Chapter 289: How can you welcome King Dirk with a failure?

Nowitzki, in the established history, is a superstar ranked in the top twenty in NBA history, probably around the seventeenth or eighteenth position. The NBA always likes to talk about the four great power forwards, putting Kevin Garnett and Tim Duncan together, but in fact, Nowitzki's historical status is higher than Kevin Garnett's.

Of course, with Fan Xi's sudden appearance, Nowitzki's historical status would decline slightly. Because the original last season would have been Nowitzki's personal performance. If it weren't for Fan Xi's game-winning shot against the Mavericks, the Mavericks would definitely have taken down the Big Three in the playoffs. However, now, Nowitzki's new opportunity has come.

Nowitzki's individual strength is far stronger than everyone thinks; many fans who don't watch games always criticize Nowitzki for not being tough enough, soft, and having weak offensive ability.

But in fact, Nowitzki is a historical-level powerful offensive player, his offensive ability is far beyond Kevin Garnett's. He is a historical-level big man shooter, his face-up shooting ability is S-level, and his back-to-the-basket ability is also extremely powerful, even his back-to-the-basket ability was developed to the extreme in the middle and late stages of his career, scoring 1.1 points per possession, in contrast, the NBA's future first center, who is called the pride of back-to-the-basket, Embiid, can only score 1 point per possession in back-to-the-basket. Moreover, Nowitzki's era had a much worse defensive environment than Embiid's; Embiid faces the small-ball era.

A cold fact is that Nowitzki was the player with the highest back-to-the-basket efficiency last season, higher than Kobe and Duncan.

Moreover, many people criticize Nowitzki's defense for not being good enough. In the early stages of his career, because of his thin body, Nowitzki's defense was indeed not great. But later, with the strengthening of his lower limb strength, Nowitzki had already become a good one-on-one top-defensive player in the paint, he could hold up against the vast majority of interior players' back-to-the-basket, his defensive ability was at least above the average level at the power forward position.

Most importantly, Nowitzki is actually a superstar who is far more powerful in the playoffs than in the regular season; his scoring in the playoffs is higher, efficiency is higher, rebounds are higher, and all data are stronger than in the regular season.

Many people only stare at Nowitzki's experience of being black-eight in the playoffs.

But, which superstar hasn't had a performance slump? The second person in NBA history also had a time when he scored eight points in the Finals.

In fact, if the referee's whistle in 06 had been slightly fairer, and Wade hadn't received so many body-contact whistles, would the championship have been the Heat's?

Nowitzki had been in the Mavericks for so many years, and he had almost no powerful helpers by his side. Compared to Duncan having Ginobili and Tony Parker by his side, Garnett having Paul Pierce and Ray Allen by his side when winning the championship, and Kobe having Gasol, Bynum, and others by his side when winning the championship. The star players who could be named by Nowitzki's side were few and far between.

At the beginning of the century, Steve Nash partnered with him, but at that time, Nash was far from mature to the MVP appearance in the later Suns period.

Then there was Michael Finley; if not mentioned, maybe everyone wouldn't know this person, he didn't have much star flavor when playing by Nowitzki's side.

After that, the only All-Star in the Mavericks was Josh Howard, an NBA player known for being ugly. His strength wasn't enough to be called an All-Star player, he was just an All-Star qualification mixed in by following Nowitzki's footsteps.

Up to now, Nowitzki's All-Star player was Jason Kidd; at this time, Jason Kidd had long lost his peak strength, just a qualified ordinary starting point guard.

It can be said that after Nowitzki was traded, he truly welcomed a powerful teammate, a superstar teammate.

After Nowitzki learned he was traded, he immediately wrote a long article of over ten thousand words on social media; he had deep friendship with Dallas, inseparable. In the article, he recalled his experience of joining Dallas, he called himself the eternal Dallas child, and he was also the first in NBA history to say when saying goodbye: I will definitely return to Dallas to retire.

