One Year Left to Play-Chapter 248 - 87: The Dawn of the Iron-Blood Era
The expression was quite helpless, but the tone sounded very excited.
What Moning was talking about was naturally Pat Riley.
Pat Riley is a well-known high-pressure, authoritative coach, one who can train Jabbar into early retirement. With Moning saying you can't leave the arena for training days, Zhang Hao instantly pictured it in his mind.
Under the Divine Calculator's command, whether Moning's liver can take it, Zhang Hao doesn't know, but certainly his kidneys wouldn't.
British poet Sassoon once said: In the heart of a fierce tiger, a gentle sniff of the rose.
Beneath Moning's rough exterior and stony court image lies a quite sensitive person, seeing Zhang Hao still wandering alone near noon...
"Aix, my girlfriend bought some Kobe steaks this morning. Come, let's go to my house for lunch." Moning enthusiastically put his arm around Zhang Hao's shoulder and took him to the parking lot without asking, got him in the car, and left.
...
A seaside villa in Miami, quite luxurious, with a market value of 6 million US Dollar, bought by Alonzo Mourning after signing a 5-year, 15 million US Dollar endorsement deal with Nike.
Moning's girlfriend is named Trish, a very passionate Latino model.
Lunchtime... very dull.
After lunch, Zhang Hao took the initiative to say goodbye: "Alonzo, Trish, thank you for your hospitality. No need to see me off. I'd like to walk along the coast, and later I'll take a cab back to the Beach Coast Arena myself."
The couple replied and went back into the house. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖
As Trish tidied up the table, she asked, "Alonzo, you seem very concerned about that kid."
"Don't you know who he is? The genius who scored 44 points in his debut."
"I've heard of him… Oh right, it's the game you watched between the Brooklyn Nets and the Pistons… It's just very rare for you to be so enthusiastic about a rookie and even invite him to our home for a meal."
"Recently, I learned something. The coach asked me to interact more with stars from other teams. See, Olajuwon got help from Drexler to win two consecutive championships... This kid looks pretty good, there's nothing wrong with getting to know him."
"Can this kid make it? He seems too young."
"I don't know either..." Speaking of which, Moning recalled the time since meeting Zhang Hao and said: "He was selected ninth overall and scored 44 points in his debut. I think he can, and besides, didn't he praise how well you cooked the steak?"
"Yes, he's a good kid, I also think he can make it."
In this brief interaction, Moning learned some of Zhang Hao's personality traits.
Not exactly aloof, but definitely not enthusiastic, rather cold.
When chatting, he's not proactive; when the topic interests him, he'll talk more. For example, Magician's return and Jordan's steady 30-33 points in the first four games... On these topics that interest him, he'll talk a lot; while on uninterested topics, he won't remain silent but would obviously just provide polite acknowledgment.
Considering Zhang Hao's performance at the start, his personality, Alonzo Mourning has reason to believe this rookie can succeed!
No one is friendly to others without reason, and Moning is the same. If it was another fringe player from the Brooklyn Nets, he would have just walked past, seeing Zhang Hao as just another passerby. Because Zhang Hao is the hottest rookie at the beginning of the season, breaking Chamberlain's debut scoring record, Moning actively approaches.
Whether someone is enthusiastic depends on who the other person is...
...
At 6:15 PM, Zhang Hao and his teammates entered the court of the Beach Coast Arena.
Running out of the player tunnel, Zhang Hao felt the atmosphere on-site was very dull. They, the Brooklyn Nets, did not receive much booing, and when the Heat players came out, the cheers weren't very loud either.
Looking around, the game was about to begin, at least a third of the seats were still empty.
"Boss Kenny, do you believe their tickets sold out?"
"Their tickets have always sold well. In the past few years, the Heat should be one of the top five teams in making money, otherwise, they wouldn't have built a new arena. However, as before, a good portion of ticket buyers purchase with the thought of having the option to watch a game should they feel like it, avoiding the scenario of not being able to buy tickets. Since joining the NBA, they've had the largest gap between ticket sales and attendance rates."
"Heat fans are truly passionate and unrestrained, worthy of a seaside city's team... But less people is also good, whether we win or lose, they wouldn't cheer for us, and if we lose, it's even more embarrassing for you, boss."
"Why would it be embarrassing for me?"
"You're the boss! If we lose, shouldn't you take the responsibility?"
"..."
Kenny Anderson once again felt himself struggling to suppress his impulse to hit.
But Zhang Hao escaped once more ahead of time.
After the home team players were all on-court, Zhang Hao paid attention to Moning, finding that he had indeed reverted to a noble and cool iron-blooded man.
Then, Zhang Hao shifted his attention to the opposing head coach.
Pat Riley!
This miraculous coach stirred up the showtime era in the 80s, leading the Lakers to score a terrifying average of 117.8 points per game.
Then moving to the New York Knicks, led the team's average score directly below 100. Last season, after the three-point line was shortened, he led the Knicks in suppressing opponents' average attempts to 78.2 times per game, the best performance in suppressing opponent attempts in the past 19 years. The last time such a good pace suppression appeared was before the NBA and ABA merger in the 75-76 season.
Soon, the game was about to start.
The giant screen displayed the photos of the starting players from both teams.
The Brooklyn Nets still had their starting lineup of Kenny Anderson, Graham, Almon Gilliam, Zhang Hao, PJ Brown.
