Champion Creed
Chapter 674 - 674 235 The Ambition of a Generation Is Overflowing Vote for Monthly Pass!

674: Chapter 235: The Ambition of a Generation Is Overflowing (Vote for Monthly Pass!) 674: Chapter 235: The Ambition of a Generation Is Overflowing (Vote for Monthly Pass!) 19-year-old Gisele Bundchen was strolling along the river walk in San Antonio, smiling brightly.

She had misunderstood Roger.

She thought Roger had forgotten their appointment, but Roger had told her, “Gisele, my friend, of course I didn’t forget.

What I meant was that I invited you to come to watch the first home game.”

Roger’s gaze was so sincere that Gisele Bundchen felt sure he wasn’t just making excuses for himself.

He was really too good.

As a world-class superstar, he hadn’t contacted her for a while, purely because he was working hard at training, not goofing around with other women.

He really, really was too good.

Bundchen turned her head to glance at Roger beside her, and Roger happened to look her way as well.

At that moment, Roger profoundly understood what it meant to have light in one’s eyes.

He also profoundly understood what it meant to have a natural filter.

He had just casually made up an excuse for forgetting to invite her, and there she was, laughing so happily.

“Let’s head back, it’s late, and it’s not safe,” Roger suggested returning to the hotel, truly afraid that some Spurs fan, who had lost his cool, might stab him 13 times.

“Yeah, sorry, Roger, did I disturb you by showing up all of a sudden today?”

It was her who had been stood up, yet she was the one apologizing in the end.

Is this what being adored feels like?

“There’s nothing to apologize for, we’ll see each other the day after tomorrow.

Come on, I’ll take you back.”

“My hotel is actually not far from the river walk, let’s walk back.”

“No problem, Gisele.”

The next day, Reebok’s marketing machine went into overdrive.

They couldn’t wait for every corner of the world to know one thing: the defending champions had no chance against Roger!

Reebok did this not to go after Duncan, you see, last season the Spurs won the championship in a highly dominant fashion.

From the first round to the championship, the Spurs only lost three games.

So at the end of last season, everywhere was filled with the rhetoric that “Tim Duncan is about to dominate the league.”

And last night’s game, Roger put an end to that topic.

Reebok had to make the whole world understand that Roger was still the master of this era!

However, Roger wasn’t the only focus after the opening game, as the Lakers also took care of the Utah Jazz, a long-standing power in the West.

Karl Malone scored only 14 points, John Stockton 13 points and 8 assists.

In front of the 23 points and 13 rebounds by Shaq and Kobe’s 28 points, they looked their age.

After the game, Shaq proudly told everyone in an interview: “The Utah Jazz are like the crumbs on my belly, just flick them and they’re gone!”

Just a year ago, O’Neal was stripped bare by Karl Malone, utterly humiliated.

Now, Shaq spoke with confidence, pants on.

The Hawks and the Lakers, both favorites for the championship, had won their opening games.

So some of the opening game’s heat was taken by the Lakers.

The day after the opening game, when the Lakers’ regular practice ended, reporters filled the locker room.

With the Lakers and the Hawks being the two hottest topics, reporters had plenty to speculate on.

For instance, the brawl last season that caused David Stern so much toothache.

“Kobe, if you faced Paul Pierce again who approached you with fists and feet, how would you handle him?”

“Paul Pierce is just an ordinary player.

I’ll handle him any way I want.”

“What about Roger?

This season, if the two teams really meet in the finals, how confident are you?”

“One hundred percent confident, it’s time for Roger to step down like Michael.”

Just one game in, and Kobe was already full of confidence.

And this year, he wasn’t the only one feeling confident.

As the millennium approached, everyone seemed eager for the change of an era.

The talented class that entered the league in ’96 was beginning to grow restless.

Allen Iverson, aside from Kobe, was the most restless of all.

As the ’96 number one pick, he didn’t have an ally like Shaq, but he still managed to lead his team to the playoffs last season.

Last year, Iverson ended his campaign in May, for the first time ever he had managed to extend his season for so long.

For him, the 98-99 season was a milestone.

Victory, second in scoring, playoffs, star status…

all of these became reality in the 98-99 season.

People loved his style of play, loved his fashion sense.

And he himself was full of desire for the scoring title.

So the second game of the season against last season’s scoring leader Roger fired up AI.

He knew very well that in the league, the person most qualified to compete with him for the scoring title was Roger.

Why was AI so fixated on the scoring title?

Because that’s what the fans expected.

The fans here hadn’t experienced having a superstar for so long, many still remembered how Paul Arizin and Neil Johnston won five scoring titles, and hadn’t forgotten Wilt Chamberlain’s effortless seven scoring title honors.

For Philadelphia fans, their basketball superstar should be the scoring champion.

AI himself thought the same: “You know, victory comes first for me.

Second, I want to be the season’s highest scorer.

If Roger stands in my way, I don’t mind shoving him aside.”

AI was dismissive of everyone, so Roger wasn’t upset.

Reebok also didn’t want the rivalry between the two to get too heated.

As Reebok’s two most lucrative endorsers at the moment, a beating for either would look bad and affect their commercial value.