the rest, only noise

Chapter 206 The Bishop's Plan

The Kingdom

This is the home of the Seattle Supersonics, who are in the Pacific Division, the most competitive division in the West.

In this division, there are four strong teams, including the No. 3 Lakers in the West, and the SuperSonics have won No.[-] in their competition.

Four or five years ago, they were the weakest championship in NBA history.

It soon collapsed because of things other than the championship.

The Celtics came here tonight, just to win the game, nothing else.The division where the Sonics are located is strong, but their opponent is the Celtics, who are in the strongest division in the league.

In the warm-up session before the opening game, Louie came to the sidelines to say hello to Bill Russell, the Celtics' best player in team history.

"Bill, Reed has been talking about you a lot lately," Louis said.

Russell had no ill feeling toward Louis. Although the media spoke ill of him every day, he could see similarities between the two in Louis' words and deeds.

The only thing people can't get from Louie and Russell is humility.

They are all crazy. Someone once asked Russell how to deal with Kareem when he was put in the current league.

Russell was annoyed. He took the question as an offense.

"You should ask what Karim should do to me."

Russell never said he was the best, but he believed that he was the best from the bottom of his heart.

Louie's madness has been reported in many newspapers, needless to say, seeing Russell, they are like seeing the same kind of people.

"You guys have been playing well recently, and you managed to get me to order Celtics games at home." Russell did not shy away from his indifference to the Celtics, "I haven't watched their games for a long time."

This is one of the answers Louie is looking for: "Why?"

"I'm retired."

"It's that simple?" If Louie had won 11 championships with the Celtics, he wouldn't leave the Celtics alone after retirement.

Either way, this is where he made it.

Russell laughed like reggae, and said freely: "After me, there is Hondo, and after Hondo, there is Larry. Boston does not need an arrogant black man."

"Boston may not need it, but I do." Louie said bluntly, "Bill, I want to ask you for a favor."

※※※

After a period of warm-up, the two sides called the players off the court, and the head coach said something to the main players, and the game was about to begin.

Today, Louis casually found a reason to let John Lang take a rest.

Long is the most rested Celtics player, with the most minutes and the most runs.

Lang was confused at first when he heard of the rotation, but later Louis told him that rotation is paid vacation, he understood and accepted it happily.

Except for Lambiel's ignorant imitation of Thomas: "Why can black people get paid vacations, I want paid vacations!" and was almost kicked by Louie-he ran away when Louis was about to step out-other than that, everything was good.

Starting in Long's place is Danny Ainge.

Suddenly, the Celtics' starting five had more whites than blacks.

"Pure" Boston fans will be delighted to see this color arrangement.

The Supersonic's starting lineup looks impressive.

"Wizard" Gus Williams (Gus Williams PG/SG), Al Wood (Al Wood SG), Reggie King (Reggie King SF), 80's Griffin Tom Chambers and center post-up textbook Jack Sikma (Jack Sikma C).

Before the opening game, Louis also came to the midfield to say hello to the Supersonics head coach, the respected Lenny Wilkens.

"Coach Wilkens, I've been studying your "Coach's Manual" recently." Louie came up and gave him a rainbow fart.

"It has benefited me a lot."

"You flatter me, Little Lu." Wilkens laughed. "I may never lead the team to 50 wins and 5 losses."

Louis said confusedly: "If you were to bring this Celtics team, you would definitely be able to win 55 consecutive victories. I'm still too young."

"Coach Lu, don't you pretend to be in front of me?" Wilkens looked like he saw through Louis, "It's not modest to be too modest."

Louie knew what the effect of being too modest was, disgusting.

"Okay, Coach Wilkens, let's have a good game."

There is no other reason for Louie to take the initiative to show his favor to Wilkens. The other party is one of the few coaches who have not publicly criticized him.

Don't think it's a trivial matter. A while ago, everyone wanted to come out and criticize Louis. If Wilkens was willing to make up for it, he would definitely attract the support of many people.

One more friend is better than one more person who doesn't like him.

Wilkens is also a player-turned-coach, and he can enjoy both careers. Naturally, if this kind of person can make friends with each other, he must make friends with him.

Then the referee tonight came to say hello, the referee Wally King (Wally king white), and the assistant referee Ronnie Capas (Ronnie Capas black).

The NBA is the first league to pay attention to the balance of black and white.

There are two referees, one black and one white.

In Louis' impression, these two referees are relatively mediocre types. They will call fouls that should be called, and they will not steal the show at critical moments. They belong to the kind of referees who let players decide the game by themselves.

In the opening game, Sampson and Chambers jumped the ball.

This time, Chambers' explosive power surpassed Sampson's length.

