The Chinese team defended the Olympic title in the absence of Yao Ming. Xu Yong once again put in a godly performance in the Olympics after his brilliant individual performance in the NBA playoffs last season. Xu Yong's words "Thank you James" in an interview also attracted great repercussions after the Olympics.

The name Xu Yong has brought extraordinary impact to the NBA and even the sport of basketball.

Just like the emergence of Bolt has expanded the influence of the 100-meter event, which is already the king of track and field, the emergence of Phelps has caused a surge in the attention paid to swimming.

Of course, it is also like Jordan, but unlike Jordan, Xu Yong did all this in the Olympic Games this time. He can be said to have completed the Grand Slam this year.

"Xu continues to enhance the NBA's global influence, and we are very, very fortunate to have him." Bird also reiterated his opinion in front of the media.

There is no doubt that with the retirement of Kobe, Nowitzki, Duncan and others last season, the traces of the NBA at the beginning of the century can be said to have basically disappeared, the league has entered a new era, and the leader of this era is Xu Yong.

Now everyone can make a simple assumption, that is, if Xu Yong suddenly stops playing in the NBA, the impact he brings will be almost exactly the same as when Jordan retired. The NBA will enter a large window period, and others will not be able to support the vacuum market at all.

After the Olympics, Xu Yong returned to China again. He did not attend the national team celebration banquet last time he came back from London, so he wanted to make up for it this time. He was busy with work before, so he wanted to go home and stay for a few days after this time.

By the time he finished all this, it was already September when he returned to Chicago.

In September in Chicago, the heat wave that greets you when you get off the plane marks the end of summer.

Xu Yong only rested at home for two days and went to the United Center early on the third day.

Although he has been in a state of over-consumption since the playoffs last season, he will not be injured and all he needs to overcome is fatigue.

This fatigue is physical and mental. The relatively relaxed state over the past week has allowed him to recover, and now what he needs to do is to start preparing for the new season in advance.

Because the team was tired last season and he was busy in the summer, he didn't organize any small training camp this year, so when he arrived at the gym, there was only him and the trainer who picked up the ball.

Grover's collaboration with him ended last season, and the trainer he found now basically serves as a caddie.

Now his skills and abilities have basically reached a peak state. What he needs to do is to maintain this state, which also requires a lot of training.

The first phase of training lasted about an hour. Xu Yong then sat on the sidelines to wipe his sweat, rest, and chat with the trainer about the details of the training.

At this moment, the door of the training hall was pushed open. The sound of the door opening made them stop talking, and then they all looked towards the door at the same time.

A person Xu Yong never expected appeared there.

Dejounte Murray, the bad boy mentioned by Foreman.

Xu Yong doesn't know much about Murray, but he still has an impression of this player who came from the Spurs and made the All-Star Game with the Hawks. After all, as a commentator, information about core players is very important when preparing for the game.

Of course the key thing is that this guy looks exactly as he remembered him, even though he is only 19 years old now.

You can understand why he looks anxious, or why his temperament seems precocious.

When he saw Xu Yong, Murray was also very surprised and stood there, not knowing what to do.

Seeing this, Xu Yong waved to him.

"I thought there was no one inside." Murray walked to Xu Yong, looked at Xu Yong, probably didn't know how to address him, and turned and pointed in the direction of the door.

"You're here early." Xu Yong picked up the watch on the stool and looked at the time. It was only 7:10 in the morning.

"I wanted to come earlier, but the guard here said it doesn't open until 7 o'clock, so I can only come at this time." Murray explained, scratching the back of his head.

Xu Yong nodded. It was true that under normal circumstances the door would not open until 7 o'clock, but Xu Yong had a privilege and could ask someone to open the door early when he arrived.

"How long have you been training here?" Xu Yong said as he motioned him to sit down. The first impression Murray gave him was that he had nothing to do with the problem teenager Foreman mentioned. If he had to say, he might be more like Stephenson. He just looked like a well-behaved big boy.

"More than a month? I rented a house nearby after the summer league." Murray explained after sitting down.

"Have you never been robbed?" Xu Yong asked with a smile. Murray is quite brave.

"It happened, but I managed it."

"Oh?" This surprised Xu Yong a little.

