Champion Rules

Chapter 327-323: Get Him Some Evil Cultivation Skills! (Seeking Monthly Tickets!)
Gregg Popovich failed to put the Knicks in a crisis like Lynch had done with Manu Ginobili.

On the contrary, Kyrie Irving used this opportunity to eliminate all distractions and find his true place.

He is Lynch's right-hand man, now and in the future, without a doubt.

Lynch certainly got all the spotlight; all of New York seemed to be his kingdom, and everyone else was just a subject of that kingdom.

But that's how it should be.

Because Lynch possesses extraordinary abilities that far surpass those of others.

Although Lynch has only played 23 official games so far this season, Kyrie Irving has been amazed by his performance on several occasions.

Such a person deserves all the special recognition and treatment he receives, both in the media and within the team.

The day after the game, Kyrie Irving received a $3000 fine.

But Gregg Popovich was clearly still furious about the new number one draft pick's vulgar language:
"You know, in the 90s, many players would play four years, or at least three, in college before choosing to enter the draft."

This tacit understanding was broken in the late 90s and completely abandoned in the 21st century, even giving rise to many high school rookies like LeBron, Dwight, and Lynch.

I won't judge whether this is good or bad, but with rookies getting younger and younger, what they should learn most after entering the league is not tactics, smoking cigars, or recognizing all the luxury watch brands.

They should learn how to speak and live like mature adults.

Instead of acting like an unreasonable and disrespectful brat, spouting nonsense and saying stupid things in front of the media.

As expected of Gregg Popovich, and a true American white man in the Stars and Stripes.

His arrogant attitude is as innate as Kevin Durant's damn temperament.

He was the one who verbally attacked Kelly Irving first, but now he's standing up and accusing Kelly Irving of spouting nonsense.

It can be said that Gregg Popovich embodies the true American spirit.

After all, the United States, which once used slaves to pick cotton, would stand up and falsely accuse the old regime of using slaves to pick cotton. Gregg Popovich has perfectly inherited this magical tradition.

Kyrie Irving accepted the fine and apologized to fans for his comments.

But he did not apologize to Greg Popovich; in fact, his attitude was even tougher than before.
"In the NBA, I've never heard of a winner having to apologize to a loser. What am I supposed to say? Sorry I beat you and made you so angry?"
Only in an era when slavery was legal would Black people apologize without any justification.

His outspokenness remains astonishing, and he remains unruly.

All I can say is that Ou Shenxian has already shown exceptional talent in cultivation during his rookie season.

If he were in a fantasy world, with his chosen talent, he could easily join a major sect.

This marked a major breakthrough in the relationship between the Knicks and the Spurs since the 2007 NBA Finals.

Previously, both sides were only increasing the intensity of their actions; now, they are starting to increase the limits of their actions!

And Lin Qi happens to be someone who likes to push boundaries.

In this matter, he stood firmly on the side of his teammates without hesitation.

"This is a country with freedom of speech. It is Kerry's freedom to say whatever he wants, especially since he did not say anything wrong."

People do need to learn to respect others, but I never believe that we should respect someone who doesn't respect us.

An apology? He's already apologized to the fans; he shouldn't have used profanity in public. As for Greg, that profanity was directed at him; Kyrie doesn't need to apologize.

Lynch's support was important to Kyrie Irving; at least he knew he wasn't a lone outcast.

After their game against the Spurs, the Knicks continued their unstoppable winning streak.

In the rest of December, apart from being avenged by the Chicago Bulls, the Knicks did not lose any other games.

At the end of 2011, the Knicks had a record of 25 wins and 5 losses.

Furthermore, in 20 of those games, the Knicks won by double digits!

This is already a remarkable record, but it is generally believed that the Knicks will not be able to reach their 74-win record in 09 and their 73-win record in 10.

ESPN writer David McMenamin's commentary hit the nail on the head:

"They can't go on losing only three or four games in the next three and a half months; they can't go on to win 70 games. So stop hyping up their dominance. The most dominant team this season is the Oklahoma City Thunder. They're second in the West right now, but they'll be number one eventually."

No wonder he's LBJ's mouthpiece; now he can even use regular season rankings as collateral for loans.

David McMenamin's praise of the Thunder is unfounded and merely a sycophantic gesture.

But his comments about the Knicks were true.

The two things that best reflect a team's dominance are its record and its championship.

While this Knicks team consistently managed to beat opponents by double digits, their overall record was clearly inferior to that of 09 and 10.

Mike Malone had been searching for the reasons for the team's inconsistent performance, and after two months of the regular season, he finally found the real problem.

This team's rotation is so bad that their offense is terrible when Kyrie Irving isn't playing sixth man.

