Champions Creed

Chapter 71 070: A completely different dressing room atmosphere (asking for monthly tickets)
After the trade between the Bulls and the Magic was completed, people were concerned about Jordan's reaction, Roger's reaction, and O'Neal's reaction.

Reporters from major newspapers would love to live directly in their home.

The questions were as detailed as "Roger, what's the difference between taking a shit in Orlando and taking a shit in Chicago?"

But almost no one cares what Chris Webber thinks.

Just a year ago, Chris Webber was the darling of the media and the focus of fans' attention. His popularity was the highest among the top three rookies.

A year later, he was abandoned.

Although Roger also transferred a year later, these are two completely different concepts.

Roger was taken away by Orlando in a grand ceremony with a high bride price, while Weber was almost kicked out.

But no matter what, Weber finally escaped.

He no longer has to see Shaquille O'Neal's face or endure O'Neal's roar.

And on the Bulls, no one can stop him from using his low-post talents.

He likes to pass and assist, he can help Jordan create space in the high post, and he will be like a fish in water in the triangle offense.

Most importantly, he will win the championship earlier than Shaq!
He will tell the Orlando Magic that it is extremely stupid to sell himself at such a low price!

Weber, like Roger, came to the Berto Center early before the season started to meet with Krause and Reinsdorf.

Klaus and Reinsdorf did not have much enthusiasm for Webber. They just politely introduced the team to Webber and expressed their welcome.

While getting along with Weber, Klaus kept saying to himself: "God, I hope I won't regret it!"

After the cold meeting, Webber went to the training ground and saw Michael Jordan who was preparing for his comeback.

You can question Jordan's character, but you can't question his commitment to basketball.

In order to successfully transform from baseball player Michael back to basketball player Michael, he is willing to stay away from the gambling table temporarily and make all the efforts.

"Sir, nice to meet you." Webber took the initiative to greet Jordan.

Jordan put down the basketball and gave a friendly smile: "Chris, you are the one I am looking for! You don't need to call me Mr. in the future. You can call me Michael or MJ."

At that moment, Webber couldn't understand why Roger and Jordan didn't get along.

This legendary man is obviously very kind.

"Enjoy this vacation, Chris, and forget all the unpleasant things in Orlando. When the new season training camp starts, I need a brand new, confident you." Jordan patted Webber on the shoulder, "You have a bright future."

Weber almost cried. For the first time, he received the attention that a top draft pick deserved. He felt that his best days were still to come.

Walking out of the Beto Center, Chris Webber showed a handsome smile in front of the camera. He has never smiled so happily in Orlando: "Yes, I have talked to Michael. Next season you will know that Michael and I are much better than Roger and Shaq! By the way, Roger, Michael asked me to tell you a message: the only words that chattering bastard will say next season are 'No.
, Magic out'! "

Chris Webber is still too young and he doesn't know that a person may be completely different before and after marriage.

Before marriage, he was a gentle and considerate little cutie, but who knows what he will become after marriage.

Yes, his best days are yet to come.

The Bulls have almost completed their reinforcement with this trade. They now have a point guard, Anderson can play the point guard position. They have also strengthened the power forward position, at least Jordan is full of expectations for Webber.

But this deal also locked the Bulls' salary space in advance. They took on Anderson's contract, which forced them to give up Ron Harper, whom they had originally planned to sign.

On the contrary, getting rid of Anderson allowed the Magic to free up more salary space.

Nick Anderson is great, but Pat Williams doesn't need more scorers. His goal is clear. What the team needs now is a bunch of people who can do a good job on defense.

If you want to defend Olajuwon, the best way is to imitate the Sonics and use the front line to consume him. The same is true for defending Jordan, imitate the Knicks and use defensive stalwarts to deal with him.

Of course, defense alone cannot completely suppress Olajuwon and Jordan.

But the Magic still have Roger and O'Neal's scoring, and their offense and defense complement each other. The Magic have a good chance to break their myth!

Therefore, the Magic now needs defensive talent, not elegant scorers like Anderson.

Pat Williams continued as planned by trading the team's sixth man, Dennis Scott, who averaged 12.8 points per game last season, to the Pistons in exchange for 206-centimeter forward Bill Cole.