Murray hesitated for a moment, and when he saw Xu Yong had been looking at him, he finally said, "I went to the biggest gang in Chicago and gave the boss of this area some money."

Xu Yong laughed when he heard this.

This way of dealing with things is quite street-like, and it is finally connected to the problem teenagers that Foreman mentioned.

The two chatted briefly, and Murray went to training at Xu Yong's suggestion.

Xu Yong also observed for a while.

Murray gave him the impression that he had pretty good dribbling skills and enough impact, but his body looked very thin and his shooting was poor.

Considering his outstanding static physical talent (1.96 meters tall with shoes and 2.11 meters wingspan), he is obviously a rough diamond. Even if his body looks a little thin, theoretically he should be on the edge of the first round lottery.

It seems that the identity background that Foreman mentioned had a significant impact on his draft stock.

However, after the brief contact between the two today, Xu Yong felt that he was at least not a troublemaker.

Of course, this is just the first impression. After all, people are complicated, and performing well in front of the team boss and seeking a chance to play is something normal people would do.

For the next period of time, Murray knew that Xu Yong was there and arrived at the training hall earlier.

During this period of time, Xu Yong felt that although Murray was a little taciturn, he was very hardworking, and the most commendable thing was that he, like Butler at the beginning, knew exactly what he should do now.

Because in addition to court training, Murray also spent a lot of time in the gym, working hard to make himself stronger.

So although Xu Yong is still not sure whether Murray is a problem child, what is certain is that he, like Butler, is the kind of player who can play well even if he changes places.

After more than a week, other players began to arrive in Chicago.

What surprised Xu Yong again was that the Serbian tea artist also arrived relatively early.

"Why, you didn't win the horse race?" Xu Yong asked with a smile to Jokic, who came to the training hall and looked thinner and had slept a lot.

"No, no, no, boss. I've been training in Serbia this summer. I feel like I've become much stronger. I'm ready to do a big job in the new season." Jokic smiled.

Xu Yong glanced above his head and nodded. He believed it.

By mid-September, the rest of the Bulls team had arrived.

Xu Yong also met the team's biggest summer signing, Joe Johnson.

The two have been competing against each other in the Eastern Conference for many years and can be considered old acquaintances.

Johnson is actually not a typical swingman, because generally swingmen are more flexible in their playing style and are relatively light in weight, just like Xu Yonggang lost weight when he entered the league in order to play the No. 2 position, and Paul George was also very light when he played the No. 2 position. They all gained weight after playing as small forwards.

But Johnson, a player who has been playing at the No. 2 position for many years, is only 2.01 meters tall with shoes on, but weighs 108 kilograms, which gives him a clear advantage in both high and low post confrontations when playing at the No. 2 position.

This is also the origin of his nickname "One-on-One Joe", because the natural mismatch at the No. 2 position makes him a great threat in one-on-one situations.

Regarding this point, Johnson put in an impressive performance in the team's first full-court confrontation training session.

Even when facing Butler, he still has a good chance of scoring.

However, such a player has an extremely low-key personality. He has never talked trash to anyone or made any celebratory gestures. He seems to put all his energy into the game.

People say Duncan is called the Stone Buddha, but Duncan’s trash talk level is actually very high. In comparison, he is more like the rock, or the iceberg.

Taking into account Murray who they met before, it seems that all the newcomers of the Bulls this year have this kind of low-key, or dull personality.

No, not all of them, there is one person who is the exact opposite, and from the first time he participated in a full-court confrontation, his voice has never stopped in the stadium.

Beverly was like a loud speaker in a vegetable market, shouting non-stop.

He outputs as many sentences as other people's average statistics in a game, and what's even more amazing is that after shouting so much in a game, his voice is not hoarse at all.

But it must be admitted that there is such a person in the training session, and both the confrontation and the schedule are full.

And it's not just his voice. During team training, the intensity of the confrontation is very high, and sometimes his movements are a bit big.

This has caused some people to be disgusted, such as Anderson, who thinks Beverley is a little too emotional and can easily lead the team astray.

"We need to be more tolerant of newcomers, Kyle." Xu Yong was surprisingly patient.

But if you think he is just accommodating as he says, you are wrong, he considers more.

