"The Pacers are a very good team, they have a lot of good players, Jermaine O'Neal is the best interior player in the league right now behind Duncan, Garnett, Webb and Nowitzki, and not only that, but they also have a four-time Defensive Player of the Year, Mutombo. Of course, the most important thing is that the Pacers have the best small forward Meng Xu in the entire league now, so their strength is not weaker than ours, so this year's Finals, there will not be a one-sided situation as you said, maybe we and the Pacers will have to go through six or even seven games to separate the winner. ”

"A special defensive strategy? Of course, Meng Xu is the scoring champion this season, the MVP of the regular season, even if he stands on the court and does nothing, he is very threatening, and his offensive means are so comprehensive, so I don't expect to be able to limit him, our defensive strategy is to try to make him play more uncomfortable. ”

"Will it break the record for scoring in the finals? Oh, I can't answer you this question, this question, you should ask Meng Xu is more appropriate. On June 10, 2003, the Lakers, who eliminated the Mavericks, set off from Los Angeles for Indianapolis the next day to prepare for the upcoming Finals. Although all the media are boasting about the strength of the Lakers, believing that the Lakers will easily beat the Pacers and lift the O'Brien Cup, Phil Jackson, as the head coach of the Lakers, was very modest and cautious when interviewed by reporters.

The Lakers have formed an unprecedentedly strong Big Four lineup this season, but behind this heyday lineup, there are also many hidden dangers, the run-in and coexistence between several giants have plagued Phil Jackson throughout the season, until now Phil Jackson has not found a way to let them coexist, the current Lakers have given up the triangle offense that has been implemented for many years, and resolutely implement the X**D tactics. With such a strong roster, the Lakers only ranked third in the West in the regular season and stumbled all the way in the playoffs.

But now the Lakers still have one thing that makes Phil Jackson even bigger, that is, Karl Malone's injury, although Malone's career can be described as an iron man, but Malone is now 40 years old after all, in this year's playoffs, the first round of the first Garnett, the second round of the second round against Duncan, and the Western Conference finals have to defend Nowitzki, the NBA's current "big four forwards" in addition to Weber, the other three take turns to play, nearly 20 high-intensity games, even the iron man can't bear it, In the series with the Mavericks, Malone's knee has already begun to play a closed needle, and in the finals, Malone will face Jermaine O'Neal, who is known as the "fifth biggest forward in the league" by the media. Although Malone made enough sacrifices after joining the Lakers for the championship ring, and the average data per game dropped to a career low, but even so, Malone is also the third breakup in the Lakers, 19 playoff games, an average of about 15 points per game, in the case of the bench lineup is not as good as the Pacers, Malone's play is also a crucial thing for the Lakers.

"Phil is so humble, our goal is to win the championship from the beginning of this season and it is still the same! If we don't win the championship, all the other honors don't mean anything to us, will they sweep the Pacers? We don't mind if it's 4-0, 4-1 or whatever, our goal is to win, to win the championship. The strongest player? The first person in the alliance? In the Finals, I'm going to let you know what real dominance looks like and who's the best player in the league right now. Compared with Phil Jackson, who is low-key and accumulates character, O'Neal was very bad in an interview, not only declared war on Meng Xu in the air, but also directly shouted the declaration of winning the championship.

And those media who support the Lakers are more direct than O'Neal, directly asserting that in a maximum of 5 games, the Lakers will lift the O'Brien Cup in Staples, and the headlines of the sports section of the Los Angeles Times are two words, that is, "revenge", defeating the Pacers, winning the O'Brien Cup, being reversed by the Pacers in the finals last season, and the shame of Staples' 64 points in a single game.

In the face of O'Neal's provocation, Meng Xu and Larry Bird were not idle, Meng Xu reiterated in an interview that he would not take O'Neal's words to heart, nor would he accept his challenge, because he had only one opponent in the Finals, and that was Kobe Bryant.