The Pistons need a strong player like Dennis Scott to assist their new king Grant Hill. The time for playing badly is over. The Pistons need to achieve results and need strong role players.

As for Korley, he is not a defensive forward. In fact, he is useless. He could hardly earn himself a chance to play in the Pistons last season, averaging only 11 minutes and 2.7 points per game.

His only advantage is that his contract this year is only 91.

Pat Williams is still making room for salary!

Ample salary space allowed Pat Williams' plan to be implemented. After sending out so many people, the Magic finally started to add players.

One day after Roger was traded to Orlando, the Magic successfully signed Ron Harper and another former member of the Bulls dynasty, Horace Grant.

The moment they officially signed with the team, Pat Williams felt much more at ease.

This also makes Michael Jordan's "love" for the Magic even more intense. Roger the Rebel + Grant the Leaker? Great, great, the buffs are fully stacked!

Next season, we must love the Orlando Magic very much!

These two signings are great, and the best part is that after signing Harper and Grant, the Magic still have some salary cap space left.

The contract Harper signed was not a big one because of his serious injuries.

Grant wasted a year going to Dallas, so he only signed a not-too-excessive two-year, $490 million contract with the Magic.

Dennis Scott, who was traded, makes 324 million a year.

Pat Williams spent the rest of the money on Derek McKay of the Pacers. This 206-centimeter player who could play two forward positions at the same time and was an active defender was the starting small forward of the 93 Supersonics team that eliminated the Rockets and met the Suns in the Western Conference Finals.

The Indianapolis media denounced the Pacers for not being decisive enough on the contract extension issue, cursing them for giving away an excellent defensive engineer to their Eastern Conference rival.

But such curses can't change anything.

Finally, the team signed the 32-year-old veteran rebounding champion Michael Cage, another 208-centimeter powerful forward, at a low price.

Scoring has never been Cage's calling card, but he is good at all kinds of dirty work, and muscle confrontation is his favorite.

He is like a blue pill. When McKay or Grant goes off the court to rest, he can continue to maintain the team's toughness in the transition period and keep the fierce melee going.

At this point, the Magic's salary cap space has been completely filled.

Pat Williams signed three forwards in Grant, McKay and Cage and the 198 cm Harper, all of whom are defensive stalwarts. In addition, the team already had Donald Royal, a 203 cm small forward who was always very active on the defensive end, and Shark, a strong rim protector.

The Magic finally completed the formation of their forward line, and Pat Williams successfully turned the plans on paper into reality. The shortest starters of the Magic next season, Harper and Roger, are both 198 cm tall. The tall bodies and fierce confrontation are enough to make all teams fall into the quagmire of iron shooting.

There's just one problem - this Magic team has undergone a major overhaul, with O'Neal being the only player left from last season's starting lineup.

Whether the team's running-in goes smoothly will be the key to whether the Magic can achieve good results next season.

However, that is something that can only be resolved during the new season's training camp.

Right now, the rosters of each team have been preliminarily determined, transfer news will become less and less, and the popularity of the NBA will gradually decrease.

Until the start of next season.

During this period, Roger started his global business journey according to Reebok's plan.

The 94 World Championships was in full swing, but that had nothing to do with Roger for the time being. It was still difficult for the current Basketball Association to accept a player outside the system to play for the country.

The Dream Team II continued the glory of the Dream Team I in the World Championships, averaging a 37.7-point win over their opponents and winning the World Championships with a perfect record. In the world of basketball in this era, the Dream Team can do whatever it wants.

However, Americans have never paid much attention to the Basketball World Championships. If you have read enough autobiographies of basketball stars, you will find that they often devote a lot of space to the Olympics, but few people will talk about their participation in the World Championships.

Therefore, although he won the World Championship, O'Neal, as a member of the Dream Team II, was not very excited.

In front of the camera, he looked at the gold medal on his chest with an indifferent expression:
"That's great. At least I proved that I'm more qualified to join the Dream Team than that bastard Laettner. But this is not what I'm really pursuing. I'm not saying that the World Championship is not good, but now all I can think about is the NBA championship! I think next summer, everyone will cheer for Roger and me! Chris wins the championship before me? Dream on!"

O'Neal officially announced his championship.

