Basketball's No. 1 Anti-Fan

Chapter 119 The True Leader

"He (LeBron) didn't mean it. We didn't notice each other at the time. This team was put under the microscope."

"We had a conversation after the game just the two of us, discussing his role in the team and we figured it out."

A few days later, when James was at the center of the storm, Spoelstra brought up the "shoulder-bumping incident" again.

"That incident had nothing to do with LeBron. It was Nike staff who confiscated the video at the time, and LeBron was not aware of it."

Lynn Merritt, a senior executive at Nike, also stepped forward in time to "explain" the situation.

"The outcome of a single quarter is a matter of chance, luck is greater than strength"

"LeBron is a great team player, some people are only interested in their own interests"

"Free agents have the power to choose, and LeBron should not be magnified"

Windhorst also wrote a series of articles on ESPN to support James.

When James was at the center of the storm, everyone around him was doing the same thing: coaxing.

After sending Swift off, Hansen flew back to Memphis alone.

After he got off the plane and saw this series of news, he suddenly understood better why James was like this.

Isn’t this the child who is spoiled by the whole family?
And this child has been spoiled and there is no hope for him.

Because you are used to coaxing him and if you suddenly stop coaxing him one day, he will probably turn the table over or have a mental breakdown.

Either way, it's not what the people around him want to see.

However, Han Sen had an unexpected gain.

This time his purpose was just to gain popularity and divert outside attention, and he didn't think about the number of black fans.

After all, although Nike is constantly promoting James and the number of James fans will continue to increase, the new James fans cannot keep up with the number of those who have left due to the waves of negative news.

What's more, the anti-fan value of those die-hard James fans has reached the upper limit, and it is impossible to collect much.

However, as the incident continued to ferment, he still gained nearly 20 black fans!
I can only say that every one of these James fans must be hating him to death at this moment.

This also caused his black fan value to increase to 160 million in a short period of time, leaving him only 30 away from the mid-range talent he wanted.

And this wave has a chance to fill it up directly.

Because after returning to their home court, the Grizzlies will face the defending champion Lakers for the first time this season.

Previously, because the team was in the Eastern Conference, the number of times they played against the Lakers was limited. Now that the team is in the Western Conference, won’t Kobe’s black fans have to take their toll?
First day back in Memphis.

Hansen arrived at the gym for the first practice of the day at about 5:, and Grover arrived at almost the same time.

After a whole summer like this, Han Sen has become accustomed to this biological clock.

When it was almost 7 o'clock, Han Sen finished his training and prepared to take a shower and have breakfast as usual.

Just when he was returning to the locker room, he ran into someone inside.

"Mike, you're here so early?" Han Sen greeted Conley with a smile.

Because of his special training time, he had never run into other people before this point. He didn't expect Conley to come so early today.

Conley was stunned when he saw Han Sen, who was soaking wet.

"You're not going to tell me you've already finished a round of practice?" Conley's eyes were full of disbelief.

The reason why he came so early today was that Hollins asked him to go to the video room to study the video. After all, the Lakers are the number one enemy of the Western Conference teams.

You said that if you ran into Han Sen coming to the gym for training at this time, it would be nothing, but the way Han Sen looks now doesn't seem like it.

"Just some simple physical training." Han Sen answered casually.

Conley smiled bitterly. He thought he had gotten to know Hansen fairly well after spending so much time together, but now it seemed that he was too confident.

He could also understand why Hansen was able to quickly gain a foothold in the Grizzlies and convince guys like Gay.

But it was at this moment that he remembered the topic that was interrupted in Cleveland.

"I had a brief conversation with Zack that day." Conley checked the time and sat down next to Hansen.

After hearing Conley talk about Randolph, Hansen stopped taking his clothes to take a shower and sat down.

"Does it have anything to do with me?" Conley would tell him that there are only two possibilities. One is that he is already the boss of the Grizzlies and they naturally need to discuss major events within the team with him. The other is that it is related to him.

Anyone who isn't Guy should have guessed it was the latter.

Conley nodded.

"Your status has risen too quickly since you came to the team, and that makes Zach feel a sense of crisis." Conley immediately added,

"Of course I don't think it's a bad thing because you can help the team win."

Hearing Conley say this, it does seem to make sense.

As a rookie, he started to target Gay as soon as he arrived on the team, and now he has actually taken over the core position of the outside line from Gay.

And his current scoring average is still the highest on the Grizzlies.

Especially when I arrived in Cleveland before, the Cavaliers fans were like, "They only know that the Grizzlies have Hansen, but not Randolph."

