When pride still matters

Chapter 191 The most failed comeback in history

Some people are happy that someone is worried.

If Milwaukee Bucks fans have had a happy year, Washington Wizards fans have never been happier since the start of the new season.

From October last year to the end of the season in June this year, whenever Yu Fei made a surprising move, "that deal" would be mentioned.

And Yu Fei never concealed his hatred for Jordan.

Wizards are always the target of public criticism.

Even the fans who support the team have become fools. Others will say, this is the team you support?Giving away the best rookie since Wes Unseld for a 40-year-old?

This is a hard thing to argue with.

Compared with the Bucks competing for first place in the league, while the Wizards are struggling for a playoff spot, what is even more difficult is that the Wizards have to play against the Bucks three times in the regular season.

When they met for the first time, Yu Fei came with anger and scored 56 points.

In the second match, Yu Fei scored 40+ and led the team to a victory over the Wizards. Jordan, who broke the defense, made the classic blame-shifting comment of "his horse is working hard, and my mule is ****ing."

The most devastating thing was the third game between the Bucks and the Wizards.

At that time, the Wizards' playoff situation was already in jeopardy. As long as they lost one more game, they would lose the possibility of theoretically advancing to the playoffs.

As a result, Yu Fei came out of nowhere, scoring 60 points in three quarters, and seriously sprained Jordan's knee in the last round.

In order to stabilize the morale of the military and cooperate with the team to sell tickets, Jordan did not directly announce his reimbursement for the season, but used the status of "doubtful" as a smokescreen.

For Wizards fans, even if they don't make the playoffs, it's good to watch Jordan's final performance.

But Jordan never played again.

For Jordan, this was the worst possible outcome.

Once you stop playing, what people will remember is the way you were beaten by Yu Fei.

Criticism of Jordan began to mount, doubts arose, and questions about the deal grew.

The external public opinion environment shows a one-sided trend.

Within the Wizards, collapse seems inevitable.

The man who led the debacle was Doug Collins.

He tried to become more tolerant and firm in the face of difficulties. To this end, before the third to last game of the regular season, he quoted Edison's famous saying to his players: "Many failures in life are because people do not realize that , how close they were to success when they gave up.”

Little effect.

Kwame Brown made a flurry of turnovers after his start, so Collins replaced him and gave him a stern education.

With Jordan gone, Collins' own majesty seems to have disappeared.

Kwame Brown, entering his rebellious phase, yelled at Collins: "Fuck you!"

Collins was frightened, and he realized that his control of the team depended entirely on Jordan's authority, which led to a terrible consequence: he had no idea how to effectively coach a player whose last name was not Jordan.

This incident led to Jordan's intervention. He dragged his sick body to the training ground and warned Brown, "You can't treat our coach like this!"

Brown was forced to apologize.

Collins then lined up a perimeter lineup of Cassell, Stackhouse and Hughes in the penultimate game and it worked wonders in New Jersey.

They defeated the Nets, ranked third in the Eastern Conference, on the road.

That night, Collins was emotional in the media room, her voice trembling.

"This is a real win for me and my team," Collins said, "because we've been through a lot of ups and downs and I've never been prouder of them. I'm so touched. I became a grandpa yesterday." Suddenly. , he seemed about to cry. "This is the best gift."

This is Collins, he lets people see all of him, in about 30 seconds - his pride, joy, anxiety, sadness, all the emotions are exposed nakedly, and it is this state that worries colleagues He, as people in Chicago and Detroit feared.

However, reporters were not interested in Collins becoming a grandfather.

They have other tasks.

"Does this victory mean that MJ is not that important to DC? Is he a double-edged sword?"

When it comes to Jordan-related issues, Collins becomes a different person: "Why do you think MJ is a double-edged sword?"

"I don't know. That's my problem."

"That's what you said."

Seeing Collins paranoidly confusing his remarks, the reporter sighed, "So, is MJ a double-edged sword?"

"I don't think he had any negative impact on the team." Collins answered carefully.

