Chapter 1 On the Court

On the court, after the "Los Angeles F4's" "temporary meeting," their momentum of continuous point loss was finally stopped.

As the former Seattle SuperSonics' perimeter stopper, although Payton's offense had waned with time, his defensive skills were far superior to the likes of Fisher.

In his previous life, after experiencing that frustrating Los Angeles period...

In the 2005/06 Finals, even though the 37-year-old Payton could only contribute 2.7 points, 2 rebounds, and 2 assists per game, Riley still gave him nearly 23 minutes of playing time, precisely because Payton's impact on the defensive end was unmatched.

However...

Although the Lakers managed to defend several possessions against the Heat, looking back...

Their performance on the offensive end tonight...

Was praised by Larry Brown as being truly insightful.

As the strongest center on the planet right now, at his peak, Shaq apologists often claimed that no one could stop O'Neal.

But tonight's game, in Su Feng's view, was the best slap in the face to those Shaq apologists.

Because...

No one being able to stop O'Neal doesn't mean that injuries and time can't.

This season, O'Neal, still tormented by toe injuries, basically had to endure a great deal of pain after every game.

Coupled with the relentless passage of time and the constant mindless targeting by opponents on the court...

Contrary to what O'Neal would say in the future when breaking up with Kobe...

In reality, this fathead was already at the point where even if Jackson wanted him to grind twenty or thirty times a game, he simply couldn't.

Even though this version of "Shaq" had lowered his stance and learned the "underhand free throw" to keep his free throw percentage around 60%, it was still the same.

Because the decline in physical fitness and the persistent torment of injuries cannot be shifted by subjective will.

Therefore...

If you know that O'Neal always praises the actions of his current partner after breaking up with his previous one, then you should know...

The reason he would say in the future that Kobe kicked him to Miami and that Kobe took too many shots on the court was entirely due to his stubborn personality.

Because with this Lakers team right now...

Apart from hoping that Kobe would get lucky on the court, could Jackson really expect Fisher to be the savior?

In Su Feng's previous life, after the "OK" duo reconciled, O'Neal immediately turned a blind eye to Kobe's brainless shots on the court.

He even instigated Kobe to go wild and score 60 points in his final game before retirement.

In Su Feng's original timeline, after the Lakers failed to win four consecutive championships, O'Neal, even though he had a fierce feud with Kobe, never truly broke ties with him.

Because this "tsundere" Shaq was well aware that even if Kobe's efficiency fluctuated, he needed someone to step up and share the pressure.

And blaming the "OK" breakup entirely on Kobe's "Shaq did it" statement is even more ridiculous.

Because even if O'Neal really wanted to beat Kobe up, that wasn't the main reason for the OK breakup.

In fact, the reason O'Neal brought Malone and Payton to the Lakers in the summer of '03 was because he had the idea of ending his career with the Lakers.

Because according to the agreement, O'Neal's contract with the Lakers would expire in the summer of 2006, so O'Neal had always wanted to extend his contract with the Lakers for another two or three years.

But...

Whether in his previous life or this one, O'Neal was facing an unsolvable problem at this moment.

That is...

Kobe's six-year deal with the Lakers, signed years ago, would only have one year left after this season.

And in this life, due to the NBA's introduction of the "super luxury tax" rule...

So O'Neal understood that if he couldn't bring anything more to this Lakers team, the Lakers would definitely send him away before his contract expired to avoid the luxury tax.

Therefore, do you know how much he, O'Neal, wanted to win tonight?

He even humbled himself before the game and chatted with Kobe for several hours in order to win.

Although in the opening game, this "Galactic Battleship" he personally assembled experienced a bit of an unexpected start...

But in O'Neal's view, the ensuing five-game winning streak had already proven the power of this "Galactic Battleship."

O'Neal believed that as long as he could lead the Lakers to another championship this year, then the "human touch" of Old Buss would definitely give him a respectable contract to end his career.

However...

What O'Neal didn't know was...

Like Nike, the Lakers also had a serious "virgin complex" when it came to giving their star players contracts to end their careers.

