The Way of Basketball: Never Talk Shit to Him!
Chapter 376 - 195: Su Wan and LeBron, Introspection on Leadership Qualities_2

Chapter 376: Chapter 195: Su Wan and LeBron, Introspection on Leadership Qualities_2

Bill soon found out what he wanted to know, that Shaquille O’Neal had been fervently pursued by Danny Ferri at the behest of LeBron James.

"I even told Danny that I would sign my name on my contract extension if they could trade for Shaquille, I couldn’t believe Shaquille turned out to be such an ingrate!" LeBron really felt like he had encountered an ingrate.

Immediately, Bill Duffy made a call to Danny Ferri to confirm this and then released the news.

The purpose was to ease the tension between LeBron and Shaquille O’Neal.

This piece of news was intercepted by Erin on ESPN’s intelligence network, which Su Wan got to know beforehand, and he also thought it was a piece of news he could use.

Then...

The next morning, some media started to break the story that last summer LeBron had hoped the team could bring in Shaquille O’Neal and team up with him, using very careful wording.

English, though not as meticulous as Chinese can be.

But they also have different words to express different emotional degrees under the same meaning, like "good" and "nice"...

The whole report made it seem like LeBron was eager to team up with O’Neal and believed that their cooperation could achieve something great.

But soon, a flood of reports came out...

Talking about the same thing, but more biased toward Shaquille O’Neal’s reluctance to cooperate with LeBron after joining the Cavaliers.

And it wasn’t just baseless rumors.

The fact that Shaquille O’Neal was unwilling to run pick-and-rolls was well known to everyone.

The Cleveland media also complained a lot about Shaquille.

After losing to the Pacers by 58 points, some media pointed to Shaquille’s lack of cooperation with LeBron as the main reason for the loss.

Later, Shaquille’s active pick-and-rolls for Gibson were visible to everyone.

These reports were hugely influential.

Shaquille O’Neal was furious at the time!

How so?

Calling me an "ingrate"?

That was LeBron playing dirty first!

He frantically wrote on Facebook, "I have the ability to make any team strong, no matter who I am traded to, it doesn’t affect that. Anyone who wants me on their team is aiming to win, not to help me. I came to Cleveland and elevated the team to the second spot in the Eastern Conference, their best ranking in the 21st century. I didn’t come here to take the blame!"

Shaquille’s response meant that Su Wan’s meddling had succeeded.

And Bill Duffy’s original intention to ease the tension between the two totally failed.

Thus, LeBron started to doubt Bill Duffy’s methods.

This made Bill helplessly shake his head, "Buddy, things are indeed terrible, but there’s actually a very good way to solve it, just speak with your performance on the court."

If Kobe could clear his reputation with on-court performances,

Not to mention LeBron’s minor issues.

The key is LeBron still thought everyone should revolve around him, which was an impractical idea.

Wake up, it’s 2007, not 2003...

You have to compromise, LeBron!

Bill Duffy ultimately didn’t have the heart to say those words.

He was known as a "good guy" in the circle, a trait evident in every aspect, including dealing with employers; he couldn’t utter such seemingly harsh truths considering LeBron’s ability to handle it.

But this critical piece of advice remained unspoken, and to LeBron, Bill Duffy’s "just speak with your performance on the court" seemed dismissive.

Don’t I know I should speak with my performance?

The key is that my chances to handle the ball have greatly reduced, sometimes I’m no different than an outsider, how can I speak with my performance?

I can’t just throw myself into defense, can I?

After the conflict escalated again, the Cavaliers’ management announced that the locker room would be closed to the public, except for official interviews required before and after games.

But by doing so, weren’t they essentially signaling a "red alert" to the outside world?

But Danny Ferri could no longer care about that!

The outside world focused even more on the latest developments of the Cavaliers.

Though opportunities for interviews decreased, rumors and ambiguous messages began flying everywhere, one moment a report stated, "Shaquille O’Neal slapped LeBron in the locker room," and another moment a media outlet reported, "LeBron stormed into the general manager’s office, saying ’it’s the king without the shark, you figure it out!’"

However, surprisingly, in such a tense locker room atmosphere, the Cavaliers kept on winning, and over the next half-month, they played eight games, winning six and losing two.

Truly leaving everyone’s jaw dropped.

Actually, the Cavaliers’ roster was not weak.

Especially since after Shaquille broke off with LeBron, he had put great effort into supporting Gibson, the team’s "leader" on the perimeter, who under his guidance, showed abilities of near first-tier point guard strength in the League.

Add to that the extremely compatible Channing Fleay and "Ah Q", even if there were conflicts in the locker room, it didn’t affect the normal operation of the team’s tactical system.

Moreover, LeBron, a "bully of weaker teams," wanted to prove his ability, playing extremely hard, especially against weaker teams, where he launched forceful and powerful attacks repeatedly.

Most of the League’s teams were powerless against the Cavaliers’ two sets of tactics.