The rest is just noise

On July 2, 2000, just as the teams were gearing up to compete in the offseason, the Los Angeles Lakers announced: "After friendly negotiations, Legendlu has decided not to renew his contract...

In this news, only the first two sentences are important, the rest are meaningless politeness.

Everyone knows that this moment will come, but when it does come, many people will still be puzzled and surprised.

Soon, speculation about Louis' next home became a major topic.

Louis' six-year tenure with the Lakers has proven that ironclad rule: get the Messiah, and you get a dynasty.

Just as the second season of "Where's Louie?" is about to begin, Louie's agent

The agent announced: "Due to the long-term high-intensity work, Louis has been exhausted physically and mentally, so he decided to take a long vacation. According to the entertainment industry, this is an indefinite rest. However, there are still teams that have sent offers.

For example, the New York Knicks are obsessed with it.

They knew Louis was tired, so they didn't plan to let him serve as president, only as a special advisor to the team.

The Dolan family generously offered $50 million over five years.

Louis doesn't need to go to work in New York or even show up for the Knicks. All he has to do is give a suggestion when the team management calls.

In other words, Louis can make 50 million while lying down. This is the easiest job in the world.

But Louis refused. He had just finished his job with the Lakers and he did not want to be involved in a team with a complicated structure again, even if he was just serving as a consultant.

Now, the only thing Louis has to focus on is the national team's competition tasks.

When the Sydney Olympics are over, he can really take a vacation. Before returning to China, Louis even made an appointment to meet someone at a restaurant under his name.

It was not only Louis who decided to leave the Lakers, but also Jerry West, the logo man who had played for the team for 40 years.

What's interesting is that West's resignation was not his own decision. The person who pushed it to happen was his wife Karen.

Karen privately wrote a letter to Jerry Buss without informing her husband, the content of which is as follows:

"Dear Jerry

No matter how inappropriate this letter may seem, I am not one to remain silent

man. I think you need to understand what's going on in the West household, whether it matters to you or not. I just spent the most painful three days of my life in Phoenix with Jerry.

As I'm pretty sure you know, my husband is a tortured man. The biggest source of pain for him over the past few years has been the Lakers. I'm sure you know that, too. But after you two worked things out last summer he seems to have

Overcoming this pain. Before he agreed to an extension, I hoped that he chose to stay with the Lakers because the work here made him happy. He responded that his enthusiasm was rekindled and he knew that staying was the right decision. As long as Jay

If I am happy, I will be happy.

However, everything went to hell. He was the kind of person who, if he decided to commit suicide, he would do it. The fact is that many major decisions that he could not accept have already been made.

Big decisions had been made, and what was once the most revered franchise was now, as he put it, destroyed in a matter of days, sending him into an almost Rodman-like self-destructive cycle.

When I left Phoenix yesterday morning, I knew my life would never be the same. On Wednesday, Jerry told me that the only thing in the world he cared about was our kids, me, and the Lakers. Free agency opened Thursday night.

Later, he told me that when Duncan leaves Los Angeles, he will leave the Lakers and us. He has always said that he lives for the Lakers and will die for the Lakers. The Lakers are his life, but now I

I no longer care if I hear anything about the Lakers again.

For the past two years, I have been hearing Jerry say that he was going to quit because he couldn't take it anymore. I heard him say this countless times, but in our 22 years of marriage, he never said he was leaving this place.

Family. Never. I love my husband very much and I love my family very much. If he leaves

We're going to be doomed. He's on a self-destructive war path, and I don't know where it will lead. I have to make him stop.

Sincerely Karen"

Louis never knew how painful it was for West to work with him.

When Louis made some decisions that might affect the Lakers' reputation, West's objections were always ineffective.

But when Louis' decision brought the Lakers a championship, West fell into a painful self-struggle.

West is different from Baylor. He is a perfectionist with a moral obsession. What he wants is a spotless crown.

And Louis doesn't care what's on the crown, even if there's a piece of shit on it, it's still a crown.

Duncan's departure was the last straw for West. For West, Duncan is a player who can reshape the culture of the Lakers team.

He is a great figure like Bill Russell, and such a player is only seen once in decades, and the Lakers are unable to do anything about his departure, which makes him begin to doubt whether he is still capable of being a management person in the profession.

The basketball world continues to move on.

He wanted to stay and see where this team would go in the post-Louis era, but his emotions collapsed because no matter what

Because no matter what they do, this team will only follow the track set by Louis. In the end, they will rush off the cliff like the Knicks and Celtics.

He either chose to quit or fall to pieces with the Lakers. Just when he decided to die together, his wife rescued him. West decided to hand over the

Te decided to submit his resignation, ending his 40-year career with the Lakers.

Parting

Before leaving, Louis asked him to come out for a meeting, and he agreed in a strange way.

"Jerry, I thought you would be happy that I left." Louis joked, "I didn't expect you to make the same decision as me. Have you really made up your mind?"

West said flatly: "Leaving a team I worked so hard for."

It's certainly not easy to have been a team member for forty years, but when I made the decision, I didn't feel sad at all. On the contrary, I felt relieved." Did he use relief to describe his resignation?

Louis smiled helplessly, "Is it really painful to work with me? Jerry, you have to admit that the decisions you objected to that I made all had results in the end.

How come he never felt the other's pain in Baylor?

West did not answer Louis directly. He said: "Since I entered the NBA, people have been curious about why I never seem as happy as I should be, not as content as I should be - even a lot of people

Praying in various ways that I could "find happiness," find some form of peace. Louis wanted to know what it would be like to work with him.

Is it a pain to work with and West is saying he can't find happiness?

Louis believes that the six life-and-death games he lost to the Celtics in the 1960s have become a demon in West's heart, but he has always believed that losing alone will not make people so depressed.

"Jerry

Louis asked, "When you were playing ball, like, Qingshou asked,

If the Lakers win, do you think all the credit goes to you? "Of course not."

"So," Louis said calmly, "when you lose, you shouldn't bear all the responsibility."

West didn't know why Louis suddenly mentioned this. Whether as a player or as an administrator, he usually didn't get any happiness from winning. Because he knew that he was just working hard, but he didn't

Realizing what it ended up doing to him physically and mentally, because when he got into it, he was so damn determined.

Now, West remembered that what supported him on this path was that he was just a young man trying to bring happiness to his mother and something to make her proud. Oh, her youngest son Jerry was also great, maybe not as good as him.

David, but he is good at fighting

Ball - Yeah, that's what he had in mind, he had to give it to Cecil Way

It gave Ms. Stern a strong reason to live, allowing her to endure her alcoholic husband and endless domestic violence.

Looking at Louis, West had mixed feelings, just like the recruitment negotiation he had with Louis in New York six years ago. Although his purpose was to recruit Louis, most of the meeting was about his own affairs.

Why is that? Maybe it's because Louis seems like a perfect listener.

"The thing that surprises me most about you," West asked calmly, "is why you always look so happy?

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