The rest is just noise

Chapter 1371 Honor and Disgrace

The pros and cons of working for a big city are the same.

However, under the same conditions, for example, winning a championship with the Lakers and winning a championship with the Celtics, the impact on personal life cannot be generalized at all.

Breaking the news and bringing an NBA championship to Boston is really just that.

In big cities like Los Angeles and New York, winning a championship is a big deal.

Especially for the Lakers, they have been suffering for too long, and in the past two generations, they have almost forgotten what it feels like to win a championship.

Therefore, the impact of the Lakers' championship on the entire city is staggering.

The Los Angeles Daily News reviewed the season with an extra-long article titled "The Best Year Ever."

It can be seen from the title that the Los Angeles media, who were so happy that they lost their minds, called the 1997 Lakers' season performance the best in history.

This kind of thing happens in every media, needless to say.

In the article, Louis was officially called "Legend Lu" by the media, which means "Leader Lu" has become history.

The article praised everyone on the team.

This is a formal article of praise, and then there is the impact of the championship on the player's personal reputation.

Benjamin Wilson was dubbed "The June King" in a feature article by Sports Illustrated.

Wilson received this title not just because he won the eight finals he participated in, but also because he is the kind of player who performs better on a bigger stage.

Take this year as an example, he averaged 28 points per game in the regular season and jumped to 34 points per game in the playoffs. This is already a huge increase. Who would have expected that he would be even more heroic in the finals, averaging 35 points per game.

Not just this year, Benj's data performance has shown this trend in every previous season.

The winning rate in the finals is 100%, and the bigger the stage, the better the performance. It is not surprising that the media praised it.

In Louis' impression, Jordan in his previous life had the nickname "Mr. June", but now this title has fallen to Benj. This can be regarded as a manifestation of the butterfly effect.

The day after he won the championship, Buckley announced his participation in the Oprah show next month, and during an interview, he openly expressed his disdain for his predecessor.

"This is the most comfortable season I have ever had. No one forces me to do this or that, and no one controls how many donuts I eat, and no one restricts me from doing what I want. I just do myself, and then I

I won the championship." Barkley said eloquently, "I don't have to listen to those people's bullshit anymore. You said I have no professionalism, you said I'm not like a star, you said I'm a bad guy, you said I'm everything.

OK, everything you said is right, but I won the championship."

"What does this mean? If you want to win the championship, the key is not how you fight, but who you fight with."

Some people will use this to sow discord between Barkley and Jordan, but any fan who knows a bit about the background story will know that Barkley is attacking Riley from afar.

Moreover, the intensity of his firing was less than expected.

When Riley threw Barkley like garbage to the Clippers, he publicly claimed that this was a player who would never succeed.

Barkley only mentioned his ex in an insinuation today, which is considered very restrained.

As for why Barkley didn't ride on Riley's side, it wasn't because he was kind-hearted.

But Riley retired from basketball after announcing his resignation not long ago.

Not long ago, some media revealed that Riley was receiving psychological treatment, and some tabloids even said that he had mental problems.

Although Buckley is a carefree and straight-tempered person, he is not willing to inflict insults on a semi-crazy person.

Then there is another focal point of the Lakers, Earvin "Magic" Johnson announced his retirement again after winning the third championship of his career.

"First of all, I want to apologize to Coach Lu. I didn't discuss this matter with him in advance." Magic said sincerely. "After the final whistle sounded, I knew that this time, my time has really come. For this championship

, I have given my all, and this result is very satisfactory, which is enough to comfort all those who support me."

"Eighteen years ago, when I first stepped into the professional arena, I knew that sooner or later I would leave one day. I am lucky, at least I can still leave at the most appropriate time, and this time I will leave the court completely.

, away from the game I love so much, thank you to my teammates, thank you to our incredible coaching staff, thank you to Dr. Bass and his family for their support, thank you to everyone who has been with me along the way, this is the sweetest experience I have ever had.

season.”

In this way, the Magic announced his retirement on the night of winning the championship.

This result is not surprising.

