Larry Bird was going to teach Paul George how to play, and it sounded like a big deal.

Want to know who Larry Bird is? Nicknamed "Big Bird", Larry Bird is a legend of the Celtics, a top 50 star in the NBA, a three-time champion, a three-time regular season MVP, a two-time Finals MVP, a one-time All-Star Game MVP winner, a 12-time All-Star Game selection, and a member of the Barcelona Olympic Dream Team.

Not only did Bird win trophies as a player, but he was also named Head Coach of the Year and General Manager of the Year after retiring, making him the league's first-ever MVP, Head Coach of the Year and General Manager of the Year superman.

It stands to reason that such a respected team executive would not be in the team's training gym at all, but Bird was an exception. He was a man who couldn't stand loneliness, and although he was 60 years old, it couldn't affect Bird's restless heart. As a player, Bird was known for his world-class skills and trash talk that spewed all over the NBA's invincible players.

Bird couldn't bear the loneliness, and his way of finding presence was simply unique, such as saying "Are you here to fight for second" with all the warm-up players before the All-Star three-point game? ”； For example, when the game is at its most intense, say "I'm going to kill you here" to the opposing defender; Another example is teaching Drexler how to pretend to be an X on the court, teaching Miller how to be a person, and teaching Rodman how to make a "background board".

Bird likes to educate people, and prefers to pretend to be X, there are too many deeds about him pretending to X, and the best thing about X is that all the words he said about pretending to X were actually realized by him in the end.

Today, he came to the gym for the same very clear purpose, which is to teach the Pacers boss Paul George how to play X and how to defend Roy.

"Paul [George], it's useless to just tweet and shout at Roy, you have to be on the pitch yelling at Roy 'You don't want to score in double digits today', understand? Can you do it? ”

George looked at the smug Bird and shook his head gently, he was an honest guy, and pretending to be X or something was not his specialty in the first place. To be sure, George himself wasn't absolutely sure about completely guarding against Roy, and his previous declaration of war on Twitter was purely out of a moment of confusion. However, this gave Bird the opportunity to pretend to be X.

"Okay, I know you can't handle Roy, come, let me teach you how to defend."

Bird said and became a teacher.

"Listen, defense is not exactly a technical job, in addition to your defensive skills, defensive awareness and game experience, you also have to use points and tricks, such as spraying two trash words to distract the opponent, such as taking advantage of the referee's inattention to hit the opponent with his body, to make full use of the loopholes in the rules to force the opponent to make mistakes, this is the ...... of defense"

Bird's assault training really worked, and George immediately understood some of the mysteries, so that basketball can still be played like this? It was an eye-opener.

Unfortunately, George's good mood didn't last long, and after finishing the training, George unexpectedly found that his Twitter was actually attacked by Roy's army of fans.

George's tweet about the win over Roy and the Knicks was already densely packed with messages from Roy fans.

"George, you're too angry, I bet Roy can beat you all over the ground with just one section."

"Hey, buddy, don't come out looking for a sense of existence, may I ask what is the Pacers in the East right now? Where does your confidence come from? ”

"Brother, to be honest, you're still too optimistic, whether it's looking at the results or comparing the data this season, you're really not as good as Roy, recognize the reality."

I'm going crazy when I see a horde of Roy fans lashing back at him on Twitter.

Roy actually has so many die-hard fans? George couldn't believe that a rookie who had just debuted was even better than himself, an all-star, and a strong sense of jealousy arose.

Speaking of which, Paul George does have too many reasons to be jealous of Roy, in terms of physical condition and physical fitness, George and Roy are almost the same, and George is even a little higher than Roy.

Speaking of ball style, both of them are the kind of all-round players who can run, jump, and shoot, not to mention how gorgeous they are, but at least their contribution to the team is at the top level of the league.

Finally, looking at the data, so far this season, George has averaged 35.8 minutes per game, scoring 23.1 points, 7.1 rebounds, 2.9 assists, 1.8 steals, and 0.3 blocks, and Roy's average of 29.3 minutes per game, scoring 26.8 points, rebounds, 6.5 assists, 1.6 steals, and 1.3 blocks.

In addition, even in terms of appearance and temperament, the "pickled pepper" with thick eyebrows and big eyes is confident that it is definitely not inferior to Roy.

So what is wrong with Roy? Why are he and Roy evenly matched in all aspects, but very different in circumstances? "Pickled Pepper" couldn't understand how he had become a poor worm that no one loved or paid attention to.

But in fact, Paul George may really not know that there are really a lot of gaps between him and Roy, not to mention any background, system, and talent, just the introverted personality of "Pickled Pepper" is a big obstacle to his popularity. And since he was seriously injured, he hasn't been as concerned by fans as before, and his Indiana Pacers team is not very attractive, so the record in the past two years is still poor. Therefore, it is understandable that George's exposure and attention in the past two years are far less than that of his contemporaries John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins.

Originally, his embarrassing situation had already made George sad enough, but he didn't expect that this year, another Chinese superstar Roy with a similar style and similar characteristics to himself appeared in the league this year, but the attention was hundreds of times higher, which made George even more devastated.

This Roy is too much like himself, he is not only as good at outside shooting as himself, but also occasionally breaks through the interior to play, not only is he as aggressive as himself, but he is also very good at defense.

But it's a pity that Roy's situation is much better than George, he is not only in the metropolis of New York, pampered by thousands of fans, but also signed a sneaker endorsement contract of hundreds of millions with Adidas.

People are more popular than people, and with the excitement of fame and fortune, George's showdown with Roy is logical.

On the other hand, the Knicks are finally happy when they return to their home court, and after enduring five boo-filled and stressful road trips, on the eve of Christmas, the Knicks are finally back in the warm home of New York.