Any Lakers fan with a little experience should know that the Lakers have always had a tradition of cultivating their own guards and poaching superstar centers from elsewhere.

And this tradition didn't just begin in the Old Buss era.

It had been around since the era when the "Runner-up Twin Stars" were battling the Celtics.

In addition, the previous five-game winning streak had also masked many of this Lakers team's problems.

And tonight, the Heat were simply helping them uncover those problems.

On the court, during the second quarter, watching the score gap that they couldn't close, O'Neal even received a technical foul for complaining to the referee during an offensive play.

He was anxious.

He was really anxious.

You must know that in O'Neal's eyes, losing to Su Feng was a minor matter.

After all, he had been hammered by Su Feng more than once or twice in the past few years.

But...

Judging from the game against this mediocre Heat team tonight...

How could he, O'Neal, have any confidence in facing other cosmic teams?

Are you kidding me!

It's already 2003, doesn't anyone really think that the Celtics, Sixers, Suns, and Mavericks are fake powerhouses?

O'Neal knew that even if he could still use his loss to Su Feng as a shield after this night, he couldn't change the fact that this Lakers team had become weaker.

Before, in the opening game against the Raptors, O'Neal thought it was just an accident.

But now...

O'Neal realized...

It wasn't an accident at all.

And at the Staples Center, the Lakers fans in the arena also felt extremely frustrated.

Because...

This Lakers team had another very serious problem.

That is, apart from Kobe, none of the other players on the court could run.

And in NBA games...

If you don't have three-pointers or fast breaks when you're behind...

Then chasing the score will be extremely painful.

In the second half of the second quarter, after a period of silence, the Heat, having gradually brought back their main players, regained their touch.

And at this time...

The increasingly anxious Lakers players realized in a daze...

That the score gap they had barely managed to close to single digits, relying on Kobe and O'Neal, had been reopened to 15 points by the Heat.

On TNT, at halftime, Barkley commented, "Although I'm not on the court playing, this feeling of never being able to catch up to the score...

Just thinking about it makes me feel pain for Shaq and the others!"

After the first half, the Heat led 67-52 on the road.

And during halftime, in the Lakers' locker room, O'Neal and Kobe, who had been harmonious before the game, also had a conflict.

"Stop passing the ball into the low post, if we keep grinding like this, there's no way we'll catch up to the score."

That's what Kobe said to Payton in the locker room at the time.

And upon hearing this, O'Neal, who was standing nearby, exploded before Payton could even answer Kobe.

Because in O'Neal's view, stopping passing the ball into the low post was the same as not passing the ball to him.

"Not passing the ball to the low post... Are we really going to expect someone to be able to win against Su in a one-on-one?" O'Neal said, looking down at Kobe with slight dissatisfaction.

In this game, although the team doctor had suggested that O'Neal rest before the game...

In order to personally take down Su Feng, he, O'Neal, had still chosen to play through the injury without hesitation.

Therefore, only heaven knew how angry O'Neal was when he heard Kobe say that.

However, because Kobe was playing well in this game, he was also furious when he heard O'Neal say that he couldn't beat Su Feng.

And Payton and Malone, who didn't know how to "mediate"...

At this moment, what else could they do but huddle together for warmth?

In the Lakers' locker room, amidst Kobe and O'Neal's sarcastic remarks, every Lakers player felt the temperature, which was colder than the South Pole.

"I've had enough, I never want to play with high school players again!" O'Neal complained resentfully at the end of halftime.

Kobe: "..."

Heh...

Shaq, is that what you really think?

Fine!

Since you don't want to continue this life, then let's just break up!

"If it wasn't for someone slacking off in training, how could we have only won one championship in the past five years?" Kobe said, looking up at O'Neal.

And this time...

In this wave of mutual harm, Kobe and O'Neal didn't know that they had both successfully broken through each other's defenses.

In Su Feng's previous life, because O'Neal often brought up his high school player status, Kobe had always been concerned about his education.

And in this life...

