Champion Rules

Chapter 138, Section 134: Shut up, Chuck! (Seeking monthly votes!)
"The Houston Rockets are in pretty good health this season. Do you think you can get past the second round of the playoffs this year?"

"I think as long as we stay healthy, we have a great chance. McGrady is especially excited this year, and so am I. This is our third year working together, and it's time to take that final step."

"Some fans say that you and Lynch deliberately put in extra effort to deal with Pau Gasol. Is that true? Because of what he said at the 2006 World Championship?"

"Hahaha, how should I put it? Lin Qi and I were indeed somewhat dissatisfied with what he said. We can't just let ourselves say whatever we want and not allow others to take it seriously, right? As a public figure, since he said those things in public, he should be prepared to take responsibility for his words. To be honest, I don't know how he can be so confident. I can let it go, but Lin Qi would definitely beat him up if he wanted to."

What are your thoughts on the recent drama between Kobe and the Lakers? It's rumored that the Lakers are planning to bring in Jason Kidd from the Nets to retain him. What impact would a partnership of two superstar guards have on the Western Conference?

"That will definitely change the landscape of the West. The Lakers may not be able to build another dynasty, but they still have a good chance of winning the championship."

"Let's talk about you and Lynch. When you and the Rockets beat him in New York last time, what was his reaction?"

"There was no reaction. You know Lin Qi, he always says he'll get his revenge next time. That's just his personality."

"So how did you respond to him?"

"I didn't respond to him at the time, and our conversation later turned to Gasol."

"If you had to respond to him now, what would you say?"

"Same as always, see you in Houston."

— Yao Ming accepted an exclusive interview with CCTV reporter Yu Jia.
-
The Toyota Center in Houston, the second Chinese derby of the season.

Michael Pietrus has never been in the spotlight before the fight. Standing on the Toyota Center floor, he is being captured by cameras from every angle, showing every expression and wrinkle.

It's ironic that his diligent defensive highlights have fewer than 5,000 views on YouTube, but a casual complaint caused his name to surge 420 times in Google searches in a single day.

From Stephen A. Smith's deliberate mention of it before the fight to the reporters' persistent questioning now.

He, who had always been relatively unknown, became the focus of the camera.

TNT's on-site reporter David Aldridge even held up a copy of the New York Post featuring the Pietrus cartoon in front of the camera before the game:
Before the season started, everyone said the New York Knicks were one of the few teams in NBA history that didn't get overly ambitious after winning a championship. Now, will Michael ruin the perfect atmosphere the Knicks have maintained for half a season?

Michael Pietrus became a sensation in a way he didn't want to.

On the other team in the stadium, Tracy McGrady was also watching Michael Pietrus closely, and it wasn't just the fans who were paying attention to him.

McGrady knew that when Yao Ming shut down Lynch in the paint, he would get plenty of one-on-one opportunities.

The Frenchman is under a lot of pressure lately, and if he continues to apply pressure in the first half, he may give up in the second half.

This is something etched into their DNA.

Yao Ming and Lin Qi hugged before the game, but they didn't exchange any pleasantries.

"I like the idea of ​​seeing Yao Ming in Houston, but it would be more effective to leave it to someone else."

"You can talk about whether it's effective or not after you win. I'm not Gasol."

At the start of the game, Lin Qi used his faster spring speed to win the first possession from Yao Ming.

The Rockets' defense couldn't handle Lynch, and they couldn't even deal with Carlos Boozer.

Lynch deftly bypassed the screen, received the ball near the free-throw line, and faced Chuck Hayes directly. He then launched a jump shot over the 198cm tall power forward, the basketball arcing perfectly through the net, leaving Hayes with nothing to do but look up.

"The Rockets actually made you play Shaunie and me play Shaq. This is an insult to both of us." Lynch shook his head.

"Shut up, Lynch, your French teammates will break down even sooner than me!" Hayes replied helplessly.

Hayes is an outstanding defensive player. His ability has grown from being recognized by defense-oriented coaches like Jeff Van Gundy in the G League, who signed him to a 10-day contract, to where he is today. His defense is beyond question.

But every role player has opponents they fear. Chuck Hayes is not afraid of head-to-head battles, but he has a hard time containing big men who can shoot over him.

Lynch is exactly that kind of player.

Jeff Van Gundy simply frowned and made no comment.

He had no illusions about limiting Lynch; the defensive coach was pinning his hopes of winning the game on the offensive end tonight.