The last time the Bulls dynasty failed, in addition to injuries, the players' desire to play was also somewhat problematic.

Although it is not as obvious as the Lakers, you will not be successful if you don’t have the mentality of fighting hard in a difficult season.

All in all, the Bulls just fought hard last season.

But this situation will be even more obvious in the third year than in the second year, so it is a good thing for the Bulls to have such a person.

When the training camp is over, the preseason will begin immediately.

It was at this time that the league announced a small piece of news that the official will update the team strength rankings every week based on the team's record and performance. The first ranking will be released after the preseason ends and before the regular season officially begins.

This is taking away ESPN's job.

However, this method is very intuitive, and the team's strength and performance can be seen at a glance.

Moreover, this will inevitably make the team invest more in the preseason, which is equivalent to increasing the attention of the preseason, a seemingly useless event.

So Xiao Hua is a disgusting person, but he is really good at making things happen.

After half a month of preseason games, the Bulls won all seven games and also confirmed the last spot on the roster, which belongs to Curry.

Of course, this Curry is not that Curry, he is Curry’s younger brother Seth Curry.

Compared to his brother, Seth is shorter and thinner, and is a defensive black hole type of player on the court.

According to the scouts, he lacks the passing ability as a point guard and is not tall enough as a shooting guard. While others are neither forwards, he is neither a guard nor a mediocre one, which is very embarrassing.

But the good thing is that he inherited the shooting talent of the Curry family and is very accurate in three-point shooting.

The Bulls don't have a shooter role in their current outside lineup, so it's not surprising that they kept him.

(Attached is the Bulls' 15-man roster: Beverley, Stephens, Murray; Butler, Holiday, Seth Curry; Xu Yong, Johnson, Artest; Anderson, West, Dio; Adams, Jokic, Yi Jianlian)

When the preseason ended, the league officially announced the first strength list of the new season.

However, unlike ESPN, he did not analyze the strength of the teams, but simply gave a ranking, leaving more room for fans' imagination.

In this list, the Warriors are at the top.

James was criticized by many people for joining the Warriors, but he was also praised by others. For example, FOX, which is relatively weaker than the other two major sports media, became James' new partner.

"James and Curry are the strongest duo in history", "When the strongest organizer meets the strongest shooter, it is the nightmare of all opponents", "You must choose one cup of poison between two cups"...

These words may sound exaggerated, but they are actually not without reason. The Warriors were recognized as the league's top team before the start of this season.

The Bulls, as the defending champions, followed closely behind in second place.

The third place is the Thunder and the fourth place is the Raptors.

What is somewhat surprising is that the Cavaliers are still ranked fifth even without James.

However, this may not be entirely unreasonable, because looking back at history over the years, both the Heat and the Pacers have performed well after James left, so James has had the benefit of having his own parent team to enhance his performance over the years.

Therefore, although the Cavaliers have not made much reinforcement to their lineup due to salary space issues, and the Big Four has become the Big Three, their strength may not have been weakened too much.

This list attracted a lot of heated discussion. In the last training session before the official start of the season, the media asked Xu Yong about this ranking.

"I fully agree with this list." Xu Yong's answer was unexpected.

"They should be the champions. If they are not the champions even after this, what do you think others will think?" But he then asked in return.

What would you think? I'm afraid it will become a bigger joke than the 73-win runner-up in history!

Why in history were the Warriors, the team Durant defected to, looked down upon even though they won the championship, when the value of their championships was only comparable to Wade's two championships?

To put it bluntly, even if this kind of champion who takes shortcuts may be covered up by history in the future, at least at the time he will be looked down upon by everyone.

And if they don't win the championship, there's no need to worry, because James' fate will be the same as that of everyone on the Warriors.

Xu Yong's words caused a strong response, because many fans suddenly found that the pressure on them disappeared in an instant.

Yes, compared to what other teams have to face, the pressure that the Warriors players have to bear is extremely enormous.

Success is taken for granted, failure is irreversible.

So does the rule allow it? Of course it does.

But while it allows it, it also means that everyone on the Warriors has embarked on the most difficult path.

With Xu Yong's remarks, the door to the new season officially opened.

In the 2016-2017 season, there were two big dramas on the first day of the season.

