Chapter 445 Chapter 444: FO! FO! FO! FO! (Seeking monthly ticket!)

An All-Star Weekend with the theme of farewell added a touch of warmth to this fiercely competitive season.

Roger was very happy that he had such a pleasant weekend. Who doesn’t want to be the most watched focus during the All-Star Weekend?

Most of his opponents were wishing him well, and his former teammates reminisced about the good old days with him.

Even the 50-year-old Madonna invited Roger to her room at night to discuss business cooperation alone.

Madonna’s desire to kill Roger was greatly underestimated. She had been eyeing him since he was 18, and she hadn’t looked away until he was 32. She had always been curious about the depth of his strength that made Scott Pippen lose face.

Roger is a nostalgic person, but he really has no sentimentality towards old cars. No matter how well you maintain it, the leather interior of an old car has become wrinkled, and it has too many kilometers and has been used by too many people, so he always feels uncomfortable. Unless he drives an old car from new to old, Roger will not easily try it.

So, Madonna, like most players in the league, lost the final chance to kill Roger.

It was undoubtedly a perfect weekend, and if Roger was an old guy who had lost his competitiveness, he would probably be satisfied.

The entire league expressed respect for him. For most veterans who are about to retire, this is probably the best ending. It is perfect enough for anyone to have such an ending.

But these are not what Roger pursues. His ultimate goal? Just as he said in the press conference, he wants to leave with MVP, 70 wins and the 12th championship.

It was an arrogant goal, but Roger was getting closer and closer to achieving it.

After the All-Star Weekend, Roger returned to the Bay Area and immediately got back into his battle.

Other teams also continue to work towards the goal of defeating Roger.

The New York Knicks and Chicago Bulls, the San Antonio Spurs and Memphis Grizzlies made a last-minute deal that was praised by all media before the trade deadline.

The Knicks were able to do so. They traded first-year rookie Wilson Chandler, Steve Blake and Malik Rose to the Chicago Bulls for Kirk Hinrich and 95 No. pick Joe Smith.

This is a win-win deal, and both parties have achieved their goals.

For the Chicago Bulls, their goal was to rebuild, but it turned out that the combination of Kirk Hinrich, Ben Gordon and Luol Deng could not make the team great. So, they sold Kirk Hinrich, who had just entered his fifth year of career but whose performance had begun to decline.

Last season, the Bulls captain played the performance of a top point guard in the league, averaging 16.6 points, 3.4 rebounds, 6.3 assists and 1.2 steals per game, and was selected to the All-Defensive Second Team. This was a perfect contract year, which earned Hinrich a 5-year, $4900 million contract.

But this season, due to injuries and mentality, his performance has plummeted.

But the Knicks are not looking for another star player. No matter how much Kirk Hinrich declines, he is still a tall point guard who can control the court, defend, shoot three-pointers, and at 193 cm tall, can defend three positions on the outside.

This is exactly the role the New York Knicks need.

In fact, the Knicks had approached Hinrich as early as the offseason in the summer of 2007. But Hinrich’s performance last season was so outstanding that the Bulls never relented.

After a decline in performance this season, the Bulls finally accepted the proposal before the trade deadline.

Of course, the Bulls are not stupid, they know the trade value of Hinrich, so they took the opportunity to take Joe Smith’s junk contract. In this way, the Bulls can relieve some salary pressure and make room for the 2008 draft favorite, Chicago local star point guard Derrick Rose.

What James Dolan feared least was a junk contract, so the deal was a success.
New York fans have every reason to cheer. After Kirk Hinrich joined the team, the Knicks’ starting lineup has basically no shortcomings. This originally old-fashioned and outdated team has become a team that has absorbed all the advantages of traditional and modern basketball. They have three-pointers, defense, height, and old-fashioned toughness. It’s like ethnic minority girls wearing black silk in their traditional clothes, perfectly combining tradition and modernity.

The Knicks have already defeated the Warriors once and their lineup has been further strengthened. They seem to be ready to break the “New York Curse”.

Spike Lee’s outrageous statement that “New York professional sports teams will never win the championship unless Roger retires” seems to be being pushed to the brink of bankruptcy.

The San Antonio Spurs replicated the Lakers’ robbery-style trade with the Grizzlies in the original timeline.

They traded the aging but expired contract of Michael Finley, Argentine center Fabricio Oberto, Kurt Thomas, the 2008 first-round draft pick, the 2010 first-round draft pick and most importantly, the signing rights of Marc Gasol to the Grizzlies in exchange for Pau Gasol and the 2010 second-round draft pick.

