This wasn't the first time Abi Pollin had seen the gods in distress at dusk.

He still remembers Joe Louis Sr. being pushed to the edge of the rope fence by Rocky Marciano, Joe DiMaggio limping after the ball, and obese Babe Ruth (1) struggling on the tour of a semi-professional team.

(1) The above three people are all sports supergiants who have had ominous events in their later years.

For Pauline, Jordan tonight was more miserable than all three.

Yu Fei didn't leave him any face.

Was Pollin unexpected? He certainly wouldn't be surprised, and it wasn't Jordan's humiliation on the court that surprised him, but the loss of the flyer's charisma.

With the exception of tonight's game against the Bucks, most of the Wizards' games since the start of the season have seen a large number of empty seats. Especially in the high-priced season ticket area, those wealthy people who bought the season ticket did not show up. The large number of empty seats suggests that the wealthy middle class thinks they have more important things to do than watch Jordan play.

This further hit the economic effect brought by Jordan.

In the first season of Wizards Dan, Pauline made a lot of money, and every game night was a carnival for the team and ticket sellers, ordinary people were willing to spend four or five hundred dollars to buy scalpers to look at Jordan from afar, and rich people would snap up Jordan's peripherals after the game. For Jordan, they can give everything. This allowed Pauline to make up for the shortfall of the past five years.

However, since the second season of the Wizards, the demand is decreasing in a way that is visible to the naked eye.

On most nights, the MCI attendance is no more than 70 percent.

No matter how many empty seats there are, the Wizards will declare their home court full. This is because most of the tickets are sold before the start of the season. It's a half-truth number that doesn't reflect Jordan's declining appeal, but the empty seats at home show that Jordan is no longer a gimmick that will make people come to the stadium to watch the game.

Pauline and O'Marie are back in a pre-Jordan situation, and they need to create new gimmicks to attract fans.

Regardless of Jordan's injury, there are only five games left for the season.

Wanting to squeeze every last bit of value out of Jordan, O'Marie's plan was to market the "Last Flyer" as a package that would appeal to fans to watch Jordan's final games — though they couldn't guarantee that Jordan would play the rest — and that package buyers would receive a discount on their 2003-04 season tickets.

"I have no opinion." Pauline said lightly.

Knowing this, Omarie set about it.

Then, Pauline and Unseld walked together to the Wizards' locker room.

Despite a frustrating defeat and their playoff prospects ruined by Yu Fei, he still had to go to the locker room to boost the morale of his players.

When Pollin walked into the locker room, it was filled with the smell of sweat and the atmosphere was cold, like a murder scene.

Jordan is being cared for by Tim Grover, and none of the players have welcomed Pauline's arrival.

Unselde stepped forward and said, "Mr. Pauline would like to say a few words to you. ”

Pauline walked over to Jordan and looked at him as he was now—with a bandage on his eyebrows, his sprained knee being fed ice, and the reality of being beaten by Yu Fei haunted him, and the question of trading Yu Fei would follow.

Pauline stared at Jordan, who looked at him as well, and the two sides froze like strangers for a few seconds.

"I'm so proud of you." Pauline's tone was mild.

Jordan sneered: "Abiy, save it, this team is not worthy of your pride." ”

Whether in public or private, Unseld would call Pauline "sir," and Jordan would only call him "Abi" prosaicly. This reflects the difference between a long-time executive who still sees himself as an employee and a superstar who has big goals and established himself.

Pauline is annoyed by Jordan's disrespect, but doesn't show it on his face, only informing him of O'Marie's plan.

Jordan expressed surprise at Pauline's face at the expense of making money with his name, and after a few seconds of silence, he said: "The nature of my injuries is unknown, no matter what, I won't end my career like a circus clown, I don't need to 'say goodbye' to anyone." ”

When Jordan shows a stronger personality in front of the owner, the players on the scene will only lose respect for Pauline.

Pauline suppressed his anger and stopped the conversation, exchanged a few words with Jordan, then looked at Collins and reiterated his pride in the team.

The problem is that after a dignified defeat, "I'm proud of you" sounds particularly harsh.

Jordan's stance of being above Pollin caused the players to generally lack respect for Paulin.

When the Wizards won, Pauline never walked into the locker room to say that.

