The rest is just noise

On February 2, 1985, the Knicks played back-to-back games against the Warriors at home.

Before the afternoon training started, Pat Cummings was told by assistant coach Sharif: "The Messiah is invited."

"Oh my god, am I in trouble?" Cummings remembers not doing much last night.

"How did I know that?" Sharif is a cold assistant coach who doesn't know how to have good relationships with others and only adjusts the players' shooting movements in the same way.

Some people are willing to be coached by him, like Stockton, but some people are not willing. After all, he is a coach from the second-level league. What ability can he teach Player B to shoot?

Cummings walked to Louis' office and signed with New York. It was one of the things he regretted most. This team had no future.

They have a smug young coach who loses on purpose, and if Louie wanted to win, the Knicks would have won at least 10 more games now.

But he just didn't want to. Rather than winning, he wanted to try for the Ewing Award.

Cummings hated this but never said it clearly. He had no intention of making a career with the Knicks in the first place.

When he came to Louis' office, he saw this bastard drinking Coke again. Didn't he know that drinking too much can't give birth to children? Oh, he already had a child, so whatever.

"Pat, you've been in New York for more than half a year, right?"

"yes."

"Are you still used to living here?"

"ah."

"Have you considered changing your environment?"

"Coach, if you have anything to say, just say it."

"Okay, actually I came to you because I have some bad news and good news to tell you."

Louis ended the awkward chat.

"Oh what's the bad news?"

"On behalf of the team, I officially inform you." Louis looked into Cummings's eyes, "You have been traded."

Cummings blinked: "Okay, what's the bad news?"

Boy, Louis' face turned green at that moment.

In early February, the Knicks, who had been trading continuously, once again made big news.

They sent power forward Pat Cummings to Boston in exchange for frustrated wing Cedric Maxwell from the Celtics, plus a 1986 first-round pick and a 1985 second-round draft pick.

first-round draft pick and a 1987 second-round pick.

What is shocking is that Maxwell had just passed the physical examination and was traded again before he even reported to New York to renew his relationship with Louis.

This time, the Knicks changed hands and sent Maxwell to Detroit in exchange for Antoine Kyle and Tony Campbell (Ty pbell F/G) and the 1986 first-round pick.

In other words, Louis used Cummings in exchange for Kyle and Campbell, two first-round coins and two second-round coins.

Moreover, the Knicks, Celtics, and Pistons are all satisfied with this deal.

Probably only the Celtics will feel a little bit sad, but after all, they have dealt with the cancer in the locker room, which is worth being happy about.

The Pistons got a strong wing who can be either three or four in the playoffs, and most of the time, James Worthy no longer has to play the fourth position. He can be freed up to the three position where he is best.

Use his speed and length well against other small forwards.

"Pat Cummings is a player who pleases three teams at the same time."

The New York Times gave the deal a mixed review.

That night, the Knicks, who lost a leading brother, turned their grief and anger into strength under the leadership of Louis.

Dell Ellis's three-pointer was a hit, and he scored 30 points in the game. The Warriors were helpless, 114 to 90. They were also a tank team, and the Knicks were merciless.

After that it's the All-Star break.

This year, no one from the Knicks will be selected to the All-Star Game.

Bernard King's statistics are okay, but his attendance rate is too low, and he has been injured recently.

Others are even less qualified.

Many people were expecting the Knicks' management to make some big moves. Unexpectedly, he made no moves during the All-Star weekend.

The team welcomed two young new players, Kyle and Campbell.

Now, except for the King of New York, the Knicks are dominated by young people.

The five young talents of Stockton, Ellis, Bannister, Kyle, and Campbell represent the future. Louis believes that they will make their old club regret it. Even if they do not play for the Knicks in the future, they will grow into good players.

players.

On February 9, the first game after the All-Star break, the Knicks' opponent was the Portland Trail Blazers.

Currently, they rank second in the Western Conference with a record of 34 wins and 16 losses, second only to the Lakers.

"Flying Man" Jordan and "Glider" Drexler turned this team into the second team in the Western Conference that can play W Tie.

Bernard King leads a group of young people out tonight.

In addition to King, the Knicks are Stockton, Ellis, Kyle and Bannister.

In the Memorial Coliseum, home of the Trail Blazers, Jordan was chewing gum, wearing J1 and a dazzling Trail Blazers jersey.

Just like many fans were not used to Jordan wearing a Wizards jersey, it was even more inappropriate for Louis to wear a Trail Blazers jersey when he was young.

This is not a jersey color that a protagonist should have.

After the game started, Jordan scored 6 points in a row.

Bernard King, sensing the young man's challenge, responded resolutely and he fought hard.