In this timeline, because the Lakers’ team building strategy was completely different from the original, Marc Gasol was picked up by the Spurs.

Interestingly, Popovich, who originally cursed the Lakers for robbery in the timeline, gave a completely different evaluation of the deal after he also completed the robbery: “This is a fair trade allowed by the league rules. I don’t think there is any problem. We have also paid a lot.”

Human double standards are more eternal than the life of the sun.

This is one of the few big deals in the history of the Spurs. As a small team whose owner is unwilling to spend too much money, the important signings in the history of the Spurs were basically through the draft.

Admiral, Duncan, Parker, Ginobili, Leonard. These Spurs’ soul players were basically obtained through the draft. The Spurs’ trades and signings are generally only used to strengthen role players.

This is the first time that the Spurs have traded for a star player in his prime.

Why did the boss suddenly show kindness? Popovich told the tractor king: “Tim really wants to beat Roger once. We can’t just sit there and wait for death. We have to seize the scepter and open the door to the next era of greatness!”

So the deal happened.

This is an exciting combination for the fans of the Holy City. At the turn of the century, the twin towers of the Admiral and Duncan created the glory of the Silver and Black Army.

Now, they hope that the twin towers can help the Spurs win the championship again.

Pau Gasol plays very smartly, and he will most likely be able to make a seamless transition with the Spurs. The final outcome of the Spurs this season is worth looking forward to.

The respective deals between the Knicks and the Spurs became the last major deals before the trade deadline, which also means that the lineups of each team this season have been completely finalized and will not change.

All teams will face Roger’s final conquest with their current lineups.

As it turns out, most teams are still vulnerable to the Warriors.

After the All-Stars, the Warriors continued their winning streak. Unlike before, most of the time when Roger went to away games, he would be cheered by the fans.

Although Roger had no intention of doing so, he inevitably turned the regular season into a retirement tour.

In Atlanta, there was a video dedicated to him.

In Indianapolis, Pacers coach Jim O’Brien called a timeout with 14 seconds left in the game to give fans time to cheer for Roger. During this time, Roger also hugged Reggie Miller, who came to the scene to commentate.

Reggie Miller was one of Roger’s favorite opponents. His last memory of this guy was in the 03-04 season, when the 38-year-old Reggie Miller was still struggling against Roger. When the two sides met for the first time that season, Reggie Miller fought until his lower eyelid was broken but he still didn’t give up. In the end, he still lost. At the end of the game, blood had seeped out of the gauze on his lower eyelid, like blood-red tears.

But the 38-year-old did not get discouraged. He proudly told Roger: “You are laughing, our season has just begun.”

Roger looked at the guy in a suit in front of him and found it hard to connect him with the man who was willing to fight even with “blood and tears”.

But his words reminded Roger that Reggie Miller had not changed: “I’m sorry I rejected you before, but that’s not against you. Whenever, no matter who wants me to go to him, I will say screw him.”

“I’ve never been mad at this, Reggie. The world needs some players like you. If everyone is like LeBron, the league is doomed.”

“So I’m going to support you, I want you to beat the Lakers. Get rid of LeBron, if a guy like him succeeds, basketball will never be the same.”

“Congratulations, Reggie. This time, you chose ‘Truth’.”

When Roger visited Charlotte, he didn’t expect that Bobcats owner Michael Jordan would take the initiative to shake his hand after the game.

If Roger had to choose the strongest opponent in his career, it would undoubtedly be Michael Jordan.

The war between them was the most brilliant and splendid chapter in the NBA in the 90s.

When they were still competing, they could be described as incompatible. They were simply enemies of each other.

But tonight, Michael Jordan shook Roger’s hand calmly: “Glad to see you, a bastard, become an old man.”

“I’m also glad to see that you’ve finally become as fat as Charles Barkley,” Roger retorted.

“Oh, I really don’t understand why so many fans like you.”

“Maybe it’s because I have 9 more championships than you.”

“It’s eight, idiot.”

“No no no Michael, in four months it will be nine.”

The conversation between the two was still as blunt as it was back then.

Michael Jordan dreamed of seeing Roger go through what he had gone through one day, and go from being the king of the world to being a complete loser.

But now MJ has realized that that is simply impossible.

Michael Jordan stared at Roger with his brown eyes and yellow whites, as if trying to find some common topic between the two of them.

What do they have in common: a restless heart, an outrageous courage, and an insatiable love of winning?

These commonalities are not concrete enough to serve as topics for conversation.

