Chapter 115: Season Opener: Knicks vs. Mavericks
During the offseason, Zheng Yang called every player on the team. He hoped that everyone would not give up training during the offseason because the team's goal for next season is to win the championship.

They can take time to get used to each other, but they can't waste time trying to find their form.

Zheng Yang does not force them to make much progress during this offseason, he just hopes that they do not regress.

Zheng Yang spent the rest of his time on training. He currently has a strong desire for the championship, and this desire is no weaker than before he won the championship.

He wanted to slap the Mavericks management in the face. Their decision to promote Nowitzki and weaken his position in the team was the biggest mistake they had ever made.

This mistake cost them many championships!

He must prove it to them!

With this desire, Zheng Yang's training this offseason was simply crazy. He continued to hone his offensive and defensive skills, making his body stronger and his footwork more flexible.

This process is quite difficult. God did not give him muscles as strong as a knife. Every bit of progress he makes requires his desperate efforts.

After a while of training, the two trainers who were training with the sparring partner asked for a pay raise.

Originally they charged per person, but after they started training they found that this guy was simply a monster.

Training with him for one day is equivalent to training with others for two or three days.

Zheng Yang didn't care. If it could be solved with money, it wasn't a big deal.

By the way, it’s worth adding that their championship clubs did not train together this offseason.

Wade just won the championship and FMVP, and signed a maximum salary contract like Zheng Yang. Now is the time for him to enjoy himself.

Carmelo Anthony also renewed his contract with the Nuggets. After playing for three consecutive seasons, he is a little tired.

Therefore, he did not come to practice during this offseason.

With hard training, the start of the new season soon arrived. The 06 preseason started in early October, and the team's training camp basically started in mid-September.

The New York Knicks are no exception!
……

Let's first talk about the main players of the Knicks this season. To be honest, their current lineup is pretty good, including Zheng Yang, Big Ben, Eddy Curry, Jamal Crawford, "Big F" Francis, David Lee, Quentin Richardson, Mike James...

The team's strength on paper is okay, but the problem is that except for Zheng Yang and Ben Wallace, who are at their peak, the others are either too old or too young. It is not that easy to rely on them to win the championship.

Zheng Yang understood this, but he also understood that the championship would not be as easy to come by as a dandelion on the hillside. If they wanted to win the championship, they needed to fight hard for it.

He is ready!

On the first day of the training camp, everyone gathered in the stadium. After head coach Larry Brown finished his speech, he gave the stage to Zheng Yang.

He likes Zheng Yang very much and wants to see if he can be a good team leader at such a young age.

You have to know that these players in the team are not easy to deal with.

After glancing at his opponents, Zheng Yang nodded.

"Hey guys, great to see you here, we will play together in the NBA this season!

Knicks fans are expecting us to lead this team back to glory, but they think we may need a year or two to adjust.

But I don't agree with this idea. My goal this season is to win the championship. Some of you have already experienced the feeling of winning the championship, but most of you have not. I hope we can experience it this season.

This is not a slogan, this is not an unattainable fantasy, this is a goal we must achieve.

So starting today, keep training, focus, be self-disciplined, work hard, and persevere...

We didn’t have a chance to rest until we won the championship.”

Zheng Yang said this with a serious expression, while his eyes swept over each player.

When he saw Eddy Curry, his eyes lingered on him for a while, because he was obviously thinner than the last time he saw him.

It can be seen that he took Zheng Yang's words into account.

Yes, who can resist the charm of the championship?

If Zheng Yang had not won the championship a year ago, the situation would be completely different now. Neither the players nor the team's coaching management would have believed in and respected him so much.

But he got it, and he has proved that he has the ability.

Everyone believes that as long as the time is right, he will win the championship again.

Larry Brown on the side nodded secretly. Some people are really born leaders. The temperament they possess will make people ignore the interference of all off-field factors such as age, making you willing to follow him and achieve distant goals.

There is a reason why this young man can achieve such great achievements at this age!

