Basketball Legend: When Pride Still Matters

Chapter 840 840 528

?Chapter 840: 528 Chapter 840: 528 Phil Jackson faced the journalists’ questioning with a sense of unspoken difficulty.

When the California media asked him why he hadn’t arranged the most critical offenses for Kobe, he couldn’t say that at the time the Supersonics had adopted the strategy of “We choose to let James get the ball”.

“I know this is hard to understand, but please believe us, we equally wanted to get the ball to Kobe, but the situation was far more complicated than we imagined,” Jackson said, “In the game, you can’t simply do whatever you want, and moreover, letting LeBron get the ball was not a bad decision for us.”

But what were the results?

James’ performance almost reduced the Staples Center to ashes.

“It’s just…” Jackson said helplessly, “LeBron is not skilled enough in the low post.”

That was already an extremely tactful way of putting it.

To say nothing of the fact that James, mismatched in backing down Roy, was essentially picking on someone smaller—considering Roy had not played for half a year, all he had left was his competitive instincts and lingering muscle memory, and such a person had no defense to speak of.

James could have simply bulldozed his way to the basket in the most brute fashion, or even abandon backing down, turn to face the basket and make a forceful attack, but he opted for a clumsy few back-downs, then a turn-around jump shot.

In James’ arsenal, this was one of his least reliable ways to score.

Facing the opponent’s defensive weak spots, his offensive choices almost buried the Lakers’ season.

This was not something Jackson could simply clear up with the phrase “not skilled enough”.

Moreover, the fact that James couldn’t back down anyone in the low post was just one of the prominent problems exposed by the Lakers in the King of the Hill battle—their interior line was utterly decimated.

The Supersonics proved in one game that as long as they targeted Marc Gasol and the frontline led by him, the Lakers found no way to resolve the issues.

Now, the Lakers’ morale was shattered, James lost a game that couldn’t be lost, and their spirits had plummeted to rock bottom.

Heading back to Seattle for the sixth game was almost a no-win situation.

For the Evil Empire, tonight was the final verdict.

The sixth game was merely the day for execution.

“It’s not over yet,” Jackson said, “There have been many stories in the history of the Conference Finals where a team has come back from a 1-3 deficit, we have no reason to not rally from a 2-3 situation.”

No reason? No, that quickly appeared.

“It’s not over,” James asserted with a facade of strong determination in the face of disaster, “We will spare no effort to bring the game back to Los Angeles, the next game will be a battle for dignity!”

Then, a reporter asked him, “To defend your dignity, will you continue to attempt to back down Brandon Roy?”

James said coldly, “Next question.”

“What did Frye say to you after finishing the last offense?”

“Next question!”

“If Kobe had taken those key offenses, would the outcome be different?”

“Next question!”

So the malicious world had come upon James.

To the media, they were just telling it like it was, while James could not confront these matters.

If he were to face them, he’d have to accept that it was he who had led the Lakers to their downfall.

Kobe likewise had to face the uncomfortable questioning.

The matter traced back to the post-Game 4 press conference.

When Yu Fei attracted the public’s attention with “I will score 50 points in three straight games,” Kobe reacted vehemently, stating that if Yu Fei managed it, he would retire.

Tonight, Yu Fei not only achieved it, but did so in a glorious fashion.

He scored 50 points, 11 rebounds, 12 assists—this was the first 50-point triple-double in playoff history.

“Kobe, will you fulfill your promise?” the media asked, seeking excitement.

“No,” Kobe had to go back on his word, his career couldn’t end this way. “That was a heat-of-the-moment statement.”

“Are you disappointed in LeBron?”

Shouldn’t he have been disappointed in LeBron?

Before LeBron led the team to the abyss, the game was actually at a stalemate, then he repeatedly failed to score backing down Roy, while Yu Fei snatched the defensive rebounds and sank two critical trailing threes.

It’s not that James’ back downs should have been successful, but in such a situation, as the core of the team matched against the opponent’s defensive flaws, he should have made an impact, but he brought disastrous consequences instead.

Kobe pursed his lips and said, “I’m disappointed in everyone.”

Then came the statements from the role players.

“I don’t want to blame LeBron, but it’s true, and I have to tell the truth,” Ron Artest said bluntly, “If I don’t speak the truth, more people will.”

“It’s mostly my fault, I messed up the game,” Marc Gasol stated, “I take full responsibility.”

Richard Hamilton hinted subtly, “We all had areas where we didn’t play well, but the chaos in the final moments really hurt us. I think, that could decide the direction of the series.”

“I was 4 out of 8 shooting tonight,” Antawn Jamison said, “I mean, I’m the only starter with a 50% shooting rate. I might be responsible, but you can’t say, the outcome is on me.”

Mike Bibby explained the Lakers’ situation with a single sentence, “Desire is a bottle of poison, we held too much of it, and now its toxicity has manifested.”

The various states of the Lakers team vividly displayed how a team can quickly decline from the height of its power.