the rest, only noise

Chapter 1080 There is only half a glass of water in the glass
"I guess Mickey isn't late."

After Louis sat down, he started with this sentence.

"He has a temporary business, so he won't come." West didn't even bother to make excuses for Kupchak's absence, "but it might be better this way."

No disrespect to Kupchak, Louis did think so too.

You don't need many people to negotiate.

Because the negotiating object usually only wants to know the attitude of the key person.

"Jerry, do you have the answers to those questions I asked the day before yesterday?"

Louis believed that he and West would have some other topics to talk about.

But he would never have imagined that this topic would go so deep as the negotiations progressed.

West essentially dismissed Louie's question.

"I don't think you are a coach who knows players through other people's introductions." West said, "A good coach often needs strong intuition and judgment. You don't need me to tell you the answer. If you want to know, you will find out by yourself."

It's always fun to chat with someone with a clear head like West.

Louis didn't have to worry about West misunderstanding or not understanding his voice.

"I remember you also coached in the early years, right?"

"I was a coach for three years."

"Why didn't you stick to it?"

"I led the team to lose 101 games in three years." After so many years, it seems that now thinking of the games he lost when he was coaching, it seems that he still feels aggrieved. "A coach with only a 58.9% winning percentage cannot lead the team to win the championship."

Then, Zhou Zhihao, the owner of the restaurant, stepped forward and asked, "Coach Lu, what do you and this guest want to have?"

"Jerry, I recommend the fried noodles here."

West smiled ugly: "Thank you, but just bring me some water."

West insisted on not ordering food and only drinking water.

Louis was sure that he didn't eat Chinese food, and he didn't eat it at all. He might have some kind of aversion to Chinese food, just like he did to chili.

It's okay, Louis won't think of him because of it.

Taste buds, just like XP, are very personal. Some people like flat Iron Man, and some people like cute big tits. There is no distinction between superior and inferior.

West didn't want to eat, and Louis didn't order.

"Give me a Coke."

"Give me a glass of orange juice, thank you."

West was still restrained and did not let go.

Louis is not in a hurry, they have plenty of time today.

"Jerry, you should have heard about the free market, right?"

Louie is looking for West's chatterbox.

"You mean the Danny Manning thing?"

In fact, Louis also wants to know what he thinks about Olajuwon going to the Blazers, and the Heat getting Sampson and Drexler.

But he seemed more interested in the Manning affair.

"Don't you think he's gone too far?" Louis first set a position for himself to see West's reaction.

"He did go too far."

West speaks much like an older generation.

Yes, it was Louis's mother's generation.

But Louis thought, isn't West just from his mother's generation?
He was born in 1938, and he is 56 years old this year. It's just that Louis's achievements are so brilliant that many old people dare not put on the airs of their predecessors to him.

"However," West said otherwise, "I don't think it's a problem from his standpoint. Think about Walter Frazier. He was a totem in New York. People loved him when the team was doing well, and he was a scapegoat when the team was not doing well. He didn't end up in New York. He was traded to Cleveland at the end of his career."

West said something thought-provoking: "We ask players to be loyal, who will ensure that the team is loyal to the players?"

West's position is clear. He believes that Manning's motives are fine, but he just didn't get things right.

"That said, it seems that Danny can't be completely blamed." Louis began to lead the topic to another area, "This year's offseason has really changed a lot."

"Yes, there have been obvious changes in many teams, and among them, Miami's reinforcements worry me."

Now West looks a lot like a NetEase cloud user at 0:[-] every day.

He is pessimistic: "I don't know how David will stand up to Ralph if he meets Miami in the Finals?"

Louis couldn't help laughing: "Do you think the Lakers can beat the Blazers to advance?"

"That's another story," West joked, "if the premise is assuming we can beat these goddamn bastard teams."

It can be seen that West also knows that the current lineup of the Lakers alone is not enough to fight against the Trail Blazers.

What's more, the Warriors are also menacing.

"Then what if the Lakers meet the Knicks in the Finals, aren't you worried about the matchup between David and Patrick?"

West sneered; "Benjamin has come to Los Angeles, what else is Patrick afraid of?"

Poor orangutan, is there anyone in this world who likes you?

