Chapter 643: Chapter 199: You Call This Media Day?
The voting for the NBA’s 50 greatest players has begun, but it’s a long and complex process.
The news that Zhang Hao saw mentioned that it requires considerations of popularity, championships won, contributions to the NBA, contributions to the development of basketball, totals of points + rebounds + assists + steals + blocks, and so on, with each aspect being voted on separately.
Among them, steals and blocks were officially included in statistics in the summer of 1973, so there’s a complex weight value calculation for the data differences before and after 1973 that Zhang Hao couldn’t understand.
Finally, they will score based on comprehensive weight values, selecting the 50 greatest players from multiple perspectives.
Zhang Hao thinks this complexity is likely because many stars from three or four decades ago are now remembered by fans who only occasionally have time to watch basketball.
Like George Mikan, 40 years have passed, and his popularity is definitely low now, but his contribution is extremely high. In the early days of the NBA, he alone was the ticket draw, and if the TV wanted to broadcast basketball, it would only show games with him in them. Without him, the NBA would have gone bankrupt in the early 50s.
Also, in terms of inside tactics, the techniques now still play off the set he created. Of course, the same technique has become more refined over 40 years of development and improvement.
Most of the NBA rules were also established during the years that George Mikan played.
With his overwhelming personal and team honors, he is certainly going to be selected.
But for Elgin Baylor, he doesn’t have much to do with championships. If you have to say he is related, it’s that the day after he retired, the Lakers went on a 33-game winning streak, reaching 69-13, and won the championship.
However, Elgin Baylor is still somewhat popular and is famously known as the greatest "Unofficial King."
In terms of contribution to the NBA, Baylor is far behind George Mikan and doesn’t have significant creativity, but his stats are impressive and, coupled with his popularity and numerous personal honors, he is definitely one of the 50 greatest.
After reading the introduction to the "50 Greatest," Zhang Hao felt it wasn’t really an award but rather a construction of an NBA cultural label.
Given the perceived value of the 50 greatest in the future Zhang Hao knows, it seems to him that this cultural label construction is successful. Future fans, upon seeing an old-era star as a winner of this title, will instinctively think he’s strong even if they don’t know him.
Some things are enviable but unobtainable. After envying it for a bit, Zhang Hao pushed it out of his mind and continued focusing on training for the new season.
As training progressed from small group practice to tactical team coordination led by Del Harris, the progress was very smooth.
This proved the targeted nature of Logo Man’s recruitment; since O’Neal spearheads the half-court offense, it emphasizes one-star four shooters, which is quite straightforward, so the signings like Brian Shaw, Byron Scott, and James Robinson were not specifically for O’Neal. These players have excellent tactical awareness, suiting Del Harris’s versatile tactical approach, and are brought in for the team as a whole.
The only regret Zhang Hao feels about this year’s recruitment reinforcement is the team’s lack of a strong pick-and-roll external player.
Only Jason Williams, an outstanding pick-and-roll inside teammate, provides guidance. Without an external pick-and-roll player to train with, Zhang Hao knows how to train but hasn’t even reached the system’s basic professional level entry of 50 in pick-and-roll evaluation.
He hasn’t even grasped the basics of pick-and-roll, and since Jason Williams’ pick-and-roll abilities are mainly applied to sideline shooters, it’s not quite suitable for the team to assign a strong ball-handler pick-and-roll partner for a player who hasn’t mastered it and mainly plays catch-and-shoot.
Faced with this paradox, despite having the Silver-Level "Pick-and-Roll Executor" medal, Zhang Hao had to set it aside, focusing on showcasing what he excels at in team play.
...
As days passed, September ended, and a new month arrived.
October 1st was the start of training camp, but the Lakers were given a break because in the previous 16 days, 12 of those were spent in training, so it happened to be time for resting after 4 days of training.
While other teams were on break, the Lakers were resting too. They even changed the long-planned media day from October 2 to October 3... The media didn’t care whether the Lakers started camp early; they just found a point to criticize.
"Arrogant Lakers"
"Training camp started, and the Lakers are on vacation"
"Barkley and O’Neal at the BBQ"
"..."
"..."
After four days of team training, which was quite tiring, Zhang Hao didn’t continue to train on October 1st. Instead, he rested in the morning and attended an interview at the Great Western Forum in the afternoon with the Imperial Comprehensive Channel, expressing his wishes for the country’s prosperity.
But by evening, when Zhang Hao saw the news in the arena, it was almost all like this. The positive reports from friendly channels were drowned out by the sweeping negative press... But it doesn’t matter, as long as they focus on doing their job well.
After a lengthy interview, Zhang Hao was about to head home when Jeanie Buss, Vice President of Business Operations for the Lakers, invited Zhang Hao and the Imperial Comprehensive Channel staff for dinner.
Unlike most NBA team management, after almost a year with the Lakers, Jeanie Buss astutely noticed the extra attention Zhang Hao received officially.
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