Like the five previous lockouts in history, after the NBA lockout, not only will the league suffer heavy losses, but the players will also face tremendous challenges.
After the suspension, players were unable to use any team facilities, and many places were even closed to the public due to the epidemic. For superstars, it is okay to have supporting training facilities at home, but for ordinary players, they can't even find a place to train. How to maintain their competitive state is a huge challenge.
And this is not only physical, but also psychological, because no one knows how long the epidemic will last, and it is even unknown whether the season can continue.
In this context, many players have started side jobs, the most popular of which is e-sports. Hayward, George, Devin Booker, Anthony Davis and others are among the representatives.
Xu Yong did not do so. His advantage as a reborn person made him know that the NBA lockout would only last about four months. When everyone else chose to relax, if he could make good use of this time, then after the NBA resumes, their competitiveness will become even stronger.
Because this suspension was not caused by human factors, the NBA also has certain regulations. For example, players must stay at the team's location; teams are required to suspend all joint training and multi-person meetings, and if they want to train, they must be guaranteed a court, a basketball and a coach; team doctors and trainers need to communicate with players once a day, etc.
Without violating these regulations, Xu Yong decided to do something.
He asked Ship to find a training base in the suburbs of Dallas that was equipped with training facilities and accommodation.
Immediately afterwards, he sent a text message to everyone on the team, the general content of which was that he was prepared to provide a training venue at his own expense and would arrange accommodation and food, but the prerequisite was that anyone who entered the training base could not leave and could not come back after leaving.
The purpose of doing this, in addition to increasing competitiveness, is to allow the players to adapt to future park competitions in advance.
Of course, all this is voluntary.
After making all the arrangements, Xu Yong said goodbye to his wife and children and arrived at the training base one day earlier than planned.
Ship is very reliable in doing things. This training base covers a very large area. In addition to the indoor court and gym, there is also a large outdoor grassland, which can be transformed into a football field or a rugby field according to different needs.
In the accommodation area, Ship has also added electronic gaming equipment, as well as some billiard and poker equipment in the lobby in accordance with Xu Yong's request.
After all, it is impossible to have closed training here for four months without any entertainment activities.
He went over to experience it and the overall feeling was pretty good.
He even set up an isolation area. If uncontrollable risks really arise, the infected people will be isolated and released later.
Everything was ready, and the next day, the Mavericks players arrived one after another.
Except for a few players who came for special reasons, such as DeRozan needed to take care of his mother and Rose had been infected, most of the remaining players came.
On the one hand, it is due to Xu Yong's personal appeal, and on the other hand, they have become accustomed to training and playing basketball during this period of time. If you suddenly ask them to stop their habit, they will feel uncomfortable.
Xu Yong was still very excited when he saw this. He knew that the shutdown would only last four months, but others didn't know.
This shows that after this season's games, the Mavericks team's competitive spirit has been fully aroused.
Moreover, just a few days after their training began, an uninvited guest found them. It was Patil who had been forced to interrupt the recording before.
It took him a lot of effort to find out that Xu Yong and his team were training here.
"This will be the best material." Even the mask couldn't hide the excitement on his face.
"I promise I will be the last one to leave here." After learning about the rules of the training camp, he patted his chest and made the promise.
His attitude eventually won Xu Yong's recognition.
After Patil joined, the players' training enthusiasm became more intense.
This is a very subtle psychological change. Although they don't want to be like some people on the Lakers next door, constantly posting personal training photos to show how hard they have worked after the lockout, and they also understand that success requires a lot of silent efforts behind the scenes, everyone hopes that the process of this effort will be recorded.
In addition to training, Xu Yong also did two things.
One is to donate $200,000 to the team's staff and call on others to do the same.
NBA teams consist of not just management and players, but also security, cleaning and other low-level staff who keep the team running.
Players will continue to receive their salaries during the lockout, but these people's jobs are based on working hours, and they are the most affected by the NBA lockout.
At the same time, he also made some appeals on social media, calling on people not to stigmatize or develop hatred towards others because of this epidemic.
"Be kind to others, understand their fears, whether you feel them or not, and stay safe and make smart decisions during this time."
Of course, this matter is just a small matter for Xu Yong. After all, he did this just to make himself have a good reputation in Dallas.
In comparison, there is another thing he did that he really cared about.
He donated 20 million U.S. dollars to areas of the country where the epidemic was severe, such as cities like WH, to help them fight the epidemic, and he also asked people to track the donations to ensure that they were implemented.
He used to say that domestic fans are the most supportive group and the one he is most grateful to. Now that the fans are in trouble, he naturally wants to do his part.
Time flies and it is already June.
Nearly three months have passed since they started training.
The training was boring, but because Xu Yong had arranged those entertainment activities in advance, the atmosphere of the entire training camp was actually quite good.
Of course, some people withdrew, for example, some people had to leave because their loved ones passed away. The disaster brought to people by this epidemic exceeded most people's expectations.
But fortunately, from the beginning to the end of the closed training, no one in the training camp was infected, which prevented them from coming to an abrupt end.
After all, in such a small environment, although there are isolation measures, if one person is infected, it is basically difficult for others to be spared.
The reason why the training camp, which was originally planned to end in July, ended early is that the league has announced that a closed empty-seat game, the so-called park game, will be held at the Disney World Resort in Florida on July 30.
After a long period of training, it takes time to adjust, especially since there will be three months of closed training ahead.
However, after learning the news, the Mavericks players were very excited.
Because this kind of experience is theoretically impossible, Xu Yong has already led them to accumulate it in advance.
After leaving the training base, Xu Yong also used the rest time to spend time with his family.
During this period, Daddario was unfortunately also infected.
During this period, Xu Yong has been by her side to help take care of her, which also touched Daddario.
