The Way of Basketball: Never Talk Shit to Him!

Ray Allen had already changed into the Champion T-shirt.

Standing in the center of the court, watching his teammates also gradually putting on the Champion T-shirts, he subconsciously glanced at the game—it wasn't until this moment that he still felt a sense of unreality.

I really...

won the championship?

He couldn't quite believe it.

From '96 to now, 16 years, 15 seasons of pursuit, it wasn't until this year that he was finally going to hold up the Championship Trophy.

His heart was filled with indescribable emotions.

This season, his status in the New York Knicks wasn't very significant.

Even though he became a starter in the Eastern Conference Finals, for the whole season, during the regular season, he participated in 60 games, averaging 23.4 minutes, scoring 9.8 points per game.

In the playoffs, his average time slightly increased but still only 26.4 minutes, scoring merely 10.5 points per game.

He was at most an important member of the New York Knicks' bench, but definitely not the main player, much less the core.

This was also the part that filled him with mixed feelings:

Back then, he fought tooth and nail as a core player without winning a championship, but now as a bench player, they unexpectedly advanced all the way, losing only one game in the entire four rounds of the playoffs, and won the final championship.

Could it be...

that I was never meant to be the core of a team to win the championship?

For years, Ray Allen had been compromising for the championship—from the "Boss" of the SuperSonic Team to the "Core Player" of the Boston Celtics, and then to a "Substitute Player" of the New York Knicks...

Finally winning the championship, living his dream, he felt a bit bittersweet!

At this time, David Stern also entered with the Championship Trophy.

An eye-catching player with a few emotions in his eyes was...

Kwame Brown, the No.1 Pick of 2001, whose career's brightest moment all occurred when he was selected at the draft ceremony. He became an abandoned chip on the Lakers' path to building a powerhouse. Last summer, with his contract ended, he thought his career was over.

What awaited him should have been a minimum contract.

The final result was both similar and different from his expectations.

The similarity was that it was indeed a low-paid contract—the difference was that this contract came from the New York Knicks.

Thus, he came to New York, became a member of the New York Knicks.

And now...

he had become a member of this season's champion team.

Even though he averaged less than 5 minutes per game, even though he appeared in only two playoff games, he was a genuine member of the champion team!

With a career like his, yet he still ended up winning the championship...

God!

Is this a joke you're playing on me?

Kwame Brown's face showed a few relieved smiles.

His career was already sealed, and at the age of 31, it was unlikely to change anything.

So...

"Watered-down No.1 Pick" is just "Watered-down No.1 Pick"!

After all, he won the championship!

Su Wan observed everyone's gazes closely.

But he didn't notice the somewhat bittersweet look in Kwame Brown's eyes.

He didn't have much interaction with Brown.

There's no way around it; he was just a "Water Dispenser Administrator", even participating in team training depended on the coach's arrangements. Actually, Su Wan had initially thought of transforming Kwame Brown, but when he arrived at the New York Knicks, he was already 30 years old, his body's functions began deteriorating, and all the assumptions made about him had pretty much vanished. He was left with only one advantage, which was his good lower body strength, capable of setting picks and screens on the court.

But unfortunately, this season's New York Knicks didn't use ball handlers breaking through the basket after screens as their main offensive strategy.

This season, most of the screens were initiated by inside ball handlers with the outside.

Lacking good mobility, he didn't fit the New York Knicks' system either.

If Kwame Brown had met Su Wan four years earlier, then Su Wan might have been able to train him to showcase more possibilities, but as for now... everything was a foregone conclusion, and Su Wan was powerless.

Just like how Wang Zhizhi missed the perfect time to go to the Mavericks immediately after the draft to receive Old Nelson's guidance.

By the time he went to the Mavericks, they already had Nowitzki.

And most of Wang Zhizhi's abilities were already fixed, eventually becoming a water dispenser player for a few seasons in the NBA, before leaving the NBA regretfully.

But for Kwame Brown, things were turning around in more than just this respect.

Soon, the title of "Most Watered-down No.1 Pick" would belong to someone else!

Of course, this is assuming nothing changes in the future of the NBA...

Also part of the "important members of the bench" were Jimmy Butler and Little Thomas, both winning the Championship Trophy for the first time in their careers, but as rookies, their expressions at the moment were more about longing and excitement.

The NBA Championship Trophy, as the highest achievement in the league, is something many superstars spend their entire lives trying to win without success.

Now, they've claimed this award as soon as they entered the league.

Aside from excitement, what's left is endless longing for the future.

Barkley glanced at these two guys flashing across the camera, revealing an envious look.

People really are different from one another.

He ran east and west for the championship, and in the end, he only reached the finals in '93, facing "God Jordan", who left him without a chance, and even when he went to form a superteam, he couldn't win even one Championship Trophy. And then look at these two guys, sitting on the bench for almost the entire season, yet now they're also wearing Champion T-shirts.