i am legend

Chapter 199 Rules and Inferior Peoples
Bird's departure and Isaiah Thomas' assumption of office caused a huge storm in the league for a while!

Bird's ability is unquestionable. Not only did he achieve great success as a player, but when he became the head coach of the Pacers, he was also as impressive as his player career.

Now, this meritorious coach is about to leave his post temporarily. Even if his successor is also a legendary star in the league, Bird's influence has made the local Indiana fans feel sad about his departure!

Bruce sat quietly in the office, watching Bird with moist eye circles on TV, and couldn't help paying his highest respect to this legend!

Wilkens first looked at Bruce beside him, then got up and picked up the remote control board to change the channel, and said with regret: "Larry's life is legendary and very successful. What can be accomplished, he used his unique coaching philosophy to gradually bring this team that once lingered in the playoffs into the ranks of strong teams!"

Listening to Wilkens' emotional evaluation, Bruce asked subconsciously: "Where is Isaiah? How do you evaluate his performance?"

"Hehe!" Wilkens didn't say anything, but answered Bruce with the simplest words.

Looking at the expressionless expression on Wilkens' face, and thinking of the series of tricks made by Thomas in his previous life, he couldn't help feeling dumbfounded!

"Friends in the audience, welcome to watch the pre-Olympic warm-up match broadcast live by NCC!"

When the two were discussing something, the host's very magnetic voice suddenly came from the TV!

"This ball is the last warm-up match of the "Dream Team" before the Olympics, and they will end this final series in Japan!"

When Bruce and Wilkens heard the host's voice, they stopped talking one after another, and looked at the little Japanese on the TV screen.

On September 9, when the Sydney Olympic Games was about to start on the 10th, the US team was in Japan for a series of warm-up matches.

And this game against the Japanese team does not know whether the Japanese Basketball Association deliberately arranged their team in the final game of the final game.

"What does this country of idiots think? Do they want to use a poor performance to send blessings to the American team before leaving?" Bruce said with a cold gleam in his eyes, and said with all his sarcasm.

"Haha, I like your title!" Wilkens obviously agreed with Bruce's words very much. For him, the tragic "Pearl Harbor" time is still unforgettable for him!

"Why would the league arrange a series in this clown-like country? This is simply an insult to the American team!" Bruce couldn't understand Stern's intentions. Hong Kong, the "Pearl of the Orient", does not have much advantage, but their basketball is still in a very poor state!
"Haha, David is already a little crazy!" Wilkens thought about the potential intentions, and couldn't help being amused by Stern's impatience!

Since Stern became the president of the league that year, he has made a series of reforms, the most famous of which is the prohibition of drugs and gambling, which made the league gradually enter the eyes of the mainstream media!

As Stern further consolidated his position gradually, and when Auerbach's authority had gradually weakened, he suddenly launched a series of reform proposals to further make this alliance enter the threshold of a commercial alliance very quickly!
Now, with Stern's management, the NBA has gradually become a commercial league on the same level as Major League Baseball and American Football in the United States!

If Auerbach wasn't so proud back then, presumably the current NBA would still be under his control!

"David has indeed done a lot of good things for this league, but his somewhat authoritarian way of doing things has really touched the interests of some people!" Wilkens wisely looked at the players on both sides who were about to go to the court on TV, Thinking of some secrets back then, I couldn't help but admire Stern's methods!
"Although his methods are a bit arbitrary and even cruel, David still brought this alliance that lost a lot of attention because of gambling and drugs back then to its current position!" Bruce said with great emotion.

"That's right, this is exactly what everyone in the NBA is thanking him for!" Wilkens nodded in agreement, then changed the subject and said with a smile: "However, he is an outstanding player." A real bastard, isn't he?"

Thinking of Stern gradually turning the NBA into a very commercialized league, Bruce couldn't help but feel helpless!
With the establishment of a series of rules, tough defense will be called a foul, and excessive movements that affect the offensive players will also be called a foul!
This is the result Stern wanted. Only a beautiful offense is one of the factors that attract fans to pay attention to the NBA. All tough defenses have become obstacles in his way!
Just like the most authentic fans in the United States, they love the simple NCAA crazily, but they dismiss the NBA. This is the status quo in the United States, and it is also where Stern is very depressed!
And precisely in the 2000-2001 season, Stern announced a series of new regulations in the form of a press conference through a spokesperson!

