Champions Creed

Chapter 129 Chapter 128: The problem must be solved (ask for a monthly ticket!)

O'Neal was very happy. He didn't expect Roger to make Pat Riley so embarrassed.

I originally thought that when Roger said "this matter is not over yet", he was referring to defeating the Heat and teaching Riley a lesson.

As a result, Roger gave Pat Riley a horrific public execution.

As expected of Roger, he is very efficient.

Now Shark can understand why Laetitia said in a previous media interview: "The life in the past few years is not as good as the two nights with Roger in Orlando."

The shark had been depressed for so long, but Roger made him happy overnight!
The good news for the Magic is that Roger was not suspended after slapping Riley.

But the bad news is...well, there is no bad news, only another good news: O'Neal is finally coming back.

On December 12th, in the Christmas game against the Houston Rockets, Roger and the Shark will team up for the first time this season.

Thanks to Abunassar's efforts, O'Neal successfully lost weight and his physical fitness returned to competitive state.

Overall, O'Neal is still willing to obey. Although the Shark's motivation to win the championship has weakened, his motivation to sign a big contract is extremely strong.

In his expectations, he wanted a contract exactly like Roger's.

This is a very fair price.

The premise is that he has to perform well. This is how contract extensions work. Your performance in the contract year will largely determine your contract renewal price.

Even if you were a god last year, but your performance is average this year, your value will decrease.

This is why so many players always break out in their contract years.

In order to get a big contract, the Sharks must be obedient and train well.

However, before the Christmas game, Roger still has to lead the team to play a game against the Timberwolves.

The night before the game, Roger had dinner with Garnett as usual.

Every time Garnett met Roger, he would always chatter about his troubles.

This time, the trouble he shared was mainly about his declining self-confidence.

"My shots started to become timid, and I was overly cautious on the defensive end. In short, as long as I was on the court, I would be very uneasy, always worried that I would do something wrong. Roger, how did you overcome this problem?"

Roger screamed in his heart: "How the hell do I understand!"

"You can try push-ups," Roger replied.

"what?"

"You can try doing push-ups during the game, or pounding your chest to show your strength. This should help boost your confidence. Believe me, Kevin." Roger couldn't help but smile, "You'll love that feeling."

Garnett was stunned for a moment, then raised the corners of his mouth.

He loved the idea!
The next day, there was still no suspense in the game between the Timberwolves and the Magic.

Although the Magic were missing Grant and O'Neal, they were of no use against a team like the Timberwolves. Roger led the team to victory easily with a performance of 34 points in a single game.

There was no suspense in this game from the beginning. The only highlight was probably Kevin Garnett.

His repeated chest-beating and roaring on the court were impressive.

In fact, the most impressive moment was in the fifth minute of the third quarter, when Garnett successfully chased down Derek McKay who was dribbling into the paint. When he saw the rebounded basketball hit the backboard and was grabbed by his teammate Isaiah Rider, Garnett began to beat his chest and yell at McKay arrogantly.

As a result, just when he was halfway through shouting, Garnett found himself completely enveloped by a huge yin and yang.

When he turned his head, Roger was already flying in front of him with the ball.

Garnett's mind was very confused at the time. He didn't know why the ball appeared in Roger's hands, and he didn't know when Roger jumped in!
Wasn't the ball just grabbed by Isaiah Rider?
Indeed, Garnett is not blind.

But the moment Rider got the basketball and turned around to counterattack, he met Roger who jumped out to steal the ball.

He had no time to react and the ball was quickly snatched away by Roger.

But at that time, Rider was not panicked, because Garnett was still under the basket. Although the high school student was still immature, he was very fierce in blocking shots with his strong athletic ability and static talent.

If Roger rushed in and confronted Garnett head-on, he would be in great danger.

As a result, Rider turned his head expectantly, only to find Garnett beating his chest and yelling at McKay, and he didn't even notice Roger had entered the penalty area.
"boom!"

Kevin Garnett was pounding his chest and talking trash, when he was suddenly dunked by Roger!

KG was knocked to the ground, but Roger kindly told him: "Hurry up and do push-ups, Kevin!"

In order to ease the embarrassment, Garnett actually did push-ups on the ground in a very nonsensical way.

The Timberwolves were dumbfounded. Garnett didn't go to college because he had no confidence in his grades and just entered the draft. But the whole team felt that Garnett was just not good at studying, not stupid.

