The rest is just noise

TheKingde

This is the home court of the Seattle SuperSonics, who are in the Pacific Division, the most competitive division in the Western Conference.

There are four strong teams in this division, including the Lakers, who are number one in the Western Conference. The SuperSonics finished third in the competition with them.

Four or five years ago, they were the weakest championship team in NBA history.

Soon it collapsed due to things other than the championship.

The Celtics came here tonight just to win the game, with no other intention. The SuperSonics are in a strong division, but their opponent is the Celtics, who are in the strongest division in the league.

During the warm-up session before the start, Louis came to the sidelines to say hello to Bill Russell, the best player in Celtics history.

"Bill, Reed has been talking about you a lot lately," Louis said.

Russell has no ill feelings toward Louis. Although the media speaks ill of him every day, he sees similarities between the two in Louis' words and deeds.

The only thing people are unlikely to get from Louis and Russell is humility.

They are all crazy. Someone once asked Russell how he would deal with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar if he was placed in the current league.

Russell was angry and considered the question offensive.

"You should ask how Karim should deal with me."

Russell never said he was the best, but believed from the bottom of his heart that he was the best.

Louis' madness has been reported many times. Needless to say, when they meet Russell, they feel like they are meeting the same kind of person.

"You guys have been playing well recently and successfully allowed me to watch Celtics games on demand at home." Russell did not shy away from his indifference to the Celtics. "I haven't watched their games for a long time."

This is one of the answers Louis wants to explore: "Why?"

"I retired."

"Is it that simple?" If Louis won 11 championships with the Celtics, he would not leave this team alone after retirement.

No matter what, this is the place that made him successful.

Russell's laughter sounded like reggae, and he said freely: "After me, there will be Hondo, and after Hondo, there will be Larry. Boston does not need an arrogant black man."

"Boston may not need it, but I do." Louis said bluntly, "Bill, I want to ask you for a favor."

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After a period of warm-up, both sides called the players off the court, the head coach said something to the main players, and the game was about to begin.

Today, Louis found a reason to give John Long a rest.

Long is the Celtics player who needs the most rest. He has the record of playing the most minutes and running the most.

Lang was confused at first when he heard about the rotational vacation. Later, Louis told him that the rotational vacation was paid leave. He understood and happily accepted it.

Except for Laimbeer, who imitated Thomas and said, "Why can black people have paid leave? I want paid leave too!" He was almost kicked down by Louis and ran away when Louis was about to take action.

Except for this, everything is good.

Replacing Long is Danny Ainge.

Suddenly, the Celtics' five-man roster was more white than black.

"Pure" Boston fans will be delighted to see this skin color arrangement.

It's supersonic and looks pretty capable.

"Wizard" Gus Williams (PG/SG), Al Wood (Al Wood SG), Reggie King (Reggie King SF), Griffin Tom Chambers in the 1980s and center post textbook Jack Schick

Horse (Jak private kmaC).

Before the game started, Louis came to midfield to say hello to the highly respected SuperSonics head coach Lenny Wilkens.

"Coach Wilkens, I have been studying your "Coach's Manual" recently." Louis came up and slapped him on the rainbow fart first.

"This has benefited me a lot."

"You're flattering me, Little Lou." Wilkens laughed. "I may never be able to lead a team to 50 wins and 5 losses."

Louis said in confusion: "If you were to lead this Celtics team, they would definitely be able to win fifty-five games in a row. I'm still too young."

"Coach Lu, stop pretending in front of me, right?" Wilkens looked like he had seen through Louis, "Too modest is not modest."

Louis knows the effects of too much modesty, it's disgusting.

"Okay, Coach Wilkens, let's have a good game."

There is no other reason why Louis took the initiative to show kindness to Wilkens. The other coach was one of the few coaches who did not criticize him publicly.

Don't think this is a trivial matter. Everyone has come out to criticize Louis a while ago. If Wilkens is willing to take advantage of the situation and make up for it, he will definitely attract the support of many people.

It's better to have one more friend than one person who doesn't like him.

Wilkens is a player-turned-coach, and he can do both things well. If you can get along with this kind of person, you will naturally want to make friends with him.

Then tonight's referees came to say hello, the head referee Wally King (white) and the assistant referee Ronnie Capas (black).

The NBA was the first league to pay attention to black and white balance.

Two referees, one black and one white are just right.

In Louis' impression, these two referees are relatively moderate types. They will call fouls when they should be called, and they will not steal the show at critical moments. They are the type of referees who let the players decide the game themselves.

At the beginning, Sampson and Chambers jumped the ball.

This time, Chambers' explosive power outweighed Sampson's length.

Chambers jumped up with all his strength, like a rocket in the air, and hit the ball into the hands of his teammates first.

