the rest, only noise

Chapter 954 To Live or To Die
The "Eden" incident left Louis exhausted. After the game with the Spurs, the Knicks left San Antonio overnight and returned to New York.

When Louie got home, he felt like something was stuck in his heart. He wanted to find someone to talk to, so he flipped through the phone book and saw the name of KC Jones.

He called and informed the other party of the problems the Knicks are currently facing, and wanted to know what he thought.

When Louie heard KC suggest that he trade Wilson and Ewing for Bird and Thomas, he wanted to just hang up.

Isn't that bullshit?If it could be changed, who would change Bird, who is about to retire, and Thomas, the leg-hugging king?
Definitely trade Ewing for Sampson alone.

Then, KC denied that he was joking.

According to his meaning, only by replacing people with Bird and Thomas can this situation be broken.

Louis originally thought that the other party was making fun of him.

After a while, he understood.

KC isn't really asking him to trade Wilson and Ewing for Bird and Thomas.

What he meant was that other than Bird and Thomas, other stars in the league had a hard time getting along after being successful together.

Even Bird and Thomas are not in absolute harmony.

"So what did you do to them? Why can they work together for ten years without any major conflict?"

Hearing this, KC laughed happily.

It was too much fun for him.For a long time, he thought that he was in the light of Louis.When Louie took over the Celtics in 1983, he threatened to turn the team into what it should be.

Louie did what he said and turned the Celtics into the perfect team.

Louie once believed that the perfect team is a flash in the pan in professional basketball. It can only appear in a short period of time, and then wither due to reality.

There have only been two perfect teams in history for a long time.

That's the Celtics in the Russell era and the Celtics in 1984-1988.

Why are they all Celtics? This is a puzzle in Louis' eyes.

Even for him, it was not easy to explain the so-called Celtic mystique.

Perhaps deep in the soul of this team, there is really a resonant force that can suppress the selfish side of people's hearts.

But in the eyes of KC, this team was created by Louis.

After he took over, what he did was nothing more than three points.

Reinforce Sampson, indulge Byrd, and treat Thomas with the utmost kindness.

Byrd is indeed a great hope for white people, but he is not a natural superstar like Dr. J and The Tragedian, and he is not used to being in the spotlight.

After the media realized this fact, they only respected Byrd instead of worshiping him as a god.

Because this person has flaws visible to the naked eye.

This removes one of the biggest pitfalls within the Celtics -- the media's endless hype about Bird while ignoring the contributions of other players, especially black players.

Who is the biggest beneficiary?

The answer is Sampson.

Larry Legend is cold and impersonal, but Mr. One is an incomprehensible player on the court and a moral model off the court. He is not as uncomfortable in the face of the media as Bird is. He is still a black player, and Thomas has no problem with this.

Sampson is recognized by the league as the overlord of the interior line, and it is only natural that he enjoys the highest glory.

Bird lost some of the limelight, Sampson gained endless fame, and Thomas got what?
The answer is the respect of the whole team.

Bird is the boss, Sampson is the face, and Thomas is the leader.

He is the lone hero who constantly set an example, inspired his teammates, stepped up to end the game at critical moments, and almost killed the Knicks with one leg in 1988.

KC once explored Thomas' motivation for fighting for it.

Keeping this state, he won't get much fame and fortune other than winning.

Both the media and fans prefer Sampson. Even though the players think Thomas is the number one point guard in the league, Thomas has never been selected for the first team due to the existence of the tragic division and others in the awards selection.

Therefore, all the championships he won with the Celtics can be crowned as the third champion.

No fame or fortune, what is he for?
The truth once made KC feel unbelievable.

In the Eastern Conference finals in 1988, Thomas dragged his injured leg and turned on the unparalleled mode. KC confirmed what was supporting the smiling assassin for so many years.

It was the hatred for Louis.

Thomas hated Louie, that was obvious.

Thomas hated Louis for never looking him in the eye, hated Louis for being mean, hated Louis for leaving, hated Louis for never looking down on him.

He was very clear that everything he did with the Celtics was something Louie didn't think he could do.Because Louie sees him as a Celtic time bomb, what does it mean to have a bomb he can't handle next to him?
Thomas really thinks Louie left Boston because of him.

Because Louis never believed that Isiah Thomas could let go of those obsessions and become a selfless player.

Louis didn't want a selfish Thomas, he wanted a Saint Thomas.

KC doesn't know whether Thomas wants Louis to leave deep in his heart, but he can be sure that he can persist in Boston for ten years, and there is only one reason why he chooses to leave until he confirms that the future of this team is unpredictable. He wants to prove Louis wrong.

Actually he did, didn't he?
Louis really misread him.

Louis couldn't imagine how far a person like Thomas could twist his mind just to get angry with him.

Thomas' choice is the most important factor, followed by Bird's indisputability.