Louis heard people say that when Chamberlain was in the game, whenever he heard critics say that he only had statistics but no championships, he would laugh at himself; "No one loves Goliath."

This sentence seems to be quite suitable for Ewing.

He had a Bill Russell-esque effect and public opinion underestimated him.

He is clearly one of the top three centers in the league, but everyone only knows Wilson, and not many people have considered how much he will add to the Knicks' defense.

For others, replace Ewing's role with Olajuwon, Robinson, O'Neal, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Sampson, and the Knicks' seven consecutive championships will also be completed.

But how many people can replace Wilson?
Although Louis didn't see it that way, public opinion didn't make sense.

It is blind and biased.

"Jerry, can the Lakers fight their way out in the West only in 'if' situations?"

West has not forgotten his purpose.

"If you were our head coach, I wouldn't have to worry about it."

This is nonsense.

But the strange thing is that Louis can't see sincerity in West's eyes.

Lorraine said that those who didn't tell the truth had tiny quivering in their pupils.

And Louis captured such details in West's eyes.

"Every team's negotiator said that, but I can only join one of you."

Louie tried to figure out what West was thinking.

The look in West's eyes made Louis feel that the other party didn't really want to go to the Lakers.

What is he afraid of?
At this time, the water they asked for was brought up by the waiter.

"What's wrong with you?"

West also wondered what Louie was hesitating about.

"Would you support me if I wanted to overhaul the Lakers roster?"

Louis looked directly into West's eyes. For some reason, this old man who was called "Mr. Key" in his youth refused to look at him.

"Even if you want God on our team, I'll help you make it happen."

"What if I want to send Scottie Pippen away?"

"What if I want to trade David Robinson?"

Louie's quick double-questions silenced West.

Especially when Louie said he was going to trade David Robinson, there was a clear emotional reaction in West's eyes.

"They are all top players in the league." West corrected himself like obsessive-compulsive disorder, "I mean, the top players, it is almost impossible to find players of the same value in the trading market. If we have to trade them, I hope we can have the best return."

Louis felt that he had touched West's reverse scale.

Perhaps West already knew that if Louie joined the team, the Lakers would be cleaned up. By then, the lineup he worked so hard to build might be completely dismantled.

Is this why he doesn't want me in and has to invite me in?

"Do you know how many girlfriends Patrick has changed over the years in New York?" Louis didn't ask West to report the number afterwards, he asked himself and answered, "I can't count, maybe 100, maybe 300."

West asked incredulously, "How did he open and close his relationships with so many women so quickly?"

"Well said, I don't know, this may be the reason why he didn't get HIV, because he fully understands his own desires, so when it's time to start a new relationship, he will start it decisively, and when it's time to end it, he will also end it decisively." Louis joked, "The situation like Erwin's splitting and reuniting with his first love girlfriend in high school for decades will never happen to Patrick. His desires are like a bottomless pit that cannot be satisfied. We will break up when we are in office."

Louis' eyes met West's again.

This time, the LOGO man finally stopped avoiding Louis' eyes.

"Sometimes he just wanted a new girlfriend because he knew he couldn't get anything from his current girlfriend."

West knew Louie was using Ewing as a metaphor.

Just like Ewing changing his girlfriend, Louie wanted to dismantle the Lakers lineup not because he could get the same price in return, but because he felt that the Lakers' existing lineup had almost developed and it was time to replace it with a new one.

"Both David and Scottie haven't reached their peak yet." West wanted to lie to himself, "What if there's still half a glass of water in the glass?"

West picked up the glass half full of orange juice in front of him, "Just like it."

"Jerry, after so many years, haven't you seen their strength clearly? After Irwin retired, how did the Lakers perform?" Louis picked up his own glass, which also contained half a glass of Coke, "There is only half a glass of water in the glass."

West didn't want to admit it, but he couldn't refute Louis.

After the tragedy division retired, the Lakers wandered between the semifinals and the Western Conference finals year after year.

Before the rise of the Warriors, they could proudly say that they were only inferior to the Trail Blazers in the West. Now, they can no longer comfort themselves like this.

Louie tells the truth that West least wants to face.

Robinson's and Pippen's glasses were only half full of water, that's all they saw.

(End of this chapter)