Champions Creed

Chapter 315 Chapter 314: Rights Never Had (ask for monthly ticket!)
There are some places in the United States that are the most dangerous in the world, like Oakland or Ferguson, where the crime numbers are just terrible, I mean it. - Donald Trump

When Roger first got off the highway and arrived in Oakland, he thought he had been sold to some remote area.

There is garbage all over the ground, abandoned houses, and homeless people gathering like zombies. Even in Atlanta, you would hardly see such a dirty and messy scene.

Roger glanced at Eric Fleischer as if to ask, "Wait, didn't we go to a fucking big city!?"

It was indeed a big city, but that was two years later, when the team moved to San Francisco.

Now, Roger has to stay in this place with the second highest crime rate in the United States after Baltimore for two years.

There is nothing wrong with this, it can effectively improve Roger's defensive ability.

In Atlanta, you just have to protect your ass.

But in Oakland, you have to protect your head, but don't forget your butt.

Roger recalled the stories about Damian Lillard and the gang when he was a child, and Lillard's hometown was Oakland.

Years later, all the professional sports teams here moved or tried to move to other cities, which is enough to prove that this is not a good place.

This is a city that smells good and smells bad, with a decent per capita disposable income, but also extremely high poverty and crime rates.

To put it bluntly, the gap between the rich and the poor here is greater than the gap between 298 and 998 in the same place.

The Warriors are also struggling to operate here. After the RUN-TMC era, the Warriors' attendance has been at the bottom almost every year. Former Warriors owner Chris Cohen himself has begun to downgrade his consumption. The evidence is that he even started to touch his wife.

But there is nothing wrong with Roger's choice. The success of the Stephen Curry era proved that the Golden State Warriors have huge profit potential, but they just lack someone to stimulate that potential.

The first challenge Roger had to face was how to spend two years safely in Auckland.

The Warriors staff member who was traveling with him seemed to see the worry on Roger's face, so he turned his head from the front seat of the car and said, "Actually, you don't have to worry. The city of Auckland is like a collection of novels, and each chapter is different. Don't be fooled by the shabby outside, but if we continue to drive towards the city center for a while, we will see a completely different scenery."

He was not lying, as they walked towards the city center, the scenery of Oakland began to become pleasant, especially around Lake Merritt, known as the "soul of Oakland", which was so comfortable that Roger had an urge to settle down here.

But after driving a few blocks along Lake Merritt, the city became dirty and messy again, and some buildings even had bullet holes on their walls. For a moment, Roger felt like he was somewhere in the Middle East.

The staff member smiled awkwardly, then glared at the driver fiercely.

I asked you to show Roger around Auckland, why the hell did you drive to a place like this!?
There's nothing the driver can do about it. Because of the huge gap between the rich and the poor in Oakland, it feels like you've entered a different world every few blocks.

The staff member immediately explained: "In fact, only West Auckland is chaotic here, but many people tend to generalize and think that the public security in the whole of Auckland is bad. In fact, it is not like that!"

After a few seconds, the staff member added: "Oh, by the way, it's best not to go to East Oakland. As for the south, well, it's a bit run-down, so it's best not to go there."

Roger:
You can just tell them not to go anywhere!
Thankfully, the staff didn’t say: “But the north side of Auckland is absolute heaven, Roger, you’re going to love it.”

like?

Haha, Roger just wants the day when the team moves to San Francisco to come soon.

After touring Oakland, Roger said he liked it so much and decided to live in San Francisco.

Even though he might get stuck in traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge every day coming to Oakland for training, Roger insisted on living in San Francisco.

There's nothing wrong with a Chinese person living in an area with many Chinese people, right?
There are indeed many Chinese people in San Francisco. When Roger was touring San Francisco yesterday, he found that many blocks were full of Chinese signs, and people could communicate in Chinese throughout the whole process. There were even down-to-earth advertisements on telephone poles saying "Looking for American models and ladies, phone: XXXXX".

These scenes instantly made Roger understand what the global village is.

The city of Oakland is very different from what Roger expected, but the fans in Oakland are enthusiastic.

Roger has seen quite a few guys don their Warriors jerseys—you can always count on Reebok to be efficient in that regard.