Every Orlando fan is eager for next season.

But Roger knew that everything was not that simple.

Although many Jordan fans will automatically ignore this and think that Michael Jordan was invincible during his peak period, the fact is that Jordan in 1995 failed to make it to the finals or even the conference finals.

And it was the Orlando Magic that eliminated them.

But we must admit that Michael Jordan was not ready at that time. His comeback was too hasty. He only played 17 regular season games before being thrown directly into the meat grinder of the playoffs.

In this history, thanks to Roger, Jordan decided to return during the offseason. Therefore, he had a complete season preparation period and enough time to turn himself back into the basketball player Michael.

When he stands on the basketball court, he will be perfect!

So, can the Magic still beat the Bulls next season? That's unknown.

This also means that Roger has to work harder.

The Magic beat the Bulls in 95, but don't forget that the Bulls also swept the Magic in 96.

As for what the outcome will be this time, it is entirely up to Roger to decide.

So after returning from all the business activities, Roger threw himself into training again. He knew what level of player Jordan was, and if he wanted to beat him, there was no shortcut and he could not be lazy.

In fact, when participating in business activities, Roger also studies game videos every day.

Of course, it is useless to just watch the game video in a cursory manner.

In order to make watching the video effective, Roger specially hired a 24-year-old young man to edit the video for him and explain the key points.

This young man is the latest member to join Roger's team. He doesn't have a very brilliant resume. He has played in the NCAA, but in four years he averaged only 9 points and 4 assists per game.

I played professionally in the Bundesliga, but it didn’t go very well.

He longed for the NBA because his father Jon had worked in the management of several NBA teams and he was attracted to the NBA since he was a child.

But his talent is too poor. Even if he tortures himself almost pervertedly, he cannot gain a foothold in high-level competitions and can't even get close to the NBA.

But his NBA dream has not been cut off, and he still longs to work for an NBA team, even if not as a player.

Finally, last month, he received an international long-distance call from his father while he was in Germany: "Roger wants to interview you and invite you to join his team."

Well, he didn't know why Roger would need him as a player.

But soon he got a new job - video editor.

Roger asked him to edit various videos that would allow Roger to learn defensive techniques and game reading skills, and to write notes for each video.

It was a boring job, but considering that Roger was willing to pay him, and that it was a job related to the NBA, he gladly accepted it.

In this way, Eric Spoelstra became Roger's personal video editor.

At this time, Roger was watching some videos of Jordan's breakthroughs. If you just watch the videos, the only thing you will sigh about is "Jordan's first step is so damn fast."

But in Spoelstra's edited video, everything is not that simple. Spoelstra deliberately circled Jordan's left foot in the video and wrote in the annotation:

"Pay attention to Jordan's posture. He switched the ball to his right hand, then gently stepped back with his left foot. This is his signal to break through. At this time, you must immediately block his right hand, stop his breakthrough or force him to change direction, and interrupt his rhythm. If you interrupt the rhythm of the attacker, then you are the one who leads the rhythm! The most important thing for a defender is to become an attacker in defense!"

You have to admit Spoelstra's talent in basketball. After all, he made the Heat the first team to use the head coach as the cornerstone of the team in the future. Well, this is just a joke from the fans, but he is indeed talented.

His talent doesn't allow him to unleash it as a player, so Roger helps him make good use of it.

With Spoelstra's help, Roger's ability to read the game and defensive details have improved.

Of course, these things can't be achieved overnight, but progress is always good.

At the same time, Roger is still gaining weight, and he has brought his weight to 93 kg. Then he will continue to adapt to this weight and maintain coordination and agility.

Roger certainly has the ability to gain seven or eight kilograms at one time, but that would greatly increase the risk of injury.

Michael Jordan was pushing himself like crazy, and Roger was also pushing himself like crazy.

Both men know that their meeting next season will be a bloody moment.

Whoever loses will bear the shame.

Finally, the time came to October 10th, the day when the Magic team's training camp opened.

The Amway Group represented by Magic owner DeVos and Advant Health Medical Company have always had in-depth cooperation. The Magic's training base was sponsored and named by them, so it is called Advant Health Center.

Like the Beto Center, the training base is located on the outskirts of the city.

