Champions Creed

Chapter 276 Chapter 275: Good Man Roger? (Seeking monthly votes!)
Jeff Hornacek rarely uses offensive language on the court, and as a father of three children, he has always aspired to be an excellent role model.

This was the first time he called an opponent an idiot in front of him.

But Hornacek did not feel any guilt. On the contrary, he felt unprecedented joy.

He had been bound by words like morality, responsibility and example for too long and had never done anything out of the ordinary in his life.

And everything that happened today changed Jeff Hornacek's ordinary life.

He found that being a little bad occasionally didn't seem to be a big deal.

In fact, in the past six months since joining the Hawks, what Hornacek has experienced has been more subversive than anything he has experienced in the past decade.

He had never seen such a charismatic leader.

I have never seen a coach who encourages his players to fight with the opponent.

I've never seen such a cohesive team.

Never found winning so easy.

Nor did they realize that Jerry Stackhouse was just a weakling.

He will never remember Stackhouse's expression just now. It was a mixture of fear and anger, unwillingness and fearlessness.

Ultimately, Stackhouse was scared, and he finally bowed to Hornacek, whom he had never respected before.

This is exactly what Hornacek found most subversive. He discovered that Roger's methods were even more effective than those of the Alliance!
The league's punishment failed to make Jerry Stackhouse repent, and even made him more arrogant.

But Roger only needed half a game to completely transform that arrogant bastard.

Back in the locker room, Lenny Wilkens had no more tactics to plan.

After just half a game, he realized that a garbage team like the Pistons and a garbage player like Jerry Stackhouse were not worth his words.

In fact, before the game started, Lenny Wilkens was very afraid of the Pistons. After all, Stackhouse had put in too many memorable scoring performances this season, and he believed that the Pistons had the ability to cause an upset.

But now he realized that his worries were unnecessary.

The players were chatting in the locker room. Ben was very proud of how Patterson had scared Jerry Stackhouse. "You should have seen Andre's expression just now. He was like the Punisher in Marvel Comics. I felt like Jerry was about to piss himself by him!"

As a player who made his living in the NBA by beating people up, Andre Patterson liked this kind of praise, so he very cooperatively imitated the classic line from The Punisher: "As long as you are guilty, you must die!"

The whole locker room was filled with laughter. Jeff Hornacek was also smiling. He had read some Punisher comics. The plot was about a retired Marine whose family was massacred by gangs but failed to sue them, so he took to punishing the evildoers with brutal means.

Of course, he is an "anti-hero." Most superheroes punish evil and promote good, but the Punisher only punishes evil and does not promote good.

The way he treats villains is even more cruel than the villains themselves.

Come to think of it, this is indeed very consistent with Roger's style.

Finally, everyone looked at Jeff Hornacek: "How does it feel, Jeff? Seeing that kid humble himself in front of you."

Jeff Hornacek, a well-known honest man, smiled like a villain for the first time: "It feels great!"

In the second half, Jeff Hornacek was in great form, hitting consecutive long shots over Stackhouse's head.

The three-point legend in Salt Lake City, it rained heavily in Georgia.

When Hornacek hit his fifth three-pointer of the game over Stackhouse's head, the Death Ray Gun yelled at the self-important genius: "Waste Jerry, scoring champion? You can't even beat an old man!"

So cool, so cool.

Jeff Hornacek never had such a great time in his first 14 years of professional career.

Jerry Stackhouse gritted his teeth. He never thought that one day he would be humiliated by someone like Hornacek.

But what can he do?

If he dares to do anything out of line, he will probably get the third thing in common with Michael Jordan besides "graduating from North Carolina" and "becoming the strongest third pick": titanium alloy implanted in the eye.

He believed Roger's team could do it.

So there was no way out. No matter how Jeff Hornacek scolded him, he could only endure it silently.

At the end of the game, the Atlanta Hawks won by 24 points without any suspense.

And they won by 24 points even though Roger didn't play a minute in the fourth quarter.

