Basketball Legend: When Pride Still Matters

Chapter 843 843 529 Its Raining in Seattle

?Chapter 843: Chapter 529: It’s Raining in Seattle Chapter 843: Chapter 529: It’s Raining in Seattle After the Lakers were eliminated, the Supersonics found themselves in a delicate situation.

Their biggest rival this year had already been knocked out, and defending their title seemed the natural course.

But such complacency was dangerous—if they underestimated their Eastern opponents, they could indeed face an upset.

Before that, however, they still had to wait for the Eastern Conference to resolve itself.

The Celtics and Magic dragged the Eastern finals to a Game 7, giving the Supersonics a few extra days of rest.

Roy spent a lot of time shooting to regain his lost touch.

As he added another 500 shots to his daily practice, Fei said to him, “Weren’t you supposed to be our Scottie Pippen? Pippen wouldn’t waste time on shooting practice.”

“Actually, I guarded LeBron just like Scottie did Magic Johnson in the ’91 Finals—I couldn’t have done more, and now I need to be myself again.”

Roy kept talking, showing no signs of stopping.

All Fei could do was to wish him luck.

Moreover, he wanted to say that stopping James’s post-up play wasn’t a big deal; it was just that they didn’t have a player like JJ Barea who would have made James look even more embarrassed.

Although at that time, it seemed impossible for Roy to guard James, as a player, he did have the size—missing a post-up against Barea would have been an altogether different level of disaster.

Durant was excited these days.

Ever since he had knocked out the Lakers, he had been in a state of excitement.

It was rumored that at Nike’s headquarters in Portland, the huge posters had been changed to moments of Durant during the Western Conference finals.

In the past, the building’s posters had always featured Woods, Kobe, and James, but with Woods’s scandal, and Kobe and James losing a playoff series they shouldn’t have, Nike’s dual kings couldn’t stop Fei from reaching the top with Reebok; they had to focus on the future.

Elevating Durant was a priority.

Even if Durant’s performance in the regional finals was merely outstanding and not crucial, they still needed to hype him up using their media connections to enhance his reputation beyond the present.

This way, though they couldn’t stop Reebok’s momentum or steal Fei’s spotlight, Nike could at least promote Seattle’s victory as Nike’s victory during their campaigns.

DeAndre Jordan tried to develop his shooting.

Fei had observed his shooting and thought it wasn’t so much that he lacked talent in shooting; rather, dedicating so much time to strength training meant he couldn’t possibly have consistent muscle memory for shooting.

Thus, developing a shooting skill was nearly an impossible task for him.

He would quickly give up, just like Kwame Brown once did.

Whether he could shoot or not wouldn’t affect his ascension.

Once he realized this, he wouldn’t waste his energy on such endeavors.

After all, he would become a starter regardless, and as long as he was better than Kwame Brown, no one in the team could threaten his position.

As for Brown, after declaring, “My time has passed,” he had completely resigned himself, having no illusions about his team status.

This actually prevented any future conflicts with the coaching staff over this matter.

The sooner Brown accepted this outcome, the more likely he would end his career in Seattle.

Waiting was a long process.

A day later, the Celtics and Magic entered their decisive Game 7.

It was a suffocatingly close battle.

The Celtics had more defensive elite, while the Magic only relied on Vince Carter and Ray Allen.

But Carter was completely shut down by the Celtics, and Ray Allen was cold in this homecourt battle, going 3 for 14.

If anyone from Los Angeles watched this game, they could clearly see how their team had died because the Magic repeated it.

The current Ray Allen was no longer the versatile scorer he had been eight years ago beside Fei—now, he was purely a shooter.

And pure shooters could never dominate in a game where there were no moments of relaxation.

Ray Allen was still the same Ray Allen, except now he was stuck in a strange team where the top guy only did grunt work.

The score for this game was low, 82 to 77.

The Celtics won against the Magic with a very slim margin, earning their second trip to the Finals in three years.

However, the Bostonians felt humiliated.

Because the upcoming Finals seemed to have no suspense for the public.

It was like the song “Unforgettable Tonight” during the New Year’s Gala, where the audience really cared about the earlier acts.

One metric reflected the attention disparity between the Western and Eastern Conference Finals.

Tens of millions of Americans watched each game of the Western finals between the Supersonics and Lakers, while the highest-rated Game 7 of the Eastern finals between the Celtics and Magic did not surpass five million viewers in the United States.

As for the Finals, the audience only cared about the outcome.

A Supersonics Championship meant several things.

They would become the third modern NBA team to complete a three-peat after the OK Lakers.

Fei’s total championships would surpass Jordan, officially making him the Greatest of All Time from a glory standpoint.

Additionally, the Supersonics’ submission of a new stadium financing proposal to the city council during the Finals would be more eye-catching than even their matchup with the Celtics.

Notably, the financing plan for the new stadium itself faced significant opposition in Seattle.

The only media person who believed the Finals were still contentious and took them seriously, thinking the final game had suspense, was Bill Simmons.