Soon, Jordan found a common ground to talk about: “Get rid of LeBron and get the ending you deserve.”

Roger was a little surprised. Why did everyone expect him to kill No. 23?
His actions angered the media and fans, but Roger really didn’t know that these old guys hated him so much.

But think about it, LBJ’s behavior of losing his competitive spirit at such a young age is completely contrary to the character of the older generation of players. They can’t understand LBJ’s choice, just like the 80s can’t understand why the 90s don’t want to get married and have children.

What’s more, there is a personal grudge between Jordan and James.

In fact, Roger and Jordan’s relationship was able to ease thanks to James.

It was he who made Jordan realize that an opponent who confronts you head-on is always more worthy of respect than one who plays tricks behind your back.

Roger’s retirement tour continues, and in most places he receives applause and blessings from fans.

In fact, Los Angeles and San Antonio were the only two places where Roger could not get applause.

In mid-March, when the Spurs beat the Warriors after acquiring Gasol, Tim Duncan told Roger in his deep voice: “Now is the future, and we won’t screw it up again.”

This was Duncan’s response to Roger’s words to Duncan, “The future is yours.” In this timeline, this has become a curse for Duncan.

Duncan’s confidence is not unfounded, he is not the kind of arrogant person. After all, his most ruthless words are just “We won’t screw up again.”

The reason why he is confident is that he and Gasol have a good understanding of each other, their styles do not conflict, and they make winning easy.

All of this became Duncan’s strength, the strength to defeat Roger.

In early April, the Lakers defeated the Warriors for the second time this season.

In this game, Brandon Roy was once again locked down by Kobe, and he shot 14 of 5 shots. When Kobe said he was going to win DPOY and lock down Roy, Roy said coolly, “See you in Los Angeles.” As a result, Roy’s performance was not satisfactory in both away games in Los Angeles.

Kobe just slapped him in the face.

This is normal. After all, Kobe, who is serious about defense, is one of the best perimeter defenders in the league.

What’s more, Roy is just a sophomore rookie.

But Roy doesn’t think the time he entered the league can be used as an excuse for losing. He doesn’t know why he seems to be unable to play in front of Kobe.

Tonight, Roy’s role seemed to have been swapped with James in the opening game.

In the opening game, James performed poorly, while Roy played extremely well, proving that he is a better helper than James.

But tonight, when Roy was lost, James scored 25 points, 6 assists and 8 rebounds, playing very well.

This outcome made Roy even more unwilling, he believed that Roger was undoubtedly better than Kobe. So there was only one reason why the Warriors lost, that is, he was far inferior to LBJ.

This idea was hard for him to accept. After losing the game this time, Roy stayed in the locker room for a long time.

Roger asked the others to leave on the bus first, and he stayed to accompany Roy.

In fact, he wanted to supervise the idiot and stop him from practicing shooting.

The playoffs are coming soon, and Roger doesn’t want anyone to miss the game due to injury.

It was not until one o’clock in the morning that Brandon Roy finally wanted to leave.

It was raining in Los Angeles in the early morning. When the car arrived at the hotel, Roger handed him an umbrella and said, “Go back and have a good rest. The playoffs are where a player’s position is determined.”

Roy looked at the umbrella in his hand and the heavy rain outside the car window, and recalled the time when he and Roger went to Shanghai for a business event last summer.

That day, it was also Roger who helped him block the rain.

But after this season, Roger will no longer be able to protect him from the wind and rain.

Brandon Roy returned the umbrella to Roger: “No need, it’s only a few steps away.”

After saying that, he opened the car door and ran into the hotel lobby in the rain. He was so fast that the hotel waiter didn’t have time to take out an umbrella to greet him.

Roger glanced at Joe Abunassar, who was driving, speechlessly: “Old Joe, did Brandon think he looked cool running in the rain just now?”

Joe Abunassar couldn’t help laughing: “Young people are like this. Who didn’t have some embarrassing black history when they were young that made them dig their toes?”

Despite losses to the Spurs and Lakers, the Warriors’ record is still steadily improving.

On April 4, the Warriors met the Nuggets for the fourth time this season. Roger was not in good form tonight, shooting 10 of 26. But Roy made waves and scored 10 points.

Thanks to Roy’s performance, the Warriors finally defeated the Nuggets. At the end of the game, Roger hugged his teammates calmly.

But now the fans’ excited reaction shows that this victory is not ordinary.

This is the team’s 70th victory this season!
The reason why the Warriors players were not excited was because this was expected.

