Champion Creed

Seeing Karl Malone, who entered the league around the same time as him, still being tormented by Roger at over forty, Michael Jordan suddenly enjoyed his current life.

At least he could leisurely play cards, have fun with Cuban models, or even play cards with one hand and entertain a Cuban model with the other, without being tortured by Roger in the playoffs.

All those old buddies who were beaten up by Roger in the 90s wanted revenge, wanted to put a close to their careers without regrets.

So Karl Malone found Kobe, Gary Payton found Duncan, thinking that this would settle the score and erase the humiliation of the past.

In Michael Jordan's view, this was an extremely absurd idea.

Even if they won, the victory would belong to Kobe Bryant and Tim Duncan.

And if they lost?

Their shame would only double!

Michael Jordan had already accepted a fact that Malone and Payton had not: they all lived under Roger's curse.

As a competitive person, Michael Jordan of course refused to accept it, but time had made him submit.

There are some facts you really have to learn to accept.

On the court, Kobe was also dissatisfied with Karl Malone's performance.

He walked up to Malone and muttered, "Who the hell are you to talk about me and Steve."

"What?"

"You heard me, Karl, you heard what I said. Why don't you just play defense, grab rebounds, and set screens for us properly? That's what you're here to do, Karl."

"Then why don't you score? We're already 10 points behind before the end of the first quarter! Whose fault is that? Who can't lead us to make a threat on offense?"

"That's not your concern!"

"Alright, guys," Nash saw Kobe and Karl Malone arguing and quickly stepped in to stop it, "We're all here to give it our all for this game, we're all here to win, aren't we?"

The argument was temporarily quelled, but Phil Jackson sensed danger.

Who was under Roger's curse, if not Karl Malone? The Zen Master was also deeply affected.

Just now, Karl Malone was challenging the "ladder rule" of his locker room, and Kobe was no longer the untouchable person at the top of the ladder.

The fuse had been lit, meaning an explosion was not far away.

If they failed again this season, the lifespan of this combination would probably end here.

Although this was supposed to be the Zen Master's last season, he was still very unwilling.

It was hard to imagine that another one of his teams might be scattered by Roger.

It was hard to imagine losing to a rookie coach like Spoelstra.

Phil Jackson had conquered many famous coaches in the past, he had taken down Chuck Daly, the Godfather of the Pistons, taken down the illustrious Rick Adelman, taken down Lenny Wilkens before his tenure with the Hawks... And of all these names, what made Phil Jackson most proud was Pat Riley.

From 1991 to 1993, for three consecutive seasons, Phil Jackson's Chicago Bulls swept the New York Knicks. It was these three years that allowed Phil Jackson to step over Pat Riley, who created brilliance in the 80s, and enter the ranks of the league's top coaches.

Although many academic-style coaches did not acknowledge his status, their exclusion could not change the fact that Phil Jackson's influence was growing.

As a coach who had experienced glory, Phil Jackson found it really hard to accept annual failures against the same opponent, hard to accept losing to a temporary coach.

This game could not be lost, absolutely could not!

"Damn it, get your shit together, do you want to break down first?!" Phil Jackson suddenly stood up and yelled.

The sight was as shocking as a horror movie character crawling out of a TV because the Zen Master was always known for his stable emotions.

But today, he was shouting and yelling on the sidelines.

Yet it proved to be effective, the Lakers players temporarily set aside their prejudices against each other and focused on the game.

However, on the next play, the Lakers once again faltered.

This time, Kobe chose to force a shot despite Roger and Tayshaun Prince's dual interference, but even peak Kobe couldn't perform miracles every game.

In this series, Kobe had already had two godlike games, one was dueling Roger in G1 with both scoring 50 points, and the other was the G3 "running game" where he scored 42 points.

Even for a superstar, you can't expect him to have another similar game easily.

"Damn, damn!" Seeing Kobe miss again, seeing his career step by step heading towards the abyss, Karl Malone couldn't help but curse.

At this point, Warriors' general manager Bob Bass, in the luxury box, remembered the response he got last summer when recruiting Karl Malone: "I'd rather not have a ring than be Roger's dog!"

Fine, then you won't have a ring!

On the next play, Stoudemire faked a screen then immediately cut to the basket, and Roger threw him an alley-oop. Stoudemire bumped off Theo Ratliff, who tried to stop him, and scored a dunk in traffic!

"Karl, why can't you guard a second-year rookie, how many points have you given up to him already!?" Kobe was no longer polite to Karl Malone.

"Screw that, who's wasting shot opportunities, putting us on the defensive!"

Malone and Kobe's argument restarted, and this further convinced Erik Spoelstra that today's game would not last until the final moments!