“This is a chance for the dynasty. Do you understand the value of the dynasty?”

Because Jiang Ming and Yao Ming are already brothers, he spoke frankly.

Not long ago, Jiang Ming had discussed this issue with Zhang Mingji and others over tea.

Is a concentrated triple crown necessarily more difficult than a separate triple crown?
This is asking “is it?”
The answer, of course, is that a concentrated triple crown must be more difficult than a separate triple crown!
The logic behind this is often accompanied by:

And as time goes by, the concentrated triple crown will only become more and more difficult.

Because although it is called NBA, the rules on the court, the rules at different stages of the season, and the rules of CBA (*) are becoming more and more difficult as time goes by.

For a team aiming to build a dynasty, “difficult” does not so much refer to “physical difficulties” as it does to “psychological difficulties”.

As time goes by, they are still the role players you spend every day with, but times have changed and you no longer fully trust them – you will always feel that they are slacking off.

It is difficult to fully understand this mentality if you have never been a team leader (including a leader on the field and a leader in the locker room).

This is not a question of whether a team leader is a control freak, it’s just human nature – in the eyes of one or several role players in the team, even if the team leader did not have this tone before the team aimed to become a dynasty, sooner or later he would develop this tone after the team aimed to become a dynasty.

Moreover, role players are the most lazy after winning the championship, because in the eyes of outsiders, the championship was not won by them. They won the championship just to gain the title of championship players.

With this title, you can get a big contract, and just one such title is enough.

Just like everyone only remembers Magic and Jabari during the Lakers dynasty, and everyone only knows Jordan, Pippen, and Rodman during the Bulls dynasty. Other role players will eventually be lost in the long river of history.

Of course, the Trail Blazers are not in this category, but it can also be said that Yao Ming will definitely be remembered by everyone.

So if he can win three consecutive championships with the team, that would be a dynasty honor!
Sure enough, after hearing what Jiang Ming said, Yao Ming and Zhang Mingji hesitated for a moment. Indeed, this was the dynasty’s opportunity.

Can physical fatigue be overcome, but can the magic of the dynasty not be attracted?

In the world of NBA, if you win three championships, you may become a superstar, but if you win three championships in a row (such as three consecutive championships), people will directly carve your name into the temple of history – this is the magic of “dynasty”.

Seeing the two of them were moved, Jiang Ming said:

“To use an analogy from China, the Long March has passed Lazikou, and this is the last step. Should we give up?”

He must convince Yao Ming. Just kidding. This guy was the league’s top center three years ago!
Such a player, earning a veteran minimum salary of $150 million as a backup center for the Trail Blazers, is the strongest axe on the bench.

If he really leaves, the Trail Blazers’ bench strength will drop drastically next year.

It is said that we can strengthen the team with a rookie, but how?
The Trail Blazers only have the 28th pick in the first round, and there are no good inside players in this class. The only one Jiang Ming has his eyes on is AD Davis, the favorite for the No. pick. But think about it and you will know that no matter what they do, it is impossible to get a rising star inside like Davis.

So now that we have come to this, let Yao Ming join us in the charge to rebuild the dynasty.

In fact, in Jiang Ming’s opinion, if the dynasty is to continue, Yao Ming is indispensable.

Yao Ming’s presence is too important.

For example, if Yao Ming was not there in the Western Conference Finals, it would have been impossible to shut out the team 4:0. Yao Ming is too much of a counter to Howard and Gasol.

Therefore, for the sake of capital, he had to keep Yao Ming.

But Yao Ming had actually thought deeply before coming here, so he asked sincerely:

“But it’s really hard to have a dynasty. Are we so sure? People will definitely target us more next season.”

“It’s difficult, so you must be there.”

Jiang Ming continued to refill their tea and gave them some snowflake crisps and toffee desserts, which were recently given to them by a female IT executive from their clinic. She said that following her Chinese medicine therapy, her menstrual period was finally not as painful.

The three of them changed the topic and started talking about the difficulty of the dynasty.

Zhang Mingji smiled and said:

“As an agent, I support any decision made by the players. However, if we recall our journey in the NBA together 20 years later and we win three consecutive championships, we can speak louder.”

Yao Ming stretched out his fingers and counted:
“Isaiah Thomas’s Pistons won two consecutive championships, Olajuwon’s Rockets won two consecutive championships, and Duncan’s Spurs won the championship in odd-numbered years, which reflects the exaggeration of Jordan’s two consecutive dynasties.”