Roger appeared in the parking lot in a blue Ferrari F512M, and the huge roar attracted everyone's attention.

This car is actually red. People who often buy Ferrari know that 80% of car owners will choose Ferrari's most classic red color.

But considering that red is always associated with bulls, Roger sprayed it blue.

After arriving at the parking lot, Roger saw a huge three-in-one parking space with a sign hanging on it: Roger Only.

Well, this is a completely different experience from last year when I was picked on by a psychopath like Pippen just for parking my car.

In Orlando, Roger is the one with the exclusive parking space.

In the entire parking lot, the only one who received the same treatment as Roger was O'Neal.

This is what Roger deserves, because with Roger's arrival, the Magic's season tickets were sold out early, and the Magic received unprecedented attention.

A dedicated parking space is really nothing.

After parking the car, Roger took out a small bag and walked into the locker room, where he handed the bag to his teammate Anthony Bowie.

Bowie was a little surprised: "This is..."

"A gift for you, thank you for giving me the No. 14 jersey."

Before that, the Magic's No. 14 belonged to Bowie.

Although he is just a role player, he has played in the NBA for 5 years and is older than Roger. Therefore, he has every right to keep his jersey number.

But when he learned that Roger wanted to continue wearing No. 14, he agreed to change his number very straightforwardly, and said self-deprecatingly: "This is the only way to make this number great."

Maybe because he was stressed by the weird locker room in the Bulls before, Roger felt that Anthony Bowie's behavior of respecting others was rare in the NBA.

So Roger decided to give Bowie a Patek Philippe to express his respect.

In the locker room, no one suddenly went crazy and started trouble with Roger.

Although everyone is not familiar with each other and doesn't talk much, at least this is a normal locker room.

But soon, the most abnormal person in the locker room appeared.

The locker room door was kicked open, and a big guy came in carrying a giant tape recorder and playing his own rap songs: "Hey, did everyone miss me? Shaq is back!"

Seeing Roger, O'Neal immediately put down the stereo and hugged Roger tightly: "Oh my God, finally! I finally saw you in the locker room! My dear Roger, I have been waiting for you so hard!"

As he said that, O'Neal lay directly on the ground and hugged Roger's ankle.

Roger:
Well, every locker room has a few dysfunctional people.

But the shark's abnormality is pretty good~
Afterwards, led by the press director, Roger and O'Neal wore Magic jerseys and went to the press conference with the general manager and the owner.

As soon as they walked in, the sound of shutter clicks was heard.

O'Neal smiled brightly, while Roger was relatively restrained.

Many of the questions the reporters asked were what Roger expected, and he answered them with ease.

"Many old faces have left the team this season. Will this affect the team's performance?"

"You mean the result is worse than a first-round exit? I think not at all."

"Want to talk about the Bulls trade?"

"A disaster, I mean, a disaster for Chicago. I don't want to say anything that they're going to regret, although it's true."

“But they have Michael.”

"Oh, that's a recipe for disaster."

"Do you have anything to say about MJ's comeback?"

"This is a wrong decision. His decision will expose the fact that he is not God."

The reporters were not disappointed. Roger was still the same Roger, the same Roger who was disrespectful to Michael Jordan, and the same Roger who dared to speak out.

Every media outlet in Orlando should kneel down and kowtow to Roger, because of his audacity, their newspaper sales will increase several times.

In that case, let’s throw out today’s most explosive question.

"You and Shaq, who's leading this team?"

On the stage, Pat Williams frowned. He knew these stupid reporters would make trouble!

Before Roger could answer, O'Neill put his arm around Roger's shoulders:

“Roger can lead this team.

I can lead this team too.

But you know what's most important? It's Roger and I who are going to lead this league!
Now, Goliath and David stand together!
Magic out? Believe me, one year later, Michael will go to the baseball field and say that again: I'm back. "

After saying that, the shark patted Roger on the shoulder, meaning: "I support you!"

A humble veteran, a normal locker room atmosphere, and an important partner who, at least for now, doesn't care about his status in the team.

On the first day, Roger fully realized the difference between here and Chicago.

All of these made Roger even more confident about this place!

So, he also picked up the microphone and said lightly:
"Next season, no one wants to face us."

(End of this chapter)