After hearing Hansen’s thoughts, Wallace’s heart took a long time to calm down.
He had considered every possibility, but never anticipated that Hansen would make such a choice.
Eventually, he heaved a sigh, "I respect your decision."
Not only had Hansen brought the Grizzlies their first championship in team history, he had now brought the second and might even bring a third.
From any point of view, Hansen no longer owed the Grizzlies anything.
The initial trade he made was enough to make history and could even compete for the best trade in history.
And he could understand Hansen’s decision, as a general manager, how could he not know the investment the management made into the team?
Although numerous East University companies were sending money to Memphis, the management was shortsighted, still only focusing on immediate profitability.
In fact, last season there really was someone in management considering trading Randolph, but it was only after Randolph performed excellently right before the All-Star game that those voices finally disappeared.
Including the information he had received this season, management was also considering trading Guy, whose stats and salary no longer matched, making it an overpriced contract.
And if trading Randolph or Guy eventually caused the Grizzlies’ attempt at a dynasty to fail, given Hansen’s character, he would definitely request a trade in the end.
Thus, Hansen’s current decision might just be the only way to break the impasse.
However, as the person who initially brought Hansen to Memphis, foreseeing that Hansen would leave in the near future made him inevitably sentimental.
The general manager seemed to control the whole game, but at the end of the day, he was just an executor of the management’s will.
After Wallace left, Hansen opened his social media.
While they had been chatting, he felt his number of detractors constantly increasing.
But he hadn’t done anything, which piqued his curiosity.
When he opened social media and saw the related comments, he couldn’t help but laugh.
"Thinking of a dynasty? Dream on! Would you even defend the title this year if DW hadn’t been injured?"
(Thank goodness I watched the game, or I’d think the Heat were going to win Heavenly King Mountain before DW got injured.)
"CP3 is injured, DW is injured, you’re just lucky, but luck won’t always be on your side!"
(If it weren’t for Guy’s injury in the 2011 playoffs, wouldn’t the Grizzlies already be a dynasty?)
"Watch, the Grizzlies will definitely trade Guy this summer when they blast their salary cap, then try reaching for a dynasty!"
(Shall we bet 50 US dollars? If you don’t even have 50 dollars, you better start looking for a job!)
"I can’t wait to see this year’s free agency, I just love watching the Grizzlies fall apart."
(I’m looking forward to it too, just don’t let LeBron get traded by the Thunders again, that would really be a nomadic move!)
Speaking of which, this year’s finals were disadvantageous for James either way; for his fans, it was a dilemma, but now they’ve found an outlet.
However, now there are a lot of Hansen fans who automatically defend him.
It’s because of this confrontational atmosphere that Hansen’s detractor count kept increasing.
A few days later, the Grizzlies hosted a grand championship parade.
The streets of Memphis were still deserted, with fans’ enthusiasm not diminished from last year.
The only difference was that this year, there were no shootings, making it much more stable than last year.
This also led to a massive crowd gathering outside the FedEx Forum during the final speech, visually very impactful.
To those who knew, it was a championship parade; those who didn’t might think it was a presidential campaign.
This year, the speech was hosted by Hansen, not Joerger.
"Robert (Sacre) is our MVP, if one day he’s not there waving towels on the sideline, I will lose half my enthusiasm for the game."
"Dentye (Jones) can do what we all know he can do."
"I’ve spoken with Shaun (Battier), he’s not retiring yet, next season we still have ’The President’."
"No one knows how much Rudy (Guy) has sacrificed, when the coach said someone needed to play off the bench against the Heat, he said, ’I’ll do it.’"
Hansen, like a walking encyclopedia, occasionally won whistles and cheers from the audience.
"We’ve completed two-thirds of the work, let’s complete the last third!"
And when Hansen heavily emphasized and shouted out the statement he made during his FMVP speech, the cheers from the crowd sky-rocketed.
Whether it’s the Bulls or the Lakers, whether it’s Chicago or Los Angeles, those are successes of big cities.
But the Grizzlies, in Memphis, created a legend of a small city, a legend that is still ongoing.
The day after the championship parade ended, Scarlett came to Memphis.
As soon as they met, it was intense from the doorway to the bed, and then from the balcony to the bathroom.
After it ended, Hansen leaned on the bed, smoking a cigar, while Scarlett was getting dressed.
Since she had come in a hurry, she needed to rush back to continue filming. Nᴇw novel chapters are publɪshed on 𝔫𝔬𝔳𝔢𝔩⟡𝘧𝙞𝙧𝙚⟡𝘯𝘦𝘵
When she had trouble with the zipper at the back of her dress, Hansen put down his cigar to help her.
Scarlett turned around, gave Hansen a deep kiss, then brought up something that seemed unrelated to Hansen.
"I met a French man, his name is Roman Darric, he’s been very good to me."
It took a moment for Hansen to understand what Scarlett was trying to say until she continued.
"Have you ever thought about getting married?"
After all, Hansen was 24 this year, not turning 25 until December.