Champions Creed

Chapter 356 355: You will meet an opponent who can save you, but that person is not me (please give me a monthly ticket!)
When the San Antonio Spurs beat the Warriors in last year's Western Conference semifinals, Bruce Bowen was asked a question: "Do you think Roger can regroup in the Bay Area?"

Bowen answered cautiously: "I don't know if he can regroup again, but I know the Spurs have to be careful every time they meet Roger from now on. From what I know about him, he is not the kind of person who will let go of hatred easily."

Today's game proved what Bowen said.

Roger is not the kind of man who lets go of hatred easily.

Even if his enemy is the low-key Tim Duncan, he will never give up easily.

No one has ever beaten Roger in the playoffs two years in a row, which is a horribly underrated accomplishment.

This year, Roger looks set to keep the streak going.

After the first game of the series, Roger's interview was equivalent to an ultimatum to the Spurs.

This had to be his time, and he would not allow anyone to touch the legacy of the dynasty.

What really makes Spurs fans uncomfortable is that the Spurs seem to have no room for adjustment.

In the first game of the series, the Warriors completely put the Spurs on the chopping board.

The Admiral is already too slow. The reason why he was so good at defense when he was young was because he had the speed of a small forward.

As a de facto center, Tim Duncan can make things difficult for Yao Ming and Shaq, but his defensive range is not as good as that of Ben Wallace or Kevin Garnett.

That is, they can't contain mid-range shots and protect the rim at the same time.

The Spurs are still a traditional, slightly bloated team that uses height and tonnage to fill the penalty area.

Facing the Warriors' extremely modern offense, the Spurs' defense looked clunky and decadent.

It looks like Roger's revenge will be very thorough.

This round of the series is unlikely to be too intense, and he will not give Tim Duncan any chance to be compared with himself.

However, Roger is about to do more than that.

After the series ended, the NBA officially announced the final results of the two major awards, DPOY and MVP, on the same day for the first time.

The reason why they were announced on the same day is actually very simple - the two awards were won by the same person!

After the training, Roger was not surprised when he learned the result from the reporter: "I just took back what belongs to me."

As soon as the results came out, Reebok had already notified Roger.

As the team that was leading the Western Conference this year, there was no doubt that Roger would be the MVP.

The mainstream media has long begun to refer to Roger as "quasi-MVP".

This is the sixth time Roger has won the MVP award in his career, a number that surpassed Bill Russell and finally tied the honor harvester Kareem Jabbar.

If we win it again, it will be a historic moment.

值得一提的是，这是罗杰自21世纪以来的第四座MVP——如果把99-00赛季算作NBA进入21世纪的开端，那21世纪一共也才打了五个赛季。

Four MVPs in five years, this is unparalleled dominance.

Compared to the MVP, Roger winning the DPOY award was both reasonable and unexpected.

Although Reebok has long been hyping up Roger's possibility of winning DPOY, Roger is an outside player after all.

As we all know, DPOY generally favors inside players. Since Gary Payton in 1996, the DPOY award has been dominated by inside players. Throughout the 90s, Glove was the only outside player to win the DPOY, even Scottie Pippen never got his hands on it.

What's more, the league now has Ben Wallace, the most perverted defensive player in NBA history.

However, because Ben Wallace's defense is so outstanding, since the beginning of the 21st century, it has been as easy for him to win the DPOY as it has been for Roger to win the MVP.

As a result, the media have played the "aesthetic fatigue" card.

Inside players have dominated the DPOY award for so many years, why don't we take a look at outside players?
It’s not that Ben Wallace is not good enough, but for men, novelty is a fatal temptation.

This mentality, coupled with the subtle influence of Reebok's vigorous publicity, ultimately led to the fact that among the top five players in this year's best defensive player voting, there were as many as three outside players (Roger, Artest, and Bowen), and only Ben Wallace and Lakers center Theo Ratliff in the interior. This is an unprecedented situation.

This is enough to illustrate the bias of journalists in voting this year.

Most Heat players wanted to pick a perimeter player, and Roger won the competition with Artest.

After all, Artest is not even the best defensive player on the Pistons. If Ben Wallace can't win DPOY, how can Artest, who is also on the Pistons, win it?

Reebok's publicity followed, and overnight, everyone knew that Roger was the first player since Olajuwon to win MVP and DPOY in the same season.

And he is the first defender to do this.

Reebok could certainly customize a few more prefixes - the first 28-year-old player to do this, the first scoring champion to do this, the first international player to do this, and so on.

But as Todd Klinsky, president of Reebok Basketball, said: "Only trash players need to deliberately customize statistics and honors."

