June 5, 2002, Game 1 of the NBA Finals, was held in San Antonio as scheduled!
Kira had specifically asked for leave from the crew to come to the Holy City to cheer for He Xi Meng! This made Popovich nervous, and he repeatedly instructed He Xi Meng to exercise restraint!
"What private talk you have at night, tell it to Kira after the finals are over..."
As soon as Popovich hung up the phone, Kobe's call came in.
"Hey, Xi Meng, I just remembered, I originally planned to shut Scott up! So, now this glorious task is handed over to you! Don't let me down..."
"Uh... I think this task is feasible!"
On both ends of the phone, Kobe and He Xi Meng burst into laughter.
Beating the Nets was equivalent to beating Scott!
As the game started, David Robinson won the tip-off against Muresan, and He Xi Meng brought the ball past half-court, lobbing it to Duncan at the edge of the paint!
Duncan posted up Kenyon Martin, and the Nets surprisingly didn't double-team. Scott seemed to have a lot of confidence in the rookie power forward Kenyon Martin?
Duncan didn't say much and immediately drove to the low post before executing a turnaround jumper!
Duncan's first shot was a solid hit!
It was the Nets' turn to counterattack. Kidd orchestrated the offense, driving and dishing, intending to assist Kenyon Martin with an alley-oop, returning Duncan's dominance with a slam dunk.
But Kidd didn't anticipate that Duncan's defensive transition was faster than he expected. This alley-oop attempt was swatted away by Duncan's fingertips, intercepted mid-air.
Duncan stole the ball and immediately passed it to He Xi Meng.
He Xi Meng, with Kidd having driven too deep and not yet able to recover, quickly pushed the ball past half-court! Kiddeuls came from the wing, trying to slow He Xi Meng down near the three-point line, but He Xi Meng didn't give Kiddeuls a chance to delay him. He pulled up for a shot from two steps beyond the three-point line!
The ball traced a very high and beautiful arc, and under the confident gaze of the Spurs fans in the arena, it accurately found the basket!
"Three-point King! Three-point King! Three-point King..." Cheers erupted instantly.
Nowadays, the "Holy City Three-point King" had gradually replaced "Holy City Carter" as the nickname Spurs fans loved to call He Xi Meng.
He Xi Meng himself didn't care much about these nicknames: "They're just empty honors, not worth mentioning..."
After making the three-pointer, He Xi Meng deliberately flashed three fingers towards Scott, signaling: "You better watch out!"
Scott's already dark face instantly seemed to shine darkly!
He Xi Meng wasn't someone who liked to provoke, but when it came to Scott, He Xi Meng's attitude was strikingly similar to Kobe's!
That is, if you can shut him up, do it! If you can't, create the opportunity, overcome difficulties, and strive to shut him up!
Back then, Scott followed the league's convention of veterans teaching rookies.
This kind of situation wasn't just happening with the Lakers; it was happening in most teams in the league every year, and everyone was accustomed to it.
Just like the widely circulated welcome phrase in the league: "Welcome to the league, rookie..."
Back then, His Airness was the biggest fan of teaching rookies a lesson, and he thoroughly enjoyed this traditional league activity. Especially those highly anticipated rising stars, whoever's name became prominent first, His Airness would welcome them first...
Scott back then was merely imitating the league's rogue behavior. The only difference was that he accidentally kicked two rookies with rather bad tempers!
His Airness was strong, and regardless of whether you were a rookie with a good or bad temper, he would suppress you forcefully until you submitted.
Scott's ability had been strong in the past, but by the late stage of his career, his dominance was nowhere near His Airness.
If He Xi Meng and Kobe hadn't interfered, Scott could have still managed to start for the Lakers.
But because He Xi Meng entered the Lakers' starting lineup early, he took up the starting spot that could have belonged to Scott.
And Kobe's rapid rise also took up some of Scott's playing time as a primary scorer off the bench...
In summary, Scott's actions back then were not a big deal in the league.
It was just that he picked the wrong targets to play the elder card with! He picked Kobe, who didn't like to respect elders, and He Xi Meng, who didn't have a good impression of Scott, and thus got into trouble!
The Lakers' twin stars battled with Scott from their rookie years until Scott retired in frustration.
After retiring, Scott went to the Nets and worked as an assistant coach for a few years.
While Scott was an assistant coach, things were relatively calm. Because Scott was behind the scenes and not in the spotlight, Kobe and He Xi Meng pretended not to see Scott, and the two sides were at peace.
Last season, Scott took over as the head coach of the Nets, officially moving from behind the scenes to the front, and Kobe and He Xi Meng could no longer pretend not to see him.
In fact, during the regular season last year, when Kobe led the Lakers and He Xi Meng led the Spurs, they played with a lot of intensity every time they faced the Nets.
However, because the Nets' record last season was abysmal, finishing last in the East with no All-Stars and missing the playoffs, their overall presence was not strong.
And this season, with the addition of Kidd, the Nets, as if they'd struck gold, had incredible luck!
The Nets' record soared, and Scott was unexpectedly selected as the head coach for the Eastern Conference All-Star team.
In this year's All-Star Game, He Xi Meng and Kobe teamed up to dominate Scott's Eastern Conference All-Star team, showing him no mercy at all.
In the playoffs, with Kidd's outstanding performance, Scott blazed through the East, emerging as the Eastern Conference champion and reaching the NBA Finals.
This made He Xi Meng and Kobe extremely unhappy!
Therefore, this year's NBA Finals, no matter who Scott led the Nets against, whether it was the Lakers or the Spurs, the outcome might not be much different.
The only difference might be that against the Lakers, Scott would have to endure Kobe's beautiful turnaround jumper!
And against He Xi Meng, Scott would have to endure He Xi Meng's barrage of three-pointers!
The Spurs started with a 5-0 run.
Kidd brought the ball past half-court, and as per Head Coach Scott's instructions before the game, he was to penetrate the opponent's defense and then look for opportunities to pass to his teammates, especially to Kenyon Martin in the paint, to help him attack the basket for scores.
The Nets had frequently used this tactic in the playoffs this season with great success, defeating all their Eastern Conference rivals and becoming the Eastern Conference champions, reaching the NBA Finals!
So, in the end, although the Nets were not tall as a team, most of their scoring actually came from attacking the basket, not from outside shooting.
On that opening play, Duncan's steal of Kidd's alley-oop pass to Kenyon Martin was something that would have been virtually unintercepted by anyone in the Eastern Conference.
But the NBA Finals is not the Eastern Conference! The Nets' opponent was the strongest team in the Western Conference.
And there was already a gap in strength between the strongest in the West and the strongest in the East.
Kidd instinctively felt that the tactical approach Scott used to dominate the East might not be very effective on the NBA Finals stage...