The Pope of Basketball Community

Chapter 73 [The Enemy of Life I Missed]

During the break, the major awards of the regular season were announced one after another, and Patrick Ewing won the regular season MVP.

Many fans complained about Michael Jordan. Last season's MVP was given to Karl Malone, but Ewing snatched it again this season. Fortunately, choosing MVP is not like judging the All-Star starters. In terms of popularity, Ewing and Malone together are not Jordan's opponents.

Ewing led the first team of the best team, squeezing O'Neal who only played 60 games. If it weren't for O'Neal's absence too much, the Lakers might be able to compete with the Knicks for the best record. Whether there is a fat man or not, there are two teams.

Alan Houston squeezed out Pippen, who played only 44 games, and was selected to the third team of the best team, which was also a breakthrough in life.

The depressed person is Jeff Van Gundy. The best coach award was awarded to Larry Bird of the Pacers. Obviously, the Pacers are being abused by the Knicks, but he has to come in second.

The award is voted on by sports journalists in the United States and Canada. Each judge votes for the first, second and third head coaches. Coaches will receive 5 points for each first-place vote, 3 points for a second-place vote and 1 point for a third-place vote. The coach with the highest final score wins the award.

Van Gundy's score is not high. Obviously, in the eyes of sports reporters, the improvement of the Knicks' offensive end is not due to Van Gundy's sudden enlightenment, but the credit of new assistant coach Yang Rui.

In other awards, Suns insider Danny Manning beat Starks to win the best sixth man.

Eagles power forward Alan Henderson won the Most Improved Player award.

Hawks center Dikembe Mutombo became the best defensive player.

The best rookie was undoubtedly obtained by Spurs insider Tim Duncan. He is recognized as a super rookie. This season, he was also selected to the first team of the best team and the second team of the best defensive team. It is very rare for such a player to debut and reach his peak.

What surprised Yang Rui the most was that Ewing was also selected to the second team of the All-Defensive Team. His defensive ability is actually not as good as before. The key to winning is the teammate's good defense on the outside.

The Knicks' defensive statistics are not bad, and it needs to be selected to show that someone is selected. Bowen is a rookie, Oakley and Ben Wallace are substitutes. In the end, the honor falls to the most popular Ewing. In this era, the selection of the best defensive team is no longer very reliable.

Since the Pacers are going to play an away game, the awards are given to the stars at home, so Ewing has to be late to deliver his acceptance speech.

Ewing's selection as MVP boosted the morale of the Knicks. They beat the Pacers at the beginning of Game 3 and won 118-97, leading 3-0 overall. Ewing performed well with 22 points, 15 rebounds and 5 assists.

Larry Bird just accepted the best coach trophy before the game, and then he was humiliated. He couldn't do anything with the Knicks.

Bird used to play small-ball tactics in the second half and compete with the Knicks for speed, but the result was to disrupt the rhythm of the team. The Pacers are not good at fast-paced games at all, and the positional battle is slowly grinding, and they can't grind the Knicks.

In the fourth game, the Pacers had no morale and did not take a lead in the entire game.

The star player Miller sleepwalked, 5 of 14 shots, 2 of 6 three-pointers, 4 of 5 free throws, 16 points and 2 rebounds, no assists, and he is already the team's highest scorer.

The Knicks won 95 to 81, easily completed the sweep 4 to 0, and advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals first.

Van Gundy was interviewed with high confidence. When referring to the next round, he said: "The Knicks are the best team in the league this season. We have the strength to beat anyone and any team, including Michael Jordan."

The reporter asked: "How many games do you think the Bulls will use to advance?"

Van Gundy said: "I think the Bulls will sweep and advance tomorrow. The Heat are not strong. We were eliminated last season because of that brawl. To win the championship, we need strength, not court violence."

Can't knock out the Heat on the court for revenge,

Van Gundy didn't forget to disgust his opponent. Now that the Heat are 0 to 3 behind the Bulls, it is also a disparity series.

At the press conference, both Bird and Miller, who are known for their "big mouth and can talk", couldn't say a word of madness. If you lose, you lose. You can't save face by relying on trash talk and witty words.

For Reggie Miller, this is another nightmare series. The only good news is that he is out at the Pacers' home court and will not be booed away by the whole audience.

Yang Rui doesn't sympathize with Miller, but every poor person must have something to hate.

There is a price to be paid for high-profile, especially for a guy like Miller who is not invincible and bites everywhere like a mad dog.

At the peak of Miller's career, he only had 24.6 points, 3.6 rebounds and 3.8 assists. Such statistics are very common in any era; Miller also has no honors, such as scoring champions, MVPs, etc. His greatest achievement is that he has been in the All-NBA team once. .

The reason why Miller is famous and why he is hated by Knicks fans is the "Miller moment".

The earliest Miller moment came in Game 5 of the 1994 Pacers-New York Eastern Conference Finals. Trailing by 12 points entering the fourth quarter, New York mascot fan and director Spike Lee trash-talked Miller, who turned the game around with 25 points in one quarter, including five 3-pointers.

After shooting the last three-pointer, Miller made the famous chokehold at Spike Lee in demonstration.

On May 7, 1995, in the first game of the Eastern Conference semifinals, the Pacers trailed the Knicks by 6 points, with only 18.7 seconds left in the game. Judging by ordinary people, the Pacers must lose, and Miller broke this record again. Conventionally, he first made a three-pointer, and then succeeded in stealing the ball in the frontcourt, scoring from a long shot, and tied the score at 105-105.

Afterwards, the Pacers fouled and the Knicks missed two free throws. Miller got a rebound and caused the Knicks to foul.

These are the two biggest highlights of Miller's career. Every year, he and his Pacers are abused and out. For some reason, they are taken out and blown up.

Always losing made Miller's character distorted, and gradually became a well-known troll in the NBA, whoever he saw. After he scores, he always throws trash talk to his opponents such as "Do you know why my salary is so high, this is the gap." "Go back and practice again".

The funny thing is that no one from the Knicks exchanged blows with Miller this time, because most of the time, Miller was playing against Bruce Bowen. Miller saves a lot of spitting, what's the point of spraying Bowen? He's just a blue collar guy with no data.

The Knicks responded in the most direct way, sending the Pacers home to fish.

Yang Rui suspected that he caused the butterfly effect again and changed history. In the future, maybe no one will call Miller Jordan's "enemy for life". In Yang Rui's previous life, Miller only competed against Jordan once in the playoffs in his career, which was this season. Unfortunately, he missed it.

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