svetikya Chapter 1134 The Urban Legend of the King of Basketball!
Chapter 1134 The Urban Legend of the King of Basketball!
Lin Tian's performance tonight absolutely deserves the title of King of Basketball. He once again almost single-handedly defeated the United States and their strongest opponent!
Lin Tianguang scored 21 points in the fourth quarter alone! In the final minutes of the game, he was almost always on target, single-handedly turning the game around!
If anyone wants to know what kind of match can be described as defying fate, then watching this match is definitely the right choice.
This is the most direct and realistic way to demonstrate defying fate.
Trailing by 12 points with two minutes remaining, he then unleashed a furious two-minute surge, employing an incredibly insane individual performance to stage a dramatic comeback.
全场比赛68分17篮板10助攻4抢断5盖帽！
Lin Tian has once again left behind an incredible statistic.
And one thing that everyone can be 100% certain of is that this data, this data from the Olympic finals, will not be broken by anyone other than Lin Tian himself for at least 20, 30, or 50 years.
Lin Tianqiang is practically a Martian.
Lin Tian, lying on the floor, didn't get much rest. Exhausted, he was quickly surrounded by the Chinese players.
This resulted in Lin Tian seeing a rather horrifying scene when he opened his eyes.
After all, no matter who it is, when he lies on the floor and suddenly opens his eyes, he will be startled to see more than a dozen burly men gathered together, with more than a dozen big heads surrounding him and laughing.
That's terrifying.
Fortunately, these people weren't there to fight Lin Tian with bayonets.
They understood that Lin Tian was too exhausted to get up, so everyone worked together to pull Lin Tian up from the floor, then lifted him up, and more than ten people threw him up, caught him, threw him again, and caught him again.
Lin Tian didn't know how many times he was thrown around, and then he was put down again. Then someone took out champagne, opened many bottles of champagne at the same time, and sprayed them violently at Lin Tian.
At any other time, Lin Tian would have laughed and retaliated, then found the culprit, gave him some ice and some hot water, and let him know what the joy of ice and fire was.
But Lin Tian was really exhausted tonight. He felt like he had never been so tired before, and he really had no strength left.
So this time, Lin Tian was truly lying flat, letting the Chinese team players celebrate excitedly.
After what seemed like an eternity, the Chinese team finally finished celebrating and letting loose. Then, with the help of Xu Yong and Yi Jianlian, Lin Tiancai stood up from the floor.
This moment was undoubtedly the most embarrassing moment of Lin Tian's career, but the smile on his lips was also the purest moment of his career.
Won!
That's really not easy!
"Congratulations." Durant walked over from the side, extended his hand to shake Lin Tian's, and said, "See you in Los Angeles!"
"It's okay, Kevin. I definitely won't be competing in the next World Championships and Olympics. As long as you hang in there, you'll definitely win the gold medal."
"It's okay. Before we get the gold medal, I'll get our second championship ring first," Durant said with a smile. "Then we'll have to rely on you, boss."
"You change really fast." Lin Tian shrugged and said, "Rest well and let your body fully recover. It doesn't matter if you're not in good form at the start of the new season, because we have Kobe."
"That bastard was injured this summer, and at the beginning of the season, we let him do all the work!"
"Great idea!" Durant grinned. "Let's do it!"
After Durant, the American team players, including those from Spain, Argentina, and other spectators sitting in the stands, all came up to shake hands with Lin Tian and congratulate him. After chatting with a group of people for a few minutes, the podium for tonight was finally set up.
Players from the Chinese team, the American team, and the Spanish team all took their designated positions.
What's quite remarkable is that all the Chinese players who won the gold medal were all smiling; they were the biggest winners of the night.
Having long accepted defeat, the Spanish players, who had won the bronze medal, were all smiles, whispering among themselves in small groups.
Only the American team, who won the silver medal, looked increasingly grim and embarrassed.
They lost after all.
They not only lost the Olympic gold medal again, but they also lost the chance to defeat Lin Tian forever.
Lin Tian, now 40, will never participate in the Olympics again, and he will almost certainly not participate in the next World Championships either.
His national team career is now completely over.
