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At night, all the players from the Warriors went to dinner at Liam Gonzalez's house.
He didn't invite the coaching staff, mainly because the age gap between them and the players was a bit large, and they didn't feel comfortable hanging out together.
This dinner was not a typical American-style party. With the financial resources of Liam Gonzalez, he could easily hire a professional party service company to throw a luxury party. As long as the money was enough, the party service could provide any necessary services, from food, drinks, DJ, to atmosphere groups; everything would be covered, and the employers could relax at home.
But Liam Gonzalez was not interested in this kind of party at all. Many veterans might often go to nightclubs and enjoy this kind of exciting party, but they would never dare to give Liam advice in this area.
All the Warriors players knew that as long as they didn't get into trouble the day before a game, Liam didn't interfere with their private lives, and they could do whatever they wanted during the holidays, as long as they kept a good body fat percentage and physical condition. But he himself didn't like the American nightclub culture.
This also made the veterans very discreet when they went to nightclubs. They rarely asked their teammates to go with them. These players were not stupid; the boss is one thing, but the boss's preferences are another. They kept hoping Liam would give them more playing time and would never deliberately provoke their values.
So that night, they all helped Liam especially by cooking food typical of their countries, with the most influential Yi Jianlian and Jeremy Lin, who prepared a Chinese meal, contributing the most. Yi Jianlian did not know how to cook when he was in China, but after coming to the United States, he could not find an authentic Chinese restaurant in Milwaukee, so he had no choice but to cook and eat on his own. Jeremy Lin learned from his mother.
After a lot of work, the food was finally ready, and during the process, the relationship among everyone became closer.
NBA players are actually just colleagues, and there are many players who cooperate tactically on the court but hardly communicate off the court. It's hard to form personal friendships on the court.
Liam didn't expect the Warriors to immediately become one big family where everyone is close to each other, which is unrealistic. He just hoped the players could become friends, as this would be conducive to fostering their tacit understanding, and the tactics on the court could also work smoothly.
On other teams, it's usually the team's star players or the locker room leader who does this. For example, James likes to invite teammates to parties and give them expensive gifts. Kobe Bryant used to keep to himself and had very limited personal communication with teammates, but later, after maturing, he often gave gifts to his teammates as a means to bring the team together.
For the Warriors, there wasn't a true leader in the locker room. Liam was close in age to the players and was the de facto leader in the Warriors' locker room, so he could only do this.
After observing the dinner, the results were very rewarding: first, everyone praised the Chinese food as very delicious, whether it was sincere or flattery, judging by their performance at the banquet, it shouldn't be a lie.
Second, Green had really become friends with Curry, Klay, Butler, and others.
Previously, although Green often commanded the defense on the court, he didn't have a deep friendship with his teammates. They were willing to listen to Green when he commanded the defense more due to Liam's approval than believing Green was qualified to do so.
They trusted Liam, not Green.
Even a humble gentleman like Curry had an average relationship with Green. The two grew up in very different environments. Green grew up in the tough neighborhoods, with a tough and tenacious personality and never backed down. Meanwhile, Curry had a very good childhood, his competitiveness was more about realizing his dreams, and he was very humble and polite in dealing with others. They represented two completely different types of people.
In Green's formative career, everything had to be fought for. Whenever he stepped onto the court, it meant a life-or-death battle was about to start. Green would give it his all, never showing mercy, wanting to win any competition, even in an unscored practice game. If his teammates made a mistake, he would point it out without hesitation.
To win, Green would do whatever was necessary to meet the basic moral standards. He was the angel to his teammates, the devil to his enemies. In his dictionary, the word humility didn't exist. The basketball court was his battlefield, and as long as he was on the court, he was a warrior, always willing to sacrifice everything for victory.
On the other hand, Curry didn't have as strong a sense of competition. He also wanted to win, but the driving force behind his basketball was his love for the game. His performance on the court was directly tied to his emotions. When Curry was in high spirits or the game was extremely challenging, tapping into his desire to win, he could make all the shots and perform in ways no one could imagine, surprising the world.
