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Chapter 536 - 233.G6 Previous Part

Chapter 536: 233.G6 Previous Part

By the end of Game 5, the fervor for this year’s finals had reached a boiling point.

When the Bobcats won away in Game 2, although the calls for them to win the championship were loud, the fans simply hoped the Bobcats could win, because their opponents were the Spurs.

The fact that the Bobcats were considered an upset from that game showed the perceived gap in strength between the two teams in the eyes of the fans.

Even Bobcats fans didn’t dispute the notion of an "upset."

In the ’99 finals, the Knicks were so much weaker than the Spurs, their shooting percentage was a full 5 percentage points lower, and in 2001 when the OK combo was unbeatable, the Knicks and the 76ers were both able to pull off upsets and win a game.

Sure enough, as soon as the Spurs hit the road for Game 3, they snatched the home advantage right back.

Not until Game 4 did Bobcats fans truly believe their team had the capability to beat the Spurs, but they still thought the Spurs had a higher chance of winning the championship.

Duncan’s staggering 42 points in Game 4 were too impressive, people believed that as long as Ginobili played normally, the Spurs could still smoothly take the crucial Game 5.

However, in Game 5, Ginobili exploded, setting a personal finals scoring record with 31 points, and Parker also performed well with 29 points and 10 assists, while Duncan’s 18 points and 13 rebounds, 5 assists, and 2 blocks seemed decent enough...

The Bobcats fought as a unit; in regular time, they kept the Spurs under thumb. Zhang Yang hit the key shot, scoring 32 points to surpass Ginobili’s 31, leading the Bobcats to defeat the Spurs and earn the match point!

The Bobcats, in only their third year of establishment, really might win the championship!

The morning after Game 5, Zhang Yang woke up after a sleep, went online, and felt like the websites had become sluggish.

He hit the refresh button and the positions of posts on the entire page changed, most of which were posts he hadn’t seen before; in other words, netizens were continuously posting and replying.

He was sure it wasn’t his brain that was sluggish from sleep; it was indeed the website being clogged by the visitors.

He browsed the posts for a while and stayed on a discussion about his statement after last night’s game.

Watching the forwarded video of himself saying, "Wait for us to bring the championship back," Zhang Yang admiringly said, "This kid is really cool."

But why did some say he was too overconfident? His statement was already quite humble.

After Game 2, he said they’d win 4 straight games and sweep the Spurs in a gentleman’s sweep. Wouldn’t that be more like Zhang Yang? Back then, there weren’t as many people dissing him.

He saw that some media revealed that the Jewish tycoon was already eager to leave New York for San Antonio...

Parker’s reckless play in the final moments ruined the Spurs’ chances of evening the score, and he got criticized by fans.

But there were also fans who said it served the Spurs right, that this was Popovich’s comeuppance.

Overall, more people were speaking up in Parker’s defense than attacking him.

The video of Parker almost crying after the game elicited sympathy from many, with a fan posting: "When Parker got 29 points and 10 assists earlier in the game, keeping the team in contention, it went unnoticed by Popovich. But one reckless move at the end and he’s lambasted like this. If Parker were as erratic as Ginobili, would he have been outright cut by Popovich?"

Zhang Yang looked at the IP of the post, North Carolina... good on you, home fans, I hope Parker sees this post.

The words Felton said to Parker, somehow they got out, perhaps someone read his lips.

As a result, Felton got scolded by Spurs fans.

But other fans were teasing: "Never thought the impulsive Felton had it in him to pull off such tricks."

Felton’s back-to-back 20+ performances, helping the team to two consecutive wins, earned him a lot of praise.

Rondo’s 8+9+7 performance also left the fans in awe.

But Zhang Yang didn’t see much praise for Zhang San’s good performance... After browsing posts for a while, he noticed a situation that excited him yet also put pressure on him.

King, scoring double figures every game, at least 5 rebounds, a couple of assists, a steal or two, and one or two blocks, came to be seen as a standard for his performance by the fans.

With Duncan getting 15 points, 10 rebounds, 2 blocks per game, fans took it for granted.

Zhang San was starting to receive the same treatment; now that he scored 32 points in the finals, people were no longer surprised!

He had strained himself to the limit to achieve this performance, and moreover, it was because the team specifically adjusted their offense and defense strategy for him. He didn’t have to organize the offense, didn’t have to worry about defense, in regular time, Felton, Rondo, Gerald Wallace, Okafor, Millsap, Alan Anderson, Perkins... everyone went all out to create better one-on-one opportunities for him, and that’s how he managed such a performance.

Now that fans had gotten used to such performances from him... he had to work hard to live up to their expectations!

Just like how in the second round of the Eastern playoffs people said, "James did his best, his teammates were CBA," during the finals, praising the Bobcats and attacking the Spurs was what basketball culture considered right. The majority of news and posts were touting the Bobcats’ performances.

But Zhang Yang still saw some inappropriate news and posts.

They mainly focused on one thing—Gerald Wallace’s contract would expire this summer.

Gerald Wallace was first-round picked by the Kings in ’01, abandoned by the Kings in ’04, then Bickerstaff brought him to the Bobcats, executing the last year of his rookie contract.

Switching teams changed his life, in his final year on his rookie contract, Gerald Wallace averaged 11.1 points, 5.5 rebounds, 2 assists, 1.7 steals, and 1.3 blocks per game, transitioning from an edge player about to be discarded with just 2 points, 2 rebounds average to a highly-noticed potential new star. By the end of the ’04-’05 season, he was not yet 23 years old.

According to the rules, Gerald Wallace’s successive years of service can only start from ’04, as the league didn’t anticipate a situation where a top talent on a rookie contract would be abandoned by their home team and picked up by a new team.