After the Christmas Day game, the Knicks had only two games left to play in 1997.
New York fans are still in a state of self-reliance. Every time they defeat Michael Jordan, there will be a new round of loan frenzy. Before the playoffs, the championship has already belonged to New York!
After easily defeating the Raptors, who were diving for the top pick, on the night of the 30th, the Knicks beat the Magic away from home.
Anfernee Hardaway is still injured.
Since then, the 1997 schedule has come to an end.
After flying back to New York overnight, Li You could spend his 20th birthday peacefully at home.
Not long ago, everyone in the Knicks just celebrated Charles Oakley's 34th birthday, but the old guy still failed to get a contract. Grunfield believes that Oakley has begun to decline.
Although this operation is somewhat ruthless, if you only look at Excel, Oakley's performance is indeed not as efficient as last season.
The knock-on effect of Ewing's injury is that the team needs Oakley to be more involved in defense and rebound more.
On the defensive end, too much physical energy was consumed. On the offensive end, Oakley had a mediocre touch in many games, and all his mid- and long-range jump shots were poor.
It's difficult to evaluate the Knicks' choice. Giving a 34-year-old short big man a big contract does involve taking a lot of risks, but more of it is because the boss will be completely changed in two years.
The entire Knicks team knows that Charles Dolan's good son is an out-and-out playboy, inheriting his father's legacy, and the team is just changing hands.
In order to express his stance to this player, Grunfield did the same thing as all general managers in the league - save money.
Being in New York, the Knicks, who have never had to worry about selling tickets, are actually very rich, but how the new owner wants to build the team is not the general manager's decision.
Regardless of the internal situation, the Knicks finished perfectly, with 26 wins and 3 losses, leading the league!
Oakley still failed to reach a contract extension with the team, which made the old guy very dissatisfied.
In Ewing's absence, he even performed defensively, but the management was indifferent.
Counting this season, the old guy has played for the Knicks for 10 years, during which time his salary was not much.
In Oakley's view, a big contract at the end of his career is the reward he deserves!
Li You did not choose to hold a birthday party in a very ostentatious manner.
Ewing is seriously injured, the future of several veterans is unclear, and he is destined to get a big contract, so Lemon is inevitable.
"Although the Knicks have achieved an amazing record, whether they can go further in the playoffs depends on whether Ewing can recover in time."
"We can see that the Knicks' rebounding has had problems since Ewing was injured. In the playoffs, this problem will also be magnified!"
"No one will let go of such a flaw. In the playoffs with high-intensity defense, once the efficiency of Lee and Alan Houston drops, it will be difficult for them to win."
In the TNT studio, McHale was talking eloquently. The legendary star was so polite that he almost said that the Knicks could not win the championship.
On the other side, Kenny Smith, who just announced his retirement and joined TNT, shook his head and gave a different opinion:
"The Knicks' rebounding doesn't seem to be a big problem. They are currently playing an extremely efficient offense. With the dual-core outsiders instigating it, it is difficult for any team to really restrict them."
"You may not know Lee, but he is not Reggie Miller. His excellent movement control skills can help him reach the offensive area where he is good."
"I have played against him, and he is not the kind of defender we know who only passes to big men, nor is he a pure scorer like McDunner."
"Lee can pass the ball, accurately find his teammates in fast breaks, and organize the team's offense. When the Knicks need to score, he can also respond."
"In my opinion, he is more like Kevin Johnson, who scored 20 points and then gave out 10 assists. The difference is that Lee is better at shooting!"
"."
In his Manhattan apartment, Li You leisurely watched the two people arguing on the TV.
TNT's program is very professional, and retired celebrities commenting on the league's popular teams are even more convincing.
For his birthday this year, Li You only invited Ai Wen, but before the party time came, his friend became a little unmotivated:
"I seriously doubt that these commentators have amnesia. A few days ago, McHale was saying that the Knicks were the team with the best chance of winning the championship, and now he has changed his tune."
In Hartford, Irvin only had to read the newspapers to see the news about the Knicks being blown away every day. By passively paying attention, he also discovered the clumsy nature of these media.
Li You didn't care about this. He was not Ewing and he liked to see these football commentators comment on him.
Whether it's criticism or praise, as long as it brings fun, Li You feels that watching the show is not in vain:
"Mutual understanding is all about making money! There may be a platform in the future where not only football commentators but also fans can speak freely."
Li You suddenly missed the era of keyboard warriors, but Ai Wen's eyes lit up. He thought this was reliable and said excitedly:
"This is a great idea, we should implement it!"
