Champions Creed

Chapter 51: The Beginning of Iron-Blooded Competition

Magic general manager Pat Williams has a huge Christmas tree in his office, and on the tree is a greeting card from his little daughter. The girl knew her father would not be able to go home for dinner on Christmas Eve, so she wrote a special holiday greeting.

Pat Williams wanted to go home and reunite with his family after the game, but when he saw the huge lump in front of him, he knew that his Christmas Eve had been completely ruined.

"Shaq."

"Don't say anything Pat, it was that bastard Chris who mentioned my grandma first!"

"Yes, Chris was undoubtedly wrong, but that's no reason for you to slap your teammate!" Pat Williams also raised his voice: "Besides, this is a nationally broadcast Christmas game. Even your every move after the game will be watched by the whole country, and your childish behavior has embarrassed the team in front of fans across the country!"

"Embarrassing? Damn, I thought you didn't care, but it turns out you know it's embarrassing! Do you know what embarrassing is? We lost to the Chicago Bulls without MJ in the Christmas game, that's embarrassing! If you had listened to me, none of this would have happened!" O'Neal was very emotional. He wished the team would trade Webber for Roger immediately, and then wished Krause would get drunk and agree to the deal.

Pat Williams looked at the photo frame on his desk. It was a family photo. He took a deep breath to calm himself and suppress his anger. He didn't want to spend the entire Christmas Eve on this bullshit. He bought gifts for his wife and daughter, and he wanted to see their expressions when they opened the gifts.

"Look, Shaq, remember what I told you before? If it turns out that Chris isn't the right answer, I'll help you get Roger."

How did he do that? Nobody knows! But now Pat Williams can only calm O'Neal down like a child. Otherwise, who knows what he will do next time.

This is not the first time that O'Neal has beaten up his teammates this season. A few months ago, he had a conflict with the team captain Scott Skiles and punched the poor white guard in the chin, almost knocking him out on the spot.

The incident started when O'Neal went to Los Angeles to play away games and got drunk at a bar, which led to a loss to the underdog Clippers the next day. Head coach Brian Hill was very angry about this and made the whole team run laps. Skiles, who was clearly staying in the hotel honestly but was still implicated, was very upset, so he kept nagging on the training ground, which eventually angered the Sharks.

See, this was the NBA in the 90s, the way teammates expressed friendship to each other.

Pat Williams really doesn't want to go through this again. The Shark is only a good player when he is emotionally stable.

Hearing the word "trade", O'Neal's tone softened a lot: "Okay, then let's complete the deal quickly before the trade deadline."

"But now we don't know if Chris is the right answer." Pat Williams spread his hands.

"Oh my God, he has more turnovers in half a season than I have in a year! His passes always end up in the hands of his opponents for unknown reasons! You know what's the funniest thing? This all-around super genius has a lower free throw percentage than I do! Pat, isn't this an obviously wrong answer?"

"The new season has only started for two months, and Chris is just a rookie. I know that Roger entered the NBA almost seamlessly, but that doesn't mean Chris can't catch up later. I will continue to evaluate Chris, and we will not change the lineup before the end of the season. Of course, I will have a good talk with Chris and I will ask him to make changes. So, play with peace of mind, Shaq, and we will discuss the trade next summer. By then, I will definitely give you a satisfactory answer."

"I love Orlando, I love the Magic, and I love you. So, I decided to trust you again. But if Chris Webber continues to behave like this - although I think this is a high probability event, I hope you can keep your promise. You'd better not let me down again, Pat. By the way, Merry Christmas."

Shark finished speaking and stood up and left Pat Williams' office.

Pat Williams breathed a sigh of relief. At least the Shark's emotions had stabilized.

Next, he has to talk to Chris Webber.

Pat Williams has to admit that Webber's performance so far has not met the team's expectations.

If Webber ends up not playing well, Pat Williams must have a plan B.

Roger?

Judging from his current performance, Klaus will definitely not let him go unless he is crazy.

But even if it wasn't Roger, Pat Williams would have to replace him with someone else to stop the loss in time.

The Warriors' Penny is pretty good.

He will be busy from now until next summer.

The next day, on the plane back to Chicago, Roger was tinkering with his GB game console in high spirits, playing a game that seemed extremely childish to his teammates. The game was about controlling a plumber to eat gold coins all over the world.

Roger was enjoying the game. In his previous life, he saved up a lot of money after working for a long time and finally bought a high-end computer, thinking that he could play games without lags. But every time he sat in front of the computer, Roger's brain began to lag.

