Legendary star

Chapter 742 Punishment
"For everything that happened in today's game, I am deeply sorry. On behalf of Bruce, Robert, and Manu, I would like to express my deep apologies to all fans who care about and support the NBA."

In the early hours of June 2007, 6, the press conference after the fourth game of the finals between the Pacers and Spurs was already packed with reporters in the media room. After Popovich spoke, it fell silent instantly. These reporters thought that Popovich would tease the referee on duty like the usual press conference, but they didn't expect Popovich to bow and apologize as soon as he came up, which really surprised them.

In fact, the media reporters sitting at the scene are not too concerned about the result of this game at the moment, because in today's game, the largest group fight in the NBA Finals was staged, because Bruce -Bo Wen's malicious foul on Meng Xu on the defensive end led to a melee between six players from both sides that lasted for several minutes. This kind of material is more colorful than the results of the game between the two sides, and it attracts more attention and the attention of people who eat melons up.

So when Popovich and Rick Carlisle appeared in the media room, the reporters on the scene were as excited as bloodthirsty sharks seeing their prey. They couldn't wait to attack the head coaches of the two teams. I took out some material and fierce information from my mouth.

But what they didn't expect was that Popovich put his posture extremely low as soon as he came on stage, bowed and apologized directly to the reporters in the audience, and apologized to these reporters on behalf of several players who participated in the gang fight on the court, or It is to apologize to the audiences under these media.

"An old fox is an old fox." After Popovich apologized, Rick Carlisle was also confused at first, but soon Rick Carlisle guessed Popovich's true intentions. The few players who were expelled from the field will inevitably face a suspension penalty. The Pacers have enough lineup thickness. Jermaine O'Neal and James Posey are suspended, as well as NN Hilario and Darko Milicic It can be topped, but the Spurs are different. The lack of Manu Ginobili is simply fatal to the Spurs. The progress of today's game has fully explained all this, so Popovich The purpose of doing this must be to lower your profile to win the sympathy of the media and public opinion, so as to avoid Manu Ginobili's suspension.

Popovich's move is also very helpless. After losing today's game, the situation facing the Spurs is very bad. If Ginobili is suspended, the situation of the Spurs will undoubtedly be even worse, so Popovich can only hope that after he lowers his profile and wins the sympathy of public opinion, the league will be lenient. Robert Holly and Bruce Bowen don't care, and they will be banned. The key is Ginobili. If the Spurs If you want to win, you can't live without Ginobili.

"We won this game today very thrillingly. The Spurs' defense is very tough. Meng will be carried out of this court just a little bit, so I have always agreed with the call of the league. The NBA is green and healthy. We can't continue to tolerate those malicious fouls that are enough to end a professional basketball career." Popovich wanted to understate the gang fight, and Rick Carlisle naturally couldn't let Popovich do what he wanted, although the league added suspension Punishment, the Pacers' second-in-command Jermaine O'Neal will definitely not be able to run, but compared to the impact of losing Ginobili on the Spurs, the impact of Jermaine O'Neal on the Pacers is undoubtedly much smaller, plus Bruce Bowen's behavior of putting Meng Xu down behind his back really made Rick Carlisle angry. If Meng Xu was injured in Bruce Bowen's malicious foul, the Pacers would be completely over, so Rick - The attitude shown by Carlisle is also very firm, and Bruce Bowen must be severely punished.

The reporters in the audience, after hearing Rick Carlisle's words, immediately became restless. When Rick Carlisle said this, it meant that he would stand on the opposite side of Popovich today. The bishops of the two teams pinched each other at the post-match press conference, which was undoubtedly what they wanted to see, so after Rick Carlisle spoke, these reporters swarmed the microphones at Rick Carlisle , and also raised questions that add fuel to the fire.

Popovich is bent on downplaying the impact of this gang fight, while Rick Carlisle has a clear attitude and the league wants to punish Bruce Bowen severely. For a while, these two have a huge influence in the NBA The powerful head coach immediately stiffened up at the post-match press conference.

However, both Popovich and Rick Carlisle obviously underestimated the impact of this group brawl. Under the deliberate promotion of the league and the vigorous hype by the media close to the league, the Pacers and Spurs this time In the round of the finals, the ratings are hitting new highs, not only far away from the ratings of the finals in the ten seasons after Jordan retired, even the third game of the finals broke the 21.3% created by the Bulls and Jazz. The highest ratings in a single game in the history of the NBA Finals. If nothing else, this year's Finals is also likely to break the 98% average ratings of the Finals created by the Bulls and Jazz in the 18.7 season.

And the fourth game, which determined the direction of the finals, even created a terrifying ratings of 22.6% in one fell swoop. Almost all the media in North America gathered in San Antonio. Under such circumstances, the gang fights that broke out in this game were impossible. It was an understatement, and with the help of the good media behind the scenes, the whole of North America was discussing this gang fight for a while, and its momentum was far higher than that of the Pacers and Pistons, which was called "the gang fight of the century." Auburn Hills incident.

"This is not the first time for that bastard. Many players, including me, have been brutally murdered by him. I watched that game at home. The bastard's actions were completely aimed at people. When Meng was killed After he was brought down directly, my family and I were all stunned, this guy is a complete butcher, he should be banned for life." Bruce Bowen stepped on his feet many times, and even almost ruined his entire career. Vince Carter, shortly after the end of the game, stood up and denounced what Bruce Bowen had done. After Vince Carter, he had a better relationship with Meng Xu, and at the same time, he was beaten by Bruce Bowen many times. Kobe Bryant, Allen Iverson and others also stood up to denounce Bruce Bowen.

"Bruce's defense is really dirty, he should be punished by the league, but Meng is not a good bird, if Bruce is a butcher, then Meng is a sinister villain, so I don't think there is anything wrong with what Bruce did , The NBA is a league where the strong survive and the weak are eliminated. If you say that my statement is wrong, then you can ask Meng, what did he do to Latterier? What did he do to me and Ben ?” Those who condemned Bruce Bowen naturally condemned Meng Xu, especially Ron Artest, who had a “deep feud” with Meng Xu. Most NBA players were criticizing Bruce Bowen. At that time, he jumped out to be the alien who everyone was drunk and I was sober. It was obvious from Ron Artest's tone that he was extremely hostile to Meng Xu until now.

"Ron is indeed right. If such a foul should be suspended, then Meng Xu should have been suspended long ago. Bruce's foul really shouldn't be, but did Meng Xu suffer any harm?" After Ron Artest, the media went to find Sprewell, who had retired for many years, and Sprewell's attitude was very clear. He had the same opinion as Ron Artest. Yes, as for the gang fights that took place on the field, Ron Artest and Sprewell kept silent about it.

Finally, after repeated discussions with the league's top management and the NBA Disciplinary Committee, the NBA announced the punishment for the group fight. The instigator, Bruce Bowen, was suspended for one game and fined $15000. The rest participated in the group fight The players, Jermaine O'Neal, James Posey, Tony Allen, Robert Hawley, and Manu Ginobili, will all be suspended for one game and fined $1.

　I am brazenly pushing a new book here, against the front, so I won’t say much about it, thank you everyone.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)