Chambers jumped up vigorously, like a rocket into the air, and first patted the ball into the hands of his teammates.

And so the game begins.

Although the Sonics have a textbook post-up master like Sikma, they don't like to make a fuss about the low post.

Sikma's back hit is just one of their many choices.

Their ball circled outside for more than ten seconds, leaving only five seconds for Shikma.

The "wizard" doesn't seem ready to use his witchcraft just yet.

The ball is passed to Sikma.

Hikma faced Lambir, both white insiders, and they had different ways of making a living.

Lambiel relied on trying his best to defend, protect rebounds, mid-range and long-range jump shots, and irritate the opponent, making the opponent's IQ zero and then using his own IQ advantage to win the battle.

Hikma uses his flexible inside moves and his iconic Hikma step to PK the opponent's defensive IQ, and he often wins.

Now he is in a difficult situation, Lambiel is close to him, and there is not enough time to display his footwork.

He can only sway people with a Chikma step, and then hook and shoot against the defense.

There are some differences between the Celtics' fast break and the Lakers' Show Time.

They don't seek speed, they seek stability.

Therefore, although their scoring average ranks second in the league, they average only 13 turnovers per game, the third fewest in the league.

Bird grabbed the defensive rebound and passed it to Thomas for a drive.

Thomas rushed to the frontcourt, raised his hand and threw the ball to Angie behind him.

Angie feigned a shot, and after breaking through, he scored Bird who was outside the three-point line at the top of the arc.

Bird, who was undefended, shot a three-pointer like a cannonball.

3 is better than 0
Bird's three-pointer surprised fans at the Kings Arena.

Now is not as good as the future. Fans can watch the top ten balls, five best balls or other teams' game highlights through TV or computer.

They'd heard about the Celtics and knew Bird was having an uncontested MVP season, but they couldn't imagine how.

Watching Bird take the [-]-pointer as a regular weapon now, using a follow-up [-]-pointer to give the Celtics their first shot of the night, surprised everyone in the audience.

The head of the Sonics decided to respond.

"Wizard Guy" Gus Williams dribbled over and called Chambers' pick-and-roll. His style of play was epoch-making.

He is the first batch of ball-holding shooters in history to pass the pick-and-roll, out of space and immediately shoot without looking at the position.

This kind of offensive choice, which seemed ridiculous to people of the previous era, earned him the nickname "The Wizard".

Unfortunately, his shot was very biased.

Decisive shot selection, no retaliation.

The ball hit the neck of the basket, and Bird grabbed the defensive rebound again.

This time, the Celtics' fast break is no small matter.

Bird grabbed the rebound, and the moment he landed, he had found Angie who was about to come down, and swung a long pass with one hand under the basket.

Ainge comfortably received the ball, brought it upfield, and passed it to Thomas who followed up.

Thomas took the ball on the spot, and Sampson rushed over like a beast.

He walks the middle and Thomas waits for him to get into position and sends the ball out.

The subsequent result was irreversible. Sampson went straight into the Supersonics' restricted area, leaped forward, and dunked with one hand.

5 is better than 0
"Is this... Celtic's Show Time?"

CBS commentator Dick Stockton said in surprise.

"Don't show time!" Guest commentator Tom Heinsohn felt that the relationship with the Lakers was a bit unfavorable. "This is the 'Boston fast break' in the 60s. The Celtics are the team that carried forward the concept of fast break. Unfortunately, people now only know Show Time!"

All fans who are not Celtics fans need a certain amount of concentration to watch the CBS broadcast in order not to change the channel.

Heinsohn's position is really outrageous. This kind of eccentric guest should not be stationed in the national broadcast.

What's even more outrageous is that the CBS executives didn't realize until 1988, "Oh, the audience doesn't like Heinsohn, he's too Celtic-biased, we have to replace him."

Heinsohn not only praised the Celtics' fast break, but also praised Louie's coaching ability incidentally.

"This kind of scene can't be seen in the era of Bill Fitch." Heinsohn almost incontinent the Celtics, "I have to admit that Little Lu is the most suitable head coach for this team."

Louie never acknowledged his credit.

In other words, he thinks his credit is not here.

Compared with reviving the Celtics, his crucial contribution to the Celtics should be recommending John Long in 1978, pushing Lambiel in 1979, persuading Sampson to participate in the draft early in 1980, and discovering loopholes in the compensation deal between the Celtics and the Pistons.

Compared with this kind of contribution that actually laid the foundation for the Celtics to achieve greatness in the 80s, what is leading the Celtics to play brilliantly?

It is a pity that the most important part of Louis' contribution will eventually be condensed into one sentence:

"The bishop has a wonderful plan to secure the world."

(End of this chapter)