The game continued, and since Chuck Hayes was almost negligible on offense, Lynch and Tyson Chandler were able to limit Yao Ming's ability to receive the ball—you can't expect a player whose free throw motion is so abstract to do anything on offense.

Alston then passed the ball to McGrady, and Michael Pietrus felt like Louis XVI being led to the guillotine, about to be executed in front of a huge crowd.

After McGrady executed a triple threat move in the right elbow area, the Frenchman had just shifted his weight when McGrady sprang up like a spring and hit a pull-up jumper.

This Rockets player number 1 is known for his concise offense; he would never dribble more than he could shoot.

The ball went in, and Michael Pietrus reacted at top speed, but it was to no avail.

McGrady may not have been a good locker room leader, but he was certainly one of the best wing players of his era, and even now that he's past his prime, he still falls into that category.

Michael Pietrus, clearly frustrated, yelled at Marbury and Eddie Jones, "Damn it, I need help defense! This isn't just my job!"

The Frenchman is right; he needs support from his perimeter teammates because Lynch can't leave Yao Ming's side.

You need to know what level of player Yao Ming was in the 06-07 season—before his injury, he averaged 26.8 points, 9.7 rebounds, and 2.3 blocks per game, ranked fifth in the MVP rankings, and his low-post offense was far ahead of the entire league in both volume and efficiency.

Leaving Tyson Chandler to face him alone is like leaving a fawn to face a lion alone. Because Yao Ming has the ability to get deep into position, receive the ball, and finish without dribbling the moment he finishes; by the time Yao Ming receives the ball and double-teams him, it's too late.

Even if you manage to hold off him once or twice, his hook shot, which has a range second only to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and his outrageous turnaround jump shot will leave you in despair.

The best time to contain Yao Ming is to front him before he receives the ball and cut off his passing lanes.

Yao Ming's biggest weakness on offense is his difficulty receiving the ball. His slow footwork makes effective off-ball movement difficult, and he often has to force his way into position. Making it harder for Yao Ming to receive the ball requires Lin Qi's efforts.

Therefore, it's normal for Pietrus to call for cover on the outside.

But he could have reminded his teammates of the need for help defense in other ways; nobody knows why he's playing with resentment now.

Pietrus's emotions have been very unstable lately. The defense he just played left him feeling frustrated, making him want to just give up and feel that his teammates were all the problem.

As the season progressed and fatigue crept over him, he grew tired of constantly doing the dirty and tiring work. He could no longer find the same fighting spirit he once had, the kind that could keep him excited even after being tortured all night.

The media all say that last season was a typical contract year breakout, but Michael Pietrus refuses to admit it in his heart; he doesn't consider himself that kind of person.

But whenever he didn't perform well, his second personality would tell him: "Hey, don't worry about the game, it's just a job. Anyway, the Knicks have already renewed our contract. Anyway, we'll get our $500 million salary until 2011."

Michael Pietrus doesn't want to admit he's changed, but some self-deception is impossible to hide. A basketball player's mentality will be faithfully reflected on the court.

At the start of the season, Michael Pietrus was able to maintain his focus. But as the season progressed, something about him was fading.

Seeing that the Frenchman was clearly upset, Lynch deliberately yelled at Marbury, "Give us a push on defense, buddy!"

Marbury nodded vigorously: "I won't stop giving it my all for even a minute!"

When Lynch and Tyson Chandler ran off-ball pick-and-rolls, Yao Ming simply couldn't defend them.

Shane Battier immediately helped defend, and Lynch passed the ball to Michael Pietrus right away.

But Pietrus missed the jump shot; the excessive attention and his earlier dissatisfaction with the help defense made him feel uncomfortable.

"It's okay, Michael. It was a good opportunity, but it didn't go in." Lynch's attitude remained the same; he wouldn't blame his teammate for an open jump shot.

McGrady watched as the Frenchman's fighting spirit crumbled faster than he had anticipated, so he received the ball again and called for a screen from Hayes.

Contrary to popular belief, McGrady loved pull-up jumpers but didn't particularly enjoy forced shots. On the contrary, he had a lot of possessions where he would get past his defender after a pick-and-roll and then shoot.

Pick-and-roll offense is McGrady's usual style. The only unusual thing tonight is that McGrady's pick-and-roll partner is often Yao Ming. Yao Ming is quite threatening whether he is jumping out to the outside for a mid-range shot or rolling to the basket.

