Champion Creed-Chapter 901 - 298: The era will not end (Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!)
Chapter 901: 298: The era will not end (Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!)
Ron Artest is a player who perfectly fits the Detroit Pistons’ temperament.
If he could be transported directly to the era of the Detroit Bad Boys, he would definitely get along with those veterans—both literally and figuratively.
In fact, a big reason why the Bulls gave up on Artest was because he caused too much trouble.
In Chicago, he would take two days off every week. Why? To work at a grocery store.
That’s right, to work at a grocery store.
Nobody knows why Ron Artest did this, as he earned millions of US Dollars a year from Chicago, so he didn’t need to work to support his family.
Yet he insisted on working, even at the cost of missing training sessions to do so.
His relationship with his teammates wasn’t good; he rarely dined or played with them. But he was a genuine, down-to-earth black man, unlike Ray Allen, Kobe, and other "Black Pearls," who found it difficult to get along with teammates due to their completely different living environments.
Artest gives off the impression that you can never really know what he’s thinking.
Why did he want to work? Why was there a rift with his teammates?
No one on the team knew what kind of person Ron Artest truly was, and he didn’t want his teammates to know.
Everyone only knew that he was a ticking time bomb ready to explode, so it was best to stay away from him.
Now, even Big Ben didn’t know why Artest just went head-to-head with Roger. It seemed like he had no reason for any of his outrageous acts. He was like the Joker in "Batman," and nobody could truly understand his motives.
But before, no matter who Artest went against, Big Ben wouldn’t intervene, and would even back him up.
After all, that lunatic was his teammate; Big Ben couldn’t turn against his own.
However, if Artest wanted to mess with Roger, Big Ben absolutely wouldn’t allow it.
Even if they were now truly each other’s biggest rivals, Big Ben’s respect for Roger remained unchanged.
Their relationship was more than just former teammates. When Roger didn’t insist on keeping him for a three-peat, but instead allowed him to pursue a six-year max contract, Big Ben would consider Roger a friend for life. ƒгeeweɓn૦vel.com
Not selling out your teammates sounds like a normal thing, nothing worth praising.
But only in this profit-driven environment would you realize how precious such a quality is.
So in the locker room, Big Ben gave Artest a piece of his mind. This time, he did turn against his own.
"I don’t know what you’re trying to do. We win the game and get out of here; it’s that simple. You didn’t have to do that at all, because Roger never provoked us!"
"Oh, great leader, of course, of course, I’ll listen to you. Don’t worry, I won’t interfere with Roger’s lovely relationship with his dog, absolutely not." Artest said sarcastically while changing his jersey.
"Hey Ron, I don’t fucking have time to joke with you!"
Seeing Big Ben lose his temper, the locker room instantly fell silent.
Artest clenched his fists, unable to understand others just as much as they couldn’t understand him.
He didn’t know why this usually wild afroboy went soft when it came to Roger.
As a New Yorker, like Carmelo Anthony, Artest grew up witnessing Roger’s legendary demolitions of the Knicks time and again.
But unlike Anthony, who idolized Roger from then on, Artest? He began to hate Roger and became a loyal anti-fan of his.
That’s quite normal, just like how most Los Angeles fans hate Bird, and most Boston fans dislike Magic.
You know, nowadays, there isn’t such a unified dislike of any player.
As a superstar, if nobody hates you, then you can’t be considered a superstar. Because if nobody hates you, it means you’ve never posed a threat to others.
And Ron Artest, as a genuine Queens native who started selling powder at the age of eight, his biggest dream was to be drafted by New York and then lead the Knicks to fiercely beat Roger’s team.
Unfortunately, things didn’t turn out that way. Back then, the Knicks, holding the 15th pick, passed on Artest, and he was ultimately chosen by the first team Roger played for, the Chicago Bulls.
Now, he’s been traded to Detroit.
His career seems to have no connection to New York.
Gradually, the dream of leading the Knicks to victory became just a dream, but his resistance towards Roger never changed.
Over the years, the Chicago Bulls weren’t even considered Roger’s opponents. Aside from some fans still hypothesizing "what if we had both MJ and Roger back then," Chicago almost no longer bore Roger’s mark.
Roger vs. the Bulls games were no longer in the spotlight, and like the Bulls, Ron Artest had no presence in front of Roger.
But now, for the first time in his career, Artest experienced the joy of winning, discovering for the first time that he could easily win a game in the NBA.
At this moment, he felt like a poor kid who got rich overnight, with the first wish being to buy things he once only fantasized about.
And for Artest, after getting on the victory track, his most urgent desire was to beat Roger, that was the ultimate fantasy he held since his youth!
The last time they faced off, Artest had already achieved that goal once, but the feeling of victory was more addictive than the ultimate high, always wanting another go after one taste.
This time, with the team supplemented by Rasheed Wallace, Artest felt Roger wasn’t that special after all.
