Basketball: The Chosen Victim

Chapter 213 Facing Fear vs Facing Weakness
That night, there was no doubt that the Cavaliers won the No. [-] lottery hot search:
"It's so cool, Scarlett, I love you! Take a breath of European energy!"

Carnival Cavaliers fans are a minority after all, and there are more fans in the comment area who are trembling with acid:
"Damn it, what evil luck is this knight!"

"Another No. [-] pick? How does this make other teams play?"

"Fuck! Why do all the good things happen to the knight?"

"Wouldn't it be the compensation the league made to the Cavaliers for trading James before? If that's the case, it's a compensation. The compensation to the Heat is almost the same..."

……

In the early morning of the next day, the headlines on the front pages of major media outlets were freshly released:
"God Assist, Widow Sister Scarlett Johansson draws the No. [-] lottery for the Cavaliers!" ", "The NBA has changed, and the No. [-] pick goes to Cleveland! ", "The king is in the world, the Cavalier Emperor will usher in a powerful helper", "The Heat will be completely cool next season, James hugs a group and hugs a lonely"...

Riley looked at the fearful newspapers on the table and had a very, very headache!
In fact, in the history of the NBA, it is not that there has never been a championship team that won the No. 81 pick. That is the Lakers in 82-[-], and it was also the first year of his coaching career.

The Lakers used this No. 50 pick to select James Worthy, yes, another James, and a top [-] legendary small forward!

Everyone knows what happened later. Riley used four Hall of Fame players, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magician, Worthy, Wilkes, and Scott, a street fighter, to create the Lakers Show Time dynasty!

In addition, Worthy's No. [-] pick was traded by the Lakers from the Cavaliers. Unexpectedly, the Cavaliers cheated another No. [-] pick from Los Angeles this time...

Well, the Lakers are in debt, and the Clippers pay back the money, there is nothing wrong with it.

But the problem is, it shouldn't be this time.

He looked at the monitor on the screen. The Heat players were training as a team to prepare for tomorrow's G7, but the morale of the team was obviously lower than the previous few days.

Obviously, they were hit by the Cavaliers getting the No. [-] pick.

The Cavaliers will usher in another strengthening next year, but they may not be able to defeat the Cavaliers this year. Who can bear it?
Especially James, who has been hanging his head halfway, looking preoccupied.

Riley pondered for a while, and then he had a countermeasure. He called James to the office and lectured:

"I can understand your mentality!"

Hearing this, James pursed his lips and drooped his head even lower.

At the beginning of the season, he also blessed Wu Di at the press conference and expressed his expectation that Wu Di would perform better.

He even pretended to be generous and said that the world is so big that there can be more than one emperor.

His thinking at that time was very clear, he wanted to show his strong self-confidence, and at the same time praise Wu Di, a young rookie.

But I didn't expect it, Wu Di got it up, and the more he got it, the higher he got, but he didn't follow the usual script at all!
And it also brought the Cavaliers, a bad team, all the way to the second place in the Eastern Conference, and even rushed to the Eastern Conference Finals in the playoffs, and even won the MVP!

James couldn't even figure it out. How did a guy who didn't get a lot of votes for the Best Rookie Award get the MVP?
How did a person who has more black fans than fans get so many high-value endorsements?
Are brands all fools?

James sighed, he was depressed!

Things have developed to this point, Wu Di has not only affected his self-confidence, but has even seriously affected his commercial value!

Then take the number of fans as an example.

When Wu Di first appeared, James also benefited from the flow of revenge topics.

His Twitter followers soared from 300 million to 800 million in three months.

This also earned him a sky-high contract extension from Nike.

But when the league abolished the 2011 rule in 012, the growth of James' fans encountered a bottleneck. It is still more than 900 million and has not exceeded 3000 million.

As for Wu Di, he started from scratch and has been rising all the way, and now he has caught up to more than 700 million...

There is also the Eastern Conference Finals. Originally, the Heat should have easily won the Cavaliers series, but they were beaten 3-1. If it weren't for the alliance's efforts, they would have been eliminated with a high probability...

This incident was like a huge rock, pressing on James' heart, making him almost out of breath.

If he really loses the Eastern Conference finals, then his "King" brand will face disaster, how can he not worry about it?

Seeing him like this, Riley raised his eyebrows, opened the drawer, took out a championship ring and put it on the table:
"Choose one to go home and play with. I don't think you will ever win the championship again in your life!"