But when he was down and out or disinterested in the game, the basket seemed like a lid to him, and he would repeatedly miss shots, even fail to get back up to the empty basket. He'd hurry to shoot three-pointers, commit many low-level mistakes, or simply lose the desire to attack, becoming almost invisible on the court.
That's why sometimes Curry would miss shots when playing against a weak team, and be great when the stakes were high. He was an emotionally driven player, like a passionate teenager straight out of a comic book, and when he realized it was his responsibility to save the world, his body would explode with infinite energy.
In Liam's past life, Curry was driven by this energy, being questioned and ridiculed by the world after playing what was perhaps the worst first half of his life in the 2019 Western Conference Semifinals G6. After just a 15-minute break, he played the best second half of his life, earning praise and adoration from the world.
It was also this energy that drove Curry to lead a broken-down, devastated roster after the collapse of the dynasty, giving fans the most visually beautiful scoring feast, slapping everyone in the face, including his fans and the Warriors' management.
Green and Curry had a huge difference in values, and naturally, their relationship wasn't good. Curry once privately told Liam that he didn't like Green's overly tough and emotional attitude, but for the sake of victory, he could understand and tolerate Green's behavior.
Green never told Liam what he thought of Curry, but Liam had seen Green reveal in an interview in his past life that when he first met Curry, he didn't have a very good impression of the "baby face," and was even more annoyed by his hippie smile during games. It wasn't until later that Green really understood Curry's character and grew to like him. Green even bluntly stated that "Curry is his lifelong brother, and he's willing to die for Curry."
Now, Liam was speeding up this process, allowing the main players on both ends of the Warriors' future offensive and defensive extremes to understand each other and establish a tacit understanding, which was an important step in the Warriors' rise.
Liam's goal was to be a champion, but not just any champion.
To build a truly great team, there must be an unbreakable bond between the key players and strong team cohesion.
Not to mention the ancient and early NBA periods, starting from the nineties, Jordan lost in the Eastern Conference playoffs for seven consecutive years before meeting Pippen. Their glory in the Bulls dynasty was inseparable, and no matter what their relationship became later, at that time, Jordan and Pippen were the closest duo in the league.
Later, before O'Neal met Kobe Bryant and grew, he was swept twice in a row, five times in six years, which was almost a joke. But after Kobe became a superstar, the two joined forces to dominate the league.
Many fans later glorified O'Neal's dominance, deified O'Neal's strength, and downplayed Kobe's role during the Lakers' three consecutive championships, but during O'Neal's six Finals trips, the team had another powerful outside star, namely "Penny" Anfernee Hardaway, "Peter Pan" No. 8 Kobe, and "Flash" Wade.
O'Neal was indeed very strong, but not as strong as some fans thought. The Lakers' dynasty cast was inseparable between the two, and the facts proved that after their conflict, the Lakers immediately lost the championship, and their dynasty collapsed quickly.
There were not only positive examples but also negative ones. In Liam's previous life, James won championships for three different teams, but his teams only won two championships in a row at most, which also had a lot of luck. Generally, teams can only rely on an instant star to win a championship, but then the locker room would inevitably collapse, even though the competitiveness was still strong. But when it came to the final stage, it would become fragile.
James' teams would never be able to build a dynasty.
Liam dedicated a lot of effort to help the Warriors grow to the point they were today. Initially, they built an offensive and defensive system, and they had an incredibly bright future. Not winning one or two championships could satisfy him. He wanted to accelerate the growth of the main players, cultivate their tacit understanding, so the Warriors could quickly have the strong team coach capital and enter the championship ranks.
A great common goal was the cohesion of the team.
At the party, Liam deliberately brought together Green, Curry, Klay, and Butler. They were the future of the Warriors, and under Liam's guidance, the four of them talked more and more.
Green and Klay listened as Curry told stories about his relationship with Ayesha. Curry spoke enthusiastically about the kind of popcorn he liked and funny facts about how he played golf.
