Chapter 1001
You can't forget the lessons learned! Master Lin is going to teach this new genera
The newcomers in the league are all like wolves and tigers, eager to seize power and defeat Lin Tian to become the best guard of the new generation. But the old men in the league are still alive.
Well, let's not talk about Nash and Kidd.
After winning the championship, Nash had already entered a state of enjoying and having fun with basketball.
Although the Suns still have playoff potential, everyone knows they have virtually no chance of winning the championship. However, despite this, the team atmosphere is arguably the best in the entire league, with everyone having a great time.
From the players to the fans to the owners, everyone is extremely satisfied with their current situation!
The team is quite strong, plays a beautiful and attractive style of football, has a thriving market with season ticket sales ranking among the top in the league, and doesn't have to pay the luxury tax.
There was no pressure from top to bottom, and everyone was happy and harmonious.
Nash offered his congratulations to Lin Tian on his return with a smile, but said nothing else.
But Kidd is a different story.
The reporter couldn't interview this guy...
Kidd, who is a few months older than Lin Tian, is no longer the team's star player, or even a starter. It's hard to find this old guy at post-game press conferences anymore.
Besides these two veterans who essentially overlapped with Lin Tian throughout their careers and were repeatedly defeated by him, there are many other top-tier guards in the middle generation of the league.
For example, Paul was once tricked by Lin Tian's comment that he was "the best point guard in the league" and was chased and beaten by various guards for a whole season.
This guy hasn't had much luck these past few years. The team's regular season record has always been good, and he has been able to contribute 20+10 stats for many years in a row, but unfortunately, the team has never been able to reach the Western Conference Finals. Every year, they only make it to the Western Conference Semifinals before it comes to an end.
He was under a lot of pressure because many people said that if the Warriors couldn't succeed this year, the team owner would have to consider changing the core lineup. So Paul was really frustrated.
Paul was especially furious after the Warriors lost their opening game.
The reason the team lost tonight was that Paul himself was not in good form. He was defended very poorly by Holiday, an unknown starter on the opposing team, and only managed 11 points, 9 assists, and 4 turnovers.
At the post-game press conference, facing reporters' questions, Paul completely abandoned his obedient demeanor and angrily retorted, "What the hell is it to me? What the hell is it to me? I don't care whether some washed-up old dog has returned to the league or not!"
"I don't care what you bastards are up to. Anyone who messes with me will regret it. Anyone who makes me angry will be killed!"
"Tonight, if anyone brings up any topic unrelated to the game or the Warriors, don't blame me for being impolite!"
Paul is arguably the player with the worst attitude among the middle-generation players who have faced Lin Tian.
This guy is really frustrated when he loses a game, while Deron Williams, who is on par with him, has a much better attitude.
"I'm really looking forward to it," Deron said with a smile. "I won't lose."
Of course, a large part of the reason he was so nice was because the Warriors' game ended an hour earlier than theirs, and he knew early on that Paul was on the defensive and that the guy was furious.
Paul got angry, and that made me happy, bro.
If I'm happy, there's no need for me to cause any more trouble.
After all, the younger guys after 08 had only heard of Lin Tian's reputation but had never experienced it themselves. However, Delong and his gang had actually fought Lin Tian many times and were thoroughly defeated by him.
They are much more honest than the younger ones.
Especially when he's in a really good mood and practically wants to whistle on the spot, Deron Williams is even less likely to cause himself trouble.
Simply put, the old guys who joined the league around the same time as Lin Tian are either too old or have given up, so they are practically harmless.
The middle generation, who came a little later than Lin Tian, were relatively more obedient. Unless they were genuinely in a bad mood or simply belligerent, they wouldn't go looking for trouble with Lin Tian.
As for the last large group of young people, that's really interesting.
In any case, the fans, reporters, and retired legends are very excited.
They know Lin Tian too well. You guys are so arrogant towards Lin Tian, so how dare you yell at him. Do you think Master Lin will let you off the hook?
We absolutely have to beat these young guys to a pulp!
This war of words alone will undoubtedly boost the Lakers' game viewership to an even higher level this year.
Especially against teams with top-tier point guards in the league, the games are likely to generate a ratings frenzy.
As I said before, everyone knows Lin Tian!
Everyone knows he's not the kind of person who shows mercy.
It's worth mentioning that the first beneficiary of this whole saga was the Hawks.
This game wasn't originally scheduled to be broadcast nationally. Normally, even for the Lakers, who have the most nationally televised games in the league this season, the league wouldn't broadcast two of their games back-to-back at this time.
Especially considering their opponent is the Hawks, who have had a rough few years in recent years.
In previous years, the Hawks assembled a star backcourt duo of Roy and Joe Johnson. The pairing of these two gave Atlanta fans hope for the team's revival. They believed that with these two as the core, plus a group of talented role players, the team could definitely make a mark in the playoffs.
In fact, they did make it to the playoffs again after many years, and even advanced to the second round of the playoffs.
Unfortunately, that's all they did.
