In other words, after Phil Jackson confirmed Roy's core position last time, Roy was given the privilege of communicating with Phil Jackson at any time.

However, maybe Roy is not used to being the boss of a team, maybe his personality is inherently more introverted, in the past month or so, even if he was banned by the league, Roy has not taken the initiative to find Phil Jackson once, he is more like a lone basketball fighter, except for the court and the training court, at most plus dating Abby, there is nowhere else to go.

In other words, after Roy's conversation with Smith, the "Zen master", they never met again.

As a privileged player on the team, Roy has only spoken with President Phil Jackson twice in the six months he has been with the Knicks, which is a bit unreasonable.

So when Roy came to find him this time, Phil Jackson was very happy, and he thought to himself that Roy was finally a bit of a team boss.

Phil Jackson still remembers when he coached the Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers. As the privileged players of the team at the time, Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant were very good at communicating with management, and they were very good at making demands on management, and once they did say yes, they had to say yes.

Jordan, for example, after the Bulls won the second of their second three-game championship in 1997 against the Utah Jazz, then Bulls general manager Klaus was interested in putting the team's second-in-command Pippen on the trade table in exchange for a younger, more promising McGrady. Seeing that the team was going to move his deputy, Jordan immediately became angry, and he only said to Klaus, "If I trade Pippen, I will leave immediately", which scared the fat general manager of the Bulls to immediately cancel the transaction, and did not dare to trade Pippen again.

Bryant also had a history of pushing management, and in 2007, the Lakers had a chance to get All-Star point guard Jason Kidd, but the deal fell through when Lakers management was unwilling to send Andrew Bynum. The loss of Kidd undoubtedly greatly infuriated Bryant, and he immediately responded by asking for a trade for the Chicago Bulls, citing management's lack of progress. In the end, the Lakers' management had to compromise, and the following year, they got Pau Gasol in a "robbery" way, which finally calmed Kobe's anger.

Therefore, a good team leader and a qualified team boss must have their own ideas and opinions, and more or less have some communication skills with the management, not that they must learn how to force the management to make decisions, but they need to learn how to put forward their own ideas and opinions, and the management must agree on the idea of building the team, and work together to form a champion division.

In this regard, in addition to Jordan and Kobe, James is also doing well, although there are countless media and fans who criticize James for holding basketball and holding the team hostage, but at least he did get the players he wanted, and he did make the team stronger through his influence. Although the luxury tax paid by team owner Gilbert is bleeding enough, the improvement of the Cavaliers' strength is indeed visible to everyone, and to put it bluntly, their championship was won by James forcing the management to spend money.

So, when Roy offered to meet with him, Phil Jackson accepted the request without hesitation.

This was the beginning of their third face-to-face conversation.

This conversation between Phil Jackson and Roy continues the tradition of their first two conversations – simple and straight to the point.

Roy didn't really go around the bush and told Phil Jackson that he felt the team needed to bring in better players to achieve the ultimate goal of winning a championship in the future.

As soon as Roy said this, Phil Jackson nodded in agreement, and the two really hit it off.

Phil Jackson was already thinking about how to use New York's geographical advantages to "rob" some small clubs, and Roy offered to ask for someone this time, and finally did what a team boss should do.

"Where do you think the team needs to be strengthened?" As a Hall of Fame-caliber head coach, Phil Jackson is actually very advantageous in his management work, because he has more expertise than other general managers, such as when it comes to bringing in players.

Phil Jackson originally thought that Roy would make suggestions for some of the team's weak positions, such as point guards, such as centers, but when Roy directly reported Paul George's name, Phil Jackson was still taken aback.

"Paul George? Roy: Are you sure you haven't been influenced by the media and fans? ”

Hearing this answer, Roy glanced at Phil Jackson strangely, and the meaning was self-evident.

"Why Paul George?" Phil Jackson continued, "We have enough wingers on our team. Roy, you might as well count, Jay (Crowder), Jaylen (Brown), Darrell (Arthur), Lance (Thomas), Conteney (Lee), Justin (Holiday ), this thickness should be enough, I'm worried about whether to trade a few wing players, and the idea of bringing in wing players is really bold enough. ”

"Yes, Phil (Jackson), I agree with you, we have a lot of wing players, but I also know we can only play two wing players at most, do we?"

