Champion Creed
Chapter 82 - 82 060 It's your turn to throw this ball

82: 060: It’s your turn to throw this ball.

82: 060: It’s your turn to throw this ball.

Roger’s aggressive scoring from the start sounded the alarm for all New York fans.

In fact, Roger had already warned them.

During the third encounter in the regular season, when Roger’s game-winning shot failed, New Yorkers should have been on alert.

Unlike Pippen, that waste when in the main offensive role losing by 20 points, having Roger take charge brought the Knicks to the brink.

It’s just that last shot by Roger didn’t go in.

So, New Yorkers have always been a bit too optimistic.

Ever since the Zen Master promoted Roger to the offensive core, the Knicks haven’t been able to dominate the Bulls.

Roger’s dagger was, in fact, only a hair’s breadth away from them.

And as expected, the game became extremely tense.

In the first quarter, Roger’s exquisite off-ball offense left Derek Harper struggling to cope.

Scottie Pippen made Starks struggle hard to score, and with some shoving and relentless trash talk, Starks finished the quarter 0 for 3.

Roger scored 13 points in the first quarter, plus Kukoc’s two three-pointers, the Bulls led 28 to 20 at the first quarter!

The commentator, Steve Jones, had already given New York fans a warning:

“We have to understand why New Yorkers are so eager to get past the Bulls.

In the last three seasons, the Knicks’ championship runs were interrupted by the Bulls.

In ’92, the Knicks went as far as 3-3, last year they led 2-0 at one point.

But in the end, they were always the losers, bearing all the pain, watching Michael and Pippen become the masters of the dynasty.

They’ve been tumbling over the Bulls for too long; their best years buried by MJ, as if cursed.

Now, with the nightmare MJ gone, this is indeed their best chance to get past the Bulls.

But looking at the first quarter, even without MJ, they still need to be careful!”

The number 14, who was mocked by New Yorkers, looked down on by Riley, and seen as a child by the Knicks players, weighed down the atmosphere of Madison Square Garden once again.

This season wasn’t easy for the Knicks either; they experienced injuries during the regular season but still managed to clinch the top spot in the East.

Although they were pushed to a Game 7 against the Pacers in the last round, they ultimately prevailed.

Finally able to take a bite out of America’s Big Apple, only to find half a worm inside after biting.

Of course, they couldn’t just throw the apple away now; they had to pull the worm out.

So, in the second quarter, the Knicks fiercely pressed Roger, forcing him to pass the ball.

But Roger still punctured their iron-wall defense time and time again with his excellent off-ball offense.

Alright then, if so, they’d use the faster Starks to chase and guard Roger without the ball.

But when Starks went to defend Roger, Roger turned back into that terrifying one-on-one player.

He utilized his height advantage to continue scoring over Starks, accompanied by trash talk like “Who’s guarding me?”, “Pat, take this trash out, please,” and “This is like shooting practice for me.”

Starks collapsed mentally, getting thrashed by a rookie and verbally humiliated by him.

And the only resistance he could muster was to shove Roger in response to the latter’s verbal onslaught.

The referee immediately blew the whistle, as the Knicks were known in the league for their MMA-like play, and Stern had already ordered officials to keep a close eye on their games.

Roger stood in his place, smugly, with arms crossed, staring down Starks: “You think this will scare me?

Stand here, what can you do to me?

You’re no threat to me at all!”

Starks, restrained by the referee and his teammates, could not get close to Roger and could only rage helplessly.

New York fans could hardly believe their eyes; Roger at the always-feared Madison Square Garden was even more arrogant than usual!

In the second quarter, Roger scored 10 points, 23 for the half, helping the Bulls maintain their lead.

Roger, who could play both with and without the ball, was giving Pat Riley a real headache.

Phil Jackson adjusted Roger’s main rest time to the third quarter.

Since he mostly rested then, Roger only tallied 5 points in the third.

But 28 points through three quarters still kept the Bulls six points ahead.

The Knicks were held back.

Patrick Ewing realized that the Chicago Tribune wasn’t being sensationalist; Roger could very well become New York’s new nightmare.

He had to stand up because there were no excuses like “At least we won the mid-season championship” in the 90s NBA.

So the furious gorilla went berserk in the fourth quarter, enacting a scene from “Rise of the Planet of the Apes.”

The entire fourth quarter became a solo show of Ewing beating up Cartwright.

Cartwright had been Ewing’s teammate for three seasons when the latter first entered the league.

Back then, a rookie Ewing would already manhandle Cartwright on the practice court, to the point where he lost direction in life.

The peak Ewing now had an even easier time handling Cartwright.

While Ewing was putting on a crazy show, Roger’s shooting began to slide.

The frenetic confrontation with the New York Gang finally caused fluctuations in his shooting percentage.

So, he had to attack the hoop, which left his body covered in scratches and palm prints; he had given it his all.

