"We were only 0.4 seconds away from winning, maybe we were close to the championship"

On June 18, 2004, at the post-game press conference at Staples Arena in Los Angeles, Zhuang Fei saw for the first time that his old rival Phil Jackson would look like this, lost, desperate, helpless, and even pitiful.

In the past, even if Zhuang Fei won no matter how badly Phil Jackson lost, Zhuang Fei would not see these looks on his face, whether it was anger, excitement or contempt, these were not too negative things, for the losing side, this was nothing, in fact, both Zhuang Fei and Phil Jackson had lost to each other by a large score, so in this case, both of them had such emotions, but Zhuang Fei never had such a desperate look at Phil Jackson, and the same, Zhuang Fei will not think that Phil Jackson has such a thing, but it is obvious that this game can be said to have defeated the Lakers coach, and in fact, any important game that determines the final championship will have this lore, anti-lore and anti-lore plot will make people collapse, and such a collapse is absolutely unstoppable.

"We've been perfect, Shaq played 45 minutes, his longest game of the season, he had 44 points and 18 rebounds, he was the cornerstone of our team, he laid a good foundation for us, Kobe Bryant came off the bench in this game and was a surprise with 40 points, and Szzczebiak's final three-point strike almost gave us the victory, they were all fantastic players, they were impeccable, they should have enjoyed a win, but in the end we failed, but I'm still proud of them."

At this time, Phil Jackson may be the purest basketball coach, and he probably has a lot of things in his heart. After all, the loss of this game is almost certain that he will be out of class with the Lakers, as many people know, after his home court is breached, he needs to win two home games against the other side if he wants to win, and in the last two years of the playoffs, the Celtics have not lost a home game, in the first two games of the series. The Boston Celtics easily defended their home-court advantage, so while this was only the fifth of seven games in the Finals, the truth was that everyone in the room, or the whole of America, knew that Game 6 would be the last game of this year's Finals, and that after that game on June 20, everyone knew that Phil Jackson would leave Los Angeles. It was his last home game with the Los Angeles Lakers.

"Can you make a comeback in Boston? I don't know, it's a magical thing in fiction, but I think we're going to end our season and we've had a successful season, regardless of the outcome. I would have thought so, it's a great team and I'm happy to be part of this place and I'm happy to be a part of the history here."

When Phil Jackson uttered the words that were almost like a farewell. At this time, the reporters on the scene were not embarrassed by the head coach who was killed and lost, even the Los Angeles media, which had always had a very bad relationship with him before, at this time on this occasion. He is not suitable to be pointed at anymore, and in fact, everyone in this game is satisfied with the performance of the Lakers, including the Lakers fans, this is a classic epic matchup, as Magic Johnson said This game may be the greatest Finals in NBA history, although the Lakers have tragically become the last footnote in the end, but from the players to the coaches, these people have indeed done their best, and when they see the Lakers players and head coaches all kneeling on the court at the end, maybe everyone will be touched. In fact, Zhuang Fei is the same, when he saw Phil Jackson kneeling on the edge of the court, he was very impressed, this is a great opponent, although he is not the strongest opponent, but he is great enough.

"Mr. Zhuang, a lot of people in this game are that you beat the Lakers in the way of the Lakers, is this intentional? Magic Johnson said that this game is your heart-to-heart battle against the Lakers, do you agree with that view? ”

Zhuang Fei has been looking at his old opponent Phil Jackson, but at this time, the reporters in the audience are aimed at him, he is the winner of this game, and such a victory makes everyone feel incredible, if according to Zhuang Fei's previous character, such a victory is still won in the face of Phil Jackson, then Zhuang Fei will definitely be crazy to mock the head coach of the other team sitting next to him, but at this time, Zhuang Fei did not do what he always did.

"The Lakers are a great team, everybody knows that this team is great, and the way they play individual basketball is very admirable, and in fact, it was really deliberately arranged by me because we needed to disrupt the rhythm of the Lakers in this game, and the defeat in the first two games has allowed them to slowly adapt to our offense and our defense, and for us, after two consecutive losses, we have to make changes, and that change now seems to be successful.