More than 70% of the billboards in the entire city were replaced with Roger's "Nomadic Dynasty" series posters.

Roger didn't know who came up with the idea of ​​"Nomadic Dynasty", but it must be someone who was unhappy with his life.

What will happen to the future little emperor if you do this?
In fact, Roger's influence does not only radiate to Oakland. The Golden State Warriors actually have the entire Bay Area behind them.

So the surrounding cities, including San Francisco, are within Roger's sphere of influence.

Roger’s favorite billboard is not actually the “Nomadic Dynasty” series, but the “Beyond Greatness Series” that is hung the most in San Francisco.

Like the Hawks, the Warriors are also one of the oldest teams in the NBA, and have many superstars in their ancestry.

Paul Arizin, Nate Thurmond, Rick Barry, Bernard King, then Tim Hardaway, Chris Mullin and Mitch Richmond formed RUN-TMC. And of course, there was the strongest man in the 20000, Wilt Chamberlain.

The meaning of "surpassing greatness" is very clear. Roger will stand on the shoulders of all these legends and completely surpass them. In this huge advertisement, the other Warriors legends are all black and white without color, and only Roger standing in the middle has color. The implication is very obvious.

Roger likes this advertisement not because he wants to surpass the previous Warriors legends. In fact, Roger's current achievements are enough to kill them in seconds.

What Roger likes to do is to surpass the greatness that he has already created.

If two three-peat championships can still be scammed, then I’ll add another one!
However, the Golden State Warriors are different from Orlando and the Atlanta Hawks. If Roger wants to succeed here, he will have to go through a short reconstruction.

When Roger went to Orlando, there were already sharks there.

When Roger went to Atlanta, there was already Scott Pippen, a small forward who was "strong but not too strong."

Both teams have a little bit of foundation to win the championship, and through a series of reinforcements, the teams can basically have good competitiveness.

But what about the Golden State Warriors?

The three existing players here each have their own problems.

Antawn Jamison is a very easy-going person, introverted, not a troublemaker, and capable of scoring 50 points back-to-back. But he is a pure scorer, with nothing else to do except score. His defense is very poor, and his passing awareness is even worse than that of a North Carolina player. Apart from scoring, he can't do anything else in a high-level game.

Why is Jamison's stats not bad but his trade value is not high throughout his career? Why did he score 20,000 points in his career but no one thought he could enter the Hall of Fame? Because no one is stupid.

In fact, Jamison's background destined him to have no chance of becoming a superstar - he had both parents, a good family background, and grew up almost carefree.

In the NBA, how can you become a superstar without a parent or a brother?

Gilbert Arenas, who later became a world-famous general, was one of the most explosive scoring guards in the league during his prime.

But he is a player who needs the ball in his hands to be effective, and unfortunately, Roger also needs it.

The reason why Roger needs the ball is not because he can only play with the ball, but because he can play his best with the ball. If he only plays without the ball, Roger's output will be greatly reduced.

And even if Roger coexists with him on a tactical level, Gilbert Arenas' personality will become a serious problem.

He is different from Paul Pierce, who was also a gangster and arrogant, but he never cared about being the boss of a team at any stage of his career. Arenas, however, took this very seriously because he was a very conceited and proud person.

The famous Adidas advertisement in 2007 actually perfectly beautified the image of the general. In that advertisement, he seemed to be a humble and low-key guy. He chose the number 0 and told himself that he was a 0. He started as a substitute and worked hard for those who were blind. He was simply a perfect inspirational idol.

But in reality, the reason why Gilbert Arenas became a second-round pick and a substitute was not because others were blind, but because he was too pretentious.

When he graduated from high school, he was proud to think that he would be able to choose any university in the United States, but he was disappointed in the end, and then inexplicably felt that the whole world was against him. In fact, no university dared to accept him because he was difficult to discipline in high school. The coach just told him not to focus on personal offense, but to organize the team. He thought that the coach looked down on his offensive ability, so he became even more crazy.

If you were a college coach, would you dare to use such a person?

During the draft, he was so proud that he opened champagne at halftime and bought a gold chain and a gold watch in advance. Then during the tryout, he didn't take the physical test seriously and refused to get on the treadmill because he thought it was too boring. When he was asked about his ideal during the interview, he said it was none of your mother's business and he shouldn't waste his time.

