The Best Point Guard

Zach Randolph was in the news.

Not just the sports news, but the national news as well.

Flick on any TV channel, and you’d see self-righteous people tearing into him. It was beyond mere condemnation; he was being reviled by the masses.

Not a single media outlet showed any understanding for his actions. Under no circumstances could a player publicly shoving his coach to the ground from the bench be forgiven.

Moreover, Randolph didn’t exactly have a positive image to begin with. All his past negative press was dredged up: street racing, alcoholism, fighting with teammates, attending his "aunt’s funeral" at a nightclub... Everything pointed to him being a notorious character with a long history of misconduct.

Furious Portland fans labeled him a cancer on the team, blaming him for all the Trail Blazers’ failures in recent years.

The Trail Blazers’ management quickly came out and announced a 10-game internal suspension for Randolph.

But this clearly wasn’t enough to quell the public’s anger.

Randolph was painted as an unforgivable degenerate, the biggest villain in the history of the NBA.

When Su Xi saw the news on TV, he furrowed his brow. He even went back and watched the game in question.

He realized something: McMillan’s decision at that moment had indeed been a mistake. Zach Randolph had been isolating Tim Duncan one-on-one and was putting unprecedented pressure on him. It sounded absurd. No one would believe it if you told them. How could a notorious degenerate possibly put the greatest power forward in history on the back foot?

But that was the reality of it. Randolph was simply Duncan’s kryptonite.

There was no logic to it, nor was it determined by moral standing.

In fact, Duncan’s technical style was at a slight disadvantage against stout, shorter players with a wide offensive range. Bunch Wells of the Kings wasn’t as tall or as skilled as Zach Randolph, but he could also make things difficult for Duncan.

McMillan insisted on his dynamic offensive strategy, wanting to initiate the offense from the perimeter and not give Randolph the chance to challenge Duncan one-on-one in the paint.

Randolph, of course, couldn’t accept such a tactic.

And then the conflict erupted.

What Randolph said was surely foul, but McMillan failed to control his emotions as well. He shouldn’t have thrown a towel at Randolph after he had already sat down and backed off.

It was a stupid and disastrous way to handle the situation.

What was even more disastrous... was that he didn’t decide to handle the matter internally.

Normally, no matter how big the blow-up, a simple "we were just joking around" from the head coach could have smoothed it all over.

But McMillan didn’t follow the unwritten rule of handling internal matters internally. He publicly blasted Randolph in the post-game press conference, acting like some wronged woman.

He was the one who let the situation escalate to this point.

Randolph’s reputation was utterly destroyed.

It would be nearly impossible for him to recover in this league. The Trail Blazers would certainly no longer see him as a core player and might even trade him after the suspension.

In the future, Randolph would likely bounce around from team to team, or perhaps fall even further into degeneracy. But he definitely wouldn’t get another supermax contract. No team gives a max deal to a hothead... you just had to look at Spree Wells for proof.

Spree Wells was an incredible player. His incident wasn’t even publicly exposed; he’d just choked his coach in the practice facility. It was just a "rumor." Even though he played great for the Knicks and the Minnesota Timberwolves, he never got a max contract. He didn’t even get that last contract to provide for his family.

The intensity of the public dogpile on Randolph was something rarely seen. He might not even get the same treatment Spree Wells did.

Sigh!

Su Xi sighed.

’Character is destiny.’

...

While New York fans were denouncing Randolph’s violent act, they were also frantically anticipating their 19th consecutive win. All of New York City was filled with an air of "the view’s better from here."

Many in the New York Media even stated bluntly: This is the best of times in the history of the New York Knicks.

Furthermore, they began calculating the Knicks’ probability of winning the championship this year, because the last time the Knicks had an 18-game winning streak, they went on to win it all.

Come to think of it, that was way back in 1970.

Although many national basketball media outlets still believed the Knicks weren’t strong enough and that talk of a championship was just a joke, the people in the Big Apple City were growing more and more certain.

In their eyes, the Knicks’ rise was a foregone conclusion.

For the New Jersey Nets, just across the river, this was nothing short of a catastrophe. New Jersey was a small-market team that had been actively trying to expand into the huge New York market. They had even been planning to move the team to New York City.

They had been coveting the Knicks’ market for a long, long time.

Even when the Knicks were that terrible, they still raked in cash hand over fist.

Now the Knicks had Little Sheep Su Xi, New Jersey’s own basketball pride, and were making a powerful resurgence. What influence would the Nets have left in the future?

Moreover, the Nets were well aware of what the Knicks’ top brass was thinking. The Knicks wanted to beat the Nets to get their 19th straight win, break the franchise record, and declare that order had been restored. From then on, New York would be the Knicks’ territory, and the Nets shouldn’t even think about getting half a slice of the pie.

Therefore, the Nets were also mobilizing, preparing to go all out to stop the Knicks. They absolutely could not let the Knicks’ dream come true.

...

Vince Carter was still in his prime this season, averaging close to 25-5-5.

These stats were even slightly better than his last season’s, proving he was still among the top four shooting guards in the league.