NBA: Goat is actually me

Chapter 119 No One Wants to Meet Us Next Season

In the sixth game between the Bulls and the Pistons, countless Chicago fans gathered in front of the Chicago Stadium.

Tonight's game is a life-and-death battle for the teams, and tickets are hard to come by. Fans who can't buy tickets spontaneously gathered in the square. This is their way of supporting the home team.

After reaching the Eastern Conference Finals, the Bulls' influence and status in the hearts of fans are rising.

Jordan walked into the home team's locker room with red eyes, looking like he hadn't slept all night. Meng Jin didn't care. He thought Jordan had been gambling all night again. Jordan was a weirdo, and most of the time, partying all night would not affect his condition.

What Meng Jin didn't know was that Jordan had been suffering from insomnia for two days. During these two days, Jordan read all the articles in the media that crazily criticized him.

The media simply criticized Jordan from two aspects. The first aspect was that without Meng Jin, Jordan could not win.

Secondly, Jordan is a selfish person who only cares about his own statistics, regardless of whether it can make his teammates better.

These are all old-fashioned views, but Jordan still sulked for two days. It can only be said that young Jordan is still too young and has little experience, so he is easily influenced by outside comments.

Oakley walked up to Meng Jin and Jordan.

“Michael, Meng, if anyone causes trouble for you tonight, don’t do anything. Leave it to me. I will take care of it.”

In the past, Oakley was just Jordan's exclusive bodyguard, but today before the game he took the initiative to request protection as well as Meng Jin. After G5, Oakley saw Meng Jin's irreplaceable position in the Bulls.

If the Bulls want to win, both of them are indispensable.

"Charles, take it easy, you are also important to the team." Meng Jin patted Oakley on the shoulder.

During the period when Dave Korsin was absent, Oakley had a heavier burden on his shoulders. In addition to grabbing rebounds, he also had to protect the rim. Many people outside also commented that Oakley played a mess in this series. Except for rebounds, other statistics were terrible. Everyone in the Bulls knew that this evaluation was unfair. Oakley sacrificed too much for the team in this series.

Jordan nodded absentmindedly and said nothing.

Meng Jin didn't notice that Jordan was not in good condition and thought he was gathering strength for the next game. Jordan often did this, saying nothing before the game started and then thinking about all the things that could make him angry.

Meng Jin will be the starting player tonight after being released from suspension.

Bill Laimbeer of the Pistons has also been released from suspension, but he cannot play.

Meng Jin's deliberate punch caused him a concussion and a fractured jaw. Bill Laimbeer is still in the hospital.

"Nurse, help me raise this damn bed higher!"

Bill Laimbeer's neck and jaw were fixed, and he could only lie in bed in one position, making it very inconvenient for him to move.

"Don't worry, the Pistons will definitely win." The nurse comforted him with a smile.

"I'm not worried. Dennis (Rodman) will take my place. He knows all my tricks."

What Bill Laimbeer said is true, Rodman has indeed learned his essence. Tonight, Chuck Daly arranged Rodney to defend Meng Jin. After a season of exploration, Chuck Daly came to the conclusion that using big men to defend Meng Jin is just giving away points. Meng Jin will play with them like toys and then break through their defense.

It would be best to send a player about 2 meters tall to defend. This type of player will not be much shorter than Meng Jin and can keep up with Meng Jin in terms of mobility.

In the first round of the game, Rodman changed Meng Jin's mentality. The Pistons attacked first, Dantley missed the mid-range shot, and Meng Jin and Rodman jumped at the same time.

If we compare the judgment of the landing position of rebounds, Meng Jin is far inferior to Rodman, but in this kind of 50-50 ball, Rodman cannot compete with Meng Jin.

Rodman's jumping speed is as fast as his bounce. In the air, Rodman knew he couldn't grab the ball, and his jumping height was much lower than Meng Jin's.

Rodman was very smart, he wanted to grab the second spot.

What? Meng Jin already has the ball and there is no second place to land?

Then create your own.

As soon as Meng Jin landed, Rodman slapped the basketball away. When Meng Jin raised his hand to grab the basketball in the air, Rodman was quick-witted and directly interlocked his index finger with Meng Jin, while his other hand was around Meng Jin's waist, which was very abstract.

"Go away!"

Rodman ignored Meng Jin's voice and continued to hug him and retreat. Even Bill Laimbeer who was far away in Detroit could hear Rodman's little plan. He wanted Meng Jin to do some irrational things and then get a technical foul or a flagrant foul.

Meng Jin was not fooled. He put his head on Rodman's forehead and said slowly: "Do you want to be the second Bill Laimbeer? YES-OR-NO?"

Rodman let go immediately: "NO, I just want to play well."

Rodman wanted to mess with Meng Jin's mentality, not his own life. He wanted to provoke Meng Jin, but not too much. Once he sensed danger, he would retreat immediately without hesitation. This is Rodman's basketball way!
After being honest for a few rounds, Rodman came again. During a chase and defense, he pretended to be tripped by Oakley, then threw himself on Meng Jin's calf and knocked him down directly.

