Champions Creed

Chapter 80 079: Roger's Law (ask for monthly ticket!)

Roger always felt that Drexler was not humble, he just simply didn't talk much.

There is a difference between being humble and being quiet.

Olajuwon became truly humble after he matured. He was very talkative. He beat the other three of the four great centers, but at the same time he was always praising the other three.

He also praised Roger in the playoffs last season.

But Drexler is different. He just likes to keep things to himself, which doesn't mean he is very humble.

If he was truly humble, he wouldn't have been so resentful in his autobiography towards Magic Johnson, who took away the All-Star MVP and entered the Dream Team.

In 2003, Carter was reluctant to give up his All-Star starting spot to Jordan, but no matter how reluctant he was, he would at least pretend in front of the media: "I'm not reluctant. Michael deserves it."

But when faced with a similar situation, Drexler was too lazy to even pretend and just fired directly in his autobiography. Can this still be called humility?

So Roger was not surprised that Drexler described himself as "overrated."

We will deal with idiots like Strickland later. Roger will deal with the more famous Drexler first tonight.

Overrated? Because of the lineup?
Then I'll beat you one-on-one tonight!
The game is about to begin. The Trail Blazers' starting lineup is Rod Strickland, Drexler, Buck Williams, Clifford Robinson and Chris Dudley.

Looking at the starting lineup of the Magic team, Drexler's eyes were shining.

He might be imagining what he could achieve if he were in magic.

Before the game started, Strickland, who had always been a "problem player", made a rude remark to Roger: "Unfortunately, Ron Harper has to guard Clyde today, so you have nowhere to run, asshole."

Roger just glanced at Strickland. It would be disrespectful to himself if he paid any attention to that unknown person.

To be honest, Strickland is an extremely good player.

He is indeed very talented.

Especially on the offensive end, his dribbling is gorgeous and smooth, and his touch is very soft.

But just like his godson, he always puts too much energy off the court.

His godson Kelly Irving is busy cultivating himself, and he is busy causing trouble everywhere.

Seeing that Roger ignored him, Strickland continued to shout: "Why are you silent? It seems that you also know that you can't defend against me at all."

At the beginning of the game, O'Neal easily snatched the ball from the white center Chris Dudley.

O'Neal is always very excited when facing big white guys. He likes to torture such big white targets.

So after the opening, O'Neal made a signature violent dunk directly in the Trail Blazers' interior.

He pushed Dudley away, then jumped on the spot and shot with one hand.

It is not difficult to tell from Dudley's painful expression that he was hit by O'Neal just now and had a lot of explosive power.

O'Neal was very positive today because he had a poor performance in the last game and he urgently needed a perfect game to make up for his previous mistakes.

And Roger also told the shark before the game: "You can take more shots today, don't worry about me."

When Drexler said those words, Roger decided to focus his energy on the defensive end today!

He wanted Drexler to get to know him better.

After O'Neal scored, Strickland attacked his teammate Dudley with almost vicious words: "I knew it, I knew you, a piece of crap, couldn't stop him at all. Apart from stepping on the ball to grab those simple rebounds that three-year-olds can do, do you have any other role?"

Then he looked at Roger again: "You can still rely on big guys when attacking, but what about defense? Die, bastard."

As soon as Strickland finished speaking, he saw Roger completely ignoring him and defending in front of Drexler.

Drexler was a little surprised. He admitted that his strength has declined compared to his peak period, but he is still the team's top scorer.

The Magic actually let this guy who is known to be strong on offense but weak on defense to defend themselves?

Without hesitation, Drexler decided to play singles!

He felt this was an opportunity to educate young people!

NBC commentator Bill Walton was also surprised: "Did Roger take the initiative to confront Clyde because of his previous remarks?"

In people's impression, it is unreasonable to use Roger to defend Drexler because Roger's defense is not good enough.

Yes, he can defend players of Maxwell's level, and he can steal the ball from Jordan.

But this does not mean that Roger has become an outside defender.

Why would he defend the opponent's top scorer?

Drexler dribbled to the left and immediately changed direction when he saw Roger following him.

He has always been a very versatile guard who is proficient in shooting, breaking through, holding the ball, and playing without the ball.

However, Drexler, who thought he could score easily, was blocked by Roger's quick lateral move.

But it didn't matter, Drexler felt that he had the upper hand in the confrontation. Even if he was blocked, he could squeeze past Roger.

He was wrong again. After the confrontation with Roger, Drexler was not directly stopped, but he was also unable to break through by force.

Drexler could only stop suddenly and then take a jump shot.