But tonight, McGrady had Hayes act as a wall for him, allowing Yao Ming to focus on positioning.

Although Hayes was short, his strong physique still managed to stop Pietrus, forcing Lynch to switch onto him.

McGrady easily delivered a bounce pass to Yao Ming, who was firmly in position, and Yao scored with a hook shot. 4-2. Chuck Hayes yelled at Lynch, "Before you could take me down, we'd already taken down the French. The stupidest thing in the world is being teammates with the French!"

"Yao Ming, tell your short teammate to shut up. You know what I'll do to him!" Lin Qi gritted his teeth. How dare a player of Chuck Hayes' caliber provoke him?

McGrady spoke first: "Chuck, say less."

Yao Ming clearly understands better than McGrady how to lead and motivate his teammates: "We can't be afraid of you, just like we weren't afraid of Team USA back in 04."

“You’re right!” Hayes exclaimed, greatly encouraged. “We can’t be afraid of you!”

The first quarter became almost a game of offensive explosions, with Lynch relentlessly attacking Hayes with jump shots. Even with Battier's help defense, the Rockets' efforts to limit Lynch were largely ineffective.

On the other side, Tracy McGrady is dragging Michael Pietrus into a nightmare with his pick-and-roll.

Marbury and Eddie Jones certainly didn't sit idly by.

Marbury scored on McGrady, and Eddie Jones' help defense forced McGrady to miss two shots.

Overall, McGrady's offensive efficiency remained high.

The French defenders were like a sailboat caught in a hurricane, seemingly on the verge of falling apart in the raging waves.

This has kept Michael Pietrus's complaints going.

"Support defense, damn it! Faster!"

"Damn it, I've had enough! This is why I'm always being criticized by the media!"

"I didn't foul! I didn't! Damn it, if physical contact isn't allowed, why don't we just play golf?"

Pietrus, who has been in poor form lately, looks mentally broken, and this is only the first quarter.

Fortunately, thanks to their superior bench depth, the Knicks still led by 6 points at the end of the first quarter.

In the second quarter, the Knicks did not change their strategy. Lynch double-teamed Yao Ming, allowing McGrady to attack freely.

Because of McGrady's stamina issues, his efficiency may decline in the third and fourth quarters once he starts using his full range of shots.

He's like a high-performance sports car with a range of only 100 kilometers, while an NBA game requires about 150 kilometers of range. Players like Lynch and Kobe, whose range easily exceeds 200 kilometers, are the ones who can maintain top-level performance for longer periods.

To achieve his goal, Flip Sanders instructed Michael Pietrus to continue entangled with McGrady, wearing him down.

The French were constantly pushed in front of Maddrey, enduring the pain of being destroyed time and time again.

During the break, Philip Sanders' task for the Frenchman remained the same: "Tracy, wear him down as much as possible, that bastard's almost done for."

In his prediction, if Pietrus maintained his intensity, McGrady's efficiency would start to fluctuate in the third quarter.

However, at the start of the third quarter, McGrady easily blew past Michael Pietrus and scored a long two-pointer with a perfect shooting form.

Philip Sanders was furious, McGrady was still holding firm, but Pietrus was the first to give in.

I didn't ask you to compete in speed!

He was furious, but tried to keep his tone gentle: "Michael, what about intensity? Don't forget intensity! With the way you're defending him, we can't possibly contain him. You're giving him a damn opportunity! Don't let the tragedy of defending Melo repeat itself! I want suffocating defense!"

This statement had no effect; the Frenchman simply wiped the sweat from his brow, his unfocused gaze unwilling to even meet the eyes of the sidelines.

Just like when he was responsible for guarding Kobe and Anthony, Michael Pietrus's defensive will began to collapse without warning.

McGrady seized the opportunity to score consecutive baskets, helping the Rockets close the gap to just one point.

The Knicks called another timeout, and Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady embraced amidst cheers at the Toyota Center.

Chuck Hayes glanced sideways at Lynch as he walked toward the bench, grinning with a mouthful of white teeth, challenging the king of New York's authority: "Look, your lousy French weapon is about to fall apart!"

After all the players left the court, Flip Saunders, unusually, lost his temper, but his words were still relatively polite: "Michael, cheer up!"

Michael Pietrus clenched his fists, glanced at the veterans, and muttered under his breath.

"If it were someone earning millions a year and McGrady scoring, you would just think it's only natural," Michael Pietrus said, directing his criticism at the two veterans.

