Chapter 113: The Final 29th-level Staircase
The end of All-Star Weekend has always been the biggest indicator for the NBA season.
You know, just like after struggling through multiple positions, the male actor always puts his opponent back into the missionary position, the final sprint is coming, whether it’s blooming from the center or snow flying in June, you ultimately have to face that final moment.
This season is undoubtedly the most turbulent NBA season in over a decade.
What Xu Ling has done might become a brilliant chapter in the career of a great superstar years later, but so what? Other things are equally important.
That four-team trade allowed the Mavericks to set sail again from a team that seemed to have closed its championship window, becoming a hot favorite for Western Conference champion.
But there’s a problem: the Mavericks gave up most of their assets in that four-team trade. The combination of Kobe and Nowitzki is certainly intimidating, but a true contending team often needs seven or eight players who can actually play.
This is the Mavericks’ biggest flaw. If it were the offseason, Kobe plus Nowitzki would be enough to attract a bunch of veterans to join voluntarily, but now, they can only wait for the trade deadline to arrive and see which teams buy out veterans, then lure them with the promise of championship prospects.
The first veteran to join the Mavericks was Sam Cassell.
However, for the Mavericks, this wasn’t a reinforcement that could bring major changes, because they already had Kobe’s old partner Derek Fisher at point guard. Adding Cassell was just piling an even older point guard on top of an old point guard.
The position the Mavericks truly needed to reinforce was their weak small forward spot. After Josh Howard was traded away, the Mavericks’ small forward position was completely vacant, forcing veterans like Jerry Stackhouse, who never knew what defense was, to barely hold it together.
Then, another butterfly effect-induced variable occurred.
Chris Webber, who in the original history was supposed to return to the Golden State Warriors to end his career, believed the Mavericks were his last chance to achieve his NBA championship dream.
Although he could no longer run or jump, he was a kid who grew up watching Bird and Magic Johnson’s generation play. He had heard the story of Bill Walton dragging his broken body to help the Celtics become the best team in history.
So, this injury-accelerated near-Hall of Famer decided to join the Mavericks on a minimum salary.
“I’ve always thought Kobe owes me a ring,” Webber said at the press conference announcing his joining the Mavericks. “It’s time he paid me back.”
Kobe, who was also present, burst out laughing upon hearing this, looking like an emoji.
This left other teams crying foul. The strong teams hoping to scoop up bargain veterans knew that the Mavericks were now like last summer’s Celtics—a championship free ride specified by the old guys.
Moreover, Kobe, the universally recognized best active partner, paired with last season’s MVP Nowitzki, was simply too competitive. They seemed to have a better shot at the championship than the Celtics’ Big Three.
Besides the Mavericks crazily picking up bargains, other teams also pushed forward with their trades.
After days of entanglement, the Hawks finally won the bidding war with the Cavaliers for Mike Bibby.
This really pissed off the Cavaliers.
To be precise, it pissed off LeBron James.
From the start of the season until now, Kidd, O’Neal, and Bibby—every star James desired the team to acquire had slipped away for various reasons.
You have to sigh: Mr. Zhan in 2008 didn’t know what kind of player he truly needed, so he fantasized that Kidd or O’Neal by his side would help. Bibby was the only one who could maintain a certain level next to him, but the Cavaliers still didn’t get him.
The Kings were unhappy.
If it were a real king, how could they be disappointed time and again?
James’s camp put strong pressure on the Cavaliers.
So, following the principle of “whether it works or not, at least do something,” the Cavaliers forcibly pushed through a multi-team trade, sending away those players who couldn’t provide more help to the king and were obviously an eyesore, while also helping the Chicago Bulls escape from Ben Wallace’s nightmare.
Ever since Eli Xu shook his finger at King James in Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse just before All-Star Weekend, and then in the final five minutes of the All-Star Game, the AMVP trophy that was almost in hand was snatched away by Xu Ling, something good finally happened in this disappointing world.
After acquiring Mutombo, the Cavaliers got the NBA’s most dominant defensive player.
If you’re someone who values honors above all, calling Big Ben the best defender in NBA history is also fine.
The Cavaliers believed this was a beneficial acquisition, because to win the championship, they must face those annoying interior superstars from the West—just like how they really lost on the inside in last year’s Finals. In all fairness, that’s not the case. The Cavaliers did a great job limiting Duncan, holding the greatest power forward in history to 18 points and 11 rebounds per game on 44% shooting. Did they expect Ben Wallace to do better?
Stepping back a hundred steps: even if Big Ben, over 30 years old, hadn’t declined and still had peak defensive ability, is he really more suitable for James than Drew Gooden and others? Besides interior defense, everything else about him on the court doesn’t match Mr. Zhan. So what was this trade really for?
It’s hard to blame the Cavaliers’ front office, because they had to do something to cover up the fact that they actually couldn’t do anything.
On the positive side, softie Gooden is gone, Larry Hughes, the pseudo-3D who benefited from the hand-checking era, is gone too—everything is moving in a good direction. Unfortunately, we all know this isn’t the only case of a player who had achievements before teaming up with Mr. Zhan but suddenly fell off after joining him.