According to the new rules, in terms of timeouts, the original 7 timeouts for the whole game were changed to 6 times, and the maximum 4 timeout opportunities for each team in the last quarter were also changed to 3 times!
And there is another issue that has attracted much attention about the timeout. According to the new regulations, in the last 2 minutes of the fourth quarter or in overtime, the original timeout of 100 seconds will be changed to 60 seconds. From the strategy formulated by the league Look, obviously a very noticeable change has been made on both ends of the offense and defense and the timeout time!

When a short timeout of 20 seconds occurs, according to the old rules, the side that called the timeout can replace a player. If they choose not to replace a player, the opponent cannot replace a player.

And now the newly formulated rule is that after this short timeout, the team can make an unlimited number of substitutions, that is, you can replace a player or go up and down at the same time it is considered normal !

These regulations seem very reasonable, but there is a very big bias against offensive players and the excitement of the game!
Apart from these, the most striking thing is the off-ball foul!

According to the previous old rules, two free throws can be obtained when being violated by an opposing player without the ball, but the new rules have become one free throw. This alone can clearly see Stern's purpose!
Although there was a precedent for playing a game for several hours in an NBA game back then, the situation at that time was quite normal!
But this way of playing has greatly hindered Stern's pace of promoting the NBA to the outside world. Therefore, after a series of rules are formulated, the league's games are faster and more exciting!
Bruce listened quietly to Wilkens' explanation, and admired the old man's analysis and the detail of some rules!
Old coaches like Wilkens are very rare in the NBA. Some of them still seem uncomfortable with the changes in the rules, while others only spend a little time to figure out their intentions.

Therefore, Wilkens' learning ability to keep pace with the times is a very surprising thing!
While the two were discussing the new rules, the US team and Little Japan team on TV got the ball after Mourning's easy jump ball!
Because of the special nature of the Olympic Games and the arrangement of FIBA, there will be a big difference in the rules!

The time of the game, surprisingly, still uses the same schedule as the NCAA tournament.

The whole game is divided into consecutive halves, which makes some national teams with weak physical reserves get into some troubles!
Of course, the abnormal physical fitness of these NBA stars will not be affected at all, which makes them feel as if they have returned to the college arena!

At the beginning of the game, the American team launched a powerful attack on the Japanese team crazily, and every player played with these idiots with ease.

When Carter was adoring the disgusting player of the opponent, he seemed to be very disgusted with it. He suddenly accelerated and broke through the opponent's defense in an instant.

Seeing Carter's actions, Kidd showed a charming smile on his face. At the moment when the opposing player was about to defend himself, he made a high-profile right hand and casually threw the basketball to the position in front of the basket.

Carter, who broke through quickly, turned his head to look at Kidd who was making the move very quickly while running, and then jumped up when he stepped two steps into the penalty area!
The opposing center, who was still entangled with Mourning in the penalty area, was rushed into his arms by the impactful Carter before he could turn around to watch, followed by, with a bang, the poor guy immediately fell to the ground The direction of the basket behind him!

Carter, who was still hanging on the basket, saw the opponent's distressed appearance, first laughed and pointed, and then ran to the backcourt excitedly!
"Haha! Vince is so bad!" Seeing Carter's actions, Bruce and Wilkens, who were sitting in the office watching, laughed one after another!

The lineup of the Little Japan team can be described as small, and their tallest player is the guy who was dunked by Carter and flew to the basket!

Although his height is the tallest player in the Little Japan team, his poor height of 1 meters is still difficult to make an effective defense against Mourning!

Carter's humiliating dunk not only did not get booed by the little Japanese in the arena, but received a surprising amount of cheers!

"This nation is disgusting!" Bruce snorted in disgust.

With Carter's explosive attack, the US team seemed to be a Harlem basketball team, showing all kinds of dunks and difficult moves to those idiots!

When Carter finally completed the final blow with a powerful alley-oop, in the huge score difference of 110:39 for the US team, many idiots in the audience stood up and made a noise for this "American performance team". Cheers for the day!
Bruce looked at the close-up on the scoreboard on TV, and a hint of joy and ridicule suddenly rose in his heart!

　The third one!

　　Sweet dreams! ~~
　　What's inside, isn't tomorrow Monday? Guys, whoever has a ticket will give us two tickets. The old wolf doesn't want to be his own three votes so that we won't lose popularity. Please, please! !
　　
　
(End of this chapter)