127: 074: Roger did it too!_3 127: 074: Roger did it too!_3 Roger replied coldly, “If it’s about defense, I have my ways to set the tone.”
Then, the starting players of both teams stepped onto the court.
Michael Jordan, wearing jersey number 45, stared intently at Roger with number 14.
Chris Webber eyed Shaquille O’Neal with ill intent.
Jordan approached, ready to shake hands with the Magic Team players.
In his plan, he would shake hands with everyone except Roger, as a way to exert psychological pressure on him.
Jordan walked over to Ron Harper, with whom he had played cards a few times in private, a familiar face.
But when faced with Jordan’s outstretched hand, Harper didn’t react at all.
Jordan awkwardly patted Harper’s shoulder and then moved on to his former teammate Grant.
Grant looked at the hand Jordan extended, and coldly “tsk”ed.
Not just the two of them, the whole Magic Team was cold to Jordan.
None of them seemed inclined to shake his hand!
This would be unheard of on other teams, where there would at least always be someone who would give Michael Jordan some face.
But on the Magic Team, no one welcomed him!
No one wanted to shake his hand!
Before, it had only been Roger who defied him.
But now, he had managed to bring the entire team to defy him!
What kind of crappy team was this!?
“Sorry, Michael, we don’t shake hands with the losing side,” Roger said with a slight smile, looking at the embarrassed Jordan.
For the first time, the anti-Jordan alliance had embarrassed Jordan!
Jordan’s anger was palpable, “You’ll soon understand why it was you who got kicked out, not me.”
“I know now why it was me, because you’re afraid of me, you’re scared you can’t control me in the team, you’re afraid I will take your place, you’re a coward who dares not compete with me, so you made the team trade me.
Do I really have to spell it out for you this clearly, Michael?”
“You bastard, better hold onto Shaquille O’Neal’s coattails tight!
I guarantee you’re going to have an ugly night, I guarantee it!” Jordan shouted angrily, turning back to his own half of the court.
Today, no one was going to stop him from annihilating Roger; this was not just a regular season game, this was a personal vendetta!
The game was about to start, with the Bulls’ starting lineup for the season being Nick Anderson, Jordan, Pippen, Kukoc, and Chris Webber.
Indeed, Webber wasn’t strong on defense playing the five spot, but it’s not like the Bulls had any other strong centers.
Before the tip-off, Webber also caught up with his old teammate O’Neal: “Is your grandma watching the game, Shaq?
If so, that’s too bad because she’ll find out that her beloved little Shaq is useless.”
Last time Webber mentioned Shaq’s grandma, he earned himself a slap.
This time, he did it on purpose; he knew O’Neal couldn’t handle it.
And an out-of-control Shaq was good for the game.
The referee started the game, and the overly angry Shaq indeed failed to focus, allowing the equally athletically explosive Webber to snatch the basketball first.
On the opening offensive, Webber, acting as the pivot at the high post, passed the ball to Jordan, who had soared to the three-point line.
At the same time, Kukoc set a screen for Jordan off the ball.
But the next second, all that could be heard in the arena was a loud “thud.”
Roger violently charged through the screening Toni Kukoc, heading straight for Jordan and blocked his three-point jump shot!
Of course, the referee called a defensive foul.
But everyone on the scene was stunned.
Roger’s collision with Kukoc was genuinely vicious.
He said he would target Kukoc from the start, and he did just that.
Then, everyone, including Kukoc, who was still lying on the ground, understood Roger’s message.
He was sending a signal, not just to the Bulls, but also to his own teammates: Hey, this might be my brother, we play together, we’re close.
But today, I don’t care about anything but victory!
Just like Roger said, he was going to set the tone right from the start!
It worked, as all the Magic players understood there was no room for retreat in this battle.
They had to crush the Bulls, or they would be the ones getting crushed!
Then the Bulls inbounded the ball, with Michael Jordan trying to shake off Harper with a cut to receive the pass.
But Harper simply grabbed Jordan’s jersey and threw a hard elbow into Jordan’s chest during the chase.
Those who were already highly excited in the Anti-Mike alliance, after Roger had set the tone for the game, now had their enthusiasm at its peak.
This made the Magic role players particularly fierce in their defensive scrappiness.
Jordan, of course, wouldn’t just throw up his hands and complain to the referees, so they took it as nothing wrong with the play.
Seeing that Jordan couldn’t shake off Harper, Webber decided to pass the ball to Pippen.
But Derrick McKey, guarding Pippen, was just as tenacious, and the moment Webber released the ball, McKey charged into Pippen and stretched out his long arms to disrupt the pass with his reach!
After completing the steal, McKey pushed forward on the counterattack.
“Shitty pass, shit!” Scottie Pippen cursed as he chased after McKey.
In terms of athletic ability, Pippen was much superior to McKey, he was, after all, one of those who could dunk from the free-throw line.
However, on the Bulls, when it came to dunking from the free-throw line, everyone tended to remember Jordan, habitually overlooking Pippen.
In any case, with his athletic abilities, catching up to McKey was a breeze.
McKey drove into the paint with the ball, Pippen poised and ready to deliver a brutal chase-down block.
He vowed to make this trash McKey pay a price.
Who the hell are you to break my pass!
However, McKey didn’t go straight for the basket after running underneath it; instead, he passed the ball diagonally backwards!
Pippen instinctively turned around, only to see Roger looming over like a towering inferno, threatening to set the sky ablaze!
Pippen wanted to jump up to block, but it was too late.
Pippen had barely left the ground when Roger mounted him completely and slammed the ball down with one hand!
Due to the momentum, Pippen was knocked over and sat down on the court, clumsily holding his sorely hit head!
“Roger started the game with a slam over Scottie Pippen!
Could there be a more perfect response?
Roger is making all of Chicago regret, making Jerry Krause regret!
This is a powerfully aggressive start, a rampaging Bull with horns steeped in blood, this time facing the bravest matador!” NBC commentator Mike Fratello was fully engaged right from the start.
Roger’s explosive start indeed had even the commentator so excited, you can imagine the state of the Magic players now.
They had transformed into the most ferocious beasts, ready to feast upon the Bulls!
After Pippen’s hands left his head, people then noticed a bump had swelled on his forehead.
Roger’s thigh had hit Pippen’s forehead, and although Roger hadn’t done it on purpose, he was very pleased with the accidental outcome.
He bent down, eyeing the disheveled Pippen: “Scott, even Larsa is tighter than you!”
In the context of the trending joke “Roger’s done it too,” this trash talk undoubtedly hit a nerve with Pippen.
Roger backed down while enjoying the frustrated expression on Pippen’s face.
Good, this was exactly the feeling Roger wanted.
He intended to destroy this team in the cruelest way possible!
But Scottie Pippen was just an appetizer.
Roger had already set his sights on Jordan now.
Tonight, this was just the beginning!