"."
Li You didn't speak, just looked at his friend teasingly. Soon Ivan also realized that both of them were technical idiots, and immediately changed his tone and said:
"Well, we can invest in it! Like Yahoo! It's incredible! Their stock price is going up so fast!"
Seeing his friend getting more and more excited as he talked, Li You knew that he was once again obsessed with Yahoo, whose market value was soaring.
Jerry Yang is almost the idol of young people in this era. Everyone loves the "Chief". It can also be said that everyone loves billionaires!
On January 1, 1998, the first day of the new year, the NBA announced the Player of the Month for December, and Li You of the Knicks successfully won the award:
The Knicks achieved a record of 11 wins and 3 losses in December. Li You played 34.3 minutes per game, averaging 20.5 points, 3.4 rebounds, 9.4 assists, 1.8 steals and 2.1 turnovers per game;
He averaged 14.6 shots per game and shot 46.3% from the field. He took 6.9 shots per game from beyond the three-point line and shot 42.5% from three-point range. He averaged 4.6 free throws per game and made 85.7% of his free throws.
It was almost a 20+10 performance, which caused the New York media to follow suit on the first day of the new year.
With the support of Excel, the "number one point guard" has begun to become worthy of his title.
Data can reflect the player's strength, and with big data, it can also reflect the player's playing style.
Football commentators are not blind, three-pointers account for half of the shots, and Li You mostly concentrates on two-pointers below the left and right blocking areas.
Coupled with the average number of attempts at the basket from mid-range, Li You's data looks extremely efficient. The true shooting rate of 61.5% can explain some problems.
When Li You won the award, the Chicago media began to complain about McQueen.
In December, the Bulls also had a record of 11 wins and 3 losses. McNuckle played 37.4 minutes per game, averaged 28.4 points per game, and shot 45.2% from the field.
In general, except for the Christmas game where he scored 8 out of 20, McQueen performed very well in most games.
The New York media was not polite at this time. In addition to replaying old scores and mocking Michael Jordan for losing the Christmas Day game, they also tried to get rid of him in a disrespectful way:
"After the three-point line returned to its normal distance, Michael Jordan's three-pointer was inaccurate!"
"Without the care of the league, the Bulls wouldn't have been able to reach the Finals last year!"
After digging deeper into Michael Jordan's statistics, his 18.8% three-point shooting percentage became the target of attack by the New York media.
As for the fact that McDuck only took 1.1 shots from outside the three-point line, no one cares, just complain about it! Anyway, you can always find a reason
On January 2, the Knicks challenged the Nets away from home. The inside partnership of second pick Keith Van Horn and Jason Williams poured cold water on the New York media.
At 96:103, the Knicks played a good offense, but ultimately lost in the paint.
Van Horn made 9 of 16 shots and 3 of 5 from beyond the arc, scoring 29 points, while Jason Williams made 5 of 8 shots and scored 11 points and 15 rebounds, 7 of which were offensive rebounds.
In the first game of the new year, everyone on the Knicks team was not very energetic, and rebounding was also a laborious task.
At 35:42, he lost 7 rebounds, and Jeff Van Gundy was very helpless about this.
Fortunately, in the following back-to-back games, the Magic Team provided warmth, thus avoiding a losing streak.
On January 4, after the video session in the morning, Jeff Van Gundy couldn’t help but sigh:
"We should add another inside man. Dudley is not suitable for starting. He has some problems with finishing at the basket."
Assistant coach Thibodeau does not want to get involved in this topic. Everyone knows that general manager Glenfield does not care about the opinions of the bald young coach.
Assistant coach Don Chaney on the other side doesn't care about losing. He is leading the record just to increase the room for error:
"Larry's condition is getting better and better. Lee has activated everyone. Losing some games can also help us better integrate the lineup."
Jeff Van Gundy also heard the voiceover of Don Chaney’s words:
"Ewing is too seriously injured, give up the inside attack!"
Eating cake is also a technical job. Ewing can score steadily as long as he is willing, but other insiders do not have this effect.
Jeff Van Gundy is also a little helpless about this. Every time he sees the team taking a large number of three-pointers, he always feels that the game is out of control.
On January 5th, at Madison Square Garden, Jeff Van Gundy felt like he was a front-row spectator.
The Knicks' inside line was helpless against the successive attacks from Juwan Howard and Chris Webber, but the Wizards still fell behind.
