Champions Creed

Chapter 85: Another public opinion crisis, the dynasty is collapsing

On the plane the next day, Roger handed an envelope to Derek McKay, who still had bruises on his eyes.

McKay opened it and saw a stack of bills inside, a total of $5000.

He looked at Roger in confusion, and Roger patted him on the shoulder: "I'll pay your fine."

"You don't have to do this, Roger. It's my job to teach that bastard a lesson."

"Take it Derek, you have to be paid for your job, thanks buddy."

At this time, Harper came up and said, "Yeah, Roger, it's just your job. You don't have to do it on the court. Of course, don't get itchy and hit us in the locker room and on the training ground."

Roger:? ? ?
Everyone on the plane burst into laughter. There was nothing they could do. The impact of Roger beating up Pippen and almost blinding Jordan was simply too huge.

Even now, reporters often ask Jordan: "Michael, what is the difference between titanium eyes and ordinary eyes?"

After making a joke, Harper said, "Your comments in the interview yesterday were really bold. Michael is probably at home now, venting his anger on Barkley's big ass. He can only bully Charles."

"What's so bold about that?" Grant, who was eating an airplane meal, interrupted. He only got 8 points and 8 rebounds in yesterday's game because he focused all his energy on defense. If it was the Bulls, he wouldn't have this meal today. "Roger is telling the truth. The Bulls can't beat us in a single game this season!"

"That's right, Michael Jordan is a thing of the past, and we can all benefit from the era of Roger!" Michael Cage laughed.

O'Neal put on his headphones and watched the scene in front of him silently. Since Roger came to Orlando, he was no longer the only focus.

He is at the team's community events, in commercials, on billboards, on the radio and on the airwaves.

The media likes him, his teammates like him, management likes him, and everyone revolves around him.

His jersey sales far exceed his own, and his sneaker sales are even better than his own.

He seems to be the big brother of this locker room and the darling of Orlando.

Wasn't O'Neal jealous? There were moments when he was quite jealous of Roger.

But as soon as O'Neal thought about the man who could beat up everyone with him and compete for the championship, he was no longer jealous.

For the Sharks now, victory is more valuable than anything else. Yesterday, Roger helped him defeat the Admiral, who he had never defeated before, didn't he?

He is one of his own.

After arriving in Orlando, reporters from countless media outlets were already waiting at the airport.

The words "there is no rival in the East" pushed Roger to the forefront again.

As far as the Eastern Conference is concerned, there are not many teams that can threaten the Magic at the moment, only the Bulls and the Knicks.

The Indiana Pacers were originally a problem, but after Derek McKay was poached last summer, the Pacers were seriously injured and their strength declined. It seems difficult for them to break out of the Eastern Conference at the moment.

So when Roger said this, he was basically targeting the Bulls and the Knicks, and he didn't take them seriously at all.

So as soon as he got off the plane, Roger was surrounded by reporters from all directions.

"Roger, what is the source of your confidence?"

Roger turned sideways to let the camera capture his teammates: "They are the source of my confidence."

"Pat Riley said that the regular season record is not everything, and he and the Knicks are ready to deal with the Magic in the playoffs. What do you think?"

"I'm going to stuff failure back into his dog's mouth again, and this time it won't even take seven games."

"You've been ahead of Michael in the All-Star voting this year. What do you think about this?"

"That's nothing," Roger said with a smile, "You know, some people in Chicago are buying my shoes now. So, there should be quite a few people in Chicago who voted for me."

"What do you think of the recent rumors that trading you is really one of the conditions for Michael Jordan's comeback?"

"That's something only Michael knows."

The emergence of the last question proves that Reebok's public opinion power, which is fragile compared with Nike, has finally begun to work.

All along, Klaus has been blamed for the Roger trade.

For this, he has received more than one death threat letter.

The media mocked him as the "General Manager of the Year," except he represented the Magic.

Where is Jordan?
He loves basketball, he loves games, he loves winning, he loves the fans in Chicago, and he wants to use the championship to comfort his Father in heaven.

His return was so positive, so pure, without any mixed feelings of self-interest.

He gets all the credit and still has no respect for Klaus who took it all.