Since O'Neal only won one championship in six Finals appearances, probably no one in this world, except for Baylor and Logo Man, hated being the runner-up more than he did.

Moreover, how much had he, O'Neal, sacrificed for this Lakers team in order to win the championship?

On the surface, he liked to slack off in training.

But that was also because his toe was a ticking time bomb.

In addition, if it wasn't for winning the championship, would he, O'Neal, have lowered himself to practice that "underhand free throw" that lowered his overall image?

However...

After sacrificing so much for the Lakers...

Can you believe that all he, O'Neal, got in return was a sentence like that from Kobe?

And in the Lakers' locker room...

Although the regular season had just started this season, all the Lakers players already wanted to fast forward to the end of the season.

And aside, the "Zen Master," who should have stepped forward at this time, only said to Kobe and O'Neal after finishing his meditation: "Calm down, the new season has just begun."

On this night, in order to win, Jackson stood on Kobe's side.

Because Jackson also knew that without Kobe's shooting from the outside, the Lakers would never be able to catch up to the score gap between them and the Heat.

And in Su Feng's memory, in the 2003/04 season...

Apart from the usual outbursts every time he went to court, in fact, Kobe's games with a surge in shot attempts were mainly concentrated in games like tonight.

Especially in the 2003/04 Finals.

On the surface, O'Neal had a shooting percentage of over 60% in that series and averaged 26.8 points per game.

But in reality, the Pistons were just playing a war of attrition against O'Neal in that series.

Therefore, any Lakers fan who had watched that series knew that it wasn't that Jackson didn't want to control Kobe's unreasonable shots on the court...

But if O'Neal was a few years younger, Jackson wouldn't have let Kobe shoot so wildly.

Although Jackson also had his own flaws in coaching ability...

But in knowing that O'Neal's efficiency was so high, he still allowed Kobe to mess around, was Jackson really a fool?

Wake up, that was the Finals, where one general succeeds and ten thousand bones wither!

And it's worth emphasizing again that, according to Jackson himself, in Su Feng's original timeline, he was extremely unhappy with Kobe at this time due to the "Eagle County incident."

Therefore, if this Lakers team really had other options...

Then he, Jackson, wouldn't have bet on whether Kobe could turn on the "God Descends" switch in the game.

After halftime, in the third quarter, O'Neal's efficiency began to decline due to the constant pain coming from his toes.

Honestly, being ripped off by Reebok for so many years and still refusing to burn Reebok's shoes, in Su Feng's view, O'Neal was really something as an endorser.

Fortunately, Little Yao had successfully avoided this big pit in this life...

Otherwise, with Reebok's shoes during this period...

It was really a pit for whoever wore them.

Because Reebok had been competing with Nike in terms of guard shoe technology, so during this period, the shoes designed for centers were not only extremely anti-human, but they also often didn't fit properly.

In Su Feng's previous life, this problem with Reebok shoes was particularly evident in O'Neal and Yao Ming, these two low-post behemoths.

Although on the basketball court, blaming the shoes for not playing well was something only elementary school students would do.

But in the NBA, in this high-intensity and fierce competition, any minor detail could potentially affect a player's career.

Therefore, when designing shoes for Little Yao before, Su Feng had asked the designers to abandon any design that might sacrifice comfort for the sake of appearance.

However, O'Neal, who didn't have Brother Feng to rely on, wasn't so lucky.

In the low post, after missing two easy one-on-one opportunities in a row...

O'Neal, who originally wanted to secretly pretend that nothing had happened, gave up the idea of letting Kobe take over the game when he noticed Kobe's gaze towards him...

He was so angry that he didn't want Kobe to take over the game.

And originally, Su Feng, who was preparing to have a good battle with Kobe after halftime...

Finally saw the Kobe he was familiar with!

Because with O'Neal refusing to let go of the ball, Kobe, who was too lazy to ask Payton for the ball, simply became a spectator on the court.

And even if the ball was passed to him, he would pass it out immediately.

As a result...

How could O'Neal have imagined that he, who wanted to die standing up tonight, was actually exhausted to death?