Zhang Mingji: “So he is the God of Basketball. If I remember correctly, the Bulls had internal and external troubles, players were injured, and the team was in turmoil. If it were any other team, they would have collapsed long ago. Only Jordan could achieve such a great feat. Can we really do it? I think many people may give up after winning this championship.”

Jiang Ming smiled and took a sip of tea:

“Haha, you’re right. We’ve analyzed this before, but for the sake of Dynasty, our management and medical staff will spare no effort.”

Jiang Ming, who appeared to be smiling, was actually sighing in his heart. He had to do more next season. Prejudice in people’s minds was as huge as a mountain. There would definitely be more unexpected things after two consecutive championships. Just the fact that the staff were asking for a pay raise and there was a high probability that they would jump ship and be poached was enough to give them a headache.

The real difficulty of the dynasty lies in the cracks of time.

Imagine crossing the finish line in a top-of-the-line sports car; that’s already not easy.

But the real challenge is: for the next two years, you have to drive the same car and continue to crush everyone while your opponents have studied every stone on the track.

When the Bulls won 1996 games in 72, the entire league was dismantling the triangle offense;
In 1997, they were without their rebounding champion Rodman for most of the season, Pippen had a back injury and was kneeling on the ground, Jordan had food poisoning and collapsed in the locker room, but they still successfully defended their title.
By 1998, Rodman was 37 years old and Pippen had a serious back injury and deliberately delayed surgery, but they still completed three consecutive championships.

The scary thing about this script is that your opponent knows exactly how you’re going to attack, but just can’t stop you.

Looking at the failed cases: Wade and O’Neal were at their peak in 2006, but Wade’s knees could no longer support a second charge a year later;
Similarly, there are also main players who become ambitious after winning the championship and directly apply to leave the team. There is nothing we can do about this.
In 2008, the year after the Celtics won the championship, Garnett’s knees and Pierce’s groin began to show red lights, and the Big Three were not doing well all of a sudden. But after a year of rest, they won the championship again in 10. This also shows that the year in between was too difficult to sustain.

These stories all point to the same truth – keeping the same group of people on the field for three years is more difficult than regrouping the team three times.

Just like Yao Ming is leaving right after winning the championship this year, and both Curry and Danny Green are facing contract renewal issues, as long as one person leaves, the core lineup of the championship has changed, and the newcomer may not be as good or be able to get the job done.

Last year, they stole Harden, and this year, a lot of people will definitely raise the price to prevent the Trail Blazers from making any reinforcements. Everyone will come to stop them from winning three consecutive championships.

The essence of a dynasty is to confront human nature.

Humans are creatures of inertia.

When you win the championship for the first time, the whole team pounces on the game like hungry wolves;
The second time may also be with the pride of defending the title;
By the third time, someone always starts calculating, “I already have two rings, is there a need to try harder?” “Haha.” Yao Ming laughed awkwardly. This was undoubtedly him. However, it was not that he did not want to try harder, but that he now had a wife and daughter, and he wanted to return to his family even more.

The longer Chinese people stay abroad, the more they miss home. I heard that his hometown, Shanghai, has changed a lot now. He really wants to go back home and stay there for a few years in peace.

O’Neal wrote in his retirement autobiography, which was just released this year, that the locker room was completely out of control after the Lakers won three consecutive championships in 2002: “Kobe and I didn’t want to listen to Phil (Jackson) nagging anymore. My teammates went to parties everywhere and didn’t even bother to sweat during training.”

This fatigue directly led to their sweep by the Spurs in the 2003 playoffs.

Even Jordan, a paranoid man, admitted after his second three-peat: “I have to get up every day and rekindle my fighting spirit, just like grinding the flint to bleed.

Winning championships in a dispersed manner is more like “shooting and moving to another place”, which is why everyone criticizes James and Ray Allen.

Winning championships in scattered events is less valuable than winning them every other year.

Every time we have to reorganize the team, re-formulate tactics, and even re-adapt to the city culture.

This certainly requires extraordinary abilities, and you can also take shortcuts by banding together for warmth, but there is no need to continue to fight against the “aftermath of winning the championship.”

After all, every championship run is a new story. Teammates haven’t gotten tired of each other yet, and opponents don’t have time to build a targeted defense.

Zhang Mingji added: “The salary rule is the real killer of the dynasty.”

There is an invisible rule in the modern NBA: the bench of the championship team will be emptied by other teams within 18 months.

This is not a mistake made by the management, but a cruel reality: when your core players are paid top salaries, high-quality role players will inevitably be poached by teams that are more short of players with mid-level contracts.

