The Pistons reached the Finals, and the most injured was Michael Jordan.

After the second round, he quietly left Chicago alone and returned to North Carolina to spend a few days with his parents to alleviate the frustration caused by the defeat and simply go home to heal.

In the past few days, under the comfort and persuasion of his parents, his mood has indeed improved a lot, but now that the Pistons have reached the finals, his mood has worsened.

It's bad to be eliminated by a sworn enemy, the dream of a three-in-a-row championship is shattered, and the idea of becoming a one-of-a-kind supergiant can't be realized, and if the Pistons win this time, it's a very bad thing for him.

Because of his sworn enemy relationship with Zhou Quan, the media will definitely compare Zhou Quan with him after winning the championship, and he won the championship in the 7th season of his career, and Zhou Quan is only in his second season.

"Michael, go on vacation, don't stay at home, there are always wins and losses in the game, and it doesn't make sense that you always win alone, right?" James Jordan persuaded.

"Michael, don't be cranky, mop the floor for me and go on vacation." Jordan's mother, Delores, pushed the vacuum cleaner over.

"Okay, Mom."

Jordan shrugged helplessly at his dad and got up to take the vacuum cleaner from his mom.

"Don't give up for a failure, that's the stupidest idea."

James slapped Jordan's ass hard and said with a smile: "Remember, failure can make you more mature, Iron Fist is a good opponent, only a stronger opponent can get you to a higher peak." ”

"Mutual fulfillment?"

Jordan instantly thought of the era of black and white magic birds, maybe what his father said was right.

Barkley's mood is the same as Jordan's, he was forced to a 2-2 draw by the SuperSonics, and he didn't know if he could reach the Finals, which made him think of the deal with Zhou Quan that was rejected, if he led the Pistons, I believe he would have reached the Finals now, right? The thought of this made him feel terrible.

Now he and the SuperSonics still have to fight, and the Pistons have entered the adjustment stage, even if the Suns finally reach the Finals, they will encounter a Pistons team that has been fully rested, what are the chances of winning the championship?

"Well, hopefully we can win the next two games without dragging into a tie-break." That's all he could look forward to.

On the 9th, the Suns won the G5 battle and got the match point.

Barkley played efficiently in this game, shooting 72.7% from the field, and scored a super triple-double of 43 points, 15 rebounds and 10 assists.

But in the away G6 game on the 11th, he played a bad performance again, shooting 4 of 14, 28.6% shooting, and only got 13 points, 11 rebounds and 3 assists, causing the Suns to lose the game and be tied by the SuperSonics again, and the two sides will have a tie-break.

His poor performance of gods and ghosts has been widely criticized by the media.

"The difference between the Suns and the Pistons is the gap between Barkley and Iron Fist, Iron Fist plays steadily, and Barkley, who should be more stable as an insider, has never played a stable performance in this year's three-round series, so the Pistons successfully reached the Finals, while the Suns were almost blacked out in the first round, and now they are forced into a tie-break by the SuperSonics." New york times.

"The Pistons should be glad that if the league hadn't vetoed the trade in the first place, the Pistons, now led by Barkley, would have been eliminated by the Bulls in the second round." Los Angeles Daily News.

"Damn the Alliance!"

Jordan, who was fishing on a yacht in the Atlantic, couldn't help but curse when he saw the Los Angeles Daily report.

He was sure that if the Pistons were replaced by Barkley, he would definitely be able to kill the fat pig and definitely kill the Pistons.

How did the Bulls lose, of course, they lost to Zhou Quan, stable offense, stable defense, top offensive and defensive performance, plus top assist ability, stronger than the assassins at their peak, how to win against Barkley's up-and-down performance? Joe Dumas + Assassin's defender combination, how to resist him and Pippen?

If, if the league hadn't vetoed that deal, he would have led the Bulls to the Finals, three consecutive championships, a dynasty, a one-of-a-kind supergiant, everything, would have been his.

But at this time, in fact, David Stern is the person who regrets it the most, he feels that he really did something wrong and should not have interfered in the transaction.

"Alas!"

He sighed deeply, it was he who single-handedly ruined Michael Jordan's triple crown, and it was also he who single-handedly ruined his god-making plan.