The reporter asked boldly: "Maybe you don't dare to face the truth. Are you afraid of MJ's power?"

"What do you know?" Collins said angrily, "Any player who reaches that level cannot be a double-edged sword!"

Another reporter asked: "Are you afraid of him?"

"That's an idiot question, you can ask him yourself." Collins lost all emotion and transformed into a ruthless defender of Jordan. "These questions don't scare me."

He looked around, the smile on his face became more obvious, with a hint of mockery, looking at the reporter who offended him, and then looked at other reporters, as if to say, look at this guy, he actually asked such a stupid question.

In the blink of an eye, the Wizards only have one regular season game left.

This is their last game of the season.

Will Jordan come back?
Anyone who cares about the Wizards already knows the answer, Jordan will not come back.

When Jordan was bumped into by an acquaintance reporter outside the training hall, the other party also raised the question of whether he would play in the last game.

"There's some light at the end of the tunnel," Jordan said abstractly. "At least there's a little bit of light, that's the way I look at it."

Jordan came to the training ground not to participate in training, but to return to the office to prepare for offseason work.

When he returned to his old office, he spoke openly about plans to redecorate it in the offseason.

In the Wizards' final game of the season, Jordan did not appear at MCI.

This is a huge disappointment for all the fans who wanted to see one last glimpse of him.

In the end, the Wizards lost to the 76ers at home and ended the season with the ninth record in the Eastern Conference.

Jordan must clean up his mood. His playing career is over. From now on, he will not play again. This is an identity change that he must adapt to.

And, there's no more three-year itch, and he doesn't miss playing anymore.

Yu Fei's revenge on him has become a cultural phenomenon.

Completely surpassing the impact of Larry Bird's abuse of Dr. J and Larry Holmes's beating of Ali in his later years, it became the latest example of how miserable a former superstar can be in his later years.

Jordan tried not to think about it.

Next, the Wizards' focus will be on June's draft and offseason free agency signings.

But Jordan is still theoretically a Wizards player. He has not officially announced his retirement, and his administrative power has not been officially recognized, which means he cannot give orders.

Pauline's attitude towards restoring Jordan's management status is ambiguous, insisting that he wait until the season is completely over before starting negotiations (after the Finals).

In other words, during this period, Jordan still has to participate in management work as a Wizards player.

At the same time, the team also has legitimate reasons to use his name to deceive fans into buying tickets for next season.

This state made Jordan uneasy, and he found that his future was not guaranteed.

In order to "remind" Pauline that the Flying Man did not have to stay in Washington, Jordan specifically asked his media friends to ask him a question: "Jerry Krause has left. If Jerry Reinsdorf Will you accept the invitation to come back to Chicago to manage the team?"

"I knew you were going to ask that question," Jordan said with a charming smile. "Obviously, my goal is to get back upstairs. Hopefully. But if not, obviously, I There are other options. It's not just Chicago. There are other options. So, the ideal scenario for me is to stay here and have this team move in the right direction with my vision. That's really what I Wanted. And Chicago was the second target, the second thought — and any other opportunity."

Jordan didn't completely rule out Chicago.

The words came with a hint of warning. He wanted Pauline to know that if he didn't want to continue to cooperate, he had "other options."In his mind, that meant a possible spot, not just in Chicago, but on that new Charlotte team in the future.The moment Jordan's voice came through the microphone, the atmosphere around him changed.He is no longer an employee and no longer expresses a strong commitment to the organization he represents, he is now a "free" agent.His words reflected the mentality of a player who would soon become a former professional player. After two losing seasons, everything around him has changed, but he acted like he was enjoying himself in his prime. with the same respect and prestige.

Jordan's words triggered something beyond his control. He had no loyalty or sense of belonging to the Washington Wizards. He just wanted power over the team.

In the past, his business value gave him license to say whatever he wanted, and he never learned how to show respect to the franchise.He still has the arrogance of a young superstar, although Yu Fei has repeatedly reminded him with bloody reality: when the magic of a superstar disappears, your life will be completely different.

