48. The feelings of the Knicks
On the evening of July 10th at the Mark Center Arena, Lin Feng, who was about to receive his first contract in his life, was in high spirits.
The opponent was the New York Knicks. Lin Feng, who was only 19 years old, looked like he was standing in the Madison Garden Arena. He eclipsed the Knicks' No. 9 pick Kevin Knox.
Lin Feng forgot how many points he scored in front of Knox, but he remembered how pale Knicks owner James Dolan's face was, so that new coach Fizdale, who was watching the game with him, didn't even dare to say a word.
9 points, 3 rebounds and 7 turnovers. This is the data that Knox, who is 206 centimeters tall, handed over to Lin Feng, who is 16 centimeters shorter than him.
The entire New York fans are angry. They can no longer tolerate the team's continued bad performance. A No. 9 lottery pick was actually defeated by the No. 60 pick?
A single summer league game can't explain much. Facing the abysmal Knicks, their fans have long been accustomed to the team losing by a huge margin.
But what can't calm their anger is that Gary Smith, who killed the Knicks, is a true New Yorker!
What fans are angry about is not that Lin Feng killed his hometown team, but that they feel ashamed that the stupid management selected a parallel lottery pick.
At the end of the game, there were even New York fans who came all the way to cheer for Lin Feng. Although he was selected by Los Angeles, he will always be the pride of New Yorkers.
People who enter Madison Garden all year round can only find some solace in the fact that Lin Feng is his hometown. There is a figure of him fighting in Rucker Park. The juniors at Syracuse University will occasionally talk about the former star player.
In his freshman year, New Yorkers compared him to Anthony, even though Gary Smith at the time did not reach the heights of Melo.
At the end of his freshman year, Gary fell into despair, and Syracuse and even the whole of New York entered darkness again.
Kevin Knox will have to face at least two days of boos from fans, which are mixed with dissatisfaction with the management. Sexton is enjoying a good time with the Cavaliers, but their ninth pick is playing in such a mess.
"We need to get back to our glory days!"
"The last time the Knicks won the championship, I was only nine years old, and now I'm over 50 years old!"
"Garland get out!"
The angry New Yorkers couldn't believe that their team was so bad. With the capital of the world behind them, they became the laughing stock of the league. Every team regarded the Knicks as a cash machine, even the Nets, who had just moved here a few years ago.
surpassed them.
Fortunately, after several consecutive years of bad performance, the team has freed up a lot of salary space. Trading Porzingis to the Mavericks means that the team has finally made up its mind to completely rebuild.
The Knicks are determined to show off their talents in the 2019 summer market. What they want most is Kevin Durant, whose contract expires next year, Leonard and Lin Feng's idol Kyrie Irving.
This is the only spiritual sustenance of Knicks fans. They imagine that the team will form a Big Three next summer, at least one of the top five in the league like Durant.
They have enough confidence because that is New York! A world-class big city!
When he returned home, after Sara left, he resumed his monotonous life alone, and he felt peaceful.
After dinner, Lin Feng made a cup of instant coffee and prepared to have a quiet night.
Perkins called him about tomorrow's schedule.
This is the first time in his life that he has attended a social event. He needs to learn some things about alliance survival from his senior Marion. In such an organization with hundreds of millions of eyes watching, it is impossible to survive without some wisdom.
Lin Feng searched for Marion's information. This guy retired for three years and is currently enjoying the happiness of his family. He is an uncle who likes to stay with his children. This is similar to Lin Feng, although Lin Feng does not even have a girlfriend.
If the most artistic thing about the Suns is Nash's passing, then what can rival it is Marion's rebounding and running. He has good physical fitness, an amazing wingspan, and extraordinary rebounding talent.
Of course, these are all things in his youth, and it is difficult to expect a forty-year-old uncle to show anything.
