The Way of the Center

Chapter 861 : When I was thirty-six

Championship awards, locker room celebrations, championship parade… For the third consecutive year, the Portland Trail Blazers won the NBA championship for the second time in three consecutive years. After Jordan, Anjie is the second player who can create two dynasties in the league.

Moreover, there was only two years between the two dynasties. It can be said that in the second decade of the 21st century, the basketball world is being ruled by An Jie. Even though there are also many excellent players in this era, none of them can be greater than Anjie.

Jordan has become a thing of the past, and Anjie has taken over the title of “God of Basketball”. From now on, Jordan is no longer the only legend, because a living legend has been written by Anjie and his Trail Blazers.

Undoubtedly, in the summer at the end of the season, the Portland Trail Blazers officially announced that they would build a bronze statue for Anjie outside the Moda Center. Paul Allen even bought back the naming rights of the Trail Blazers home, making the Moda Center name a thing of the past.

Of course, Allen didn’t want to make the name of the rose garden reappear. The reason why he is willing to invest heavily in regaining the naming rights of the arena is because in addition to building a bronze statue for An Jie, Allen feels that it is not enough.

He hopes to name the home of the Portland Trail Blazers as the Anjie Center. In the history of the NBA, Anjie is the first player to enjoy this honor. And most importantly, Anjie has not retired, he has become a living banner of Portland!

Speaking of retirement, Anjie promised Catherine that he would withdraw from the basketball court when he won three more championships and be with his family wholeheartedly.

But when Anjie really won three championships again, he realized how difficult it is to let himself give up basketball.

Although Catherine did not take the initiative to talk to him about retirement, Anjie felt that he should still communicate his thoughts with his wife.

At 31 years old, this is not young for a professional athlete. But there is no doubt that this is far from reaching the point of retirement.

The Trail Blazers have just created a legend, and God knows what else they can do. If you choose to retire at this time, An Jie will definitely be very unwilling.

So between dinner today, An Jie suddenly brought up this topic. He decided to confess to Catherine that he still wanted to continue fighting!

“Hey baby, I still have a one-year contract with the Trail Blazers to be executed, so it’s a matter of retiring…” An Jie is not an untrustworthy person, so asking him to break his original promise is not a matter of It’s easy.

“Retire? Why are you retiring?” But Catherine’s reaction was beyond Anjie’s expectations.

“That…we said yes…”

“Haha, I know you won’t be willing to leave the basketball court, Ann. I know that even if your contract expires next year, you will still have other excuses for not retiring. Actually, you don’t need to make excuses. I won’t force you to do that. Even if you continue to play, you can accompany me and Xiaoke very well. If you want to continue, then continue to fight on the basketball court. I still support you. When you get tired, let’s talk about retirement. , I will also respect your choice.” Catherine’s gentle eyes made An Jie feel warmer.

Yes, I have lived with this woman for so many years, and An Jie has a silly heart, can Catherine know?

Although in recent years, Anjie has greatly reduced his time for extra training and spends more time with his family. But this does not mean that Anjie’s enthusiasm for basketball has diminished. If there is no basketball, An Jie’s life would probably not be complete…

This summer, Anjie still spent a lot of time with his family. He took Catherine and An Xiang with him even when he participated in the Olympics.

In this Olympics, the Chinese team reached the semi-finals historically, but lost when they encountered the dream team. In the end, he won the third place. The third place in the Olympics, this is a result like the take-off of Chinese basketball. Yao Ming is the chairman of the Basketball Association and An Jie is the captain of the basketball. The unusual combination of these two giants at the Olympics really surprised everyone.

People even assert that the Chinese team might even reach the finals if it weren’t for running into the dream team in advance. But there is no if in this world, let alone, third place, this is already a miraculous result.

While enjoying the victory, Yao Ming also envied Anjie. I think I couldn’t play ball anymore when I was his age. And Anjie can lead the team to success. If he was a monument of Chinese basketball before, then An Jie is an insurmountable legend in the history of Chinese basketball. Yes, leading the Chinese team to the top three in the Olympic Games, which undoubtedly raised An Jie’s historical status by a large margin.

An Jie has become a phenomenal figure. In the annual income ranking of athletes, An Jie is ranked first. Every topic of his can always become news, and even what color underwear he likes to wear can become a topic that fans talk about.

Anjie’s training camp is popular all over the world and has even become a hotbed for some professional teams to find talent. Cba players have a rich summer training, and their level is improving day by day. What Anjie brings to China is not only the NBA championships, but also the spirit of the clan.

