"Boss, are you going to make a comeback with the Mavericks?" Jokic asked impatiently after entering the house, his face full of anticipation.

Xu Yong nodded: "The specific time has not been determined yet."

Although the best plan is to return next season, he does not rule out the possibility of returning early if he can get back into shape quickly.

After all, the NBA market is shrinking now, and the cancellation of the [vertical jump rule] will bring pain, so it would be a good thing if he could return earlier.

At this moment, there was still a person standing at the door with an unconcealable smile on his face.

"DeMar's smile has been on his face since he heard you were coming." Jokic couldn't help but complain at this time.

After hearing this, Xu Yong looked at DeRozan with a smile, then opened his arms and gave him a tight hug.

Who could have thought that among the four devil swordsmen back then, the one who would eventually become Xu Yong’s teammate would be DeRozan?

However, just after the hug, Xu Yong found that the smile on DeRozan's face disappeared, replaced by red eyes.

Look how excited the child is.

Xu Yong reached out and patted DeRozan on the shoulder, then asked them to sit down and talk.

They hadn't seen each other for a long time, so they had a lot to talk about.

…

January 8, American Airlines Center.

Xu Yong, dressed in a suit and tie, appeared at the stadium with Ballmer.

When he walked out of the player tunnel, fans on both sides who saw him were already shouting excitedly.

When the camera was turned to him and his figure appeared on the large LED screen, the American Airlines Center instantly fell into a boiling frenzy.

Xu Yong has never been to an NBA game since his retirement. This is his first appearance in an NBA game in a year and a half.

Although he was wearing a suit and tie, the dreamlike scene was enough to drive people crazy.

Xu Yong smiled and stretched out his hand to greet the fans, then greeted the Mavericks players one by one, and finally sat in the second row of the audience.

Sitting next to him was Ballmer, surrounded by several security personnel.

This is the legendary SVIP seat that is not in the VIP box.

The players on the field were still warming up. In addition to the players on both sides, celebrities came over from time to time to say hello and take photos with him.

Is Dallas a place where celebrities like to come to watch the games?

The answer is obviously no. It was Xu Yong’s possible appearance tonight that made them choose to come here.

Celebrities need exposure to maintain their popularity, and Xu Yong is undoubtedly the one who can attract the most attention from the outside world right now.

It was not until the opening ceremony that Xu Yong finally had some free time.

He also finally got a chance to take a closer look at his future teammates.

The Spurs were the first visiting team to play, and the one who immediately caught Xu Yong's attention among their starting lineup was Doncic.

Leonard and Aldridge are not on the Spurs, and the Spurs were in a very bad state last season.

Although the league did not give them the No. 1 pick in the end, they still ended up picking up the 19-year-old Slovenian player Luka Doncic with the third pick.

Considering their past precedent of selecting Parker and Ginobili consecutively, this operation is reasonable.

Next is the Mavericks.

Starting point guard, Delon Wright.

Xu Yong's previous understanding of him was very limited, but in the previous communication, Ma Long had already introduced some core players.

Wright won a lot of honors in high school, including the Bob Cousy Award, the All-American First Team, the American Basketball Coaches Association's All-Defensive Team, etc. He was hailed as the best point guard in the United States that year.

With a height of 1.96 meters when wearing shoes, he is excellent in breakthrough, passing and defense. However, his shooting was unstable in college and he was eventually selected by the Raptors with the 20th pick in the first round of 2014.

This is his fourth year as a rookie, and because the Raptors can't afford to renew his contract, they eventually included him in the previous DeRozan trade.

His performance in the three years in the NBA was basically consistent with the original scout report, so he was also called the next Shaun Livingston.

However, after joining the Mavericks and playing next to Jokic, his shooting suddenly became accurate. This season, he averaged 1.8 three-point shots per game and had a hit rate of 38.1%.

Starting shooting guard, Wesley Matthews.

When Matthews was still on the Trail Blazers, he was the 3D guard that Cuban had always coveted. His three-point shooting and defense were very strong.

However, his disadvantages are that he is an older rookie and his height is preferred by shooting guards. His height is the same as Wright.

Moreover, his physical fitness has declined with his age. Now at the age of 32, his defensive ability has obviously declined. However, he averages 6 three-point shots per game with a hit rate of 38%, and can still provide production-level outside scoring.

Of course, his biggest problem comes from his contract. His contract of $18.62 million this season is a super premium contract as a degenerating 3D player.

Small forward, DeRozan.