Just like that great chant: Not one, not two, not three.
Then, the Grizzlies had some good news too.
They signed former block king Theo Ratliff in the free market.
This wasn’t a signing that could elevate the Grizzlies’ competitiveness tier either, but at least, when they needed interior rim protection, they could find a suitable candidate.
The trade deadline passed quietly, because all the influential trades had already happened before today.
Teams were now focused on players who might be bought out.
Just as the All-Star Weekend holiday ended and the league was about to resume play, the Grizzlies suffered a non-combat roster loss.
Vladimir Radmanovic, who joined the team in that legendary four-team trade, went to Utah for vacation during All-Star Weekend but “fell and got injured” on the road, missing at least eight weeks.
This naturally tested the Grizzlies’ interior depth.
Because their interior depth was insufficient.
But the thing had happened. Though no one knew how Radmanovic got injured so carelessly, the Grizzlies had no choice but to accept the outcome.
Moreover, the Grizzlies in the Asura-like hell of the Southwest Division really had no time to be distracted by Radmanovic’s issue.
They were currently ranked tenth in the West, and four games behind the Western Conference eighth Nuggets. Closing that gap was no small feat.
Because the Grizzlies’ other four divisional teams were the Rockets, Mavericks, Spurs, and Hornets.
At the current winning percentage, all four other Southwest Division teams were considered likely to reach 50 wins by season’s end.
This was definitely the most terrifying division since the NBA’s inception, because if the Grizzlies were competitive enough, they would create the case of five teams from one division all making the playoffs with 50 wins(1).
February 20
Grizzlies away challenge SuperSonics.
This was their third meeting this season, also the last one, and the Grizzlies’ final NBA game in Seattle.
Because the SuperSonics were destined to relocate.
The Grizzlies didn’t take the West-bottom SuperSonics seriously.
Before arriving at the arena, Grizzlies head coach Marc Iavaroni wrote a number on the tactical board: 29.
That was the number of regular season games left for the Grizzlies.
“Guys, we have 29 games left!” Iavaroni said loudly—this would be the Grizzlies’ most important matter for the rest of the season. “We’re ranked tenth in the West, four games behind the Western Conference eighth Nuggets! So look at this number again: we only have 29 games left! From now on, every loss is like someone sawing off a rung of the ladder we’re climbing back up. When the ladder completely breaks, this season will truly become a joke on others’ lips—’Oh, that Grizzlies team with the greatest rookie after Jason Kidd, Josh Howard, and Tim Duncan, yet they couldn’t even make the playoffs!'”
“I don’t want to hear anyone say that!” Although Iavaroni’s coaching ability was questionable, he had no problem with the essential coach skill of motivational speaking. “So, let’s go out there and beat the SuperSonics!”
It must be admitted that Iavaroni might have a thousand flaws, but his speech ability was absolutely top-tier.
After his speech, everyone was fired up.
So Kidd clapped and shouted like a dead dog, and the crowd charged out spiritedly.
This really wasn’t a suspenseful game.
Kevin Durant might be pissed about the outcome, but the attention he should have gotten was ignored because of Xu Ling’s presence.
Durant was absolutely a wizard: 208 cm barefoot height yet able to play shooting guard, averaging 20 points with no difficulty—for a rookie, this was an extremely outstanding performance, just like in college. But the problem was, when he and Xu Ling were both in college, the university talent pool was too shallow to test their immediate combat power gap, making them look evenly matched.
But once the stage moved to the NBA, the immediate combat power gap became extremely obvious.
Xu Ling had All-Star level immediate combat power; in terms of offense alone, he might already be at top-star level. From the second month of the regular season, Rookie of the Year was no longer in question.
Tonight, Durant took 32 shots frantically to barely score 26 points, while Xu Ling across from him had no intention of proving himself in front of Durant, taking only 16 shots yet also scoring 26 points.
Wasn’t this really just trolling Durant?
He got the same score as Durant with half the shots.
And the Grizzlies won by a huge 33-point margin.
After the game, reporters asked Xu Ling what he learned from it.
Xu Ling countered: “What do you think I should learn? What can I learn? This game had no suspense from the start. I really wanted to learn something, but Kevin and his teammates didn’t show anything worth learning. I’m glad this game is over. We need to keep moving forward. Our goal is to make the playoffs—that’s the most important thing.”
Xu Ling was unintentional; he subjectively had no intent to humiliate Durant, but such unintentional insults sometimes leave a deeper impression.
Durant was deeply impressed by it. With his backpack on, he responded coldly: “He won, so he can say anything. I learned a lot from this game.”
This is why human joys and sorrows never connect.
Don’t expect people walking toward each other to understand one another.
(1) In the 2005-06 season, all five teams from the Eastern Conference Central Division made the playoffs: Pistons 64-18, Cavaliers 50-32, Pacers 41-41, Bulls 41-41, Bucks 40-42 Eastern Conference eighth. Congrats on gaining another useless basketball tidbit.