It is impossible for you to win the championship again in your whole life?

James' face is broken!
Riley's words reverberated in his mind like a death sentence, it was deafening!
No!
Does Riley, the champion coach, feel that there is no way to defeat Wu Di?

He cautiously raised his head to look at Riley, only to find that Riley was staring at him sharply.

James realized in an instant that Riley was testing his reaction and arousing his fighting spirit!
"No, godfather... I will definitely win the championship!"

After figuring it out, James hurriedly replied.

However, this answer made Riley very dissatisfied!
His eyes became more and more unfriendly. James has a very high emotional intelligence and can immediately judge his intentions and find the correct answer.

But obviously, James only knows the correct answer, but he doesn't know what the correct answer stands for!
When James said this, he didn't have the attitude of doing whatever it takes for the championship, but this is the core element that distinguishes the leader from the rat!

Riley stood up with a jerk!

In G7, he has already promised that he will not use useless tactics again, so he can only rely on the strength of the Heat to fight head-to-head with the Cavaliers. To defeat the Cavaliers, it basically depends on whether James can restrain Wu Di and whether he can take on the tough task!
"As a bear like you, how can I rest assured that the outcome will be in your hands?"

Bang!
Riley kicked the trash can away on the road, then rushed to James with a grim expression, and grabbed his collar!

James was frightened by Riley's aggressive look, and he shrank his neck to prevent Riley from slapping him.

"Fake! Do you think I'll hit you? You're a guy with a thicker skin than an aircraft carrier. Hitting you makes my hands dirty!"

Riley roared wildly, showing the coercion cultivated by Jagged coaching for 30 years!

James' scalp was numb from being yelled at. Ever since he learned to play basketball, when has he not been offered by the coach like a grandfather?

Now this is the first time in the world that he was yelled at by the coach, even Riley, and he realized that he has no qualifications to laugh at those players who are afraid of the coach. He was about to be frightened, and even his legs were shaking...

"Tell me, can you fucking win the championship?"

Riley, as a master of mind manipulation, beating and scolding these methods is too low-level for him. His method is to use questions to arouse the deepest fear in James' heart.

There is no doubt that James is afraid of losing, and he is even more afraid that he will never win a championship in his life. It must be painful to hold a group, betray his hometown, and be accused by thousands of people, but he would rather endure this pain and come to Miami to hold a group and win, which is enough to show How afraid he is that he won't win the championship.

But Riley just wants to put what James fears most on the table, and then force James to face it.

James wanted to say yes, but his body was already filled with fear, his lips turned white, and he couldn't utter a single word...

Seeing this, Riley loosened his collar:

"Damn it, you trash, you are the chosen one! You are so afraid of eggs! Go run 20 back and forth for me, and hit 20 three-pointers, come and answer me!"

James, like being pardoned, wiped the sweat from his forehead and turned to walk towards the court.

beep!
"Fake! Run!"

Riley blew the whistle directly behind him, and James ran away this time.

Coming to the field, James began to sprint at full speed, and Riley began to count with a stopwatch:

"1 time, 2 times... 6 times, 6 times, or 6 times..."

James was dumbfounded, he ran 9 times, why Riley still said 6 times?
"Is this your attitude? If it exceeds 10 seconds, the result will be invalid! 6 times! Come again!"

James gritted his teeth and charged at full speed.

Although tired, Riley's training was really effective. James felt that the fear gradually evaporated with sweat. After the training, he could regain his courage and shout "I must win the championship".

However, Riley asked him to do another set!
James rushed to the court again without hesitation. He had already realized Riley's deep meaning and could not give up!

Never give up!
The championship, that is his dream!

He had the dream of his life!

No one can take it away!

Riley watched James sweat profusely on the field, hitting his limit over and over again, re-accumulating his mental strength bit by bit, nodded in satisfaction, very good, what he wants is this feeling of surging heart!

However, Spoelstra said on the sidelines:

"Godfather, there will be a match tomorrow night, will this be inappropriate..."

Riley remained silent. Spoelstra's words sounded like he was challenging his authority. After all, James was a bit stupid, but his physical recovery ability was unique in the league. can be restored.

But Riley didn't scold Spoel, instead he felt warm in his heart.

The reason why he didn't use this trick in training James before was not because he had played it off before!

20 years ago, on the eve of the Finals, Riley trained Magician, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Worthy, Scott and other players until they were reimbursed for the season, which directly led to the early disintegration of the Lakers Show Time dynasty.

