Chapter 1141: Chapter 363: Shut Up, You Don’t Even Need to Shower After the Game
Olympics preparation, team conflict, the issue exposed.
Even in the Dream Team, this would undoubtedly be an internationally acclaimed news.
Moreover, the conflict happened within the more conservative Team China.
In the original timeline, Yao Ming was just smashing a water bottle in anger on the bench and it caused a huge commotion, one can imagine how big an impact this incident made domestically and internationally.
The script the Americans had always anticipated came faster than they imagined.
"American journalists know Roger better than Chinese players do" — this statement is no exaggeration.
They understand Roger better than Chinese reporters, Chinese fans, and Chinese players do.
Everything that happened from 1993 to 2004 made them clearly aware of what kind of person Roger is.
He is a petty person.
He is a good leader.
He is a source of joy for Victoria’s Secret supermodels.
He is also a ruthless ruler.
ESPN’s SportsCenter’s new host, Steve Levy, delivered a straightforward comment: "Since Roger joined the league, SportsCenter has already changed three hosts, and we’ve been with Roger for so long. You can imagine if you put the 1992 Michael Jordan into a team composed of college players and let them play in the Olympics, the Dream Team would probably be arguing every other day. Putting Roger into Team China is pretty much the same reasoning."
For a player like Roger who has long been accustomed to being at the top, his expectations for his teammates subtly increased.
Though the Warriors won the championship this season, the whole team was in harmony, but it was not smooth sailing from the beginning. The fact is, if it were not for Dikembe Mutombo playing the role of mediator, Marcus Camby might have been traded by the Warriors at the start of the season due to conflicts with Roger.
Why did Roger have a conflict with him? It was because his attitude and performance at the beginning of the season were atrociously poor.
Even Nikola Jokic would tear his jersey in anger on the spot by an MVP player like Westbrook, let alone Roger, who is more obsessed with victory. Great players are bound to have high demands on their teammates.
So sneaking into the therapy room to rest halfway through training is absurd and incomprehensible to Roger.
Perhaps for the national team, Bateer is a star center, the second Chinese player to win a Championship Ring in the NBA after Roger.
But in Roger’s eyes, he is just a guy who can’t even get playing time in the NBA rotations.
The past year and this year, when Roger was playing the playoffs against the Spurs, while Chinese fans anticipated a Chinese derby in the playoffs, Bateer didn’t even have the eligibility to play because he wasn’t on the playoff roster at all.
If it weren’t for Roger’s presence significantly increasing the influence of Chinese players and expanding the scale of the Chinese market, the Spurs might not have even renewed his contract for two years last summer. He would have entered the free-agent market as in the original timeline, signed with the Toronto Raptors, and then gradually faded out of the league.
In Roger’s view, how does such a person have the nerve to have privileges?
How does he have the nerve to rest?
He is about to face Tim Duncan, his teammate, in the first game, doesn’t he know how big the gap is between them?
If Bateer doesn’t want to play himself, Roger won’t force him; he’s not going to waste time trying to change a Chinese player for no reward. He is the symbol of Chinese basketball, not a servant of it.
It’s just that what Bateer does affects the atmosphere of the entire team, and this is something Roger cannot tolerate.
Though only two days into training camp, Roger can see a significant difference between this national team and the one from 20 years later, the so-called scrap team, which is the mentality of the players.
This team has aspirations and a desire to win.
years later, maybe that scrap team didn’t think they could win from the day they set out.
But now this national team is all determined to break history.
Chinese basketball players may not have high educational background, but none of them are fools. This lineup of Team China is unprecedented; globally, apart from the Dream Team, you can’t find another team composed of both an NBA superstar and an NBA All-Star at the same time.
For years, it’s the first time Team China is playing with such abundance.
This is a team destined to be historic, and everyone has the chance to become a hero.
Therefore, everyone is working hard, not wishing for any regrets.
But Bateer’s laziness destroyed that atmosphere, laziness is like a virus that, once it appears, immediately spreads among the crowd.
If Bateer takes a break, can Wang Zhizhi take a break? Can Yao Ming take a break? What would others who are sweating to create history think?
Roger argued for more rest time for all players fighting in the NBA precisely because he didn’t want them to enjoy privileges at the training camp.
So, Roger, reaching the end of his tolerance, chose the most intense way to solve this problem.
He really doesn’t care whether Bateer plays, he just hopes his team doesn’t get polluted by this laziness.
After the conflict erupted, the team was full of uncertainties.
The next day, not only were the fans unaware of what would happen to Team China, even the coaching staff didn’t know how things would evolve.
After yesterday’s fight, the Chinese coaches suggested Del Harris end the practice early, and he did so.