Now that they've suffered their worst defeat of the season, Pauline says he's proud of his team?

Everyone behaved apatheticly, and no one was inspired.

These reactions illustrate the reality that the players do not see themselves as belonging to the same team as their owners, let alone as the leader or parent of the team. Pauline was just the guy who paid them to play in this jersey.

That's also what Jordan wants his players to realize, that when they're running and sweating on the court and trying to win, Pauline is just an inconsequential bystander, it's his team, but it's not just his team. Now he comes here to say "my team", as if to show that he has the highest authority over the team.

But Jordan's confrontational stance clearly proves that as long as Jordan is here, he doesn't have that power.

This is something that Pauline cannot tolerate.

He owns the team but can't be welcomed when he enters the dressing room? The jersey, the big screen TV, the medicines, the trainers, the club attendants, the players and the coaches were all bought with his money, so why can't he be respected when he enters the dressing room?

Pauline walked out of the locker room with an irrepressible rage, and as he walked away from the room, his anger erupted uncontrollably: "Enough! I've had enough of this! I don't care who he is, he can't take my power! ”

"It doesn't matter who he is!" Pauline yelled at Unselde like a vampire, "Something is coming to an end!" ”

Unselde nervously followed Pauline outside the MCI.

A tabloid reporter recognized them and stepped forward to ask, "Mr. Pauline, what do you think Michael is doing tonight?" ”

Pauline, who was eager to tear Jordan to pieces, said with a pleasant face: "Michael's performance is very good, very good, and I'm very proud of him." ”

"What about Fry? He scored 60 points at the MCI, so Frye could have led us to the playoffs, and if he did it again, would the team still trade him? ”

Pauline's expression didn't seem to change, but his eyes sharpened for a moment.

"We may have made a deal that didn't pay off." Pauline's tone became low, "It's a pity. ”

So, who will be responsible for this?

Pauline glanced back at MCI and left.

The next day, the reaction of the media and opinion circles was explosive.

The New York Times headlined: "Frye scored 60 points in the third quarter of the MCI last night, the first time since Wilt Chamberlain that feat!" ”

The Washington Post tried to be on the side of justice, writing headlines like this: "Frye's Great Night Ends Playoff Hopes." ”

The Washington Times, which has never been polite to Jordan, will never miss this opportunity: "It only took one year for Frye to prove that last year's trade was the scariest thing that ever happened to the Washington Wizards in history!" ”

As long as it is related to Yu Fei, the Seattle Times always has to add a kick: "If winning three in a row twice in the '90s is the reason why MJ is called the best, then the Frye trade is the reason why he shouldn't be called the best." ”

Because the contrast is so obvious, a few major newspapers that control the direction of public opinion will be considered biased in favor of Jordan, even if they only report as neutral.

Once reality is stated with emotional overtones, Jordan's image takes a major hit.

This time, Jordan's media power failed.

Because the reporters of the big newspapers can't change the reality.

Then, Reebok drove at full speed in the field of public opinion.

Yu Fei's media friends at ESPN also helped.

For a time, Jordan's popularity fell to the bottom.

On the afternoon of the second day after the game, Jordan's agent David Falke announced that Jordan would most likely not play in the Wizards' final regular season games due to a knee sprain.

In other words, last night's game against the Bucks is very likely to be Jordan's last dance as a professional basketball player.

As soon as this incident came out, even Bill Simmons, a "sports man" who has always liked to go against Yu Fei and kneel and lick Jordan, couldn't hold back: "If I were MJ, even if I broke a leg, I would play the last few games." Otherwise, the world will remember his inability to do anything against Frye last night. Michael's legacy has been badly damaged by this comeback, and if he quits, we'll forget what he did in the 1998 Finals, and when we see his name again, we'll only remember Frye scoring 60 points on his head! Michael, you really can't do that! ”

Almost every Jordan supporter wants him to play the last few games.

But what they didn't know was that Jordan's knee injury was very serious, and Falck's statement that "most likely not" was also after weighing the pros and cons. If there was a 1% chance, Jordan would have played, but he couldn't. Because he can't really squirm on the pitch.

Anyway, he was killed.

Yu Fei's curse became a reality.

He ended up hosting a retirement ceremony for Jordan at MCI.

(End of chapter)