A few days later, news came from Chicago: John Paxson was hired as Chicago's executive vice president and became the Bulls' chief basketball executive.No Bulls official has contacted Jordan or sent anonymous messages through the media suggesting the Bulls were interested in negotiating with Jordan after his contract with the Wizards expired.

Soon, it was revealed that, like the Wizards' front office, the Bulls' front office also had doubts about Jordan's ability to work as an executive on par with Jordan's ability to work as a player.

In this way, Jordan's plan to return to Chicago failed before it even started.

What's even more frightening is that a week later, Yu Fei was elected the regular season MVP.

"That deal" was mentioned again.

Criticisms of Jordan spread all over Washington. Even the Washington Post, which has always been biased towards Jordan, believed that this trade was the most terrible mistake in the history of the Wizards.

"The Washington Times" pointedly pointed out: "Do we really want to entrust the future of the team to a person who puts his personal interests and likes and dislikes above the interests of the team?"

Jordan's public opinion front began to completely lose ground.

The idea of ​​rejecting him taking charge of the Wizards again became mainstream.

During the Finals, Jordan was caught by reporters at MCI, and someone noticed that he looked very nervous.

"If you had to start all over again, would you trade Frye?" a reporter asked loudly.

Jordan said coldly: "This is a stupid question!"

Jordan was no longer himself—at least not the one fans were used to, neither confident nor in control.When it comes to his record as the Wizards' executive and leader, he wavers between acknowledging that the team has underperformed under his last three and a half years at the helm while insisting on defending what he's done. , claiming that young players are "learning" and that trading Yu Fei is "based on systemic reasons."

He reiterated his intention to return as club president.He phrased it as if he wanted people to believe that there was no objective world - that once I got back upstairs, I would do my job brilliantly.

Everyone knows this is impossible.

Even before Jordan came back, he was criticized and ridiculed for his reputation as a part-time president.

Jordan wanted control, but he was determined not to take full responsibility for failure.

Then, Yu Fei won the championship.

The real world became Jordan's hell.

Jordan must hide in the tree hole, but if the flying man only flaps his wings in the tree hole, he will exist in name only.

So he still needs to show up.

However, his future is still not guaranteed.

Disrespectful comments from his teammates began to increase, and Pauline was uncertain about the future of the team. All of this made Jordan feel seriously offended.

He is different, he belongs to the privileged class.

This privilege emerged in the early 90s and reached its peak in the summer of 1996.That was also the starting point of the conflict between Jordan and his first boss, Reinsdorf.When Jordan faced a contract extension, Reinsdorf agreed to significantly increase Jordan's annual salary.But what numbers do Jordan and Falke want? $3000 million.There is no room for bargaining.This is not from the Earth to Mars, this is directly across to Pluto.

Reinsdorf paid the fee, joking that he would one day regret it.

You know the outcome, Jordan felt insulted and his relationship with Reinsdorf would never be the same again.

Jordan didn't forgive offenses, and his definition of offense was particularly broad.

On the first day after the season, Jordan announced his retirement again and said he would say goodbye to basketball forever.

From this moment on, he lost any contact with the Wizards. He was neither a Wizards player nor a Wizards management member.

He called his boss, Abby Bolin, and asked, “When are we going to talk?”

"Okay, let's talk." Paulin agreed to start negotiations.

However, behind the scenes, Pauline leaked negative information about Jordan to the New York Times through personal channels-including insider information about his negative work as club president and the deterioration of his relationship with teammates during his comeback.

Jordan's magic was completely gone.

He will no longer bring profits to Pauline, no one will pay to see him, and such a person still wants to be the God of DC?This is impossible.

Prior to meeting with Pauline, Jordan's team still hadn't forgotten about maximum pressure.

They wanted to tell the Washington Post that if Paulin tried to undermine Jordan's power as president or otherwise showed any disrespect (they knew about Paulin's leak to The Times), Jordan would leave.

This was Jordan's public ultimatum to Pauline.

