They were far from invincible like last season.
But so what? That couldn’t stop people from admiring and eagerly praising the Warriors. For sports columnists, the Warriors’ performance fully t every definition of a sports epic. A team whose talent wasn’t top-notch, but with their desire for victory, passion, and unity, they built combat power, crushing all strong opponents while shouting "We believe." Such stories never go out of fashion in sports history.
Most sports writers hoped for a miracle, and most fans looked forward to this family-like team’s magnificent lant.
The Warriors’ story caught everyone’s attention, and "We believe" beca the loudest slogan in the entire league.
The Warriors having such high popularity was a very peculiar phenonon, because most of the ti, a team on the verge of a three-peat usually plays the role of the public enemy.
In the world of competitive sports, no one wants to see the sa team win all the ti because it destroys suspense.
That’s why, twenty years later, LBJ has extrely high popularity.
He has never always won nor dominated anyone, so who wouldn’t love a player like that?
Talents like Kobe and Jordan, who achieved back-to-back championships in the NBA, are most hated.
Yet the Golden State Warriors beca an exception, having already won twice in a row, with many fans worldwide still eager to see them win a third ti.
And this has been the only ti in NBA history when personal heroism and collective heroism have combined so perfectly.
If Roger could win a championship without Amar’e Stoudemire, it would be the ultimate depiction of personal heroism.
At the sa ti, the Warriors’ perfect team atmosphere allowed for a wealth of collective heroism narratives in the dia.
Roger didn’t know how much of a role Reebok played in this, but the Golden State Warriors indeed beca the most watched and supported team in the United States.
Even Bill Simmons found this phenonon surprising in his column: "Listen, I’ve watched basketball all my life and never seen a team on the verge of a three-peat gain such high popularity. I thought only teams made up of girls in sexy fitness outfits could gain unanimous fan support."
Amid the loud chants of "We believe," ti moved on to 2006.
Roger’s professional career officially entered its 13th year.
He had beco an icon of the league, and his influence extended from the golden age of live television broadcasts to the current internet era.
With the help of these two dia, Roger could be said to be the most influential star player in NBA history.
Bill Russell won 11 championships, but those who truly watched him were very few.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar even wished live broadcasts would die, as the years when he was older and frailer were infinitely magnified by television.
But Roger was different; from his entry into the league to the present, towering over others, all of these 13 years had been witnessed by the fans.
He won 9 championships, 6 MVPs, 7 All-NBA First Teams, and monopolized the scoring title honor for 10 consecutive years in plain view of everyone.
He had won enough, with combined honors not inferior to any player in history.
But look at what he did in December, still tirelessly pursuing victory.
What exactly keeps him still filled with a desire for victory at this point?
ESPN conducted a special interview with Roger on this subject.
On January 3, the Warriors surprisingly lost their first ga of 2006 to the mphis Grizzlies away.
After the ga, Roger left early and didn’t even attend the press conference. It wasn’t just because he was disappointed in the ga’s outco, but also because he had already arranged for an exclusive interview with the ESPN team at the hotel conference room for tonight.
The interview footage would be broadcast in a recorded format on tomorrow’s "SportsCenter" program.
Because the ga ended very late and the recording crew needed to be well-prepared and wait early in the hotel conference room, Roger arranged for soone to send each staff mber of the recording program a gift, which was a box of traditional Chinese pastries from his own brand.
When Roger arrived at the hotel conference room, various supplentary lights and caras of all sizes were already in place.
The host of this interview, Miss Universe 2003 winner Emily Vigee, was eating one of the pastries from Roger’s gift.
Before the wave of political correctness swept through Europe and Arica, making female hosts, movie heroines, and video ga heroines increasingly unattractive, major sports channels often invited famous models to host programs. After all, no one dislikes a beautiful appearance.
It was clear that the long wait left everyone famished. Even Emily Vigee, who paid attention to body managent, almost finished the pastries in the gift. In fact, when Roger saw her, she had just taken a bite of the last pastry left in the box.
Seeing Roger walk in, she imdiately put the remaining half pastry back into the box, then quickly chewed up the food, turning around with a generous and beautiful smile only after the makeup artist confird her mouth was free of food residue: "Hello, Roger."
Roger finally understood why Al Horford, who was always surrounded by young bodies in Arican college basketball, would be enamored with this woman.
Beauty was just one dinsion making Emily Vigee attractive; her temperant, her deanor, all exuded an elegance and nobility.
Roger had encountered all kinds of won, but few could truly catch his eye.
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