But a missed jump shot in the final moments and a layup that went awry during a confrontation still gave the Knicks the chance to close the gap to 1 point.

With the last 25 seconds of the game ticking down, the Knicks patiently rotated the ball, eventually passing it to Ewing, who had dominated the fourth quarter.

A.

C.

Green and Pippen immediately went to help Cartwright, who was already smoking from the abuse.

Facing the double-team, Ewing passed the ball in the last moments to Starks at the right 45° angle.

Pippen watched the New York’s number 3 at the perimeter in despair, feeling ice cold all over.

It was too late, even Pippen couldn’t fly from the paint to the three-point line in an instant.

Starks jumped, took aim, and was about to shoot.

In that moment of despair, Roger rushed to Starks’s side and disturbed his jump shot.

“Bang!”

It didn’t go in!

But the Knicks were never a team that relied on guards to solve their problems.

The eternal bulldog from Georgetown University, Patrick Ewing, leapt in the paint, completely surpassing the exhausted Cartwright in the air, his fingers touching the ball first.

Patrick Ewing continued to contribute to his domination of the fourth quarter.

“Patrick!

The put-back is good!

The Knicks take the lead by 1 point!”

“The giant ultimately ruled the game, I know Roger is excellent, I know he wants to replace MJ.

But there’s only one MJ after all, not every guard can break free from the giant’s clutches!”

All the Knicks players rushed towards Ewing, even the New York fans who had been critical of him, calling him clumsy, uncharismatic, and lacking boldness in critical moments, now “bestowed” upon him the most enthusiastic applause.

92 to 93, 2.8 seconds.

NBC started replaying the video from the last moments of the third matchup of the regular season, the game where Roger’s last-second shot failed.

NBC’s commentator Steve Jones asked the question on everyone’s mind, “Well, after the last failed buzzer-beater, who will Phil let take this shot?”

The Bulls team returned to the bench; Roger had already scored 34 points today, but his shooting percentage in the fourth quarter was poor, and his last two shots had missed.

Pippen’s shooting percentage for the fourth quarter wasn’t ideal either, making only 1 out of 4 attempts.

Zen Master held the clipboard, ready to devise a strategy, and squatted in front of Roger, “Roger, you’ll…”

Before Phil Jackson could finish, Pippen suddenly slapped the clipboard away, “Give me the damn ball!

Do you want to replay the regular season tragedy again?

That bastard simply can’t score in crucial moments!”

The entire bench was momentarily stunned.

Roger lifted his head, while Cartwright quickly pressed down on Roger’s shoulders with both hands, preventing the conflict from escalating further.

Such scenes had occurred in the Bulls before; Cartwright remembered the ’89 series against the Cavaliers, Game 5, with the Bulls trailing by 1 point with 3 seconds left—and on the brink of elimination (before 2003, the first round was best of five).

At that time, Bulls coach Doug Collins had prepared a surprise by having Dave Corzine take the last shot.

Then, Jordan knocked Collins’s clipboard away.

What happened next is known to all, one of the most classic moments in NBA history was born.

The same thing happened to Larry Bird, who during a crucial timeout told his coach K.C.

Jones, “Why all the hassle?

Just pass the damn ball directly to me.”

K.C.

Jones was a bit tougher than Collins, “Shut up Larry, I’m the coach now, so you listen to me, got it?

Hey you, when you inbound the ball, just give it to Larry.”

In any case, it’s perfectly natural for a superstar to take the last shot in critical moments.

Right here, right now, Scottie Pippen thought he could recreate Michael’s legend.

He wasn’t content with being just a sidekick; for years he had battled against this fate.

He finally got the chance this season, only to be overshadowed by a rookie.

All season long he had endured, he wasn’t the only one in the locker room calling the shots, he couldn’t express his dissatisfaction with Roger openly, he was even deprived of the right to take shots.

Now, he didn’t want to endure any longer.

This was his team, this was his series!

After Roger’s last failed buzzer-beater, he couldn’t bear Phil Jackson giving the last shot opportunity to Roger again.

Pippen even threatened Zen Master, “Phil, I’m not joking.

If you don’t give me the ball, I’m not playing!”

Roger too was furious, had Cartwright not held him down, he would have wanted to charge up and beat Pippen right then.

He wasn’t angry because Pippen wanted to take the last shot but because that bastard had the audacity to threaten not to play in such a do-or-die moment.

Where did he place the victory that everyone had worked so hard for?

As the bench sat in dead silence, Phil Jackson calmly picked up the clipboard.

Pippen had made two mistakes.

First, he wasn’t Michael Jordan.

Second, the current coach wasn’t Doug Collins.

After picking up the clipboard, Zen Master’s expression hadn’t changed; his tone remained calm, as if he hadn’t taken Pippen’s threat seriously, and he provided an answer that embarrassed Scottie Pippen:

“Roger, you take this shot.”