The butterfly effect caused by Louie made Bird the GOAT.At the same time, it also brought him better teammates.

Compared with Sampson, Parrish is as insignificant as the light of a firefly, and incomparable to the bright moon in the sky.

Thomas, on the other hand, is a ruthless man who will train and compete desperately without being motivated by Bird.

In this case, Bird only has the opportunity to show his leadership ability in the game.

In practice, he's not Ewing's "this is my fucking team" air.

As long as you train as hard as he does, he doesn't care about you.

Even in that regard, it was Thomas who ran Bird.Bird's training is not compromised, but his self-control in life is extremely poor. He likes to drink beer and eat sweets. He often gets fat, but Thomas has never gotten fat.

Off the court, Thomas is the role model and leader of the team.

So, KC thinks only Bird and Thomas can avoid this from happening.

Let go of the obsessive Thomas and the uncontested Bird, this is the answer to the perfect team⑴.

KC's words kept Louis silent for a long time.

Compared with these two, Wilson and Ewing are pure opposites.

To compare Ewing to Bird is like looking at an antonym.

Why Bird has no contention, Louis does not know.

Maybe he is that kind of person, or maybe it's the stupid brain of a country bumpkin with great wisdom.

Ewing's method is to fight to the end, not only to fight, but also to fight vigorously. Everyone knows that, so that his teammates have to choose sides between the two.

He has to fight for the highest salary in the team, the boss in the team, and the top scoring point in the team... He has to fight for everything that can be competed for. He doesn't like to cater to the media and sponsors, but seeing Wilson is so popular, he is also jealous and wants to fight.

His fighting heart is not because of any personal grievances with Wilson, but because he feels that he is the boss of the team, and everything Wilson does is challenging this, so he wants to stand up and turn him upside down.

He wants to establish himself again and again, just like cats and canines love to mark their territory with piss.

Compared with Ewing, Wilson has done a lot of things to maintain stability.

He has repeatedly claimed that Ewing is the boss of the team. When Ewing declared dominance, he did not have any objections.

For internal harmony, Wilson even created an affable persona for himself.In other words, it was an accidental result of the team behind him unintentionally.

Because Ewing is so much like the traditional angry black man, making the media and fans who interviewed and contacted him feel uncomfortable, Wilson has to do the opposite.

How anti-human Ewing's temperament is, Wilson must be more human-friendly.

This image allows Wilson to penetrate from the off-court to the team.

Even Louie has been tricked.

It wasn't until Louis saw how Wilson fell in love with the tormenting king Jordan on the court that he realized that the Wilson he saw on weekdays was wearing a mask.

Although it is a human design, Wilson does not need to maintain this image in the team, just like Jordan is externally the idol who makes the general public dream of "I want to be like Mike", but internally he is a ruthless devil.

But Wilson brought the character to life, and he kind of got stuck in it.

In this way, Benj is also a bit psychopathic.

Even though he has no intention of competing with Ewing for the position, his talent and charisma cannot be concealed. No matter how restrained he is, many people still regard him as the core and boss of the Knicks.

This is an irresolvable contradiction.

Bird and Thomas are unrepeatable.

"Are you still listening?" KC asked.

"Well." Louis said bitterly, "I suddenly felt that many of the things I did were meaningless. I thought I was cautious and would not do things I was not sure of, but I found that I was not like this when I was young. The greatest success I have achieved was precisely those things I was not sure about."

"I'm not sure about my future in professional basketball."

"I'm not sure I can lobby Ralph for the draft."

"I assure Redd that it's a no-brainer to revamp the Celtics."

"I left Boston and came to New York determined to beat the Celtics, and I was not sure."

"I'm getting more and more cautious, just maintaining some kind of delicate balance, as if as long as we keep winning, the cracks inside won't grow bigger..."

Looking back now, Louie seems to have smoothed his edges in New York, too.

If it was changed to ten years ago, Sely would be directly terminated by him, but he did not do that, because the team may still need Sely at some point;
Ewing would be yelled at by him for hours, but he didn't do it because... no, he couldn't find an excuse for it.He should have yelled at Ewing, but he didn't.

That was the most disappointing time for Louis in the years he had known Ewing.

He didn't even have the strength to scold Ewing at that time.

Louie should have lashed out at all players who talk nonsense in private interviews, but he didn't.

He just lets the players digest themselves.

No excuses, it was his relapse.

Looking back now, Louie found that he made many mistakes.

And this realization didn't cheer him up, he just felt drained.

Whether physically or mentally.

"KC, if it were you, what would you do?"

Louis asked at last.

"Playing confused." KC laughed. "Sometimes, we should be confused once in a while. Great teams will find their own way."

And the way out for the Knicks?

It is a road that leads to two paths, one to life and the other to death.

There is no turning back, they must choose.

(End of this chapter)