Just when everything was thriving and moving in a bright direction, Roy got hurt!
The team's rising star suffered a serious knee injury, and it happened several times in a row.
In recent years, Roy has basically been in a vicious cycle of injury, surgery, rest, comeback, injury, surgery, rest, comeback, and injury.
A few years later, Johnson's performance began to decline, the team's record plummeted, and Roy ultimately failed to live up to the expectations of the team and fans, fading into obscurity.
During the training camp, this unlucky and regrettable guy suffered another serious knee injury that required surgery. This time, the doctors gave him a different timeframe than the estimated recovery time.
This time, the doctors advised him to give up basketball.
Nobody knows if Roy will ever return to the court, but one thing is certain: the Hawks are finished.
Their goal this season has to be to once again aim for the number one draft pick.
Despite being a theoretically uninteresting game with no rivalries and a clear disparity in strength, and playing in Atlanta, the bottom-ranked team in the league in terms of market share, the Hawks' tickets never sold out, even though their opponent was the Lakers.
But right after Lin Tian made his declaration of challenging the entire league at the post-game press conference of the opening game, the Hawks' ticket booths were almost immediately packed.
Online, in-person, and telephone channels were all fully booked. Fans snapped up all the Hawks tickets that hadn't sold out all summer in a very short time.
Clearly, fans are eager to see how Lin Tian will perform after making such a bold claim.
Not only did the tickets finally sell out, the Hawks also secured a nationally televised game. For a team like them, which gets fewer than 10 nationally televised games a year, one more nationally televised game is a rare opportunity to showcase their talent!
So the entire Hawks team, and even Atlanta, is in a state of extreme excitement right now.
Although he doesn't pay much attention to or have much hope for his team anymore, what if Lin Tian, in order to establish his authority and slap those who provoked him in the face from afar, suddenly unleashes a super burst of energy?
What if it breaks a record?
Anyway, although Atlanta fans don't care much about their own team anymore, they still have high expectations for Lin Tian to break the record and potentially give everyone a big surprise.
This is why fans suddenly bought tickets in large numbers to watch the game and why the broadcaster suddenly changed its broadcasting plan to broadcast the game live across the United States.
Everyone is looking forward to Lin Tian's performance!
"What's wrong, Kevin?" Just when everyone was looking forward to Lin Tian's performance and wanted to see what kind of stats he could put up, Lin Tian was leisurely playing games with Barnes in his room.
At that moment, Durant suddenly pushed open the door and walked in, then collapsed onto the sofa in Lin Tian's room as if he were about to die.
“I was dying. Kobe and I practiced from 4 a.m. to 7 a.m., and then after I finally got to go back to sleep, he woke me up again before 11 p.m., telling me to eat on time and to have a good routine.”
"After dinner, he took me to watch videos until we finished dinner before I was finally able to leave. But before I could even get some sleep after returning to my room, he called me again and asked me to train at 4 a.m.
"What kind of grudge is this?" Barnes was stunned as he listened to Durant's tearful account.
What kind of deep-seated hatred could drive Durant to train like this? "I don't know," Durant said with a mournful face, feeling utterly pathetic. "That's why I hid here. I figured if I hid here, he definitely wouldn't find me."
“Hiding here won’t help,” Lin Tian said while continuing his game. “You might as well go to the training hall and sleep there; at least you can sleep as much as possible that way.”
Upon hearing this, Durant sighed again, then sat up from the sofa and said, "But it's a good idea, I'm going."
Seeing Durant in obvious pain, taking steps toward the door, Barnes couldn't help but say, "Aren't you going to try to stop him?"
"What's there to advise? It's just a personal grudge."
Lin Tian said, "Besides, they won't be training tonight, so don't worry."
"Can't train? Kobe has always been a man of his word." Barnes shook his head, indicating his disbelief.
"Kobe is just stubborn and obsessive, not really an idiot. Does he not know there's a game tomorrow night? So don't worry, he's just messing with Kevin for fun. Besides, do you think Kevin's physique can handle it if they practice like this tonight?"
"There's a game tomorrow, so if we keep doing this extra training, what if we push Kevin too hard and he gets injured?"
Do you think Kobe might slap himself so hard he gets a concussion?
"Yes!" Barnes nodded decisively without hesitation this time.
"So, Kobe won't be at the training facility tonight. Kevin can sleep in until morning there. Kobe is just messing with him."
"Then why don't you just let Kevin go back to his own room?" Barnes couldn't understand.
"What if Kobe really is a lunatic?" Lin Tian suddenly made a series of operations with his right hand, and then the Fan Zhiyi he controlled soared into the air, received a pass from teammate Shao Jiayi, and smashed through the goal guarded by Casillas with a powerful header.
"What if he really is a lunatic and goes to the training facility at four in the morning and doesn't see Kevin, and Kevin says I told him not to go? Wouldn't that cause internal strife? If they really are training tonight, I'll just go to Phil and get them both DNP'd."