The happiness of the players is on their faces, they just ended a painful five-game losing streak in the last game, they just welcomed back the team's ace Roy in the last game, and the morale of the Knicks is undoubtedly on the rise in this game against the Pacers.

There was optimism throughout the team, and even Coach Hornacek was full of enthusiasm when he laid out his tactics. After seeing Roy's last game against the sky, Hornacek now has every reason to believe that Roy can lead the team to win all the games they deserve, including this one against the Indiana Pacers.

"Get on the court, play well, win the game, you can definitely do it, the Pacers aren't too strong, as long as you play according to the tactics we have to play."

With Huo Shuai's encouragement, the Knicks players entered the court.

After nearly two weeks away from Madison Square Arena, the New York Knicks are back, and needless to say, they've been greeted by cheers and applause.

"It's not easy, Roy, if it weren't for you, we would have to go home with six consecutive defeats, and what awaits us today will definitely be overwhelming criticism."

"Seriously, I'm worried about what the fans are going to do with us today, and they don't seem to mind our five-game losing streak, thank goodness."

"Shut up, are you two stupid, the fans are so enthusiastic obviously because Roy is back, you didn't see the slogan they played."

Noah is right, the biggest attraction for New York fans in this game is indeed the comeback Roy. It's been a long time since they've seen Roy at home to defeat the league's promise, and they also want to witness the return of "Avenger" Roy to the court, so let's put aside the five-game losing streak for the time being.

A glance into the stands shows fans wearing the Knicks' No. 1 jersey everywhere, and the placards they put up are even sharper.

"Defeat the whole league, we are still 28 opponents away!" (It seems that this fan, like Roy, has also forgotten that the Knicks have not had a chance to play against the Kings this season)

"Roy, MVP, Knicks, championship!" (straightforward enough)

"Avengers, assemble!" (Pictured are Iron Man Roy, Captain America Rose, Hulk Porzingis, Thor Noah, Hawkeye Claude, and Director Hornacek)

The Knicks almost warmed up in the noise of the fans throughout the whole process, and when the players officially entered the court, the fans suddenly exploded, because the players in the Madison Garden Square Arena actually changed the animation of the players!

Just like the poster drawn by the fan, the images of the players who appeared on the big screen today turned out to be the members of the "Avengers".

Captain America Rose, Hulk Porzingis, Thor Noah, Hawkeye Claude and Iron Man Roy, what's going on? It's amazing, could it be that the team's management got this creative IP (intellectual property)?

Everyone's guess was correct. Time rewinds to before the game with the Denver Nuggets, after Roy was interviewed and called himself "Iron Man", the names Roy and Iron Man immediately appeared on the hot search words of major websites and social media, countless fans reposted Roy's interview, and many fans even made a comic image of Iron Man Roy.

In the information age, the speed of news transmission is fast, and the news of Roy's self-proclaimed "Iron Man" immediately fermented, and was forwarded nearly 10 million times in just one hour.

But this is just the beginning, just after Roy led the team to a big victory over the Denver Nuggets that night, scoring a terrifying 50+10+10 triple-double, he once again ridiculed himself in front of the media to compare himself to the "Avengers" and "Iron Man".

As a result, the names of "Iron Man Roy" and "Avenger Roy" went completely crazy on the Internet. "Iron Man" and "Avengers" immediately became Roy's latest nicknames, and the New York Knicks were nicknamed "S.H.I.E.L.D" by fans, and many fans also deliberately @ Marvel and Robert Downey Jr. (the actor of Iron Man).

Finally, at the end, the climax came. First, Robert Downey Jr. responded on Twitter that although he is a fan of the Lakers and Warriors, he himself admires Roy's skills very much, and if he has the opportunity, he is willing to come to New York to watch Roy's games (Roy is suspended for both of the Knicks' two away games against the Lakers and the Warriors).

Then, Marvel Company actually said for the first time that if Roy is willing, Marvel intends to invite Roy to participate in a certain role in "Avengers 3" to fulfill his wish to become an "Avenger".

It's unbelievable, it's unbelievable, it's unbelievable, when Marvel, Robert Downey Jr. and Roy are connected, the fans are naturally boiling. They frantically built momentum to facilitate this, and the management of the Knicks seemed to smell a business opportunity immediately, their boss James Dolan was originally the son of Charles Dolan, the founder of American cable TV, and had inextricable relationships with major American film companies, and it was not difficult to get some cooperation.

Sure enough, after urgent negotiations with Marvel, the Knicks successfully obtained authorization from Marvel to allow them to use Marvel's hero characters for this little hype.

Of course, if you think this is the end of the story, you're wrong.

When Roy was the last to walk to the center of the court, when the image of Roy's Iron Man was shown on the big screen, the real Iron Man actually appeared.

The lights came on, the players and fans let out an "O" almost at the same time, and a full-scale model of Iron Man appeared in the center of the field at the same time as Robert Downey Jr.

This sudden turn of events obviously shocked everyone present.

Amid the cheers, surprises, and excitement of the fans, Robert Downey Jr. picked up the microphone.

"Hello New York fans, first of all, don't worry, I'm not here to blow up Madison Square Square today (laughs). I'm here today at the invitation of Mr. Dolan, the owner of the Knicks, to watch the Knicks play. You can't come empty-handed when you come to someone's house, so I brought a gift (laughs). This model of Iron Man was commissioned by Marvel to give to Mr. Roy, the 'Iron Man' in New York, and I hope he will like it. At the same time, as a Roy fan, I also hope that Roy can fulfill his promise to conquer the whole league, come on, Roy, do a good job. ”

Robert Downey Jr. said this, and suddenly turned around and walked towards Roy, "Roy, now you are the Iron Man of New York, let's shout our slogan with the audience, okay?" ”

"Avengers assemble!"