Chapter 1214: Chapter 385: Don’t Let Anger Become a Cursed Mark
The 04-05 regular season concluded, and the Warriors weren’t first in the West. The Los Angeles Lakers rose to the top amid the new Showtime storm led by Kobe, Nash, and Marion.
Rudy Tomjanovich didn’t leave the team due to health reasons as per the original timeline. In fact, his departure from the Lakers in the original timeline likely wasn’t truly due to health issues. His stated reason then was "mental and physical exhaustion," which wasn’t closely related to his previous bladder cancer.
This was very likely a tactful claim made after Rudy Tomjanovich was let go because the team’s performance didn’t meet expectations.
In this timeline, Rudy Tomjanovich’s Lakers had no such performance issues, and indeed, he persisted.
Moreover, Roger’s old acquaintance, Mike D’Antoni, was part of his coaching team.
Wherever there’s fast-paced offense, the figure of that Little Moustache man is present. The lightning fast plays and Little Moustache seem to have formed some sort of supernatural connection.
With his offensive coaching, along with Rudy Tomjanovich’s locker room management and control, it’s impossible for the Lakers’ regular season record to be poor.
Yet, Roger didn’t leave empty-handed; he clinched the scoring title for the tenth consecutive season.
It’s a record almost impossible to be matched again.
Michael Jordan also had ten scoring titles, but those weren’t consecutive.
You could certainly argue that he voluntarily gave up the chance to win ten consecutive scoring titles because he wasn’t the scoring title-holder only in the season he retired. Had he not ventured into baseball, he might have won 11 consecutive scoring titles.
But "if" only remains "if" in the end, whereas Roger has firmly earned the honor of ten consecutive scoring titles.
This season, due to new rules, the whole league’s outside players experienced a scoring surge.
In the past few seasons, players averaging over 30 points per game were basically just Roger himself, or occasionally two.
But this season, there were as many as four players averaging over 30 points.
Kobe averaged 35.4 points, AI averaged 33 points, and the Chosen One averaged 30.2 points.
Of course, Roger topped them all with 35.7 points.
Considering Amar’e Stoudemire also had to consume a significant portion of shot opportunities, Roger’s numbers were quite terrifying.
Nike’s spokespersons tried to use Michael Jordan’s 86-87 season average of 37.1 points to overshadow Roger, claiming that the Egg’s scoring ability was superior to Roger, aiming to diminish Roger’s prestige.
But this behavior was scorned by Bill Simmons, who quickly wrote an article in his column in response.
"I don’t know why suddenly so many people are mentioning Michael’s average of 37.1 points during this time. Over the past ten years, no media has mentioned this matter, and Michael himself doesn’t like to bring it up. Yet, when Roger averaged 35.7 points, these media seemed to suddenly recall that ancient history and started digging up old accounts.
No matter who’s behind this, I can make a definitive conclusion - Roger is the best offensive player in history, better than Michael.
All players with exaggerated averages in that season faced the same issue, which was having no help.
Any player with someone to help manage ball possession, anyone who isn’t the kind of idiot who only knows to look at the basket after getting the ball, could never achieve an average of 37 points.
My point is, this is unrelated to individual ability; it’s decided by the fact that basketball games have only 48 minutes and at least eight people sharing shot opportunities in each game.
Roger’s helpers were evidently more numerous than those in Michael’s 86-87 season, so he didn’t need to score that many points. Any attempt to disparage Roger using 37.1 > 35.7 is a brainless act.
Why not mention that Kareem is the all-time scoring king, hence his scoring ability is stronger than Roger’s? Even Kareem himself wouldn’t use that to make a case.
Kareem is indeed great, but in terms of scoring, Roger is the strongest ever.
The glory of ten consecutive scoring titles won’t be tarnished by any such foolish claims.
Moreover, Roger isn’t just a scoring champion; don’t forget he can also deliver 7.5 assists while outputting 35.7 points.
I can emphasize again that he is the best offensive player in history."
Bill Simmons didn’t excessively praise Roger, because similar stats are nearly unbelievable to the people of this era, trailblazing and akin to the Bulls’ first 72-win season, astonishing.
An average of 35 points and 7 assists, such figures have only been achieved by the all-around James at his peak, but that was already in the small ball style era, where the league’s pace and scoring were much higher than now.
As for another so-called all-around James, he never achieved similar regular season performance in his entire life.
During the small ball style era, such stats were already considered terrifying, let alone in 2005 when the league had just emerged from the Dark Defense Era.
Such data to today’s fans is simply sci-fi.
Of course, regardless of the era, there are always nostalgic folks who believe players of old were stronger than today’s.
Thus, people endlessly debate on the topic of "the best offensive player in history."
When Roger reaches this level, any matter related to him will spark discussion, which is normal.
Therefore, Roger doesn’t care about those messages online; he doesn’t care about the title of "one of the strongest players in history."