After the speech, Larry Brown began to arrange training for the players.

……

Zheng Yang's arrival has made New York Knicks ticket sales particularly good this season, and there are also more reporters on the sidelines than before.

Everyone is paying attention to what kind of results Zheng Yang will achieve after leaving the Mavericks.
Everyone knows that with Zheng Yang's ability, this team will definitely improve significantly, but no one knows how much better it will be!

In the six preseason games after the end of the training camp, the New York Knicks gave the fans a huge surprise. With Zheng Yang's playing time averaging less than 20 minutes per game, they achieved an impressive record of 5 wins and 1 loss.

Whether from the team's spirit or strength, this team is really no longer that bottom-ranked team!
……

The opening day of this year's regular season is set for October 10st, with one game each in the East and West, with the Suns facing the Lakers in the West and the Bulls facing the Heat in the East.

The final results of the two games were somewhat unexpected. The Lakers without Kobe won their opponent at home 106-114, while the championship team Heat with a full lineup lost miserably to the Bulls 108:66.

If the Suns' failure can be attributed to their opponents' excellent performance today, the Heat cannot find any reasonable reason to explain it.

Throughout the game, apart from Wade who performed normally and scored 25 points with a high hit rate, the rest of the players were distracted and wandering around on the court. There was no other player on a championship team who could score in double digits.

For a time, the Heat's chances of defending the title dropped to the lowest point!

What defeats them is not only time, but also themselves!

Let’s take a look at the game on November 11st. On this day, this brand new Knicks team met their first opponent - the Dallas Mavericks!
Let Zheng Yang face his old club in the first game of the season - obviously only David Stern can write such a script.

He specially arranged this schedule.

David Stern was very surprised that Zheng Yang went to the Knicks during the offseason, because it was in his best interest. He believed that a player with such high popularity like Zheng Yang going to a team in a big market like the Knicks would definitely be able to combine the two and bring more popularity to the league.

It just so happened that he also intended to train Nowitzki to be Zheng Yang's background board, so he let the two teams meet in the first game.

In fact, he also took into account the strength gap between the two teams. Although the Knicks acquired Zheng Yang and Ben Wallace this offseason, they are obviously the weaker side compared to the Mavericks.

Although the Mavericks lost Zheng Yang, their basic base is still there. At the same time, they now have Marbury. He and Nowitzki, one inside and one outside, should produce a good chemical reaction.

In other words, the Knicks are likely to lose to the Mavericks.

But it doesn’t matter, this will also be part of the script. Didn’t Jordan fall to the Pistons three times in a row before he finally succeeded in overcoming it?
This does not diminish Jordan's influence, but makes the story sound more exciting.

Anyway, Zheng Yang is only 21 years old now, and he still has a long time to go in his career. A temporary setback will not affect too much.

……

This game was played away by the New York Knicks. When Zheng Yang, wearing his No. 19 jersey, came out from the teammate passage on the other side, the hearts of all the fans in the stadium trembled.

The tickets for today's game were still sold out early, but everyone knows that the Dallas fans came here today for only one purpose, and that was for Zheng Yang.

They can't bear to part with each other, even though he has now put on the jersey of another team and become a star of another team, they still love him.

They wore his jerseys, held up his posters, and gave the loudest cheers when he appeared. The Mavericks did not prepare any tribute videos for him at home, but the fans' cheers were the best tribute.

The Mavericks front office has forgotten everything he has done for this team, but they haven't.

No matter what happens, Zheng will always be the hero of this city.

When Avery Johnson on the opposite side saw this scene, he gritted his teeth.

He turned and spoke to the other players.

"Give me your all in this game, you hear me?

I know some of you have a good personal relationship with Zheng, but don't let it affect the court.

This is a game, not a joke. Our goal is to win the championship. If anyone dares to let us win, I will not be polite to him."

Since the opponent has now become a rival, Avery Johnson should take this opportunity to bully him.