Jerry Stackhouse scored 25 points, which seemed pretty good at first glance, but his shooting percentage of less than 30% made his 25 points extremely ridiculous.

Because Roger only used half the shots to get the same score as him.

Jerry Stackhouse walked into Philips Arena with his head held high, but walked out of the arena like a lost dog.

When he walked into the player tunnel and the reporters who caught up with him asked him the question "Do you still want to be the scoring champion?", Jerry Stackhouse felt that he was fooled and became furious.

"Take your mother! Stop taking advantage of me for fun!"

In his opinion, this question was like asking a poor student "Can you get into Harvard?", which was a complete mockery.

The reporter who was yelled at was very innocent, but it was clearly you who said you wanted to take it before.

Yes, Jerry Stackhouse has realized how stupid his pre-game comments were.

After this game, not only Stackhouse, but almost everyone believed that Roger's scoring title would not be shaken.

The gap between him and others is really too big.

Michael Jordan and Wilt Chamberlain both won the scoring title for seven consecutive years, but Roger has only won it for five consecutive years now.

It’s still early days, and Roger’s reign as the top scorer may continue for a long time.

Hornacek was in a completely different state from Stackhouse during the interview. He kept smiling throughout the interview with the glory of a winner on his face.

After scoring 20+ points for the second time this season, reporters were surprised that he could still maintain such excellent form at the age of 38.

"Jeff, you look even better than last season. Is there anything you can share about your training and diet?"

"It's pretty much the same as usual, controlling sugars, recovering, that sort of thing. What really changed for me was the environment. I'm more determined to achieve my goals than ever before."

"What is your goal?"

This question is easy to answer, and 99% of fans can guess it. It's nothing more than getting a ring before the end of your career.

But Jeff Hornacek's answer was surprising: "My goal is to do my best to help Roger build a dynasty. This is the only chance in my life to be associated with the word 'great'."

He enjoyed it more and more, and he became more and more integrated into it.

He has become a part of the Atlanta Hawks through and through.

This game against the Pistons allowed the Hawks to avoid a losing streak and get back on track to winning.

Moreover, it also enhanced the already good relationship between the Hornaceks.

Stacy Hornacek woke up the next day and was radiant when she made breakfast for her children. She had no idea what had happened to Jeff. Last night, her always-by-the-book husband had used many bold positions that he had never experienced before.

If Stacy had known that playing for the Eagles would have such added value, she would definitely not have asked any more questions during the offseason and would have let Jeff Hornacek sign the contract earlier.

In the rest of January, the Hawks' performance remained stable, losing only two games, one to the Timberwolves again and one to the Orlando Magic.

The loss to the Magic was the last game in January.
This is the first time the Magic have beaten the Hawks since Roger left Orlando in 1997!

For the Orlando Magic, this is definitely a historic victory. It means that the team has completely cleared the haze of the old era, and that the Orlando Magic has finally seen the dawn of a successful reconstruction after the strongest duo in history.

The Magic have not been a weak team this season. The outside trident of Orlando's Tracy McGrady, Larry Hughes and Mike Miller has allowed the Magic to rank fifth in the Eastern Conference. However, because the team is too young, the record is not very stable, and now it has fallen to seventh in the Eastern Conference.

But in any case, the Magic are definitely a playoff-level team this season. The aging Indiana Pacers look tired and it is difficult for them to compete for a playoff spot.

Orlando fans must hate Doc Rivers at this moment. If such a configuration is added with Tim Duncan, the Magic will definitely become a championship team.

In the game against the Hawks, the Orlando trident all played well.

McGrady scored 37 points in the game, and his offensive performance was better than that of Paul Pierce.

So far this season, McGrady has averaged 26.8 points per game, ranking eighth in the league.

His playing style is extremely elegant, both entertaining and practical.

He can use a gorgeous change of direction to get past you.

Can use excellent post-up footwork to trick opponents.

Of course, he also has the most talked-about and simplest and most brutal move - the pull-up jump shot.

