the rest, only noise

Chapter 1449 Meeting West

On July 2000, 7, when all the teams were going full throttle in the offseason, the Los Angeles Lakers announced: "After friendly negotiations, Legend Lu has decided not to renew his contract."

In this news, only the first two sentences are important, the rest are meaningless politeness.

Everyone knows that this moment will come, but when it does come, many people will still be puzzled and surprised.

Soon, speculation about Louie's whereabouts became a major topic.

Louie's six-year tenure with the Lakers has proven that iron rule -- get the Messiah, and you get a dynasty.

Just when the second season of "Where is Louis Going?" was about to open, Louis' agent announced to the outside world: "Due to long-term high-intensity work, Louis is physically and mentally exhausted, and he decided to take a long vacation for himself."

According to the entertainment circle, this is an indefinite rest.

However, some teams still sent offers, such as the infatuated New York Knicks.

They knew that Louie was tired, so they didn't plan to make him the president, but only a special consultant to the team.

The Dolan family generously offered $5 million over five years.

Louie didn't have to go to New York to work, or even show up for the Knicks, all he had to do was give a suggestion when front office called.

In other words, Louis could make 5000 million while lying down.

It's the easiest job in the world.

But Louie refused. He had just finished his job with the Lakers and he didn't want to get involved in a complicated team again, even if it was just as a consultant.

Now, the only thing Louis has to focus on is the national team's game tasks.

When the Sydney Olympics is over, then he can really have a vacation.

Before returning to China, Louis also asked someone to meet at the restaurant under his name.

It was not only Louie who decided to leave the Lakers, but also Jerry West, the LOGO man who had played for the team for 40 years.

Interestingly, West's resignation was not his own decision, and the person who pushed it to happen was his wife Karen.

Karen wrote a letter to Jerry Buss without telling her husband, which read as follows:
"Dear Jerry
I am not one to keep quiet no matter how inappropriate the letter may seem.I think you need to understand what's going on at the Wests, whether it matters to you or not.I just spent three of the most harrowing days of my life with Jerry in Phoenix.

I'm pretty sure you know, my husband is a tormented man.The biggest source of pain for him over the past few years has been the Lakers.I'm sure you know that too.But he seems to have gotten over the pain after the two of you worked it out last summer.Before he agreed to an extension, I hope he chose to stay with the Lakers because the work here makes him happy, he replied that he has rekindled his enthusiasm and he knows that staying is the right decision.As long as Jerry is happy, I am happy.

However, everything sucks.He's a guy who, if he decides to kill himself, he'll do it.The fact that many big decisions have been made that he can't accept, and that the team that was once the most respected is now, as he said, destroyed in a matter of days, puts him in an almost Rhodes-like situation. A vicious circle of self-destruction.

When I left Phoenix yesterday morning, I knew my life would never be the same.On Wednesday, Jerry told me that the only things in the world he cared about were our kids, me and the Lakers.On Thursday night, after free agency opened, he told me that when Duncan leaves Los Angeles, he's leaving the Lakers and he's leaving us.He keeps saying he lives and dies for the Lakers, the Lakers are his life, but I don't care if I hear anything about the Lakers anymore.

I've been hearing Jerry say for the past two years that he's going to quit, he can't take it anymore, I've heard him say it countless times, but in our 22 years of marriage, he's never said he's leaving this family.there has never been.I love my husband very much, I love my family very much, and if he leaves we will be devastated.He's now on a self-destructive war path, and I don't know where that path will lead.I have to make him stop.

Sincerely Karen”

Louie never knew how painful it was for West to work with him.

West's objections were always ineffective when Louie made decisions that could affect the Lakers' reputation.

But when Louie's decision brought the Lakers a championship, West fell into a painful self-struggle.

West is different from Baylor, he is a perfectionist with moral cleanliness, what he wants is a spotless crown.

And Louie doesn't care what's on the crown, it's still a crown even if there's a piece of shit stuck on it.

Duncan's departure was the final straw for West.

For West, Duncan is a player who can reshape the culture of the Lakers team.

He is a great figure like Bill Russell, such a player is once in a few decades, and the Lakers can't do anything about his departure, which makes him doubt whether he still has the ability to be a management person in his career. The basketball world keeps going.

He wanted to stay and see where this team would go in the post-Louis era, but his emotions then collapsed, because no matter what he did, the team would only go down the track set by Louis, and in the end , They will rush down the cliff like the Knicks and Celtics.

Either he opts out or he crashes with the Lakers.

Just when he decided to die together, his wife rescued him.

West decided to hand in his resignation, ending his 40-year career with the Lakers.

Before parting, Louis asked him to come out to meet him, and he agreed in a strange way.

"Jerry, I thought you'd be glad I left." Louie joked, "I didn't expect you to make the same decision as me. Have you really made up your mind?"

West said flatly: "It is certainly not easy to leave a team that I have worked hard for for 40 years, but when I made the decision, I didn't feel sad at all. On the contrary, I was relieved."

He used relief to describe resignation?
Louie smiled helplessly, "Is it really painful to work with me? Jerry. You have to admit that the decisions you opposed to me all paid off in the end."

How did he never feel the other's pain in Baylor?

West did not answer Louie directly, he said: "Since I entered the NBA, people have been wondering why I never seem to be as happy as I should be, not as content as I should be-even a lot People have prayed in all sorts of ways that I would 'find happiness', find some form of peace."

Louie wonders if working with him is a pain, while West is saying he can't find joy?
Louis believes that the six life-and-death games lost to the Celtics in the 60s have become a demon in West's heart, but he always believes that losing alone will not make people so depressed.

"Jerry," Louie asked, "when you were playing, if the Lakers won, did you take the credit for it?"

"of course not."

"So," Louis said flatly, "when you lose, you shouldn't take all the responsibility."

West didn't know why Louie was suddenly talking about it, and he usually doesn't take any joy in winning, either as a player or as an administrator.Because he knows he's just working hard and doesn't realize what it's ultimately doing to his body and mind, because when he's into it, he's so fucking determined.

Now, West thinks of the starting point that propped him up on this path - it's just that he tried to bring joy to his mother when he was young, and a little something to make her proud - oh, her little son Jerry is also great , maybe not as good as David, but he's good at playing -- yes, that's his original intention. He had to give Ms. Cecil West a strong reason to live, so that she could endure her alcoholic husband and Endless domestic violence.

Watching Louie, West had mixed feelings, just like the recruiting negotiations he had with Louie in New York six years ago.Although his purpose was to recruit Louis, most of the conversation was about himself.

why?Maybe it's because Louie seems like the perfect listener.

"The thing that surprises me the most about you," West asked quietly, "is why you always look so happy?"

(End of this chapter)