When pride still matters

Chapter 121 The Peach Picker

The Wizards' upset night in Los Angeles left Las Vegas casinos unscathed.

Cards slide across a long green table. Aces, kings, diamonds, spades – all losers.The man sitting on stage 23 had been losing money for over an hour, losing what for most people would be a lifetime savings.

"Go on, give me, give me the cards!" Michael Jordan ordered, pushing up another chip worth $5000.He loves competition, but what he craves even more is a highly exciting and adventurous game.He reveled in the adrenaline rush that most mortals would never experience.

After the season was over, his desire for excitement drove him to participate in this blackjack game. On the night when the Wizards challenged the Lakers away from home, in Las Vegas, he wanted to forget the trivial matters of life in this city that never sleeps.

"Give me the cards," he continued to the sexy dealer.

Over the past 18 years, his love of gambling has turned into an addict-like habit.Because most of real life lacks exciting risks and is instead filled with boring and joyless trivia.It was like going to jail for Jordan.

And having a big gambling night like tonight is "crazy," and this craziness is the highest level of excitement in Jordan Country, representing thrills and extraordinary excitement.

Jordan kept playing blackjack until the early hours of the morning, and once lost $21, but he refused to stop and continued to get stuck in it, completely amplifying his gambler mentality, just like all gamblers who lose a lot of money—— Increase your bet size and play multiple bets at the same time – to increase your chances of recovering your losses.

At about 3 a.m., he ordered a cup of coffee and lit a cigar.Jordan's team—bodyguards, assistants, secretaries, and friends—decided to stay up all night gambling.Instead, Jordan's friends yawned.One of his partners whispered to Jordan that it was getting late and his body needed rest more than his wallet: maybe it was time to call it a day.

Jordan didn't seem to hear.Maybe he should consider resting, his partner added softly. Considering that his body is recovering, and considering that the Wizards have not completely lost hope for the playoffs, he should rest on time like the doctor said, right?He himself knew that he needed rest now more than ever, didn't he?
Jordan ignored those veiled exhortations.Ten years ago, gambling all night was just a piece of cake for him.Back then, he could go to Atlantic City during the playoffs, play cards all night, and then come back to New York the next day and wreak havoc on the Knicks like a mackerel, mock the opposing coach, spar with Spike Lee, and get to forty-fifty and then talking off the floor about the hand he lost after doubling down on blackjack 18 hours ago.No one ever asked about his lifestyle then; no one does now.It's telling that basketball has long made a deal with him: coaches and front-office executives agree to shoulder the burden of his unhealthy life and desires.They accepted his unpredictability, knowing that the restless side of his heart was the other side of unparalleled determination.

He would often train to the point of exhaustion while his teammates were asleep.He arrived at practice earlier than anyone else, did more stretches, and after a long night flight, went to the Wizards' MCI Center training facility alone to shoot for an hour alone, then another hour as he tried to regain his jump shot. The feeling of taking yourself back to the past time.He is an overrepresenter of most things.

For him, any loss is a shame.

“Deal,” he shouted, and the croupier at Table 23 dealt him three decks of cards—three dead decks, worth $10000 each.He is now hemorrhaging cash and chips.

The assistant occasionally whispered something to him.But Jordan said nothing, focused on the new deck of cards and his dwindling stack of chips.He upped the ante, started playing $15000-a-hand games, drank more coffee, and eventually turned the tables around 4 a.m.

Is he satisfied?No.

He resisted yet another suggestion that he go home and rest, and continued betting that he would win tomorrow's breakfast, lunch, and dinner, three hands at a time, and ended up winning about $60.

Jordan looked jubilant, as if he was in a frenzy, eagerly declaring his victory, happily talking trash, "Keep dealing me the cards, give me those damn cards, you bastards are going to rob the bank by then." Pay me!"

He didn't stop at all, playing until about 8 a.m. the next morning, when he walked toward the casino exit, arms raised as if he'd won a Game [-] of a playoff series.

"Michael, have you heard about Dennis?" asked Tim Grover, who had been with Jordan all night.

Jordan smiled, as if remembering the night he and Rodman sat side by side.

The weird Dennis, the Dennis who was never understood, the cross-dressing enthusiast who wore a wedding dress and a blond wig and was 25 years ahead of the political correctness experts no longer plays basketball, but he is still an anomaly, accompanied by several strange things. legal@issues.

"I heard that Dennis was going to spend $10 to settle this matter?" Jordan was referring to the accused Rodman who assaulted a female dealer's breasts at this casino a few days ago.