Therefore, in tomorrow's charity game, Lin Feng will play a very important role. He will be required to play the role of a scorer who can escape from the sky and escape from the earth, frequently contribute wonderful dunks, dunk in various ways, and make the special bodies in the welfare home have a lot of fun.
By the way, there is Caruso, who can do the same. By then Marion should act as a wise elder, sort out the offense for the young people, and pass out all kinds of just-in-time lobs.
That's it, Lin Feng closed his notebook and rubbed his eyes.
There is still a lot to do tonight, and enthusiastic New York fans continue to leave messages on his homepage, most of which are encouraging words, hoping that he can bring a glimmer of light to the people in his hometown who have been devastated.
While scrolling through Twitter to read messages from Knicks fans, I was on the phone with Perkins. Perkins is a chatty person and always likes to remind him of the same thing over and over again.
This also reflects how seriously he takes his work. It is just a charity match that does not receive much attention. Lao Pa has already made detailed plans for the itinerary to ensure that nothing goes wrong.
It is precisely based on this serious attitude that Lin Feng is willing to cooperate with this guy and encourage him to become the second Rich Paul.
"Gary, don't forget about tomorrow. We have to get there before ten o'clock in the morning to participate in a theatrical performance. Of course, you don't need to do anything. Just be an audience quietly and give your time from time to time.
applause."
"The charity game will be held at three o'clock in the afternoon, and the sun is still shining a little, so prepare sunscreen in advance."
"By the way, take Caruso with you when you leave the hotel, otherwise he will have to take the subway to the orphanage in the suburbs."
Caruso's life is very tight, and the team has no intention of giving him a guaranteed contract for the time being. Seventy thousand dollars a year is great for ordinary people, but it is nothing in the NBA where tens of millions of contracts are everywhere.
Millions of dollars are spent on body care.
"By the way, Qiqi, what do you think of Caruso?" Lin Feng suddenly asked.
Perkins hesitated for a second, "Yes, what do you want to know?"
"It's nothing, I like his passion for playing."
Lin Feng and Caruso didn't have much conversation before, maybe because of their personalities, Caruso is usually a taciturn person.
On the other hand, Hart and Kuzma are perpetual motion machines.
After taking a break, Lin Feng continued to browse topics about himself on Twitter. This was his happiest time every day besides playing basketball.
Knicks fans formed Lin Feng's fan group. They entered the comments below the Lakers' official Twitter, asking Los Angeles people to treat their hometown players well.
At first, the two groups of fans could live in harmony, but soon it turned into a chaotic war. Although the Lakers and Knicks did not have much resentment, after all, they were behind the same prosperous world-class city.
Anthony suddenly appeared on Twitter. He liked Lin Feng and said: Contact me when you return to New York. You know what to do. Come on my brother.
Brother? Anthony actually called me brother? Lin Feng was so happy.
Anthony once led Syracuse University to win the NCAA championship!
Lin Feng's heart almost jumped out of his chest. Through Gary Smith's memory, Lin Feng knew Anthony's status at Syracuse University. He was the flag there!
New York fans have become fragile and sensitive. Last year, their star player went to the Thunder, and he became the target of the team. Anthony was criticized for his playing style.
What was about to happen just a month later, Anthony was sent to Houston to become teammates with his good brother Paul. This did not help Anthony. He was eventually sent to the bench to play with the second team, and was later waived by the Knicks.
People feel humiliated.
Now that Raymond Lam has become the hope of New Yorkers, people as far away as the East Coast are working hard to protect native New York players.
Melo Anthony is a good guy, but he's getting older now.
More young people are standing at the top of the league, such as Antetokounmpo, Mitchell, Jokic, Towns, etc.
Looking at Anthony’s recent tweet, which showed him standing under a streetlight and looking at the stars, I felt sad.
Looking at the kids in the league today who are in their early twenties, all they see is themselves.
Perhaps he is thinking about whether he has reached the age to retire. He is old and it is time to leave.
Chapter completed!