The MVP and DPOY award ceremony will be held before the second game of the Western Conference Finals, which is undoubtedly a huge blow to the morale of the Spurs players.

Since Roger has already snatched the MVP from Duncan, what's next? Will it be victory?

Before Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals began, the Spurs players in the dark all looked depressed.

Bruce Bowen believed that he was qualified for the award, but he lost because he did not have strong media resources, and he was somewhat unwilling to accept it.

Tim Duncan looked at Roger who was holding up the MVP trophy and thought of himself last season. He thought that was the beginning of his glory, but he lost to the Pistons in the finals last season. This season, he was in a tough battle in the Western Conference Finals again. His glory has not even begun, is it going to fade again?
David Robinson looked at Roger and felt that Roger had ruled the league for a long, long time. From his heyday to his decline into the twilight of his career, Roger had always been there and no one could bring him down. People always say that he was lucky to have met Tim Duncan. But the question is, is anyone really lucky in Roger's era?
Gary Payton looked at the DPOY trophy, and his thoughts went back to his most glorious year in 1996. Thinking about himself then and now, it was really sad. Like Karl Malone, he was a victim of the suppression of the Magic dynasty in the 90s, and he longed to catch the faint light in the 21st century. But Roger once again obscured the light and played with everyone's fate.

Manu Ginobili looked at the man standing at the top enjoying the cheers and couldn't help but think about this summer's Olympics. How would such a person wreak havoc in the FIBA ​​arena? What kind of shock would he cause? It was really hard to imagine.

The Spurs players didn't realize that they were already looking up to Roger.

Game 2 of the series started soon, and the Spurs players, who had already started to think too much about failure, played an ugly game that almost made Popovich die.

Tony Parker only scored 12 points with 4 of 8 shots. Hedo Turkoglu gained Popovich's trust and had more playing time, but he only made 7 of 1 shots.

David Robinson made 9 of 3 shots. What Popovich could not accept the most was that Tim Duncan, who was known for his stability, actually had a Kobe-like shooting percentage of 14 of 4!
Tonight, the Warriors defended Duncan to the extreme.

Marcus Camby is responsible for circling and tangle, while Stoudemire is responsible for assisting in double-teaming at any time.

This forced Duncan to start fighting from the moment he received the ball, constantly wasting his energy and touch in the muscle collisions. After he finally caught the ball, Amar'e Stoudemire would immediately double-team him.

So, Duncan made a lot of passes today. However, the rest of the Spurs team couldn't respond.

The inaccuracy of Parker, Bowen, Admiral and others directly dragged the Spurs into the abyss.

In the end, Duncan had to attack on his own, but his efficiency was still not high.

On the other hand, Roger scored 33 points and 10 assists today.

Stoudemire also scored 23 points.

In the second quarter today, Popovich briefly allowed Stoudemire to take a mid-range shot to test his touch. However, his performance of 10 points in a single quarter made Popovich completely abandon this strategy.

The final score was 105 to 78, and the Spurs were sent into garbage time for two consecutive games!

Roger deprived Duncan of victory and MVP. Finally, tonight, it was his turn to be dignified.

As a superstar, Duncan's performance tonight was absolutely disastrous. Roger also showed the world how badly he could make Tim Duncan's team suffer.

On the other hand, Roger and Amar'e Stoudemire once again put in an excellent performance and scored 56 points together. Al Michaels described the two as: "Roger is the master of making the victory cake, and Amare is the cherry on the cake!"

In the post-match interview, Roger pointed at the camera and said, "Here I come, the Lone Star State."

In this land infected by Spanish accents, in the last incomplete puzzle of the United States, the San Antonio Spurs still failed to win.

In Game 3, Duncan was rarely blocked for two consecutive games.

Duncan scored 20 points and 11 rebounds tonight, which seems normal at first glance.

But the 38% hit rate betrays all these beautiful appearances.

The Warriors' defensive strategy was exactly the same as before, and Duncan suffered from circling and double-teaming.

The Spurs' weak response ability wasted Duncan's excellent support.

Popovich realized that his team might be a little outdated.

In the past, defense was the key to everything. In the 90s, Pat Riley could dominate the league with the infamous New York Mafia. At the beginning of the century, Larry Brown's Philadelphia 76ers also had a brief period of glory with extreme defense.

But nowadays, defense is no longer the only key.

The Spurs' ability to respond to open shots was too poor. When Duncan was stuck in a stalemate, the Spurs couldn't even find a second stable offensive point.

Whoever received the pass from Duncan and shot the ball was like gambling.

The Spurs lack shooters and a second offensive point. They are too classical, so their defense is not at the top level.

After the third game, the series was settled.

Facing this Golden State Warriors team, they were completely abandoned by the times and had no power to fight back.

