Bishop of the Devil

Just as Richard expected, the NBA Management Committee actually called Richard.

But the caller was not Stern, but Adam Silver.

"Richard, you didn't even say hello to us before you did this. It's really..." Xiao Hua's tone on the phone was quite dissatisfied.

"Huh? Say hello? Adam, this thing doesn't seem to have anything to do with the management committee, right? I didn't use the name of the NBA..." Richard said with a smile.

"Richard, if you want your CFC to continue, I think you'd better find a way to get through our management committee. Otherwise, it's entirely possible for us to stop this type of fighting competition from happening!" Xiao Hua said to Richard in a serious tone.

Richard chuckled, thinking of a way to pass the management committee? To put it bluntly, isn't Adam Xiao Hua here just to ask for money this time...

Richard was not angry. In his opinion, it was extremely normal for the NBA to want a share of the pie. If the NBA was indifferent, Richard might be worried that the NBA Management Committee would cause him some obstacles...

"Tell me, Adam, we are all smart people, just tell us how much we want!" Richard asked straight to the point.

"We want 10% of CFC's shares!" Xiao Hua was also very straightforward.

This was the bottom line that their management committee had studied overnight. Xiao Hua didn't even bother to say anything more, and directly informed Richard of the bottom line.

He knew very well that Richard was not that easy to fool. If he asked for too much, Richard would definitely not agree...

"Deal! Adam!" Richard agreed without saying a word.

The management committee wants this 10% share, but Richard can still accept it...

The main reason is that CFC has to look at the face of the NBA Management Committee. If they are determined not to let Richard handle it, CFC will not be able to handle it at all.

For example, notify each team and restrain their players...

For example, what kind of rules should be introduced to not allow NBA players to participate in fighting games during the offseason...

Stern can definitely do this kind of thing.

Now they are asking for 10% of the shares, and Richard is still able to accept it.

"By the way, Adam, why didn't Stern contact me this time? Could it be that he was embarrassed to ask me for money?!" Richard asked with a smile.

Xiao Hua on the other end of the phone was speechless...

"Mr. Stern's heart is not in good condition recently. The doctor told him not to be angry these days..."

"So, it's up to me to take part in this matter!"

Richard blinked, Stern had a heart problem? You can't be angry with yourself...

Good guy, my appearance will not cause Stern to retire early.

It seems that this is really possible!

And if Stern retires early, the successor will undoubtedly be Adam Silver...

Xiao Hua, in Richard's opinion, is a bit too shrewd.

He has more business acumen than Stern, or he has no bottom line...

This is a reformer. As long as it can make the league make more money, Xiao Hua will try it.

Richard and Stern have never dealt with each other, but their relationship with Xiao Hua has not fallen out. If Xiao Hua takes over, Richard will still be happy to see it happen.

…

In CFC, Richard gave Golden Dragon 5% of the shares, and he still has 95 shares. Now he has given 10 points to the alliance, and Richard still has 85 shares.

This thing is just a small thing to begin with. It is definitely not realistic to make too much money.

Now that the NBA Management Committee has joined the team, they may earn a little more, but it is still impossible to make a fortune from CFC.

…

On May 17, after five days of rest, the Trail Blazers finally ushered in their second round of playoffs.

Although this series has not started yet, public opinion from all sides is not optimistic about the Rockets.

The main reason is that the gap between the strengths displayed by the two sides is really too big...

In the eyes of various experts and fans, the Rockets have a high chance of being swept by the Trail Blazers like the SuperSonics. If they are lucky, they may win a game against the Trail Blazers.

It can only get one victory. If it is more, it is completely impossible in everyone's eyes.

This kind of public opinion deeply stimulated the three Rockets veterans.

Dameng and Barkley didn't say anything in front of the media. After all, their relationship with the Rockets and Trail Blazers has been harmonious in the past two years...

In the 1996 playoffs, if it weren't for the Trail Blazers, it wouldn't be that easy for the Rockets to advance to the Finals.

Moreover, it is not the Trail Blazers who are saying that the Rockets are not good, but the media and the so-called experts. Even if they are dissatisfied, they cannot get angry at the Trail Blazers.