As the nominal leader of the Grizzlies, it would be strange if Randolph didn't have some ideas.

Because this involves the topic of "fighting for the boss".

This was the reason why the OK group seemed to be in disharmony at the time.

"I have tried to persuade him, but it didn't work. This may have something to do with his injury and poor performance."

Conley's words were very tactful, but Hansen knew that things were not that simple. The game against the Cavaliers was enough to illustrate the problem.

He reached up and touched his chin.

This situation is indeed a bit tricky.

Randolph is a real talent, a powerful weapon for conquering cities and castles, and he is indispensable to the Grizzlies.

You said it's easy to beat the Cavaliers without Randolph, but how can you beat the Lakers and the Spurs in the playoffs without Randolph?
As crazy as Kobe was in the 05-06 season, he could only lead the team into the playoffs. The championship was only possible after Gasol came.

Hansen's current strength cannot be compared with Kobe's peak, so Randolph becomes more important.

"Mike, what kind of person is Zach?" Hansen looked at Conley.

Gay previously called Randolph a "bastard," but if you want to understand a person, it would be one-sided to just listen to what one person says.

"He had a bit of a bad temper, but he was a nice guy."

Han Sen was surprised. The same person received two completely opposite evaluations?
"Of course, this is just my personal opinion, because Zach rarely communicates with his teammates off the court, and I am one of the few people who can chat with him."

It turned out to be the case.

This makes sense. What Gay said should be true. Randolph was a thorn in his side when he was young, so that was his "label."

And if what Conley said is true, Randolph's mentality has changed with his age and experience.

This is also normal. Randolph is not like James who is spoiled by everyone. On the contrary, the doubts about him have never stopped, and the "data brush" has accompanied him throughout his career.

Over time, either you are overwhelmed by that voice, or you have to make changes.

"How did you get the reputation of being 'good'?" Han Sen wanted to know more because it was related to how he and Randolph got along.

"He was actually 'misunderstood'."

Han Sen looked at Conley and listened attentively.

"I thought he was a bastard because he punched Reuben Patterson in the eye, but when I talked to him about it, I thought he had a lot of excuses."

Han Sen's eyes widened. Conley's storytelling ability was comparable to O'Neal's.

But Conley's next words did fundamentally change his view of Randolph. "Zach punched Patterson because Patterson was bullying Quint Wood, and he punched him for Wood."

This sounds a bit like "Lu Zhijie beating up Zhen Guanxi", it seems that Randolph is also a man of temperament.

Just then, Joerger came to the locker room door.

He was stunned for a moment when he saw Hansen soaking wet, and then he asked Conley to watch the video.

Han Sen went into the locker room to take a shower, then went to the first floor of the stadium to have breakfast.

While eating, I happened to run into Wallace.

He sat directly opposite Wallace.

After a brief chat, Han Sen continued to verify:

“Chris, what kind of player is Zach?”

Wallace didn't ask Hansen why he suddenly cared about Randolph, but after thinking about it, he gave his evaluation:

"He was lost, but now he's a good guy."

An answer that is somewhat similar to Conley's, but not exactly the same.

"The reason why I brought him to Memphis is because I know a lot of his past stories."

Wallace talked freely.

He also mentioned the reason why Randolph beat Patterson, but he was more detailed than Conley.

"Reuben Patterson was a notorious hooligan in Portland. Zach was just a second-year player at the time, and the media coverage after the game was all against him. If you don't look deeply, you won't know what really happened."

Hansen agrees with this point. As a teammate of James in his rookie season, he knows very well how much harm selective reporting in journalism can cause.

"But he does have a bad temper, and you know he shouldn't have punched his teammates."

Well, Han Sen put himself in the situation.

He felt that if he were Randolph, he would verbally provoke Patterson first. If the other party was a hooligan, he would definitely not be able to help but attack first. At that time, he would be acting in self-defense, or as the United States says, he would be using the "stand your ground" approach.

Of course, what Wallace said is not wrong. He is the general manager of the team, and he definitely looks at the problem from the perspective of team unity.

"But he's also a man who's been through a lot, and I can understand why he might be a bad-tempered person."

Wallace did a lot of research to trade for a player who is known in the league as a "data brush", "troublemaker", and even a "team bomb".

Randolph started out as a typical American NBA star. He didn't know who his father was when he was born and was raised by his mother alone.

His situation may be even more tragic because he has three younger brothers and sisters, and their family has had to rely on welfare for a long time.