This made Green look at Curry with admiration. In fact, he had thought Curry was a jerk at first. After all, Curry was handsome and a second-generation star, and Green had some white teammates like that. They were never short of women around them.
Butler shared his tragic upbringing in a calm tone, which earned the respect of both Green and Klay. They vaguely knew Butler's childhood was miserable, but they didn't realize just how bad it had been.
Green also gave an overview of his upbringing and the important role his mother, Mary Green, played in his education, which resonated with Curry.
Dyer was still playing in the league at that time and was often away from home. Curry was mainly raised under the care of his mother, and Sonya played a very important role in his upbringing. This made Curry understand the origin of Green's strong personality, which was the inevitable result of the lack of paternal love.
In fact, Curry was also very tough at his core, but the difference in upbringing and family environment made his toughness manifest not like Green's but as a kind of struggle against fate, an incessant fight to achieve his goals, which could be seen in his frequent battles with ankle injuries. Of course, with Liam's presence, Curry would never go through those tribulations again.
As for Klay, he had nothing to say. He was the standard second-generation star, inheriting the talent from his parents, living a good life since childhood, and not being questioned by others like Curry. He had only risen after meeting Liam. Klay had been walking smoothly on the road to professional basketball, entering the NCAA without problems and entering the NBA without issues.
But his type of humor quickly showed in front of everyone, and during the daily life scene of cooking together, Klay occasionally made funny actions, especially since he had rarely eaten Chinese food before, making many jokes. He held the chopsticks together like a fork; he tried to pick up noodles that had fallen on the table with his hands but couldn't, and finally, frustrated, he slurped them up with his mouth, which caused everyone to burst out laughing.
Curry laughed out loud and said to Klay, who had a blank expression on his face amid everyone's laughter:
"Klay, you know what's funniest about you? It's that you don't know how funny you are! Hahaha..."
The dinner finally ended in an explosion of laughter, with Big Z going home to accompany his wife and kids, Chandler going to nightclubs with Whiteside and Matthews, and most of the remaining players staying at Liam's mansion to watch movies, play games, and watch soccer matches.
After Markbaum bought the house, he built a special game room, a private cinema, and advanced equipment for the time.
Jeremy Lin dragged Klay to play a game, and their interests surprisingly matched at this point. The two found a common topic, and their relationship quickly grew closer. Klay had agreed to Jeremy's invitation to visit his house next time the team was on vacation.
Curry, Butler, and Green got together to watch the game between the Bulls and the Trail Blazers. They had a heated discussion about how they would deal with the Trail Blazers if they faced them in the playoffs, and how far the Bulls could go this year.
Green believed the Bulls would make it to the second round of the playoffs and couldn't go further, while Butler wasn't optimistic about the Bulls and thought they would be out in the first round. Curry, however, supported his friend Rose and said the Bulls would definitely make it to the Eastern Conference Finals.
Initially, their bet was $1,000, but then Curry suggested it was boring and wanted to make 300 three-pointers instead, which Green and Butler unanimously opposed. Eventually, the bet changed to donate a batch of supplies to the poor community in Oakland in the winner's name, and all three contributed the money together.
As for Liam and Yi Jianlian, they sat at the table and talked about life in Colombia and China. Yi Jianlian told Liam many anecdotes about the CBA and the national team, which helped him understand many things about the national basketball circle.
"Brother Yao takes good care of me in the national team. Sometimes I feel naive and unfair, as a good person like Brother Yao, who is constantly affected by injuries."
Liam listened to Yi Jianlian's story, and his eyes met Yi Jianlian's, who was sitting on the chair, but still showing his tall figure when he landed on the couch with Curry, Butler and Green, who were hotly discussing the Bulls' situation. In the game room in the distance, the laughter of Klay and Jeremy Lin could be heard, and the corners of Liam's lips twisted slightly into a smile.
This was the life he longed for.
End of this chapter
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