NBA Archives Debunked: The Jordan Saga

Chapter 42 Sweet Dreams (6)

Robinson made two free throws, and the White team only led 38-36.Jordan dribbled up the court and watched the clock tick by.Jordan teases Magic, and finally, he dribbles to the left for a pull-up jumper that fouls Laettner.Jordan walked to the free throw line, and the magician muttered.Jordan scored the first free throw first, then took the ball from the Italian referee, patted the referee's ass, said: "Good buddy." Then he scored the second free throw.

When the timer was reset to zero, Daly breathed a sigh of relief. He waved to the baskets on both sides, signaling the players to continue to do the usual practice after each practice.At the end of the game, Jordan's white team beat Magic's blue team 40 to 36.

But actually, it's not over yet.How could Jordan miss this opportunity to taunt his opponent?He walked up and down the field, wiping his sweat with a towel, and yelled repeatedly: "Good job, White Team." The magician practiced free throws with Barkley and Laettner, and the magician hated Hate: "It's all about Michael Jordan. That's it." This is not a joke, the magician is mad.

Jordan can't control that much.He took a glass of Gatorade and sang his commercial song Be Like Mike ("Like Mike"). "Sometimes I dream that I can be like Mike..." Over and over and over and over.

This morning, Jordan made 7 of 5 shots, scored a game-high 17 points, and sent a game-high 8 assists, proving that he is the best basketball player in the world and the ruler of the 90s.The magician and Byrd knew he had handed over the wand, and the magician later recalled, "Larry and I were talking, and Michael came up and said, 'There's a new sheriff in town.' ) and we bumped each other, 'Well, he didn't lie.'”

魔术师此役只拿到5分2次助攻，失误5次。伯德7投仅1中，得2分，抢4个篮板。蓝队得分最多的是巴克利，11分5个篮板。白队除乔丹之外，皮蓬3投全中得8分，马龙8投4中拿9分。

The process and details of this legendary "the greatest game in basketball history", including the final score, have been passed down through word of mouth, and many versions have been born.Even in the memories of participating players, this ball is often confused with other internal confrontations in previous and subsequent games. The magician's later memories are inaccurate in many details.Slowly, this internal rivalry was given a mystical, "a bit of an urban legend," as Leitner puts it.

Its repercussions are strong and long-lasting.Both Magician and Jordan were so competitive, and after the game, the verbal battle was not over, and each wanted to take advantage of the other.Many years later, Jordan said: "In many ways, this is the best game I've ever played, because the arena is locked, it's only about basketball. In that kind of game, you can see a lot of players' DNA. , you can see how much some guys want to win. Magic was crazy about that game for two days."

The magician vehemently denies this, saying his anger only lasted a few hours. "Michael understands that because he does," Magic said. "Let me tell you, if he loses, it's going to be worse for everybody, because I'll let it go after a while, and Michael? He never let go. He never let anything go."

Not everyone enjoyed the game, and Malone said, "You gotta see, who's enjoying this stuff. It's their tune, as they say." They, of course, were Jordan and Magic.About 20 years later, when asked if he wanted to watch tape of that game again, Malone answered simply, "No, I'm not interested."

Coach K was different. He recalled that game with great interest and almost remembered every detail.He said: "Every once in a while, a line from that game will pop into my head, 'They moved the Chicago Coliseum to Monte Carlo'. I laugh when I think about it. A lot of players talk trash, yes. Because the TV cameras were filming. But the door was locked that day, and it was all you and me. 'This is my thing, what's your thing?' That taught me a lot in terms of taking on a personal challenge. You know, if To have someone record the sound of that game—not even basketball, just the sound—that would be invaluable.”

After a training camp-cum-mini-vacation in Monte Carlo, the Dream Team flew to Barcelona, ​​host of the 1992 Olympics.After getting along for a while, the players became close. They were no longer tit-for-tat enemies in the NBA, at least not for the time being, but became familiar friends.

As soon as they arrived in Barcelona, ​​the Dream Team was frightened by the battle in front of them.The airport is like a zoo. Photographers and videographers crossed the cordon time and time again to shoot them. One Italian photographer fell back and fell, and immediately other photographers were tripped by him. The expensive lenses and cameras fell all over the place. Everywhere.