He knows he is strong, but so what? No matter how strong he is, he can't beat five alone. The Knicks can never beat the Mavericks.

He has already made up his mind that no matter how big the score difference is today, he will not withdraw the main players. If possible, he even hopes to widen the score difference to 58 points.

He wants to humiliate the other party severely!

Zheng Yang also squinted his eyes and scanned the Mavericks' bench. His gaze deliberately stopped for a while on Nowitzki and Avery Johnson.

It's finally time for us to become rivals. I believe you must want to defeat me now, but I also want to do the same.

I've been feeling angry for a long time and want to vent it!
This highly-anticipated battle is about to begin!

……

"Hello, audience friends, today we are bringing you the game of the 06-07 NBA regular season, where the New York Knicks play away against the Dallas Mavericks.

This is a very heated game because the current Knicks star Zheng Yang played for the Mavericks last season. Many disharmonious things happened at that time, which led to the breakup of the two sides during the offseason.

However, judging from the performance of the fans in the Dallas audience, Dallas fans still like Zheng Yang very much, and they highly recognize the great contribution Zheng Yang has made to the team.

Two months ago, a local newspaper in Dallas conducted a simple survey and 8% of Dallas fans believed that without Zheng Yang, there would not be the first championship trophy in their team's history.

Indeed, if the Mavericks lost Zheng Yang in the 04-05 season, it would have been difficult for them to win the championship.

However, no matter how big the dispute between Zheng Yang and the Mavericks management was, we will not discuss it too much today. Let us focus on today's game.

Now let us first introduce some of the starting lineups of both teams. The Mavericks side has Jason Terry, Josh Howard, Stephen Marbury, Dirk Nowitzki, and Eric Dampier.

The New York Knicks are Quentin Richardson, Crawford, Zheng Yang, Ben Wallace and Eddy Curry.

There is no need to say much about the Mavericks' lineup. This is their basic lineup for the past two seasons, except that Zheng Yang was replaced by Marbury, and Josh Howard was pushed to the third position.

As for the Knicks, due to some major changes in their lineup this year, head coach Larry Brown has been constantly adjusting the lineup since the preseason. The current starting lineup should be the most suitable combination for the Knicks for the time being.

As for whether they will make any changes in the future, it depends on the chemistry of this starting group and the plan of head coach Larry Brown.

OK, now both teams are standing on the court, Eddy Curry successfully passes the ball, and the New York Knicks get their first offensive opportunity. "

In the CCTV studio, Yu Jia was commenting on the game.

On the court, after Quentin Richardson got the ball, he dribbled across half court and passed it to Zheng Yang. The person defending him was Da Chou.

That’s right, among the starting lineup on the opposing team, the only one who could barely stop Zheng Yang was Dachou.

Da Chou has a very good relationship with Zheng Yang. Even after Zheng Yang came to New York, they still keep in touch frequently.

But this is a competition, it is impossible to ask Da Chou to let up, and Zheng Yang does not need the other party to let up.

Under the gaze of the audience, Zheng Yang began his attack.

The 21-year-old Zheng Yang's ball control ability is definitely a level higher than that of the 19-year-old him.

In the beginning, his breakthrough may have relied more on his super-fast first step, but now he can use his very smart dribbling to make various moves at will to confuse his opponents.

Facing Da Chou, Zheng Yang changed the rhythm of dribbling between his legs, then pulled back to shift the opponent's defensive focus, and then accelerated to pass him directly.

After rushing into the inside, Dampier bent his knees slightly, ready to protect the rim.

But Zheng Yang did not stop his sprint because of the height difference. He made a layup and easily scored the ball.

The whole process was smooth and flowing, and both the initial dribbling and the final finish were very enjoyable to watch.

When the fans at the scene saw Zheng Yang score a goal, they stood up and cheered as usual, but then they realized something was wrong and were a little dazed.

Are they... still qualified to cheer for Zheng Yang now?
Zheng Yang no longer belongs to them...

He is now a star for the New York Knicks!
(End of this chapter)