"No, it was something else," Grover said. "He put the dice into the other dealer's a**."

Jordan let out his deep laugh and rolled his eyes.He's surrounded by his buddies -- Grover, George Kohler and bodyguard Larry Wootton -- who will be with the Flyers for years past and for years to come, and his guys act like teammates. Know him in an incomprehensible way.

Jordan tried to explore: "Does Dennis think this can help him?"

"That was Dennis, and no one knew what he was thinking," Grover said.

"That's what it looks like," Jordan said. What he didn't know at the time was that Rodman was caressing the dealer somewhere while putting the dice where they shouldn't be.

Jordan smiled, and finally looked into the distance. He thought of the game, of his hard work before the injury, and of how hard he worked on the training ground. He jumped into the air and shot shots again and again. Those shot arcs were elegant. ,crack shot.

"Alas." He sighed, and his thoughts returned to Rodman. He was still trying to imagine where the idea of ​​a man putting the dice into his vagina in order to change his luck came from. He wanted to know where Rodman came from. How desperate must Deman be to look for luck like that.

"Hey!" Jordan suddenly shouted to the people around him.It occurred to him that Rodman's story had a deeper meaning, as it did for all gambling—blackjack, craps, basketball. "That crazy thing just doesn't work," he said softly. "That all depends on luck!" This sentence sounded contemptuous.He thought Rodman missed the point of how things worked. "You have to find that feeling," he continued, "and be smart about it. If you have the feeling, you can win. That's why I lost $21 and still won it back. I had the feeling."

Everyone will forget the night Jordan lost money, and they won't be stupid enough to ask him why he didn't know he didn't feel it when he lost money.

That's something only an "anti-Mike" like Yu Fei would do.They are all followers of Mike.

Jordan looked around, as if worried that someone was eavesdropping, and then asked Grover, "Do you think I can come back in the playoffs?"

"Of course," Grover said, "provided they can make the playoffs!"

Jordan is full of confidence in this, "I can come back, I can come back now, I feel good. This is a feeling, the feeling that I know I will win. This is not luck, this has nothing to do with luck."

Then why don't you come back?

Although no one asked, Jordan himself would tell.

"But I need to teach that kid a lesson and he needs to understand something, which is that this team left me."

Before Jordan finished speaking, his assistant brought a piece of news.

The Wizards defeated the Lakers on the road last night.

Yu Fei scored 30 points, 14 rebounds and 12 assists, and hit the buzzer-beater at the last moment.

The Wizards are now ranked eighth in the Eastern Conference, and the team's morale is high.

The playoffs seem promising?

"This game should have been over a long time ago!" Jordan lost the feeling that everything was under control. "Why the hell didn't any of you tell me about this?!!!"

No one would remind Jordan that it was his rule not to talk about the game on "Gamble Night."

Everyone just stayed silent, waiting for Jordan to calm down.

In Los Angeles, after Yu Fei hit the buzzer beater, he was praised to the sky. His teammates recognized his status as the boss and strongly invited him to participate in the "post-game celebration party."

In the past, Yu Fei refused to hang out with them in nightclubs, but the situation seems to be different now.

They defeated the powerful Lakers. The whole team had a unified goal and obeyed Fei's leadership. On a night when he completely proved himself, it would be unsociable to refuse everyone's invitation.

Therefore, Yu Fei joined in.

As he expected, the "post-game celebration ceremony" was accompanied by beer, junk food and the flesh and blood of unkind visitors.

To make matters worse, someone figured out Yu Fei's "nature", and they arranged for Yu Fei to have a mixed-race girl with a figure similar to Nishina Momoka, her name was Rachel.

Yu Fei originally wanted to leave, but then Tyronn Lue stopped him, "Fry, don't worry, she is your fan, she likes your performance in the NBA, and every Asian American is proud of you, She’s just willing to give more than other fans who like you.”

Then, Garcity White laughed and said, "What's the big deal about relaxing?"

Yu Fei was convinced.

Yes, I have been tense for more than half a year, what’s the big deal about relaxing?
What's more, they are really accurate in selecting people.

That night, Yu Fei lost his virginity, which was a buzzer-beater, and another virginity, which was unscrupulous.

However, happy time always passes very quickly.

The next day, Yu Fei and Rachel were having breakfast. Suddenly, Yu Fei's assistant Alex Clark called urgently: "There is news that MJ wants to come back in the last week of the regular season."

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PS: The leader will add [-] more points
(End of this chapter)