the rest, only noise

Chapter 1057 The Crazy Pioneer

contract of intent
This kind of thing, in the ranks of professional sports, is like the first step in our daily life to strike up a conversation.

Hello, can you give me your contact information?
If the other party gives it, although it does not mean that it will definitely work, but at least there is a probability of success.

If you put it in the SP field, the contract of intent is like all kinds of unspeakable GIFs all over the Internet. Many people will ask around to find the source of the GIF—but in the end, those who spend a lot of effort to find the source will be disappointed to find that the essence of the entire content is condensed in those few seconds of GIF.

Louis took a look at the intent contract and found several interesting pieces of information.

It was the Board of Directors who drafted the contract.

If the Knicks hadn't become a golden sign, the people in the head office should not care about the appointment and removal of personnel in this organization.

Now that they took Kruger away, they directly skipped the level and gave Louis an intentional contract, which can prove that the Knicks are indeed a high-quality industry under the company.

But they are also very clear that without Louis, the Knicks may still make money, but they will not be as good as they are now, so they want to find out Louis's mind before making plans for the next step.

Aside from the board, there are a few more points.

They wanted Louie to manage the basketball operations department and hold a position at the Knicks' superior, Madison Square Garden Entertainment.

At the same time, they promised to give more autonomy to the basketball operations department.

Louis can see full sincerity from this contract, they really want to keep themselves.

But the contract seemed surreal and unrealistic to Louie.

His main business is professional basketball.

After leaving professional basketball, he may not be better than those professionals in other aspects. Therefore, it is meaningless to mention him to the decision-making level of MSG except to give him more power.

At the same time, if he came to the decision-making level of MSG, he might have to ask about big and small matters, which would seriously distract him.

So, it's a sweet trap, tempting for Louie, but unnecessary.

That night, Louis suffered from insomnia.

Although the intent contract was written in a hype, but he was not tempted.

Louie is pretty sure he won't get a better offer elsewhere, but re-signing with New York means he's locked into the city, and he'll be the Midwest's Reed Auerbach for New England.

Become Auerbach, which was a very attractive goal when Louie was 20 years old.

Because he was just Bill Fitch's assistant coach at the time.

But now, being the second Auerbach is not so much fun.

Because it was in Louis' pocket, and if that was what he was after, then his pursuit had come to an end.

Could it be that at the age of 34, he has reached his personal peak here?
Louie opened his eyes and went running again.

Fortunately, Lorraine was not awakened this time.

1994/6/12

The Knicks flew to Portland on a special plane.

They're already familiar with Portland.

In the past two years, they have come here to play three finals.

Now the big score is leading 2-0, and the morale of the whole team is high.

It is the supporters of the Blazers who lack confidence in the team.

A pessimistic atmosphere hangs over the City of Torn.

Jordan felt that he had to do something, and he couldn't let the team collapse like this.

Therefore, this generation of geniuses who were running wildly along the path of a tragedy master held a player meeting on the afternoon of the Game 3 match day.

This meeting is very personal.

Jordan didn't let -- or rather, he didn't allow the coaching staff to get involved.

This annoyed Pat Riley very much.

At the meeting, Jordan took heart and soul, talked about all the failures he experienced after joining the NBA, and then asked Barkley: "Did you escape from Chicago just to taste the failures like a tragedian?"

Barkley was furious: "I'm fucking here for the championship!"

Jordan then yelled, "That's playing like a fucking champ!"

The atmosphere was brought up like this.

Finally, Isiah Thomas asked mockingly, "Do you know what a championship is? Have you ever won a championship?"

Barkley spoke with difficulty: "Olympic champions... are also champions."

Thomas sneered: "The glory belongs to the United States. No one cares about the Olympic champions on our resume."

Barkley was in a hurry: "That's why I fucking want to win an NBA championship!"

Thomas said loudly: "Then stop fighting with the coach and do what you have to do."

It can be said that this is the turning point of everything.

The Blazers were originally lifeless and there was a lack of connection between the players. If it weren't for Jordan's superb performance in the Western Conference Finals, they wouldn't even be able to play in the Finals.

Now, it's Jordan again, using a player meeting to dissolve internal conflicts, bring everyone together, and make the Blazers a dangerous team again.

The only person who is unhappy about this is Pat Riley, who and the coaching staff are being sidelined by the players.Before the game starts, he can't grasp the mental state of the players at all.

All he knew was that something had changed.

Like Barkley, the son of a bitch, doesn't fight him anymore.

That's a good thing, of course, but Riley still wants to know what happened at the players' meeting, but no one will tell him.

Riley is very worried. He is afraid that the players will reach a tacit understanding and consensus such as "let us concentrate on playing first, and then change a coach in the offseason".

After all, the players are the most closely connected. Jordan and Barkley are like brothers. Although the two have serious differences in their views, can Jordan really break with Barkley because of disagreement?

It turns out Riley was overthinking it.

Because the players don't have time to think about it now.

That night, Jordan, Barkley and Thomas let the world see a vicious team.

Relying on the home field advantage of the Memorial Stadium, they adopted an unreserved and violent basketball style against the Knicks.

Every turn, someone has to go down.

This inevitably brought injuries.

Reggie Williams became a victim of violent basketball. He was forced to stop his layup in the air, broke his arm when he landed, was diagnosed with a fracture after the game, and was reimbursed for the season.

Angry Rodman wanted to avenge his teammates, he targeted Jordan and did the same.

But Jordan's core strength allowed him to stabilize his body's center of gravity when he was violently attacked.

This appalling match disgusted many spectators.

For this reason, many people gave up and continued to watch the game.

This obviously affected the ratings.

But Portland doesn't care about it. It's not their obligation to play good games. Their obligation is to satisfy their fans. How can they satisfy the fans?To win of course.

As long as they can win, they will do anything.

"Portland is too crazy to accept losing to New York again."

At the end of the game, the score was 98 to 94. The Blazers defended the first home game with a 4-point advantage, and the score was 2-1.

The media lashed out at the Blazers for their rough play.

Riley shrugged off the criticism: "The Knicks did the same thing to the Celtics in 1988. I don't want to tell you what's right and what's wrong. I just want to say that the game of basketball always goes back and forth, rhyming the same rhymes like bad rappers."

"We're not going to make excuses."

Tomjanovich tried to be candid.

"The way the Blazers play has a big impact on us, but we will definitely adapt."

Encountered such a predicament for the first time, Tomjanovich behaved very immaturely, making fans wish to replace him with Louis.

At this time, Louis had already turned off the TV and was ready to rest.

He could see that Portland was going crazy, just as the Knicks did when they trailed the Celtics 1988-1 in 3 and decided to do whatever it took to create for themselves.

There are still more to play in this round of the series.

The Blazers have a lot of confidence in winning.

That's not to say they didn't have the will to win the previous few encounters.

For various reasons, the Knicks were at a disadvantage in their first two meetings with the Blazers.

The Blazers are the winning team.

You know, belief is important only when playing against the wind.

If you have the upper hand, what faith do you need? You should win the game, and find the reason for yourself if you lose.

This is why the Blazers went crazy. They missed two opportunities.

On the same night, in a luxury residential area in west Los Angeles, a puppy kept barking, which attracted the attention of neighbors.

Someone went to check, but found two people lying in a pool of blood in front of the house—a shocking case that was about to shake the country. At that time, except for the case itself, other things would not be important to people.

(End of this chapter)