The rest is just noise

On February 10, 1989, Louis met his team members.

He can no longer remember how many times he has been elected as the head coach of the All-Star team. From 1984 to the present, he has been elected not only three times but four times.

At the official event site, the Eastern Star Team made a collective appearance.

Louis is in the middle, surrounded by Wilson, Ewing, Bird, Sampson, Thomas, Barkley, Stockton, Malone, Hank Gathers, Dumars, Worthy, and Parrish.

It can be seen that the All-Star players in the Eastern Conference are concentrated in five teams.

It can be said that this is why the east looks inferior to the west.

Let’s look at the roster of the Western Conference: Tragedy, Jordan, Drexler, Pippen, Kevin Johnson, David Robinson, Olajuwon, Chris Mullin, Larry Nance, Will

Kings, Dale Ellis, Mark Price.

Just judging from the star quality on the roster, the Knicks have already won...

Moreover, this is while Doherty is absent due to injury.

Compared to the Eastern Conference, the West's star team players come from seven different teams.

The Lakers, ranked second in the league and first in the Western Conference, occupy four seats, just like the Knicks in the Eastern Conference.

The quantity and quality of star players can indirectly reflect the quality of the entire team.

After Louis took a photo with everyone, they went to the restaurant booked by the event organizer for a dinner together.

The atmosphere at the dinner table was weird.

The two groups who should least be sitting together for dinner, the Knicks and Celtics, sat together.

Wilson and Bird had old grudges, and Ewing had always been hostile to the Celtics, even though the area where he lived before going to college at Georgetown was part of New England, where the Celtics have the greatest influence.

Stockton is the kind of character who only lets go in front of people he knows.

On the Celtics side, Sampson looked at them with an expression of fun, Bird looked on coldly, and Thomas smiled but never spoke first.

"The selection mechanism for the All-Star Game is unreasonable. I don't want to play with New Yorkers at all!" Barkley complained, "The league should give us the freedom to choose who to be our teammates with!"

When someone spoke, Louis was able to bring up the topic: "What's wrong, Chuck, do you think 'Larry Legend' and 'Mr. One and Only' are not qualified to be your teammates?"

"I didn't mean that!" Barkley said confidently, "I made it clear that I don't want to be teammates with the New Yorkers. You don't think I have forgotten what happened some time ago, do you?"

Ewing said with a straight face: "Since you have been fined and suspended, we can understand this and let the matter go."

Ewing's arrogant attitude made Barkley furious: "What happened? Who went with you? You don't think it was me who was wrong, right?"

Since the damn fat man had grown fat in his brain, Louis had no choice but to enlighten him.

"Chuck, let's talk about it. Who made the move first?"

Barkley responded immediately: "It's us."

"Who took the initiative to increase the intensity of the competition and caused the situation to get out of control?"

"It's us."

"Then who started the fight?"

Buckley said guiltily: "We."

Suddenly, he remembered why his teammates were fighting: "No, no, Coach Lu, I hear what you mean, the fault is all ours, don't you have nothing wrong at all?"

"That's not true." Louis said sarcastically, "Our biggest mistake was that when you lost and your mentality was unbalanced and you wanted to use violence on the court to solve the problem, you didn't stand and get beaten. Next time I will ask my players not to fight back.

What do you think if I let you guys fight to vent your anger in vain?"

"Who the hell needs this?!"

Barkley said dissatisfied: "Coach Lu, do you think you are the only one who can bully others on the court, and if others give you trouble, it is their fault?"

"It was you who started the trouble, it was you who made the first move, and it was you who escalated the situation." Louis asked with a smile, "What do you think we did wrong?"

"I" Barkley, who is in the wrong, cannot refute Louis, "you"

"Um?"

"You can't say that the Knicks are not wrong at all, right?" Isiah Thomas stood on the sidelines in the name of fairness. "Your playing style has always been very rough. Isn't that what caused the intensity of the game to escalate?"

Louis said harshly: "You, a villain who was jealous when you saw a rookie from your hometown being selected as an All-Star in his rookie season because of his popularity, do you have the nerve to stand up for justice? Do you have the qualifications, Isiah?"

Thomas' smile froze on his face.

"Coach, that matter is over." Wilson said, "After May 30, 1988 (the tiebreaker day of the Eastern Conference Finals), I put that matter down."

Others may find this date strange.

The Celtics won't.

Thomas, Sampson, and Bird all remembered that game.

To this day, some of them still cannot accept it.

Like many Celtics fans, they thought the Knicks stole their fifth consecutive championship.