The Dream Team stayed at the newly opened Ambassador Hotel, which was almost taken over by the Dream Team and their entourage.Since the day they arrived, the narrow street in front of the hotel had been filled with hundreds of ordinary people, waiting there just to get a close look at them.As the team bus turned the corner, the crowd began to run after the bus, a scene that reminded Malone of the running of the bulls in Spain. "I don't know what they would do if they caught up," Malone said.

Years later, retired NBA head of security Horace Balmer is still thankful that nothing bad happened in Barcelona."(That was) the biggest mission of my life. But in the end, Atlanta was much worse," said Ballmer, who was on the scene when the Olympic Park bombing occurred in Atlanta in 1996.

Before the 1992 Olympics, the NBA deliberately put the 1990 McDonald's Open in Barcelona as an Olympic exercise.Ballmer said that he had spent several months dealing with various departments of the US State Department and the Spanish government, communicating and coordinating various security matters, so he was already familiar with it during the Barcelona Olympics.However, seeing the people gathered outside the hotel, Ballmer decided to seek the help of local law enforcement.The security of the Olympic Village has become a headache for local law enforcement, so according to Ballmer, upon hearing his request, "their attitude was, 'Why don't these guys stay in the Olympic Village like everyone else'"?
Ballmer said that inside the hotel, the Dream Team's security work is relatively "soft," with some well-dressed plainclothes bodyguards in charge, but outside the hotel, it must be tough.The snipers were in ambush on the roofs of buildings surrounding the hotel, and parking was not allowed within two blocks of the Ambassador.When McCarron of Sports Illustrated and David Dupree of USA TODAY had dinner with Malone, the first thing Malone said was: "There are helicopters flying in the sky. It’s a big deal.” The Dream Team, in Ballmer’s view, “is the most protected group of guys in Barcelona.”

On match days, two buses leave from the Ambassador Hotel, one carrying players and the other acting as bait, and the route of the bus changes frequently.Whenever the dream team's bus goes to practice or a game, the roads and highways it passes are cleared by police.Stockton remembers the day the Dream Team played Puerto Rico, when Spanish police stopped their opponent's bus and let them pass first.Stockton even caught sight of Utah Jazz teammate Jose Ortiz as the cars passed by.

Most of the time outside of training and games, the Dream Team stays in the hotel, like being imprisoned in a prison that provides 24-hour high-end services.The only player on the team who can go out normally is Stockton. The reason is, as he himself said, "a 6-foot-tall white guy who looks like everyone else."

Why is the Dream Team so popular in Barcelona? The NBA's Kim Bohouni believes: "There has been a mystery about these people for a long time, and suddenly they appear alive. Usually, the NBA is so far away across the ocean, and they have never been. Live, all of a sudden, coming, and all these people came together."

If Dream Team players want to go somewhere special with family or friends, they have to tell Ballmer or other security personnel, who will either drive them directly or follow them secretly."Sometimes, they don't even know we're there," Ballmer said. But both Magic and Mullin say they know they have bodyguards when they take their families out.The magician recalled: "There were two bodyguards in front of us, and two bodyguards in the back. They all had bags on them. We asked what was in the bag, but they didn't say anything. Finally, when the Olympic Games was coming to an end, they gave it to us. Let's see, it's a machine gun."

Ballmer said that everything is going well, and most of the players are very cooperative. After all, they will not joke about their own lives. "Well, except for Charles (Barkley)," Ballmer said, "Charles has his own mind about it."

Barkley told Ballmer early on: "Man, I'm in my room the whole time I'm playing the Olympics—that's crazy thinking. It's the biggest sporting event in the world. I gotta get out!"

Barkley's outing schedule usually goes like this: Around ten o'clock, play cards with Magic, Jordan, and Pippen for an hour or two, then sneak out through the back door of the Ambassador Hotel, walk two blocks, and find an elderly man. The Spanish old man stuffed two hundred-dollar bills into his hand and said to him, "OK, you will be my bodyguard tonight, let's go."

One of the most famous pedestrian streets in Barcelona is La Rambla, 7 hours a day, 24 days a week, where it is always as lively as a carnival. Barkley loves Rambla.The rest of the Dream Team has been there, too, but they rarely travel at night like Barkley.Not only does Barkley go at night, but he also always sneaks into the crowd, which drives the NBA's security personnel crazy.But Barkley felt that it wasn't that difficult. He always took a look, played with it, and then walked away. He never stayed for too long, and didn't give people a chance to surround him.