But to Pauline, it was just another hysterical rant among the countless barbs Jordan had spread privately over the past three years.Such behavior rarely hurt him, but those days would end today.

Now, all of Jordan's self-righteousness and his profane remarks about Pauline are working against him: all the references to "Poulin being a troll" and "the Wizards' future would be better without Paulin," and his public complaints His own marketing responsibilities, and his camp’s private contempt and insult to Paulin, and all the power he got from Paulin in the 2000 negotiations and all the concessions he got in the past three years with his god-like prestige.And since 1984, his unbridled behavior as an overly pampered god continues to bear fruit to this day.

Jordan will learn the only truth about the workplace today: People who don't respect their boss will get out.

In the conference room where negotiations took place, Jordan brought his long-time adviser, attorney Curtis Polk, to the meeting.Pauline's attorney, David Osnos, sat nearby, while Ted Leonsis, estranged from Pauline, served as a minority shareholder and acted as both observer and friend to Jordan.

Before Jordan could say anything, Pauline got right to the point: "We decided to go a different route."

what?
Jordan curled his lips habitually, "What did you say?"

"We decided to move forward," Pauline said.

Jordan's anger could no longer be contained, "You promised me, are you a person who breaks your promise?!!"

Pauline smiled, showing two rows of uncomfortable yellow teeth: "Michael, I will abide by my obligations. I will give you 1000 million US dollars as a thank you fee." (It is true)

For Jordan, whose net worth was close to ten figures, he looked down on the money at all. He roared angrily: "I came here to become the shareholder and president of the team again, not for the fucking 1000 million. Dollar!"

Just for a moment, Paulin's smile disappeared like an assassin who suddenly executed an assassination: "Michael, I swear in the name of God, I never want you to be my partner again, nor do I want you to continue to manage my team. !”

Jordan's face was red and his eyes were bloodshot. He turned to his friend Ted Leonsis and said, "Thank you for getting me into this damn predicament!"

The Jordan era with the Washington Wizards is over.

The public reaction was quick, and most Wizards players, like Byron Russell, merely expressed surprise.Kwame Brown was relieved to learn Jordan was gone, but he remained silent.However, several former Wizards players have made implicit public comments about Jordan's departure.

"He's still considered the greatest basketball player of all time, and I don't think anyone can take that away from him," Richard Hamilton told reporters in Detroit. "But being a team president is not enough."

Then, the purge within the Wizards officially began.

Collins was fired, and Jordan's staff began to leave.Pauline emptied the stadium of anything Jordan-related — jerseys, posters, merchandise and murals.There was even an advertisement for a Jordan-themed restaurant on the Wizards’ official website — which closed less than a year later.

All traces of Jordan's visit to Washington were gone, as if he had never been.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

"Pat Riley called on all NBA teams to retire the No. 23 jersey. Unfortunately, there were 0 responses." - "Chicago Tribune"

“MJ’s negotiations with Abi Pollin ended in humiliating fashion.” —The New York Times

"Washington made the right decision, but it's a pity that Frye Yu will never play for them again. This is the legacy of Michael Jordan in DC, and he should never be an executive of any club again!" ——"Seattle Times"

"Fry, what do you think about Pat Riley asking all teams to retire No. 23?" - John Duggan, San Francisco

"I hope the team will respond to Coach Riley's call, because No. 23 only made one transaction to help the Bucks win the championship. The championship banner must be hung together with No. 23 at the Bradley Center."

"Yo, Fry, how much do you have to pay Michael to keep your mouth shut?" - Chen, Chicago
"I like this question, but next question."

"Hey Dafa, if you had a pistol, would you shoot Shaquille O'Neal or Michael Jordan? Or Kenyon Martin?" -Bryant Reed from Manchester

"It's a little extreme when you put Kenyon Martin next to those two guys."

"Fry, how do you feel about Abby Bolin telling MJ to get out in less than five minutes?" - Chris Mazzo, Washington

"I just want to say congratulations to Michael on his most failed comeback ever."

——Yu Fei's exclusive radio program: "Conversations with the Chosen One"

(End of this chapter)