Of course, as for whether this is a heart-wrenching choice? I'm very clear to everyone that this is wrong, I don't intend to break all the confidence of the Lakers in this game, and in fact, even if the Lakers rout after this game, this is also the credit of my players, the executor of any tactic is the player, and everything in the last moments of this game is not something I can control, I think Mr. Phil can't control it, this is the result of the players' play, and I also believe that in the next game the Lakers will give it their all, just like Mr. Phil Jackson said, those guys are great and powerful, they will draw a perfect end to their last year, of course, we are like this, we will do our best" In the end, Zhuang Fei also smiled at Phil Jackson on the side to answer this question, and Phil Jackson was also stunned when he saw Zhuang Fei's smile.

"This game proved that the Celtics can play the best individual basketball, so would you give up your own team basketball and try this kind of individualistic and entertaining individual basketball at the Celtics?"

"No, it won't be like this" Zhuang Fei smiled again and continued: "This game is an attempt, we are trying to change, I think if we are given another chance, maybe we can't play such a basketball, we are a whole." Our team loves that feeling of passing the ball to their teammates, and if Maddie had to pull himself up at the end of every game to win, then I think everybody would be crazy, we don't need these things, of course, these things are just the embellishments of our team, and I think we'll be back to square one next game. We're still the best team basketball team in the league."

After the results of this game came out, many TV commentators thought that the strength of the Boston Celtics was no worse than that of the Lakers, because this game was a pure strength match, both sides played individual basketball, and finally the Boston Celtics won, although it was a miracle 0.4 second kill, but there is no doubt that the two teams are extremely close from the previous game, from this point of view. The Boston Celtics do have the foundation to play Lakers basketball, but in fact, after the game started, many commentators thought that it was unwise for Zhuang Fei to give up his biggest advantage, and in the end, these people all retracted these words, and even finally turned one-sidedly saying that they wanted to see the Celtics continue to play basketball like the Lakers. But for Zhuang Fei, he didn't want this. He didn't want to change the Celtics' system, in fact, the Celtics were at their best when they played team basketball.

"Mr. Zhuang, according to what we know about the Celts. Wade isn't a very good shooter, why would you choose to hand the team's last shot of the season into his hands, in fact, Yao Ming. Maddie is more sure, even Jackson is a good choice? "Of course, when is the most classic for this game? There is no doubt that it was about the 0.4-second stunner that Wade staged at the end, and in fact, before this happened, no one would have thought that the Boston Celtics' final blow would be Wade, in fact, many people were speculating that Maddie or Yao Ming or even Jackson had a better chance.

"Maybe you have a misunderstanding about Wade" Zhuang Fei was stunned for a moment after hearing this question and then said with a smile: "His breakthrough is excellent, but that doesn't mean he can't shoot, he is not a role player who can only break through, he has a very good mid-range shooting ability, especially on the left side of the court, in our team, and in fact, if you can make a statistic, I think, you will find that he will shoot more than 50% from mid-range on the left side of the court this season, That's the most comfortable point for him to shoot, and I'm sure he can do that, of course, Maddie and Yao Ming are the more sure players, but I don't think Mr. Phil Jackson will put those two points, the last 0.4 seconds don't give us much time to adjust, we have to shoot, so Wade is the best option, actually, Mr. Jackson didn't expect Wade to execute the last attack, so we succeeded"

Zhuang Fei's explanation is very clear, and these reporters finally nodded in agreement, in the time of 0.4 seconds, it is almost impossible to let the team's leading player or the player who is taken care of by the opponent to carry out the lore, the time is too short, and the shooting rate that can not get rid of the defense is extremely low.

"After winning this game, have you ever thought about lifting the final championship trophy in the next game" Of course, in addition to the lore, whether the next game will end this year's finals has also become the focus of these people's attention, but to the surprise of these reporters, Zhuang Fei, who was extremely modest and personable throughout the press conference, was not humble at all when asked this question.

"I think everyone knows that the sixth game is the championship battle, and we will win the final championship in the next game" And when Zhuang Fei said this last sentence with a smile, before these reporters could reflect, Zhuang Fei signaled to Philip Jackson on the side and left.

