Chapter 705: Chapter 705
"Championships always come with sacrifice. DW’s sacrifice tonight was the key to our victory; he showed the heart of a champion."
In the post-game press conference, Malone couldn’t stop praising Wade’s performance.
Tonight, Wade came off the bench, scoring 19 points, 4 rebounds, and 4 assists, second only to Hansen’s 41 points.
After the press conference ended, Hansen and Jokic returned to the locker room.
Since it was an away game, most of the players had already showered and returned to the hotel.
Wade was still there, already changed, holding his phone tightly as if he was waiting for something.
"Did you get the apology you wanted?" Hansen was straightforward.
James suggested that Wade hit a nightclub or a bar after the game to let the paparazzi capture it, explaining his on-court shove as an accident, which isn’t entirely impossible.
Wade didn’t speak, just shook his head.
"Seems that besides being ’my good brother,’ you don’t have any other value to LeBron anymore," Hansen teased mercilessly.
Now that "history" has changed and Wade didn’t deliver a championship for James, their brotherhood naturally takes a hit.
"You’re right." Wade finally put down the phone he was clenching, looking deflated like a balloon losing air, but quickly puffed up his cheeks again,
"That guy is a jerk!"
Understanding someone takes a long time, but seeing through someone often only takes an instant.
And once you see through them, your understanding of many related things changes.
For example, Wade now probably even figured out the old story of relinquishing power for just eight points.
If it weren’t for James, he might have won the championship back in 2011.
Hansen didn’t expect Wade to curse, but this attitude indicated that Wade finally saw things clearly.
He reached out and patted Wade on the shoulder: "He owes you a championship, you should get it back from him this season."
Wade is unlucky enough to hold the record for the most runner-up finishes among current active players.
But he’s also lucky enough because, as Hansen said, he has another chance to reclaim what was lost with his own hands.
After the game against the Warriors, the Cavaliers continued their road trip in the West.
They were about to go through the toughest part of the season, facing Texas’s three powers: the Rockets, Spurs, and Mavericks.
However, this experience became one of the most memorable parts of Hansen’s season.
During the halftime of the game against the Rockets, the Rockets held a jersey retirement ceremony for Yao Ming.
During this time, Hansen witnessed Harden running towards Yao Ming, performing the famous "200-pound leap of joy" scene.
Hansen also had a conversation with Yao Ming, who officially became the East University Men’s Basketball Team’s Basketball Association President this February.
Yao Ming’s election would undoubtedly greatly change the relationship between Hansen and the Basketball Association.
And after the subsequent game against the Spurs, the Spurs held a jersey retirement ceremony for Duncan.
This was Duncan’s first public appearance since the Spurs announced his retirement last summer.
Aside from some graying beard, Duncan still wore the same crewcut hairstyle, looking much the same as before retirement.
Hansen was also invited as a "special guest" to this ceremony.
As the League’s current number one, attending the jersey retirement ceremony for the former "League number one" Duncan was a rather romantically masculine event.
The Spurs arranged it after the game to show the utmost respect for Duncan, as the retirement ceremony lasted for 50 minutes, more than double the time given to Yao Ming.
During the ceremony, Hansen mainly watched and finally offered Duncan his blessings and a hug.
Duncan didn’t need to tell Hansen anymore that the future was his, because now it already belonged to Hansen. Official source ıs 𝘯𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭•𝔣𝔦𝔯𝔢•𝓷𝓮𝓽
The last stop was the Mavericks, and Nowitzki currently had no plans to retire.
Although the Mavericks’ strength had declined to the point where they couldn’t even make it to the playoffs, the veteran planned to play until he absolutely couldn’t anymore.
In the game against the Cavaliers, he scored 25 points, surpassing 30,000 points, becoming the 6th member of the "30,000 points club" in NBA history.
After ending this tough road trip with a 3-1 record, the Cavaliers entered the final month of the season.
The advantage of having sufficient roster depth is that when the season reaches this stage, the team can rotate players to minimize injuries.
However, Malone still gave enough playing time to the core rotation to maintain their form and also because the Celtics were close on their tail.
Time quickly reached early April, and after more than five months of competition, the 2016-2017 season finally wrapped up.
The Warriors ended up with the best 67-15 record in the League.
Curry averaged 27.4 points, 4.5 rebounds, 6.2 assists, with a 47.2% field goal percentage, and a 43.7% three-point percentage;
James averaged 25.1 points, 8.6 rebounds, 8.7 assists, with a 54.8% field goal percentage and a 36.8% three-point percentage;
Klay Thompson averaged 23.2 points, 3.7 rebounds, 2.1 assists, with a 46.8% field goal percentage, and a 42.2% three-point percentage.
It’s worth mentioning that in a game against the Pacers last December, Thompson showcased his scoring burst power once again, following his 37-point quarter two years ago, by scoring 60 points in 29 minutes, going 21-for-33 from the field.
Green averaged 9.2 points, 7.9 rebounds, 3.1 assists, 2 steals, 1.4 blocks, with a 41.8% field goal percentage and a 30.8% three-point percentage.