In the third quarter, Jackson called several timeouts, but it didn't work.

Because once Kobe started sulking, no one in this league, except for Su Feng, could persuade him.

And with this ebb and flow, after three quarters, the Heat had already extended their lead to 25 points.

In the final quarter, the "Zen Master" simply gave up resisting.

In the end, the score of this game was 114-95.

Su Feng, who played through the first three quarters, totaled 21 points, 11 rebounds, 12 assists, 2 steals, and 2 blocks.

Ginobili scored the team's highest 27 points, 2 rebounds, and 3 assists in just 23 minutes of playing time.

On the Lakers' side, O'Neal, who made 14 of 22 shots plus free throws, scored a game-high 36 points and 17 rebounds.

Kobe, who had a good touch in the first half, didn't take a single shot in the second half, making 9 of 13 shots overall, scoring a total of 28 points, 4 rebounds, and 3 assists including free throws and three-pointers.

After the game, in an interview, Riley highly praised the performance of Su Feng and Ginobili.

And when asked why Kobe didn't take a single shot in the second half of the game, Riley said that he didn't know what was happening within the Lakers.

Since neither O'Neal nor Kobe attended the post-game press conference, the same question was also posed to the "Zen Master."

And at this time...

Jackson said meaningfully: "Maybe, Kobe wanted to learn some of Su's organizational skills."

As one of the factors in Su Feng's memory that led to the OK breakup, it must be said that Jackson was indeed a "famous coach of his generation."

Because even at this time, he didn't forget to use the topic of Kobe not taking a shot in the second half to divert people's attention...

This skill of shifting blame must be a million times better than Larry Brown's, right?

Seriously, after being in the NBA for so long in the past two years, looking back at Larry Brown in the 1997/98 season, Su Feng really felt like he wanted to speak up for Brown.

Because compared to Jackson, this old fox...

Brown was simply a "perfect white lotus."

"What? When I turned off the TV in the first half, Kobe hadn't already blown you up?"

"Oh! My God, what was he thinking!"

"Why didn't he seize the opportunity tonight to go wild and score 50 points over your head?" After the game, Su Feng received a call from McGrady as soon as he finished showering.

And upon hearing this, Su Feng immediately became anxious.

Blown up?

Where was he blown up?

Which of your eyes saw me being blown up by Kobe?

"Tracy, if you don't understand basketball..."

"I can teach you like I taught you the pull-up jumper back then."

"Didn't you see those offensive plays I orchestrated for the team tonight?" Su Feng retorted angrily.

And upon hearing this, McGrady immediately hung up the phone.

Su Feng: "..."

Good fellow!

You really just brush aside whatever's important, huh?

No cap, if he, Su Feng, doesn't hammer this little Tracy in the upcoming game between the Heat and the Suns, then he'll write his name backward!

On the other side, Kobe, who was in a bad mood after losing the game, also received a call from McGrady after the game.

"Hello, is this the phone of the 'Pennsylvania Magic' Su Feng?"

"I just watched the first half of your game against the Lakers."

"Oh, my God! Your freehand no-look passes are simply amazing!" McGrady deliberately taunted Kobe on the phone.

Penn...

Pennsylvania Magic?

Him, Su Feng, with those passes... Does he even deserve that title?

"Tracy, if you don't understand basketball..."

"I can teach you like I taught you one-on-one back then."

"Didn't you see me blowing up Su's offense on the court tonight?" Kobe retorted angrily.

And upon hearing this, McGrady immediately hung up the phone.

Kobe: "..."

Good fellow!

You really just don't talk about whatever's important, huh?

No cap, if he, Kobe, doesn't hammer this little Tracy in the upcoming game between the Lakers and the Suns, then he'll go be Su Feng's sidekick from now on!

...

Just like that, after a night that broke the hearts of Lakers fans...

A discussion about how strong the Heat really were...

Became a hot topic among fans in China and the United States for a time.

And why Kobe didn't take a single shot in the second half of the game against the Heat also became the focus of controversy.