Now, it's devil training before G7 of the Eastern Conference finals. If James is also crippled, something big will happen!

Even a little darker, James was so afraid of losing to Wu Di just now, if this time he deliberately injured himself during the devil's training and dumped the blame on Riley, then Riley's reputation will be completely ruined...

Riley took a deep breath and said lightly:

"Crisis contains opportunities. If he can take advantage of this opportunity to break through himself, then he may really be comparable to a god..."

After all, he pushed Spoelstra to the other side, clapped his hands and yelled at James on the court at the same time:

"Hurry up, hurry up, it's more than 10 seconds!"

Si Bo understood that his mentor was going all out to gamble his fame for the rest of his life!
His eyes were a little wet. He remembered that when he first became the head coach, he was eliminated in the first round of the playoffs. It was Riley who kept him, and then the Big Three came to him through a trade. In the first round, we came to the Eastern Conference Finals...

Spoelstrom twitched his nose continuously. He deeply understood that now is not the time to be sensational. Only winning the championship is the best reward for Riley. Thinking of this, he turned his head and said to the rest of the Heat players

"Guys, let's not rest, get up and rehearse the tactics just now!"

The Heat's players stood up one after another and went to the full-court training next to them. James' attitude just now had deeply infected them.

At the same time, it also reminded them of the current situation they are facing. If they don't kill the Cavaliers this year and win the championship, next year will only be more difficult!
This is a desperate situation, but isn't the Heat's team culture to face difficulties, and when they are strong, they are strong!

Wade took the lead and took the lead in stepping up training as Spoelstra regained his strength.

The Heat practiced in full swing, and the Cavaliers were no less suffocated than the Heat!
They were going to win, but in the end they were hacked by the Heat for two games. If G3 is added, it will be three games!
And for them, the No. [-] lottery drawn by Wu Di was a strong boost to their morale!
This is the realm Scott is pursuing, a positive cycle!
The players continue to surpass themselves, and then achieve unexpected good results, and this good result stimulates them to invest more energy...

Once this cycle is established, no matter what happens, it will have a positive incentive and form a flywheel effect.

The flywheel effect means that in order to turn the stationary flywheel, a lot of force must be used at the beginning, and it must be pushed repeatedly round and round. faster and faster.

Now, the wheels of the Cavaliers have been driven by Wu Di, and the Heat's players are willing to endure hardships in training, which is remarkable, but this is only part of basketball.

Basketball is a multi-dimensional competition of personal ability, teamwork, tactical strategy, spiritual will, etc. Personal ability is 90 points and the other 50 points are not as good as the average 70 points.

The Heat's wheels have just turned. If you want to increase the speed of the wheels at this time, you have to turn the wheels that are easy to turn in your personal ability, and then drive the other wheels after turning.

And the knight's wheels have already turned and flew up, which makes it very easy for them to concentrate on turning other weak wheels.

The Cavaliers are studying the Heat's style of play through game tapes. While studying, they come to the field to simulate matchups and optimize their defensive layout.

Undoubtedly, compared to offense, defense is definitely their weak point, and due to aging, lack of confrontation and other reasons, it is difficult for them to improve.

But at this time, they are forgetting to study how to improve the weakness of defense.

It's not just James and Wade, they are going from one position to another, discussing, rehearsing, and then discussing, going round and round...

They were so focused that they forgot to watch the game between the Thunder and the Mavericks that night!

There is really nothing to see, Durant just broke up in love, like a waste, the Mavericks didn't try hard, and the Thunder have already been beaten!

The life-and-death battle of the Western Conference Finals was suddenly turned into an exhibition match for Nuo Tianwang.

By the end of the night, when the Cavaliers recovered from their immersive defensive studies, the game was already over.

91-100, the Mavericks sent away the Thunder with 100 points and successfully reached the finals.

On the afternoon of May 5th, Cavaliers players came to the American Airlines Arena in Miami again.

As soon as Wu Di came to the court to warm up, James walked over with a sullen face:
"Children, watch, we will definitely beat you up today!"

Wu Di was startled, he could feel that Lao Zhan's temperament was different!

Before, Lao Zhan gave him the feeling that he was a little naive and a bit derby.

Now it is very naive and very der.

For example, Lao Zhan has never done such things as shouting before the game, only Anthony and Pierce have done it, and Pierce even lost the yacht Truth to him.

Thinking of this, Wu Di raised his mouth and said:
"How about we make a bet?"

(End of this chapter)