang Dalin is really busy. On the one hand, he has to continue to help "Bailey" recruit reinforcements.

Kobe's popularity is exactly what he said... Except for Garnett and Tracy McGrady, he really can't call anyone else.

According to common sense... This is Los Angeles, and Kobe is the second head of the Lakers. At the very least, he should be able to invite a few teammates to his training camp, right?
But the reality is so cruel. Since being eliminated in the Western Conference semifinals in May, the Lakers have disbanded in situ.

Players go on vacation, go back to their hometown, even the team boss O'Neill went to Miami Beach to bask in the sun and admire girls in bikinis, who else can Kobe shout?

If after O'Neal left the Lakers in later generations, Kobe was the dominant player in this team, then his teammates would probably have to give him some face.

But now...forget it, brother, you are just a second in command!

If you want to compete with O'Neill for the boss, we have no objection, anyway, we are just tool people with low skills!

But you have to pull us to practice together... Please, if I can develop good skills, I would have practiced them so early, why wait until now?
Look at Wang Dalin again... He just made a few phone calls, which took less than half an hour, and he settled down with Ben, Hamilton, Billups, House and Maggette.

Hearing that Wang Zhizhi was still training in Los Angeles, Wang Dalin quickly called him.

"Generally, you are still in Los Angeles now? Didn't you go back to China to participate in the training camp?" Wang Dalin was a little surprised. Although Wang Zhizhi didn't play well in the NBA this time, he averaged about 16 minutes per game last season, scoring 6.5 points, 3.2 rebounds, 1.1 assists and 0.8 blocks. Among the Clippers' bench lineup, his overall performance can even be ranked among the top three.

In addition, he also played well with the Mavericks in the 2001-2002 season, and his three-point shooting percentage even reached 41.4%, so... In this life, he did not repeat the same mistakes and have another "no return incident". It stands to reason that now is the closed training period for the men's basketball team to prepare for the Asian Championships. He should have returned to Beijing, right?

Just like Yao Ming, he returned to China just after playing the Western Conference Finals in May. Even if he didn't join the closed training camp now because of recuperating his body, it's just a matter of time. At most, he can practice with his teammates a few times before the warm-up game in August.

With Yao Ming's current strength, even in the NBA, he is a new insider star. In Asia, he is a sideways existence... As long as he is put on the court, all Asian teams can only look forward to it.

Naturally, Wang Dalin was also selected for this year's Chinese men's basketball team, but he played in the NBA finals, so the Basketball Association gave him a very generous time to return to the team. It doesn't matter even if he doesn't participate in the warm-up match in August, as long as he returns to China to report before September 8th.

But Wang Zhizhi...why didn't he go back?

Could it be that the "non-return incident" was not carried out last year, but it will be carried out this year?
Thinking of this, Wang Dalin couldn't help frowning.

"Dalin, is that you? Great, we can be teammates again in the new season... By the way, this time I specifically asked Director Jiang for instructions. I will report back to China after playing the summer league in the United States." Wang Zhizhi's voice on the other end of the phone was a little distorted, but Wang Dalin could still hear that he was in a good mood.

"So it's like this... I've formed a training camp with Kobe here, and I've already made appointments with a lot of people. What kind of summer league are you playing at your level? Wouldn't it be good to come and train with us?"

"Huh? Is there such a thing? It's really great...I'll come to you tomorrow, and I'll call you when the time comes!"

After hanging up the phone, Wang Dalin showed a smile on his face. With Wang Zhizhi, there are now 10 people in the "Reaper Special Training Camp", which is enough for a five-on-five match.

Now it is best to find one or two high-level trainers, just like James was selected by the Cavaliers a few days ago, and he immediately set up his own private training team without stopping. Among them is Mike Mancias, who is known as James King's queen trainer in later generations, and his level is quite high.

Wang Dalin has never hired a personal trainer until now. On the one hand, he only needs to accumulate points in the early stage to quickly improve various abilities without much training. On the other hand, he thinks that the NBA team trainers and assistant coaches are already very good.

Now as long as the system does not release temporary tasks, he can only rely on training to improve his ability value, so at this stage he thinks that he really should find a high-level trainer.

As a senior fan, he knows a lot about famous basketball trainers in the United States, such as Jordan's queen trainer Tim Grover, Canon Baker who has served many NBA stars, Eton LaVine who has trained Anthony, Paul and other stars, etc.

Wang Dalin called Schwartz and put forward his request, and soon Schwartz sent him good news... Tim Grover agreed to be his personal trainer!

If you want to say who is the best trainer in North American basketball during this period, it is estimated that everyone will say the same name-Tim Grover!
When he was Jordan's personal trainer, Jordan once said to him: "I pay you, not for you to train me, I just don't want you to train others!"

So when Jordan was still on the court, even in the first two seasons with the Wizards, Grover has always been Jordan's queen trainer.

Now that Jordan has finally retired, Grover has naturally returned to the idle state, but with his reputation, he can find a lot of NBA stars in him.

It is said that Kobe had invited him a few days ago, hoping that he could serve as his personal trainer, but for unknown reasons at the time, he declined.

This time Wang Dalin contacted him, and he agreed immediately. It seems that "Reaper" still has more face than "Black Mamba"!

Of course...you get what you pay for, Schwartz has already told Wang Dalin about Grover's price, he asked for an annual salary of up to 100 million US dollars, and absolutely no bargaining!
100 million US dollars is naturally a sky-high price for a hard-working role player like Eddie House, but it is too much for Wang Dalin... Just the signing fee that Li Ning gave him a few days ago was 300 million US dollars!

Wang Dalin called Kobe to tell him the good news, and Kobe was also very happy. Although Grover refused to be his personal trainer, since everyone is training together now, can't they "snap" the trainer openly?

So, on July 2003, 7, the first "Reaper Special Training Camp" officially opened...

(End of this chapter)