Louis planned to win this game. Before the game, he made some plans.

If Jordan gets the ball, he doesn't care about the outside of the three-point line, and immediately doubles inside the three-point line to press the ball;

Stockton and Bannister, one relies on intelligence, the other relies on diligence, working hard to fill positions. They don't seek success every time, as long as they have discipline and can appear where they should be, that is enough.

Dale Ellis has been in New York for a while, and Louis already regards him as a contemporary Michael Reed.

The offense is basically running, catching and shooting. Compared with Reed, he still lacks the ability to hold the ball and call pick-and-rolls.

As for defense, it's not as bad as imagined.

His individual defense is good and he can follow people, but he gets dizzy when encountering pick-and-rolls and screens.

He is completely different from man-to-man to man-to-man and pick-and-roll guard.

In order to prevent him from getting too dizzy, Louis asked Kyle, who was also not good at guarding the pick-and-roll, to block all the mid-range and long-range shots of the Blazers.

Adelman is still a rookie and has not been exposed to Princeton. His basic tactics are one-on-ones, which amplifies the players' personal abilities to the extreme.

The Knicks relied on Louis' tactics to barely support their key points.

One goes with the other, and Jin, who is still not in full condition, is gradually suppressed by Jordan, who is becoming more and more popular after the All-Star Weekend.

At halftime, Jordan had 23 points and King had 17 points.

"Portland has found a rare piece of jade." Jin praised Jordan full of praise. "It will take about 15 years for a J."

Fans who want to see the old and new generations of scoring champions compete will soon be disappointed.

In the second half, Louis wanted to set up a pseudo-zone defense to limit Jordan's terrifying breakthrough like a ghost.

In less than five minutes, Jordan broke through with a shot, and when King was making moves in the low post, he clearly did not collide with his opponent and twisted his knee without confrontation.

He fell to the ground on the spot, his face ugly.

Louis knew then that it was over.

Five minutes into the second half, Jin's body has warmed up and his muscles are in a tight state, and this time it seems to be caused by the rush to come back before fully recovering from the last injury.

An imperfectly healthy body is like an egg with holes, which may crack at any time.

Jin used 100% of his strength to move, and then twisted his knee.

What's the worst outcome?

L.

Even more than thirty years later, L still had a huge impact on players. Many people can recover from such injuries, but none can return to their pre-injury state.

After Bernard King was injured, the Knicks lost their competitiveness.

Jordan and Drexler's offensive was overwhelming, defeating the Knicks with just their athleticism.

As for the Knicks, the only consolation is that the two new players are playing well.

Kyle scored 14 points and 4 rebounds. Campbell was a surprise. He is a two-meter swingman with bare feet. He has a certain ability to hold the ball and is very good at getting through people's gaps. He is a bit sticky, so he is suitable for improving statistics on a bad team.

Hey, aren’t the Knicks a bad team now?

Louis looked at Campbell thoughtfully.

That night, the results of Bernard King's injury came to an end.

As Louis expected, he suffered an L tear.

When the Knicks announced the news, the media and fans were extremely sad.

For them, L is an injury that bids farewell to the players.

Players in the 1970s could consider retiring if they suffered such an injury. Even if they recovered from the injury and persisted for a few years, they would still be nothing.

Bernard King is not a high-profile player in the history of the New York team. He is a leading scorer who did not lead the team to achieve any results. He inherited the dark era of the late 1970s and the confused early and mid-1980s.

His contract expires next year, and by then, the Knicks are likely to give up on him, who has been seriously injured.

Everyone knows that an old era that represents the past, the chaos, stupidity, and unforgivability that followed the 1973 championship, is coming to an end.

In front of Bernard King, waiting for the New York Knicks, is a new era.

In Louis' previous life, the Knicks of that era were one of the biggest supporting actors.

But in this life,.;;;;.; that may not be the case.

After all, there is a time traveler who has messed up the league's structure. From 1985 to 1998, the structure and results of every season may be changed.

Along with everything after 1998, the future of the league will be affected.

Louis, the instigator, leaned on the bus on the night he lost his core players and smiled helplessly: "Our luck is really a bit bad."

Is he sad for Jin? Not at all. What he is sad about is that Jin may not be able to use him in trading after the serious injury.

A healthy gold is good gold.

"Yeah, what a pity Bernard." Tomjanovich sighed.

Louis stood up on the moving bus, turned around and said to everyone on the bus: "There will be no Bernard next. We have lost the scoring champion. I want to see who can step up. From now on, we start from scratch.

There are no absolutes between those who are capable and those who are incompetent. In my case, there are only first and last, useful and useless, so express yourself to your heart’s content and don’t be so fucking polite to me!”