And under this ten-thousand-word article revealing true feelings, tens of thousands of Dallas fans poured in, leaving words emotionally: Thank you, Dirk, you can go.

No tearing, no mutual attacks, only strong, surging, sincere feelings flowing between each other.

Los Angeles, for Nowitzki, was of course closest to the championship.

Although he had already slipped from his peak state, he was still stepping on the tail of the peak, and his career had no major injuries, he could at least maintain this state for two or three years, a little better, three or four years was also possible.

Fan Xi couldn't wait to fight side-by-side with Nowitzki; Nowitzki's arrival completely solved the problem of the Clippers' insufficient offensive firepower, Nowitzki would undoubtedly become the Clippers' main attacking point, he would make Fan Xi more calm, he could also release Butler and Leonard, making their offense easier, making them more efficient, and their progress speed faster.

Although Deng Liwei's departure made the Clippers lose a shooter, and Griffin's departure made the Clippers' energy to attack the basket decrease.

However, it didn't matter, Fan Xi could do both.

Fan Xi had the ability to shoot three-pointers without the ball; Hamilton, although old, could occasionally show his edge, not to mention Steve Nash. Nash was a super three-point shooter.

He and Nowitzki had the tacit understanding of an original couple, although both were old now, Dirk Nowitzki was still charming, Nash, although a bit yellowed, still had value, and the Clippers didn't need him to fly around the court like in Phoenix.

"Screw it. This is basically a robbery, how could Dallas send Dirk to Los Angeles?"

Popovich cursed loudly when he learned the news before the game started.

Although from the level of the trade, Nowitzki for Griffin plus shooter Deng Liwei, plus Rasheed Wallace and cash, could be equated.

But... why would Mark Cuban do this?

Wasn't this clearly adding trouble to these top teams in the West?

Duke plus German Tank, the Clippers' strength leaped from a quasi-super strong team to a real super strong team; they had obvious shortcomings to grab before, now... what was there to grab?

Fan Xi, Nowitzki, DeAndre Jordan, Kwame Brown, two rookie forwards with outstanding defense and tough style, Hamilton, Nash, Carter, Billups, four guards who were past their peak but experienced, plus Yao, a former giant who could occasionally play a few minutes at the center position.

"You guys are aiming for the championship."

Tim Duncan specifically pulled Fan Xi before the game started and said: "How did you convince Mark Cuban to give Nowitzki to you?"

Fan Xi smiled, and said to Duncan, who was not smiling: "Probably because of handsomeness."

Duncan thought habitually, then touched his chin, feeling that his own appearance seemed quite capable too.

Because the trade had been announced, Griffin and Deng Liwei had both left the Clippers locker room; they had to hurry to Dallas to report. Rasheed Wallace didn't go, he changed into a suit and sat behind the Clippers' bench.

He was an add-on to this trade; he only needed to report to Dallas symbolically at that time, and then he would be bought out.

The buyout price wouldn't be very high, because there wasn't much of his contract that was guaranteed.

Money and championships didn't have much attraction for him, he even told Fan Xi, could he invite him to be an assistant coach for the team.

Fan Xi said, this had to be discussed with the new president Kupchak.

Fan Xi said he wouldn't interfere with any internal matters of the team, he hoped everyone would forget his other identity.

However, before Griffin left, he roared at Fan Xi: "This is revenge! This is a naked revenge, Jack! You are so cruel."

Griffin was very angry.

Especially irritable.

He was very, very, very dissatisfied with this trade.

Fan Xi, however, felt there was no problem: "Isn't it good to go to Dallas? There is a good foundation there, you can be a leader when you go, have unlimited shooting rights, isn't this what you want most? You also have a passer like Jason Kidd by your side, you can fly freely. You can also lead the team into the playoffs."

"What else are you dissatisfied with?" Fan Xi glared at Griffin, he was also particularly angry. "Is your head full of women, women, women?"