But after today, the whole team will have to re-evaluate his IQ!

Garnett's first experience of doing chest-beating and roaring push-ups was not a good one. He felt that his self-confidence did not increase at all!

But after the game, Roger patted him on the shoulder and said, "You have to learn to trust the process, Kevin. Take your time, and your confidence will improve."

Garnett thought this made a lot of sense, but he also wondered why none of them had ever been to college, but Roger spoke so culturedly while he spoke like a husband?

After the game, Orlando fans were very excited.

Of course, they are not excited about the team defeating the threatless Timberwolves, but because the Big Shark, who has been sleeping for two months, is finally waking up.

The whole of Orlando is looking forward to Shaq's return. Although the team has been winning recently, if Shaq and Grant were both there, would Roger have to fight Pat Riley's team until the last minute to decide the winner?

The Shark himself was also very excited. He hadn't been so eager to play in a long time.

He told the media: "We will easily win the defending runner-up, even easier than you think!"

O'Neal is not blindly confident. The Rockets have shown their aging signs this season.

Olajuwon and the Glider are one year older, and the Rockets have not had any successful signings this summer.

Moreover, last season's defeat made Tomjanovich's chicken soup a little bit ineffective.

The championship heart was defeated by Orlando's young talent last season. This is too realistic and too discouraging.

Friends who often eat pancakes know that if there is no real harvest, chicken soup and pancakes will become tasteless, or even disgusting.

In the playoffs last season, relying on the chicken soup for the championship spirit, the Rockets had a role player standing out in almost every game.

But this season, the Rockets' role players have become mediocre after being immune to chicken soup.

To the extent that this season, Tomjanovich has been given less chicken soup and has instead begun to implement a high-pressure policy: Anyone who performs poorly for a long time and never fights is not my brother!
Kenny Smith, Robert Horry, Mario Elie, these players who saved the Rockets more than once in last season's playoffs with a mouthful of chicken soup, began to sink this season.

So far this season, the Rockets are not even ranked in the top four in the Western Conference - they couldn't make it last season either, but the situation was completely different.

Last season, the Rockets needed to adjust. Drexler's arrival changed most of the team's playing style, and many strategies needed to be overturned and re-formulated. Olajuwon and his followers all needed to adapt to the avant-garde one-star four-shooter tactics.

But this season, the Rockets' lineup has not changed significantly, and their playing style is still the same as before, with no need for adjustment. The reason they can't get into a high ranking is purely because their strength has declined significantly.

Therefore, the Sharks are quite confident that there is no better target to beat in their comeback battle than the Rockets.

The day before the Christmas War began, Roger took O'Neill and Saru, as well as actors from Disney cartoon characters, to the Watt community.

He fulfilled his promise and let the children here meet Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, as well as a bunch of princesses.

Thanks to the temperature in Orlando, Roger can see the princesses who are very strong and wearing low-cut dresses in December.

How can you not be happy when you do good things and please yourself at the same time?

That night, the three of them played with the children for a long time.

On the way back, Saroo looked very happy, as Roger had fulfilled all his wishes, which also meant that as a knight, he was willing to die for Roger, the young king.

It's an exaggeration, but Roger can definitely expect this European defender to play better and better in the rest of the season. Because he no longer has any distractions, he can focus on the next goal.

As for Shark, he was also very happy.

But he was obviously not as focused as Saru, who had no distractions other than victory. Although he was laughing, Roger was sure that he was still worried about his contract renewal.

Now Roger knows why it is so difficult to win consecutive championships.

Because the defending champion has to defeat more than just the opponent.

Roger doesn't want this incident to affect the Sharks' condition. If they fail to win the championship this season and let Jordan return to the throne, all Roger's efforts will be in vain.

Look at Olajuwon in the original history. His two consecutive championships had no influence at all compared to Jordan who won three consecutive championships.

Roger doesn't want to be a foil, so he must win consecutive championships and continue to suppress the Bulls.

He can't let anything unexpected happen this year.

So, he decided to give the shark some confidence.

If we can win big in tomorrow's game.

December 12th, Christmas Day.

Roger did not have any special feelings for this festival. In fact, in his previous life, Roger felt that he had not much interest in many traditional Chinese festivals, so how could he be interested in a foreign festival?

The only people who are interested in this festival should be the new-age independent women who have independent personalities, are economically dependent, have open bodies, and have children.

