Champion Creed

Last year's Western Conference Semifinals, when the San Antonio Spurs defeated the Warriors to advance, Bruce Bowen was asked a question: "Do you think Roger can get back on track in the Bay Area."

Bowen answered cautiously: "I don't know if he can get back on track again, but I know that from now on, every time the Spurs meet Roger, they have to be careful. From what I know of him, he's not someone who easily lets go of grudges."

Today's game fulfilled Bowen's statement.

Roger is not someone who easily lets go of grudges.

Even if his enemy is the low-key Tim Duncan, he will never easily let it go.

No one has ever beaten Roger in the playoffs for two consecutive years, which is a terrifying achievement that is underestimated.

This year, Roger seems set to maintain this record.

After the first game of the series, Roger's interview was equivalent to giving the Spurs an ultimatum.

This must be his era, he won't allow anyone to touch the legacy of the dynasty.

What really disheartens Spurs fans is that the team seems to have no room for adjustments.

In the first game of the series, the Warriors completely pinned the Spurs on the board.

The Admiral is too slow now, his defense was so outstanding in his youth because he had the speed of a small forward.

As a de facto center, Tim Duncan can make life difficult for Yao Ming and Shaq, but his help defense range can't match the likes of Big Ben or Garnett.

That means they can't both suppress the mid-range and protect the rim.

The Spurs are still a traditional, somewhat bulky team that fills the paint with height and bulk.

Facing a modern offense like the Warriors', the Spurs' defense seems cumbersome and outdated.

It looks like Roger's revenge will be very thorough.

This round of the series is unlikely to be very intense, he won't give Tim Duncan any chance to be compared with him.

However, what Roger is about to do doesn't stop there.

After the series ends, the NBA unprecedentedly announced the final results of the DPOY and MVP awards on the same day.

The reason for the simultaneous announcement is actually very simple—the same person won both awards!

After training, when Roger learned of this result from the reporters, he was not surprised: "I'm just taking back what's mine."

As soon as the results came out, Reebok had already notified Roger.

Being the team with a commanding lead in the West this season, Roger's MVP was actually a foregone conclusion.

Mainstream media had long started referring to Roger as the "presumptive MVP."

This is the sixth MVP award in Roger's career, surpassing Bill Russell and finally tying with the honor-collecting machine Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

If he gets one more, it will be a historic moment.

It's worth mentioning that this is Roger's fourth MVP since the beginning of the 21st century—if you count the 99-00 season as the start of the NBA's 21st century, the 21st century has only played five seasons.

Five years, four MVPs, this is unmatched dominance.

Compared to the MVP, Roger getting the DPOY award was both expected and surprising.

Although Reebok had been pushing the potential of Roger winning the DPOY, Roger is, after all, a perimeter player.

As everyone knows, DPOY generally favors interior players. Since Gary Payton in 1996, the DPOY award has been dominated by interior players. Throughout the 90s, the Gloves was the only perimeter player to win DPOY, even Scottie Pippen never touched it.

Moreover, nowadays the league has Ben Wallace, one of the most monstrous defenders in NBA history.

However, precisely because Ben Wallace's defense is so outstanding, he's won the DPOY as effortlessly as Roger has won MVPs since the 21st century.

Thus, the media played the "aesthetic fatigue" card one after another.

Interior players have dominated the DPOY award for so many years, why not consider a perimeter player?

It's not that Ben Wallace isn't good enough, but for men, novelty is a deadly temptation.

This psychology, combined with Reebok's widespread promotion, ultimately led to an unprecedented situation where among the players in the top five of the Defensive Player of the Year voting, three were perimeter players (Roger, Artest, Bowen), and only Ben Wallace and Lakers center Theo Ratliff were interior, demonstrating the reporters' bias in voting this year.

Most of them wanted to select a perimeter player, and Roger won the competition against Artest.

After all, Artest isn't even considered the best defender on the Pistons. If Big Ben can't get the DPOY, then what right does Artest, also on the Pistons, have to win?

Reebok's marketing followed, and overnight, everyone knew that Roger was the first player since Olajuwon to win both MVP and DPOY in the same season.

And he was the first guard to accomplish this feat.

Of course, Reebok could add more prefixes—the first 28-year-old to achieve this, the first scoring leader to achieve this, the first international player to achieve this, and so on.

But as Reebok Basketball Department President Todd Krinsky said: "Only garbage players need to deliberately craft stats and honors."

The MVP and DPOY award ceremony will take place before the start of the second game of the Western Conference Finals, which is undoubtedly a huge moral blow to the Spurs players.

Because Roger has already taken back the MVP from Duncan, what next? Will it be victory?