Chapter 55: Eddie Gottlieb
Samael seemed to have evaporated from the world, and Chamberlain's best knowledge of him was that he left Nelson Sr.'s home and boarded a flight to Alaska at San Francisco International Airport, and was never heard from again.
Chamberlain wanted to chase Alaska, but he bought a ticket for the afternoon, only to be told that there was a sudden snowstorm in Alaska, and all flights to Alaska in the United States were suspended within three days.
In this way, the connection between Chamberlain and Samael was severed, and the snowstorm appeared strangely, after Samael's flight arrived at Alaska's Snow Mountain Airport, and lasted for a long time, intermittently for a full week.
But it's not surprising, it's mid-November, Alaska has already entered a cold period, and it's all too normal for snow, and it's too normal for the next blizzard.
But Chamberlain knew that this snowstorm was actually very abnormal, but who should he tell it? Even if you tell someone, who will believe it? On top of that, now he has taken care of himself, and now media websites and magazines are looking for trouble with him.
The Warriors' crushing defeat to the Celtics stunned all fans, and it was unacceptable that what they thought was a battle for the top turned out to be a one-sided slaughter. What made them even more unacceptable was that Chamberlain, a powerful rookie who was widely favored by them, turned into soft tofu.
The media is originally a group of people who are afraid that the world will not be chaotic, and Chamberlain's embarrassed performance in the face of Garnett gave them an opportunity, and even local sports websites, magazines and newspapers in San Francisco have made a lot of sarcasm sarcasm and ridicule of Chamberlain.
A better example, the "San Francisco Sports Morning Post" and the like just said that Chamberlain met the rookie wall, and the article praised Garnett, saying that he deserved to be the top interior line in the league, and then vaguely said that Chamberlain still has a lot of room for growth, and all aspects, especially fighting spirit and mentality, need to learn from Garnett.
Other newspapers were not so easy to talk about, especially the sports newspapers in Utah, which tried their best to mock and ridicule Chamberlain from all sides:
"Real gold is not afraid of fire, and there is no doubt that the Celtics are the hottest fire in the NBA right now, and it burns all the clowns out of their original form. This newspaper doesn't understand, a rookie who just took advantage of the opponent's inattention to grab a few rebounds, why would the whole league be regarded as a potential star? Kevin Garnett was a brilliant alchemist who found out what Chamberlain's falsehood was. ”
"The Chamberlain Clause? Does the NBA have a funnier clause than that? It's unbelievable that the great and wise David Stern would have a clause specifically for a little guy like Chamberlain, does he think that a player who can't even enter the draft will grow into a star? Unless God is blind, it will never be! ”
"The Golden State Warriors are the stupidest team in the world, Chris Khan is the stupidest team owner in the world, and the 1+3 contract signed by the Warriors to Chamberlain is the stupidest contract in the world. What is a poison contract? Just look at this contract, the Warriors actually spent $8 million to sign a rookie, is there a more stupid contract in the world? ”
"What does it mean that there is no lower limit to IQ? What is blind vision? Look at the Golden State Warriors, and I think readers will get the idea. It's hard to imagine that a player who only scored 4 points, 2 rebounds and 5 turnovers in a game should be offered an $8 million contract, just because he grew seven feet tall? Or is he of Chinese descent? Perhaps for the latter reason, Houston-Yao's success seems to have plunged the whole league into a kind of sick throbbing, and the bosses all thought that they could plunder the wealth of the yellow race by signing a yellow man, but in fact the yellow man was not so stupid......
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These reports are only a small part of them, and there are many more to list, and Chamberlain glances at the street newsstand can see at least fifty magazine headlines related to him, if not about his performance on the pitch, but also about the 'Chamberlain Clause' that was just born.
Seriously, Chamberlain really can't stand the 'Chamberlain Clause' that Stern specially prepared for him, his performance in the face of the Celtics is too clumsy, look at other clauses in NBA history, what 'Larry Bird Clause', 'Gary Payton Clause', 'Gilbert Arenas Clause', whoever needs a clause specially prepared by the NBA, which one is not a superstar who has achieved fame?
Overnight, because of the poor performance against Garnett, because of the Chamberlain clause, a large number of fans and players and media reporters stood opposite Chamberlain, of course, the reason why this situation happened was out of jealousy of him, a person who performed so poorly got a big contract of eight million, is it justified?