When a reporter asked him about his life after retirement, he smiled slightly and said: "This is a secret, but I promise you will see me again soon."

In addition to the magician, the speeches of several other veterans were equally impressive.

Dumas's joy of getting his revenge is visible to the naked eye.

"This championship does not define me, it just proves that I am an excellent championship piece, but no one in Miami realizes this." Dumars said, "Hopefully this result can make them realize their mistake.

"

An honest person is an honest person. If Barkley were to stand in Dumas's position, Lewis Shafir's mother would be gone.

Buck Williams gave a touching speech.

Dale Ellis said it felt good to win the championship and it would have been even better if he could have played a few more minutes.

The words of a veteran are like aging wine. The longer time passes, the stronger the flavor will be transmitted back.

Young people don't pay attention to these things.

The speeches made by Garnett, Nash, Ben and others were all words of thanks to XX.

Kobe even followed his agent's advice, talked about his offseason training plan, and began to look forward to the new season.

The fame brought by the championship will be directly converted into benefits for them.

This is a perk of being successful in a big city.

However, this benefit only belongs to players.

A hard-working coach like Louis doesn't seem to have much benefit other than getting a nickname.

But, does he lack this nickname?

Forget it if there was no benefit, the day after the season ended, he threw himself into the intense preparations for the offseason.

The top priority in the offseason is the draft. Since the Lakers have this year's No. 1 pick, this task is not difficult to complete.

The specific operation is to pretend to try out Deng Xiaodai, then select the candidates with closed eyes in the draft, and then randomly select anyone in the second round, and everything is almost done.

Is it easy? It is.

As far as the Lakers' operations are concerned, it's very easy.

But there are still a bunch of people outside looking for help from him.

Kevin McHale personally came to Los Angeles to ask Louis about who to choose.

Elgin Baylor wonders about moving Kemp.

Lewis Shafir, who became the target of public criticism, wanted to know more about how to deal with Manning and how to use Petrovich to negotiate signings and trades with other teams.

Danny Ainge feels that he has worked so hard to bring the No. 1 pick to the Lakers, and his future as an NBA executive is in jeopardy. It's up to you, Coach, to save him.

Jeff Van Gundy is currently unemployed after resigning from the Clippers last year. He wants to find a job and is not short of a contract, but he doesn't know which team to go to.

Tomjanovich was somewhat hesitant to renew his contract with the Knicks at a terrifyingly high price.

Do you think this is the end?

Wang Zhizhi has officially participated in the draft and is doing well. Do you have to ask?

In addition to Wang Zhizhi, there are other international students from the Road Academy, and many of them have signed up to participate in this year's draft. Louis must also take care of them to some extent.

Then, Louis also received an invitation.

As we all know, on the 1st of next month, Hong Kong returns, and on the 2nd, to celebrate this event, a large-scale cultural evening will be held in China.

Although Louis is just an ordinary sports person with mediocre achievements, he is also one of the invited guests.

So, the current situation is like this.

Today is June 23rd. Although Louis is on holiday, the calls for help coming to his home come one after another. The quality of his rest is extremely low.

Tomorrow the Lakers will launch a closed workout with Duncan.

It was basically just a formality, and even the residents of the lunatic asylum in Los Angeles knew that Duncan was going to play for the Lakers.

There will be a large-scale trial for second-round picks the day after tomorrow.

Then a few days before the start of the draft, Louis needs to finalize the team's draft goals, trade as many players in the lineup as possible that are no longer needed, solve the problems of his friends, and then participate in the championship parade celebration at the end of the month, next

I will go back to China with my family on the 1st of the month and attend a party on the 2nd. During this period, there will inevitably be countless social events.

The itinerary was arranged so well that Coach Lu, who had been cultivating himself for many years, couldn't help but become irritable.

PS: My current situation can be summed up in four words: I am feeling groggy. I have spent 80% of my time in bed in the past two days. I fall asleep as soon as I fall down and sleep for several hours. I want to cheer up, but I am feeling weak.

, the soreness in my lower back, especially when I cough, is really terrible. In the last few days of this month, I’ll save myself some time.

(End of chapter)