However, he failed to shake off Roger and was severely disturbed, and the basketball bounced off the rim.

Roger deliberately spread his hands and said, "You know what, Clyde? I always thought Jordan was just an arrogant person who boasted without thinking. But at least he was right about one thing. You are not in the same league as him, and you are even less in the same league as me."

Drexler was so embarrassed. He was facing Roger, who was recognized as a bad defender, but he was defended so badly.

In fact, Roger's defense is not as bad as everyone thinks. He has improved a lot compared to last season.

In contrast, Drexler is no longer as good as everyone imagined.

Starting from the 92 season, Drexler experienced a significant decline in both production and efficiency.

He's not as fast as before, and his explosiveness isn't as strong as before.

This makes it more difficult for him to escape the defense.

And his scoring skills are not yet at Jordan's level.

Therefore, he is no longer considered the league's top scorer.

The league's top scorer will not score 43 points with a shooting percentage of less than 19% for two consecutive seasons.

Therefore, as long as Roger devotes himself to defense, Drexler will never have an easy time.

The game continued, and this time O'Neal was double-teamed in the interior, but he still forced a layup under the pressure of two people.

The Trail Blazers' inside line was not strong enough. Although Clifford Robinson was a defensive power forward, he was a power forward after all. The Trail Blazers' center, Dudley, who was criticized by Strickland, looked thinner than Robinson.

O'Neal is like a fish in water in this kind of interior with insufficient confrontation.

The game continued, Drexler was not a fool, he knew it was not easy to play with Roger with the ball, so he changed to play without the ball. But Drexler was completely unable to get rid of Roger, even if he gained a little space by running back, Roger would immediately bite him again.

Is this the first time people discovered that Roger's defense seemed to be stronger than imagined?
All this is because Drexler's explosiveness has declined, while Roger's physical fitness is at its peak. Therefore, it is not difficult to bite Drexler.

In the end, the attack ended with Clifford Robinson missing a mid-range shot.

Drexler couldn't even touch the ball in this round!
"Clyde, I didn't ask my teammates to help defend you, so why can't you score? Didn't you say that I won so many games only because my teammates were better than you? Then why don't you score a goal over my head!" Roger yelled into Drexler's ear.

Drexler couldn't believe that he was actually defended by a kid who didn't make much achievements on the defensive end.

Bill Walton also found that Roger was unusually active on the defensive end today: "Roger has prevented Clyde from finding a chance to score for two consecutive rounds. It seems that he has a lot of opinions about Clyde's pre-match remarks."

After defending Drexler twice, Roger began to show his strength on the offensive end.

This time, O'Neal passed the ball to Roger during the double-team.

The person responsible for defending Roger was Buck Williams, a muscular beast who was selected to the All-Defensive Team four times, including two times as the All-Defensive Team.

Roger called Grant to set a screen for him, but ended up dribbling to the side without a screen, stopping suddenly, and scoring a jump shot.

Buck Williams' glory belongs to the past. Like Drexler, he is too old. He will be 35 in three months. In the NBA, you rarely see a 35-year-old perimeter defender who can maintain a top defensive level. Unless the player has a strong public opinion force that can make fans turn a blind eye to his ugly defensive behavior on the court, such as James and James Harden.

Buck Williams still has excellent defensive awareness and muscles, but his lateral speed has dropped too much. Facing Roger and Grant's fake pick-and-roll, he has no means of counterbalancing.

He can also defend wing players, but defending a guard like Roger is beyond Buck Williams' ability.

After Roger scored, he turned to look at Drexler and said, "How long are you going to hide behind Buck? I faced you at the beginning of the game, and you? Do you only dare to face me when you are interviewed? Come on, coward, come and defend me!"

Drexler still didn't say anything, but Strickland got excited: "Don't bully the old guy, idiot. Do you dare to defend me?"

However, what awaited him was being ignored once again.

Roger not only didn't respond, but he simply treated him as if he were air and didn't even look at him.

Strickland was furious, so in the next attack, as a point guard, he ignored all tactics and strategies and went after Harper alone!

Strickland did a few butterfly steps and actually rushed past Harper. Seeing him, Roger felt like he was looking at Kelly Irving in the 90s.

But he is not the real Kyrie Irving after all.

After breaking into the paint, Strickland's layup went over Grant's fingertips, but was slapped away by the Shark who took off from behind Grant.

O'Neal blocked the shot, and the Trail Blazers coach, P.J. Carlesimo, who was famous for being nearly strangled to death by his own players, went completely berserk: "Idiot, worse than an idiot! You had at least three chances to pass the ball just now, you complete idiot!"