But as Roger's performance got better and better, Reebok's public opinion power also grew stronger.

Rumors about Jordan's "conditional return" have spread around the world.

Although Jordan denied it again and again, more and more people began to believe that Jordan got rid of Roger for his own team status and personal grudges.

After all, there was indeed some unpleasantness between Jordan and Roger. If it weren't for Roger, people wouldn't have known that titanium alloy could be implanted into the eyes.

The better Roger played, the more doubts there were about Jordan.

The most common thing Jordan said after Roger was traded was: "I can make the Bulls win the championship."

If he really does that, then this deal won't matter. But at the moment, the Magic seem to be closer to the championship.

After the Magic defeated the Spurs and Roger scored 40+ in a single game for the second time this season, the voices questioning Jordan finally reached a climax.

The famous Michael Jordan actually ignored the team's chances of winning the championship in order to maintain his position in the team, forcing the team to trade away an important player who could bring victory.

This is undoubtedly an ugly act.

Such topics also arouse great interest among reporters.

That afternoon at the Beto Center, it was Jordan who was under siege.

"Michael, if the Bulls don't win the championship this year, how are you going to be held accountable for that trade?"

"Responsible?"

"Roger left because of you, didn't he?"

"Shit, rumors, I never interfered with the management's work. Jerry traded him only because the team didn't need a second scorer and because we needed a supplement at the four position."

"But there is nothing wrong with the double scorer combination of Roger and O'Neal. OK, Shaquille's scoring average has dropped a little because of this. But Michael, you are not the kind of person who would lose the championship for scoring data, right? You agreed to return and forced Krause to trade away Roger, who had a personal grudge against you, right? So now that the Magic team has defeated the Bulls, are you shooting yourself in the foot?"

Jordan was already impatient and he didn't want to say another word.

He glanced at the press officer, who immediately clapped his hands and said, "Gentlemen, I'm sorry, but today's locker room interview ends here."

"But the media open period has not ended yet," a reporter retorted.

"Michael and the other players still need physiotherapy, so let's go, it's over."

"You have no right to do that."

"security guard!"

After the reporters were cleared away, Jordan sat on the bench, staring at the big Bulls logo in the locker room.

This may be the season when he has no way out. If he loses this season, his honor, his image, and his business legend, all of these will collapse!

That’s right, in the original history, Jordan also lost in 95, although his fans always tend to ignore this point.

But they had an excuse for that defeat. That was not a complete version of Jordan, it was just a temporary comeback of Jordan.

And Jordan did live up to his expectations, winning three more championships from 96 to 98. Although each of these three championships was more difficult than the last, Jordan did not run away and persisted, shutting up everyone.

But in this history, the key is not whether Jordan will lose the championship. Competitive sports are all about winning and losing, and any professional player who loses a championship should not be despised. You can't deny Jordan's greatness before that by saying that he didn't win the championship with the Wizards.

The key point is that this time Jordan might be defeated by the person he himself sent away.

If Roger was replaced by him, the Bulls would not only fail to win the championship, but might not even make it to the finals, which would be a devastating blow to Jordan's divinity.

This is probably equivalent to the situation in 2011 when the Heat failed to win the championship. That summer, Wade forced management to trade James, but the 12 Heat didn't even make it to the finals.

You can imagine what a huge blow it would be to Wade's career if this really happened. He would be branded as "destroying the team" and "selfishly driving away teammates for the sake of status in the team and losing the championship."

And what if it was James' team that eliminated him? That would be even more embarrassing!

This is the problem Jordan is facing now.

This is his biggest public opinion crisis since the Atlantic City casino incident. If the Magic win the championship, his image will change from the great Michael to the selfish Michael.

The next day, the Bulls lost to the Utah Jazz.

The reason was that Karl Malone defended Webber to the point that he only had 11 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, and 4 turnovers in a single game.

In addition, Webber allowed Malone to easily score 32 points.

Webber's defense was always defeated in an instant, and Pippen didn't even have time to make up for it!

Jordan said bluntly at the press conference after the game: "Chris's defense made us run around! I'm curious why he always can't defend his own people!"

He said this at the press conference. Only God knows how he was "gentle and caring" towards Webber in the locker room.