What he brings to China is hope for the future.

Now, more and more Chinese children are beginning to appear at the Nike Summit. More and more Chinese teenagers are beginning to be called geniuses by American scouts.

Yellow people don’t know how to play basketball? Please, that is the ignorance of the past. Because the greatest player of this era is a guy with yellow skin and black hair.

An Jie’s beard grew more and more, and the wrinkles on his face began to slowly appear. Now when An Jie sees the old photos of the Cyclone team in the Beard Restaurant, he will envy his youthful appearance.

The season begins again, and the season ends again. His parents are aging slowly like himself, and An Xiang grows up day by day.

After the second three consecutive championships, the Blazers did not continue to win the championship. Antetokounmpo, the monster, successfully completed his revenge on Anjie in the finals. What he did was the envy of another great small forward who had always wanted to avenge An Jie but had never succeeded.

An Jie’s knee became more and more inconvenient, and the injuries left by his youth began to strike at this time. The doctor said at the time that An Jie’s knee may not last long. It has been very difficult for him to continue playing till now.

That year, the 32-year-old An Jie executed the five-year 202 million largest contract in the history of the NBA. But afterwards, Orsi quickly announced that he would continue to renew the contract with Anjie at a super high price of 40 million yuan a year. As for why the contract is only renewed for one year, this is actually An Jie’s request. Because he told Orsi jokingly: “Maybe in a year, I suddenly don’t want to fight?”

After the second three consecutive championships, Anjie still averaged 24.8 points, 11.3 rebounds, 5.5 assists and 2.8 blocks per game. But An Jie knows that his data will probably start to decline year by year.

In the third year, Anjie averaged 21 points per game, and the Trail Blazers have gradually been controlled by George and Lillard. That year, Anjie suffered a knee injury midway through the playoffs and was reimbursed for the season. The Trail Blazers’ journey to the playoffs has also fallen into the sand.

Even so, Anjie was reluctant to retire. He smiled and said to Catherine: “Let’s play for another year.” That year, Anjie was 34 years old.

In the fourth year, Orsi renewed Anjie’s contract for 39 million a year. People say that this general manager is crazy. An Jie, who is so old and has experienced injuries, is not worth the price. But Orsi didn’t care about this, he also told reporters: “As long as Anjie wants to play, I can open the next high-value contract at any time!”

Yes, how can Anjie’s value be measured by a few statistics?

This year, the 35-year-old An Jie miraculously played all 82 regular season games and the playoffs. With his knees already riddled with holes, he averaged only 18.9 points and 10.2 rebounds per game. But at the age of 34, how many centers can still play this kind of data? Even so, Anjie is still the best inside player in the league.

Anjie feels that it has become more and more difficult for him to play games, and the Trail Blazers have not won any honors for four years. Maybe this is God telling himself that it’s time.

At the age of 36, Anjie accepted Orsi’s 37 million one-year contract. After signing his name on the contract, Anjie smiled.

“What’s wrong, Ann? What are you smirking at the contract?” Orsi retracted the contract. He thought it was An Jie who was happy with the contract’s veto. After all, although Anjie is not as vigorous as he was in the past, although he is already too old, but the team rushing to get him is a lot. As long as Orsi is willing, he can trade him out at any time when An Jie is old, and then instantly trade in many outstanding guys to complete the reconstruction of the team. But he did not do so. In order to reassure An Jie, he even added the transaction veto to the contract.

“Nothing, I just want to tell you…” An Jie’s smile suddenly disappeared, becoming serious.

“This is very likely is the last time I signed your contract…” The 36-year-old Anjie stared at Orsi, who is also no longer young. I don’t want to accept the basic salary of a veteran when I am in the worst condition, and wait for death in the league. This is an unacceptable thing for An Jie, who is very competitive.

He won all the honors he could, and he felt very tired now. While he can still play the last remaining heat, he just wants to leave gloriously.

Orsi’s mouth twitched, and the day came after all. He couldn’t even imagine what the world would be like on the day Anjie officially announced his retirement.

“When are you going to tell everyone about this?” Orsi tried to calm his tone.

“Who knows? Anyway, let me finish the last season first.” After Anjie finished speaking, he turned and walked out of Orsi’s general manager’s office.

This one turned around, in Orsi’s eyes, it represented too many things…

Is it the last season? So many years have passed since time…