Healthy basketball, starting from eating the old Lakers F4

After Bulls President and CEO Michael Reinsdorf took the initiative to hold a media conference and said the team would do everything it could to retain Durant, the heat of Durant's upcoming retirement slowly began to fade.

Time flies and it is July 7th, and the NBA Finals finally begins.

Due to the influence of the big news that Durant was about to retire, the Suns, who had to play seven games in the Western Conference Finals not long ago, did not receive much attention.

Logically speaking, Game 1 of the Finals was a game without much suspense.

Although the Suns reached the finals by stepping on the corpses of many Western Conference powerhouses, they were exhausted after playing a full seven games in the Western Conference Finals.

Looking at the Bulls, not only have they been gathering strength for a long time, but their core strength, bench depth, and finals experience are far superior to the Suns, who made the finals for the first time in nearly a decade.

In the past, the ratings for such a one-sided game would not be very ideal.

However, it was the news that Duane was about to retire some time ago that attracted the attention of fans across the United States.

Some fans who had long given up watching the NBA also started to pick up their remote controls again and watch this finals, whose outcome they could basically guess.

“How big is the audience group?”

“It’s over 10 million!”

For this year's finals, NBA management is more concerned about ratings than ever before, so they made early arrangements and investigated how many viewers there would be when G1 was broadcast.

Last year, because it was a campus game and due to external factors, many fans were not interested in watching the game, which ultimately led to a sharp drop in ratings, from 12 million to 8 million.

Although this year's season is shortened and the influence of external factors still exists, the finals are held in the summer vacation, so normally the ratings will increase.

As expected, under the influence of "Dunn is about to retire", the audience ratings suddenly soared from 1 to million in the Western Conference Finals to million in Game of the Finals!

And this is the ratings for the just-aired Game 1 of the Finals. As the game progresses, more fans will surely hear the news, turn on their TVs and watch the game.

"Pass the ball to Duane!"

"Pass the ball to Duane!"

"Pass the ball to Duane!"

Not long after the first quarter started, Dunn fans in the United Center's audience kept shouting at the Bulls players on the court.

Obviously, many fans are reluctant to see Duane leave the United Center and the finals stage.

In the eyes of most fans, even if Duane postpones his retirement for a year or two, it will be difficult for him to return to the finals.

Well, this will be the last finals that Duane will participate in!
As the greatest player in NBA history, the greatest player of the Bulls team and the United Center, Duane should not have left so quietly.

Although everyone was just shouting for Duane to get the ball, what was actually meant was the words that were too embarrassing to say out loud - let Duane win another Finals MVP!
Durant naturally has no shortage of FMVPs. After all, Durant's number of FMVPs has long surpassed Jordan, making him the first person in NBA Finals MVP history.

But there is no limit to the fans' expectations of stars.

Duane's fans hope that Duane can consolidate his dominance in the NBA before leaving.

And the vast majority of Bulls fans here are fans of Duane!
"Duan, why don't you play a little more? We don't have any pressure tonight."

The current Bulls boss Jokic took the initiative to discuss this with Duane.

Jokic doesn't really care about the FMVP, he only cares about winning.

Therefore, fans do not mind the fact that they expect Durant to score more points and get more statistics tonight or even in the entire finals series. Instead, they want to make do with it and let Durant have a perfect ending.

Without Duane's help, Curry would not have been able to succeed as the team leader so early. Without Duane and Curry's courageous retirement and giving way to others, Jokic would not have been able to serve as the team leader in the middle of this season and play more freely and comfortably on the court.

Although Jokic doesn't know what "returning a favor with a favor" means, or what "borrowing flowers to offer to Buddha" means, he also knows that he should find an opportunity to repay Durant and Curry.

There is still time to repay Curry, but Durant is about to retire. So, this is what happened now.

To be honest, there is really no pressure when playing against the Suns, a group of greenhorns.

Although Suns center Ayton is a talented center, he has a soft personality and seems to have mysophobia when playing. He can only be regarded as a good plaything under Jokic.

Jokic was confident that scoring in the restricted area was easy and could provide a backup for the team, so he let Duane play more proactively and casually.

However, Duane has no idea about this year's FMVP.

On the contrary, if he really wins a FMVP this year, it will be brought up by fans in the future and his reputation will eventually be ruined.

The honors he had accumulated before were already the most in NBA history. Now that he is about to retire, why should he care so much about statistics and honors?

Although Dunn is a data brush, he must pretend that he doesn't care about the data, so as to ensure that the data he has obtained before are genuine and valuable.

So, don't steal the show tonight! Just do your best to be the third in command in this round of the finals.

Wouldn't it be better to let Jokic, who is in his prime, do the hard work while you play healthy basketball yourself?

What's more, this year Jokic is expected to collect the three MVPs of All-Star MVP, Regular Season MVP, and Finals MVP in one, and hit the historical status of the top 20 in one fell swoop.

When the list of the top 75 players is announced next year, and Jokic accumulates data for a few more years, even if he doesn't win so many championships in the future, he can still move towards the top ten in history step by step.

At that time, Durant, Curry and Jokic playing together will become a good story in the future.

“Nikola, this is your stage!
If you feel tired, you can give the opportunity to Stephen!

As for me, I'm ready to retire!

The way I bid farewell to the stage is not by how many points I score, how many rebounds I get, or how many assists I make.

My way is to win the game beautifully as always!
If you respect me, please respect the game!"

Duane gave Jokic a sanctimonious lecture, and Jokic and Curry and others beside him had no choice but to give up after hearing what Duane said.

The Bulls quickly got into the game and started to get serious.

It was not until the end of the first quarter when the score difference widened to nearly 10 points that everyone subconsciously passed the ball to Duane, allowing Duane to meet the expectations of the fans on the scene.

The momentum at the scene was indeed showing signs of intensifying. In order to appease the fans, Duane had to reluctantly demonstrate his dunking skills in front of the fans, which he had not shown for a long time.

24 to 36, the Bulls entered the second quarter with a 12-point lead.

Because the referee did not intervene too much, the Bulls played smoothly in the first half and opened up a 9-point lead in the second quarter.

As a result, the gap in the first half was 21 points.

For a game of the level of the finals, although the game was not ruined in the first half, the situation was extremely unfavorable for the Suns.

If the Suns cannot make up for some of their disadvantage in the third quarter, then tonight's game will lose suspense early at the end of the third quarter.

Just as most fans guessed, the content and result of tonight's game were easy to guess. It was a one-sided situation. The Bulls easily gained the advantage in the game, and then firmly grasped the advantage in the game with a crushing momentum until the game time was completely over.

After the first three quarters, the score was 70 to 98.

With this kind of performance, the Bulls are close to scoring over 100 points in the third quarter, while the Suns may not be able to score over 100 points even if they play all four quarters. The two teams are obviously not of the same level.

However, it was precisely because of this huge disparity in strength that the match, which should have been a boring one, saw its ratings continue to rise, eventually reaching 1363 million.

If things continue like this, when the Bulls officially win the championship, it is almost certain that the ratings will exceed 1500 million. As for whether it will have a chance to break through 1800 million, or even 2000 million, that depends on the Suns' efforts. (End of this chapter)