The Way of Basketball: Never Talk Shit to Him!
Chapter 90 - 88: Su Wan’s Furious Rage, There Must Be a Reason! (Tenth Release)

Chapter 90: Chapter 88: Su Wan’s Furious Rage, There Must Be a Reason! (Tenth Release)

In the NBA, when talking about the "Evil Ancestor" of hard fouls, one simply has to mention Bill Laimbeer.

His variety of petty moves made those who faced off against him utterly miserable. freёweɓnovel_com

But unlike those habitual offenders who came after him, his dirty tricks were blatant.

He made it clear to everyone that regardless of whether you were a "Superstar" or not, if you were matched up against me, I was going to take you down. All his sneaky moves were targeted to infuriate the opponent and then start a fight!

In his mind, fighting was more important than playing basketball.

If an opponent dared to complain about his moves, he wouldn’t hesitate to strike.

This is not to say that such behavior should be encouraged.

But compared to those who frequently committed fouls later on and then posed as "pure gentlemen," a "true scoundrel" was much better.

Among these "gentlemen," the foremost were the Spurs’ Bruce Bowen, and...

"The Chosen One" LeBron James!

When compared, Bruce Bowen somehow came across slightly better—in the very least, everyone knew he played dirty, even if he feigned innocence. The word "dirty" was firmly tied to him.

As for LeBron James, well...

Not just the media, but including his fans, constantly made excuses for him, either emphasizing "these are just natural movements in basketball" or suggesting the opponents were faking it. If they were genuinely injured, could they still carry bags at the airport?

Even if the opponent was beaten bloody, they would claim it was the other side that provoked LeBron first.

Their excuses for whitewashing were unbelievable.

In LeBron’s collection of filthy moves—his elbowing, shoving... especially shoving opponents who were in the air under the basket, and then pretending as if "I don’t know what happened to him"—he was adept.

But his actions were potentially even more harmful than Bruce Bowen’s.

After all, no matter how dirty Bruce Bowen played, 14 years in his professional career only amounted to a handful of "casualties."

LeBron James, with 6 more years in his career than Bowen, had a body count of "casualties" that doubled, including serious injuries that led to season-ending injuries for Danny Granger, Gordon Hayward, and Holmgren.

Su Wan was well aware of this, so when little O’Neal was in the air, he was constantly watching LeBron James’s movements.

He had thought that since this was only the second season in the high schooler’s professional career, he probably hadn’t picked up these bad habits yet.

But the final result told him:

Bad eggs are born that way!

Right, a person who resorts to "Black Hand" tactics even in the Drew League against ordinary folks, what does his "dirtiness" have to do with being young or not?

At most, when younger, one’s moves are less practiced and more easily noticeable.

After kicking, Su Wan didn’t stop there; he threw himself forward, attempting to mount LeBron in a "Wu Song fighting a tiger" moment. But at this point, the other players reacted, and although they didn’t understand what had happened, they instinctively stepped forward to pull him away.

Watching Su Wan being pulled away by teammates and feeling safe, LeBron James immediately turned back to look for the referee and began to play the innocent victim:

Has this guy lost his mind?

Why is he suddenly attacking me?

Why?

The referees felt that Su was in the wrong this time, but at that moment, the replay of little O’Neal going for a slam dunk and oddly falling from the sky started playing on the big screen at the venue.

The audience clearly saw LeBron James’s hand give a shove at little O’Neal’s waist, and with that push, O’Neal’s body tilted and ended up crashing straight down onto the court.

"Fuck your mother!"

"This dirty bastard!"

"LeBron you piece of shit, look at the mess you caused!"

"And you still have the nerve to complain to the referee!"

...

The Indiana natives in the audience were instantly outraged, whipped into a frenzy, with some of the more impulsive spectators even gesturing to throw things at LeBron.

No wonder they were agitated.

It was clear that LeBron had no chance of a proper defense.

Even if he wanted to commit a "hard foul," he should have wrapped up little O’Neal and brought him down directly rather than resorting to a dangerous push.

You have to realize that at this time, little O’Neal was in mid-air with no point of leverage, and a shove like that can easily lead to serious consequences!

Just look at little O’Neal, still lying on the ground now, to see how hard the fall was!

The referee’s look at LeBron had also changed...

How the hell do you manage to put on such an innocent face after doing something like that?

He had believed the media’s bullshit that the "Chosen One" was a "Gentleman" and would never stoop so low.

Now it seems he was too naive.

There must be a reason for Su Wan’s rage!

It must have been LeBron James’s small tricks that set him off.