This time he left the table early not because of himself, he just didn't want to see his old rival's desperate look in his seat exposed to these people's noses for a long time. As he said at the end, the sixth settlement battle is perhaps the least painful death for his opponent

The impact of the fifth game between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics is very large, not only in the basketball circle in the United States, but also among the fans, for example, the ratings of this game exceeded 30% for the first time, and the highest rating was the moment when Wade staged the stunner reached a terrifying 38%, and this game was also the first time that the average ratings of the NBA regular season game exceeded 30%, and in fact it was also the second time after the Christmas war between Carter and Jordan, This is an extremely terrifying statistic, you must know that this year's Super Bowl is only 42%, and the NBA has now left the baseball league far behind, with a large number of NCAA fans pouring into the NBA.

There is no doubt that now the NBA can challenge like the NFL Football League, but in fact, the Super Bowl of the Football League has only one game, and the NBA Finals is a best-of-seven system, in this case, the NBA Finals is not bad in terms of commercial value, at least this year's NBA Finals can compete with this year's Super Bowl or even complete the surpassing, and in fact, the day after this game, The Washington Post also reported that US President George W. Bush took his family to watch the game in Zhuang Fei's clothes at Wake Forest University, and finally it was confirmed by the White House spokesperson, and even the White House spokesman finally took out a photo of George W. Bush wearing a Wake Forest player and taking his family to watch the live broadcast of the NBA Finals.

Of course, after this NBA Finals, which is considered by many to be the greatest in NBA history, almost everyone is talking about it, from the President of the United States to ordinary people, and in this atmosphere, almost everyone has forgotten about the upcoming sixth NBA Finals, and in fact, maybe not everyone has forgotten, but everyone has chosen not to mention this matter, because almost everyone knows that the next game is a sweep, And the fifth game of the true classic is all that.

While for many fans, they're now reminiscing about Game 5, but not for the Finals participants, such as the Boston Celtics.

The sixth game between the Boston Celtics and the Lakers was on June 20, 2004, two days after the fifth game, so after the Lakers' fifth game, Zhuang Fei flew back to Boston overnight with his team. Although he said in the post-game press conference that he would end everything in this game, he still needs to take action, and the Lakers will not wait so long to be defeated by them.

In fact, although the current situation of the Lakers is indeed not good, this team is not so easy to beat, and this kind of adequate preparation is absolutely necessary for Zhuang Fei and his Celtics.

Of course, now, the Boston Celtics are preparing for their last game, and in fact, in addition to thinking about the Boston Celtics, the sixth game is the last game of these NBA bigwigs, such as NBA president David Stern, the recently happy league president came to Boston early, for him, the Boston Celtics and Lakers played everything in the fifth game is his own ideal NBA, in his mind, the NBA is like this, offense, offense, It's still offense, and this kind of time when everyone is nervous about these two teams is also the time when the NBA has the most interest, so after the fifth game comes out, he doesn't care what happens in the sixth or seventh game.

For him, he has fulfilled his expectations this year, and in fact, the on-site award presentation may be Jordan's happiest Finals award since he retired in 1998, you know, in the past 6 years of the NBA Finals, almost none of them have been able to create such an effect as today. That's all he wants, and it's conceivable that the NBA's revenue will increase dramatically in the next few years. And the salary cap will also soar. Of course, the value of each team in the NBA will skyrocket.

In addition to David Stern, who happily came to Boston with the NBA championship trophy, some other celebrities such as Jordan, Abdul-Jabbar and other celebrities also came to Boston before the start of the Finals, of course, for Boston, this team is already a pile of celebrities, Cardinals, Lord of the Rings and other NBA gods are now here, and even Russell does not need to go elsewhere to present awards for the MVP of the Finals, in this case, the Boston Celtics have once again become the focus of the national basketball communityBoston is the focus of the basketball community in the United States not only because of the gathering of these famous names in the NBA, but in fact, for example, the current president of the NCAA league, Mr. President of Wake Forest University, also brought a group of NCAA bigwigs and Wake Forest University up and down here

In David Stern's opinion, this year's Finals is the most exciting one in the league in recent years, and it is also the one he would like to see the most, but no matter what, there is an end to such beauty, and when will this end be? Maybe on June 20th.

On June 20, 2004, Boston's North Shore Garden, the sixth game of the NBA Finals between the Boston Celtics and Lakers was played here. (To be continued.) )