Moreover, their hearts have already been set on the playoffs.

In the last three games of the following season, the Golden State Warriors continued their winning streak, bringing their regular season record to 73 wins – the most regular season wins in NBA history.

Roger’s goal was half achieved. He showed his unparalleled dominance in the regular season, but it was not like what Brandon Roy said in the post-game interview: “The 72-win Bulls without rings have never been selected into any list of ‘the best team in history’.”

At this point, the playoff matchups are complete.

The Los Angeles Lakers had a brilliant 68 wins, but they were only ranked second to the more dazzling 73 wins. The Dallas Mavericks ranked third, and the Spurs had a record of 15 wins and 3 losses after Paul Gasol arrived, but because they were already far behind before the trade, they were only ranked fourth.

The Hornets, who were originally ranked second in the Western Conference on the timeline, were squeezed to fifth.

The Warriors’ opponent in the first round will be the Portland Trail Blazers, ranked eighth in the Western Conference. Although the Trail Blazers in this timeline do not have Roy, they were still “forced” to enter the playoffs in the face of a group of bad teams such as the Kings, Clippers, Timberwolves, and Supersonics.

In the second round, the Warriors’ opponent will be the winner between the Hornets and the Spurs.

In the third round, it will be either the Mavericks or the Lakers.

Then in the finals, there is no doubt that the opponent will be the New York Knicks, who will eventually win 68 games after reinforcements.

Fans and media are excited because this year’s playoff matchups are full of highlights.

The Warriors are very strong, but they are not completely immune to the possibility of a 73-win upset. The strengthened Spurs, the super Lakers, the Mavericks with improved defense, and the Knicks, who no longer have obvious weaknesses, are all difficult to deal with.

Perhaps the Warriors’ series will often be dragged into Game 6, or even a Game 7.

But when reporters asked Roger about his expectations for the playoffs, he told reporters: “I want to be more dominant than in the regular season.”

This is a more arrogant answer than “I want to win the championship”, because the Warriors have already won 73 games in the regular season. What would it be like to be more dominant than 73 wins?
A sweep? A gentlemen’s sweep? In short, winning and winning in a dominant manner are not the same thing.

As a man of action, Roger made his point in the first round.

In the first round, the Warriors swept the Portland Trail Blazers 4-0 and won by an average of 22.5 points per game. In no game did the Trail Blazers narrow the gap to single digits.

During a courtside interview after Game 4, Roger imitated Moses Malone’s voice and yelled at the camera: “FO! FO! FO! FO!”

“FO! FO! FO!” is the classic slogan of Moses Malone, the center of the 1983 NBA championship 76ers. FO stands for four, and three FOs mean a complete sweep of all three rounds to advance.

Moses Malone almost did it, because the rules at that time stipulated that the first place in the regular season division could have a bye in the first round, so Moses Malone started directly from the second round. His team swept New York 4-0, swept the Bucks 4-1, and swept the Lakers 4-0 to win the championship.

And now, Roger’s shout had an extra “FO” in it.

All the reporters were stunned.

Roger had done something similar before, in the summer of 2000, when the Atlanta Hawks became the first team in history to win the championship with a perfect record in the playoffs. But because there were only three games in the first round, the Hawks’ playoff record was 15 wins and 0 losses.

Now Roger wants to go 16-0? That’s what he said, a more dominant playoff run than a 73-win season?

All the fans in front of the TV had goosebumps all over their bodies.

Because it’s not as simple as just winning one more game.

If Roger could really do it, there would be no doubt about it.

His back will become an unreachable ceiling in the basketball world.
–
Roger is great, but Tim and I aren’t bad either. Sweep? Not likely. In fact, we will win. — Pau Gasol on Roger’s sweep declaration

Roger may not win four games in Los Angeles. I won’t let that happen. I promise. – LeBron James commented on Roger’s “FO! FO! FO! FO!” slogan with a smile.

If it was anyone else saying that, I’d put him in a mental hospital. But Roger? We’ll see. –Charles Barkley on the possibility of a 16-0 record in the playoffs.

If there is a list of the most dominant basketball players you have ever met, Roger would be the top player. I believe he can do it. He is committed to being brutally dominant in his last season. That is his goal. Nothing can stop him. He will do it no matter what. –Bill Simmons Column

I didn’t believe Roger could do it at first. Even if he could sweep the Spurs, how could he sweep the super Lakers? But when LeBron said “I promise”, I knew it was done. — Shaquille O’Neal answered in an interview when he was unhappy with his life.

(End of this chapter)