In contrast, the Spurs are a model of “dispersed championship” (1999, 2003, 2005, 2007). They can actively change blood after each championship: Duncan changed from David Robinson to Parker/Ginobili, and then to Leonard.

Although this model is long-lasting, it also requires luck. They happened to encounter an outlier like GDP who is “willing to take a pay cut all year round”, and a supernova like Leonard who suddenly grew up.

The main reason for this is that the opponent’s “hatred value” will increase exponentially with consecutive championships.

When the Trail Blazers won the championship in 2011, other teams were still figuring out how to deal with the Trail Blazers’ twin towers;
In the 2012 Finals, Spoelstra had discovered that a five-small lineup could perfectly counter the twin towers, and the Trail Blazers had to change their lineup on their own initiative.

By next year, the entire league will have learned this trick, will know the abilities of Curry and Danny Green, and will know that Oden is actually a fake trident. His real role is to be a more expensive blue-collar player.
This continuously escalating pressure of confrontation is like playing a level-breaking game where the boss of each level is three times stronger than the previous one.

Even more terrifying is the psychological warfare.

When the Heat formed the Big Three in 2011, all 29 teams in the league were trying their best to stop them;
After the Trail Blazers beat the Heat in the finals this year, Roy said calmly: “It’s not that exciting this time. We just train on time every day.”

This kind of relaxation can only be faked by a team that is not obsessed with dynasties.

Maybe Roy felt that a dynasty was too difficult, or maybe winning the championship this time was really too easy.

The historical evaluation system has already written a script. NBA legends always like to say “our time was more difficult”, and the dynasty is the strongest argument.

Russell’s 11 championships, Jordan’s two three-peat championships, and the OK combination’s three consecutive championships, these achievements are naturally gilded because they are difficult to replicate.

“Hey, the alliance will target us too.”

“That’s true.” Jiang Ming nodded.

“A team that wins consecutive championships will make the game less suspenseful.”

This was said by David Stern at the league meeting after the Celtics won the championship. Ainge of the Celtics was not invited to that meeting, which also meant that he was worried about the Celtics winning consecutive championships.

But he was wrong, the Celtics were not that durable.

Now Jiang Ming thought that while they were drinking tea here, the entire league might be targeting the Trail Blazers who had won two consecutive championships.

After being a shareholder for three years, Jiang Ming now understands the business logic of the NBA: dynasty teams will attract too much attention, making tickets for other teams unsalable.

Not to mention a small market like the Trail Blazers.

It is not difficult to find that the league’s rule adjustments in the past two decades – proposing to shorten the second attack time, encourage offense, use body whistles to reduce confrontation, and adjust the luxury tax rules – are all creating obstacles to consecutive championships.

So when fans lament “Why are there so few three-peat teams?”, the answer is actually very simple: players have to fight injuries, teammates have to fight laziness, management has to fight salary explosions, and league officials are quietly modifying the rules to target consecutive championship teams.

Those who can complete a dynasty in such an environment are probably not ordinary people – it is Russell, Jordan, O’Neal and others who forcibly modified the underlying code of the basketball world.

“So, can we do this?”

“How will you know if you don’t do it?”

“Let’s continue for another year.”

Yao Ming’s eyes became clearer after hearing what he said: “Think about it for me and I’ll give you a quick reply!”

Obviously, he was going to call his parents for advice. This is the Chinese tradition. When in doubt, ask the elders. Isn’t Jiang Ming doing the same sometimes when he encounters medical problems?

Under Jiang Ming’s “pua”, Yao Ming and Zhang Mingji’s team made a careful decision for an afternoon and directly signed a one-year veteran minimum salary contract with Larry Miller.

Yao Ming renews his contract for one year!
After signing, Yao Ming also said to Jiang Ming solemnly:

“Director Jiang, this is really the last year. For the dynasty, let’s fight one last time!”

“My daughter can talk now, and I don’t want to be on crutches and unable to take her out to play when she can communicate with me.”

Jiang Ming also said seriously:

“Don’t worry, I’m here and I won’t let you use crutches. Don’t participate in this year’s Olympics. Next season, your playing time will be a maximum of 20 minutes per game. And considering your current knee strain, you must lose 2013 pounds between now and the 20 season!!!”

Yao Ming was shocked when he heard that he had to lose 20 pounds. What happened to the retirement season? If he wants to lose weight, he will definitely have to work hard! He feels cheated:
“Is it too late to regret now?”

Jiang Ming: “NO.” (End of this chapter)