The American team has lost its chance. No matter how many Olympic gold medals the American team wins in the future, or how many times they defeat the Chinese team, they will be haunted by a nightmare for 10, 50, or 100 years.
As long as the Olympics and basketball exist, and as long as the US team remains the world's dominant force in basketball, the nightmare surrounding Lin Tian will continue.
During their long reign in FIBA, there was one player who repeatedly defeated the American team, leaving them without a single medal in 4 Olympic Games and 2 World Championships over 12 years, resulting in a crushing defeat.
Lin Tian: They're slandering me!
For example, in 04, the American team didn't lose to us; those rookies didn't even get a chance to lose to us.
With the final basketball game concluded, the Olympic Games are essentially coming to an end.
The remaining events are mostly wrap-up work for less popular sports. Competitions that attract attention and generate interest, such as football, basketball, table tennis, volleyball, and sprinting, have all ended.
The 2012 London Olympics are essentially coming to a close.
Of course, it has nothing to do with Lin Tian.
As is his habit, he decides whether to attend the post-match celebration banquet and press conference depending on his mood, but he definitely won't attend the closing ceremony, various activities, ceremonies, and all sorts of other things afterward.
What decent person would like that?!
In particular, if Lin Tian remembers correctly, this year's closing ceremony and the trailer for the Rio Olympics were both terrible.
It was so bad that Lin Tian didn't even have time to watch it.
Of course, he wouldn't leave immediately. He would stay in London for a few days, then wait for Theron and her daughter to arrive, and then travel around Europe with them, taking a vacation and resting.
Finally, they will return to Los Angeles to prepare for the new season.
As for the night after the match, no one knows where Lin Tian went after the match ended.
Some people say they saw Lin Tian and his Chinese teammates partying in a high-end nightclub in London.
Some people say they saw Lin Tian chatting with Beckham and then getting into the same car, while others say Lin Tian flirted with an actress who came to the scene, and then the two disappeared together.
Some people even claimed with certainty that Lin Tian and Bolt exchanged a few words, and then the two of them disappeared together.
As the former and current world's fastest man legends, their meeting was bound to be lightning fast. For example, it was soon reported that the two found a track overnight and decided the winner in less than 10 seconds.
In short, Lin Tian seemed to have suddenly learned the Shadow Clone Technique that night, and became a legend in the city.
He was everywhere in London, yet nowhere could he be found.
However, Lin Tian didn't just disappear for one night; he vanished for more than a month afterward.
Those familiar with him know that this is Lin Tian's routine. Every year during the off-season, he disappears for a period of time. Every year when he wants to go on vacation during the off-season, he completely goes out of contact.
When he reappears, it's usually after the offseason is almost over and training camp is just a few days away.
This time was no exception.
"Can you please not disappear so completely in the future?" Pelinka complained habitually at the Los Angeles airport. Every time Lin Tian disappeared, he would miss many opportunities to make money because he couldn't find Lin Tian for a long time every summer.
"You should thank Charlize. If it weren't for their film crew starting work, and if her agent hadn't practically begged her to come down to earth, we would have been out of business for another week before coming back," Lin Tian said casually, leaning back in his chair. "Besides, if it weren't for you, you bastard, making me travel around the world three times that summer..."
"If you hadn't nearly killed me on the road back then, would I be this careful?"
"Things are different now. What was your status back then? What is it now? Now brands are begging to work with you, and even if you have a schedule, it's like a vacation."
"Nobody believes you." Lin Tian snorted. "Come on, tell me, what interesting things happened during this offseason? Who will be our opponent in the new season and get a beating?"
"I've already started thinking about my acceptance speech for this year's championship."
"So confident?" Pelinka said, "You've gotten weaker this year! Quite obviously weaker."
"Oh? How obvious?" Lin Tian's eyes opened slightly, intrigued by Pelinka.
"First of all," Pelinka said, "Jason Terry is gone. At his level, he can't keep earning a minimum salary. Of course, he can't get a maximum salary now, but there are plenty of teams vying to offer him jobs around $800 million. The Lakers don't have his Bird rights and can't re-sign him above the cap, so they can only watch him leave."