Milos Teodosic, playing at the intensity of the NBA, is a typical "system amplifier"—he can significantly improve his teammates' offensive efficiency, but he lacks sufficient offensive threat himself.

Ray Allen is now a pure shooter, and his ball-handling ability has significantly declined.

Jimmy Butler is like a primitive man who can't do anything on offense, and Shane Battier also lacks ball-handling threat.

Whether Amir Johnson's offense is good or not depends on which sport he plays on the court; he is a versatile player.

Last season, the Knicks' bench unit had a mediocre offense but a better defense.

Compared to 09 and 10, the difference in rotation time is even greater.

Of course, the Knicks are already very strong overall this season.

However, there is still room for improvement to make the win rate more stable.

Now, the key to this improvement lies with Chandler Parsons.

This second-round pick has demonstrated exceptional value since joining the Knicks; despite being 206 cm tall, he possesses impressive ball-handling skills.

He has excellent basketball IQ and solid defense, which is unlike that of a white player.

But since he's a second-round pick, it means he must have other major flaws.

Chandler Parsons's weakness is also very unlike that of a white player—his shooting ability is so explosive that it can be compared with that of talented shooters such as Dwight Howard, Shaquille O'Neal, Ben Wallace, and the future Ben Simmons.

His free throws have improved very slowly, and his mid-range shot is not consistent enough.

Even when playing in the G League, his free throw percentage was only 65%.

If Chandler Parsons makes a breakthrough improvement in his shooting, Mike Malone will not hesitate to include him in the main rotation, which would significantly boost the Knicks' bench firepower.

For the past two months, Mike Malone has been verbally abusing Chandler Parsons almost every day.

He was very dedicated to developing Chandler Parsons' jump shot, changing Parsons' shooting form, training with him, and even closely monitoring and studying his games in the G League.

Chandler Parsons himself works very hard—he doesn't see basketball as his life, but he feels that he hasn't earned enough money yet, and he hopes that one day he can also get a multi-million dollar annual contract.

He earns $85 a year, which is quite a lot, but in comparison, Lynch's new girlfriend, Sarah Sampaio, earns more for a single fashion show appearance.

$85 was not enough to satisfy his life goal of owning luxury cars, watches, and models.

Therefore, his intense hunger made him second only to the super ascetic Jimmy Butler in terms of effort during training.

But all of this was completely in vain.

Chandler Parsons' shooting is still so bad that he can't even make the most basic free throws.

Today, during practice, Mike Malone once again lost his temper as usual.

On the training field, the incessant clanging of metal was like a cacophony, driving Mike Malone crazy.

Then, his emotions completely erupted.

"Chandler! You fucking idiot!" Mike Malone roared, veins bulging on his forehead. "God! Even Shaquille O'Neal can occasionally get a 60% free throw percentage! Why?! Why can't you even do that?!"

He slapped his forehead hard, his voice filled with despair, "Why don't you try shooting with your feet!"

Since Mike Malone took over the team, the players have gotten used to the head coach yelling and shouting during training.

Chandler Parsons just scratched his head and said, "I'll keep practicing, boss."

"Stop! What are you practicing for?! Let me have some peace and quiet for half a minute!"

Mike Malone took a deep breath, trying to capture this moment of peace.

But then——

"Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!"

Another crisp, piercing clang of metal shattered the brief tranquility without warning, stabbing his nerves, which had only relaxed for a few seconds, once again.

Mike Malone looked up and saw Jimmy Butler on the other half of the court, single-mindedly slamming the basketball against the rim again and again, embodying the Mamba Mentality through his actions.

Mike Malone:
At this moment, what was accumulating in his chest was no longer anger, but a sense of powerlessness that came from the depths of his soul.

Sometimes he couldn't understand why such outstanding talents like them would emerge from a small talent show like the 2011 draft!

“Jimmy, stop for a second.” Mike Malone pressed his wildly throbbing temples.

"I do not."

"You can take a break."

"Coach, rest is for the dead!"

"Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!"

Mike Malone laughed in exasperation; who could understand the sense of redemption he felt at that moment?
With two players refusing to vote, the Knicks want to be the league's leader, even without Lynch's support.

In the following practice match, Jimmy Butler played with great effort as always, and Chandler Parsons once again showcased his enviable talent.

At 206 cm tall, he can dribble past Shane Battier and drive into the paint, and he is quite clever in choosing when to pass the ball and when to attack the basket.

This is precisely what pains Mike Malone the most. Whenever he hardens his heart to give up on this second-round pick, Chandler Parsons always manages to throw out a flash of brilliance, keeping you clinging to the hope that "the future is promising."

Chandler Parsons is like a young woman with a perfect appearance and figure. And she's also very willing to cater to you.