"Saury, seriously, Saury, I just tripped and lost my balance."

Rodman's tactics are similar to Bill Laimbeer's, but his attitude is different. He will apologize from time to time, making you waver between stabbing him or not.

Fortunately, Meng Jin was in a stable state of mind today and was not affected by Rodman. At the end of the first quarter, he scored 13 points and 2 rebounds.

Rodman's defensive strategy, which he had racked his brains to come up with, failed, and his small moves did not cut off Meng Jin's rhythm.

Michael Jordan, another core player of the Bulls, scored 3 points, 4 assists and 1 steal in the first half. No one noticed anything unusual. Everyone just thought that Jordan focused on organization in this game.

It wasn't until the end of the first half, when everyone saw the statistics showing that Jordan only took 4 shots in the first half, that they realized that Michael was sulking!

He is angry with the media!
Michael Jordan actually made such a childish move in such a crucial game.

After three quarters, he had taken 6 shots. Michael Jordan's idea was, OK, media, you say I don't pass the ball and only shoot, so I won't shoot in this game, and let's see what the result is!

Meng Jin finally understood why Kobe in his previous life would not take action when he got angry. It turned out that it was because he had a good role model.

Klaus was so angry that he smashed the TV, and this time he really smashed it.

Jordan realized in the final quarter that his actions were too extreme, but it was too late to correct them as the Pistons had already firmly controlled the tempo of the game.

The Pistons played like Detroit's blue-collar workers, tough, reliable, and rigorous. They used a slow offensive rhythm to slowly wear down the Chicago Bulls.

In this game, Meng Jin took 38 shots. Jordan didn't shoot, so he had to take care of the shots.

孟进全场砍下41分9篮板1助攻1抢断1盖帽。

He tried his best tonight. He was the first to rush into the fast break and the first to run back to defense. He also blew up the bunker with explosives countless times in the positional battle.

In the second half, the Pistons used Rodman, Joe Dumars and Mahorn to take turns defending him, but the results were not good.

Since one person could not limit Meng Jin, the Pistons used a pseudo zone defense. During this period, the NBA did not allow zone defense, but it was not a problem for a coach of Chuck Daly's level. He let the players on both wings run continuously, and as long as they did not stand still, the referee would generally not whistle.

Meng Jin made 38 of 16 shots tonight, with a hit rate of 42%, which is not high. The Pistons noticed Jordan's abnormality and paid special attention to Meng Jin. Meng Jin made a lot of unreasonable forced shots and his hit rate dropped.

The further the game went, the more Meng Jin felt the terror of this Pistons team. They were like a mechanical army. They would make mistakes but would correct them immediately. All the people were controlled by one brain: Chuck Daly.

In the end, the Pistons won Game 106 93-6, and Meng Jin's first playoff journey came to an end.

After winning the game, the Pistons celebrated wildly in the Chicago Arena.

The home fans could not hide their disappointment in their eyes, but they still gave applause. This applause was not for the damn Detroit people, but for the Bulls players who had fought hard for a whole season.

For this series, the Bulls are the losers, but for the entire season, fans think the Bulls have done a great job. At the beginning of the season, no one dared to think that they could make it to the Eastern Conference Finals.

Rick Mahorn turned on the mocking mode during the interview: "Does Michael think he can dominate the game with the regular season MVP, best defensive player, scoring champion and other titles? Everyone is praising him and saying how good he is, but in fact he is still far from it. He is just a kid spoiled by the media!"

"Meng, he is a complete rookie. We can restrict him with layers of defense. If we don't let him charge, he will be nothing!"

After the game, the Bulls locker room was dead silent.

Facing the interview of the reporter, Meng Jin said something meaningful: "The secret of basketball lies beyond basketball, in the adjustment of mentality and the trust between teammates. I can accept failure and fall, which are the necessary process to win the championship. I am willing to go through it all with my brothers, but I cannot accept falling without fighting, let alone raising the white flag. I want to win and keep winning. I have not thought about what honors we will get. I just don't want to disappoint the fans who support us."

Meng Jin choked up as he finished speaking and added: "I will practice more during this offseason. No one wants to meet us next season."

Meng Jin's words moved Jordan. After the game, Jordan found Meng Jin in the parking lot. Jordan admitted that his selfishness and childishness ruined the game tonight and ruined his teammates' efforts for a season. When he got to the emotional part, Jordan hugged Meng Jin and cried.

At this moment, all of Jordan's emotions collapsed like a dam bursting, including the frustration of losing, the guilt towards his teammates, and the feeling of powerlessness of not being understood by the outside world.

Jordan cried for about 10 minutes before they parted ways.

Meng Jin never mentioned this matter to anyone, never told people around him, and never revealed it to the media, even though many things happened between him and Jordan afterwards.

This matter concerns a man's dignity. Meng Jin treated it as a secret between the two men. No matter what happens to the two of them in the future, at least Jordan showed his true feelings to him at this moment.

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(End of this chapter)