He's already tasted the bitter fruit, and the league's signature star was actually eliminated in the second round, which was a blow to those sponsors and broadcasters.

In this playoffs, the second-round series between the Pistons and the Bulls was the highest-rated game, and the highest was the tie-breaker, with a rating of 28.6 million, breaking the record of ratings, and even the average rating reached 23.2 million, which also broke the record.

And the ratings of the Pistons and Knicks' Eastern Conference showdown plummeted, averaging only 12.8 million, which was only half of the second round between the Bulls and Pistons.

And no matter who makes it to the Finals between the Suns and the SuperSonics, he believes that the ratings of the Finals will not surpass the second round between the Bulls and Pistons.

He can't imagine how much the league will lose if Zhou Quan and Jordan continue to fight each other in the East next season.

"One of them has to be sent to the West, and only then will the East and West be more balanced, and there will be a more exciting and exciting Grand Final Series."

If he can't send Zhou Quan to the West, he doesn't mind letting Jordan go to the West, but it's almost impossible to trade Jordan, the Bulls can't trade it, and Jordan's contract doesn't end until 96, so the best possibility is to take this opportunity to trade Zhou Quan.

The possibility of trading Zhou Quan exists, Detroit's economy is not good, the Pistons' ball market is not as good as a year, it is difficult to invest a lot of money, and can only form a civilian lineup, and a superstar like Zhou Quan can't stay at all if the contract is small.

In other words, he thinks that the better Zhou Quan's performance, the more the Pistons can't keep Zhou Quan, and if the Pistons win the championship this time, it can almost be said that Zhou Quan is decided, because it is impossible for the Detroit Pistons to provide Zhou Quan with a super contract of 100 million yuan.

……

On the 12th, investigative journalist Sam Smith's book was released under the title "Jordan's Law".

It was launched at 8 o'clock, and at 9 o'clock, the media reacted to the book.

ESPN's 9 p.m. comprehensive news program spent nearly fifteen minutes briefly describing the book's contents.

"Obviously, this book will expose a real Michael Jordan who will not be a perfect flyer."

The host used such an opening to attract the attention of all TV viewers at once.

"There's a lot of controversy in Jordan's Law, there's a lot of detail of conflict within the Bulls, yes, details of conflict, specifically, the book tells us that Michael Jordan isn't popular with the Bulls' teammates, he's a troublesome character."

"For example, Jordan has publicly threatened his teammates not to pass the ball to one of his teammates he hates, and if they violate him, he won't pass the ball to them."

"For example, just before the G2 game in the second-round series not long ago, Michael beat up teammate Wilperdo during an intra-team training match."

"For example, Jordan has a bad relationship with Bulls general manager Jerry Kraus, and he even publicly abused Klaus as a 'dead fat man'."

Until noon, almost all the American media were discussing the book.

Soon, the appearance of this book soon formed a negative public opinion against Jordan, and almost every media pounced on it, wanting to share the benefits from it.

After Zhou Quan saw these reports from the media, he was also very sympathetic to Jordan, and he decided not to buy the book anymore.

David Stern was also extremely annoyed, but he was powerless to stop this public opinion, and now he only hopes that time will slowly make this wave of public opinion disappear.

At this time, Jordan was still fishing in the Atlantic.

There was a radio on board, and that night, while drinking coffee, he finally heard the news about the book "Jordan's Law" on the radio.

"Bang!"

In a fit of rage, he slammed his fist on the table, and with a flip of his hand, the coffee cup on the table flew up and slammed to the floor.

Several crew members accompanying him also looked at each other, and they also heard the announcement.

He grabbed the ship's maritime phone and began to contact the shore, ready to contact the broker, Falck, but stopped halfway through.

What's the use of contacting David Falck at this point, can you still take back that damn book? Now the most important thing is not to let the media find him.

"Overall Champion! Only the championship can make these media shut their foul mouths. He clenched the maritime phone in his hand as if it were about to crush him.

……

On the 14th, the West Finals grabbed the seven battles.

In the end, the Suns had the last laugh, winning the tie-break, defeating the SuperSonics by a score of 4-3 and making it to the Finals with difficulty.

