477: 178: He’s Completely Out of the Game (Vote for Monthly Tickets!)_3 477: 178: He’s Completely Out of the Game (Vote for Monthly Tickets!)_3 From the first round when we crushed the Bulls, after every round we won, a case of “Dynasty Feast” was moved into the locker room.
We’ve accumulated three cases now.
These bottles of wine have followed the team like a shadow; if we play away games, these wines are also transported to the away locker rooms.
No one knew what Roger was up to, carting these wines back and forth.
If it was just about celebrating, he could have brought them on the day we won the championship; there’s no need to follow the team around every day.
Moreover, Roger never opened these wines and didn’t seem to have any intention of drinking them.
Curious, Saru asked, “Roger, what’s the deal with these wines?
Even if they’re for celebration, isn’t it a bit too early?”
Roger smiled enigmatically, “You’ll know, Saru, you’ll know after we win the championship.”
On the other hand, the Knicks’ locker room was dismal.
The Knicks players couldn’t believe that even with Ewing and Jordan, they had lost the series.
Moreover, they didn’t even qualify for a Game 7.
To encourage everyone, Larry Johnson shouted repeatedly in the locker room, “It’s okay guys, we’ll be back next year!
We’ll come back and settle everything!”
But no one was inspired, and every player was indifferent.
Because the core players of the team, Jordan and Ewing, had been silent since the end of the game, not saying a word.
If even they were so dejected, if even they didn’t have the confidence to say “we will come back next year,”
Where would the rest of the Knicks get their confidence from?
The Zen Master watched Jordan’s silence, then tilted his head and called Ewing over, and the three of them went to the treatment room.
Once the door was closed, the Zen Master got straight to the point, “Next season, we have a chance to win the championship.
Michael, are you coming back?”
“We can win next season, Michael!” Ewing was much more excited than the Zen Master.
Patrick Ewing’s basketball career was always filled with tragedy.
March 29, 1982, was the day Patrick Ewing came closest to a championship.
With 32 seconds left on the scoreboard, Georgetown University was leading their rival North Carolina 62 to 61.
In the final moments, North Carolina’s star, James Worthy, was trapped by Georgetown’s tight zone defense; he had no choice but to pass the ball to that sweaty freshman.
That freshman received the basketball, and in front of more than sixty thousand cheering people in New Orleans, he jumped, shot.
Patrick Ewing prayed the ball wouldn’t go in, but it swished through the net.
North Carolina clinched the game in the last second, and that game-changing freshman was Michael Jordan.
That was the beginning of all Ewing’s tragedies.
From that point until entering the NBA, most of Ewing’s tragedies could be summed up in one sentence—From the ’80s to the ’90s, from the NCAA to the NBA, Ewing always encountered Jordan.
Now, Ewing finally teamed up with his biggest nightmare, Jordan, and had just begun to see the glimmer of hope.
And Jordan was going to retire after just one year in New York?
Ewing couldn’t understand.
He didn’t want their partnership to crumble so quickly.
So, his emotions were much more agitated than the Zen Master’s.
Jordan looked up, glanced at the Zen Master, then at Ewing:
You guys don’t understand.
Just now, we missed our last chance to defeat the Magic; there’s no next time.
Next season, Shaq will definitely leave, and this dynasty team will have completed their final chapter.”
“Exactly, that means we have a chance!” Ewing shouted.
“No, it means we can never defeat this Magic team again.
Not even the strongest media power can change that fact.
Last season, most could easily defeat the briefly returned Magic of the Los Angeles Lakers, but that doesn’t mean you’ve beaten the Showtime Lakers.”
Even if we defeat the Magic fifty times later, we can’t make up for the losses we’ve had.
all got taken down by Roger!”
After saying this, Jordan looked at his hands, struggling.
In December 1984, just five weeks into his career, when asked “How will your career end?” Michael Jordan pondered for a long time.
“I hope by that time I would have given it my all and won the championship,” he pondered for a moment and then added, “If possible, at least play in one All-Star game.
Hmm, if I can achieve these two accomplishments by the end of my career, then I can retire in peace.”
By now, Jordan had gone much further than he had anticipated, and the journey had been great enough.
Of course, Jordan wasn’t satisfied with the current ending.
But he could no longer change anything.
He and Roger had already determined the winner.
It was time to say goodbye, Michael Jordan.
Having interacted with this dog-eat-dog world for too long, he was truly tired.
The moment he shook hands with Roger, he felt a strong sense of weariness.
Perhaps, it was time for him to calmly accept reality, just like Magic did in 1991, and then watch as a new era dawned.
Jordan lifted his head and glanced at the Zen Master and Ewing.
“Goodbye Phil, goodbye Patrick, my dear friends.”
Michael Jordan could never have imagined that in ’94, when he made Roger leave Chicago, Roger had said something similar to Toni Kukoc.
Now, it was Jordan’s turn.
The cycle had come to an end, and Roger had put the final period on it all.
Roger…he was the best.
J’s peak, I watched David ‘Skywalker’ Thompson explode for 73 points in a game, I witnessed Bernard King score 50 points back-to-back at Madison Square Garden, I love Larry, Magic, and Michael, but…
I’m willing to pay to watch him play, even to watch him practice.
— Knicks die-hard fan Spike Lee commented on Roger during an interview outside Madison Square Garden, completely conquered by him.
In the summer of 1997, Roger could finally say goodbye to Michael Jordan.
From now on, there would be no more mention of that man’s name in his era.
Michael had lost this three-year duel in an extremely tragic way.
He had lost his last chance, and after all that had happened, no one was sure if he would return to the Knicks’ lineup next season.
— Magic commented on the impact of the brutal Game 6 on Jordan and the Knicks.
The value of that trade was still on the rise, and Jerry Krause would be forever enshrined in history.
Because of this man, he had personally created two dynasties of the ’90s.
— Sports Illustrated writer Andrew Sharp sarcastically wrote about the Bulls in his article.
“If you knew how bad Roger’s reputation was after he lost the finals, you would understand how precious this night is.
Roger has conquered his fate, forcibly turned the media’s narrative around.
“At first, they ridiculed Roger for never being a historical player, mocked him as a young egomaniac.
“Because Michael could win a championship with the same Bulls team and Roger couldn’t, they labeled Roger as trash.
“Because Michael had never lost in the finals and Roger had, they called Roger a loser.
“They foolishly thought that a single finals round could definitively sentence Roger’s entire professional career to death.
“But look now, who’s the one lying on the ground as a loser?
Who’s the trash being swept out of the door?
“No one’s laughing now, just like what Roger said last year, they can still boast about Michael’s undefeated finals record, all he has left is that pathetic bit of dignity.
“This, this is the greatest significance of tonight.
“He has made all those who defamed him, mocked him, into real clowns!”
Just as David Falk and Nike had predicted, the defeat was devastating.
Their controlled media had lost its effect because no one could change the reality of Jordan being dominated by Roger.
For a time, Jordan’s reputation hit rock bottom.
For a time, Roger became the media’s darling.
There was no place for Jordan in this basketball world anymore, he was completely out.
For Jordan, his legendary story had ended completely.
But for Roger, his legendary career was just crossing the starting line.
One could imagine that when Roger reached Michael Jordan’s age…
Behind him, there would be piles of trophies.
And, many enemies’ corpses.
You know, this is far from the end.
It is the prelude to another tyrant’s brutal rule.