Xu Yong’s previous appeal was not a spur-of-the-moment appeal. At the beginning of the epidemic, out of fear, anyone who was infected would be exposed at the beginning.
Daddario was also worried that he would infect Xu Yong.
"Your husband is the person with the best resistance in the world." Xu Yong shut her mouth with one sentence.
Thinking back on the days he spent with Xu Yong, he seemed to have never seen Xu Yong sick.
Even during this epidemic, she was infected, but her two children were fine.
But she didn't think much about it. After all, some people in this world will have diarrhea if they eat something cold or spicy, but some people can eat and drink as much as they want and nothing will happen to them. Everyone's genes are different.
In the end, Daddario recovered, and she was so moved that she decided to have another child for Xu Yong.
During the quarantine period of the epidemic, I have nothing to do but make babies at home every day.
When it was the end of July and Daddario won the bid again, Xu Yong also went to Orlando with the team.
Orlando, not Oakland, is the city where the Magic's home court is located. The Disney World Resort in Florida is located in the southern suburbs of downtown Orlando.
This place is much larger than their previous training base and feels a bit like a mini Olympic Village.
However, the control measures here are much stricter than those in the Olympic Village.
First of all, everyone (including players and team staff) will be quarantined for 36 hours upon landing and will need to undergo two rounds of testing, both of which are negative, before they can officially enter the park.
They will be distributed a 113-page manual at the first moment, which details the rules that players and staff need to respect in the park.
Among the important ones are: except for eating, playing and sleeping, all players must wear masks when in the park; outside of games and training, players must carry distance alarms, and when the distance between two players is less than 6 feet for less than 5 seconds, the distance alarm will automatically sound.
Of course, like Xu Yong’s previous training base, there are also supporting entertainment facilities here, and they are also much more comprehensive.
2K games, televisions, game consoles, swimming pools, movie screenings, etc. Players are also allowed to play poker (the serious kind) in the hotel, but the cards must be thrown away after use; players can also play table tennis for entertainment, but only one person is allowed to play table tennis, and two people are not allowed to play against each other.
In addition, players can also make appointments in advance with hairdressers, manicurists, masseurs (the real ones) and other related services.
It can be said that players can enjoy many things in the park, except freedom.
However, when Xu Yong read the latter part, he was quickly attracted by one of the clauses, which was that the park would accept anonymous reports. If any player violated the regulations, he would receive certain warnings or penalties. If the circumstances were serious, he would be directly expelled from the park, and his team would not be able to add additional personnel.
Although the park is not large, it is difficult for the staff to fully supervise it. However, this anonymous report is cruel enough. Because there is competition between teams, the players will be very happy to do such things, which is equivalent to supervising each other.
After finishing reading the manual, Xu Yong got up and walked around the park to familiarize himself with the environment.
Because they had all just arrived, most people were resting in their rooms and not many people were walking around in the park.
When someone sees Xu Yong, they will stretch out their hand to say hello, but they will also leave quickly because of the rules.
However, when one person saw him, he was like the motorcyclist who was madly stepping on the accelerator and saw the traffic police. Not only did he release the accelerator instantly, he even got off the bike and pushed the bike past, and passed by in shame.
It was none other than Gobert, the arrogant idiot he had called out before.
If it weren't for Gobert, the park would have been opened as early as March and the NBA wouldn't even have to shut down.
He also remembered something even more disgusting, which was that when he called for donations for league employees, Gobert also hypocritically followed suit and donated $500,000.
After adjusting his mood, Xu Yong continued to familiarize himself with the venue.
There are three stadiums in the entire park, which will also become the venues for the upcoming park competitions.
It is worth mentioning here that because the previous suspension was in March and the suspension lasted for three months, the league obviously could not arrange all the remaining regular season games, because there will also be playoffs and next season's games, so in fact, the teams that arrived at the park have 8 regular season games left.
Therefore, not all 30 teams were invited, but only 22 teams. The remaining 8 teams had more than 6 games left before the playoffs, so theoretically they had no chance of advancing, so there was no need for them to come.
So even though there are only three stadiums, the games can still be arranged.
Of course, the competition time cannot be concentrated in the evening as usual, but many will be scheduled during the day.
For example, the Mavericks' first game against the Lakers after entering the park was scheduled for the afternoon of the same day, which would also be a test for the players.
The next day, after training with the team for half a day, the Mavericks faced the Lakers that afternoon.
When they entered the competition venue, they felt a little strange.
Because there are no familiar spectators around, there are only some staff and some cold large-screen monitors. When the game starts, the screen will show the images of online fans watching the game.
This feeling made the players on both sides somewhat uncomfortable.
Because it makes the game look like an intra-team competition.
You have to know that the cheers and boos from fans can stimulate the secretion of adrenaline in the human body, and then make people perform exceptionally well.
This kind of empty stadium is just the opposite, which will make people's desire to play plummet.
After warming up for a while, Xu Yong sat on the sidelines, lowering his head with his hands to mobilize his mood for the game.
After a while, when he stood up again, his face was full of high morale.
This is the first and last meeting between the two teams after the Lakers traded for Davis.
If the two teams meet in the playoffs, then tonight's game will be the best opportunity to find out.
On the other side of the court, James was also eager to try.
Davis is much stronger than he was a few years ago. After he came, the Lakers' record has been improving by leaps and bounds. Before the suspension, they rushed to third in the Western Conference, which is better than the Warriors' record.
The team's performance finally rekindled his desire for the championship.
Since Durant, Curry and others have achieved what they wanted after years of hard work, he can naturally be the next one.
Moreover, Davis was injured before, and the suspension allowed him to recover from the injury. Now the Lakers are in full health.
In addition, he has been training to maintain his physical condition during the suspension, and he feels that he is in peak condition. If this is their road to the championship, he believes that today is the beginning.