Thanks to his outstanding height, wingspan, sense of rhythm, and historical level of man-ball combination ability, Tracy McGrady's pull-up is full of beauty and difficult to interfere with. When you find that he suddenly pulls up during dribbling to shoot directly over your head, all you can do is pray.

He is the first player in NBA history who is 206 cm tall and can dribble and shoot like a guard.

Of course, Tracy McGrady is no mere show-off.

When he needs to be engaged, he can also be very good defensively.

Speaking of defense, we have to mention his partner Larry Hughes, a guy who helped McGrady share most of the defensive tasks. On the night of the victory, he made Paul Pierce suffer. His elusive pair of thieves forced Pierce to make four turnovers. Although he was not good at shooting, he was also assisted by God that night.

There was a reason why Larry Hughes was so hot against the Hawks. His high school and college teammate Justin Tatum brought his son to watch Hughes' game that night, and Hughes had just become his son's godfather. So Larry Hughes decided to set an example for the kid named Jayson Tatum.

So that he can go to kindergarten and brag: Hey, my godfather beat Paul Pierce!
Larry Hughes believes that this will at least give Tatum the privilege of getting milk first in kindergarten.

Coupled with this year's best rookie candidate Mike Miller's cold shot from beyond the three-point line, the Magic finally defeated the Hawks by 3 points.

After winning the game, McGrady was so excited that he hugged Roger and he was even moved to tears.

It took McGrady four and a half years from being discovered in Roger's training camp to defeating Roger for the first time in the NBA.

It was a long journey, witnessing his growth from a small-town youth to an NBA superstar.

Roger patted Maddie on the back and said, "Go ahead. Your mother and grandmother need your hug more than ever."

Roger knew Maddie's background well. He could be where he is today thanks to his grandmother who worked as a security guard at the elementary school gate and his mother who worked as a cleaner at the Disneyland Hotel.

"No Roger," McGrady hugged Roger tighter, "Without you, my basketball dream would have been killed in Auburndale, a city with a population of less than 9000."

Roger's training camp was the place where McGrady's destiny changed. Because of Roger's invitation to participate in the training camp, McGrady became famous and got the opportunity to transfer to the famous Zion Christian Academy in his senior year, and then was selected by the Magic.

Like Garnett, McGrady, as a high school rookie, often talked to Kobe and Roger on the phone to talk about his troubles in life. Roger, as a superstar, never tired of chatting with McGrady, which made McGrady thank him from the bottom of his heart.

The two hugged each other and chatted for a long time. Finally, Roger left quickly, leaving the stage to the protagonist of the night.

When being interviewed by reporters, the topic naturally and inevitably turned to Roger.

"Tracy, in the eyes of most people, Roger is a cold-blooded tyrant. But you seem to have a different feeling about him. What kind of person is Roger in your mind?"

"Oh, he is definitely the most misunderstood player in the league. Roger is a very good person. You see, he will hug his opponent after the game and congratulate his opponent on his victory. If it weren't for Roger, I might not be where I am today. I hope I can take over Roger's banner and restore the glory of Orlando!"

At this point, more than one person may think that McGrady is out of his mind.

Roger was a very nice guy? God, he was not even a human being sometimes!
In any case, Roger is indeed a good person in Maddie's opinion.

After losing to the Magic to end the January schedule, the Hawks' record is 1 wins and 35 losses.

At present, it is impossible for the Hawks to achieve the same 72-win record as last season, but there is still a high probability that they will top the Eastern Conference.

As February approaches, the All-Star Weekend is approaching.

After playing the most serious All-Star Game in history last season, no one dared to mess with Roger this season.

Roger also got into the fun mode, so this year's All-Star Game truly became an All-Star Game for young people.

KG, McGrady, Carter, Pierce, Kobe and AI all shined in this year's All-Star Game.

As the top vote-getter, Roger played for only 20 minutes and scored 13 points before sitting on the bench to rest until the end.

In the end, AI won the AMVP trophy. I wonder how Shark, who missed the All-Star game due to injury, felt when he saw AI get something he had always wanted so easily.

After the game, AI took the lead in organizing an All-Star party just like last year.