Roy's words made Phil Jackson powerless to refute, just in terms of the thickness of the team's wings, it was indeed enough, but if they were really mediocre in terms of ceiling, this was the same idea as the Celtics traded Irving this year, and turning zero into whole is king.

"But why do you like Paul George? You don't have anything to do with him, do you? And he's the boss of the Pacers, if he's here, have you thought about how you're going to live with him? Aren't you worried that people will say that this Knicks team is Paul George's Knicks in the future? Phil Jackson's question is a good question, as a Roy rookie, it is not easy to sit on the top spot in the Knicks, let alone parachute another famous star, but Roy seems unmoved.

'That's not a problem, Paul [George] isn't the kind of player who can fight for the boss and I can handle him. And even now, I think Rose is the spiritual leader of our team, and as for the coexistence of the style of play, George doesn't need the ball, we can be perfectly compatible. ”

Hearing this, Phil Jackson had a headache, he touched his head, took a deep breath, and said, "Roy, you really stumped me." You know, talking to the Pacers, to Larry Bird, to trading Paul George's business, that's the most difficult task. ”

Phil Jackson was right, Roy really stumped him. In fact, the "Zen Master" reluctantly agreed to Roy's operation of George's trade is not entirely because it is too difficult to trade with the Pacers and Bird, but more importantly, Paul George has long been the prey of the Los Angeles Lakers, in other words, Paul George has long been targeted by Phil Jackson's wife Jeanie Buss.

The Los Angeles Lakers have been pursuing Paul George for a long time, long before the retirement of team leader Kobe Bryant, team president Jeanie Buss intended to introduce the all-round and modest George to the Lakers to succeed Kobe, but it was temporarily shelved due to the existence of Kobe Bryant, and then, George's accidental serious injury once again delayed the Lakers' pursuit of George.

It wasn't until last year, after confirming that George's physical recovery was okay and his performance was restored, that the Lakers started the plan to trade George again, but unfortunately, how could Bird, who is the president of the Pacers, and Bird, who is a member of the Celtics Hall of Fame, give the team's number one star to the old rival Lakers, and the Lakers' attempt last year was in vain.

This season, the Lakers still have a lot of money on Paul George, and they really made a lot of money this summer, with the Lakers' proposed trade chips including last year's No. 1 pick Angelo Russell, this year's No. 1 pick, and any role player on the team, and if necessary, even the next year's draft pick can be given (the NBA does not allow trading first-round picks for two consecutive years), but even so, it still can't impress the stubborn Larry Bird.

It was also from Jenny Buss's pillow that Phil Jackson learned that trading George was not easy. And now if you want to get Paul George, it's even more terrible, it's not only a matter of what chips to pay, but once the Knicks really get Paul George, then the iron guard will cause a family conflict between Phil Jackson and Jenny Buss, and the arrogant Jenny Buss may really do something exaggerated.

Then again, Jackson and Bass have been on a very tense relationship recently, due to the family infighting between Jenny Buss and her brother Jim Bass (Jackson is a major element of the infighting), due to the confrontation of the last Roy punishment incident, the relationship between the two has become more and more estranged, according to media gossip, the two strangers are on the verge of divorce.

And this is indeed the case, Jenny Buss and Phil Jackson are their own masters in the NBA, they have been separated for a long time, and the relationship between the two has long been much worse than before, and all kinds of small conflicts have continued, and then with the fuse of Roy's punishment, the relationship between the two has really fallen to the freezing point.

If Phil Jackson does start working on the George trade, it will undoubtedly be a demonstration to the Lakers and his titular wife, Jeanie Buss, and the consequences are unimaginable.

But Roy had no idea about Jackson and Buss, and his answer was very dry, "Now is the best chance to get Paul George, George wants to leave, and we have salary space, I want to get Paul George, and I don't know if he'll change his mind next year, I think you'll have a way." ”

At this moment, looking at Roy with a firm expression, Phil Jackson suddenly felt that at this moment, Roy was really similar to Jordan and Kobe Bryant back then, maybe they were originally a level of players, and they were originally players who existed to pursue championships......