Li You, Alan Houston, and Larry Johnson kept scoring points. Both sides almost gave up defense, and the score kept rising.
In the end, 105:113, relying on a stronger offense, the Knicks successfully won the game.
Li You made 10 of 18, Alan Houston made 10 of 17, and Larry Johnson made 7 of 14. The three of them scored 76 points together. This performance made the New York fans at the scene very happy.
Jeff Van Gundy just took a look at the technical statistics and was completely confused. Tonight's game did not go according to plan at all.
The bald young marshal's expression of neither sadness nor joy also made Walter Frazier in the commentary box nod secretly:
"Coach Van Gundy made very timely adjustments. When we didn't have an advantage in the paint, we took the initiative to speed up and ultimately won the game with the boys' excellent shooting."
"Great job done by the coaching staff, New York fans don't have to worry, we are on the right path!"
"."
The crazy praise from the New York media after the game made Jeff Van Gundy feel guilty.
On the training ground, the players train step by step, but during the game, the plan cannot keep up with the changes, and the bald young coach sometimes cannot predict the outcome of the game.
As the All-Star voting channel is about to close, the New York media continues to canvass votes for Li You, constantly poisoning his milk!
As a result, after revenge against the Nets, the Knicks lost three games in a row
After losing to the Bulls, SuperSonics, and Hawks, the Knicks' record reached 29 wins and 7 losses.
The SuperSonics, who were in good shape, had already caught up, with a record of 29 wins and 8 losses, and the league's first position almost changed hands.
Despite losing consecutive games, New York fans won't care. The Knicks are still No. 1 in the league and still far ahead in the Eastern Conference.
On January 19, the NBA announced the results of the 1998 New York All-Star voting, and the starting lineups of the Eastern and Western Conferences were officially announced.
The poisonous milk of the New York media still worked. In the voting of Eastern Conference defenders, Michael Jordan was far ahead, and Li You also successfully obtained the starting position.
With 1.028 million votes, McNuckle won the All-Star vote for the 9th time in his career, the only one in history.
With 518,000 votes, Li You finally succeeded in surpassing Anfernee Hardaway's 509,000 votes and entered the All-Star starting lineup for the first time in his career.
In the voting for Eastern Conference forwards, Grant Hill, the true successor to Jordan, received 839,000 votes, and Sean Kemp, who traveled to the East, received 518,000 votes;
The two beat Pippen and Rodman to become the starting forwards in the Eastern Conference.
For the center position, Mutombo received 476,000 votes, significantly ahead of Alonzo Mourning, and was undoubtedly elected as the starting center for the Eastern Conference All-Stars.
The voting results for the Western Conference All-Stars were also somewhat unexpected. Kobe Bryant of the Lakers finally received 396,000 votes and successfully won the starting position.
Gary Payton received 556,000 votes, and both received more votes than Stockton.
There is not much suspense in the voting results for the Western Conference forwards. Karl Malone received 616,000 votes and Kevin Garnett received 513,000 votes. The two easily won the starting position of the Western Conference forwards.
At the center position, O'Neal finally received 565,000 votes, just over David Robinson's 549,000 votes.
Shark played in the All-Star Game for the Lakers for the first time in his career.
After the voting results were announced, most of the old guys were disappointed. Obviously, the league is about to be updated. There are too many young faces in this All-Star Game.
On the night of the 19th, before the game against the Celtics, Li You also accepted an interview in the locker room.
There were two or three layers of people in front of him, inside and outside, and the New York media was in a good mood. They helped Li You wave the flag and cheered for more than two months, and finally squeezed out Anfernee Hardaway!
"Lee, congratulations on getting the starting position in the All-Star Game. The All-Star Game will be held in New York. In addition to the main game, will you participate in the three-point shooting contest?"
Li You saw everyone looking at him eagerly, and immediately replied affirmatively:
"Of course, I have accepted the league's invitation and won the three-point shooting contest in front of the New York fans. This can be regarded as a thank you to everyone for their support!"
Although Li You smiled and won an individual championship, the reporters around him didn't care. Instead, they cheered and agreed. The game hadn't even started yet, and everyone was enjoying themselves again.
"Li, will you strive for the All-Star Game MVP? This is our home court!"
Li You touched his chin, and then suddenly said playfully:
"Last year I seemed to have only scored 2 points, not to mention MVP. This year I just want to get more points!"
"."
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QAQ will be updated on time at 22:00 tonight.
There were a lot of changes to yesterday’s manuscript~
(End of chapter)
