Chapter 1173: Chapter 373: Explosive Balloons
"I wasn’t celebrating, I just didn’t hide my joy."
"Oh, God, listen to your crap, then I also just didn’t hide my joy at being in good form."
"Enough! Everybody shut the hell up!" Roger’s shout as he walked into the locker room stopped all the arguments, temporarily restoring peace to the locker room.
Roger once hated Michael Jordan’s authoritarian style in the Chicago locker room, but now the authority is Roger himself.
When he tells everyone to shut up, even Erik Spoelstra has to be quiet.
Of course, there are some differences between Roger and Michael Jordan; at least he didn’t use his power to mess with his teammates’ airline meals.
The conflict temporarily subsides, and Jason Richardson and Allan Houston both walk away without continuing the argument.
But Roger knows the matter is far from over.
As the season progresses, the conflict between Jason Richardson and Allan Houston will intensify, affecting the overall team atmosphere.
If the two could get along, Roger would have a very comfortable season. Because with both of them in the team, no matter how the second position rotates, there will be a high-level off-ball teammate beside Roger to help stretch the defense and absorb shot opportunities.
This makes him more relaxed when leading the transitional lineup.
On paper, this season the Warriors have a terrifyingly strong second position, and if judged by the standards of the NBA 2K game, the Warriors would have two shooting guards rated 80, which would undoubtedly greatly enhance the team’s overall rating.
But the biggest difference between basketball games and real basketball is not in player AI, but in the game’s inability to simulate the complex locker room.
The game cannot simulate Roger and Shaq splitting up under the brilliance of a three-peat championship.
The game cannot simulate the Timberwolves inexplicably disbanding a strong contender team.
The game cannot simulate the damage caused by the conflict between Peja Stojakovic and Chris Webber.
The game also cannot simulate the core of a two-time championship team suddenly running away.
And these are all things that have happened in reality.
Two guards rated 80 may be very useful in the game, but in reality, there is a high probability these two guards cannot coexist.
The good team atmosphere of the Warriors was carefully built by Roger and everyone over the past two years. And this atmosphere is like a tall stack of blocks, once one piece is disrupted, the whole stack can collapse.
The chemistry and atmosphere breakdown is comprehensive, and no one can disrupt it from within.
Championship teams may not be the ones with the best talent that year, because talent is not a necessary condition for winning the championship.
The necessary condition for becoming a championship team is that players are clear about their roles, see winning as more important than anything else, and maintain a consistent pace.
These are far more important than talent.
Roger is not unfamiliar with such problems, nor has he never had tension with teammates.
During the Magic period, he publicly quarreled with Dominique Wilkins, and had a direct fallout with Shaq.
During the Hawks period, he initially opposed Scottie Pippen, and was not on the same wavelength with Stevie Smith. Even the now loyal "Roger believer" Paul Pierce didn’t get along well with Roger in his first year on the team.
But Roger resolved these difficulties one by one, using various ways to eventually improve relations with all of them, leading the team to success.
But this time the situation is special, because it’s two teammates with an issue, and Roger is not a direct participant in the conflict.
Neither Jason Richardson nor Allan Houston has any issues with Roger, this time Roger is facing internal conflict as a third party.
How to resolve this conflict? This stumped Roger. He is good at solving his own problems and those with others, but has never solved others’ problems with each other.
After everyone left the locker room, the only person in the team with a longer career than Roger, Dikembe Mutombo, just finished his therapy and walked out of the therapy room.
Seeing Roger looking worried, Mount Mutombo sat beside Roger: "Even God gets troubled?"
"Of course, for example, when my uncle urges me to get married, I have a headache."
"It’s a headache, but others have a headache because they have no one to marry, while you don’t know who to marry from among your many girlfriends. Shameless bastard, is that what you call trouble?"
"I’m very faithful, Dikembe, don’t talk nonsense."
"Do you have a misunderstanding about what is faithful? Haven’t you heard the joke? What’s more numerous than Roger’s scoring titles? The answer is Roger’s girlfriends. Alright, joking aside, worried about Jason and Allan?"
Roger didn’t answer, just nodded.
"What are you going to do about it?"
"I need to find a way to let them coexist peacefully, they were both key players in us winning the championship last season, I don’t want to lose either of them, there must be a way to get everything back on track."
Roger’s words are true, Allan Houston’s state and desire to win this season have dropped, but he is still better than 90% of the league’s backup second position, Roger enjoys the current strong second position configuration.
Dikembe Mutombo patted Roger’s shoulder: "But you know it’s hard, talent is like air in a balloon, more air is certainly good, but if there’s too much air, the balloon will burst."