Champions Creed

Chapter 34: He still didn’t pass the ball, but he still scored a goal!

Fratello just said that Pippen set the stage for the new MJ, and it was just a joke, no harm meant.

But if Pippen heard it, he would definitely go to Fratello tonight with his rifle to ask for an explanation.

However, Pippen did make Roger successful through his actions.

If it weren't for his previous 4-for-0, Roger's goal wouldn't have looked so amazing.

After the ball went in, Roger, standing on the free throw line, easily scored another point.

The first shot in his NBA career was a successful three-pointer.

On the basketball court, when one person shines, another is bound to make a fool of himself.

Jordan's great last shot in 98 was inseparable from Brian Russell who was knocked down.

诺维茨基伟大的11年总冠军，离不开场均26.5分7.0篮板5.2助攻1.5抢断1.5盖帽的韦德。若不是韦德太CBA，热火不会输给那群老弱病残。

And now, the person who is embarrassed is Alonzo Mourning.

As a strong center, he couldn't even deal with a high school student by fouling. If this got out, wouldn't people laugh their heads off?
No center in this era wants to be called soft.

Mourning was getting angry when Hornets coach Alan Bristow yelled at the court: "Alonzo, you are such an idiot. What good will this unnecessary foul do you?"

Bristow was very angry. The 7-point advantage that the Hornets had worked so hard to obtain was almost halved because of a stupid decision made by Mourning. This was unacceptable to a disciplined coach like him.

Mourning never thought that one day he would be scolded by the coach for being a rookie.

He didn't dare to lose his temper with the coach, so he could only lose his temper with the person who caused him to be scolded!
Mourning ran downfield and set a screen for Larry Johnson.

But Pippen got around the screen very quickly, and seeing that there was no chance, she prepared to pass the ball back to Mourning who was outside after the pick-and-roll.

But everything he did had already been guessed by Pippen.

Pippen acted quickly and knocked the basketball out of the aunt's hand before she passed the ball.

Pippen picked up the basketball and rushed forward to launch a counterattack.

Phil's move was really unnecessary. Defense wins championships. There was no need to substitute Roger. I could catch up by myself.

Aren’t we going to get back 2 points soon?
Pippen leaped toward the basket, hoping to put the spotlight on himself with a powerful dunk.

But just as he lifted the basketball, Alonzo Mourning, who also had explosive athletic ability, caught up with him from behind and slapped the ball away!

The basketball hit the backboard and bounced back, and Pippen's close-range running score was blocked by Mourning!
Fratello shook his head: "Unfortunately, the basket is not open to Scott Pippen today. OHHHHHH!"

Flatlow originally just wanted to complain about Pippen, but then he saw Roger rushing into the restricted area at some point and dunking over Mourning who also had no time to react, scaring him so much that he screamed out loud!
Just now, the basketball in Pippen's hand was blocked and bounced out, and was caught by Roger who was following closely behind.

Roger had already accelerated when he received the basketball, while Mourning was still immersed in the joy of blocking the shot. He did not expect someone to rush in front of him so quickly, so he did not react and did not even have time to jump.

So Roger completed his first dunk in the NBA, and O'Neal, who was watching TV, jumped up from the sofa with his hands covering his head.

Look, look, this is what it means to play ball!
Compared to Roger, Weber is nothing!

After that exclamation, NBC's Fratello slammed the table and shouted, "I told you long ago that Roger is a tough guy! He may be skinny, but he's never afraid to fight a giant! Scott was right after being beaten up by Roger, this kind of toughness is exactly what the Bulls need! And, did you see it? This guy's flying figure really looks like MJ!"

MJ himself was watching TV at this time. Well, after really entering professional baseball, Jordan realized that hobbies and careers are two different things.

He worked with Grover every day to study how to transform the body to better adapt to baseball games. White Sox assistant coach Walter Heniak got up at six in the morning every day to practice with Jordan.

But these still couldn't save Jordan's only 20% hitting success rate - under normal circumstances, this number of 28% is just barely passing.

Some media described Jordan's batting ability like this: "He can't hit it even with a tennis racket!"

When people encounter setbacks in unfamiliar fields, they tend to miss their achievements in the fields they are good at.

Jordan is now beginning to miss his omnipotence on the basketball court.

So, he started watching NBA games again.

When Jordan heard Fratello on TV say that Roger looked like him, he smiled contemptuously.

Roger, the first time Jordan heard this name was in Las Vegas in 1992.

Until now, he still couldn't forget how much he hated hearing this name.

He still hates it now. He knows very well that Krause chose that kid just to replace himself, but Jordan doesn't think he can be replaced by anyone.

Just him, like me? Haha.

You guys are really good at insulting people.

At this moment, a voice suddenly came from Jordan's crotch: "Don't listen to their nonsense, Michael, you are the best in basketball."

Jordan closed his eyes: "Don't talk, it feels like teeth."

After the dunk, Roger was so excited that he slammed the backboard hard before letting go and dropping the ball to the ground.

Then Roger looked at Pippen and said, "Scott, it doesn't matter if you can't score. I'm always here to support you!"

Pippen also gritted his teeth, look what this rookie can do!
No, it was Mourning who was dunked on, so why was it me who was repeatedly beaten?!

And this basket has a grudge against me today, right?
I still don’t believe it!

Is it so difficult to score a goal?!
Difficult, difficult.

