the rest, only noise

Chapter 1082 It's Not Me, But It Could Be You
The first thousand and ninety-three chapters are not me, but it may be you
Louie met with Jerry West at noon, and he expected the negotiation process to take less than an hour.

When he found out that Mitch Kupchak was not here, he felt that the negotiation might only last about half an hour.

Because West is not the kind of chatterbox who can chat with people non-stop.

But the negotiations lasted from noon to evening.

Louie and West had drinks, snacks, and dinner together.

Because West doesn't eat Chinese food, Louis asked the boss to cook him Western food.

After dinner, they continued to chat.

After chatting continuously for such a long time, are Louis and West familiar with each other?
No, they didn't talk much about themselves.

That kind of thing is so personal, and they're not in that relationship right now.

For most of the day, the content of communication between Louis and West was all about basketball and games.

The essence of the game of basketball.

What is the difference between the past game and the current game.

韦斯特带着横跨50-60-70年代的独家视角，而路易对80-90年代的比赛的理解无人能及。

They really talked about everything on the court.

For example, Baylor's retirement, which made West painful.

West is still tortured to this day.

But was his torment simply Baylor's absence?
No, it is not.

Louis can talk to West for so long because he can think like West.

He asked West afterwards: "If Elgin didn't retire, could you win the 1972 championship?"

There was a gleam of wisdom in West's painful eyes.

"I've thought about this question many times." West said dejectedly, "I know Bill (Sharman) is right. Elgin must be a substitute, but Elgin is not a good substitute, and he will not accept a substitute. He has his own dignity and standards. If he can no longer do what he did, he will leave."

That's what makes West miserable.

He is such an emotional and rational person.

When he revisited the whole thing, he found that Baylor's absence was the source of his pain, but the reason why this pain continued for so many years was that he realized that if Baylor did not leave, the Lakers could not win the championship.

Because Baylor is resistant to the bench, and at odds with Chamberlain.

If he stayed in the team, the atmosphere in the locker room of the originally good Lakers team would be very different. There would be no 33-game winning streak, and the championship would be out of the question.

It's interesting to hear West recap the big games he lost.

If you can't feel his pain.

What makes Louis remember deeply is West's recollection of the 1962 Finals, which was the second year after the Lakers moved to Minneapolis. The young West and Baylor in their heyday were brave in the playoffs that year.

Baylor averaged 38.8 points, 17.8 rebounds and 3 assists per game in the playoffs that year, while West averaged 31 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists per game. Under their leadership, the Lakers also successfully reached the finals and fought seven bloody games with the Celtics, who were also at their peak.

In this round of the series, Baylor averaged 40 points and 17 rebounds per game, and West averaged 31 points and 7 rebounds per game, but they still did not win in the end, because in the seventh game, the Lakers handed over the key shot that could end the game to Frank Selvy (Frank Selvy SG/SF), who is unknown to modern fans.

Such a crucial ball was not shot by Baylor or West, but what Selvi?

"Yeah, that destroyed us, and then we went into overtime and Russell dominated," West said. "He had 30 points, 40 rebounds and a ton of blocks in that game."

West believes that it was the 1962 loss that started the curse of the Lakers being dominated by the Celtics.

But he also believes that it is no problem for Selvi to shoot that ball.

Because before "Hot Rod" Hendley (Hot Rod Hundley SG) (Hot Rod Hundley SG) ⑴ passed the ball to him, Selway had hit two consecutive shots, and he was the only one who stood up at the critical moment of the game.

This is West, even after so many years, he still remembers all the details of the game.

Even with such a tragic loss, he can still look at the game objectively regardless of other reasons.

It was very late, and Louis did not expect that this "negotiation" would last for a day.

West talked to him about the present and the past for a day, but not about the future.

But this day's communication gave Louis a good understanding of West.

If Louis expects West to be his tool man like Baylor, it will undoubtedly be an insult to the other party and a huge waste.