"If I wasn't injured," Bird paused, "No, if Isiah wasn't injured, you would have been killed, you know?"

"Redneck, I don't like 'what if's."

Louis didn't mind poking their lungs: "I only look at the results. The result is, you lost, we won, and we have been winning to this day. The Knicks are now the defending champions. You are welcome to challenge."

Once the topic got into the realm of championships, many people present had to shut up.

Including several representatives of the Pistons, although they are the top team in the East, they have never been a strong contender for the championship.

Rookie Hank Gathers from Miami was nervous.

The smell of gunpowder on the dinner table was so strong that he didn't dare to speak, didn't dare to take a big breath, and even had to chew his food slowly.

Only Barkley didn't know the heights of the world: "What's wrong with being a champion? Do you think that being a champion means everything?"

"You haven't even played in the semifinals, so you have no role to speak here." Bird said contemptuously.

"you!!!"

Barkley glared at Bird with shame and anger.

"Indeed, Hank is still very young and he has a promising future; although Joe and James (Worsey) did not have rings, they both led the team to the conference finals, but they were just a little bit different. I respect these guys, but Chuck

, I don't respect you." Louis said lightly, "You are no longer a rookie. This is your sixth year of debut. Looking at your results, you have played in the playoffs three times? And you were eliminated in the first round all of them? You have

What qualifications do you have to talk nonsense here?"

Barkley felt like he was being stepped on.

He was ashamed and angry, but he believed that he alone should not be blamed for the Bulls' poor record.

"Do you think anyone in my position could do better?" Barkley said loudly.

"I dare not say it to others, but Larry can definitely do it." Louis explained rationally, "The 1979-80 season was Larry's first season. I watched with my own eyes as he only won 29 games last season.

The Celtics led the team to 63 wins. I was a witness, and I can tell you clearly that there was only one new player on that team, Larry, and the others remained unchanged."

Buckley was stunned and completely unable to refute.

"Now you know what GOAT is, Chuck?"

At this time, although Barkley was defeated by Louis with facts, he refused to admit defeat: "Wilt Chamberlain is the GOAT. Larry has never scored 100 points."

"Look, this is why your team can't succeed. The reason you think Wilt is the GOAT is that he once scored 100 points in a single game, but you don't know how many times Wilt was crazy about pursuing scoring records.

Years were the most unsuccessful period of his career." Louis said heartily, "Of course, I can understand that you are such a superficial pseudo-star, so you can never look at the problem from the perspective of a winner!"

Buckley's lips twitched and his face turned pale.

Everyone believed that he wanted to rush in front of Louis and punch him at least five times.

"It's not my damn fault to pick a dead guy with the second overall pick!" Barkley's resentment burst out, "Who doesn't need a few helpers? Larry has Isiah and Ralph; Patrick has Benj.

John and Kevin, who do I have? Tell me, who do I have?"

Louis motioned to Wilson to pour him a Coke.

Wilson did so.

Louis finished the Coke and said with satisfaction: "Don't be so resentful, Chuck, of course this is not your responsibility, it is your management's problem. However, you acted like you witnessed the rape of a strong woman but didn't

You are an indifferent softie. If you are dissatisfied, you should speak up loudly instead of venting your anger on the court. Don't you think that if you act tougher on the court, your status quo will change?"

"Now that you know where your problem is, you should find a way to solve it. If you can't solve it, get out of the car. If you know that you can't solve the problem and want to rot in Chicago, then you should accept that you are a rotten fish.

Reality." Louis said venomously, "So, as a rotten fish, the next time Larry and I discuss a topic like the championship, the only thing you should do is shut up, be silent, and cover it with donuts.

Keep your mouth that can only make ghost noises and silently envy it in your heart, this is the only fucking thing you can do, understand?"

Except for Gaithers, most of the players on the Eastern Stars are old people.

They know what kind of coach Louie is.

These heated conversations sounded to some like a humiliation directed at Barkley.

But people like Thomas, Sampson and Bird have a deeper understanding of this.

Obviously Louis is taking advantage of this rare communication opportunity to instill something into Barkley.

His words were ugly, but would Barkley hate him?

No, if you want to hate him, you should also hate the incompetent management that led him to this situation and being publicly humiliated by Louis, right?

Every wrongdoer has his own debtor, and he will not hate Louis just because he pointed out the cruel reality.

On the contrary, maybe he will be grateful to Louis in the future.

Most people will waste their youth, but there is also a basic rule to waste. The Bulls' waste of Barkley's peak period has reached the extreme.

When Buckley realized this, he became furious and said nothing again.