NBA: James wants to team up with me

Chapter 51 The Passionate Shark O’Neal

The Lakers' 2003-04 new season lineup is full of 15 players. Ignoring the supporting roles that Wang Chongdu doesn't know at all, there are 12 main players of the Lakers, including him.

As for the defenders, they are mainly composed of four players: Kobe Bryant, Gary Payton, Derek Fisher, and Kareem Rush.

At the forward position, there are Karl Malone, Devin George, Rick Fox, Stanislav Medvedenko, Brian Russell, Horace Grant and Wang Chong, who just joined the Lakers in the summer.

As for the center position, although there is only O'Neal, Malone, Grant, Cook and others on the front line can all play as center, so there is no need to worry about the team's rotation.

The absolute core of the Lakers in the new season must still be the OK combination, but in this gathering of players, Wang Chong did not see Kobe Bryant.

Obviously, the lasting impact of the Eagle County incident on Kobe is still continuing. He has to keep traveling back and forth to Eagle County and has no time to attend to the team's pre-season training.

"Hello, Wang Chong."

As soon as he entered the arena, O'Neal immediately greeted Wang Chong and walked towards him.

Wang Chong felt a mountain of flesh approaching him and had to look up.

Wang Chong rarely did this action in the past, because with a height of 2 meters, he was usually the tallest player on the court.

But that certainly doesn't include O'Neal.

O'Neal, who is 2 meters tall and weighs 16 kilograms at this time, is tall and strong. Just standing in front of Wang Chong can feel a strong sense of oppression.

"What the fuck..."

While Wang Chong was greatly shocked, he couldn't help but think of the words of the future three-time Defensive Player of the Year, Rudy Gobert, who once said that he could prevent O'Neal.

Although Wang Chong himself didn't believe that Gobert could prevent O'Neal from dying, now that he saw O'Neal at close range, who was still at the end of his prime, he was even more convinced of his judgment.

With Gobert's thin arms and legs, I'm afraid O'Neal will break them if he exerts a little force. Are you going to risk your life to defend them?

O'Neal was very enthusiastic. Not only did he take the initiative to greet Wang Chong, he even put his arm around Wang Chong's shoulders familiarly and said to the other players with a smile: "We have Cal, Gary, and now we have Wang. We will definitely win the championship this year!”

Wang Chong had an awkward yet polite smile on his face, and O'Neal's overly enthusiastic attitude made him feel very awkward.

O'Neal patted Wang Chong on the shoulder and continued to say enthusiastically: "Don't be too restrained. I will support you in the team from now on! We will definitely become the best partners!"

But when he heard the other party's words, Wang Chong felt something in his heart.

Does O'Neal welcome himself and like himself very much?

Not really.

O'Neal's move obviously had his purpose.

The first thing Wang Chong could think of was Kobe.

<divclass="contentadv">As we all know, in the 03-04 season, the conflict between O'Neal and Kobe became irreconcilable. The reason why the two could tolerate each other for an entire season was simply to be able to Just keep winning championships.

So when the Lakers lost miserably to the Pistons in the Finals, the entire Lakers team completely fell apart.

The regular season has not yet begun, but it is clear that the overt and covert fight between OK and OK has begun.

Wang Chong defeated Anthony in the summer league and showed amazing potential that no one can ignore.

O'Neal obviously wanted to win over Wang Chong and put him in his camp to fight against Kobe, who was getting stronger day by day.

I have to admit that in terms of emotional intelligence, O'Neal is much better than Kobe. Even when he later joined the Heat, he also very low-key claimed that he was here to assist Wade in winning the championship. Wade was only a second-year rookie at the time, but But he is already the most popular player in the Heat. O'Neal did not act in a pretentious manner, which allowed him to quickly integrate into the Heat team and successfully win the championship in the second year.

The classic opposite case is that in 2013, Kobe Bryant expressed to Howard in a high profile that he wanted to teach Howard how to win the championship, which made Howard very angry.

Indeed, Kobe had five championships in hand at the time and was an absolute winner, but everyone was a superstar and arrogant. Who could stand to be so PUA like you?

Because of this, Howard was seriously dissatisfied with Kobe. Even when he later went to the Rockets, he still had fierce conflicts with Kobe in games.

When he switched to the Heat, O'Neal was the winner of three consecutive championships and three consecutive FMVPs, the league's strongest center, and a historical superstar. Wade was just a second-year rookie with no honors. Even so, O'Neal didn't say anything about rookies. I'll teach you. How to win the championship is very smart.

Therefore, at this moment, it is not surprising that O'Neill took the initiative to express goodwill to Wang Chong and behaved very warmly and familiarly.

Wang Chong didn't even have to think about it. Gary Payton and Karl Malone must be on O'Neal's side. After all, both of them were attracted by O'Neal, especially Gary Payton. After failing to win the championship in 04, , defected to O'Neal again in the 05-06 season, and finally won a championship ring with the Heat as he wished, with no regrets in his career.

Of course, isolating Kobe means isolating Kobe. O'Neal also knows that he has to rely on Kobe's outstanding personal ability to win the championship, so the two will not break up before winning the championship.

-

After the team gathers, the next step is naturally training.

After a long offseason, many players with poor self-control abilities will neglect training, resulting in a decline in competitive status.

O'Neal is a typical example. Although his talent is rare in history, O'Neal is a typical player who is unwilling to train. He often makes excuses to miss training, and his weight increases every holiday.

This time was no exception. In the previous physical examination, O'Neal's weight was significantly heavier than last season's playoffs. However, O'Neal did not complain at all when faced with the weight loss training plan given to him by the assistant coach.

The failure in the playoffs last season was unacceptable to O'Neal. The team has formed a more luxurious lineup in the new season. While O'Neal is happy, he also feels tremendous pressure. He knows very well that if the team fails again this year, he will What kind of criticism will be suffered.

Both are highly efficient big centers. The biggest difference between O'Neal and Howard is that he knows when he can joke and when he can't.

O'Neal is very serious about competition and winning.

At the same time, there is a player in the Lakers who is more serious and even paranoid, namely Kobe Bryant.

Although he missed the first day of training due to force majeure, Kobe returned to the team only the next day and was the first player on the team to arrive at the arena for training.