This statement failed to ignite Stephon Marbury and Eddie Jones, but it ignited Mike Malone.

"You damn bastard!" Mike Malone's eyes instantly turned bloodshot. "You just signed a huge contract last summer, what are you complaining about?! Are you trying to imitate Scottie Pippen?! You should know that no matter how much Scott complains, he can't change his contract!"

The argument on the Knicks' bench did not escape the live broadcast cameras, which greedily focused on the chaos, a scene that excited both the media and fans.

"I'm not complaining about my salary, I just think it's time to stop this double standard! We have three players on our team with multi-million dollar salaries, but I only get a third of their salaries while I'm single-handedly carrying the defense and taking all the blame!"

Marbury and Eddie Jones were deeply hurt, and Grant Hill also felt hurt, as if he had been hit by an invisible bullet.

The Knicks have a problematic salary structure, a mess left by their previous general manager, Isaiah Thomas, which has resulted in the team's max contract slots not being used effectively.

Sam Princeton has optimized all of this as much as possible. If history had gone as it should have, the three Knicks players earning tens of millions of dollars a year would be self-destructive versions of Marbury, Jalen Rose, and Steve Francis, which would have been an even more disastrous scenario.

This legacy issue isn't anyone's fault, so the whole team chose to avoid discussing it.

Furthermore, Grant Hill and Eddie Jones' large contracts will expire next season, which will alleviate the salary structure problem that has plagued the Knicks for many years.

But Michael Pietrus brought all of this, which everyone was avoiding talking about, to the forefront in a very indecent way.

The three veterans fell silent, neither arguing with Pietrus nor escalating the situation.

Philip Sanders remained composed: "Michael, that's not how it works."

Mike Malone still couldn't control his temper: "Who willingly gave you a starting position last season? And now you're complaining that he got too much? You damn bastard!"

“It wasn’t out of his own free will, it was because he had to do it, because I was more qualified than him! That’s a fact! Without me acting as a punching bag on the flank, the old guys would have been torn to shreds long ago!” Michael Pietrus bluntly revealed all his inner thoughts.

The reporter's telephoto lens scrutinized everything, and commentator Kevin Harlan could already foresee the Knicks' dire situation: "This is not a good sign. Mike Malone and Michael Pietrus seem to have had a heated argument. Is the Frenchman complaining about his teammates again? What exactly happened?"

Beside him, Mark Jackson shrugged: "Lynch just faced the challenge that every defending champion has to face."

Just then, Lin Qi, who had been clutching a towel, slammed his hand on the back of the bench: "Enough! Stop this stupidity!"

His roar silenced the entire bench instantly. Mike Malone, who had been on the verge of conflict, fell silent immediately. Pietrus was about to speak, but swallowed his words when he met Lynch's icy gaze.

Everyone stared silently at the young King of New York, awaiting his verdict.

“Michael, you’re not playing in the second half. Your recent words and actions are like those of a fucking idiot, Trevor.” Lynch turned to Trevor Ariza, who had joined the team the same year as him and had never let him down, his eyes full of trust. “You’re coming in for the second half. Give that sleepy-eyed guy some pressure. That’s it. Anyone who makes another sound can go back to the locker room!”

Lynch gave Michael Pietrus chances, more than once, but he couldn't be a pushover forever. As a locker room leader, he wouldn't hesitate to be decisive when necessary.

Trevor Ariza quickly took off his training clothes, and Michael Pietrus didn't refute anything. He knew that whatever he said tonight would get him completely disqualified.

But he saw this as an opportunity to prove just how important he was.

The game has restarted, and everyone already knows about the argument that just broke out on the Knicks' bench.

Chuck Hayes gloated, "What did I tell you? Your French friends will break down even faster than me. They always crumble faster than you can imagine, hahaha. Want me to teach you how to manage a locker room, superstar?"

Lynch didn't answer, he just stared at him. The way he looked down at Hayes was like a god on Mount Olympus looking down at an ant.

Hayes scoffed: "Look at me? You think I'm afraid?"

"Chuck!" Yao Ming's thunderous shout echoed through the Rockets' half of the court. The Chinese giant, who had been encouraging Hayes just moments before, now glared angrily, a fine layer of cold sweat beading on the back of his neck. "Shut up! Say less!"

As Lin Qi's teammate on the national team, Yao Ming knew very well when Lin Qi was truly unchallengeable.

(End of this chapter)