One is between the Bulls and the Heat, and the other is between the Thunder and the Warriors, with the latter coming first and the former coming later.

In comparison, the Thunder's opening game against the Warriors was a bang-up start.

Because of all these things that happened during the offseason, including Durant being at the center of attention after the US team lost the Olympic championship twice in a row, the showdown between them has become a hot topic.

This season, the topic between James and Durant has reached its peak.

If there wasn't a match on that day, Xu Yong would definitely not have missed it.

Let’s talk about the Bulls’ opponent, the Heat.

Bosh was absent for half of last season. Although according to the media, Bosh is still trying to return this season, everyone knows that Bosh is completely out for the season.

This means that the era of giants for the Heat is completely over, and they will also experience what the Bulls experienced before, with a maximum salary player in the lineup.

Moreover, the Heat lost two starters this summer. One was Luol Deng, who was poached by the Lakers with a high salary, and the other was Hibbert, whose contract they voluntarily gave up on renewing. The latter was basically useless because of the existence of the [vertical jump rule].

Their current core is Dragic and Wade on the outside, as well as Whiteside, who performed well on the bench last season. The Heat spent a lot of money to keep him.

The two teams played at the United Center, and a championship ring award ceremony was held before the game began.

The Bulls players were very happy after receiving the rings, especially Anderson. He even brought last season's championship ring, truly achieving a symmetrical scene of wearing a ring on each hand.

"Kyle, what will you do if we win another championship this season?" Jokic couldn't help but ask after seeing his operation.

"Then take another one." Anderson said confidently.

Xu Yong laughed when he heard this. What? Is Anderson thinking of becoming McCaw?

After the opening, the starting lineups of both teams were announced one after another. The Bulls fielded Beverly, Butler, Xu Yong, Anderson and Adams as the starting lineup.

Let’s not talk about the strength first, but the defensive intensity on the field of this starting lineup is at its maximum.

Of course, the problem is that the offensive space is weaker than last season, and Beverly's three-point shooting has always been unstable.

Taking advantage of the Heat's excellent start today, Dragic made three three-pointers in a single quarter. The two teams played evenly in the first starting period of the first quarter.

Both sides entered the substitute transition period. Xu Yong and Butler of the Bulls both went off the court to rest. The lineup on the court was: Stephenson, Holiday, Johnson, West, and Jokic.

Perhaps because he felt that he had dealt too harshly to the two core players last season, Thibodeau directly used a ten-man rotation tonight.

However, from the players the Bulls brought in, we can see that the Bulls' lineup depth this season is quite good.

In the first attack, Jokic showed off his skills. He received the ball at the top of the three-point line and saw that Whiteside had not yet left the court. He did not block two shots and directly shot a three-pointer.

Xu Yong was slightly surprised when he saw this, not because Jokic made the three-pointer, but because Jokic's shooting rhythm was obviously faster than last season.

And this three-pointer was just the beginning, because the time period that should have been for Johnson to take the lead and show that he could bring substitute firepower to the Bulls became Jokic's personal performance time.

James became Xu Yong's toy in the Eastern Conference Finals last season, and Whiteside unfortunately became Jokic's first toy.

Jokic is originally bigger than Whiteside, but Whiteside looks very clumsy in front of Jokic.

For example, in one offensive round, Jokic was clearly blocked by Whiteside in the low post, but when the Bulls' outside shot missed, Jokic turned around and bypassed him, then grabbed the rebound and made a sideways low layup right under Whiteside's nose.

When Xu Yong saw this, he couldn't help but nodded.

Although he knew that Whiteside was a stat-boosting player, he was also sure that what Jokic said before was true. Jokic really worked hard this past summer, and his control of all aspects of the offense had improved significantly.

He then turned and looked at Thibodeau.

I don’t know when Thibodeau will start experimenting with letting Jokic play the power forward position.

Because of Jokic's current strength, it would be a waste of his talent to be a substitute.

Under Jokic's leadership, the original stalemate was quickly broken. Before the main players returned in the second quarter, the Bulls had widened the score difference to double digits.

When Jokic left the court, Xu Yong reached out and patted him on the butt as a reward.