"The Lakers are a very strong team, they have four superstars of Kobe, O'Neal, Malone and Payton, especially Kobe, his ability is on par with Meng, he is the most threatening one of the Lakers."

"We're not going to take O'Neal in the finals, I think either Debaken or Jermaine are enough to deal with O'Neal, and the current Shaq is not the same Shaq as it was two years ago. As Meng said, our defensive focus will be on Kobe Bryant, who is the most dangerous player for the entire Lakers, and he is a natural killer. ”

"Of course, I do what I say, you can write down what I said, if we use a bag clip on O'Neal in a game, then you can win $10,000 from me for every bag clip, and if we don't have a bag on O'Neal in the entire series, then you have to make a front page in the New York Times, publicly apologize to us, and admit that you are talking nonsense in that article you published yesterday!" When Larry Bird was interviewed by reporters, he publicly declared that the Pacers would not wrap up O'Neal in the Finals, and the New York Times reporter immediately asked Larry Bird if he was setting off smoke bombs to confuse Phil Jackson and force Phil Jackson to change his tactics and strategies. The Lakers have booked championships and the like in advance, in short, how disgusting the Pacers are, just write how they want.

"Bastard!" O'Neill and Phil Jackson, who were having breakfast in the hotel where they were staying, scolded directly after seeing the picture of Larry Bird being interviewed by reporters on the TV, and O'Neill even punched the table hard. Although Larry Bird did not directly say anything disparaging about O'Neal in the interview, he revealed a message and implication between the lines, that is, O'Neal is no longer good, and the current O'Neal is no longer worthy of the Pacers, which makes O'Neal, who is still full of ambition, how can he bear it.

"Larry Bird, this old bastard, is really too vicious, and that kid, he doesn't follow the right path at a young age, and he follows this old bastard to learn some indiscriminate methods!" Seeing the angry expression of O'Neal beside him, Phil Jackson knew that the rift between O'Neal and Kobe Bryant that had not yet been eliminated was about to deepen. Especially when I think that maybe on the court, the Pacers really don't go to cover O'Neal, but to cover Kobe Bryant, but Kobe Bryant is stimulated by Larry Bird and Meng Xu, in order to prove himself, even when he is trapped, he doesn't pass the ball, Phil Jackson feels like his head is going to explode.

Kobe Bryant was very dissatisfied with the Lakers sending away Fisher and Fox who supported him on the top, and with the arrival of Malone and Payton, Kobe Bryant had to reduce the number of shots, which also made Kobe miss the scoring title this season.

Although Kobe Bryant also has a strong ability now, it is definitely not inferior to Meng Xu as touted by Larry Bird and Meng Xu, Kobe is still a certain gap from Meng Xu, so compared to Kobe, Phil Jackson trusts O'Neal more. But Kobe Bryant doesn't think so, under the constant praise of the outside world, Kobe really thinks that he already has the ability to be on par with Meng Xu, so Kobe is ready to challenge O'Neal's boss status at any time, although Jerry West talked to Kobe Bryant when he resigned, so that Kobe temporarily suppressed this impulse, but Phil Jackson also knows that Kobe's restraint will not last long, especially watching Meng Xu continue to harvest various honors, Kobe Bryant will definitely not be able to bear the ambition in his heart, wants to challenge O'Neill's position again, and then compete with Meng Xu.

"It seems that you don't just want to beat me on the court, you want to completely split my team so that I never can turn over, Larry Bird, you are so vicious!" In the face of Larry Bird's behavior of clearly sowing discord and giving himself eye medicine, Phil Jackson found that he had no way to deal with it, once the contradiction between O'Neal and Kobe Bryant completely broke out, or the Lakers lost this year's Finals, then his Lakers team would really come to an end.

"No, I'm not going to lose!" Looking up and seeing the raging anger burning in O'Neal's eyes, Phil Jackson instantly became full of confidence: "Hmph, don't think that you can beat us by playing some indiscriminate tricks, I will let you know that my Lakers are invincible!" ”