But whenever you try to do something to her, she becomes as parched as the Arizona desert. No matter what you try, you can't solve the problem.

You want to use it, but it's completely unusable. Giving up on it seems like a real waste.

At the end of the practice match, Theo used a beautiful long pass to find Chandler Parsons outside the three-point line.

Given his abysmal shooting ability, the defenders didn't even bother with a token attempt to contest the shot; he was completely left wide open.

Parsons calmly gathered his strength, stuck out his back, and shot. His shooting motion, despite several modifications, was still ugly and seemed disconnected in the air, looking very awkward.

However, the basketball went through the net cleanly.

But nobody cared about that three-pointer. Even if Shaquille O'Neal took a wide-open three-pointer, he would still make it.

Lynch looked thoughtfully at Chandler Parsons, who had scored the goal.

At the end of training today, he found Mike Malone.

After explaining his purpose, Mike Malone was somewhat surprised: "You want to see that kid's three-point shooting percentage in the Summer League, preseason, and G League?"

“Yes,” Lynch nodded. “I felt like he was making threes all the time during scrimmages. But you know, feelings aren’t accurate; I need solid data.”

“His three-point shooting percentage is quite good,” Mike Malone, who has been closely monitoring Chandler Parsons, didn’t need to adjust the data; the data was already in his head. “But the problem is that he shoots too few three-pointers, which means that those percentages are completely irrelevant.”

After saying that, Mike Malone flipped the computer screen over and pointed it at Lynch.

The above are Chandler Parsons' stats. His three-point shooting percentage is as high as 50% across the Summer League, preseason, and G League.

But he only took 8 shots and hit 4 of them.

This really doesn't prove anything.

But Lynch still offered a suggestion: "Why not start by practicing his free throws and other fundamentals, and then go straight to practicing his three-pointers? What if he can actually shoot threes?"

This is a counterintuitive, even somewhat illogical, conjecture.

Because generally speaking, a player with excellent shooting ability is unlikely to have poor free throw shooting.

Free throws are fundamental to shooting, and fundamental shooting skills are usually interconnected.

There are players like DeMar DeRozan and Tony Parker in this world who are incredibly accurate from mid-range but less so from three-point range.

There are almost no players who can shoot accurate three-pointers but inaccurate free throws.

Yes, almost.

In other words, there are still some exceptions.

As far as Lynch knows, the future Luka Doncic is this kind of oddball.

He possesses unparalleled shooting ability, and can even throw many incredible shots that ignore interference.

However, his free throw shooting level throughout his career was only on par with LeBron James, and slightly better than Tim Duncan.

Tracy McGrady is another example; even at his peak, the winner of the "Most Beautiful Calves" award only managed to achieve a free throw percentage of 75% in a very few seasons.

It's hard to explain why; there could be many reasons.

Psychological factors, upper body strength, and the way force is applied can all contribute to this situation.

Who knows? But perhaps Chandler Parsons is the next unconventional, counterintuitive figure.

Of course, Chandler Parsons' free throws are even more amazing than those of the aforementioned geniuses.

A guy with a 55% free throw percentage, you're telling me he can shoot threes? He probably doesn't even believe it himself.

But in Lynch's memory, Chandler Parsons in the other timeline clearly had the ability to shoot.

Mike Malone didn't refute Lynch; he stared at the data, recalling Chandler Parsons' training and performance over the years.

After a few seconds of silence, he nodded: "You're right, maybe we really should try a different approach."

He still couldn't bear to part with Chandler Parsons; he ultimately didn't want to give up on this exceptionally talented second-round pick.

If Chandler Parsons has a three-point shot and can create space, then add to that his all-around offensive skills and excellent defense.

The Knicks' fighting power will be greatly enhanced during rotation time.

If the conventional free throw training hasn't yielded any results, then why not—get him into some unorthodox training!
After Lynch and Mike Malone finished their conversation, most of the players in the training facility had already gone back to the locker room to change and prepare to leave.

Only Jimmy Butler and Chandler Parsons are still relentlessly tormenting the rim.

James Dolan will probably be surprised when he receives the financial statements for this season, wondering why the maintenance cost of the basketball hoops at the Greenburg training center has increased tenfold this year.
Mike Malone and Lynch walked toward Chandler Parsons at the same time. He caught a glimpse of the two men walking toward him with serious expressions, and his heart tightened.

Spicy balls!

I hope I don't get laid off!

The Knicks' current 12-man roster is already full. If the Knicks want to add new players, they must cut some players who are no longer needed.

Chandler Parsons almost cried.

Championship, honors, heroic moments.
None of this matters!

