On the day that the Utah Jazz defeated the Oklahoma City Thunder in G6 and advanced to the Western Conference semifinals, the Rockets glorious history education activities planned by Yu Xiaochun and Meritis also began.

The first part is a tour of the Rockets' team history museum.

The Team History Museum is like a kaleidoscope of Team Rocket, with all kinds of information about Team Rocket that you can't think of. Although many players play for the Rockets, because playing itself is a business for them, and some have even moved to multiple teams in their careers, they really don't know as much about their team's history as some ordinary fans. So today's first stop is arranged at the Team History Museum, which really makes up for this lesson for many people.

For example, after looking at the family photo of the Rockets' last championship for a long time, Clint Capela, a rising star from Switzerland, couldn't help but mutter: "Eh, why is there no Charles Barkley?" ”

This question really puzzled everyone: it turned out that Capela, who was born in 94, remembered the veteran "Glider" Drexler, who transferred from the year he won the championship, to Charles Barkley, who also had no championship in the first ten years of his career by fighting alone, and "huddled" in the second year of the championship. It's just that the glider relied on the full cooperation with Olajuwon to win the O'Brien Cup, but with Sir Barkley, the Rocket, which has three 50 stars, failed to play the effect of 1+1+1 greater than 3, and did not even break through the Western Conference Finals.

"I said that at that time, I saw Yao Ming join the Rockets, why did Barkley always jump out and scold Yao Ming. I also thought to myself that it was the team's championship merit, and I should guide the juniors well, but now the feeling is that Barkley himself didn't win the championship, so the sour grapes are psychological. Capela excused his mistake and received laughter from his teammates.

"Then if you don't win the championship this year, who do you want to lash out at?" Harden opened his mouth to mock Capela. The latter was not to be outdone: "Of course, the boss is to blame for leading the team." Anyway, newcomers like Yiming and I can't carry this pot. There was another burst of laughter.

"Not necessarily." In the midst of the cacophony of laughter, I heard a rather shrill voice coming from behind me. Everyone turned their heads to see that it was Meritis and they invited the guest of the second session, Sam Cassel, a famous player of the Rockets, who had arrived. He is a lot fatter than when he was a player, and he has some flesh on his cheeks, so that people finally don't immediately associate his nickname of "alien". He wore a baseball cap to cover his shiny bald head, bared his front teeth and smiled, "The playoffs are both about experience and talent. Both are indispensable. ”

Kassel has played for eight NBA teams in his career, and he is not tall and looks even more "hateful", but he is indeed an out-and-out lucky general. He started his career with the Houston Rockets, winning back-to-back trophies in the first two years and a championship ring in the final year of his career with the Big Three Boston Celtics. In addition, he has helped the Milwaukee Bucks and Minnesota Timberwolves reach the division finals, respectively.

Kassel is obviously not the most famous among the celebrity candidates that Koharu and Meritis have considered, but his playoff experience is no one else, and coupled with his lifelong role player positioning, his experience is helpful to every Rockets player:

Rising stars like Yang Yiming and Capela can naturally learn from him how to deal with the pressure of the playoffs; Veterans such as Ariza, Joe Johnson, and Nene have endless stories to share with him; And like Paul and Harden, there are not many superstars that Cassel has assisted, and they happen to be used for reference.

All in all, to inspire the entire Rockets team, Sam Cassel is the perfect fit.

