Bishop: since 1998

Chapter 95 Besides the championship, who else?
Vacation days always go by so fast.

In a blink of an eye, the time has come to September 9th, the Lakers opened the media day, and the footsteps of the 24/99 season are coming.

On this day, the Lakers players made a collective appearance and were interviewed by reporters.

The Lakers' 13-man roster is as follows.

Center: Shaquille O'Neal, Brad Miller.

Power forwards: Ben Wallace, Robert Horry, AC Green.

Small forwards: Bruce Bowen, Glenn Rice, Rashard Lewis.

Shooting Guard: Kobe Bryant, Manu Ginobili, Rick Fox.

Point guards: Chauncey Billups, Derek Fisher.

During the offseason, the Lakers left three players and reinforced two.

Ginobili entangled with Kobe for a month, and then, instead of returning to Europe, he chose to sign with the Lakers.

In other words, if he chooses to stay in Europe, he will only play as a substitute.

However, Ginobili is very strong, playing directly from the bench, replacing the starting shooting guard.

Anyway, they are all on the bench, and now there is Kobe as an example.

Kobe played in the NBA at the age of 18, was selected as an All-Star starter at the age of 20, and won the NBA championship as a core player.

Born in 1977, Ginobili, who is almost 23 years old, can't wait to catch up with Kobe.

What Kobe can do, why can't he do it?

So, he signed a three-year rookie contract with the Lakers to serve as a substitute for Kobe.

AC Green, nicknamed "Iron Man", was stuffed in by the Lakers management.

This person was born in the Lakers. In the 80s, he helped the Lakers win three NBA championships.

Now AC Green is willing to return, return to the place where the dream began, and prepare to retire. The Lakers have no reason to refuse.

In the Mavericks last season, AC Green averaged 20 minutes per game, scored 5 points and 4.6 rebounds, shared the starting game with Nowitzki, and the fuel tank was still full.

The core lineup of the Lakers remains unchanged. With the addition of AC Green and the growth of Lewis, the forward line is very strong.

Positional shortcomings may still exist.

If Billups and Fisher are not enough at the point guard position.

Kacha, Kacha~
They smiled collectively at the camera.

The C position is still O'Neal and Kobe, and the players around them have become Billups, Rice and Ben Wallace.

With a flash of the spotlight, the new season Lakers core set photo is completed.

At this time, the Lakers, on the surface, are dual-core drivers, but in fact they are 5-core linkage.

Next, it's time for interviews with reporters.

O'Neill and Kobe were directly surrounded by long guns and short guns.

The reporter asked: "Shaq, you got all the honors last season, have you achieved your goals this season?"

O'Neill said with a serious face, "I hope to maintain a weight of 130 kilograms. Does this goal count?"

The reporters fainted collectively.

"It was just a joke, but in fact, it's not a joke.

Because, next, in order to maintain a body of 130 kilograms of physical fitness, I want to win the honor of scoring champion in the regular season. "

After O'Neill finished speaking, he paused and continued.

"The regular season MVP is estimated to be difficult to get, after all, the Lakers only lost one game in the regular season.

It is impossible to surpass last season.

However, I will still fight hard for it. "

Li Mu, as the head coach in charge of appearance, was also taken care of, and asked, "Master Li Mu, what is the goal of the Lakers for the new season?"

"Besides the championship, who else?" Li Mu copied Kimura Takuya's tone when he answered who he was marrying, and replied without doubt.

The reporter continued to ask: "Who do you think is the main opponent of the Lakers this season?"

"Can you say no?
If you have to choose a right, then the Lakers themselves. "Li Mu said calmly.

It's not that he's really crazy, but that's the reality.

In the 99/00 season, the Lakers really had no opponents.

……

Li Mu was very arrogant, and said the domineering slogan of "the Lakers, there is no opponent for the championship".

On the second day, it quickly grabbed the headlines in the North American sports circle.