But Strickland didn't care: "Shut up, hairy bastard, I know how to play basketball."

"You should have passed the ball to Clifford just now. He was open." Drexler also went up to argue with Strickland.

"Old man, you just took a shot and missed, but I didn't say anything. So, you have no right to point fingers at me. Like I said, if you hadn't had the shooting right, I could have scored 50 points!" Strickland continued to display his hedgehog characteristics.

It was wonderful, so wonderful that Roger and Shark wanted to buy a bucket of popcorn to watch their performance.

The Trail Blazers from the 90s to the early 00s seemed to be under some kind of curse, and the atmosphere in the locker room was never good.

Although they made it to the finals in 92, there were many conflicts within the team and they were divided into many factions. There was even a situation in the finals where Danny Ainge and Jerome Kearsey almost came to blows.

Then a troublemaker like Strickland joined the team.

Then came the infamous Portland Prison Team period. Although the Trail Blazers made it to the Western Conference Finals in 99 and 00, the atmosphere within the team was still not good. The incident in which the Roaring God threw a towel directly into Sabonis' face in front of the entire audience was just a signal, just like when you find out that your wife is wearing sexy clothes without telling you, she may have done something more outrageous outside.

They dared to be so unscrupulous in front of all the fans, which shows how bad the atmosphere of the Trail Blazers is in the locker room where people can't see.

This is the Portland Trail Blazers, whose locker room has been in chaos for more than a decade.

After a verbal battle in which neither could convince the other, Buck Williams kicked the ball out from the sideline. He was a pro-Drexler player, so he gave the ball to the Glider.

The Glider wanted to pass the ball to Clifford Robinson, the best sixth man in the 92-93 season and now the most stable point of the Trail Blazers.

But Horace Grant would never let Robinson get to his position comfortably. After being beaten point-to-point by Karl Malone in the last game, Grant has been feeling frustrated.

Strickland? Drexler really didn't want to pass the ball to that jerk who only knew how to mess around.

So, Drexler decided to take over the offense and challenge Roger again.

Clifford Robinson came up to set the screen, and Drexler used the screen to break through. But Horace Grant's switch was too fast, and he switched over the moment Drexler started. After blocking Drexler's breakthrough, Grant immediately returned to Robinson's side, and at this time Roger had bypassed the screen and crossed in front of Drexler again.

This is why the Magic need Horace Grant, who can protect both the Shaq who likes to squat and Roger whose defense is not yet fully developed.

In the original history, from 92 to 96, Horace Grant was selected to the All-Defensive Team, which is enough to show his ability.

Whether in the Bulls' first three consecutive games or in the Magic's run to the finals, Grant's role was underestimated.

After playing with him, Roger felt this even more clearly.

The Trail Blazers' pick-and-roll tactics failed to start, and Drexler was pressed by Roger.

Now he has to hold the ball with his back to the basket and protect the ball first.

But Roger still relied on his arm span advantage, suddenly reached out from behind Drexler and poked the basketball away!

"Roger stole the ball from Clyde. This is the third time in a row that he has defended the eight-time All-Star guard!" Bill Walton sighed. Drexler shouldn't have said that about Roger before the game.

He offended someone he couldn't afford to offend.

Originally, he could have lost more gracefully.

But now, Roger won't let him be decent.

The basketball rolled to the front court, and Roger immediately chased after it. Finally, he picked up the ball in the three-second zone of the other half.

But after picking up the basketball, Roger did not rush to make a layup.

Instead, he turned his head and stood there, looking at Drexler who was chasing back. After Drexler ran closer, Roger took two big steps and dunked to score!

After landing, Roger pointed at Drexler and responded to his pre-match provocation: "I overestimated you, Clyde! Even if you were teammates with Hakeem Olajuwon, you might not be able to beat me!"

Roger certainly didn't make him look decent.

The Glider, who was once compared to Michael Jordan, was now completely speechless.

Roger's three consecutive successful defenses have completely overturned Drexler's remarks.

He may not be able to reach the same level of defense as Pippen, but he is more than enough to deal with a glider whose wings are about to be broken.

Bill Walton shook his head: "Clyde did one thing wrong. He broke the rules. If you want to beat Roger's team, you must abide by one rule: Don't make the truth unhappy. I hope that all players in the league can learn this."

At this moment, Roger, who was returning to defense, happened to look at Strickland.

Strickland, who had been extremely arrogant since the beginning, immediately looked away and stood obediently beside Harper.

After seeing Drexler's miserable condition, he admitted that his voice might have been a little loud.

(End of this chapter)