Fan Xi's angry roar stunned Griffin; he stood in place.

"Go to Dallas, get along well with Lamar. You should all clearly understand one thing, only by becoming strong yourself can you let beauties rest by your side. Instead of giving up your strength to pursue women."

Fan Xi hoped Griffin could understand, he patted Griffin on the shoulder, and told him that the Mavericks were a vast sky, and there was much to be done.

Griffin left silently.

His emotions were complex.

On one hand, he was still resentful about going to Dallas to be teammates with Odom, on the other hand, he was very looking forward to the prospects in Dallas.

He knew that from a basketball perspective, this was already the best trade; he got everything he wanted. Shooting rights, space, leader position, good teammates, he could seamlessly connect to receive all of Nowitzki's basketball assets as soon as he went in; as an offensive power forward, it was so excellent. Moreover, Dallas had good market prospects, although not as good as Los Angeles, but the people here loved basketball very much, and he also had very good development in business.

"Thank you, Jack. Although I won't get along well with Lamar, this is indeed a very good place to go."

About 1.5 hours later, Griffin sent a text message to Fan Xi, thanking Fan Xi.

His agent talked to him a lot excitedly, and he didn't expect the Clippers to be so righteous, sending him to such a good place.

Griffin's train of thought finally pulled back from women, although he had to face getting along with his rival Odom day and night next, but... other aspects met his imagination.

"Thank you, Jack, thank you for sending that jerk to Dallas. I have decided to launch a comprehensive competition with him, I am full of confidence in myself, whether it is off the court or on the court."

Lamar Odom also sent a text message to Fan Xi.

Frankly speaking, this was a bit beyond Fan Xi's expectations.

Fan Xi didn't expect this trade to bring motivation to Odom; before this, Fan Xi had always been very worried about Odom's state, Odom was sliding very fast, Fan Xi thought if he continued like this, he would soon disappear from the NBA. But in fact, with his physical quality and age, he should be able to get another contract in the NBA.

Lamar Odom's economic situation wasn't very good, this was probably one of the reasons why Khloe broke up with him.

Most black players would announce bankruptcy after retirement; long-term high-debt consumption made them sit and eat the mountain empty after they couldn't get high salaries after retirement.

Fan Xi didn't intend to be a saint, and he didn't have the ability and energy to help everyone.

But if someone could become better because of his decision, he would be very happy.

This was probably why he could laugh when chatting with Duncan.

Popovich looked very angry; he was full of irritable emotions about this trade; in his original expectation, the Spurs could still use the tail of Duncan's last peak to complete one or two fierce impacts on the championship.

But now, Nowitzki joined the Clippers, and his resistance was much greater.

So, he brought this suppressed emotion to the court, and he demanded that the players beat the Clippers to death.

Beep!

The whistle blew.

The game began.

Staples Center was full of spectators, the Clippers' attendance rate had always been very good; after raising ticket prices three times, it was still in short supply. This explained one thing: the reason why the Clippers' box office wasn't good in the past wasn't because the market wasn't good, the volume and market of the City of Angels had always been there, it was just that there was no Clippers market.

The starting players sent by the Clippers were: DeAndre Jordan, Kwame Brown, Leonard, Hamilton, Fan Xi.

The starting lineup on the Spurs side was: Tony Parker, Richard Jefferson, Stephen Jackson, DeJuan Blair, Tim Duncan.

Pop!

DeAndre Jordan won the jump ball, and the basketball came to Fan Xi's hands.

As soon as Fan Xi held the ball, the mountain-shaking cheers erupted on the scene: MVP! MVP! MVP!

Duke was already the new guardian god of Staples Center.

Although Kobe Bryant's influence remained, Fan Xi faintly had signs of being the symbol of basketball in the City of Angels.

This was the first game after Fan Xi ascended to this position.

How could he lose? 【289-86

Besides, how could one welcome the arrival of the German Tank with a defeat?

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