But playing basketball is Roger's job after all, so even if he has no interest in this holiday, he will often try his best to give his best on Christmas Day to satisfy his fans.

Today, Roger's alarm went off early. Leticia turned over and pressed Roger down, wanting him to sleep with her for a while. If possible, it would be best to feed her breakfast.

But Roger still took away Leticia's arm, kissed her forehead and got out of bed.

If Roger was a very fast person, maybe he could fulfill Leticia's wish.

It's just a pity that Roger never learned to make a quick decision on this matter.

After a delicious and nutritious breakfast prepared by a private chef, Roger drove to the Advant Health Center.

On the way, we met Shark whose car broke down.

Roger in the car and Shark standing on the roadside looked at each other. They probably had the same thought in their hearts: "Damn it, it's poisonous!"

O'Neal and Roger themselves couldn't explain why the most common thing that happened when they met was that their car broke down.

Roger turned on the double flash and got out of the car. He glanced at O'Neill's silver Ferrari and couldn't help laughing: "What do you think? If the two of us go to Cybertron, will the Autobots be exterminated?"

"Damn, this is the result of me spending $32! Those are a bunch of liars, bastards, and bitches!" O'Neal did not respond to Roger's dry humor, but just kept cursing.

"What cost $32?"

"I spent $32 modifying this car! A normal Ferrari is too cramped for me, so I moved the engine from the back to the front to free up more room for passengers. Anyway, the whole car was dismantled and reassembled. As a result, I called to ask after the car broke down just now, and the bastards told me that because there was no place to put the gas tank, they could only put a thing as big as a lawn mower tank in it, and it only costs fucking $9 to fill it up! Wanna laugh? I want to laugh too!"

"So, you ran out of gas halfway through the journey?"

"That's it!"

"Get in the car, Shaq. Your Ferrari is a pile of junk. Don't be late for practice. You know how Bryant is."

In the car, Roger kept trying to find out the progress of O'Neal's contract renewal negotiations with the team.

But I was afraid of affecting the shark's condition tonight, so I didn't say anything.

As a result, the shark took the initiative to speak: "Man, there is one thing I don't understand. Why does the team know my value but refuse to pay me a salary that matches it?"

"Maybe they want to see how much you're worth."

"You mean, they have to look at the offers from other teams before making a decision?"

"I think so."

"What if a team offers a higher salary than the Magic? Will they give up on me?"

"That's not going to happen, Shaq, other teams don't have your Bird rights."

O'Neill wanted to say something, but he just moved his mouth and didn't say anything. Why didn't it happen? O'Neill wanted to ask.

But he felt he had asked enough questions today.

When he arrived at the training ground, O'Neal turned into the laughing shark again.

Roger could see that the shark was actually trying hard to adjust itself.

But this state cannot last too long. If a player cannot even be sure of his own future, how can he work hard for the team? How can he focus on winning the championship?
Roger's guess was correct, the shark did have something on its mind.

Tonight, this problem must be solved.

Before the game started in the evening, the Magic team held a grand ceremony for the starting players to appear.

This thing doesn't exist in every game, but the Christmas game obviously needs some sense of ritual.

O'Neal was the last to appear and he received the same loud cheers as Roger.

Team owner DeVos and general manager John Gabriel were also in the room. They decided to spend Christmas together during tonight's game.

Looking at the Shark receiving cheers from the fans on the court, DeVos asked, "Are you saying that during the time when Shaq was injured, the team's attendance was not affected at all?"

"Not only the attendance, but also the ratings and performance have hardly been affected," Gabriel replied.

The conversation ends here, and only DeVos knows what he is thinking.

At the beginning of the game, O'Neal, who had just returned from injury, actively asked for the ball and wanted to play one-on-one with Olajuwon.

Roger cooperated very well, didn't move too much, and stood outside the three-point line to create space for the Sharks.

Harper skillfully lobbed the ball in, and O'Neal's big hands "caught" the ball firmly.

Then, the Shark suddenly rushed back and pushed away Dream. Under the defense of Dream who raised his arms high and Horry who came up to pull off his jersey, he dunked with one hand and scored!

Because he was pulled in the air, O'Neal completely lost his balance and fell heavily to the ground after dunking.

All the Magic fans in the stadium were worried. Damn, is Shaq going to be injured in his debut?
But soon O'Neal stood up and yelled at Horry: "Hit harder next time, sissy!"

Finally, the whole audience cheered.

Two months later, O'Neal announced his return with a powerful dunk!