Because Matthews couldn't play the power forward position, DeRozan began to gain weight to play the power forward position after arriving in Dallas.

Power forward, Dwight Powell.

Powell is 2.11 meters tall with shoes on and has a wingspan of 2.15 meters. He is a slender and athletic inside player. He is a second-round pick that the Mavericks have been cultivating. He can start in the NBA, but his talent is limited.

Center, Jokic.

Including the bench, the veterans Jose Barea and Devin Harris sitting in front of him, small forward Dorian Finney-Smith, inside space power forward [fellow German] Maxi Kleber, and the lottery pick who also followed DeRozan to the Mavericks, third-year player [Botou] Jakob Poeltl, are the core rotation players of the Mavericks.

In general, it's Jokic and DeRozan, with a bunch of veterans and rookies.

The Mavericks had just lost to the Trail Blazers three days ago, and the team urgently needed to win against a tank team like the Spurs.

However, after the game started, the Mavericks were in a stalemate with the Spurs.

Doncic played so well.

Before Xu Yong's rebirth, his understanding of Doncic was divided into stages. In his eyes, the fat Doncic had lost the qualifications to compete for the best player in history, but before he became fat, especially as a rookie, Doncic played with so much spirit.

Look at the confidence and composure in his every move, as well as his court-control ability and basketball talent that transcend his age. It doesn't look like a 19-year-old player at all.

However, the Mavericks also had a lot of problems.

Jokic seems to have not yet adapted to the cancellation of the vertical jump rule. When he receives the ball under the basket, he is always easily entangled with the opponent's center.

Of course, based on Xu Yong's understanding of Jokic, the latter will most likely be able to adjust back, although that will take some time.

The bigger problem still comes from DeRozan. I don’t know if it’s because he changed to play the three position or because of his own lack of confidence, but DeRozan played hesitantly.

Hesitation will lead to defeat, and this is also true in basketball games.

During the break in the first quarter, Xu Yong couldn't help but stand up and called DeRozan to his side, encouraged him for a while, and finally hit him in the chest.

However, DeRozan's performance did not improve much in the second quarter.

The game ended with the Mavericks' unexpected defeat.

Doncic played the best game of his rookie career, with 29 points, 8 rebounds, 12 assists and 2 steals.

In this eye-catching game, Doncic showed his superstar potential and ruined Xu Yong's "debut".

After the game, Jokic walked over to Xu Yong and apologized to him: "I'm sorry, boss, I ruined your good thing."

"Take it easy, Nikola, this is just a game." Xu Yong's mentality was relatively calm at this time.

He is now neither the player who can play on the court nor the coach who can command on the sidelines, but the owner of the team.

Or to put it another way, it’s management.

As a former player, he knows the relationship between management and players, even though the positions are now reversed.

What to say depends on the position, which is what Xu Yong has learned during his retirement.

Then, just a week later, he started to get a little restless.

The Mavericks suffered a losing streak.

The problems that were exposed that night against the Spurs are still there.

Jokic has adapted somewhat, but DeRozan continues to be in a slump.

When they met that day, Xu Yong didn't feel anything unusual about DeRozan, but now it seems that a lot has changed in DeRozan.

But this also explains why the Raptors would send DeRozan away so easily, even at the cost of two potential players.

You have to know that in terms of trading value, Leonard hasn't played well for two consecutive seasons, so his trading value is at least halved.

On an off-season day, Xu Yong invited DeRozan and Jokic to his home for dinner again.

This time he paid more attention to DeRozan and found that DeRozan was always absent-minded and always had a sad look on his face when he was sitting alone.

Only when talking about the game will his mood become relatively high.

Xu Yong also recalled the day when he first arrived in Dallas, when they talked more about the game.

He could clearly feel that DeRozan had some psychological problems.

Especially, as a born-again, he knew that DeRozan had experienced depression in history.

He thought his presence had changed everything, but now it seemed that had not happened.

After dinner, Xu Yong chatted with DeRozan alone for a while.

Because they didn't understand psychology, their conversation was not too in-depth, but Xu Yong finally convinced DeRozan, and then he asked Ship to find a good psychologist for DeRozan.

A few days later, through communication with a psychologist, Xu Yong roughly understood the situation DeRozan was facing.

After knowing what DeRozan was facing, he felt heartache and an indelible sadness.

Last season on the Raptors, in addition to the conflict between DeRozan and Antetokounmpo, he also suffered a major blow in his life. His father, who had severe kidney disease, passed away.