At the post-game press conference, Popovich smiled helplessly and said, "Maybe next time I should watch more Warriors game videos."

In G4, the Spurs did not give up at home and they put up a final desperate resistance.

Although Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili both exploded, the San Antonio Spurs' 38-03 season basically came to an end when Robert Horry's game-tying shot missed the basket in the last 04 seconds.

Yes, Robert Horry is a master of clutch shots, but that doesn't mean he can make every clutch shot.

After missing this shot, the Warriors immediately fought back and tried to kill the game completely.

But Stoudemire made a bad pass. He dribbled past the Admiral but found himself surrounded. He hurriedly threw the ball in the direction of Roger outside the three-point line.

But Stoudemire's pass was too high and almost went out of bounds.

The Spurs players on the scene had shining eyes, as if they saw a chance for a reversal.

If this shot had gone astray, the pass would have been compared to Stephen Curry's ridiculous behind-the-back pass in the Finals.

But then, people saw Roger jump up with all his strength, spread his five fingers in the air, and grabbed the ball steadily as if his hands were smeared with glue. After landing, Roger took a step forward, then made a quick stop jump shot, and the basketball hit the target steadily!
A ball that was destined to be a mistake was turned into a safe 2 points by Roger.

Bruce Bowen shook his head. He was not the kind of person who would easily let go of his hatred. He would definitely kill you with his own hands. This was the fate that was decided last year.

The game ended with a score of 4-0, and Roger took away everything that belonged to the Spurs players.

He took away Tim Duncan's greatness.

He took away David Robinson's last hope of winning the championship.

He took away Gary Payton's last hope.

It also took away the happiness of all fans in the Lone Star State and brought pain to this land.

Tim Duncan's first playoff defeat to Roger was so unforgettable.

After everything was over, Duncan and Roger hugged.

Seeing Roger was about to speak, Duncan interrupted immediately: "Stop talking about the future being mine, you liar."

Roger couldn't help laughing. Who could have thought that one day Duncan would be deceived by this sentence.

"I have no intention of deceiving you, Tim. Have you ever thought that your future has not yet arrived? You will meet that person who will come to save you on a cloud of luck."

"No, I will never meet a better teammate than David." Duncan said, glancing at David Robinson who was crying bitterly.

The Admiral's career ended in disappointment.

The top pick who once caused a scramble across the United States now has an extremely miserable ending.

Throughout the series, David Robinson acted like an extremely mediocre player, becoming a man who endured humiliation for his lofty dream.

Even so, he still didn't get a good enough ending.

Duncan doesn't want to leave the league like this.

As Tim Duncan was sighing, Roger smiled and waved his hands: "I'm not talking about teammates. I'm saying that you may meet an opponent who can save you, but that person is not me."

"An opponent who can save me?"

"What's so surprising?" Roger blinked.

He will not only save you, but may also save others.

With that, all the Spurs players left the court, and the Warriors lifted the Western Conference championship trophy in Texas.

Roger gave the right to receive the trophy to Stoudemire. Stoudemire wanted to give it up, but Roger told him: "This toy is more suitable for you. It would be too childish for me to take it."

That's right, the Western Conference championship is just a toy for a man known as the GOAT.

The GOAT may not have many championships, but please believe me, he definitely has a lot of division championship trophies.

DPOY, MVP and the Spurs curse, Roger has dealt with them all.

He was just one thing away from declaring: "This is my year."

Just that one thing is missing.
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Yes, this is my last season, but I have already booked my season tickets for next season. I will never leave the Spurs. I will watch Tim reach the top again, and he will. - David Robinson on the end of his career.

People are not surprised by his greatness because they are used to his excellence. Roger is a great opponent, no doubt. But how will the finals turn out? Will Roger, the DPOY, be trapped by the ultimate defense? We will wait and see. -- Tim Duncan calmly talks about Roger's return to the finals.

What did Roger tell me? Well, it's our secret. - Duncan did not tell reporters about his conversation with Roger about "an opponent who saved you".

"Roger, what does it mean to you to be back in the finals?"

"There is nothing special about it. Returning to the finals is not our ultimate goal. I can only say that the Bay Area's first glorious moment since 1975 is coming. The championship trophy will stay in Oakland. This is what we must do before we leave. I will not leave anywhere empty-handed, not this time."

"Facing one of the toughest defensive teams in NBA history, this journey to the finals is bound to be difficult. Do you think your team is ready?"

"Craig Popovich, who doesn't watch the video next door, will answer you for this question. If you don't have time to visit him, the Detroit Pistons will answer you."

——Roger was interviewed by ESPN.

(End of this chapter)