"In this condition, how can you possibly be in good form? You might as well just rest."
Barnes barely listened to Lin Tian's analysis and subsequent Plan B plan; of course, he wouldn't have understood it anyway.
But now he stared in disbelief at the FIFA game on TV, then angrily threw down the controller and shouted, "What the hell! What makes you think your so-called Chinese veterans team can beat my Real Madrid! Chinese football is clearly terrible, so why can you beat me 4-0 just because of them!"
"Because I'm really strong." Lin Tian also put down the controller and said easily, "You're too weak, Matt. Go back to your room and get some sleep. There's a match tomorrow night."
However, before Barnes had even left, Lin Tian's door opened again.
Kobe walked in with a gloomy face, glanced into Lin Tian's room, snorted, and then turned and left.
"Are you out of your mind?" Lin Tian couldn't help but curse, "Do you think I'm a public toilet, where you can come and go as you please?"
"I'm here to see Kevin." Faced with Lin Tian's questioning, Kobe stopped again honestly: "There's no one in his room."
"You really train at four in the morning?!" Barnes exclaimed in disbelief.
"Did he really come? To complain or to beg for mercy?" Kobe looked at Barnes.
"Just tell me, are you going to practice tonight or not?" Lin Tian didn't answer Kobe's question at all, but instead asked another one.
"I'm not going to practice. I'm not crazy." Kobe said with a smirk, "I just want to scare him again. If you see him, please tell him that Kobe is looking for him."
After Kobe finished speaking, he waved his hand, turned around and left. Needless to say, this guy was definitely going to sleep this time.
Durant was already exhausted, so even if Kobe is incredibly talented and has top-notch physical abilities, he must be extremely tired and sleepy right now.
He needs to catch up on his sleep.
"That's really mean," Lin Tian said disdainfully. "This is the former number one star in Los Angeles. He's so mean, bullying people like this. He's about to go to sleep, and he wants us to scare others."
"Should I go and let Kevin go back to his room to sleep?" Barnes asked tentatively.
"Let him sleep well." Lin Tian shook his head and said, "He's probably asleep right now. If you wake him up, he'll only hate you."
"If you really don't want to sleep, how about we play another round? I'll use the current Chinese national team to play against teams like Spain or Brazil, how about that?"
"I'm not playing anymore." Barnes stood up immediately upon hearing this and said, "I don't like being tortured."
……
Lin Tian slept soundly that night, but Kobe and Durant didn't eat breakfast the next morning. The two guys didn't appear in front of everyone until lunchtime.
Then, the Lakers had their usual shooting practice to get their touch, watched some video footage and made some tactical adjustments. After that, the whole team set off for the Hawks' home court to prepare for the second game of the season.
To Lin Tian and his companions’ surprise and disbelief, they heard the fans’ frenzied shouts and cheers as soon as they entered the stadium.
"Lin! Give the whole world a good show! Just like you did before!"
"Kill them! Kill them all!"
"MVP! MVP! MVP!"
"Lin, you are the best! You will always be the best!"
"100 points! Let's give it a perfect 100 points!"
"Los Angeles will win!"
"We're in Atlanta?" Bynum couldn't help but purse his lips. He had never seen this kind of scene before, playing away from home.
"Young man, keep up the good work, and you can do this in every away game from now on." Lin Tian, who has a wealth of experience being called MVP in away games, quite enjoys it, acting as if everyone should be yelling at him and calling him MVP.
He also kept waving and greeting fans from all directions.
So many fans have come here, of course, hoping to see Lin Tian dominate tonight, deliver an unstoppable performance, and completely crush the Hawks.
Given the Hawks' roster this year, which is unlikely to win more than 20 games, and the current atmosphere of panic where everyone is worried about being traded, everyone feels that Lin Tian would have to deliver an explosive performance tonight to face the fans.
But as the game began, fans quickly realized they were wrong.
Big mistakes.
The Hawks' resistance was far too weak!
They offered no resistance whatsoever.
Aside from Johnson scoring two baskets to start the game and keeping the game close with the Lakers for about two minutes, the Hawks then took over.
The army was defeated like a mountain.
At the end of the first quarter, the Lakers led by 17 points.
At halftime, the Lakers led by 25 points.
In the first half, Lin Tian only played for 11 minutes before going to the bench to rest, while the Lakers' other starters had the longest playing time, with Bynum playing for 15 minutes.
Given this pace and Jackson's rotation methods, the fans who bought tickets to come to the stadium today have really overpaid!
Aside from their team's all-time losing record, the Atlanta Hawks probably won't see any records tonight.
The second half was basically a carbon copy of the first half.
The score quickly widened to over 30 points, and Lin Tian and others went to rest early. The entire fourth quarter, or rather the entire game, was almost garbage time, and the Hawks didn't offer any effective resistance at all.
91: 70!
Ultimately, the Lakers, who fielded almost their full starting lineup from the third quarter, easily defeated the Hawks by 21 points, securing their second consecutive win to start the season! (End of Chapter)