This dunk seemed to be a microcosm of the Rockets' game today. Dream and Horry tried very hard, but they still couldn't stop the Shark. The Rockets tried very hard, but they couldn't stop the Magic from slowly pulling away from the score.

In the first quarter, Roger and O'Neal attacked from both sides, and the Rockets' defense could not withstand it at all.

After the first quarter, the Magic had already taken an 8-point lead.

In the second quarter, the commentator Steve Jones was no longer satisfied with Roger and O'Neal abusing their opponents. He asked a question: "When will we see Shaq and Truth connect? I believe all Orlando fans are missing the soul-stirring alley-oop of the century!"

Steve Jones expressed the fans' wishes, they wanted to see Roger and O'Neal connect.

At the beginning of the second quarter, Roger was ready to satisfy the fans' wishes.

In this round, Roger wanted to take a three-pointer directly after receiving the pass from Salu.

But at the moment he was about to shoot, Roger found that the attention of the entire Rockets team was attracted to him, including Dream Team.

And O'Neal temporarily got an opportunity to cut into the basket.

So after Roger got into shooting posture, he didn't jump in the end, but passed the ball to the shark.

Seeing the basketball flying towards O'Neal at the right time, Roger turned around in advance and raised his arms high.

Only Riley is unforgivable, and only pretentiousness cannot be let down.

The good news: The entire Rockets team was fooled. They really didn't expect Roger to pass the ball.

Bad news: Shaq did it, too.

O'Neal didn't expect Roger to pass the ball, so he caught the ball in a hurry. In the end, the ball fell to the ground because he didn't hold it firmly. O'Neal was anxious and hurried to chase the ball, but he accidentally stepped on the ball and fell flat on his face.

Roger ran back with his arms raised high and found that the fans' feedback was wrong. He turned around and found O'Neal lying on the ground.

Shark smiled apologetically, "I thought you were going to vote."

Roger also laughed: "I bought a watch last year."

This mistake was not a big deal because the Magic had been suppressing the Rockets throughout the first quarter, and Roger and Shaq were invincible after they reunited.

Everyone knew that this mistake would not change anything.

However, the seeds were planted in the hearts of Roger and Shark.

As last season's championship partners, they must play a good round together, right?

Throughout the second quarter, Roger and the Sharks were still looking for such opportunities.

They scored each other most of the time because they were the tactical end points.

In addition, the Rockets' defense is not as tight as it was in last season's finals, so many times Roger and Shark don't even need to pass the ball to each other to break through the opponent's defense.

Of course, it’s not to say that Roger and O’Neal never passed the ball to each other. They certainly passed the ball to each other, but there was no assist.

Until the seventh minute of the second quarter, fans were still waiting for the scene they were expecting.

But they were disappointed again. In this round, after O'Neal got the ball in the low post, McKay, who was pushed to the power forward position, had already made three consecutive mid-range shots, so Horry was a little hesitant when double-teaming him.

He wanted to use a fake double team to induce the Shark to pass the ball, but the Shark did not fall for it and decisively chose to turn around and hook the ball directly.

Still no connection, the Sharks chose to play one-on-one.

Under the desperate defense of Dream, O'Neal's hook shot missed.

Olajuwon grabbed the rebound and looked up for someone.

But now, the turning point came.

Before Olajuwon could find the person, he was horrified to find that a hand reached out from behind him and poked the basketball away!

Only then did Dream realize that there were only four Magic players in his field of vision: Shark, McKay, Saru and Harper.

Where's Roger!?

Roger is the sixth.

He didn't mean to be the sixth. Roger, who was lying in ambush in the corner, wanted to rush into the penalty area to fight for the rebound after seeing the Shark shoot, but Olajuwon didn't give Roger any chance to touch the rebound.

But Roger, who was running along the baseline towards the restricted area, was just behind Olajuwon, and Olajuwon, who was grabbing the rebound and landing, did not notice Roger.

And just like that, the steal happened.

After stealing the ball from Dream, Roger looked at Saroo who was left open outside the three-point line, but he used his wrist to pass the ball to Shark who was still under the basket. Then, Roger raised his arms and ran back without looking back. This time, Shark did not disappoint Roger, because he soon heard the wailing of the basket.

"Nice pass! Roger and Shaq's connection is finally here! This is what we want to see, this is the real championship duo! Ladies and gentlemen, although the Magic's previous record and performance have been very good. But now, this is the embodiment of their full strength!"

