the rest, only noise

Chapter 1541 Malice in the Garden of Eden

(Because the plots of the two chapters are coherent today, they are combined into one)

"Did I tell you the story about Adolph Rupp? Everyone I've met said he was a racist. Yes, he did hate black players—" Auerbach paused here, trying to whet everyone's appetites before continuing. "He also hated white guys who couldn't play, blue guys and green guys who couldn't play. To put it bluntly, he hated guys who couldn't play. It was as simple as that."

Louie didn't know Rupp because they never had the chance to meet—Rup died a year before he entered the business.

After Louis had the idea of ​​coaching, he read a lot of materials and had a certain understanding of Rupp.But after so many years, Rupp's only impression on Louie is that he has made man-to-man defense a routine defensive tactic in basketball games.

What Auerbach said about Rupp today let Louis know another side of the legendary university coach.

Especially that story.
"Why do I say he is far more stingy than Benj? Because I have never seen anyone more stingy than him. He is the most stingy person I have ever seen in my life."

In the early 50s, the famous razor scandal⑴ destroyed a large number of NCAA traditional strong schools, including the University of Kentucky, which was a wealthy family at the time, and was also suspended for one year.It was because of Kentucky's suspension that Auerbach changed the draft rules at the NBA's annual meeting in April of that year -- all players who spend four years in college automatically qualify for the NBA draft, rather than having to wait until graduation -- a rule that famously led the Celtics to draft Larry Bird decades later.

Auerbach also became friends with Rupp around this time.

At one point, Auerbach and Rupp shared a meal that totaled $3, and Reed decided to treat him, and he left a 50-cent tip for the waiter.

Rupp stared at Auerbach. "You tip fifty cents? That's too much!"

Before Auerbach could react, Rupp picked up one of the quarters, pocketed it, and fell silent.

Half a century later, why does Auerbach still remember this incident clearly?
There was a smile on the old man's face, which was nostalgia for the old days: "I always thought he would give me back the money, but he didn't."

Compared with Rupp, Benj, who kept saying that he would not give the other party a penny more, raised the offer to 180 million US dollars.Although still not in line with the other party's psychological price, this is an increase of up to 80 US dollars, which is far from what Rupp's incarnation of Grandet, who cares about penny units, can compare with.

While Louie has been at the luncheon for several years, Auerbach's story is inexhaustible.

He was often able to tell stories that Louie had never heard.

This is one of the reasons Louie insists on attending the luncheon.

Of course, the more important reason is that the people attending the luncheon are elites from all walks of life in the United States.For example, not long ago, Louis met a Boston politician named David Ford at a lunch meeting. His department was in charge of land planning. With his help, Louis’ plan to build a new arena in downtown Boston made breakthrough progress.

This is the key step from zero to one.

The time has entered February, and no large-scale transactions occurred on this year's trade deadline. The teams made minor repairs and ushered in the All-Star Weekend peacefully.

This year's All-Star Weekend, the most exciting thing is not the slam dunk contest, nor the All-Star Game, but the Rookie Challenge.

The star-studded second-year team could even cobble together an All-Star starter.

It stands to reason that there is no suspense about the outcome of this game.

However, a player named Lin Ziye broke out among the first graders.

As the cornerstone of the Warriors team, Lin Ziye realized his talent in his rookie season, overshadowing No. 23 pick Howard and No. 6 pick Okafor, currently ranking No.4 in the 2004 rookie list with an average of 1 points, [-] rebounds and [-] assists per game.

In the Rookie Challenge, facing the star-studded second-year, Lin Ziye scored 36 points and 12 rebounds, helping the first-year to drag the game to the end and was blocked by Anthony's goal.

Despite the loss, Lin Ziye, who led the game at the statistical level, was still exceptionally selected by the NBA as the MVP of the Rookie Challenge.

When Lin Ziye was asked by an ABC reporter how he felt about becoming the first MVP of a losing rookie game in history, his answer was enough to make NBA officials ask themselves whether it would be better to choose MVP in the second grade.

"MVP is not important, I decided to give it (the trophy) to the lucky audience at the scene."

Then, Lin Ziye picked out a big and white young girl.

"Are you entering the courtship period again?" Lu Wuxia couldn't help asking.

Lin Ziye responded: "That's right, I just ended a painful relationship and urgently need a generous and wealthy girlfriend to soothe my wounded heart!"

One day later in the All-Star Game, the Eastern Stars won the game with an overwhelming talent advantage. O'Neal, who scored 26 points and 13 rebounds, was elected AMVP.

After the All-Star weekend, all parties began to predict the MVP and "the team most likely to lose the chain in the playoffs".

Steve Nash, who has never entered the scope of the MVP discussion, has historically been on the MVP prediction list by virtue of his performance in the Utah Jazz.

At the same time, the Jazz in the West and the Celtics in the East are also widely regarded as the two strong teams most likely to overturn in the playoffs.

When all parties were imagining the playoffs, on February 2004, 2, the Los Angeles Lakers challenged the New York Knicks in an away game that shocked the world.

