193: 095: What he wants is more than just victory (Vote for me monthly!)_2 193: 095: What he wants is more than just victory (Vote for me monthly!)_2 “Because I haven’t achieved my goal yet, my goal isn’t just to win an Eastern Conference final, but to get the championship and then smash the trophy over Michael Jordan’s head, making him nod his head like pounding garlic as he hands over the crown, making it impossible for him to utter that I’m the runner-up anymore.”
There’s no invasion more direct and brutal than this.
Ordinary people would at most aim to “win the championship”, but Roger laid it all out, even for what comes after.
Even in the player-hostile environment of the ’90s, this kind of response was extremely aggressive.
But is there anything left between Roger and Jordan that needs to be covered up?
It’s just like how the Celtics and the Lakers never pretended to be friendly towards each other.
This is a war over historical status.
Jordan had nothing to say about it; he was a seasoned hunter, fully aware that this is just the cruel nature of the basketball jungle.
There’s no mercy here, the only thing you can do is figure out how to stab the other person back.
However, this time, retaliation wasn’t so easy for Jordan.
In fact, Game 1 was just a warm-up appetizer; he was about to endure much more than he anticipated!
In Game 2 of the series, Michael Jordan was still invincible, hitting 17 of 30 shots for 38 points.
But Jordan’s old pal Horace Grant went 11 for 16 and O’Neal had 25 points and 12 rebounds.
The key point was, the Bulls still had no answer for Roger.
Roger scored 28 points, with 5 assists and 4 rebounds, helping the Magic to a 107 to 103 victory in Game 2.
After the game, Michael Jordan, uncharacteristically, said, “I don’t understand why the team couldn’t keep Horace!”
He even began to miss that snitch he’d once scorned.
This made him seem more like a mere mortal, because only mortals openly complain about management’s inaction.
Why couldn’t Olajuwon be glorified with a championship?
Because he was a mortal, having publicly complained, “We cannot put a team together with these players; I’m not cursing out my teammates, but if the whole team is at this level, we simply can’t achieve anything.
In the end, my Rockets career is now on the edge of a cliff.”
What about Michael Jordan?
He’d never made such public complaints, even if he was dissatisfied with Krause trading away Oakley, he’d never openly grumbled about it.
But now, he was complaining about the team letting go of Grant.
However, Horace Grant was not smug about receiving Jordan’s recognition.
He didn’t need that anymore.
Grant no longer needed Jordan’s approval and respect; all he needed was to defeat Jordan, so his remarks were sharp as well:
“Regarding Michael, I know there are many legendary stories about him out there.
But there are just too many fabrications and omissions in his stories.
I don’t want to say what the real Michael is like here because I’m not a snitch.
The only thing I can tell you is, Michael isn’t perfect, he can lose games, and you’ll see that soon.”
Under Roger’s perfect leadership, we can definitely achieve the outcome we envision,” said Roger with short comment, “6 to 0, Michael knows what I mean.”
The Chicago media painted the Bulls’ two losses in Orlando like the reports of the end of the world, panicking at the realization that Chicago’s Black Jesus had vanished.
Now, they only had an ordinary Michael Jordan, capable of failing, bleeding, being knocked down.
Though it’s a best-of-seven series, all of Chicago knew what being down 0 to 3 meant.
The Chicago Bulls had no way out.
The whole world was waiting to see Jordan miraculously turn around Game 3, but any sensible sports fan knew the Bulls stood no chance at all.
Firstly, the Bulls simply could not handle Roger; their power forward position was too weak defensively.
Brian Hill set up so many pick-and-roll plays for Roger, not to target Pippen, but to exploit Webber.
Hill coached Webber the previous season, so he knew just how bad his defense was.
And in the playoffs, any defensive weakness is fatal.
The reason Pippen kept getting blown up was because of Webber’s weak defense against the pick-and-roll.
If the Bulls had a power forward defender of Horace Grant’s caliber, Roger wouldn’t have been able to run their pick-and-rolls as freely.
Now, do you see why Jordan misses Grant?
Secondly, the Bulls had no way to completely shut down O’Neal.
No matter how much they tried to ‘Hack-a-Shaq’ or double-team him, O’Neal would still eat up at least 20 points in the Bulls’ paint every night with a shooting percentage over 45%.
He was indeed limited, he indeed couldn’t kill the game, but he could help Roger push, and that was enough.
The Bulls couldn’t find a way to fill their fatal gap; Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen were like on a leaking boat.
They’re individually strong enough to steer and plug the leaks at the same time.
But the Bulls couldn’t sail far that way.
Someone needed to help them plug those holes so they could focus on steering the boat through the waves, only then could the Bulls go far in the playoffs.
Unfortunately, the Bulls had no one like that.
Chris Webber’s playoff performance was a disaster, not just in defense but on both ends of the court.
Even at his peak, his playoff performances were inherently worse than during the regular season, let alone this immature Webber.