298: 128: The problem must be solved (Requesting monthly passes!) 298: 128: The problem must be solved (Requesting monthly passes!) O’Neal was elated, he hadn’t expected Roger to put Pat Riley in such an embarrassing situation.
He originally thought Roger’s earlier statement, “This is not over,” meant taking down the Heat to teach Riley a lesson.
Instead, Roger gave Pat Riley a terrible public execution.
True to Roger’s form, his efficiency in handling things was high.
Now Shaq could understand why Laetitia had said in an interview with the media before, “The many years of life in the past are not as pleasant as the two nights with Roger in Orlando.”
After having been frustrated for so long, one night with Roger had made him happy!
For the Magic, the good news was that after giving Riley a hard slap, Roger was not suspended.
But the bad news was…
well, there was no bad news, only another piece of good news: O’Neal was finally making his comeback.
On the Christmas Day game against the Houston Rockets, Roger and Shaq would join forces for the first time this season.
With the help of Abunassar, O’Neal successfully shed some weight and got his fitness back to competitive level.
Overall, O’Neal was willing to behave.
Although his motivation to win championships had dwindled, his eagerness to sign a big contract was extremely strong.
In his mind, he wanted a contract identical to Roger’s.
That was a fair price to ask for.
The condition was, he had to put up an excellent performance.
With contract renewals, your performance during the contract year greatly decides your next contract’s worth.
Even if you descended from heaven the previous year, if your performance this year is lackluster, your value decreases.
This is why so many players explode during their contract year.
To get a big contract, Shaq had to obediently follow the training routine.
However, before the Christmas game, Roger still had to lead his team against the Timberwolves first.
The night before the game, as usual, Roger had dinner with Garnett.
Every time Garnett met Roger, he would incessantly share his troubles.
This time, his main concern was the decline in his confidence.
“My shots have become hesitant, I am overly cautious on defense.
Simply put, once I’m on the court, I feel very uneasy, always worried I’ll make mistakes.
Roger, how did you overcome this problem in the beginning?”
Roger screamed inside: “How the hell would I know!”
“You could try push-ups,” Roger answered.
“You could try doing push-ups during the game, or pound your chest hard, to bring out your momentum.
That should help boost your confidence, trust me Kevin,” Roger couldn’t help but smile, “You’ll love the feeling.”
Garnett was taken aback, then the corner of his mouth curled up.
The next day, the game between the Timberwolves and the Magic was still not close.
Even without Grant and O’Neal, the Magic Team didn’t need them to handle the Timberwolves; Roger scored 34 points in the game to lead his team to an easy victory.
The game had no suspense from the start, with the only highlight probably being Kevin Garnett.
His repeated chest pounding and roaring on the court were memorable.
But the most memorable moment was in the third quarter at the fifth minute, when Garnett successfully chased down Derrick McKey, who was breaking through to the inside with the ball.
Seeing the ball rebounded off the backboard and stolen by his teammate, Isaiah Rider, Garnett started taunting McKey with a chest pound and roar.
Mid-roar, Garnett realized he was suddenly overshadowed by a massive yin and yang.
Turning his head, Roger was already there with the ball in front of him.
Garnett’s mind was a mess; he didn’t understand why the ball ended up with Roger, let alone how Roger got there!
Wasn’t the ball just grabbed by Isaiah Rider?
Garnett wasn’t going blind.
But the moment Rider got the ball and turned around to counterattack, he was met with Roger’s sudden interception.
He didn’t have time to react, and Roger swiftly stole the ball.
At that moment, Rider wasn’t worried because Garnett was still under the basket.
The high school kid, albeit unpolished, managed to be quite ferocious in blocking due to his strong physical abilities and innate talent.
Roger charging in to confront Garnett head-on seemed an ill-fated venture.
But when Rider turned around full of anticipation, he found Garnett still taunting McKey and completely unaware that Roger had entered the paint…
As Kevin Garnett was pounding his chest and spewing trash talk, suddenly, he was posterized by Roger!
KG was knocked to the ground, and Roger kindly told him, “Come on, do your push-ups, Kevin!”
To ease his embarrassment, Garnett did something completely ridiculous by actually starting push-ups on the floor.
The Timberwolves were dumbfounded; a big reason why Garnett hadn’t gone to college was a lack of confidence in his grades, so he opted for the draft instead.
The team had always thought Garnett wasn’t just poor at studying, but not stupid.
But after today, they all had to reassess his IQ!
Garnett’s first experience with chest-pounding, roaring push-ups wasn’t so great; he felt his confidence hadn’t increased at all!
But after the game, Roger patted his shoulder and said, “You have to trust the process, Kevin.
It’ll take time, but your confidence will build up.”
Garnett found this very reasonable, at the same time he wondered why, despite no one reading much in college, Roger sounded so cultured, while he himself seemed like a total fool?