The game begins here.

Although the Sonics have Sikma, a textbook post-up master, they don't like to make a fuss about the low post.

Sikma's back play is just one of their many choices.

Their ball circulated outside for more than ten seconds, leaving only five seconds for Hikma.

The "Wizard" doesn't seem ready to use his magic yet.

The ball was passed to Hikma.

Hikma and Ranbir are both white insiders, but they have different ways of pursuing life.

Laimbeer relies on his best defense, protecting rebounds, mid- and long-range jump shots and irritating the opponent, so that the opponent's IQ is zero and then he uses his own IQ advantage to win.

Hikma, on the other hand, uses flexible inside movements and the iconic Hikma step to PK the opponent's defensive IQ, and he often wins.

Now he is in a difficult situation, Ranbir is sticking close to him, and he doesn't have enough time to make his move.

He could only use a Hikama step to dazzle someone, and then hit the defense with a hook shot.

There are some differences between the Celtics' fast break and the Lakers' ShowTime.

They don't seek speed, they seek stability.

Therefore, although their scoring average ranks second in the league, they average only 13 turnovers per game, the third fewest in the league.

Bird grabbed the defensive rebound and passed it to Thomas to advance.

Thomas broke into the frontcourt, raised his hand and threw the ball to Ainge behind him.

Ainge feinted a shot, broke through, and then separated Bird who was positioned outside the three-point line at the top of the arc.

With no one guarding him, Bird shot a three-pointer like a cannon.

3 to 0

Bird's three-pointer surprised the fans at the Kings Dome.

Now, as in the future, fans can easily watch game highlights of the top ten, top five, or other teams through TV or computers.

They'd heard about the Celtics and knew Bird was having an unopposed MVP season, but they couldn't imagine how.

Now everyone is surprised to see Bird using three-pointers as a regular weapon, using a follow-up three-pointer to score the Celtics' first goal of the night.

The Sonics' leading player decided to respond.

"Wizard Cover" Gus Williams dribbled over and called Chambers' pick-and-roll. His play was of epoch-making significance.

He was one of the first ball-handling shooters in history to call a pick-and-roll and take action immediately when there was space, regardless of position.

This offensive choice, which would have seemed absurd to those of a previous era, earned him the nickname "The Wizard."

It's a pity that his shot was very wide.

Decisive shot selection without fighting back.

The ball hit the neck of the basket and Bird once again grabbed the defensive rebound.

This time, the Celtics' fast break was no small matter.

Bird grabbed the rebound, and the moment he landed, he found Ainge who was about to go down, and swung a long pass under the basket with one hand.

Ainge received the ball comfortably, brought it to the frontcourt, and passed it to Thomas who followed up.

Thomas took the ball on the spot, and Sampson rushed over like a beast.

He walked in the middle, and Thomas waited for him to get to the right position and sent the ball out.

The subsequent result was irreversible. Sampson went straight into the SuperSonics penalty area, leaped forward, and performed a one-handed dunk.

5 to 0

"Is this Celtic ShowTime?"

CBS commentator Dick Stockton said in surprise.

"Stop ShowTime!" Commentator Tom Heinsohn felt it was a bit unlucky to be associated with the Lakers. "This is the 'Boston fast break' of the 1960s. The Celtics are the team that promoted the concept of fast break."

, it’s a pity that people now only know ShowTime!”

All non-Celtics fans need a certain amount of determination to resist changing the channel when watching the CBS broadcast.

Heinsohn's position is really outrageous. Such a biased guest should not be on national broadcasts.

What's even more outrageous is that it wasn't until 1988 that CBS managers gradually realized, "Oh, the audience doesn't like Heinsohn, he's too Celtic-oriented, and we need to replace him."

Heinsohn not only praised the Celtics' fast break, but also praised Louis' coaching ability.

"Such a scene could not be seen in the era of Bill Fitch." Heinsohn almost made the Celtics incontinent. "I have to admit that Little is the most suitable head coach for this team."

Louis never acknowledged his credit.

In other words, he thinks that his credit lies elsewhere.

Rather than regrouping the Celtics, his crucial contributions to the Celtics should be recommending John Long in 1978, pushing Laimbeer in 1979, persuading Sampson to participate in the draft early in 1980, and

In the compensation deal between the Celtics and the Pistons, he discovered a loophole in the opponent's trade, allowing Auerbach to take advantage of it and get an extra first-round pick that eventually brought Isiah Thomas.

Compared with this kind of contribution that truly laid the foundation for the Celtics to achieve greater glory in the 1980s, what does it mean to lead this Celtics to a wonderful performance?

It is a pity that the most important part of Louis' contribution will eventually be condensed into one sentence:

"The bishop's clever plan will bring peace to the world."