the rest, only noise

Chapter 457 The Solo Dance of the Tragic Master
The Eastern Conference finals came to a tragic end.

In the West, the Lakers, who looked dead, unexpectedly drew with the Trail Blazers in the first four games of the Western Conference Finals.

In Game 40 of the Western Conference Finals, the Magic had a triple-double, Wilkins scored 40 points, and the 30-year-old Kareem Abdul-Jabbar scored 7+[-]. The Lakers won Tianwangshan.

"Maybe next year, Michael?"

Game6, these words were written on the posters pulled out by the fans in the Forum Arena.

If Louie were the head coach, he would prohibit fans from carrying such slogans into the arena, because it is not wise to provoke someone like Jordan who is getting angry and getting stronger.

Sure enough, in Game6, Jordan had no teammates in his eyes. He used a method that the world would not tolerate-a lot of solo fights, and didn't pay attention to his teammates-scored 55 points, leading the team to win against the wind in the forum.

The game was pushed to a seventh game.

Game [-] in the Memorial Coliseum, taking fans back to the days of Bill Walton.

Eleven years ago, Walton led the team to sweep the pack here, including the Lakers led by the peak Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.Ten years later, the 11-year-old Abdul-Jabbar came here again to play in the playoffs, facing a completely different player from Walton.

The Blazers used pocket formations to shrink the penalty area, and Jordan rushed to the basket frantically, causing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to leave the field with the sixth foul at the beginning of the fourth quarter.

Xavier McDaniel's stalwart confrontation puts the pause button on the essence of human cinema.

Larry Nance fought hard in the penalty area.

Dominating this series with his physicality is what he deserves.Because the Lakers have nothing to match him at the fourth position.

But we cannot rely on book strength alone to judge the outcome of the game.What you think is your advantage sometimes doesn't become your advantage.

Pat Riley took risks and adopted the same style of play as the Blazers.

The pocket formation, pioneered and spread by Louie, became the theme of the night's game.

Nance couldn't fly in this situation, Drexler couldn't make a jumper, Jordan couldn't hit a [-]-pointer, and Magic hit every [-]-pointer of the night like he was possessed by Curry.

In the last few minutes, Jordan gave up his outside shot and switched to the best first step in history, passing Michael Cooper like a stake, tying the score.

Before the end, Nance's supplementary dunk gave the Blazers the lead.

Afterwards, the magician exits and the tragedian enters the stage.

What the magician did was familiar to Louis and also in line with Louis' impression.

Tragedians are different.

Originally, Tragedy was used to mock Magician's disastrous performance in the 1984 Finals.In the next few years, the Magician never made a major mistake, and his performance has always been very stable. Things that he was not good at before, such as three-pointers, such as offense with the ball, such as the ability to take over at critical moments... all have improved through the torture of the Celtics.

This version of the magician was probably far stronger than the one Louis knew.

After all, in Louie's previous life, the magician in 1987 could not have averaged 2 three-pointers per game.

For a person who has never played on the three-point line since he was a child, even if he has an excellent sense of the ball, it will take extremely hard work to practice a stable and reliable three-pointer in a few years.

The sweat that the magician shed for this is unimaginable for ordinary people.

Tonight, the Lakers' last offense, Jordan personally defended against the Magician.

Jordan is this year's scoring leader, steals leader, was selected for the first team and first defense, and was second in the MVP vote.

The honor of MVP is an award that neither Magician nor Jordan has ever received in their careers.

Magic backs Jordan with his size, and in the final seconds outside the paint, he spreads his legs and runs as fast as he can.

One step, two steps, jump.

Under Jordan's defense, the ball in the magician's hand lifted from his right hand and kept rising. When the hand reached the highest point, the ball immediately flew away from the center of the finger.

Even a flying man couldn't stop the ball.

Jordan watched the ball fly, and at the moment when the red light came on and the game time reached 0 seconds, whoa!

Memorial Stadium turned into a sea of ​​tears.

The fans cried out in pain. For three consecutive years, the Lakers eliminated the Trail Blazers in the Western Conference Finals, stepped into the gate of the finals, and challenged their destined opponents.

"Maybe, we should vote for Magic the most valuable player of the regular season."

A media person who has options in the MVP voting said after the Western Conference Finals.

The irony is that in the MVP voting, let alone the magician, he was not even in the top four votes.

Watching the magician reach the finals again, although Louie was very excited about his performance in the Western Conference finals, his opponent in the finals was a team that was difficult to beat.