Li Mu didn't care, because the training camp for the Lakers had already started.

In order to quickly adapt to the new arena, public training sessions were held at the Staples Center.

On that day, the gymnasium was full, and the owner Jerry Buss showed up. After the opening remarks, the training match immediately began.

Li Mu gave up O'Neal directly and took Billups, Kobe, Bowen, Ben and Brad Miller.

Rambis and Sterling glanced at each other, and quickly arranged the main lineup for the battle, Fisher, Fox, Rice, Horry and O'Neal.

Three people on the bench, AC Green, Ginobili, Lewis, can be used by both sides.

Just looking at the lineups of both sides, no one can say that they are sure to win.

O'Neal jumped to win the basketball, and Fisher played it seriously, seeing Billups as his opponent.

The frontcourt steadily delivered the basketball to O'Neal.

O'Neal caught the ball with his back, and there was only Big Ben behind him.

Bang-!
Big Ben is extremely powerful, like an old tree whose roots are twisted and nailed to the floor.

Useless.

O'Neal is at his peak, the first shot is not good, but the second shot is okay, after breaking through Big Ben's defense.

There was a bang, and the whole body hung from the southeast branch.

Li Mu made the team speed up.

Kobe broke through the frontcourt, stopped and shot with a picturesque fadeaway jumper, and hit the iron hard with a bang.

The basket at the Staples Center was too raw, and Kobe was a little uncomfortable.

Fortunately, Big Ben grabbed the rebound, made a second attack, and sent the basketball to the basket.

O'Neal is in good shape, or in other words, his style of play doesn't need to be in shape at all.

In the first few minutes, he easily blasted the restricted area guarded by Daben.

Li Mu immediately arranged for Bao Wen to attack.

O'Neal sent the ball out, and Rice missed consecutively at the beginning. Later, after adapting to the new basket, he immediately showed the strength of an All-Star three-point shooter and hit consecutive three-pointers accurately.

Following Horry, he also found the three-pointer feeling and played an offensive tactic combining inside and outside.

Kobe led the team, the offensive tempo was raised, and the fast break was also flourishing.

Falling into position, Brad Miller's supporting pass also played well, delivering ammunition to Bowen who was standing in the bottom corner.

Bowen made a three-pointer from the bottom corner, raised his hand and dropped the knife, making a steady hit.

I fulfilled what I said, the basket is getting bigger and bigger.

In the first half, the two sides played against each other offensively, and the game was very lively, and the game was evenly divided.

Li Mu took the lead in making substitutions, replacing Bowen with Manu Ginobili.

With Ginobili on the court, the situation on the court quickly turned to Li Mu's side.

Ginobi used the European step to break the opponent into a sieve, and then sent the basketball into the basket or passed the ball out to assist his teammates to score.

Together with Kobe, the two swords combined, singled out individually, and the opponent's perimeter defense completely collapsed.

Only fighting for offense, Ginobili showed strong competitiveness, scoring 19 points, 5 assists and 4 rebounds in the game.

It is completely comparable to Kobe's performance of 24 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists.

With a score of 135 to 129, the team led by Li Mu won the match with a 6-point advantage.

Although O'Neal led the team to lose the game, their personal statistics are still strong, scoring 37 points, 10 rebounds and 7 assists.

Rice made 12 of 6 three-pointers and made free throws. He scored 21 points and 4 assists, and he was in pretty good shape.

After 10 days of training camp, the preseason kicks off.

The Lakers showed terrifying strength. With O'Neal, Kobe Bryant and Billups at the core, they still won 20 wins in about 7 minutes. They did not give their opponents any hope and crushed their opponents all the way to win.

The official first strength ranking list was released, and the Lakers have no suspense, ranking first in the league.

The Spurs and Trail Blazers ranked second and third respectively, and the Heat in the East ranked fourth.

At this time, the situation where the west is strong and the east is weak has become more and more obvious.

……

(End of this chapter)