Champion Creed-Chapter 522 - 191: The first Triple Crown city? (Requesting monthly votes!)_3

Chapter 522: 191: The first Triple Crown city? (Requesting monthly votes!)_3

"I hope so, Big Ben."

With just one encounter, Big Ben could feel that Roger was a serious leader.

He could help you when you needed it, but he was actually quite serious.

The Hawks’ new season training camp began in this serious atmosphere.

Scottie Pippen soon realized a problem; he felt like he was back in Chicago.

Because during the daily practice, you would hear these words:

"Is this your fucking defensive position? You can’t rotate like that!"

"Another open shot missed, very nice, Steve. You fucking amaze me. I can’t believe that someone like you was the star of the team for the past few years. No wonder the team didn’t make the playoffs."

"Eric, with such shitty shooting, how can you have the nerve to be equally bad at defense? I don’t feel any pressure at all when I score on you. Did you learn just this much from Gary Payton after all those years in Seattle?"

Pippen sometimes couldn’t tell whether it was Roger or Michael Jordan standing in front of him.

Everyone was tense in such an atmosphere, but it was for this reason that the team meshed very quickly and adapted to the new gameplay just as fast.

The head coach wanted to turn his tactical theory into an actionable strategy, but it wasn’t as simple as just moving fingers in a 2K game.

During the first era of the Lakers’ Fab Four, Gary Payton played an entire season without fitting into the triangle offense.

During the second era of the Lakers’ Fab Four, the four superstars were bewildered by Princeton and run-and-gun to the point they forgot how to play basketball.

Were those coaches ignorant of tactical theory? Of course not, they just couldn’t get the stars to execute their tactics.

Similarly, the Hawks wanting to play the SuperSonics’ style of aggressive trapping and rotating defense wasn’t something that could be done with just a statement.

How to rotate and trap in which situations all required details to be refined.

And at the Hawks, under Roger’s repeated "intimidation," everyone wanted to familiarize themselves with this defensive system as quickly as possible.

As for whether anyone had an issue with Roger’s shouting?

Of course, they didn’t.

Because Roger always managed to do his best.

And Roger didn’t curse at people indiscriminately.

Pippen, for instance, was never yelled at by Roger.

The whole world knew their relationship was bad, but Roger specifically never yelled at Pippen, because Pippen always managed to be the best on the defensive end, hardly making any mistakes.

So, the players still respected Roger. If you got yelled at, it only meant you hadn’t done well enough.

Besides, what right did this group of Hawks players have to be upset?

Before joining the Hawks, they were nearly all bottom-tier players.

The gap in status was too great; they simply had no ground to stand up to Roger.

Yet this didn’t make the rest resentful toward Roger because off the court, Roger treated everyone quite well.

He often treated the team to meals and invited them to concerts.

Off the court and outside of practices and games, he would joke around with you.

But on the practice court, he was always meticulous.

Bruce Bowen made a joke about Roger during an interview one day: "To be honest, I often think Roger has a split personality. Was he like this in Orlando too?"

Yes, he’s always been this way.

He could play a game of "the disappearing hubcap" with Shaq in the middle of a big road.

He could also sternly tell Shaq, "You fucking can’t miss training."

He could almost come to blows with Wilkins over a practice session.

He could also prepare a send-off ceremony for Wilkins off the court.

He’d always been a person who separated public and private matters; this was probably the biggest difference between him and Jordan.

Jordan could stop you from eating on the plane over something game-related.

He could isolate you with the entire team because he didn’t like you (Cartwright).

But Roger wouldn’t do these things.

His confrontations were always limited to the court.

Even when Roger’s relationship with Shaq completely broke down last season, he never did anything overly excessive off the court.

Honestly, Pippen didn’t like this training atmosphere. Although he was never yelled at by Roger, he didn’t like the feeling that everyone was walking on eggshells during practice.

Whether it was Jordan’s Bulls or Roger’s Hawks, the training camp atmosphere was far too serious.

But as someone who had won three championships with Jordan, Pippen understood very clearly.

This was the kind of summer training camp a team that could win should have!

So, Pippen silently accepted the way Roger led the team.

Probably only Stevie Smith had the hardest time with Roger.

He felt targeted.

Roger would yell at everyone, but he yelled at him the most viciously.

And every practice game, Roger would make a point to match up against Stevie Smith.

That often marked the beginning of Stevie Smith’s daily nightmare.

"Softie, I barely touched you. Why can’t you hit the shot?"

"Playing with you is undoubtedly the biggest difficulty and challenge of my career."

"0 for 4 from three? Are you serious, Stevie? And you call yourself a shooter?"

"This is why you fucking can’t play in the playoffs. You simply can’t handle high-intensity defense!"

Stevie Smith didn’t know what Roger’s purpose was. Was it to establish authority over him?

Of course, he knew that Roger didn’t like him either, given that he had made several disrespectful remarks about Roger in the past.

Therefore, he wasn’t surprised by Roger’s actions.

He thought it was a personal vendetta. That Roger was deliberately undermining his status on the team and torturing him on purpose.