The No.1 Anti-Fans in Basketball
Chapter 240 - 145: You must be cheating!

Chapter 240: Chapter 145: You must be cheating!

The incident with Manu Ginobili caused quite a stir, especially since the San Antonio Spurs reporters utilized their journalism skills to extract the quote, "I deliberately bumped into Popovich, and I did it on purpose to take out Ginobili, yes, just like that," which led to an uproar.

The League, under pressure, stated they would initiate an investigation.

However, this action met with strong protest from the Grizzlies.

Because, League, you can’t be hypocritical, if you’re going to investigate, then look into Anderson bumping into Guy, and Ginobili’s attempt to hurt Randolph as well.

No, you should investigate how Bowen slipped a foot under Carter and Hory rammed into Nash.

One thing leads to another, and the League’s investigation ended without any real consequence. In the end, they issued Hansen a mere slap-on-the-wrist fine of 20,000 US dollars based on his comments.

Afterwards, the Grizzlies continued to submit protest appeals to the League, not feeling there was anything wrong with what Hansen had said.

The League chose to ignore them.

Then on the next day, the League announced the punishment for Randolph, suspending him for one game due to his takedown of Ginobili.

Back in the ’70s and ’80s, that kind of takedown was nothing to the League, not fighting was almost an embarrassment to claim you played in the NBA.

But that also gave the NBA a bad image, after all, people would rather watch boxing than see actual fights during a basketball game.

Thus, after Stern took office, he was dedicated to changing this image.

The "Auburn Palace Brawl" gave him a perfect entry point, and afterwards, malicious incidents were dealt with more severely.

The most representative was the 2006 Madison Square brawl, where Anthony merely hit the New York Knicks’ Matty Collins once, and the League suspended him for a whopping 15 games.

Randolph was only suspended for one game, already taking into account that it was the playoffs.

"Han, next time there’s an incident like this, I’ll handle it," James Johnson proactively approached Hansen after the League’s sanctions were published.

After all, Hansen isn’t Bowen; even Bowen couldn’t always be so lucky to be considered accidental, and once it was discovered to be intentional, suspension would be inevitable.

And if Hansen got suspended for this, it would be the straw that broke the camel’s back for the Grizzlies.

Hansen had no reason to reject Johnson’s initiative.

It made him think of East University before he traveled through time, pledging not to first use nuclear weapons, a direct deterrent.

Isn’t Johnson exactly the NBA’s nuclear weapon?

A day later, the G5 between Grizzlies and Spurs commenced in San Antonio.

This time, Hansen didn’t have his hot shooting touch, an occurrence with inherently low probability.

Although the Spurs were missing Ginobili, they put up a desperate fight back home and won 93 to 87.

But honestly, everyone knew it was just their last struggle.

When the series returned to Memphis for G6, Randolph came back fully revved, bursting with pent-up anger, he detonated the Spurs’ inside line.

points and 14 rebounds, achieving a new career high in playoff scoring.

Duncan, who had reached his limits, simply couldn’t stop Randolph, contributing only 6 points and 7 boards to what turned out to be the worst playoff performance of his career.

"TD might want to consider retirement," Barkley lamented from the commentators’ booth.

to 2, the Grizzlies ultimately ousted the Spurs, powerfully advancing to the Western Conference Finals.

They would face their final opponent in the conference finals, the Dallas Mavericks who shockingly swept the Lakers.

By this time, the semi-finals in The East had also concluded.

The Hawks ultimately couldn’t continue their Cinderella run like the Grizzlies, winning early but losing later, 2 to 4, they were knocked out by the Bulls.

Ross exploded for a new playoff career-high 44 points in G3, but what’s more important is the Bulls’ defense, holding the Hawks under 90 points in 4 out of the 6 games.

Similarly, the Heat advanced 4 to 1 over the Celtics with their outstanding defense to meet the Bulls in the Eastern Conference Finals.

James and Wade each managed to score 25+ points in the past two rounds of games, both playing exceptionally well.

It was then that the League announced the last award of the season, the All-NBA Teams.

The Grizzlies reaped a harvest at this time, Hansen not only continued to be named to the All-Defensive Second Team but also made the All-NBA Third Team.

Randolph also earned the first All-NBA Third Team selection of his career.

As for media awards, it’s still about the hype, fame is all about who you can hype up.

Of course, the most talked-about aspect of the selection was Anthony being left out of the Third Team and James continuing to be named to both First Teams.

Anthony had performed well both with the Nuggets and the New York Knicks, especially hitting a career-high 42.4% from three-point range with the Knicks.

As for James, his performance on both ends of the court had obviously slipped this season. That spot should have gone to Wade.

But then again, who controls media voting?

LeBron fans also have their own theories, after all, Wade has to compete with Kobe for the position.

What’s this about All-NBA Teams not by position? Then I’ll surround you with James’ scoring, rebounding, and assists.

What, Wade’s making sacrifices? Are you saying James isn’t making sacrifices too? My shot attempts are at a career low!

And Bosh not being selected?

Who cares.

The Western Conference Finals between the Grizzlies and the Mavericks were about to begin, and Hansen arrived in Dallas with the team the day before the game.

Upon arriving in Dallas, Hansen was invited to O’Neal’s home.

"You’re not trying to get me drunk, are you?" Hansen joked when he saw O’Neal bringing out the alcohol.

O’Neal laughed and switched to a beverage instead.