Although winning Game 2 doesn’t mean the Cavaliers regained their home court advantage, heading to Boston with a 1-1 score means both sides are back on equal footing. Dıscover more novels at 𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹✶𝗳𝗶𝗿𝗲✶𝗻𝗲𝘁
On the plane to Boston that day, Hansen was chatting with Jokic when Conningham approached him.
He was holding a book, and his expression looked somewhat disgruntled.
Traveling from Cleveland to Boston takes about an hour and a half, so it wasn’t unusual for Conningham to bring a book. It was just his expression that seemed a bit odd.
"Boss, someone is trashing you."
Conningham said as he handed the book to Hansen.
Hansen: Really? Such good news?
Hansen took the book and glanced at the title, "Decrypting Hansen."
As the saying goes, the more popular you are, the more trouble you attract. Many people wanted to ride on Hansen’s fame after he became well-known.
Writing a book is one of the most common methods.
It’s well-known that in the United States, because of copyright reasons, the money earned from selling books is much more than many imagine.
Writing a bestseller is akin to winning a lottery jackpot.
For example, after retirement, Jamison published a book, "The Great Leader Hansen," detailing how Hansen sacrificed himself and supported his teammates on the Grizzlies.
Since he played with Hansen both during his time with the Cavaliers and the Grizzlies, the book quickly became a bestseller, and he earned almost $200,000 in royalties in one summer, more than he earned on the Grizzlies.
A well-known story to Hansen is how Pippen once trashed Jordan to boost book sales.
Hansen took a look at who published the book.
The name looked familiar, but he couldn’t immediately recall who it was.
After flipping through the book, he remembered who it was.
This was the former general manager of the Grizzlies, who succeeded Chris Wallace, and was responsible for executing Heisley’s will to trade him to the Cavaliers. After Heisley sold the team, he was also fired.
"Where did this come from?" Hansen asked curiously.
Jokic gave up his seat to Conningham and went to sit at the back.
"This book is currently going viral on social media, and ESPN is aggressively promoting it." Conningham also sat down.
Listening to Conningham’s description, Hansen’s interest was piqued.
He opened the book and started reading.
It contained stories about things he did during the 2013-2014 season with the Grizzlies.
He was depicted as a hypocritical bastard in the book.
For example, it narrated how he forced Grizzlies players to arrive at the venue an hour early for training, and anyone who dared not to come would have to apply for a trade themselves;
Or how he constantly bullied teammates in training through one-on-one challenges, even if the others were unwilling, and so on.
"Han disguises himself as an approachable leader, but when facing unfavorable situations, he tears off his disguise and becomes an utter bastard."
This was a conclusion Rush drew in the book.
Halfway through, Hansen took out his phone to look up and saw that Rush had been unemployed since being fired from the Grizzlies.
This wasn’t surprising, as Rush was purely pulled up as a scapegoat back then, and naturally, no one would want to pick up an old glove.
Hansen closed the book, then returned it to Conningham.
"It’s not exactly trashing."
Looking back, Hansen indeed acted like a bastard in the final dynasty season.
Though he did it to maintain his masquerade of being part of a dynasty, others couldn’t know he was masquerading.
Rush appears to be like Pippen back in the day; he must be short on cash.
Thanks to Jamison’s previous success, such contrasting books ironically tend to become bestsellers.
Conningham was stunned after hearing this, although he didn’t play with Hansen at the Grizzlies, he knew Hansen well.
"Boss, I’m afraid the other team members will have opinions!" Conningham whispered nervously.
If the book were released at any other time, it wouldn’t matter much, but it just had to come out now.
In order to win Game 2, Hansen indeed demonstrated his "bastard" side.
Though many of the Cavaliers players had played with him three years ago, their off-court interactions with Hansen weren’t much.
Moreover, the League and sponsors tend to construct personas for superstars.
This time, Hansen’s "persona" might collapse.
"You can’t stop what others think, just like you can’t change the mind of someone who has opinions just because of a book." Hansen said, throwing the book back to Conningham.
Did he earn his teammates’ recognition and respect because he was a good person?
Wasn’t Wade better than him?
Being a good person is of no use; being strong is vital!
If he couldn’t lead everyone to win championships, to make more money, people wouldn’t sincerely respect him.
Hansen didn’t care, but his team couldn’t ignore it.
When Hansen flew to Boston, Rondo, staying in Cleveland, had already filed a lawsuit for reputational damage caused by this book to Hansen.
However, that didn’t achieve the desired effect.
Because, as Hansen mentioned, Rush essentially told the truth with bad intent in the book.
Moreover, ESPN was still ramping up promotional efforts.
Hansen’s negative reputation soared.
And the continuous social media fermentation showed why Rush released the book at this time.
Soon, fans started associating Hansen with Little Thomas.
Little Thomas’s story was inspiring; everyone sympathized with him. As a result, seeing Hansen land punches on him during the game, it looked like Rush was right, Hansen was indeed a bastard.