Weber on the side was mentally broken. Life in Chicago was completely different from what he had imagined.

Michael Jordan never respected him, never.

If his free throw percentage is low, he is forced to practice free throws even after the game without being allowed to drink water.

If he performs poorly in an away game, he won't be allowed to eat the airplane meal the next day.

He was scolded by Jordan every day like a grandson and had no dignity as a top pick at all.

The most important thing is that when Jordan made these unreasonable demands, no one on the team dared to refute, even Phil Jackson pretended not to see it.

When O'Neal slapped Webber last season, at least someone came to stop him immediately.

But if the same thing happened to the Bulls, Webber felt that it was highly likely that no one would care.

With Jordan's careful training, Webber's free throw shooting percentage has reached 48.4% this season, 10 percentage points lower than Mutombo and 5 percentage points lower than O'Neal.

Webber became nervous as soon as he stepped onto the free throw line. If he had looked at Jordan again, he would have basically missed the two free throws.

Today is the 34th day that Webber began to miss O'Neal.

If God could give him a chance to go back and play with O'Neal, he would agree without hesitation.

But Weber did not complain to the outside world. He did not want to be a "leaker" like Grant.

If he leaks the information, his life with the Bulls will be even more difficult.

In Chicago, Michael Jordan was like a terrifying dictator, above everyone else.

Not everyone has the courage to resist him like Roger, and not everyone can resist him like Roger and still remain unscathed.

There was disunity within the team, Jordan was under great doubt, and the team's record was inferior to that of the Magic. The Bulls were in a very bad situation, and Jerry Krause knew very well that if he did not do something, the Bulls would be finished this season.

Michael Jordan was still very strong, and the Bulls' record seemed good, but he knew that the Bulls' team was not strong enough to beat the Magic or the Rockets.

He needs some changes, he needs to make some moves before the trade deadline.

The people with the highest trading value on his hands now are Pippen and Toni Kukoc. In fact, Krause has actually found a buyer.

The Seattle SuperSonics gave the Bulls another chance, and they were still willing to send Kemp to Chicago in exchange for Scott Pippen.

The SuperSonics have a lot of available power forwards, but if they want to win the championship, they need to improve on the power forward position.

Krause believes that this deal will make the team safer because the Bulls are in urgent need of toughness in the interior.

With just Kukoc and Webber, the team would have no chance of dealing with Ewing, Shaq, or even Hakeem Ole.

But when Michael Jordan learned about the deal, he called Krause and told him, "Stop that damn deal, you son of a bitch!"

Look, this is the Michael Jordan who always answered "I never interfere in team affairs" when asked about Roger's trade.

Krause could no longer bear it: "You can't win, you can't win! Don't you understand? We are likely to lose to the Magic in the playoffs. If this happens, it will be a great shame! Roger is right, they have no rivals in the East! I said at the beginning that Roger must not be traded to the Magic. He and Shaq will destroy the entire East. Are you satisfied now? Are you satisfied!?"

"Do you think you know how to win better than me?" After saying this, Jordan hung up the phone.

He is still so conceited, just as conceited as Jordan who said before, "Do you think Roger can let a team that is eliminated in the first round threaten my position?"

The next day, the whole world knew about a very strange thing.

The Bulls proposed a trade with the Supersonics, trading Pippen for Kemp, but soon closed the deal themselves.

Pippen looked very disappointed in front of the camera of the reporter: "I don't know what happened. I appear in trade rumors almost every other week. In fact, I'm fed up. Jerry wants to trade me if he thinks it will make the team better."

Phil Jackson hurriedly fled from the reporter: "We should focus on the game now, not other messy things. If you ask me if I knew about this deal in advance, the answer is no."

Only Michael Jordan faced the camera with confidence:
"I don't know the specific reason for closing the trade. I just know that we don't need a trade at all. The Chicago Bulls don't need a trade. We can achieve our goals without a trade, just like I said before the season. I said that what Roger couldn't do with the Bulls, I could do, and this sentence still holds true.

If I change the roster now, wouldn't that mean I have a guilty conscience? We're not going to change the roster, at least not this season. Look at Houston, no disrespect to Hakeem, but they didn't get any better after getting Clyde. Trading is not a way to get out of a problem.

