Champion Creed
Chapter 557 - 557 201 I am going to burn him to death!

557: 201: I am going to burn him to death!

(Requesting monthly votes!) 557: 201: I am going to burn him to death!

(Requesting monthly votes!) Roger’s terrifying 50+10 stats were still setting the whole of America ablaze, showing no sign of cooling down.

After all, such numbers had only been achieved once in Michael Jordan’s entire career.

Moreover, these stats had been reached in such a highly anticipated game.

Last season, Jordan was still competing with Roger in terms of popularity.

At the start of the season, Shaq was competing with Roger in terms of popularity, and Duncan sparked endless speculation.

But now, Roger had become the overwhelmingly dominant presence in the entire NBA.

Yet even as the NBA’s overwhelmingly dominant star, the news about Roger and Andy only occupied a small section in the newspapers.

After all, not many fans cared about how players carried themselves in community events.

People were even more keen to discuss the new nickname for the duo of Roger and Pippen — the “69 Combo.”

This stemmed from Roger’s 52-point performance in the last game to win, with Pippen, who only made 17 points, almost boasting, “Together, me and Roger racked up 69 points.”

Roger was impressed, one moment it’s Larsa as a soulmate, another it’s the 69, the remnants of his and Pippen’s time in the ’90s were indeed strange!

Most people didn’t care about the poor sod with bone cancer, but Roger genuinely did.

The day after returning from Andy’s house, he shared the story with the whole team.

After hearing it, everyone was fired up, clamoring to put an end to the Hawks’ embarrassing 30-year championship drought since moving to Atlanta.

This time, even the usually quiet Steve Smith uncharacteristically joined in the roaring.

“For Andy!

For honor!” The guy’s eyes gleamed with a desire to win for the first time.

The next day, in the game against the Chicago Bulls, Steve Smith finally got back into form.

He scored 27 points for the game, with a 7-out-of-5 shooting performance from the three-point line.

During the game, he was very active on both offense and defense.

On the court, his teammates began to pass him the ball again.

In the locker room, people finally started to speak with him.

Big Ben, while showering, shouted to Steve Smith, “Dude, my soap dropped, pick it up for me.”

Well, even though it was just a trivial comment, it was at least a good start.

Following this game, NBC broadcaster Bob Costas commented on the current state of the Hawks, “Ten games into the new season, the Atlanta Hawks have become complete, solving all their problems.”

At this moment, the fans in Atlanta were undoubtedly the happiest, for when Steve Smith was no longer an issue, and the Hawks became complete, everyone was thinking of one thing — how close is Atlanta to becoming a Triple Crown City!?

Now, the discussion on this topic had reached its first climax.

Because the MLB World Series was about to begin.

(A previous chapter mistakenly stated it began in March; the text has been corrected accordingly.)

Amidst this vibrant atmosphere, more and more people were discussing the “Triple Crown City,” and this year’s MLB in Georgia was exceptionally popular.

Everyone was hoping the Braves would set a great precedent for the entire city of Atlanta.

Ted Turner, owner of the Atlanta Braves, warmly invited Roger to watch the sixth game of the divisional finals with the Braves.

Roger didn’t really want to go, as he had always lacked interest in baseball.

Watching baseball as a kid, the only impression Roger had was that he couldn’t understand it at all!

Because baseball, as a ball sport, is really quite unorthodox.

Most ball sports, even if you don’t understand the rules, are actually very simple to roughly figure out.

Soccer: Just take the ball across the opponent’s field and get it into their goal.

As long as you’re not watching a Chinese league, understanding soccer rules isn’t difficult.

Basketball: Take the ball over the opponent’s half and score it in their basket, and that’s it.

Rugby looks a bit more complicated at first glance because you don’t need to dribble or carry the ball; there isn’t an obvious “goal.” But it’s essentially about taking the ball across the field and getting it into the end zone.

These ball sports, even if you’re unaware of the detailed rules, you can understand their ultimate purpose, so they are very easy to get into.

But baseball’s characteristics are different from any of the sports mentioned above.

Its rules and gameplay are so abstract that even after watching for a long time, you still might not understand what’s going on.

If you watch a baseball game with no prior knowledge, you might think: Why is that guy in red running?

What’s he running for?

Huh?

Why did they just score?

Why?

To appreciate the charm of baseball, Roger once watched an official MLB rules crash course video.

Undeniably, the official video was well-made, clear and logical, and after watching it, you could basically understand a baseball game.

The only issue was that this so-called “crash course” was nearly an hour long…

Also, in most ball sports, the ball is large and comfortable.

Only baseball has a small and hard ball, and it feels awful to touch.

Hence, Roger had never been too interested in baseball.

Going to watch a baseball game, he genuinely feared he would fall asleep out of sheer discourtesy.

But he had no choice; the owner of the baseball team was also the owner of the basketball team.

Considering that Ted Turner always listened to him and showed him great respect, turning down such a generous invitation would be a bit rude.

So, Roger reluctantly agreed to attend the game.

On the day of the match, Roger entered the imposing Turner Stadium.

This stadium, converted from an Olympic main venue into a baseball stadium, was very grand.

Ted Turner, wearing a red cap, raised his fist under the star-spangled banner, as he shouted passionately among the crowd.