Champions Creed

Chapter 279 Chapter 278: The Disappearing Boss (asking for monthly tickets!)
No media or fans will ever promote the Orlando Magic's victory in the first round of the 2001 playoffs.

Although both teams defeated an invincible dominant team in the first game, the Magic's victory over the Lakers in the game was different from the one in the original timeline where AI won.

The reason why AI's game is regarded as a legend is not only because he defeated the Lakers who had never lost in the playoffs, but also because he played like a hero in the next four losing games.

The Philadelphia Ranger dressed in black was overwhelmed by the Lakers cavalry in golden armor, but he did not retreat. Instead, he fought his way out and never surrendered to anyone until the end.

Even the harsh Larry Brown sighed after that round of the finals: "Allen Iverson is such an incredible fighter!"

This is why AI's victory was so highly sought after. The focus is not only on the victory, but also on his tenacity in the defeat.

The Orlando Magic clearly do not have this. They won one game against the Hawks, but in the defeat there was no tenacity, only misery.

Tracy McGrady gave up the game early in the second half. Larry Hughes lasted a little longer, but he was still not considered a "fighter."

The 51-point loss left McGrady and Larry Hughes with only humiliation, not a trace of glory.

The day after the game, McGrady was still chewing gum and looking at the hotel ceiling.

Larry Hughes was still sitting next to McGrady, holding a newspaper.

Everything was no different than at the end of the first game.

Larry Hughes pointed at the big "51" on the newspaper and said, "Tracy, damn it, I'm too embarrassed to even walk out of the hotel door! It's ruined, it's all ruined! There will be no more Victoria's Secret Princess Selection. If we want to do something like the Princess Selection in the future, we can only spend some money!"

Larry Hughes still remembers how angry he was when he read in the newspaper that the Hawks would win Game 2 by at least 20 points.

But now, Larry Hughes was thinking: It would be great if we could really lose by 20 points.

McGrady glanced at the newspaper sleepily, "It's all over, Larry, let's go, we need to go back to Orlando."

McGrady found it humiliating, but not a disaster.

He is still an All-Star, still the son of Orlando, and still a maximum-paid player.

None of that will be changed by this 51-point loss.

This also means that things like knowing shame and then becoming braver will not happen to the Orlando Magic.

McGrady is still too young. He always thinks that his career has just begun and that he still has many opportunities.

It's just the first round of the playoffs, we will break through sooner or later.

You can't be trapped in the first round for the rest of your life, right?
Roger did say, "You and Tracy may never know what the second round looks like in your lifetime," but that was just trash talk.

So, why care so much?

The Magic played very peacefully in the next two games in Orlando.

One game was lost by 23 points and the other was lost by 20 points.

Roger kept his promise and said that if we won by 20 points, we would win by 20 points, no more and no less.

3 to 1, although the Atlanta Hawks lost a game in the first round, they still showed extremely terrifying dominance.

The Magic lost by an average of 31.3 points in three games.

This completely overshadowed the faint glow of the first victory.

Experienced friends know that killing a person is easy, but dealing with his body is difficult.

Similarly, it is easy for the first in the division to beat the eighth in the division. Anyone can do it, but it is quite rare to show such extreme dominance.

After the game, Roger became the Roger that McGrady knew again.

The murderous look in his eyes had dissipated, and his tone became gentle: "Keep up the good work, Tracy."

"Good luck next time Roger, hell, you don't need any luck."

"Hahahaha, you still understand me."

After the series ended, McGrady changed his clothes in the locker room and prepared to start his vacation.

As soon as he got into the car, McGrady's cell phone rang, forcing him to pull the handbrake again.

Sure enough, the caller was Kobe.

Maddie had already guessed it was him.

"What's up?"

"How do you feel? Do you still think Roger is a good person? I told you that you don't understand him at all."

"Really? I still think he's pretty good."

"You're such a pervert, I never knew you liked others treating you like this."

"Roger just wanted to win, that's all."

On this topic, McGrady and Kobe are simply talking at cross purposes.

In Kobe's view, "Roger wants to win" is so outrageous.

How can he beat me?

He beat me, so what did I win?
But in McGrady's view, Roger's brutal moments and trash talk were all just to win the game.

If I lose, I lose. I'm still young anyway.

"You're hopeless, Tracy. Do you know why you keep losing? Because you don't care about losing."

"Kobe, you make it sound like you've beaten Roger, but you've been losing, too."

McGrady said this unintentionally, he was just complaining about his good friend.

His mind had already flown to Disneyland and Miami's Gold Coast.

But Kobe's answer was unusually serious, even a little angry: "This is the last time you tell me that I haven't won."

After saying that, Kobe hung up the phone.

Maddie looked at the hung up call and shrugged.

How could Kobe have the nerve to call Roger a jerk?
He and Roger are exactly the same kind of people.

McGrady likes Kobe as much as he likes Roger.

In McGrady's mind, Roger is like an older brother, and Kobe is a friend who is willing to play and have fun with him.

However, he really didn't think this was the last time he would say to Kobe: You didn't beat Roger. He hoped that Kobe would be good, but it was really too difficult.

It seems that few people listened to Larry Hughes' advice.
-
After the Hawks defeated the Magic, their second-round opponent has also been decided - the Toronto Raptors.

This season's playoff matchups were truly unfamiliar to Roger, as there wasn't a single familiar face among them.

No Pat Riley, no Patrick Ewing, no Reggie Miller, no Alonzo Mourning
Roger met McGrady before and Carter now for the first time in the playoffs.

Roger suddenly remembered that it was already 2001.