In the most critical moment, Barkley worked hard, showing the style of a superstar, within 46 minutes, 12 of 20 shots, shooting 60%, 1 of 1 three-point shot, 19 of 22 free throws, infinitely lethal, extremely efficient to bombard 44 points, and also grabbed 24 rebounds, including as many as 10 frontcourt rebounds, and only 1 turnover.

"Finals, I'm coming!"

After the game, Barkley cried with joy.

"Here, I'm going to kick you back too." Zhou Quan said in front of the TV.

That being said, he can only express his admiration for Barkley's performance tonight, which actually scored a super double-double of 40+20 in the tie-break battle, and only made one mistake.

This kind of performance, anyone has to kneel, but fortunately this is a series, not a game.

At the same time, the performance of Kevin Johnson tonight also made him more vigilant.

In 39 minutes, 4 of 11 shots, although the shooting rate was only 36.4%, the Lightning played a formidable breakthrough offense, 14 of 16 free throws in the game, and scored 22 points, 2 rebounds, 9 assists, 4 steals and 2 blocks.

The strength of this pair of internal and external combinations, together contributed 66 points, which is too strong!

In addition, in addition to Barkley and Kevin Johnson's 66 points, the Suns actually have four people who score 10+, namely Tom Chambers's 17 points, Dan Marley and Mark West's 11 points, and Danny Ange's 13 points, which shows the thickness of the Suns' lineup.

The next day, June 15, the league announced the date for the Grand Final.

The Pistons vs. the Suns, the back team has an excellent home court, the game dates are 17, 19, 21, 24, 26, 28, 30, best-of-seven games, 232 home-and-away system.

"The finals are too fast, we've just finished the Western Conference finals, which is quite bad for us, and I think it should be fairer."

Barkley complained in an interview with the media.

His claim was supported by much of the American media, which accused the league of being too harsh on the Suns.

This news did not even go through fermentation, and directly formed a wide range of public opinion.

Even, some stole the limelight from Jordan, and the public opinion of the book "Jordan's Law" has not yet passed, and it has even just begun.

Zhou Quan noticed these public opinions, and he understood very well that as a Chinese, leading the team to eliminate the Bulls and Knicks and reach the finals has somewhat stabbed the nerves of these American media, who absolutely do not want to see him lead the team to win the championship.

After Jordan's two consecutive championships, what has he been targeted by the media this season, he has become a public enemy, and everyone wants to pounce on it and take a bite, this situation is his purpose, and if it is replaced by his two championships, it is conceivable that he is likely to encounter a public opinion environment ten times harsher than Jordan.

Now that he has reached the finals for the first time, the reaction of the media is not very small, and it is not even directly aimed at him, but blames the league for the schedule, so he does not pay attention to it.

For this sudden wave of public opinion, David Stern was also a little caught off guard.

But he doesn't plan to change the schedule, there is no problem with this season, the finals are definitely over at the end of June, and then the draft, and it can't be delayed until July.

Although the development of the NBA needs the help of the media, he can't just bow his head as soon as the media says something.

For the finals of the Suns and Pistons, he just hopes to play a little more exciting, a little suspenseful, and not to be one-sided like the Eastern Finals, and it is better to play to tie-break like the Western Finals.

As for who wins, he doesn't care.

……

At noon that day, ESPN released the latest championship probability prediction data, with the Suns at 51% and the Pistons at 49%.

Urness, the station's NBA editor-in-chief, explained the rationale for the stat on the show, saying: "The Pistons have a physical advantage, which can't be denied, but we believe in Barkley and Kevin Johnson more, and their performances in the tie-break make us have to admit that they have the ability to do everything, including the Pistons."

In addition, from the analysis of the lineup, the Suns are more balanced, the inside and outside are very strong, and the thickness of the bench lineup exceeds that of the Pistons.

The depth of the strong roster allows the Suns to eliminate some of the physical disadvantages, which is also a fact that we must admit.

In short, we are more optimistic about the Suns, the team that ranked first in the league in the regular season, will definitely make history and win the first championship in the team's history. ”

(End of chapter)