Mountain Peak System: a Path to NBA

Chapter 73: The Completely Mild-Mannered No. 1 Center (13000 Words Updated Begging for Subscriptions!)


Oracle Arena.

Before the game, O'Neal, who thought the media storm had subsided, wanted to use a gesture of goodwill to dissolve the misunderstanding sparked by the media.

In O'Neal's view, as long as he extended an olive branch, considering he didn't have any deep animosity towards the other party, he was sure to earn their forgiveness.

Then, he just needed to praise the opponent a bit, and this farce sparked by the media would turn into a happy tale of a veteran supporting a newcomer.

Throughout his career, even after retirement...

Turning enemies into friends is precisely what O'Neal excels at.

Of course, except for those he must suppress.

For instance, after achieving a three-peat with Kobe, O'Neal immediately expressed through the media his displeasure with Duncan for snatching away his regular-season MVP trophy, "See this trophy in my hand? In the NBA, the truly important trophy is this one."

Even many years later, when the NBA decided to go with a bubble plan to determine the NBA champion for the 19/20 season, O'Neal didn't forget to complain, "I don't support the NBA resuming and determining the champion through a bubble. Such a champion won't gain my recognition.

It's just like how San Antonio only has four championship trophies because one of their championships comes with an asterisk, and asterisked championships don't count."

It's well known that Duncan's first championship trophy in his career came from the 98/99 season, which happened to be shortened due to a lockout...

So, when opposing the bubble plan, O'Neal's disdain for the bubble champion is fake; continuing to suppress his old rival Duncan is real.

It's just that, in the future, when O'Neal makes these remarks to mock Duncan...

He obviously didn't consider the feelings of a certain "GOAT."

Just like now…

Since he had never considered Qin Yue's feelings, why should Qin Yue accept his gesture of goodwill?

"Usually, I only greet the second in command and other players of the opposing team after the game."

On the court, when O'Neal took the initiative to approach the Warriors' half and offer goodwill, Qin Yue simply bypassed him and exchanged a few pleasantries with Wade.

Qin Yue never liked being acknowledged just because of someone's emotional intelligence.

Because even when LeBron James first offered goodwill to him, Qin Yue, who was busy clearing up college basketball, didn't pay him any mind.

Indeed, treating everyone equally is Qin Yue's way of dealing with people.

And at this moment, being categorized by Qin Yue as "Heat's second in command and other players," O'Neal suddenly felt a surge of anger rising within him.

"These young ones are getting more and more disrespectful."

On the court, after suffering Qin Yue's cold shoulder despite his warm gesture, O'Neal retreated to his side of the court with a face full of grievance.

It's no exaggeration to say that just now, O'Neal really had the impulse to tear down the whole Oracle Arena.

But in the end, he chose to swallow his pride.

Because even if he wanted to retort Qin Yue, where would he find the courage and confidence to do so at this moment?

In front of the media, he could continue pretending to be Wade's confidant big brother, but with less than 14 shots per game, could he claim to be the head of this Heat team?

Therefore, no matter how indignant he was, O'Neal had to hold it in.

After all, the Heat isn't the Lakers.

Pat Riley isn't Phil Jackson.

No matter how unpleasant Qin Yue's words were, the strict Riley wouldn't agree to alter the original pre-game strategy to let O'Neal vent his anger.

In the center of the court, after the warm-ups, the large screen on site immediately displayed the starting lineups of both teams.

Heat: O'Neal, Haslem, Posey, Wade, Williams.

Warriors: Qin Yue, Murphy, Artest, Richardson, Davis.

Tonight, the Warriors sent out a completely different starting lineup.

Regarding this, Riley frowned before the game started and said, "Are they trying to create more mismatches at the beginning?"

Riley guessed right.

In this game, the Warriors started Murphy to create an opportunity for Qin Yue to take O'Neal one-on-one.

Meanwhile, Qin Yue also wanted to personally tear off the facade of O'Neal as the league's number one center.

In fact, since the 05/06 season, in Qin Yue's eyes, O'Neal was not worthy of being called the league's number one center at all.

He should be called the most undeserved first-team center in history.

Because historically, having only played 59 games for the Heat in the 05/06 season and averaging only "20+9," he completely relied on the impression left by his past performances to steal the first-team center honor that should have belonged to Ben Wallace.

Although in many people's minds, Ben Wallace was far from reaching the standard of a first-team center.

But did O'Neal's performance in the 05/06 season justify it?

In Qin Yue's view, if an individual's stats were better than O'Neal's and had almost the same number of games played, as in the case of Yao Ming only being worthy of the third-team center that season, the league should give the first-team center position to Big Ben, whose team had better performance and higher attendance.

In the jump ball segment, the still angry O'Neal immediately felt the difference between Qin Yue and Yao Ming.

Because Yao Ming wouldn't be as fierce as Qin Yue during the jump ball.

On the court, possession to the Warriors.

After Davis dribbled across half-court, the Warriors settled into a 2-3 formation.

Then, Murphy quickly moved up to the high position to set a screen for Qin Yue, who got the ball at the top of the arc.

Seeing this, O'Neal immediately inwardly yelled that something wasn't right.

Because tonight, all five of the Warriors' starters have shooting ability... so he naturally had to extend his defense from the three-second area to near the free-throw line.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.


Use arrow keys (or A / D) to PREV/NEXT chapter