Jazz power forward Boozer said in an interview with reporters: "Chamberlain clause? It was a joke, and I bet it was going to be a wake-up call in the NBA to tell the uniforms to be careful when they sign players in the future, otherwise it could easily become a joke. ”
Lakers potential center Bynum also smiled at the California Times in Los Angeles and said, "Everybody can play a good game on the court, believe it or not, I can get 40 points and 20 rebounds in a game at any time." But not every team is going to be so idiotic as to sign a big contract with a guy who doesn't live up to the name. ”
Andrew Bogut, the Bucks' big-mouthed center, said in his post-game press conference with the Hawks: "In the next game I'm going to tell the Oaklanders what an idiotic mistake they made, and I can get five points and five rebounds with one hand against Garnett, how many points did Chamberlain get?" Two or four points? Anyway, he's just an unknown little friend, and if he meets me, he's out of luck, because I've never been a soft-hearted guy. ”
In this way, Chamberlain seems to have been attacked by the sports media of the world, but soon, these mocking voices disappeared, because the authoritative American newspaper "USA-TODAY" quoted a sentence in its sports section as the headline: "Chamberlain will be the savior of the Golden State Warriors, he will become the new king of the league", and the person who said this sentence is named Eddie Gottlieb.
If ordinary people said such a sentence at this time, they would definitely be ridiculed by the sports media in the United States, but the person who said this sentence was Eddie Gottlieb, so no one dared to laugh at it.
Eddie Gottlieb, the first owner, first general manager and first head coach of the Warriors, at that time this team was not called the Golden State Warriors, but the Philadelphia Warriors, at that time this team gave birth to the league's first superstar Joe Fulks (Joe-Fulks), the only player to score hundreds in a single game Wilt-Chamberlain (Wilt-Chamberlain), one of the best free throwers and scorers Rick-Barry, and Sarunas Marciulionis, the first outstanding player of the former Soviet Union.
The Warriors have won a total of three championships in their history, the first of which was won when Gottlieb was the team's head coach, general manager and owner. For the Warriors, Gottlieb is a veritable godfather, and even though he is no longer the owner of the team, he still has an immense influence on the team.
In the NBA, every team has its historical representatives, and the Warriors are not represented by Wilt Chamberlain, nor superstars like Rick Barry or Thurmond, but by Gottreb. The team's three championships in history were won by Gottlieb when he was the owner, until 1976, when Gottlieb had to sell the Warriors because of the family business, and the team began to sink ever since.
Before 1976, the Warriors gave birth to Wilt Chamberlain, Joe Folks, Paul Alikin, Rick Barry, Nate Thurmond and other superstars, at that time this team has always been the top team in the league, even if it is as strong as the green shirts Celtics and the wealthy Lakers, they dare not underestimate him, at that time in the predecessor of the NBA, BAA, it was these three teams in the three-country competition.
But after 1976, the Warriors were finished, there was no superstar again, and they have been rebuilding and sinking. In American basketball, the Warriors are a very strange existence, and the die-hard fans of this team are all elderly people over 50 years old, because they are the only ones who have experienced the most glorious time of the Warriors.
Since Gotteb left the Warriors, he has rarely appeared in the public eye, and rarely talked about the Warriors, and fans know that the reason for this is because Gotteb feels guilty about the Warriors, and if it weren't for the family's poor business, he would not have sold the Warriors. In his heart, this team is sinking like this, and it has something to do with him.
Now that Gottlieb has made his voice rare, who would dare to risk the world's condemnation to fight against him?
In addition, every fan knows that every rookie in the NBA will receive the best rookie award every season, and the full name of this award is the Eddie Gottlieb Award!
Since USA-TODAY launched this feature, there has been a lot less skepticism about Chamberlain in newspapers and on websites, and more people have chosen to wait and see, and it is conceivable that if Chamberlain continues to perform badly, more people will come out to mock him, and by the way, Eddie Gottlieb.
It was in this situation that the Warriors welcomed their seventh game of the season, traveling to Milwaukee to take on the Bucks on the road.
For the Chinese, this is another battle that gathers attention, because the Bucks picked up Asia's No. 1 forward Yi Jianlian, who is said to be more talented than Yao Ming, in this year's draft. And Chamberlain is also a Chinese, and he also happens to play the position of a power forward, so this game has become a Chinese internal derby, which is naturally very attractive.
Of course, for those who are concerned about Chamberlain's clause, this game is also a big game, and as long as Chamberlain's performance goes wrong again, then they have something to say.
On November 16, 2007, Chamberlain and his teammates traveled to Milwaukee, the beautiful world of ice and snow, ready to challenge the Bucks.
On the day the Warriors arrived in Milwaukee, Andrew Bogut, the current boss of the Bucks and the 2005 No. 1 pick, expressed his welcome to the media about Chamberlain: "I didn't expect to get the chance to teach that rookie so quickly, please help me turn him, boy, it's better to learn from the last game and try not to play, or Uncle Bogut will make you cry!" He added, "I can guarantee that every time I meet Chamberlain on the court in the future, I will beat him to the ground!" ”