Just when the Pacers defeated the Lakers and won the first NBA championship in the team's history, the entire NBA was smashed by a series of bombshell news, and most of the sources of these news came from the NBA champion Lakers last season.

First of all, the day after the loss in the Finals, the grapevine broke that the Lakers' two leading players, O'Neal and Kobe, blamed each other in the locker room, believing that the other party was responsible for the team's loss of the Finals. In the regular season, the Lakers have already had discordant factors, the team's boss dispute, is very common in the NBA, as long as a team has two superstars, and the strength between the two is very close, it is easy to have this situation, one side does not have the absolute strength to suppress the other side, then the two sides will have differences in the distribution of the ball, and then gradually evolve into infighting, not to mention the Lakers, a team with two supergiants, with Kobe's personal ability advancing by leaps and bounds, When O'Neal's strength is no longer enough to suppress Kobe, Kobe will naturally have the ambition to replace him.

In the regular season, due to O'Neal's continuous rotation, paddling and pretending to be dead, saving energy for the playoffs, the Lakers' tactics are basically based on Kobe Bryant, but in the playoffs, O'Neal, who has been resting for a season, naturally wants to come out to take over the team, and at this time, Kobe's mentality is likely to not change, and as the head coach of the team, Phil Jackson is a firm supporter of O'Neal, O'Neal is only 30 years old this year and is still at the peak of his career, as long as there are no accidents, O'Neal can maintain his peak for at least about 3 years, so not to mention O'Neal, even Phil Jackson will not watch O'Neal give up the position of boss and the core of the team.

But for Kobe, when the group of people of the same age as himself have gradually become the bosses of their respective teams, especially when their strength is obviously inferior to their own, Kobe Bryant can't wait to get on the top and have a team like them, but O'Neal, who is at his peak, will not easily give up the boss position, and Kobe is unwilling to choose to leave the Lakers to start anew like Meng Xu, so the battle between the two sides is inevitable, and this year's finals are undoubtedly a good stage and examination room. O'Neal wanted to use this to prove his dominance, so as to continue to suppress Kobe Bryant and let him be his little brother for a few years at ease, and Kobe also wanted to prove that he had greater tactical value than O'Neal, but the final result was that the Lakers lost the Finals, and in this chess game, O'Neal and Kobe Bryant both became losers.

With the rumors of O'Neal and Kobe Bryant accusing each other, many teams interested in O'Neal and Kobe Bryant have begun to act, and for a while, all the general managers gathered in Los Angeles, and now no one cares about the Pacers who just won the championship, they only care about it now, that is, once the Lakers disintegrate, can their teams get a piece of the pie in this feast and lie on the corpse of the Lakers to complete the revival of the team.

But just two days later, an even more blockbuster news was born, Jerry West, the godfather who has been in charge of the Lakers for 20 years, held a press conference in Los Angeles, announcing that he would resign from the position of vice president and general manager of basketball affairs of the Lakers due to physical reasons, and the entire Lakers were in turmoil for a while.

Just when everyone thought that the Lakers were about to end, Lakers owner Jerry Buss stood up, Jerry Buss first published a long article, couldging Jerry West's achievements in the past 20 years at the helm of the Lakers, and thanked Jerry West for his contributions to the Lakers club, and then the elder Bass announced that his son Jim Buss would take over as the Lakers' vice president of basketball affairs, and Jerry West's assistant, Mitch Kupchak, will be the team's general manager. And Jerebuss's daughter Jeanie Buss also successfully entered the management of the Lakers as an assistant to the president, and the resignation of Jerry West also marked the end of the struggle for power between the Lakers management.

After this series of appointments, the Lakers officially announced a contract extension with head coach Phil Jackson, a new contract of 3 years and 21 million, which also allowed Phil Jackson to surpass Pat Riley in one fell swoop and become the highest-paid head coach in the entire league. As for Kobe and O'Neal, I don't know what Jerry West talked to them about before leaving, after the Lakers announced the renewal of Phil Jackson, Kobe and O'Neal publicly expressed their support for Phil Jackson, and also claimed that there are no problems between the two, the Lakers' goal for the new season will still be the championship, and the stormy Lakers have completed a smooth transition in just a few days.

There are lucky and unlucky, a few days after the end of the finals, Patrick Ewing announced his retirement, due to repeated injuries and injuries, the 40-year-old Ewing really has no way to continue to persevere, maybe it is to recall his youthful years, maybe because of the regret of not having a championship, or maybe he is unwilling to leave his beloved basketball court, when Ewing said departure, this is called "Iron Tower", "Iron Man" and "King Kong", just like a child, Tears spilled at the press conference.

Just after Ewing announced his retirement, another of the "four centers", Dameng Olajuwon also announced his retirement, compared to Ewing, Olajuwon's career is more complete, the 39-year-old Olajuwon ended his 18-year career without regrets, at the end of the press conference, Olajuwon said his last wish, that is, to retire as a Rockets player at the Compaq Center where he has been fighting for 16 years. The retirement of Olajuwon and Ewing also means that the "four centers" who have dominated the league for more than a dozen seasons have officially come to an end.

Although the Rockets and Knicks did a very shameful job of trading them away at the end of Olajuwon and Ewing careers, when the two announced their retirement, both the Rockets and the Knicks owners came forward to say that they would hold a retirement ceremony for them and the team's flags for the past 10 years at the beginning of the new season, and retire their jerseys.

On June 20, 2002, the NBA Draft Lottery Ceremony, Olajuwon, who has entered the management of the Rockets, attended the draft lottery ceremony with head coach Rudy Tomjanovich, 18 years ago, Rudy Tomjanovich's mentor Bill Feige, was lucky to draw the champion pick in the draft, and used this champion pick to select the big dream Olajuwon, and today, 18 years later, under the witness of Olajuwon, Rudy Tomjanovic once again drew the No. 1 pick for the Rockets with a very low probability.

18 years of reincarnation, 18 years ago, the high-spirited teenager who beat Jordan, now has gray temples, maybe wait until the next 18 years, today's young people in their prime will be like Olajuwon now.

Time never stops, and the inheritance never stops.