When Randolph was a child, he only had one pair of jeans. The jeans were so dirty that they became hard, but he never washed them. It was not because he didn't like cleanliness, but because if he washed them, he would have no other pants to wear. His classmates gave him the nickname "Hard Shell" because of this.

Eventually, he couldn't stand it anymore, so he went to Walmart to steal pants, but he was caught and put in a juvenile detention center for a month.

Imagine that kind of environment, where a single mother has to travel back and forth between various workplaces to take care of four children. What kind of education can those children get other than just "surviving"?

What Wallace said next was what Hansen often heard from the stories of other black stars, joining gangs, getting involved in flour trade, and street fights.

If it weren't for basketball, they would have been found dead on a street corner someday.

This is the youth experience of the United States, or the lower-class black people in the United States.

From Gay's reminder, to Conley's description, to what Wallace said, it was like pieces of a puzzle, and finally they pieced together the complete person of Randolph.

After breakfast, Han Sen knew how to solve the problem between him and Randolph.

Before the training session began, Hansen asked Conley to make an appointment with Randolph.

After the training, Conley invited them to a nearby cafe.

Randolph was a little restless because he didn't know Conley had also made an appointment with Hansen.

After Han Sen sat down, he took out a piece of paper from his pocket and handed it to Randolph.

Randolph looked up reluctantly, but was stunned when he saw the contents clearly.

This is the agreement between Danny Ferry and Hansen.

The agreement was made in duplicate, and Han Sen naturally had one.

Not to mention Randolph, even Conley was shocked when he took a look.

Because this agreement means that it was Hansen who chose to come to the Grizzlies, rather than being traded to the Grizzlies by the Cavaliers.

There is a big difference between active and passive here.

"Zach, do you know why I chose the Grizzlies?"

Hansen's words made Randolph look up, and Conley also cast a curious look.

"Because of you." Han Sen emphasized.

"Before I came here, I heard them say you were a data brush, but I played against you and I know you are not. I know you are someone who can really change the game, but because of their prejudice, they shaped you into the kind of person they need."

There was astonishment in Randolph's eyes, because he really didn't expect that Hansen chose the Grizzlies because of him, and he knew him so well.

However, Han Sen's next words were what really moved Randolph.

"Just like how they are prejudiced against me."

The most important thing when people get along with each other is empathy. This is why Hansen was able to get along with Jamison, and it is also what really touched Randolph at this moment.

Randolph's 20+10 stats for years are thrown around like garbage.

Hansen had a brilliant playoff performance in Cleveland, leading his team to eliminate the Celtics, but was also ruthlessly abandoned.

"Zach, I came here for only one purpose, which I said on my first day here, to bring a championship to Memphis."

"We, the champions?" Randolph certainly knew about Han Sen's championship boast, but in his opinion, those words were just big talk to attract the attention of the outside world.

"Yes, we are! Champions!" Han Sen's tone was firm.

"Do you think we are stronger than the Cavaliers?" Randolph was still puzzled. Last season, the Cavaliers were the team with the best record in the league.

"When LeBron is obsessed with role-playing and can't develop an outside shot in seven years, that team can't win the championship. The so-called record is just like the data he is obsessed with, which is nothing but a castle in the air."

This statement is irrefutable, because James' Cavaliers couldn't beat the Magic even with 8 vs. 5, and if it weren't for Hansen last season, they couldn't beat the Celtics.

Han Sen then extended his hand to Randolph:
"Zach, let's get it done and slap those guys in the face with the championship and tell them they're wrong!"

There was light in Randolph's eyes. Who wouldn't want to succeed after going through so much hardship?

He was so excited when he was selected by the Trail Blazers because he joined a championship team in his rookie season.

It's just that the chaotic team extinguished his dream and made him sink into the struggle. Later, even after he changed places, he still wanted to defend his position with data.

But Han Sen's words awakened his original dream.

Does it really matter who is the boss?
James has Nike behind him and he is the king of Cleveland, but he cannot win the championship and has become the biggest joke of this summer.

The championship is the most important!
He reached out and held Han Sen's hand, nodding vigorously.

"Let's go to another place, I'll treat you to something delicious!"

He stood up in the next second, adjusting his headband.

When they walked out of the coffee shop, he and Han Sen were arm in arm.

Yes, he was just as Han Sen had felt before, a man of temperament.

Conley, who was following behind, looked at Hansen's back and became more convinced of his previous feeling.

Han Sen is a true leader.

(End of this chapter)