The trivialities of life made it impossible for him to find any fun in playing games.

Now that he doesn't have to worry about money, he has finally found the same pleasure he had when he was studying and playing games with all his heart.

At this time, someone patted Roger on the shoulder. It was Cartwright: "Man, I heard there were a lot of girls at Shaq's party yesterday."

"Yes, there are quite a few." Roger didn't take his eyes off the game console.

"Young people are great. Look at Scott. He's still sleeping. I was next to him last night and couldn't fall asleep. You're still so energetic." Cartwright complained. As soon as they started talking about this topic, everyone instantly became interested. "Scott is very strong, but everyone knows Roger's strength. The ones who are too tired to get up now should be the girls who attended the party, hahahaha."

"Don't make blind guesses. I went there for a while yesterday and then went back to the hotel. Shaq was in a bad mood, so the party ended early." Roger answered calmly.

Shark was indeed in a bad mood yesterday. He drank a lot of alcohol and kept saying nonsense like "If I could be on the same team with you, I would never have any worries in my life."

Not long after, the shark, who had drunk too much strong liquor, lay dead and the party was forced to end.

Well, after the party, there were indeed several girls who wanted to go back to the hotel with Roger to discuss the topic of world population growth.

But no matter how stupid Roger was, he would not accept these flesh and blood of unknown origin.

He didn't want to be tied down by the high child support. Wouldn't it be better to use the money to help his uncle marry an aunt? If you do this kind of thing once, you will find that vampires are not something that only exists in novels.

Umbrellas? You have no idea how crazy these women can get. They might even put the contents of their umbrellas back in there.

If you marry someone just to save your public image, you're doomed. When Michael Jordan divorced, his direct financial loss reached nine figures. His marriage to Juanita was the most unsuccessful gamble of his life.

However, considering that a reporter once mistook Juanita for Jordan's mother at a press conference, the money might not be worth it.

In short, for the sake of his second half of life, Roger decided to take care of his lower body first.

Never go deep into an unknown cave, otherwise you may not be able to escape.

Teammates all teased Roger, and everyone returned to Chicago laughing and talking. The victory in the Christmas game made everyone quite relaxed.

But this atmosphere did not last long. On December 12, the Bulls suffered their biggest loss of the season.

86 to 68, the New York Knicks defeated the Bulls for the second time this season at home.

And won by a full 20 points.

Since his comeback, Pippen has been intentionally increasing his number of singles shots, and has also put up impressive scoring numbers during this period.

In the last game against the Magic, it was the first time since his comeback that he had fewer shots than Roger, and as a result, Roger immediately became the protagonist.

So today, Pippen regained the right to shoot. He wanted to take the initiative again and let the fans see him carry the team.

But he couldn't carry it at all.

Pippen took 23 shots but only scored 25 points, with a hit rate of less than 40%.

Roger's opportunities were squeezed, so he only took 11 shots and scored 15 points.

The Knicks used their historically strong defense to completely destroy the Bulls, making Pippen's singles extremely ugly. After all, this is a rare defensive team in the entire NBA history.

Phil Jackson looked at Pippen's shot count on the stat sheet and adjusted his glasses. He couldn't let this go on.

When Roger and Pippen were on the court at the same time, the team's offense could no longer be based on who had a better touch, Pippen or Roger. They had to establish a priority. So at the press conference, he said meaningfully: "I am trying to completely unleash Roger's offensive power."

But the focus of today's press conference came from Pat Riley.

The coach, who was eliminated by the Bulls in the playoffs for two consecutive seasons, announced in a high-profile manner at the press conference: "For us, the Chicago Bulls are no longer a problem. Scott tried hard, but he couldn't stop us. There is no doubt that our window to win the championship has opened."

"What about Roger?" the reporter asked again. "Phil said he is trying to completely unleash Roger's offensive power."

"Phil? Free Roger?" Riley approached the microphone with a serious face: "Let me tell you this, there is only one difference between Phil and me, that is, I did not coach Michael Jordan. Without MJ, the Bulls and Phil can no longer take away victory from New York in the playoffs. No matter what tricks Phil plays, as long as there is no MJ, his tricks are all useless. I admit that Roger is very good, but he is just a great rookie, that's all."

At this moment, after saying this, Riley had not yet realized that this would be the beginning of the most intense and bloody competition of the coming summer.

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Thanks to Guanggebudaipie, 丶Tiffany丶 and other big guys for the rewards, thank you everyone!

(End of this chapter)