Champion Creed-Chapter 889 - 295: It’s impossible to catch up with Roger in this lifetime (Requesting monthly tickets!)
Chapter 889: 295: It’s impossible to catch up with Roger in this lifetime (Requesting monthly tickets!)
On the day of the match, Stephen Jackson still arrived early at the Emory Healthcare Center.
His presence made Michael Reed no longer lonely, finally having someone to accompany Reed, the gym mouse, for early morning practice.
Even though Stephen Jackson hadn’t gotten a single minute of playing time in seven consecutive games, he still persisted in training and was never late again.
That afternoon, Stephen Jackson went to ask Lenny Wilkens: "Boss, when will I finally get to play?"
And Lenny Wilkens’ answer was the same as before: "When you are ready."
"I’m ready!"
"Really? But you still can’t stop Roger in practice games, not even once."
Stephen Jackson was speechless; this was a fact.
Since joining the Hawks, Stephen Jackson had never been able to stop Roger.
But how many players in this league can stop Roger?
Isn’t it a bit too harsh to use this as the standard for being "ready"?
However, Stephen Jackson didn’t argue, he didn’t have the right to complain.
He could only try to find a way to stop Roger in the next practice game, that’s all he could do.
This match with the Kings seemed completely unrelated to him; when the team bus arrived, his job was to help the veteran players with their luggage.
And Roger, as the highly-anticipated superstar, was interviewed by reporters as soon as he stepped into the gym:
"Roger, what do you make of Chris Webber’s second collaboration with Nike?"
"A bit surprised, but I don’t care about it." Roger shrugged.
Before the match between the Sacramento Kings and the Hawks, the Nike camp announced their second collaboration with Chris Webber, signing a seven-year sneaker deal.
Since the "We don’t want Penny to be unhappy" incident in 1993, Nike has been on a downward trend in the basketball market. Up to now, this long slope still shows no end.
It’s generally believed that Reebok signing Roger in ’93 is comparable to Nike signing Jordan in ’84, one of the greatest signings in the history of sports brands.
Reebok’s current influence is such that even after losing to AI last season, Ray Allen publicly scolded it as a Reebok league.
Of course, as of now, no one questions Reebok’s control over the FMVP voting, because all of Roger’s FMVP awards were won without dispute.
Nike has been trying to reverse the decline over the years, continuously improving their roster of star players.
To achieve this, they spent a lot on several rookies, but it had almost no effect.
So they decided to also target already famous players, trying to lure talent from other brands.
Chris Webber is one of the lucky ones under this plan.
Before this, Chris Webber and Nike had a five-year collaboration, but the poor performance in the first five years of his career made Nike give up on him without hesitation.
Then, something incredible happened.
After being let go by Nike, not a single sneaker brand signed Chris Webber again!
You know, despite Webber’s shortcomings, he was still an All-Star level player.
This is probably unprecedented in NBA history, an All-Star having no sneaker contract at all.
After leaving Reebok, Webber wore many brand shoes, but he was not an official spokesperson for those sneaker manufacturers.
This clearly shows how much of a failure Webber was before; even if big men don’t sell shoes, no brand was willing to take him.
It can only be said that Chris Webber had been sentenced to "death" by the media, manufacturers, and fans many years ago.
Looking back at Webber’s career, apart from becoming the first pick, he seemingly had no success.
No, even being the first pick couldn’t be considered a success.
The 1993 NBA Draft was called the "Year of the High Schoolers" by Bill Simmons, and dubbed "The Day to End the Old Gods" by Charles Barkley.
Everything about the 1993 NBA Draft was related to Roger.
Under normal circumstances, a draft would only be remembered by fans if several future phenomena level players emerged from it.
When you mention the 1984 draft, besides Michael Jordan, you would also mention Olajuwon, "Flying Pig" Jazz, John Stockton, and even Sam Bowie, who became a joke because he was picked before Jordan.
Mention the 1996 draft, and you would think of Kobe, AI, Gentleman Ray, Nash, Stojakovic, Marbury, and a whole bunch of names.
But when you mention the 1993 draft, people only think of Roger.
He made the 1993 draft special with his extraordinary achievements.
As for the others selected in 1993?
Penny had long become an ordinary player due to injuries.
Shawn Bradley? Who would remember this guy, once honored as a runner-up, now a substitute in Dallas and constantly appearing in others’ dunk highlights?
Jamal Mashburn and Isaiah Rider had some renown, but not enough to make fans immediately note which draft they were from.
The most famous NCAA top point guard pre-draft, still the NCAA’s historic assist king, who participated in the famous college team defeating the Dream Team, Bobby Hurley, faded out due to a car accident.
The only memorable thing about Sam Cassell is that face of his.
In fact, few remember that Chris Webber was a first pick.
When people talk about the 1993 draft’s first pick, their first reaction is confusion: "Wait, if Roger wasn’t the 1993 first pick, then who was the lucky bust?"