After the main players returned, Xu Yong also began to exert his strength. He scored 18 points in a single quarter with both breakthroughs and shots. Under his leadership, the Bulls widened the score and by the end of the half, they had expanded their lead to 20 points.

After the half-time break, after returning to the locker room, several people took out their phones to quickly check the situation of the opening game in the Western Conference.

At this time, the game had entered the third quarter and the two sides were still tied.

Xu Yong also took out his mobile phone to watch the live broadcast of the game.

At this time, James was holding the ball and passing it to Curry who made a three-pointer.

You know what, the combination of their technical characteristics really seems like a perfect match.

Because Curry is essentially a player who is better at scoring without the ball than playing one-on-one with the ball, now the Warriors have a superstar who can create opportunities with the ball in addition to the system. This improvement may not be less than the effect of Durant joining.

But Durant on the other side also played really fiercely.

He had already scored 40 points in three quarters and almost devoured Green on the offensive end.

Green was definitely the most miserable person tonight, because on the offensive end, he was almost deprived of the ball by James, and on the defensive end, he had to face Durant, and the key was that he couldn't be defended at all.

It hurts just thinking about it.

Oh, and he's missing an egg.

So even though Green is dirty, his initial statement that he didn't want James to come definitely made sense.

"Boss, I bet a pack of black tea on the Thunder to win." Jokic leaned over and said.

"I can give out two packs." At this moment, Dio suddenly joined in.

Xu Yong looked at Jokic and then at Dio, and suddenly he realized that the two seemed to have a good relationship.

But there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with this. Now Dio is a health-conscious Dio. It is said that he was traded from New York to Chicago. He did not take a plane but drove all the way here by himself. He also took a lot of scenery photos on the roadside, which was quite interesting.

Two interesting people who will definitely have a lot to talk about, and they are both from Europe and are both good at passing the ball.

"I also think the Thunder can win."

After Xu Yong finished speaking, Jokic immediately spread his hands and turned around helplessly.

Everyone is optimistic about the Thunder because this game will obviously go to the decisive moment, and the Thunder is stronger in the ability to hit the buzzer-beater.

After returning in the second half, the Heat did not pose much threat to the Bulls. After being injured for two consecutive seasons, Wade's influence on the game was obviously not as great as before.

The Heat's performance tonight, compared with the Bulls who also had a maximum salary last season, also made fans more aware of how shocking Xu Yong's performance was last season.

Finally, after garbage time in the final quarter, the Bulls defeated the Heat 116-103 on the championship night at home and got off to a good start in the season.

In terms of statistics, Xu Yong scored 35 points in three quarters, which means he didn't sweat much, while Butler scored 16 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists and 4 steals, which warmed him up.

The biggest surprise on the Bulls side was Jokic, who played 24 minutes as a substitute and contributed 15 points, 9 rebounds and 5 assists. He stole the limelight from Johnson.

Because the NBA stipulates that players are not allowed to bring cell phones to the scene, once the game is over and everyone returns to the locker room, they take out their cell phones to check the game results.

The Thunder really won!

And it was not much different from what Xu Yong expected, a winning goal occurred in the game.

But the person who completed the buzzer-beater was a bit unexpected. It was not Durant, but Harden!

Facing Thompson's defense in the final moments, Harden used a signature double-step-back three-pointer, which he invented after studying the rules at four in the morning this season, to kill the Warriors.

The ball was controversial, but the referees confirmed it was not a traveling call after watching the replay.

It was a truly dramatic battle.

According to the post-match statistics, Curry scored 25 points for the Warriors, James scored 24 points, 7 rebounds and 12 assists, Thompson scored 17 points, and Green scored 8 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists and 5 fouls.

For the Thunder, Durant scored 47 points, Harden scored 29 points, including 14 points in the final quarter, and Capela had 16 points, 15 rebounds and 3 blocks.

When he saw this, Xu Yong sent a text message to Harden to congratulate him.

Their Devils quartet didn’t practice together this summer, but it appears Harden is trying.

Speaking of which, Harden announced his breakup with Kardashian this summer. It's really true that [after leaving Kardashian, Harden is like Jordan].

At this time, social media was already filled with cheers, because the Warriors, the team ranked first in the league's strength list, lost the game at the start.

I have to say, this was a pleasant surprise.