The way they let the world focus on this is not through high-quality game content, nor is it a super-difficult lore, but an event that has nothing to do with basketball-fighting.

The Lakers are a volcano waiting to erupt.

Whether they want to or not, Garnett and Kobe can no longer co-exist.

This can be seen from Garnett's rejection of the Lakers' early contract extension.

By the end of the season, the Lakers are bound to make a decision.

It seems that this decision is not difficult to make.Although Garnett is careless, his reputation in the Lakers is far inferior to Kobe, because he is a very strong boss, and Kobe, who has been calmed down through meditation training for a long time, seems to be easier to get along with.

Ironically, Garnett claimed to be the boss, and Kobe had no intention of usurping the throne, but the two drifted apart.

Because there are people like Artest in the Lakers.

The cause of the matter is not complicated. For the Knicks, James Posey is the successor of the old Knicks. He likes to do things that tease his opponents very much.

The two sides almost fought in the first half.

Because Posey elbowed Artest.

Kobe pressed the violent Artest down, using the reason: "Now is not the time."

So Artest decided to wait for that time to come. In the second half, the Lakers went smoothly. By the fourth quarter, the lead had reached 16 points.

Artest asked Bryant: "Is it time?"

"Whatever you want," Kobe said.

However, the provocative Posey has been replaced, and Artest can't swallow this breath, so he finds McGrady, who looks very bullying.

This is really the wrong person. McGrady doesn't look like a troublemaker, but he is not weak at all. When he realized that Artest was going to get back on him, he unceremoniously made a counterattack and hit Artest on the left cheek with an uppercut that was enough to cause injuries.

The two teams, which were already like dry wood, exploded at one point.

"Don't fucking try to touch my people!" Garnett, as the boss, of course has to protect his younger brother, even if he is a younger brother who is against him all day long.

Garnett's approach is correct, but he should not treat Kendrick Perkins as a soft persimmon.

While trying to persuade Perkins to make peace with his bossy airs, Garnett ran on Perkins, and finally angered this big black man with rich and colorful inner activities.

Garnett, who was supposed to make peace, was beaten back by Perkins.

Seeing more and more players advocating persuasion joined the group fight, Artest, who was pulled to the sidelines by Kobe to appease him, suddenly felt a chill on his head, as if he had taken a cold shower.

He instantly realized that the fans from behind were pouring beer on him.

Artest lost his humanity and pounced on the fans like a beast, which also made the situation completely out of control.

There are many ways to end the KG era of the Lakers. The public envisions a dramatic end, but the Lakers are a team similar to the Knicks after all. When faced with a choice, they tend to passively choose the one with the most effective program.

Maliciousness surrounds the Garden of Eden, and fierce conflicts interrupt the game. As for the ending?

The game ended early. McGrady claimed that Artest was a softie. Garnett lost support because of his performance of fighting and retreating. Except for Hill, all other Knicks players on the field participated in the fight.

The lively neutral audience was overwhelmed, and the media was even more delighted. A TV night like this hadn't appeared in the NBA for a long time.

The only people who were injured, and will continue to be hurt because of this, are the Lakers and Lakers fans.

Before time-traveling, the Pistons' so-called Palace of Auburn Hills Brawl was just a large-scale brawl to Louis, but after time-traveling, it was different.

The Brawl at the Palace of Auburn Hills didn't happen, but the Brawl at Madison Gardens did.

Since Louis entered the industry in 1978, there have been a handful of incidents in the NBA that broke the circle. Kermit Washington punched out Rudy's brains, and the fledgling Little Lu punched the referee into the ICU. The league suspected cheating in the 1985 lottery draw. The Lakers' "Beautiful Basketball" fight with Petrovic on national live broadcast. However, these things can be compared with the Garden Fight in terms of heat, only Washington's punch and the 1988 Century Game.

On the negative side, the Garden Fight went beyond basketball and was worse than Washington's punch.

Because the background of Washington's punch was the late 70s. People at that time generally didn't like the NBA. It was an era when fans could dislike too many black players so they didn't watch the game.The attack on Washington himself was a concentrated explosion of public dissatisfaction with black players' gradual domination of basketball and prejudice against the group.

Garden Fight is not.

These are different times.

From the perspective of equal rights and anti-racism, the NBA is even a utopia in American sports. As the pioneer of equal rights in the major leagues, there is no discrimination (on the surface), and everyone can freely express themselves. Stern has built professional basketball into a world-class super sports league comparable to the five major football leagues.

They are millionaire making machines. There are a group of gentlemen here. Gentlemen don't know how to fight. Whoever dares to fight will be punished.

Now, Ron Artest is tearing up the new clothes that Stern forced players to wear, reawakening all the bad images people have about the NBA.

The impact of this incident on the NBA is roughly equal to the negative impact of Tyson biting Holyfield's ear.

From the perspective of the news page, it is even more at the level of "the zipper story that Lian Zong and the intern secretary have to tell".

In the past few years, only 911, Diana's car accident, and OJ Simpson's Mustang car chase could surpass this incident.