West is a good executive who can do a lot of things that Baylor can't.

"Louie, have you ever played a perfect game?"

At the end of "Negotiations," West asked.

Louie smiled: "I may not have played it myself, but my team may have played such a game."

"You want to know my perfect game?"

Louie chose not to answer because West would have said it himself.

"The venue should be in the garden, the place I hate the most."

Louis guessed, Boston Garden?

"Of course, it has to happen during the playoffs and it's Game [-] of the series, and it's a defining moment that I live for. The best time is spring, like the first Sunday in May, when there's still a chill in the air. People line up to get into the Gardens for this crucial game."

"In addition to ordinary fans, there will be the world's best singers and actors coming to the scene."

"And to have the best referees, they have to be the ones who are impartial, referees who allow players to communicate with them, referees who are not influenced by star players."

"This game will be played by the rules I played."

this means
"Hand-checking has no limits."

(Can be played anywhere on the pitch)
"Players are not allowed to dribble illegally."

(The ball holder's hand must rest on top of the ball, not to the side of the ball)
"Assists are only counted when the receiver scores directly from the field goal."

Then, no assistants, everyone has to do their own thing, just one pair of sneakers, instead of everyone putting on new shoes before going on the field like now.

The team has to go to the away game alone, take a commercial plane, there is no charter plane, and it needs to transfer to another station when necessary.

No entourage, no bodyguards, no PR people, no media - just players, teammates, coaches who are like brothers.

According to West, this game will gather himself, Chamberlain, Russell, Baylor, Barry, Havlicek, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Dr. J, Bird, Tragedy Division, Wilson, Sampson, Jordan, Pettit.

Then, a lot of horrible things and accidents happen during the game, and finally there is a shocking result.

These ideal conditions are impossible to achieve after all, but Louis feels that West has played such a game.

At the end, West said: "You know what, this kind of game happened in reality."

"Did you win?" Louis felt that he had said something nonsense.

"If I win, I won't have such delusion." West shook his head and said, "That is the game that I can never be released -the seventh game of 1969, the Lakers have me, Elkin, Wilt, and Russell and his teammates have been smoking. At that time, no one knew that Russell would retire after the game ended, but I was willing to feel that he was willing to do that. He presented his life, so he could not forgive Walltter to withdraw from injury in the middle of the game. "

"What's even more unacceptable to me is that we almost won the game, but in the end we were ruined by Don Nelson's ridiculous free throw line jumper. You gave him a hundred chances, and he couldn't make that goal." West's tone became very light, "But he just made it."

Louie had heard Baylor talk about that game.

It was a loss that even someone like Baylor couldn't get over.

Since then, the Boston elves will remain forever in the hearts of that generation of Lakers players.

Probably only a big man like Chamberlain who transcends life can face it directly, because he doesn't know why he lost.

"That's why I don't like you."

West said in astonishment.

"You won such a game, but I didn't." West's emotions contained envy, jealousy, incomprehension and many inexplicable things. "You know, the Knicks have no reason to win the 1993 Finals. The Trail Blazers are a team that is more complete, more united, and stronger than yours. Your team was torn apart by rotten glory, but you, like the Celtics, won the game when no one believed that you could win."

"That's why I want you to come to Los Angeles."

"The past and present have proved that the person who can break the curse for the Lakers in the future is not me, but it may be you."

⑴ "Hot Rod" Hendry is also a jerk. He grabbed an offensive rebound at a critical moment, but he didn't choose to shoot it himself. Because Selway scored two goals in a row before, he passed the ball.Selvi missed the shot, the game entered overtime, and the Lakers lost.After retiring, Hendry would occasionally call Selway, and as soon as the other party answered, he said "good shot" and hung up the phone immediately.

　Generally speaking, when we see an ancient player die, we will say "RIP" symbolically.We shouldn't feel that way because we haven't seen a full game of him.But the passing of Bill Russell really upset me.I can't explain this feeling.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)