In the next attack, Pippen's turnaround jump shot missed due to the interference of the aunt.

He has gone 6-for-0 in today's running game. Pippen's offense is like this, sometimes it suddenly trips and loses power.

For example, people still cannot scientifically explain why Pippen suddenly missed 90 of 10 shots in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals. He said it was a migraine, and everything was blurry and he could hardly see.

But no examination reports supported this claim, and the so-called migraine never appeared again.

Fortunately, AC Green grabbed the offensive rebound. Pippen raised his hand to ask for the ball and prepared to attack again, but Green passed the ball to Roger.

Pippen: ???
No, can't you tell who has a better grasp of the game? What kind of basketball IQ do you have?

After Roger got the ball, Hersey Hawkins began to defend seriously.

Although Roger had scored two goals in a row, the Hornets would certainly not just double-team an 18-year-old high school rookie.

Hawkins and Roger are still one on one.

Hawkins was carefully observing the change in Roger's center of gravity, but Roger held the ball with his back to the basket and started to play back.

Pippen was furious because he had just failed in a post-up play. Was this bastard deliberately mocking me?
Okay, let me see if you can get in!

Pippen was somewhat paranoid, because Roger's post-up play was not for Pippen to see, but because Hawkins, who was defending him, was only 192 cm tall.

Posting up is Roger's safest option.

He leaned against Hawkins and advanced to the middle distance in hand-to-hand combat. Seeing that no one came up to attack him, he calmly turned over and attacked.

They all wore red jerseys, but Roger's turnaround jump shot wouldn't remind people of MJ.

Jordan's turnaround jump shot had a large fade-away arc, while Roger's fade-away arc was very small. However, he still managed to evade defense with his height and wingspan advantage.

But the moment Roger shot, the direction of the basketball's flight was skewed. Pippen snorted, "You were able to score the two previous times because I helped you with defense."

You don't really think you're that good at one-on-ones in the NBA, do you?
However, the basketball hit the backboard and went into the net the next second.

An Iceman-style turnaround jump shot was made steadily. Pippen's 6 of 0 and Roger's 7 points in a row were so eye-catching when put together.

"He made a comeback and rebounded! His performance was just as good as in the preseason! I've said it before, this kid has perfect offensive skills!" Fratello completely turned into a Jayson fan today.

In fact, Roger's offense is still a long way from perfection, and he has not yet fully developed the Iceman's talent.

But compared to most rookies, he does have more methods.

Pippen was already in a mess. Just now, AC Green passed the ball to Roger instead of himself, and then Roger scored a goal with a turnaround jump shot that he had failed.

At this time, the Zen Master was still shouting on the sidelines: "Scott, defend one more player seriously. Roger is making our offense better, and your task is to make sure our defense doesn't get worse! We're going to overtake soon, right away!"

I played hard on defense and let that kid score?

Isn't this something only a second child can do! ?
Despite this, Pippen still defended with all his strength in the next round, forcing the old lady to give up the ball.

Finally, Mourning played Cartwright in the low post and turned around to shoot a jump shot. However, at the moment of shooting, AC Green immediately entered the restricted area to assist and interfered with Mourning, causing Mourning to miss the shot.

The Bulls' defense was very good today. The main reason for their previous lag was that their offense was too weak.

And now, they had Roger on board.

Their offense won't have any problems anymore.

Pippen grabbed the rebound and controlled the ball across half court. Although he wanted to score, he did not do anything rash. Instead, he passed the ball to AC Green, who was the high post axis of the triangle offense.

Green passed the ball again and moved it to Roger on the weak side.

At this time, there were only Green and Roger on the weak side, and Roger had a wide one-on-one space.

He took a tentative step and stabbed towards Hawkins' left side, but actually quickly broke through to the right side, which completely penetrated Hawkins' center of gravity.

Seeing Hawkins being passed again, Big Mom left Pippen behind and went up to help defend.

Pippen was ready to receive the ball, and he had to make this open jump shot no matter what.

All I can say is that Pippen doesn't understand Roger at all.

If it was Andre on the court, he would not even think about catching the ball, but would rush to the basket to grab the rebound as soon as possible. This is called game experience.

When Roger saw the aunt double-teaming, he didn't pass the ball to Pippen, but took a quick stop and jump shot before the double-team arrived!

"Oh my god?" Pippen couldn't believe what he saw. It was bad enough that AC Green didn't pass the ball to him just now, but now that he was open, why didn't the rookie pass the ball to him?

If this ball didn't go in, Pippen swore that he would fight this arrogant rookie on the spot!

But the ball went in.

Hawkins and the aunt both reached out to interfere, but one was too short and the other was too far away, so the actual interference effect was very slight.

That standard and pleasing shooting posture allowed Roger to score a goal despite seemingly being interfered with by two people.

The ball went in, the whistle sounded, and the Hornets were overtaken by Roger's 9 consecutive points, so the game was stopped!

Fratello raised his arms high: "That's Roger! He still didn't pass the ball, but he still scored a goal!"

Hornets coach Bristow almost went berserk: "Oh my God, how could you do this? How could you do this? He's just an 18-year-old kid!"

Roger is indeed just an 18-year-old, but he may be the most terrifying 18-year-old scorer of all time.

Pippen looked at himself being ignored in the open space, and Roger scoring despite being double-teamed, and suddenly felt...
Michael, it seems like he never left.

(End of this chapter)