After many years, Barkley insisted on his attitude: "It's not difficult, but the players always find it difficult. I have two big principles. Don't play with bodyguards, because it will make people crazy, and the bad things are here. It happens sometimes. Also don’t travel with an entourage because they also fend people off. I always go alone and still do.”

While Barkley hung out at La Rambla, his teammates stayed in the hotel, playing cards and killing each other.It wasn't until two, three, or even four in the morning that Buckley returned to the Ambassador Hotel.So late, there will be a group of people up, usually Jordan, Pippen, Magic and Ewing, and Barkley will play with them for a while.

Even after returning to the room, Barkley didn't stop.Mullin lives next door to Barkley, which is a shame.Mullin recalled: "Charles could come in at any time and talk to himself, or talk to someone on the phone, so loudly that my wife Liz and I could hear every word he said. Singing Ah, the shower, all the movement. I went to him one day and said, 'Charles, I don't know if you care, but the walls are really thin in this place'. And he really didn't care."

Barkley is the focus off the court, and he has caused trouble on the court. On July 7, the Dream Team's first game at the Olympics, Barkley became the protagonist.

Before the game, Barkley contributed one of the most widely circulated punchlines during the entire Dream Team campaign.Asked by the media what he knew about Angola, Barkley said: "I don't know anything about Angola, but Angola is in trouble."

Barkley's prediction was completely accurate. The strength of the two sides was very different. The Dream Team won 116 to 4 8.During the game, they had a huge climax of 46 to 1.Weeks earlier, Daly decided not to call a timeout at the Olympics, citing, "What am I going to say? Is there something these guys can't figure out on their own?" Sometimes, though, Daly really does. Feel like calling a timeout—calling one for the opponent to stop the bleeding.

In the battle against Angola, what really deserves to be recorded is Barkley's elbow.Referring to the past, Barkley insisted he was elbowed three times by Angola striker Herlander Coimbra before returning the blow.It's just that no one saw or remembered Coimbra's little move, but Barkley's elbow made everyone see it clearly.Before that, Barkley had just shoved an Angolan forward named David Diaz, and then after scoring a layup, Barkley ran back to the backcourt and hit the ball with an exaggerated movement. Coimbra takes an elbow.

"I warned him not to elbow me again, and he didn't listen," Barkley said, "so I elbowed him back. Of course, it got me in trouble, but in this case, they weren't completely Innocent."

Malone supported Barkley: "What I want to say is, do you give people four chances before you do something? In the United States, usually, you only have one chance."

Jordan sees it differently, laughing: "Charles was an idiot in that incident. He said that was his way of intimidating (opponents), and I said, 'Charles, they just took our autographs before the game, you think they Need to be intimidated'?"

Coimbra weighs only 79 kilograms, but Barkley is as strong as a cow.In fact, Barkley is Coimbra's favorite player.Back in his hometown of Luanda, when Coimbra got the NBA game highlights, the first thing he wanted to find was the picture of Barkley.After the game, Coimbra said he was very surprised that Barkley would "use violence on me".Barkley said stubbornly: "If someone hits me, I will fight back."

Except for Malone, everyone else on the Dream Team thought it was funny."It wasn't the elbow that got Charles in trouble," Mullin said. "He tried to explain it, and it did the same."

In PR, that elbow from Barkley was a big deal.Despite Barkley's public attitude that Coimbra deserved it, internally, before Magic and Jordan could criticize him, Barkley apologized to his teammates.The magician said, "Charles, what we want to do is destroy these guys, not destroy their love for us."

In the second game of the group stage, the Americans will welcome the Croatian team. Jordan and Pippen will use an NBA-dominant defense to teach someone a lesson.Before the game, Jordan told everyone on the Dream Team: "If there is a game we have to defend well, it will be Monday night." The person they want to teach is not Croatia's ace defender at the time. Qi (Drazen Petrovic), but the handsome striker Toni Kukoc (Toni Kukoc) under the age of 24.Kukoc joined the Chicago Bulls a year later and went on to win three NBA titles with Jordan and Pippen, but in 1992 he was a thorn in their side.

In fact, Jordan and Pippen didn't know Kukoc at the time. They hated Kukoc and wanted to teach him a lesson simply because: In their eyes, Kukoc was like Jerry Krause's pet.

(End of this chapter)