He has been in the league for eight years since 1993.

He has experienced a lot, grown a lot, and changed many girlfriends in the past eight years.

But there are still many things in this league that Roger doesn't understand.

For example, why would a team owner suddenly disappear?

In the gap between the first and second rounds, the league announced the results of the last two individual awards of the year.

Ben Wallace, who was once a nobody and was picked by the Wizards to play guard, has supported Atlanta with his 206-centimeter height. Finally, this season, his efforts paid off and he successfully won the DPOY trophy.

At the press conference on the day of the award ceremony, Ben joked with reporters.

"I think I'm unique. Am I the shortest DPOY? No, Simone Moncrief and Gary Payton were both under 195 meters tall.

Am I the lowest draft pick DPOY? No, although I was undrafted, Mark Eaton was selected in the fourth round because of the times, so I can't say that his draft pick is higher than mine.

What makes me special is that I will be the first DPOY since 1993 not to be played by Roger! "

The reporters all laughed, and then someone asked an embarrassing question for the Hawks: "Ben, now that you have won the DPOY, have you got the maximum salary contract that Steve promised you?"

Da Ben's smile gradually disappeared. He had been trying not to think about it, but it was a fact that could not be avoided.

The Eagles haven't contacted him, not even for a formal negotiation meeting.

It's as if nothing happened from beginning to end.

When he won the DPOY, Steve Belkin didn't call to congratulate him, let alone sign a contract.

Ben Wallace respects Roger and the Eagles, because it was the Eagles that gave him the opportunity to not have to make a living by cutting hair.

So he didn't make a fuss like Shaq who didn't get a contract during his time with the Magic, but just quietly waited for his own reward.

This time was the same. Although Ben wanted to sign a new contract as soon as possible, he did not express it directly: "Maybe they are preparing a money truck, hahahaha."

Big Ben thought he was just a small role and the boss didn't pay enough attention to him, so even after winning the DPOY, he didn't receive any blessings.

But things got really weird when the league announced Roger as the MVP and Steve Belkin still didn't show up.

This year, Roger's MVP is almost certain, just like last season.

There are only two teams in the league that have won more than 60 games in the regular season: the Hawks and the Lakers.

But because the Big 3 of the Lakers missed too many games, they basically withdrew from the MVP competition early.

Yes, Roger also missed eight games, but at least the number of absences was kept in single digits.

Who else can the MVP be given to? You can't choose between the 58-win Spurs and the 56-win 76ers, right?

The gap in wins between these two teams and the Hawks is too large, and the data of AI and Stonefo is not subversive.

So, Roger was not surprised, let alone delighted, when he learned that he became the MVP.

This is his fourth career MVP trophy and second back-to-back MVP.

Winning four MVPs in five years is no longer enough to make Roger too excited.

What really concerned Roger was that Steve Belkin had disappeared so completely.

On the night he won the MVP, everyone in the Hawks ownership team called to congratulate Roger.

Even Bruce Levinson, who lost face at the shareholders' meeting last time because of Roger, expressed his congratulations hypocritically.

Michael Gillen even said that he would be present at the next game and attend Roger's MVP award ceremony as a shareholder representative.

In short, everyone was there except Steve Belkin.

What’s even stranger is that even though he disappeared, no one on the shareholder team seemed surprised by it.

Roger had no choice but to ask Ted Turner's youngest son, Beau Turner. Although he had no decision-making power, he was the person Roger trusted most in the shareholder team: "Do you know what Steve is doing recently?"

Bo Turner's answer left Roger even more confused: "He is under investigation by the league, and I can't tell you more information. In short, he is not allowed to contact the team now, and he is not allowed to handle any team affairs. He will not come back until the investigation is over."

"Investigation into what? Tax evasion? Or racial remarks? Wait, is he a lizard man? Captured by Area 51? They say a lot of lizard people like to disguise themselves as Jews." Roger made a joke that would get him banned in 2024.

But Beau Turner, who was always easy-going, did not laugh. On the contrary, his tone was serious and he did not seem to be in the mood to joke.

"Neither. Sorry Roger, I don't want to be kicked out of the shareholder team. This is all I can say for now. Neither the league nor the team is allowed to leak anything before the results are known. The only thing I can tell you is that Steve didn't do anything against you, and didn't say anything disrespectful to you."

Good, at least Steve Belkin is not like that damn Clippers owner Donald Sterling who was investigated for not being able to speak human language.

So, what did he do?
Roger was tired and he didn't want to guess anymore.

To be honest, he is a little tired of this model of multiple shareholders controlling the team, which makes the team too chaotic.

That’s right, most teams actually have multiple shareholders and multiple owners.

In fact, there are only a few owners who actually hold 100% of the team's shares.

But most teams have a major shareholder who holds a much larger stake than others. No matter how many owners a team has, there must be someone whose words are heard.

For example, before, as long as Ted Turner made the final decision, nothing would go wrong.

But for the current Eagles team, power is too dispersed, and various situations always arise.

God knows whether Belkin’s investigation this time will be part of another internal struggle within the shareholder team. You never know the methods of those glamorous capitalists.

Do you expect this group of capitalists to unite as one? Impossible. Just look at how intense the palace fights of the Buss family in the Lakers will be after the old Buss leaves. They are still blood relatives. But in the face of business and power, it is still a fight to the death.

After Roger asked his agent Eric Fleischer to find out the inside information of the Hawks' shareholder team, he turned his attention back to the game.

The next opponent is the gorgeous flying man waving his purple wings in Toronto.

It should be easier to deal with him than to guess where Steve Belkin is going.

(End of this chapter)