When Steve Jones said this, the Rockets were already trailing by 13 points.

Before the game started, the major media actually believed that the Rockets were no match for the Magic. But they thought that during this special period of Christmas Eve, the Rockets' role players might explode like last season and cause trouble for the Magic.

But no, just like what Shark said: "We will easily win the defending runner-up, even easier than you think."

Tomjanovich paused the game, and O'Neal rushed towards Roger with open arms and hugged him tightly.

"I'm back man, I'm back!"

"Welcome, Shaq."

The effect of this shot was similar to the alley-oop of the century in the Eastern Conference semifinals last season. The Magic's already high morale was completely blown away, while the Rockets' morale was already low.

The subsequent game completely turned into a performance between Roger and the Shark.

The two began to find their chemistry again, and they treated the Rockets' defense as a toy.

With three minutes left in the fourth quarter, Brian Hill replaced Roger and Shark at the same time and called it a day.

Because at this time, the Magic were already leading the Rockets by 24 points!
罗杰28分5次助攻5个篮板，鲨鱼32分9个篮板5次助攻。

On the Magic bench, Roger and Shark bumped fists with smiles on their faces.

On the Rockets bench, Olajuwon and Drexler held towels and looked ahead in confusion.

Same court, same guard-center duo, but a completely different temperature.

The cruelty of professional sports is vividly reflected in such a contrast.

The final score was 93 to 114, and the Orlando Magic easily defeated the Rockets and won this year's Christmas battle.

The commentator only gave Roger and Shark praise: "Maybe you think the previous Magic was strong enough, but get ready, the defending champions are just starting to show their strength."

It turns out that the combination of Roger and Shark is invincible. Their strength has never been a problem. This season, their problem lies elsewhere.

In the post-match interview, O'Neal put his arm around Roger's shoulders as usual: "Hey, those who bullied my brother before are in trouble now! Wait, it seems that no one can bully you when I'm not around. Damn, we are too strong!"

After Shark finished speaking, the reporter turned the camera to Roger again.

"Tell me how you feel."

"I'm glad Shaq is back with me, and I hope he'll always be with me. So Mr. DeVos, renew his contract quickly!"

O'Neal looked at Roger in surprise. He didn't expect Roger to publicly support him in such a game.

“Hahahaha, I think Mr. DeVos will make the decision, but what if he really loses the shark?”

Roger smiled and spread his hands, and answered in a joking tone: "Then maybe, trade me to a future WNBA team? They happen to need players, and I happen to be able to play a little bit of basketball, hahahahahaha."

Before, Roger didn't want management to have any ideas about him, nor did he want the sharks to have any ideas about him. He didn't want to offend either party, so he never substantially intervened in this matter.

But now Roger can no longer play it safe. O'Neal has returned and this matter can no longer be delayed.

He must ensure that everyone on the team is focused on winning the championship and that the locker room is not torn apart. The contract renewal issue between the Sharks and the Magic must be resolved, even if it cannot be resolved immediately, at least the Sharks must be given confidence.

Roger had to force them to resolve the issue, which meant he also had to choose to offend one of them.

And if he has to choose a side, there is no doubt that Roger will choose someone who fights with the same jersey as him.

There was no way he was going to go down Penny's old path.

Management can love you today and dump you tomorrow.

Only your teammates are the ones who actually fight alongside you.

A true Michael-like emperor must learn to speak to management.

Everyone laughed, thinking Roger was showing off his humor and promoting the upcoming WNBA team in Orlando.

But DeVos and Gabriel in the private room did not laugh. This festive Christmas Eve, in which they had defeated last season's finals opponent by a big margin, suddenly became extremely terrifying for them.

Words like "signing" and "trading" seemed like needles pricking their hearts.

Just a joke? As experienced people, they all knew that adults would not make such a perfect joke at such a perfect time. All jokes have other meanings.

John Gabriel patted DeVos on the shoulder and said, "Sir, I've said before that Roger is not one of us."

The Magic wanted to save money on Shaq, but Roger challenged that plan time and time again.

Rich DeVos did not answer. What was in his mind at that moment was what David Stern said to him when he won the O'Brien Cup half a year ago: "You have set a good example for the new team, Rich. Keep it up."

What does it mean to hold on? Shouldn't this be said to losers? What do winners need to hold on to?

He had no idea what Stern meant at the time.

Now, he understands.

(End of this chapter)