The Way of Basketball: Never Talk Shit to Him!
Chapter 351 - 190: The Depressed Shaquille O’Neal_2

Chapter 351: Chapter 190: The Depressed Shaquille O’Neal_2

Luckily, just like all "Kings," LeBron also liked being flattered.

Shaquille O’Neal seized every opportunity to heap praise on him, which indeed eased his demeanor.

It seemed that as long as the Cavaliers kept dominating, there wouldn’t be a complete fallout between him and LeBron over the minor dispute of pick and rolls.

However, even though his relationship with LeBron had eased again, Shaquille O’Neal never let his guard down and took every chance to praise, especially when the "Player of the Month" wasn’t LeBron this time.

Even though he knew Su Wan truly deserved it, he still claimed Su "wasn’t qualified," and that the real "Player of the Month" was someone else.

After all, his relationship with Su Wan wasn’t going to get any better.

This wave of dissing, whether from the angle of mocking Su Wan or praising LeBron, was definitely something that would please LeBron.

Pacifying a child, that was his specialty!

As a result, it was Barkley who ended up feeling frustrated.

Damn it!

He couldn’t even outdo Barkley now!

Truly freaking depressing...

It was only now that Shaquille O’Neal deeply felt the impact on his reputation from not winning a championship at the Heat Team, then being kicked out of Miami by Pat Riley as if he were taking out the trash.

But to speak of the most depressing matter...

The Western "Player of the Month" for November was none other than Kobe Bryant.

The Mavericks had a strong record, but unlike the Pacers’ astounding "undefeated month," they had achieved similar results last season.

Yet, the Lakers had come out as a "dark horse," climbing from seventh in the Western to second.

Although this "dark horse" was well-known, the transformation of the Lakers team was a reality, so the "Player of the Month" honor ultimately belonged to them.

And Kobe had really matured a lot.

His playing style on the court was no longer headstrong, and he paid a lot of attention to Yao Ming’s position. Sometimes he would attract double-teams on purpose and then pass the ball, all to get Yao into the game faster.

If last season’s Kobe was a "Lone Wolf," now he was a "Cooperative Wolf."

As is well known, the one ousted from the wolf pack is the "Lone Wolf," yet the wolves’ nature is to move and hunt together.

Even many media outlets outside Los Angeles believed that this season’s Kobe had the aura of the "Wolf King," able to unify the entire team.

When reporters asked Kobe about the change in his playing style, he simply said, "Because I’m now wearing number 24!"

Only Phil Jackson smiled faintly, content to be the unsung hero.

What nobody knew was that on the first day of the new season’s training camp, he had approached Kobe for a talk: "The Lakers have now brought you ’Shaquille,’ if the Lakers fail, they will say, indeed, between Shaquille and Kobe, Shaquille is more fit to be the boss! How you handle it, I think you will give me a satisfactory answer."

Kobe remained silent at the time, but Phil Jackson soon saw the change in him on the training court.

Coaching Kobe was sometimes just so simple!

Nevertheless, even though Kobe secured the "Player of the Month" for November, he still ranked third on the MVP leaderboard.

Su Wan and Nowitzki were ahead in the first two spots.

In truth, if not for the Pacers’ extraordinarily dazzling first month, Nowitzki might have been in first place.

This had become an unwritten "old almanac" in the NBA: players who narrowly missed MVP in the previous regular season and continued to perform strongly in the next one would get an extra buff over others.

The most classic example was the MVP that the "Great Emperor" later received.

Wasn’t that just to break Jokic’s streak of "three consecutive championships," while also acknowledging the "Great Emperor’s" annual role as runner-up?

This was also to keep the appearance of intense competition in the League.

Including the MVP that Karl Malone won over Michael Jordan.

Only David Stern’s choices appeared more convincing; Karl Malone indeed deserved the MVP that year.

Unlike in the Xiao Hua era when the "Great Emperor" was not just "lifted" onto the MVP throne but practically "hoisted" there.

Fourth was LeBron James.

This season, the Cavaliers had significantly improved their record and didn’t end "strong start, weak finish" like the last season.

Besides, Nike’s "Baptism of Fire" promotional film for him had helped extensively.

This allowed him to finally join the race for the regular season MVP.

Hmm...

But that’s all it could be, a race.

Unless they could overtake the Pacers to become number one in the Eastern Conference, LeBron had zero chance of winning the MVP this year, not even 1%.

Or, if LeBron and the Cavaliers could crush Su Wan’s Pacers head-on in this season’s games, he might at least get more support in terms of public opinion.

Otherwise, having media campaign for someone who had never defeated Su Wan in either the regular season or playoffs, claiming he deserved the MVP more than Su Wan...

It just felt a bit off!

Just like later, when media mentioned the "Great Emperor" and Jokic, Jokic was always placed before the "Great Emperor."

No surprise there, the effect of the "Missing Person Notice" was just too powerful.

On December 2, the Pacers faced their first game of December, challenging the San Antonio Spurs away.

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