As for the statement that there is no rival in the East, it is normal for young people to say that, but being able to say and being able to do are two different things.

In three days, they will meet their opponents. "

So three days later, the Chicago Bulls lost to the Orlando Magic for the third time this season at home.

Jordan has always liked to speak with actions, and he proved with his actions that the Magic really have no rivals in the East.

O'Neal only scored 18 points in this game, but Horace Grant once again turned into a red-light Tiga and scored 23 points.

The Bulls' best efforts to double-team the Shark did make O'Neal uncomfortable, but it also gave Grant too many mid-range shooting opportunities.

Neither Kukoc nor Webber can take care of both Shark and Grant at the same time, as their defensive range is not that large.

At the same time, fans are wondering, if Kemp was there, could Grant still score so many points?
Michael said there is no need for a deal? Then you win. Is it useful to just talk tough? Only pathetic men use only their mouths!

Grant's outstanding performance plus Roger's 24 points made Jordan's game-high 39 points in vain.

In this game, Jordan finally surpassed Roger in personal scoring, but he still lost.

The most important thing is that he had just said that he could still beat the Magic without the Bulls adjusting their lineup, but he turned around and was beaten by the Magic again.

I guess he himself didn't expect that this slap in the face would come so soon.

He is no longer the man who keeps his word.

In the past, Michael Jordan could deal with you if he said so, but now, his words are no longer effective.

Jordan has recently been caught in the whirlpool of "forcing the team to trade Roger due to personal grudges". Now he has lost to the Magic for the third time. His majesty is declining rapidly at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Roger, you are really putting his position at risk!

After the game, Roger was in a good mood. Although he didn't score a lot today, he was not the kind of player who valued scoring more than anything else. Roger admitted that he did like scoring more than assists and defense, but that was because scoring was the best way for him to help the team win, not that he only valued scoring.

When being interviewed by reporters, Roger deliberately pulled Grant to his side and said, "Hey man, you can have a double portion of airplane meal on the flight back tomorrow."

Grant cooperated very well: "Thank you, you are the best leader."

The collapse of the dynasty is still proceeding in an orderly manner.

At this time, Jordan had already felt the crisis of collapse, however, this huge project was far from over.

Is this what Michael said about not needing a trade? If we had Shawn Kemp tonight, Horace Grant would never have scored 23 points! Forget about the damn pride. Michael can never do what Roger did last year. It's impossible! No need for a trade is even more arrogant than saying there is no opponent in the East! - Chicago Tribune.

Michael got rid of Roger and prevented the team from trading for Kemp. He was walking himself into the abyss step by step. He thought he could handle the Magic on his own, but the Magic would tell Michael that he was dreaming with a 4-0 sweep in the regular season. Now it's 3-0, and we are only one game away from achieving this goal. - Orlando Sentinel

Michael really doesn't need to be traded, because it's useless to trade him. Roger said he would not let the Bulls win even one more game, and he was not kidding. Compared to Michael, Roger is the one who truly keeps his word. - Orlando Chronicle

Michael told us that he would show Roger what a winner is in a best-of-seven series. We believe Michael can do it, he always works miracles. - Chicago Sun-Times

This season's Eastern Conference All-Star starting lineup is Roger, Jordan, Grant Hill, Pippen and Shaq. Grant Hill has a heavy responsibility. If the Bulls and Magic players fight in the locker room, Grant Hill is the only hope to save the locker room. Well, please ignore the fact that there is no New York player in this All-Star starting list again! - The New York Times

Michael Jordan still became an All-Star starter, although he is no longer the All-Star vote leader. But this is still the only solace for him in this season when everything is not going well.

At least, he is still the most popular player.

one.

At this moment, Michael Jordan, who was angry, suddenly remembered something that happened many years ago, and then he looked at the roster of the Eastern Conference All-Stars team again.

Most of the people on this list were his friends, but Roger and Shark were alone.

Suddenly, Jordan had a way to assert his authority.

The Smiling Assassin did this to Jordan back then, and now, the dragon slayer has finally become the dragon.

(End of this chapter)