697: 241: Not the ending they wanted (thanks to the landlord for the big shot’s 5000 reward, kneeling in gratitude!)_4 697: 241: Not the ending they wanted (thanks to the landlord for the big shot’s 5000 reward, kneeling in gratitude!)_4 Lenny Wilkens couldn’t take it anymore, “Paul, you’ve been pushing my buttons all night!”
“I’m stating the facts.”
“Enough!” Roger stood up, pointing at Pierce’s nose, “Your performance today was not even close to Vince Carter, so you had no right to take that shot.
Shut your damn mouth!”
Unsurprisingly, the cameras at the venue captured Roger on the bench, yelling at Pierce.
At the commentary desk, Bill Walton and Bob Costas got more excited than by a slam dunk.
“My God, what’s happened?
Is Roger expressing his dissatisfaction with Paul’s performance today?”
“Perhaps, Paul’s shooting was very impulsive today, and he missed too many blocks on Doug Christie.
Roger would never tolerate such performance from his teammates, don’t forget his high-pressure tactics were the reason Steve Smith left.”
The commentators began speculating and the media was thrilled.
Finally, had the moment they had all been waiting for arrived?
Pierce did not argue back against Roger, which meant things hadn’t completely spiraled out of control.
In the subsequent game, Roger was fiercely guarded by Raptors players.
But when he scored the game-winning basket with a long-distance floater after breaking through, all efforts from Toronto proved futile.
The moment the backboard light illuminated, every Hawks player celebrated the buzzer-beater on the court.
The live broadcast focused on Paul Pierce walking off the court.
This scene even overshadowed Roger’s buzzer-beater, becoming the game’s biggest highlight.
After the game, Pierce did not attend the press conference, putting all the pressure on Roger.
“Roger, what happened during the last time-out?”
“Nothing, just some tactical arguments.”
“You and Paul, no issues?”
“I know you all are hoping for trouble, I’m tired of this topic lately.
But sorry, your hopes are dashed.”
“Then how do you assess Paul Pierce’s performance today?”
“I am one hundred percent disappointed, not because he played a terrible game…
obviously, he did play a terrible game, but that’s not what disappointed me.”
Roger mercilessly criticized Pierce, just as he had criticized Steve Smith in his early days.
As the team’s undisputed star, he felt entitled to criticize anyone.
Scottie Pippen I dare to criticize, Dominique Wilkins I dare to criticize, Shaquille O’Neal I dare to criticize as well.
Just a freshman full of holes!
If you mess up, you take the heat, and if you mess up yourself, you still take the heat—that was how Roger saw it.
Some Los Angeles reporters laughed: “Shaq is right, Roger never learns to treat his teammates better, that’s why his assistants always leave him.”
The curse seemed to cling to Roger again.
Back in the locker room, Roger found that Pierce was not there.
After asking the equipment manager, he was told, “Paul came back, changed his clothes, and then sat himself alone on the team bus.”
“That coward, I need to teach him what responsibility means!”
Roger grew angrier, was this what it was all about?
Making mistakes and then hiding alone to cry?
Roger furiously rolled up his sleeves to find Pierce, and no one dared stop him.
But just as Roger was stepping out of the locker room, Pippen grabbed his arm.
“Scott!” Roger looked stern.
Pippen glanced at the others, then walked Roger into the physio room.
“Scott, it’s come to this, what do you want to say?” Roger was willing to listen to Pippen, since Pippen had become completely his man by the middle of the 97-98 season.
For his “own people,” Roger always had patience.
“I want to say, not everyone has your abilities.”
“We know your rules, make a mistake and stand up and take it, and if you make a mistake, others can order you to stand up and take it.”
“Yes, Scott, that’s fair, isn’t it?”
“In theory, it’s fair.
But we are not you, you probably will never make a mistake, but we?
You are destined to be the GOAT, and we’re just a bunch of side characters.
You earned a salary of twenty million a long time ago, while it wasn’t until the summer of 1998 that my salary barely crossed ten million, that’s our difference.”
You can’t impose your standards on us, sometimes, you need to let us make mistakes.”
Of course, as long as it doesn’t touch on fundamental issues.
Skipping practice, being late, not taking the game seriously?
Such mistakes are absolutely unacceptable.”
I’m not speaking for him, but his sin today wasn’t so grave.