But Second Master Pi was different. He couldn't stand this anger.

He is the No. 2 figure in the Bulls dynasty. Last season, he defeated the Trail Blazers. Now this season, the Rockets defeated the Jazz from one down to the other. Under such circumstances, some people actually think that he will be swept by the Trail Blazers?

This made him quite unhappy!

"Are you kidding?! I can kill the Blazers once, and I can kill them the second time!"

"The current public opinion is simply an insult to our Rockets!"

"Just wait and see, the final winner will definitely be our Rockets!"

During the Rockets' pre-game press conference, Mr. Pi said angrily to the reporters...

The reporters were speechless. Pi Erye's words made it seem as if the Rockets were united.

Don't look at the Rockets killing the Jazz. In fact, the Rockets' current situation is not as perfect as they thought.

Internal strife...

Yes, the Rockets are also in a state of internal strife now.

Barkley and Pi Er Ye are currently having a quarrel, arguing from the training field to the locker room, and then back again, causing the entire Houston to be in a state of uproar.

The conflict between these two people is not because of the competition for team status, but because of the inability to integrate their playing styles.

Pippen's main offensive method is breakthrough, but when he broke through the basket, Barkley's big butt blocked his breakthrough route, which made him quite unhappy...

If he had Jordan's mid-range shooting ability, he probably wouldn't have trouble with Barkley. After all, they are all old players, not young.

But the key point is that he doesn't have that kind of mid-range shooting ability...

I have to say that Mr. Pi is actually a bit arrogant. He feels that he is better than Barkley. Barkley should change his style of play, for example, if he sees that he is about to break through, he should quickly move his big butt.

After all, Mr. Pi has six championships at his disposal...

And Barkley didn't even buy Jordan's advice, let alone Pippen, Jordan's little brother. How could he make way for Jordan's little brother.

When Drexler was here, there weren't so many problems. The main reason was that Drexler had good shooting ability and Barkley couldn't affect others.

Now that Pippen is here, the Rockets' strength has actually declined compared to last season due to internal strife.

Some fans may think that Pippen is an honest and honest person, but this is not the case. Pippen is actually a big thorn in his side.

When he was with the Bulls, when Jordan retired for the first time, Pippen simply refused to play because Jackson arranged for Kukoc to execute the buzzer-beater. This became Pippen's black spot...

Later, when he came to the Rockets, he was the main cause of internal strife...

Later, he played in the Trail Blazers for several years, and once again made the Trail Blazers miserable. There were various quarrels within the Trail Blazers team. The newcomers quarreled with the veterans, and the veterans quarreled with the team management...

Even after retiring, Pippen could not take time off. He commented on Jazz rookie Hood: "When you are garbage, you only deserve to play in garbage time."

Commenting on James: "At best, he can be compared with me. He is not qualified to compare with Jordan and Kobe..."

Anyway, Mr. Pi’s life has been exciting enough. His wife cuckolded him, but he was able to endure it...

Richard naturally knew about Pippen's virtues, and he didn't bother to argue with Pippen, because it was meaningless. Now Pippen felt like he was relying on his old age.

Relying on his qualifications and Jordan's retirement, he may feel that he is the number one player in the league...

After all, he is the only active player in this league who currently holds six championship rings.

If Richard stood up and had a quarrel with Pippen, he would probably take him more seriously...

It would be better to just give him a beating and make him lose face.

…

At eight o'clock that night, the game started.

The home court of the Trail Blazers.

After the Trail Blazers players came on the court, they looked at Pippen with a mocking smile on his face. If Richard hadn't been too lazy to talk to Pippen, these Trail Blazers players would have found countless words to mock Pippen.

Pippen had quite a few black spots. For example, after Jordan retired, his performance in leading the team alone was quite pitiful...

This black spot alone was enough to make Pippen unable to lift his head.

Pippen could also feel the disdainful expressions on his face from the Blazers players, which made him a little crazy.

He really regards himself as the number one person in this league. Jordan is gone, so why is he not the number one person...

Now that the Blazers are defeated, it seems they dare to look down on themselves? !