To win the Celtics, you must either have a strong frontcourt lineup to suppress Sampson and Lambir; or you must have an outstanding wing lineup to fight Bird and strengthen the defensive strength.

That's exactly what the Pistons and Knicks are going.

In the West, the most suitable team to challenge the Celtics is undoubtedly the Trail Blazers, who have the best wing lineup in the league.If they make it to the Finals, Louie can't imagine how the Celtics will guard Jordan and how they will guard Drexler.

What is certain is that Bird will play the worst finals of his career, and the winner will be Thomas and Sampson.

From this point of view, even the Blazers have little chance of winning.

Larry Nance was a plaything with Sampson.

The path chosen by the Lakers is to face each other head-on, attacking each other.

Such ambition is rare.

Louis believes that the Celtics' four consecutive championships have no dead ends, so he does not pay too much attention, and does two things well with one heart and one mind.

Reviewing the rookie list for this year's draft during the day and taking care of Lorraine at night, she is about to unload.

Let's talk about this year's draft, just like most drafts since the 80s, it has an unshakable No. [-] pick.

David Robinson of the Naval Academy.

The media that loves the new and hates the old thinks that he is an evolution of Sampson. He is not as tall as Sampson, but he is also seven feet, but faster, more flexible, and more explosive.

A center who is more athletic than Ewing and has the guard skills of Sampson.

In fact, it is not an exaggeration to say that he is a seven-foot small forward. His speed is too fast, which is not what a seven-footer should have.

For his potential, the rating given by scouts is second only to Ewing, but the upper limit may be higher than Sampson.

In this evaluation system, scouts defaulted to Ewing's potential above Sampson.

It looks outrageous but it is not difficult to understand. Ewing is recognized as the master of the future. Although there is no sign yet, who is sure that he will not explode in the fourth grade like Sampson?
Just looking at Sampson's first three seasons, no one can believe that he will cry all the insiders in the league after 1984.

Knowing Robinson's future accomplishments, Louie wasn't surprised that scouts were touting him.

What he really cares about is the Knicks' selection.

They have the seventh pick in the first round, so his goal is to bring a star prospect to the team.

As a time traveler, in 1987, the draft year that has produced players who can play into the 21st century, it would be too much not to rely on your own advantages to find an acquaintance.

Moreover, this matter is not difficult at all, he locked UCLA's Reggie Miller at once.

Dale Ellis was successfully discharged from the hospital in the playoffs, turning from a second-home shooter to the team's most reliable marksman, but what he did in the regular season made Louis very disappointed.

Regardless of whether he will reform or not, Louie thinks it is necessary to find a backup tire for him.

If the Knicks choose Miller, maybe this spare tire will replace Ellis in the starting lineup in less than two years.

Hmm... In terms of three-pointers and three-pointers after running without the ball, which player in history dare to say that he is stronger than Miller besides Ray Allen, Curry and Klay Thompson?
So the only thing they have to be careful about is the walkers.

Louie remembers that the Pacers didn't seem to trade for Miller, and Miller wasn't even their first choice. Therefore, as long as the Knicks choose Miller with the seventh pick in their hands, they basically have a grasp.

Then there's another thing, about the ownership of Scottie Pippen.

After Louis' efforts, he found Pippen.

A few months earlier, Pippen had been working at a burger joint in his hometown of Arkansas.It is located in the middle of "Fog" street and "Old Milo" exclusive shop.

Pippen played for the University of Central Arkansas all four years.

The reason Louie didn't hear from him was because he was from the NCAA Division II.

Probably, Pippen is the greatest player the NCAA Division II has ever produced.

Because he's from a secondary league, a college league that still draws thousands of viewers a game but isn't televised and not many pro scouts care about.

But players in the second-tier league should not be ignored. Not to mention, Charles Oakley, an important backbone of the Knicks, is also from the second-tier league, and Rodman is also from the second-tier league.

Another flaw of the print media era is that if a talented genius does not have a good background, or if they are unlucky, they are likely to be reduced to the second-tier league and no one cares about them.

In the age of social media, a seven-foot boy can break through Curry's defense and go to the basket and slam the basket to become popular in the United States through a period of bad luck, so that scouts can discover his potential.

However, in this era, there are not so many media, no scouting network, no draft predictions, and no high school scouts. Scouts must rely on their own sense of smell and the recommendation of college coaches, running back and forth like headless chickens.

If Pippen is unknown, can the Knicks go empty-handed?

Louis thought... No, this idea was instantly denied by himself.

(End of this chapter)