Roger declined AI's invitation with the excuse of "feeling unwell" after recalling the experience of falling asleep after listening to Carter playing the saxophone last season.

Therefore, this year's All-Star party is basically attended by players who entered the league in the mid-to-late 90s.

McGrady has been talking about Roger with his good friend Kobe, because he found that the Roger in his mind and the Roger in Kobe's mind are very different.

It's like they are two completely different people.

"Roger is a jerk? You don't know him at all, Kobe."

Kobe smiled disdainfully: "Tracy, I'm not trying to hit you, it's because you are no match for Roger. If it were you, would you take a little brat seriously? You have never seen the real Roger, never, because you are no match for him."

"I'm not a match for Roger? Hey, I beat him once this season, and you haven't beaten him once," McGrady reminded.

Kobe frowned immediately: "If you dare to say that again, I promise to tear your head off, and even your cousin can't save you!"

"First, Vince and I are not related by blood. Second, if we really follow seniority, Vince should call me uncle. Vince's grandfather's stepfather is my grandmother's brother, and that's our relationship."

Kobe:? ? ?
"Fuck, put away your messed up family relationships! I still hold the same opinion, you have never seen the real Roger. You have never seen the real him. Only when he treats you as an opponent, you know what kind of bastard Roger is! If you can make the playoffs this season, if you happen to meet the Eagles in the playoffs. Then congratulations, Tracy, you will see how hateful that guy is!"

Maddie shrugged, shrugging it off.

After the All-Stars Weekend, the schedule for the last two months is very fast.

The Hawks moved forward steadily, and during this period Michael Reed slowly moved from the water cooler manager to the rotation lineup, helping the team with steady three-point firepower and immature but active defense.

The media were all very surprised, with ESPN magazine saying, "This guy's three-point shooting ability seems to have appeared overnight!"

That's true, after all, Reed's three-point performance in college and in the first half of the season was average.

But Roger knew very well that no success could be achieved overnight.

"If you've watched Michael train, even for just one day, you wouldn't be surprised by his performance today," Roger told ESPN Magazine.

In fact, Pippen felt that this was not just Reed's improvement, but also the result of Roger's improvement.

Pippen still holds the same view: if it were Roger a few years ago, Michael Redd's confidence would have been stifled in the first two months of the season.

Roger's attack and pressure might make Michael Reed disappear from the public eye.

But now Roger is like an experienced professional woman who knows when to relax and when to tighten.

He can make everyone integrate into the team, work with him, and provide strength for the team.

It started with Steve Smith's departure which made Roger reflect, then to Paul Pierce, and now to Michael Reed.

All these examples prove that Roger is a truly great leader.

The Atlanta Hawks eventually won 68 games and were first in the Eastern Conference, and first by a large margin.

Because the second-placed Philadelphia 76ers in the Eastern Conference have won 12 fewer games than the Hawks.

On the other side, the Lakers Big3 ranked first in the Western Conference, and they won 66 games. Los Angeles fans couldn't ask for more when Shaq missed 14 games, Kobe missed 12 games, and Grant Hill missed 13 games.

The Zen Master has been protecting his players during the regular season in preparation for the playoffs.

Considering that Roger also rested for 8 games due to a minor injury at the beginning of the season, it can be seen that the Lakers and the Hawks did not sprint at full strength in this year's regular season.

And that means the two teams will burn even harder in the playoffs.

Roger won the scoring title for the sixth consecutive year with an average of 35.4 points per game, and ranked first in the MVP rankings at the end of the season.
Another Hawks player worth mentioning after the regular season is Big Ben, who is the rebounding and block leader this season and ranked first in the DPOY rankings at the end of the season.

Now almost everyone believes that Ben, who averages less than double digits in points per game, is qualified to get the maximum salary.

However, Ben Wallace, who had received a promise from Steve Belkin long ago, has not received an early contract extension.

Ben was puzzled by this. After all, when both parties have the intention to cooperate, renewing the contract in advance is the safest way.

Teams can avoid losing players to free agency.

Players can also renew their contracts early and focus on the game.

