Extra Story: The River Flows Without End(1/2)
Long time no see, everyone.
I completed the serialization of "Me and Pistons" in 2010, with a total of ten chapters. Although my writing style is not very good, I was still bombarded by many Chicago fat fans - guys, your taste needs to be improved - I launched a vote online a while ago, and if I hope that more than 1 million people will continue to serialize, I will write a little more.
I was surprised by your enthusiasm, and more than 1 million people supported me to continue writing.
All right.
It is 2015 now, you should know what happened before, and I will tell you a little more.
Let’s start from 2008. I will tell you what happened to the Piston between 2008 and 2013. Why not say the last two years of "Dor.Mo"? Because countless commentators and writers told stories about those two years, they were more wonderful than me, and you all knew it well, so I won’t say much.
Why only tell the story of "2008-2013"?
Ha, do you think I don’t know that you bastards just want to know about the pistons during that period?
OK, now let's start.
At the request of my father, my next article will be called "Dor.Mo". Why did he ask so? Because since my article was published, countless fans have called him Dad... Damn, do you bastards think that Dad can be called by anyone? Please call him "Dor.Mo" in awe. Only those who have been trained by him can call him Dad.
Next we officially start.
Dor.Mo's retirement was as sudden as Grant suffered before the 2006-2007 season.
No one was ready, just as no one expected him to be the dominant of the league for the next twelve years in the summer of 1995.
In the 2006-2007 season, we proved that the younger generation can take the lead, so Dor.Mo left with peace of mind.
We have created the myth of nine consecutive championships, one more than the Celtics half a century ago.
In the new season, we all sprint for ten consecutive championships.
This is not only for honor, but also for proving yourself again.
This time, Dor.Mo is not only no longer the best player on the team, he retired, Grant became the sixth man, our starting lineup is Brandon, I, Manu, Gerald and Fatty.
The mark belonging to the old piston has disappeared.
That year, we went all out.
The regular season saw 70 wins, second only to the Pistons in 2003 and 2007 and the Bulls in 1996. Fatty and I were selected for the first team at the same time. Grant was selected for the third team as the sixth man and was selected for the sixth man of the year.
During the playoffs, we were even more capable and defeated all our opponents. No team could hold on to six games in front of us.
The unprecedented ten consecutive championships were achieved in a shocking way.
Probably because of the excessive force that year, we suffered injuries the next year.
My gluteal maximus was repeatedly injured, fat boy had problems with his knees, and Gerald's full-blown gameplay was destined to have frequent problems in his body.
Within two months, the wave of injuries swept over us.
Due to the injury of many main lineups, Grant returned to the starting lineup. Da Jia started 50 regular season games. We waited until the playoffs to return one after another, but the chemistry was completely ruined.
The media has repeatedly predicted the way the dynasty collapsed.
They did not expect that we, who were still dominant the previous year, were knocked down by injuries the next year, and fell in front of the Pacers after entering the semi-finals. However, although we defeated us in the semi-finals, we met the desperate KK Lakers, paying tribute to Jonathan Bend, who is one step closer to becoming Elgin Baylor of this generation.
The Pistons, who had been unbeaten for ten years, fell from the altar. On the night of the loss, our locker room collapsed, and everyone was crying and wishing they could die.
Only my mother remained calm.
He went to the press conference alone, answered the questions appropriately, and left.
The world breathed a sigh of relief, they thought we would always win until the league was disbanded.
In the 2009-2010 season, we changed the system again.
Running and shooting are a thing of the past, Princeton is no longer novel, and the Triangle Offense has helped us and the Lakers who won the championship this year (they also play Triangle Offense) rule the league for five years.
We began to change to a system called "dynamic offense" because we have enviable youthful vitality and should vigorously tap the potential within the team.
Under the new system, everyone has to make changes.
In order to integrate into the system, I reduced a lot of low-post offenses, increased running without the ball, and focused more on rotational offense pushing speed; Fatty lost weight, his physique was too stressed on the knees, and there were hidden dangers of heart disease. These two hidden dangers affected his rising space. He was once depressed. If Dor.Mo was still there, he might cheer up faster.
The pain of the new system made us lose the Eastern Conference Finals in the playoffs that year. The Philadelphia 76ers, who embraced Paul Pierce and Ray Allen, and Tim Duncan, who will never grow old, defeated us for the first time in ten years. Unfortunately, they also got cursed. In the finals, they still lost in seven bloody battles.
It seems that Tim Duncan leads one position in the battle with Jonathan Bend for "Who is the Elgin Baylor of this generation". Yes, he looks more tragic than Jonathan. He has been one of the five best players in the world since entering the league in 1997, but he has never been able to succeed. However, I still have to vote for Bend, he is the Baylor of this generation, and TD is too boring.
Back to the topic, we failed to break out of the East for two consecutive years.
In the summer of 2010, two major events happened.
Dako Milicic joined the Lakers as a free agent and formed the most athletic double tower in the league with Kevin Garnett.