As a result, after frantically tapping on their keyboards to argue with each other for several hours, whether they were Su Feng haters, Su Feng fans, Kobe haters, or Kobe fans, they all came to the same conclusion...

That is, maybe only time could tell them the answer.

On the 9th, in the team's second road trip in the West, the Heat defeated the recently unlucky Rockets by a score of 132-95.

Just like in Su Feng's memory...

In order to enjoy the thrill of racing, the Rockets' No. 1 pick in 2002, Jay Williams, personally ended his career before the start of the new season.

Although in this life, due to Little Yao's early entry into the draft, Williams' fate had also changed invisibly, before this accident, the Rockets' management had warned Williams more than once, telling him not to joke with his career all the time.

However, facing the warnings of the Rockets' management, the arrogant Williams only wanted to enjoy speed and passion on the highway.

And then, there was no then.

There are thousands of roads, safety is the first, unsafe driving, loved ones shed two lines of tears.

In Su Feng's previous life, there was a classic saying in Rabbit Country:

The warnings left by predecessors are only meant to tell future generations that humans will never pay attention to the warnings of predecessors.

In the 2002/03 season, thanks to this life's better growth environment for the Rockets, Williams, who averaged 13.5 points, 7.4 rebounds, and 7.1 assists per game, was originally highly anticipated by the Rockets' management.

But after this car accident...

Williams, while destroying himself, also caused the Rockets to tank for a few years in a sense.

Plus, in the new season, a very tired Tomjanovich had left Houston...

Therefore, this season, the Rockets' attendance rate was so low most of the time that even Alexander was calling on the fans in interviews to give this team, which was in its darkest hour, a little light.

On the 11th, after defeating the Rockets, the Heat defeated the Grizzlies in Memphis.

In this game, looking at Van Gundy's familiar forehead and Charlie Ward, who had become his adopted son again after many years...

In a trance, Su Feng felt like he had returned to his rookie season.

However, compared to when he coached the Knicks, the Grizzlies currently led by Van Gundy were obviously more energetic.

At the start of the first quarter, Gasol used his solid technique to educate the recently highly praised Milicic.

However...

Facing the Heat's flurry of punches in the second quarter...

Van Gundy still couldn't figure out why the Grizzlies couldn't defend against the Heat.

So...

After thinking about it all night without understanding, Van Gundy became completely obsessed.

"I feel like we played very well..."

"Maybe we lost because Su played too well?" Van Gundy said in an interview after the game.

On the other side, after learning that Van Gundy had blamed the loss on him...

Su Feng felt that this guy wouldn't be able to see the situation of modern basketball development until he retired for a few years.

In fact, just looking at the lineup, this Grizzlies team, which has Battier, Eddie Jones, Baron Davis on the perimeter, and Gasol in the interior, is also very competitive.

Because they not only have a certain ability to run and gun, but they can also drop into position and rely on Gasol's high-post screen and low-post one-on-one to attack strongly.

In addition, on the defensive end, a team coached by Van Gundy can be trusted.

Just...

Before Van Gundy became a commentator, how could he see the advantages of this Grizzlies team?

After the game, when reviewing the game at home, looking at the incredible shots that Su Feng made in the game, Van Gundy felt that they were simply not something normal humans could do.

"If you give me a Su, I can also win a championship!"

That day, Van Gundy said, touching his forehead after watching the tape.

And in November...

Those Su Feng haters who thought the Heat would collapse after their two-game losing streak had completely despaired of life.

Because on November 19, after defeating the Wizards at home, since defeating the Lakers...

The Heat had recently achieved a seven-game winning streak.

And online, with ESPN ranking the Heat sixth in the power rankings...

In the eyes of the fans, Su Feng wasn't just leading the kids on the Heat in the new season...

This damn Heat was simply going to compete for the championship!

No way, no way!

With this Heat team, Su Feng can also bring out the championship look?

...

ps: 6600-word chapter brought to you! Please continue to beg for subscriptions, monthly tickets, and recommendation tickets!

ps2: Happy fifth day of the Lunar New Year, I wish all handsome genuine readers a prosperous year!