He felt that with his ability, he didn't need any of these fancy things and could easily get into the lottery.

As expected, his actions landed him in the second round. He started to blame everyone and everything else, thinking that the whole world was blind, that he had been wronged, and that he was being targeted again.

After entering the NBA, Arenas started as a substitute, which made him go through a similar mental journey. However, Arenas only played as a substitute for half a season at most. Even Kobe played as a substitute for much longer than him, but he didn't have such a big grudge.

In short, Arenas has only one logic: you are all wrong, you are all idiots who are blind, you are all targeting me, you all look down on me for no reason. But I have done nothing wrong, and I am so strong!
This kind of person, really, Roger feels tired just thinking about getting along with him.

Given Roger's status, if he is asked to get out of the way and give up the ball, he will definitely do so, but he will also definitely start to complain again.

"Oh, Roger was blind not to give me the ball." "I'm a 0, and Roger looks down on me."

"Let me go, let me get out of this damn place!"

Maybe in the end he will come with a gun and fight Roger to the death.

Change him?
Some people can change, but some people can never change in their lifetime.

Kobe Bryant was paranoid all his life.

Gilbert Arenas' arrogance lasted throughout his life until he retired.

His advantage is that his training is really tough, which is comparable to Kobe Bryant's masochism. He likes to complain about everything, but he doesn't just complain about everything. He thinks you look down on him, and then he will use sweat and action to smash your face.

But Roger didn't think this would help their relationship.

Apart from Arenas and Jamison, the Warriors only have Alan Houston who has no leadership qualities.

This is the foundation of Oakland. At first glance, the data of these three people are very good, but the fact that the Warriors have not been able to win actually explains a lot of problems.

Data cannot represent basketball, this is a truth verified by GOAT.

Roger also already had a plan for the three of them.

Jamison is very good at scoring, but Roger can do it by himself. What he needs more is some partners who can do other things well. Even Dwyane Wade is worthy of LeBron James because of his defense and passing. Scoring? Just look at the scores in the finals to know whether LeBron needs Wade's help.

So Jamison can be traded in Roger's plan, and Roger doesn't need a second pure scorer.

Given Gilbert Arenas' personality, he would definitely quit in the summer of 03 just like in the original history, because he would not be willing to be deprived of the ball and submit to Roger, and the Warriors would not have been able to renew his contract at a high price before the Arenas clause appeared.

So he is also not in Roger's championship plan. Instead of letting him go to waste next year, it is better to trade him now.

Keep him and go through a bunch of completely predictable locker room drama? Forget it. There's really no need to disgust myself.

Alan Houston can be kept for a while, because he is a player who has proven that he can fight tough battles in the playoffs, and he is also a player with no problems in his character. He is not a good star player, but he may be a good deputy.

The Golden State Warriors have no championship foundation and have to start from scratch.

But Roger is not in a hurry. He chose the Warriors for a higher ceiling. As long as the boss doesn't mess with him every other day, Roger believes that his plan can become a reality in the Warriors.

However, before making drastic changes to the lineup, the Warriors took the lead in making some personnel changes.

The team first fired the original general manager Gary Gene and wanted to invite Jerry West to come out. Even Roger met with Logo in person. But the old man seemed to be exhausted by the conflicts between superstars and the team's palace fighting. He insisted on going to the remote Memphis.

"I wanted to try some new challenges, and I wanted to go somewhere quiet. At the end of the day, I'm an old man, Roger."

When saying this, Logo's eyes no longer had the sharpness of his youth, and his tone became extremely gentle.

It can be seen that Logo was really hurt by the Lakers.

In fact, the Grizzlies was indeed his last time as a general manager. Although he was still in the NBA and even had a presence in the Warriors dynasty, he was not involved as a general manager. Most of the time he was just a consultant.

There is no way. Roger can't just tie up the logo.

The Warriors had no choice but to implement plan B and hired Bob Buss, who had been the general manager of the league since the 70s.

Bob Bass has a very rich resume, dating back to before the merger of the ABA and NBA.