Just a few months later, he was released by the Raptors, where he had played for nine years.

Just after it was confirmed that he was traded to Dallas, his fiancée Morrison chose to break up with DeRozan because the two of them were rarely together and she didn't want to live in Dallas, a city full of discrimination. She also took DeRozan's two children away.

This not only separated DeRozan from his father, but also from his children.

The triple blow of family, love, and career is hard for most people to withstand.

Xu Yong asked the psychologist to help DeRozan deal with his psychological problems.

The psychologist knew Xu Yong’s influence and said something very realistic.

"Resolving psychological problems is like taking painkillers. It can treat the symptoms but not the root cause. If you want to truly get out of this situation, you essentially have to change his situation."

This sentence touched Xu Yong because it reminded him of an old friend.

When James was still playing for the Heat, he also sought out a top psychologist, and this was exposed after he left the Heat.

It turned out that the psychiatrist's treatment didn't work because James was unable to change the situation of being beaten all the time.

If you cannot change reality, then no matter how good your psychological counseling is, in the end it will be nothing more than self-paralysis.

But the reality is not so easy to change. Xu Yong can't resurrect DeRozan's dead father, nor can he make DeRozan's wife change her mind.

No, not all of them are impossible.

On that day, Xu Yong increased his training frequency.

At least, he has the ability to change the current situation of the Mavericks.

Time flies and it is already February.

Although the Mavericks did not experience another losing streak, their overall record still had quite a few ups and downs.

Although Jokic is quite capable now, he is far from being able to stand on his own.

Moreover, basketball is a sport for five people. The overall strength of the Mavericks is not that strong, and DeRozan's condition has always been lagging behind.

It's not just the Mavericks, the NBA is also experiencing the pain of canceling the vertical jump rule.

Xu Yong's appearance in the Mavericks once set off a sensation in the basketball circle, but because he did not play in the game after all, the effect quickly faded.

"We need Xu to be on the court, not sitting on the sidelines." This is also the voice of the mainstream media.

At that time, Xu Yong didn't understand why Jordan chose to make a hasty comeback at the end of the season, especially when Jordan was obviously not in good shape after he came on the court, but now he fully understands it.

Maybe Jordan had the same idea as him at the beginning, but when the whole village's hopes are placed on you, some choices are beyond your control.

Especially the pressure and expectation is not just one day, but every day, and it is increasing every day.

Finally, Xu Yong found Ballmer and told him about his decision to return early.

"You don't need to care about the outside voices." Ballmer remained calm. He didn't want Xu Yong to follow in Jordan's footsteps from the beginning.

Because to be honest, the current Mavericks, with Xu Yong in an unknown state, are not a championship-level team, and his initial plan was to play during this offseason.

"I'm not just doing it for the sounds." Xu Yong gave an explanation, but didn't say it explicitly.

Ballmer finally agreed because he had said from the beginning that he wanted to work with Xu Yong, and cooperation was based on respect.

At Ballmer's suggestion, Nelson Jr. began to push for a deal centered on Matthews.

The trading market for Matthews is very small. After all, a 3D player worth nearly 20 million with declining defense is the type that championship contenders can't afford and teams that are in a bad state don't want (after all, you can't expect a 3D player to sell tickets).

Fortunately, Matthews' contract is in its last year this season, so he can still be traded away with a little extra effort.

Xu Yong's original plan was to return to the game against the Warriors before the All-Star Game, so that both the topic value and the quality of the game would be guaranteed.

Unfortunately, Matthews' contract is a bit troublesome to handle (in history, he could not be traded and was eventually bought out. If it was easy to handle, it would not have been dragged on until now).

Xu Yong finally talked it over with Tatum.

After knowing Xu Yong's plan, he also began to push the deal behind the scenes.

Finally, before the trade deadline, the Mavericks successfully reached a three-way deal. After attaching a first-round pick and a second-round pick for next year, the Mavericks sent Matthews and the extra bonus to the Knicks and Suns respectively, and finally squeezed out a maximum salary space.

After the Mavericks completed this operation, everyone actually realized what was going to happen.

Shortly after that, the Mavericks officially announced that Xu Yong would resign as the owner of the Mavericks and sign a 1+1 maximum salary contract with the Mavericks as a player.

His signing is a free agent signing and does not require league approval.

The Mavericks also officially announced the time for Xu Yong's game, which is the first game after the All-Star Game, against the Lakers.

Every encounter is a reunion after a long separation.