the rest, only noise

Chapter 671 The Green Army Who Completed the Power Transition

Louie didn't know what the people who made the schedule were thinking in order to give them such strong enemies as the Blazers and Celtics in the first and second regular-season games.

If it comes, it will be safe, and they will not complain about things that have been determined.

The Celtics opened against the powerful Utah Jazz in the West.

They almost reached the Finals last season, and their strength is definitely not bad. Coupled with the successful renewal of Alvin Robertson, they ensure that they are still a strong team.

Under such circumstances, Larry Legend, who had been on a truce for a season, played a disastrous performance. Facing one of his maids, Tom Chambers, he failed to rise up, causing the Green Army to make a bad start and lose the first game⑴.

The Celtics welcomed Bird back, but lost Ron Harper.

This is an offseason subplot that Louis didn't pay attention to. The Celtics' contract renewal focuses on Sampson, but Harper's contract expires unexpectedly.Although the Celtics have the right to a mandatory match, if a team is willing to give Harper a four-year $4 million contract, what can they do?

Although Harper has Jordan's shadow in all aspects, he is not Jordan after all.

Moreover, the Celtics' bench still has Reggie Lewis, a promising newcomer waiting for the top position.

Renewing Sampson's contract has already caused them a lot of blood, so Harper was sent away for nothing.

It was none other than the Detroit Pistons who did this.

Since Mark Aguirre's contract expired, leaving a lot of salary space, they tried to pursue Harper.

As a result, the Celtics really let him go, and they let Aguirre go.

Aguirre didn't expect him to become a backup tire. He entered the league as the No. [-] pick in the past, but now he is disgusted by the Pistons. Although he was given freedom, it is too shameful to think about it.

He was so angry that he wanted to go to Boston to join Isiah Thomas.

Aguirre and Thomas have been hard-core brothers since they were young. Since they came here to prove themselves, it is nothing to sacrifice some money.

Although he was willing to cut his salary, the Celtics did not accept him considering his style of play and style of play.

Aguirre is an unconventional low-post threat.

Most of the low-post killers are inside, and Aguirre, like Jordan's generation, is proficient in low-post operations. At the same time, he is more inclined to McHale's low-post end point and doesn't like to play the ball.

The Celtics didn't need any more post-up threats, so they didn't have him.

Aguirre became even more angry, and secretly vowed to make both the Celtics and the Pistons pay the price.

He diverted to the west and defected to another good brother-"Tragician" Johnson.

Aguirre's asking price is not high, only 2 million in 200 years, and there is a team option at the end of the first year.If he doesn't perform well, the Lakers could dump him next summer.

This posture is low enough.

With a tragic teacher, the Lakers are not afraid of him causing trouble.

In this way, Aguirre was forced from the east to the west, allowing the already very strong Lakers to add another titan.

A big drama fell, and it turned out that the Celtics compromised the depth of their lineup as a result, sending Mark Aguirre to the hands of their old enemy.

Although the Big Three of the Celtics are all there, the depth of their lineup is no longer comparable to that of the dynasty.

In addition to the Big Three, the Celtics also have 32-year-old Lambiel, Jim Peterson, the last player Louie introduced to the team before he left that year, John Long (33 years old) and Reggie Lewis, who was the stepping stone for Louis to enter professional basketball.

In general, the Celtics still have seven players who can fight tough battles.

But if you are against a super team like the Knicks that often rotates 12 people, such a shallow lineup depth will be exhausted.

In the long run, the decline of the Celtics is irreversible. They are too old to compare with the Knicks or the Lakers.

It took the Lakers two years to change a team for the tragedian. Now standing next to the tragedian is another Russell II David Robinson, the fast-growing Scottie Pippen, the bench thug Kevin Johnson, and Mark Aguirre who put on a super low profile to prove himself.

There are also high-quality power forward AC Green, two-way wing Derek McKay, and little fox Vlade Divac.

The Lakers, who were so suppressed by the Celtics that it was difficult to raise their heads, had only the tragic division.

The others are the old ones for the new ones.

April 11

Madison Square Garden

The last time Larry Bird was here, there were only two old flags over MSG's arena. Now, there are four.

One side should have belonged to them. If they didn't meet the Knicks, the Celtics could have achieved five consecutive championships.

Now the East is dominated by the Knicks, and the Celtics have changed from overlord to challenger.

That Benjamin Wilson, who was beaten by him many times, dared to say in front of him now: "I hope you are in a better state tonight."

Did he think he could talk to him like this after winning two championships?
Louie met with current Celtics head coach Jimmy Rodgers.

Rodgers had worked for Green Kai as early as the Fitch era, but Rodgers was not there when he was the head coach.

After KC Jones took over, he came back to assist KC.

Last year KC successfully retired, it was his turn to take over.

"KC is really irresponsible, actually leaving such a big stall to you." Louie joked.

Many rookie coaches who have debuted for one or two years are in awe of Louis. Although he is not yet 30 years old, the achievements he has accomplished are beyond the reach of many coaches in their entire lives.