But the Hawks did not do so. After Belkin mentioned last time that he would give Ben a maximum salary, there was no further news on the matter.

Ben's agent could only explain it this way: "Maybe they just want you to keep your momentum in the playoffs. Forget about renewing your contract. You've already got the promise. If you win the championship, everything will fall into place."

Big Ben has no doubt about this, he believes in the Eagles' commitment.

Now, the whole team has entered the playoff mode and is ready to strive for two consecutive championships.

The Hawks' opponent in the first round of the playoffs is the Orlando Magic.

The Orlando Magic finally won 46 games and successfully ranked eighth in the Eastern Conference.

Fate has brought these two teams together.

Based on the experience of the past few years, Roger's team generally will not encounter any trouble in the first round of the playoffs, and there will be no suspense in the game.

But this year, the Orlando Magic won the first game in Atlanta, shocking everyone!
Big Ben scored 11 points and 18 rebounds to dominate the inside, but as the No. in the DPOY ranking, he was unable to stop the Magic from scoring today.

Because the Magic's fatal shots all come from beyond the three-point line.

Just like the routine they used to beat the Hawks in the regular season, the Magic relied on two things to win: preventing Pierce from being suffocated, and then using collective firepower to counter Roger's firepower.

Paul Pierce had a bad shooting touch tonight. He was upset by the repeated dropped balls and Larry Hughes' trash talk.

McGrady relied on his excellent outside jump shot to score 53 points with a 33% shooting percentage.

As a player playing in the playoffs for the first time, McGrady's performance can only be described as fantastic.

Scott Pippen tried hard enough, but he still couldn't do anything to McGrady.

Now Pippen could understand why Jerry Krause had always wanted to trade him for this sleepy-eyed guy.

Of course, if it was just McGrady, it definitely wouldn't be enough to defeat the Hawks.

The Magic's two top shooters, Mike Miller and Darrell Stoudemire, were both incredibly accurate in their three-point shooting today.

The open space gave Larry Hughes another opportunity to break through.

Although Roger scored 36 points, he still couldn't withstand the Magic's concentrated firepower.

107 to 101, the Orlando Magic won the first game, and the total score of the series is 1 to 0!

This is the first time in Roger's career that he has fallen behind in the first round of the playoffs!
After the game, McGrady greeted Roger as usual.

According to Kobe, Roger will be a completely different person in the playoffs.

But McGrady didn't notice anything different about Roger. He was still kind and even wished McGrady good luck in the next game.

McGrady can now confirm that Kobe is prejudiced against Roger. Roger is now 0-1 behind in the first round of the playoffs, so he can't possibly not consider himself an opponent, right?
Larry Hughes was very active in the press conference after the game. He was a little bit overwhelmed by the unexpected victory. Young people, after achieving a little success, are prone to forget their own names.

After being asked countless questions about Roger by reporters, Hughes shrugged.

"Can you please stop asking Roger? Maybe you can ask about our plans for round two."

At that time, the entire press conference was silent.

No one knows what Larry Hughes is thinking.

It's great that we beat the Eagles, you're awesome.

But you still want to get the eighth place?

Ten minutes after the press conference ended, McGrady received a call from Kobe on the team bus.

As soon as the call was connected, McGrady heard Kobe laughing wildly.

"Hahahahaha! Tracy, are you ready? Soon you will see the real Roger, and you will fall into the real hell! Hahahaha! You will be the first person to stain his crown red with blood!"

Maddie:.
Because Kobe's voice was so loud, Larry Hughes, who was sitting next to McGrady, also heard what Kobe said.

He grumbled in dissatisfaction: "Enough! Don't listen to that idiot Tracy! It's his own fault that he doesn't play well. Roger is not that scary! As long as we win one more game, we will be close to advancing!"

On the other end of the phone, Kobe Bryant smiled even more happily.

(I just realized it was Sunday when I was about to go out yesterday, hahaha, but what I wrote yesterday afternoon happened to be used today, so I don’t need to take a day off today)

(End of this chapter)