It was a night of the TV Hall of Fame in real earnest.

In a practical sense, this fierce battle may completely end the Los Angeles Lakers of the KG era.

In less than 24 hours, the NBA responded quickly.

Ron Artest was suspended for one year.

This is the attitude of the league, or Stern's attitude.

If it was just a fight, even if Artest dried McGrady's brains out, it would be impossible to suspend him for such a long time.Those who are willing to watch the game are the parents of the players. In any case, physical conflicts between the two parties are not allowed.

At the same time, the players union expressed that it will fight for Artest. They believe that this is an off-court incident, and the league has no right to punish Artest for this.

Kobe Bryant was suspended for 20 games.

This is definitely the most wronged judgment in history, because Kobe didn't make a shot the whole time. Although he ran to the audience with Artest, he went to stop the latter.

Both the Lakers and Bryant's representatives said they would appeal.

Shandon Anderson was suspended for 15 games. He didn't rush to the audience, but he left the bench and basically beat everyone on the Knicks side.

Kevin Garnett was suspended for five games.Garnett's agent launched a crazy complaint mode, because from the video playback, Garnett has not attacked anyone, and he has been "evading" the opponent's offensive.

In fact, sometimes it is better not to explain than to explain.

Although the agent clearly pointed out that Garnett did not do anything and should not be suspended, this will not only give Garnett a reputation as a soft guy, but also lose the trust of his teammates.

In the biggest stadium conflict in the NBA in the past 27 years, as the team boss, Garnett can only have two attitudes, fight for his teammates, or prevent his teammates from making mistakes.

And Garnett chose to escape. He hid his fists handsomely and maintained his dignity to the greatest extent, but he lost the respect of his teammates forever.

As Artest said: "I know I can give my back to Kobe."

The reporter asked, "What about KG?"

Artest said: "I don't know if I can trust him."

In fact, after returning to the locker room that night, it was reported in Los Angeles that many people within the Lakers accused Garnett of not exerting his boss' influence and causing the situation to get out of control.

Another tabloid directly exposed the player who publicly questioned Garnett-Blevin Knight.

In addition to them, the Lakers also have Barbosa, Brian Knight, and Bobby Simmons suspended for 3 games.

It can be said that he should be punished.

The Lakers were seriously injured, but what about the Knicks?
It can be said that James Posey, who was behind the Garden Brawl, was not involved in the conflict because he was sitting on the sidelines at the time of the incident, so he was not punished.

The Knicks' heaviest penalty was Tracy McGrady, who was suspended for 12 games.

This was followed by Zach Randolph, who was suspended for six games.

Then there was Kendrick Perkins, who was suspended for five games.

Chris Webber was suspended for 4 games.

Then, Knicks vice president James Dolan was fined $100 million because the Knicks didn't do a good job of security at the scene and didn't record things like fans throwing beer on players.

Because Artest hit the wrong person, the innocent victim said he would sue the NBA.

As for the fan who actually poured beer on Artest, he was only punished by being banned from MSG for life.

In order to continue to eat this wave of large traffic, TNT invited Louis to do a program to talk about this historic scandal.

"I think the league has to take care of the fans, especially the fan that got shot," Louie said. "Imagine you're the fan that got shot by Ron Artest, and you've been watching the game for two hours and you've had some beers. And all of a sudden, the game turns into an action movie, and then it turns into a horror movie when Artest goes at the fans. The scariest thing is, you find out that the victim of this horror movie is yourself. The demon in the movie suddenly bursts out of the screen and comes at you. Think about this."

Louis is very willing to stab the Lakers in public opinion.

The harder the Lakers are punished, the less effective they will be in the playoffs.

While KG's conflicts have torn the team apart, this destructive internal conflict is also an opportunity for the most imperfect team to transform into a perfect team.

Who can guarantee that Kobe and Garnett will not suddenly quarrel in the locker room at a critical moment, and then Kobe punched Garnett, so they reconciled, the Lakers became stronger again, and then swept the league.

This year's Celtics are very competitive. Although the team as a whole is a little younger, the league has undergone tremendous changes.

If the Lakers, who have the highest paper ceiling, hit a mountain and sink because of this, there will be no team with a talent so strong that it is the only one.

The Mavericks are strong, but the team as a whole does not have the depth and thickness needed to compete for the championship.

The rest, such as Penny's Suns, Nash's Jazz, and O'Neal's 76ers, are all powerful and have the potential to be a sharpening stone, but they are limited to this.

It seems that the only hidden dangers for the Celtics to reach the finals are the Knicks and the Heat.

Although they also have many players suspended, but these people will come back before the playoffs.Moreover, because they just won the championship last season, the Knicks are full of self-confidence. After the battle with MSG, they may have reached an unprecedented internal unity.

From the perspective of the lineup, the wing combination of McGrady and Hill can suppress all teams, but the Celtics also have advantages. The inside group led by Yao Yueban, Gasol, and Boozer is enough to make up for the lack of wings.

If it really happens in the playoffs, it all depends on the player's state and Bird's coaching skills.

(End of this chapter)