"It's interesting where he went, San Antonio. This guy seems determined to disgust his former team. Last season, he traded the Mavericks to us, and this year he went directly to Dallas's number one rival city and team."
"Three years, $20 million. I heard that some lottery-level teams offered him contracts worth $9 million a year, but he didn't go. Obviously, Jason, who won the championship, only has one goal for the rest of his career."
"Make the Mavericks and Cuban feel disgusted."
"Anything else?" Lin Tian continued to ask.
"Troy has retired, won a championship, and earned over ten million dollars a year for several years. He is clearly satisfied and ready to enjoy his retirement life."
"Other teams haven't had many players leave, and Mickey has done a pretty good job in this regard. After all, we have a championship-winning team, so we don't need any trades or major changes. With almost all the key players retained, stability is the most important thing."
"I agree with Mickey on this point. So the team didn't bring in any new players, and since we didn't have any draft picks, we just picked a few from free agency and undrafted players to fill the gaps. Whether anyone can stay on the team or fill the void left by Troy and Jason depends on your luck."
"But Mickey also told me that if I'm not satisfied with the team's roster, feel that the team needs to strengthen it, and want to find some people to help, I should just talk to him and he will find a way."
"But I think he said that to Kobe, Kevin, and Andrew."
"Andrew said he needs a backup center, especially after Troy left. He needs someone to fill the void when he's not on the court. He doesn't want to overexert himself this season. He has to control his playing time because this is the year of his contract."
"If he gets injured in the middle of the season, it could affect his value."
"This isn't like Mickey at all," Lin Tian said. "He didn't renew Andrew's contract early?"
"Mickey certainly wants an early contract extension, but Andrew doesn't," Pelinka said with a smile. "Andrew wants a long-term, maximum-salary contract worth over 100 million dollars, with a starting salary of 17 million dollars, but obviously, neither Mickey nor Bass is going to offer such an outrageous contract to the team's fourth option."
"I heard that Mickey offered a maximum of 8000 million over 5 years, which is already very generous, but unfortunately Andrew is not satisfied. I estimate that Andrew will not be able to reach an early contract extension with the team this season, and there is a high probability that he will leave the team at the end of the season."
"He also wants to be like Howard, and he wants to be the team's first choice, but unfortunately, he can only be a supporting player here."
"Then I think Mickey might make the first move." Lin Tian thought about Kupchak's style. This guy was almost a smaller version of Jerry West. He was shrewd, capable, and good at planning ahead. More importantly, he had West's old-school tough guy style.
He is not the kind of person who gives in easily.
As for old Buss...
He's a good boss, but the problem is, he's also a poor man.
Despite the Lakers being ranked second in the NBA in terms of market value, only behind the Knicks, when it comes to owner value, Buss is only comparable to another poor guy like Jordan among the 30 owners in the NBA.
After all, you, Buss, are the only owner in the entire league who treats running a team as his main business.
People usually invest in something when they have spare money, or they have so much money that they can't spend it all, so they buy a sports team to play with as a hobby.
But what about Buss? When he bought the Lakers, he poured all his savings into it, selling everything he owned and borrowing money everywhere just to barely scrape together the price the previous seller was asking for.
Although this all-or-nothing investment later proved to be an incredibly smart and highly rewarding choice, it did not change the fact that Jerry Buss was a penniless pauper in the NBA owner circle.
This guy is willing to pay the luxury tax, but he's always hated it and his style has always been to avoid paying it if possible.
To put it more bluntly: Lin Tian's arrival in the Lakers has resulted in the team having to pay the luxury tax starting this season. This is the second season since the Lakers implemented the luxury tax.
This number is insignificant when viewed from the perspective of the entire league.
So, in this situation, does Bynum want a maximum salary worth over 100 million?
He'll probably have to look for other teams.
A core player who is always ready to leave and is only interested in getting a big contract is an unstable factor for any team.
Even if Bynum doesn't cause trouble in the Lakers' locker room, even if he still gives his all and plays hard on the court.
Having such a person on the team is definitely more detrimental than beneficial.
This season, the Lakers might be facing another turbulent period! (End of Chapter)