And LeBron, wasn’t it just a few days ago that Su Wan blasted Bruce Bowen in front of the media? It had barely been a little while since the storm subsided. Here you are, committing a bold infringement right under his nose. Who else would he kick if not you?

That’s what you get!

LeBron James, hearing the booing from the audience, continued to play dumb, shrugging his shoulders, until a spectator cursed "bitch", at which point he changed his expression and stopped the act to start bickering with that fan.

He especially hates the word "bitch"!

The referee hurried over, stood between him and the fan, and sternly told him, "LeBron, go back to the Cavaliers’ bench now, you can’t go on like this."

LeBron glanced at the whistle in the referee’s hand, glared fiercely at the fan, and headed towards the Cavaliers’ bench as the referee had instructed, but then the fan’s cursing came from behind:

"LeBron, you’re a bitch, don’t deny it!"

Good thing his teammates were holding him back, or LeBron would have charged back again.

The on-site referees had finished reviewing the video playback at this point, and the final decision was to eject Su Wan for initiating the conflict, and then tacked on a Level 1 malicious foul against LeBron.

The audience naturally wouldn’t stand for it, with various boos coming from every corner.

The big screen also continuously showed little O’Neal, still lying on the ground, using his pained expression to stir up the fans, keeping the boos going.

And then...

"referee suck!"

"referee suck!"

"referee suck!"

Unified jeering.

The referee, feeling uncomfortable with the insults, turned his head to see Su Wan, about to leave the court, but Su was continuously waving his hands, urging the fans to be louder.

This... jerk!

Could he be any more damaging?

In truth, the referee’s decision was fairly just; Su Wan was the aggressor and after kicking, he continued with a "Mounting" action, and even a lenient punishment would have meant ejection. As for LeBron’s foul, although dirty, it wasn’t a strike to the head or other types of offenses the League takes more seriously, which often result in a Level 1 malicious foul.

But...

Emotions flared, who cares about fairness.

In the midst of the furious booing, the referees waited for the doctors to finish examining little O’Neal, thankfully there was no major issue.

Not only did Rick Carlisle breathe a sigh of relief, but so did the referees; given the atmosphere on-site, if something had happened to little O’Neal, they feared a repeat of the "Auburn Hills Incident."

However, LeBron James eventually played less than a quarter before he left the game, as the audience watched the Cavaliers coaching staff call over a doctor, and then LeBron left the venue with the doctor’s assistance amidst waves of boos.

The Pacers were down Su Wan, and the Cavaliers were down their Absolute Core, LeBron.

On paper, the Pacers seemed the stronger side and should have easily won the game, but surprisingly, the LeBron-less Cavaliers played with exceptional tenacity, while the Pacers, missing Su Wan, seemed somewhat off-balance. It wasn’t until the final moments, with a put-back basket by little O’Neal, that the Eastern Conference fifth-place Pacers narrowly defeated the eleventh-place Cavaliers by two points.

Post-game interview:

"I know LeBron isn’t like that; it was just... an accident.," Paul Silas weakly defended LeBron’s actions.

"I felt a bit uncomfortable, right where Uncle kicked me. I’m a tough person; I wanted to stay in the game. Running away isn’t my style, but then the team doctor told me I had to be responsible for the whole team, and the head coach also advised against it." — LeBron on his exit from the game;

"It was a normal contact; I didn’t expect such a consequence. I can apologize to Jermaine, but I don’t know why Uncle was so impulsive. I expect an apology from him." — LeBron on his foul against little O’Neal;

"It’s provocation. It’s been less than half a month since Bruce Bowen attacked me, and now LeBron goes after my teammate with a dirty play. Isn’t this provocation? Everyone knows what I just went through, but he still chose to do that. I cannot tolerate such petty behavior. This high school kid has grown up without guidance, indeed going astray, trying to win with such despicable methods... As the new generation representative of black people, is it appropriate to do such things to your own kin?" — Su Wan continued to bash LeBron, elevating the issue to "fratricide."

"I’m not saying I can’t handle intense competition. All journalists who watched the Pacers versus the Lakers match wouldn’t say such stupid things. Which agency are you with? What I can’t accept are actions that intentionally harm others. Kobe dislocated my finger, but I didn’t say anything because I knew he was going for the ball. We can usually tell if it’s intentional harm. You reporters trying to muddy the waters to clear LeBron’s name, looking at your press badges, doesn’t your conscience hurt?" — Su Wan at the press conference, angrily scolding the reporter trying to absolve LeBron.