Just after he dared to win the championship in 1984, he jumped off the car from the peak of the sky, and it can be seen that he is not an ordinary person.

"Yes, I've been complaining to him too, he left too suddenly."

"No, you're making it sound like KC died."

After Louie and Rogers exchanged polite greetings, they returned to their respective players.

Due to Ewing's truce, no one inside the Knicks can match Sampson.

Louis simply didn't want a center forward, let McHale stand at the fifth position, and then mentioned Rodman to play the fourth position.

Because whoever faces Sampson in the fifth position will be blown up.

Therefore, this point can only be double-teamed, and the single defense is useless even with Ewing.

For the Celtics, the starting lineup hasn't changed much.

Thomas, Reggie Lewis, Bird, Sampson, Lambiel.

If Lewis is replaced by John Long, it will be the Celtics' dynastic lineup that dominated the mid-to-late 80s.

The stability of the lineup has been guaranteed for many years, which is why they can dominate the league.

Before the start, Louie asked Bird: "How's your back feeling?"

Byrd said arrogantly: "It's enough to beat you."

It is not uncommon for Bird to talk like birds and birds. If he speaks human words one day, he is probably preparing to retire.

After all, when a person is about to die, his words are also kind.

The introduction before the opening reflected the grievances between the two sides.

When DJ recalled the Celtics players, the fans couldn't hide their disgust.

"Even if all the players on the court have to retire one day, this kind of rivalry will continue. I believe that the matchup in the past few years has created a huge rift between Boston basketball and New York basketball similar to Boston and Los Angeles."

"They will always hate each other."

In the opening game, Sampson won the jump ball without any suspense.

Thomas passes the ball to Bird.

Bird stood outside the left wing, and Sampson asked for the ball in the low post.

Wilson, who was in charge of defending Bird, stood on the three-point line. He knew that Bird had a long range. As long as Bird was here, he couldn't attack.

It seems that this weak-side low-post one-on-one plan will be successfully implemented by the Celtics, but things are not that simple.

Sampson just got the ball, and behind him stands McHale, a power forward who is far inferior to him, and can play whenever he wants.

Suddenly, Rodman's double-team approached like a nightmare.

"Bring it to you!"

Rodman roared and roughly hit Sampson's ball to the ground. If it was in another garden, he would probably be called a foul.

Sampson was double-teamed and made a mistake, and the Knicks' counterattack was hard for the Celtics to stop.

Rodman threw the ball to Stockton, who then threw it to Wilson who was about to pass halftime.

The Celtics have only two players who can keep up with this rhythm.

For Sampson and Lewis, the former dropped the ball in the low post and was too far away to do anything, while the latter was alone and his defensive awareness needed to be honed.

Wilson grabbed the ball with one hand, took two steps inside the free throw line, and instantly jumped like a detonated bomb.

Lewis is a little better than Wilson in terms of size, but his explosiveness is a few grades worse.

Wilson knocked down Lewis directly in the air, without extra movement, stretched his long arms with the ball and drew a crescent-like arc, smashing into the basket like a broken bamboo.

"BOOM!!!"

Almost at the same moment, Marv Albert yelled: "Yessss!!! Benj made an amazing dunk for Reggie Lewis!"

Anyone who watches the Knicks game will remember Albert's iconic "Yessss". Any high-light shot coupled with his emotional cry will increase the burn rate by several levels.

Luckily Lewis wasn't called for a foul, and Wilson ignored his opponent, just turned around and ran past Bird with fiery passion: "Your time is over!"

The next round, exactly the same position.

Still by Bird to pass the ball to Sampson.

Through these two rounds, Louis determined that the Celtics have completed the conversion of power status within the stadium.

They officially established Ralph Sampson as the first core, but at the same time made a stupid decision: take the ball away from Bird.

Jimmy Rodgers committed the crime of Bill Fitch, and the gang always took it for granted that Bird was so talented that he didn't need the ball to make the most of it.

Yes, Bird without the ball is still great, but this is like Tang Guoqiang's version of Zhuge Liang. Of course you can let him play Zhou Yu.

This principle applies to Bird, Curry, and many players who are so versatile that they can shine even if they are taken away from the ball.

A lot of coaches just don't understand that when you take the ball away from the No. [-] star and he's still playing at the top level, the last thing you should be feeling is happiness, and you have to know that you're missing out on his best performance.

But a lot of coaches won't understand, like Jimmy Rodgers, he thinks he's doing a good job.

⑴ Those who have paid attention to table tennis know that the men's singles competition is actually very fierce. Although Ocharov of the German team is a famous player in the world, he has never won more than a dozen matches with Ma Long in his career, so he is called the Dragon Maid.In the NBA, Bird has a group of his own maids, headed by white forwards such as Chambers, Vandeweghe, and Tripka.If this group of people all played in the Eastern Conference, just playing them, I feel that Bird's scoring average in the early 80s could increase by 1-2 points.

(End of this chapter)