He won two General Manager of the Year awards in 90 and 97 with the Spurs and Hornets, which is enough to prove his ability. But in the original timeline, he also made the famous Kobe-for-Divac trade in 1996.

Overall, Bob Bass is a general manager who has connections, experience, and execution ability, but he occasionally makes mistakes.

Such a general manager may not be able to give Luo Jiechu any ideas, but at least he can turn Luo Jiechu's ideas into reality.

After Bob Buss came out, he immediately demonstrated the power of his personal connections and used his personal connections to invite Hubie Brown, who had been a guest on TNT for ten years. Hubie Brown officially signed a three-year contract with the Warriors. The purpose of signing him was to inject discipline and defensive culture into this team that was about to undergo a soft rebuild.

Seeing that the Warriors' general manager and head coach had undergone drastic reforms after Roger's arrival, the original players of the Warriors could no longer sit still.

Gilbert Arenas was the first to express his dissatisfaction on a radio program.

"I don't know what happened. I woke up and my coach was fired. What? Is there an emperor in the Bay Area? Everyone seems to think that Roger can lead the Warriors to the championship and that he can do whatever he wants. Hey, I'm also a starter on this team. Roger needs us, especially me. He can't do whatever he wants!
Roger wouldn't have been successful in Oakland without me, so you see, the team should have included me in the discussion on these things, and Roger should have come to see me.

I know he has seven rings and he’s the best player in the world. But man, you can’t do anything without me, you gotta understand that.”

It was just as Roger had expected, conceited and proud, exactly.

This is just Arenas, who just finished his rookie season and started for half a season.

When Roger and Bob Buss discussed trading Arenas, Bob Buss was a little surprised: "Gilbert has very good potential. Although he averaged only 10 points per game last season, that was because he was delayed as a substitute. In the second half of the season as a starter, his averages were 17 points, 5 rebounds, 6 assists and 2 steals!"

"Oh, great, then he must have good trade value. Trade him now, immediately."

"This..." Bob Bass swallowed his saliva. Roger made this decision as casually as picking a girl in an entertainment venue.

Bob Buss suddenly thought of someone, Michael Jordan.

In the summer of 1994, Michael Jordan was ready to make a comeback on the condition that the Bulls trade Roger.

Okay, Arenas' performance in his rookie season wasn't even worthy of licking Roger's toes, but Roger's power in Oakland at that time was as great as Michael Jordan's.

No, much bigger than Michael Jordan!
As far as Bob Bass knows, Jordan got the Bulls to trade Roger after intense negotiations with David Falk and the Bulls management.

But what about Roger? He didn't even need to report to Poki (Mikhail Prokhorov's nickname in the United States) when he wanted to trade a player. Even Bob Bass's appointment had to be approved by Roger.

That was the right he gave Roger.

No player in NBA history has ever had the rights that Roger has.

The balance of power in the league once again tilted greatly towards the players because of Roger.

Bob Bass finally asked, "Are you sure?"

"I'm pretty sure."

"Well Roger, you'll never see Gilbert in Oakland again."

A few days later, the Warriors made a deal and signed a contract in a hurry.

They used a mid-level exception to sign Stephen Jackson, who wanted to continue following Roger.

At the same time, Gilbert Arenas and Eric Dampier, who had shouted "Roger better come see me" two days ago, were sent to the Houston Rockets in exchange for Cuttino Mobley, Jason Coral and Tayshaun Prince, who was just picked by the Rockets in the middle of the first round of the 2002 draft.

Gilbert Arenas was extremely angry when he learned that he was traded.

"That guy is just afraid that I will threaten his position. The whole world knows that I will become an important figure! This is Roger. He just wants to keep a few good dogs around him! It doesn't matter. They will spend the rest of their lives in regret! Next season, they will know how stupid it is to let that idiot control them!"

Now, Roger is even more glad that he traded Arenas.

Sports Illustrated conducted an exclusive interview with Roger, asking him about his feelings about coming to Oakland and naturally asked him about his opinion on this deal.

Roger's answer was: "Bob Bass is very professional and efficient. I like him."

"Uh what about Gilbert? What do you think of him? He claims to make you guys regret it."

Roger frowned and thought for a moment.

"Sorry, I just got here, who is Gilbert?"

(End of this chapter)