The Serbians' departure was a landmark event of the 2003 rookie's escape.
Later, LeBron and Dwyne joined forces, and Chris Bosh gathered in Miami and became an emerging force in the East.
What about me? I signed a new contract with the Pistons that was below the market price. I wanted to leave room for the team to sign people.
As a result, we did not sign in to anyone, but instead lost an old man and several Mesozoic players with unlimited potential.
The management screwed up Kyle Lowry's deal in exchange for a player who was not useful, and we couldn't keep Paul (Milsap) with a maximum salary.
Veteran Louis M. Lore, who joined the Pistons with Dor.Mo, chose to retire.
Louis, who has been in the team for 15 years, is a witness of the Pistons dynasty, and is the same as Dor.Mo. He once said in the trial that "I am very versatile and can play anywhere." He is a veteran, but he has no airs. If you think he is easy to bully, it's wrong. He once angrily scolded Grant and others on the court. I respect him very much, and his role in the locker room cannot be ignored.
His departure has lost a familiar face to our locker room, and at the same time, the Empire Axis Arena will be promoted to another retired jersey.
Although Louis is just an ordinary, or a mediocre player.
He devoted his entire career to the Pistons, but his role, or data performance, was not good.
In 2015, 2 full-time seasons, he was not injured. The reason why he couldn't get a full-time season was because the competition between the Pistons was too fierce and he couldn't play. He always said that if there were no Dor.Mo, he would have gone overseas to work hard and his strength would not be enough to stay in the NBA. But he still stayed for 15 years.
When he left, he was favored by the retired jersey and wore the championship ring on both hands.
It was also the summer of this year, 38-year-old Grant signed a three-year contract extension with the team.
His signing gave everyone, including Fu, a sigh of relief.
He is 38 years old and is no longer a top player in the league, but as long as he is there, the supporters and players of the Pistons will be at ease.
It seemed that not only he stayed, but Dor.Mo also stayed.
This phenomenon is wonderful, but not difficult to understand.
When it comes to Michael Jordan, you can't skip Scott Pipen.
What distinguishes Dor.Mo and Grant from MJ and Scott is that everyone knows that MJ has made Scott, but we can't tell whether Dor.Mo has made Grant or Grant has made Dor.Mo.
MJ has many legends that can bypass Scott, and to introduce Dor.Mo or Grant, you can't bypass another person.
I want to talk about Grant and Dor.Mo.
Unfortunately, I didn't join the Pistons until 2003, and I only worked with Dor.Mo for only four years. Four years were enough to let me know Dor.Mo, who is a strict, cold and even in most cases, and if you have something to make him feel dissatisfied, it would be ten times more serious than the actual situation.
If you let him down, it's very good, you don't want to get any good looks from him in the next month.
We call him "Dad" not just a verbal nickname, but because he really teaches everyone in the team like a strict father.
If Grant made a mistake, he would get a more severe lesson and scolding, and Dor.Mo would talk to him about a few days because of a trivial matter.
Grant always had a smile on his face, but he was often furious when Dor.Mo said it. They often blame each other, giving people a feeling of internal strife.
When they finish the argument, they will suddenly reconcile.
To be honest, I admire Grant.
If it were me, I wouldn't think I could stand it.
Not only did he deal with Dor.Mo, he also had to help relieve us when Dor.Mo was guilty of us. Without him, I wouldn't know what the piston would have become.
The role of some people is that data and honor cannot be reflected.
So each of us is happy about Grant’s contract renewal. So great, mom stays!
In the 2010-2011 season, we returned to the track of winning the championship.
Chicago Fatty is at the peak of his career.
His average time per game is strictly limited to 30 minutes, and he will be out of the box unless it is a tense game.
But he still played 82 regular season games, averaging 23 points, 11 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 blocks per game.
He was selected for a while and defended.
Win the block king, defensive player of the year, and regular season MVP.
In the fifth game of the Eastern Conference Finals, when I felt bad, he led the team to replicate the five minutes of the Pistons' black against the Kings.
In those five minutes, he could pass the Heat's scorer from outside the three-point line, return to the basket to protect the rebound, defend the penalty area like Optimus Prime, allowing LeBron to score 9 points in a single game, complete two blocks in half a minute, three-pointers, and destroy the pass - 40 points, 18 rebounds, 7 assists and 7 blocks in a single game. He tore the Heat to pieces, making Chris Bosh look like an overly lusty waste.
Well, I was almost vomiting after writing this paragraph - but he was so good that I couldn't ignore the facts.
His strength continued until the third game of the finals. Just as we were about to win the third game and master the match point with a strong 3-0, the time bomb in Fatty's knee exploded inappropriately.
He was torn apart by ACL, and his eyes were filled with tears when he left the court. We know how unwilling he was.
Fatty's injury made us feel unwilling to fight, we lost the third and fourth games.
Before the fifth game, he came to the locker room in a wheelchair to inspire us.
To be continued...