But supermodels will never be able to do this in their lifetime!

As a second-round pick, it's quite normal to be cut mid-season.

The NBA is such a cruel place that most players' NBA careers only last an average of 4 years.

In other words, many first-round draft picks will be eliminated after fulfilling their rookie contracts.

Not to mention he's a second-round pick.

Mike Malone, unusually calm, gently patted Chandler Parsons on the shoulder.

"Listen, Chandler, I know this is a little hard to accept, but..."

Chandler Parsons' eyes immediately welled up with tears.

"I understand, coach, I can comprehend it."

Lynch was already holding back a laugh, while Mike Malone remained serious: "Good that you understand. So, starting from the next G League game and continuing into the scrimmages, I need you to take a lot of three-pointers."

"Huh!? A three-pointer? Me?"

"Yeah, forget about that damn free throw. From today onwards, I want you to focus your training on three-pointers. If you can maintain a 33% three-point shooting percentage while averaging at least three three-point attempts per game, I'll put you in the main rotation."

At this moment, Lin Qi also walked up and punched him in the chest with a moderate amount of force.

"Many people say it's impossible for us to reach 70 wins this season, but I think that's nonsense. We'll definitely achieve an even higher winning percentage in the next three and a half months. I think you can be a key factor in that."

Keep up the good work, I believe you have much more potential than this.

After Lin Qi finished speaking, he thought of another way to motivate him even more.

"By the way, I'll be hosting a party during All-Star Weekend 2012."

My girlfriend Sasha, she has many single girlfriends who also come.

If you make it to the All-Star Rookie Challenge, I'd love to bring you to the party.

Making more friends is never a bad thing, right?

Chandler Parsons' eyes lit up instantly; in that instant, the fatigue from training and the worry of being cut vanished.
His only focus was on progress and his desire to become a supermodel.

He wants to progress so much!

After saying that, Lynch glanced at Jimmy Butler on the other side.

"Hey Jimmy, how are you feeling?"

“Excellent, Lynch.” The reply was brief and forceful.

Well, any extra encouragement for that guy would be superfluous.

He will elevate himself to a whole new level.

Lynch firmly believed that Jimmy Butler and Chandler Parsons' performances would gradually improve in 2012, and the Knicks' performance during rotation time would also get better and better.

70 wins? Why can't you do that?
The following day, before the game against the Atlanta Hawks, a reporter asked Lynch about the 70-win season again.

With a current record of 25 wins and 5 losses, will the team continue to pursue 70 wins? Will this put pressure on you?

Lin Qi tilted his head back and took a gulp of water, his Adam's apple bobbing as he swallowed.

"I only care about the championship, that will always be our ultimate goal, but—"

Lin Qi stared at the reporter who asked the question; he had no intention of using such a clichéd way to evade the issue.

Do you think eating, sleeping, and drinking water would be a form of stress for me?

That night, even with Joe Johnson and Josh Smith combining for 46 points, the Knicks still won their first game of the new year.

Their record stands at 26 wins and 5 losses.

Meanwhile, in the same game against the Texas Legends, Chandler Parsons made 2 of 5 three-pointers, scoring 18 points, grabbing 8 rebounds, dishing out 4 assists, and making 2 steals.

His three-point attempts were decisive; he even made a step-back three-pointer while holding the ball.

And when he has a three-point threat, his breakthroughs become much easier.

The Knicks scout immediately sent a text message to Mike Malone.

"He seems really suited to taking crooked paths."
-
Wait, Lynch means he wants to reach 70 wins for the third time in his career? My God, which player in NBA history has ever made 70 wins a regular goal? That's why Lynch is the MOAT! — Charles Barkley marvels at Lynch's determination.

Sources familiar with the matter revealed that, due to pressure from Lynch's mother, Wu Lan, to get married, New York City was flooded with celebrities and models, even without any fashion shows. And tonight, they were all seated in the front row of Madison Square Garden. —The New York Times

We won't waste time on meaningless win records; our goal is the championship. — LeBron James on Lynch's 70-win goal.

"I'm very happy that we achieved the best win record in Thunder history, that's very meaningful." — A netizen dug up a quote from LBJ at the end of last season's regular season, another classic example of a clash between his left and right brains.

"LeBron, this is no excuse for being second in the West all season!" — Stephen A. Smith responds to LBJ.

If Lynch really does have a third 70-win season and win a championship, guys, I think even the Charlotte Bobcats will have to retire his number 20 jersey. Believe me, even Michael Jordan wouldn't object. —David Stein, ESPN columnist

When did failing to achieve something become an honor? — MJ talks about Lynch's third career 70 wins.

(Thanks to TangEr and other great contributors for their donations)

(End of this chapter)