Thinking of this, Mr. Pi decided to punish the Trail Blazers in this game!

…

But after the game officially started, Mr. Pi was a little panicked.

He was good at breakthroughs, but he couldn't find the rhythm at this moment. In the first ten minutes, he tried five times to rush inside, but only succeeded once!

He completely underestimated the Blazers' interior defensive strength!

Although the Rockets' inside combination is Olajuwon and Barkley, these two old men actually have limited help for Pippen's breakthrough.

It would be nice if Barkley didn't block Pippen's breakthrough...

And Olajuwon is really old now.

If it weren't for Richard's appearance, under normal circumstances, the Rockets would have faced the Lakers in the first round of this season, and they were eliminated by the Lakers with a score of 1:3.

The reason why they lost so miserably did not lie with Barkley and Pippen.

Both of these two performed very well, much better than in the regular season. Barkley averaged 24 points, 14 rebounds and 4 assists in this series, which is perfect.

Pippen, on the other hand, had 18 points, 12 rebounds and 5.5 assists. Without looking at his embarrassing shooting percentage of 32%, there is definitely nothing wrong with this data...

Only Olajuwon was a bit miserable. It can be said that he was completely beaten by O'Neal!

Olajuwon averaged 13 points, 7 rebounds, 0.5 assists, 1.3 steals and 0.8 blocks per game in this series.

Look at his opponent O'Neal, who averaged 30+10+4+4+1 per game, including 4 assists, 4 blocks and 1 steal, completely beating Olajuwon...

Fans will have the impression that O'Neal has always been at a disadvantage when playing against Dameng.

In fact, this is not the case. The two played against each other in a total of 28 games, of which O'Neal won 17 of them. Whether it is shooting percentage, points, rebounds, assists, blocks, he is better than Olajuwon...

Even excluding Olajuwon's declining performance in recent years, O'Neal was actually on par with Olajuwon when he was a rookie.

Olajuwon did teach O'Neal a lesson once, but it was only that one time, and it was not enough to be used as evidence that O'Neal could not beat Olajuwon.

O'Neal's title as the most dominant insider in history is definitely deserved.

If Olajuwon is really suppressed and beaten all the time, I'm afraid he won't be called the Demon God Emperor Buddha Shark, but will probably be called the Demon God Emperor Buddha Dream...

…

Judging from the matchup situation on the court, Olajuwon is actually not as strong as the old Sasha in terms of combat strength right now...

O'Neal's strength is definitely not as good as O'Neal, but when facing Dameng, he did not show any disadvantages and even had some advantages.

As for Barkley, although under normal circumstances he has produced quite dazzling statistics with the Lakers, but if you think about it carefully, the Lakers actually have no players who pose a threat to Barkley at all. It is natural for him to get such statistics...

But right now, Ben is specifically responsible for guarding him. If he wants to get that kind of data again, it will be completely impossible.

As for Mr. Pi...

Rashid is responsible for guarding his shooting. His shooting itself is not very good, but now he can't break through, which makes him quite uncomfortable.

Richard was quite relaxed sitting off the court. The Rockets would definitely not be an opponent of the Trail Blazers.

As experts from all walks of life have said, the Rockets can at most win one game against the Trail Blazers, and there is a greater chance of being swept by the Trail Blazers!

Because of the Rockets' three strong points, they have no advantage over the Trail Blazers, and the Trail Blazers also have a very powerful Kobe Bryant in the backcourt.

"Beep!" The referee blew the whistle to end the game.

The Trail Blazers beat the Rockets by 13 points at home and got off to a good start in the Western Conference semifinals...

Rockets head coach Tang Shuai is quite helpless. He is a very experienced coach, and he actually knows that the Rockets will not be the opponent of the Trail Blazers, but he must still find it difficult to accept such a point difference.

But what if I don't accept it? My skills are inferior to others, so I can only endure it.

In the second game of the Western Conference semifinals, the Trail Blazers defeated the Rockets again at their home court, and this time they won by 22 points. They definitely defeated the Rockets!

Mr. Pi, who had been mumbling before the game, was also completely embarrassed to speak.

What else can I say? The more you say it, the harder it will be to lose...