After watching a short documentary of the Rockets' comeback to win the championship with the No. 6 seed in the lowest division in history, Kassel talked about his impressions of the trip to the playoffs:

"You're No. 1 in the league now, and we're No. 6 in the West, but essentially, I think there's one thing in common: the Rockets and you guys are both underdogs, reservoir dogs. Of course, we don't need to say that the defending champions, who fell out of the top eight at the start of the season and traded for Drexler in the middle of the season, are considered crazy gambles by management. The record is indeed not good, sixth in the West, not a single award in various best selections (Olajuwon and Drexler were only in the third team that year), from the first round of the knockout round to the end, there is not a single home advantage, the only time in history. But what is the end result? Go for his home advantage! Go to his awards! Every downturn, whether from so-called experts, commentators, opponents, or even fans, turns into our infinite motivation in the end. When I think I'm fighting the whole world, it's really powerful. ”

"Don't look at you guys who are the best in the league this season, home field advantage from start to finish, it's a world different from when we did. But it's not. If the 72-win Bulls don't win the championship, it's an upset; If the OK combination of the Lakers and the Spurs in previous years did not win the championship, it would be an upset; If the Warriors don't win the championship, it's still an upset. You think you're the No. 1 regular season and you're the favourites to win the tournament this year? Not you! Don't dream, you're still a warrior this year! Or Durant, Curry and Thompson? They didn't win the championship, and everyone sighed. Replace you out? Probably to be expected! That's what one can expect from the Houston Rockets, who are number one in the league! Impact – Overall Championship. ”

Kassel flicked a row of his front teeth and foamed at the mouth: "What does 'impact' mean?" It's just for you to give it a try, no one expects you to succeed! Yu Xiaochun accompanied another organizer, Meritis, to stand in the corner of the multimedia theater, looking around at the rocket team members in the room, and at this time, listening to Kassel's incitement, he felt that everyone was about to burst into flames.

"So, don't look at you as unfavorable, even our pillar Olajuwon was the same back then. He also won the MVP and the best defensive player the previous season, won the championship and won the Finals MVP, but in another season, he was only selected for three teams - the MVP went to David Robinson of the Spurs. When Cassel said this, Yu Xiaochun felt that James Harden's eyes seemed to widen all of a sudden. Is he reminded of last season's MVP sideline Wei Shao's old vendetta? Only to hear Cassel continue: "But what did 'Big Dream' Olajuwon do? You can snatch my MVP trophy, that's okay, but as soon as I touch it, I'm going to double what I lost and get it back! I vividly remember that before we beat the Jazz and Suns and reached the Western Conference Finals against the Spurs, Olajuwon was completely different. It's in the locker room. He doesn't like to talk much, unlike me, and he got to know everyone after a few days. Olajuwon is the kind of guy you might have played basketball with all your life and don't know where his family lives, but as soon as he gets into that state, he's going to be unstoppable, reassuring his teammates and scared his opponents. The more he didn't speak, the more terrible he became. At that time, it was like this in the locker room, he buried his head in a towel alone for a long time, and each of us walked around him when we saw him, not daring to break into his 'energy field'. ”

"What happened next?" Raising a slender arm from the back row, it turned out to be Zhou Qi, a rookie from China. He was born in 1996, and after the Rockets won this championship, it's understandable that he didn't know that much about that history.

I saw Cassel smile slyly, pulled the baseball cap on his head, and the smug expression of the alien in the corner of his eye seemed to travel back to the Western Conference finals 13 years ago: "What happened later?" By the way I say, everything happened. As soon as the game against the Spurs started, from the first minute, Olajuwon chased David Robinson, the regular season MVP of the year, to ask for the ball in the penalty area. All the offensive tactics you've seen and haven't seen, fantasy footwork, back-to-back jumpers, hook shots, tentative steps, Olajuwon has all used. And all the defensive methods you've seen and haven't seen, the Spurs have used them all. I can't prevent it alone, just two people, three or even four people - I'm not exaggerating at all, but still no one can prevent the big dream of opening the revenge mode..."

"If it weren't for that series, David Robinson's place in history would probably be much higher." Finally, Sam Cassel summed it up quietly.

Yu Xiaochun added on the side, as if he was closing the coffin on this topic: "In that series, Olajuwon averaged 35.3 points, 12.5 rebounds, 5 assists, 4.2 blocks, and a 56% shooting rate. He single-handedly defeated the San Antonio Spurs, who had the MVP. ”