A year ago, the All-Star Game pick-and-roll.
As the leaders of the two teams, LeBron and Durant have picked out 20 stars, large and small, leaving only Gobert and Mitchell of the Utah Jazz.
Host Charles Buckley was indignant:
"How can you turn a deaf ear to the inside and outside core of the top team in the league!"
At that time, the Jazz were 27-9 and the league was the first.
LeBron's answer was even funnier:
"It's not disrespectful to jazz, but they've always been villains growing up in our generation. Even if we play games, we will not choose jazz.
Even they have the great Malone and Stockton. ”
Yeah, since the NBA came into our sights,
Sir Utah, it's so annoying.
They are located in salt lake city, a remote Utah, USA. The cold weather, the old-fashioned folk customs, and the lack of entertainment make every NBA big name retreat.
Their style of play has remained the same for two decades, with legendary duo Malone Stockton teaming up for nineteen seasons, and head coach Jerry Sloan was the longest-serving coach of any of the four major sports leagues in the United States (23 years).
Their style of play is fierce and cunning, and Stockton has been rated as the "dirtiest NBA player" by the players for many years for his hidden small moves. Malone was unscrupulous with a pair of iron elbows, and once blasted the Assassin into a concussion and was hospitalized with one elbow.
In the second half of the '90s, they were a nightmare for the league's top stars.
In the 1996-97 season, they killed the Lakers with O'Neal and Kobe Bryant along the way, and Olajuwon, Barkley, and gliders joined hands with the Rockets to reach the Finals.
In the 1997-98 season, they eliminated the Rockets and the Spurs who had just owned Duncan, and finally eliminated the Lakers who had "ok" and Van Exelel and Eddie Jones, four All-Stars, and met the Bulls again in the Finals.
The legendary Dream of the older generation, Buckley, Admiral,
A new generation of superstar sharks, Duncan, Kobe Bryant,
Those two years were cleaned up by them.
In the 97-98 Finals, they were the last "wicked representatives" to challenge the great Michael Jordan and the Bulls.
At that time, watching the NBA, I would think that they were natural villains.
By the time we reached the 21st century, Utah was getting old. Malone went to the Lakers to run "ok" for the last time to chase the championship, Stockton played nineteen seasons, with nine assists king, and the almost unattainable record of 15806 assists and 3265 steals.
Utah in the snowstorm, only their head coach "Hard Nose" Jerry Sloan remains.
Unexpectedly, they became the rockets of the Yao Mai era, the biggest bitter lord.
In the 2007 playoffs, the Rockets with Yao Mai lost seven 3-4,
In the 2008 playoffs, without Yao Ming, even though the Rockets won 22 consecutive games in the regular season, they were still defeated by the Jazz 4-2.
The following year, the Rockets fought to fifth in the West, and when they met the Blazers, Yao Ming broke the first round of the spell.
However, Sir Utah has truly ended the championship aspirations of the Rockets and Chinese fans on the other side of the ocean for two consecutive years, and has become a mountain that Yao Mai has never crossed.
To speak of Jazz, let's speak of Sloan.
He is to Utah as Popovich is to the Spurs.
Not only have they been coaching for a long time (one for 23 years, one has been in charge for 26 years), but they have also engraved their personality and ideas firmly in the DNA of this team.
Although the Jazz led the Jazz in the late nineties to kill the Chicago Bulls in the dark, Sloan never received any boos and taunts at the Chicago Union Center.
Because in a way, his position as a bull, even Jordan had to obey.
The No. 4 jersey that fluttered high in the United Center was his.
He was a true first-generation bull.
During the player period, he was a real defensive monster.
Tough, ready to fight with opponents on the field, there are eight fractures in his body in eleven years of his career.
Tough, the Bulls picked him out of the Baltimore Bullets team when they formed the team, and on the first day of his report, he said to the whole team:
"We're not weak chickens, so we're going to get ready to kick everybody's ass."
Excellence, in the Chicago Bulls' decade (1967-1976) he scored two All-Stars, four defensive firsts and two defensive seconds.
At his peak, he had 18.8 points, 8.8 rebounds and 3.5 assists, and he was just a 1.96-meter white guard.
He retired from the Bulls in 1976 and the No. 4 jersey has since hung over the United Center. He was the first and greatest Bulls player in the minds of the people until the arrival of Michael Jordan in 1984.
In the year 1984-85, Sir Utah did three great things.
In the 1984 draft, the 16th pick in the first round was selected by John Stockton, a white young guard from The University of Gonzaga.
The following year picked out Louisiana Technical College's black forward Carl Malone with the 13th pick in the first round.
Former Bulls legend Jerry Sloan was hired to join the team's coaching staff and replaced Frank Langdon as head coach four years later.
Since then, an immortal legend has begun.
After Utah retired in 2004, Jerry Sloan quickly pulled up a division that could fight for good.
In the 2004 offseason, they signed Turkish center Oku, who had just helped the Pistons win the championship, and Carlos Boozer, who played in the Cavaliers, for six years, 50 million and six years and 70 million, respectively.
In the 2005 draft, the Jazz selected Delon Williams of the University of Illinois with the third overall pick in the first round.
Oku was a rare "3D center" who could shoot three-pointers and protect the basket at the time, and Delong and Boozell would soon become the new Utah doubles. Plus the European all-around King Kirilenko in the original team.
The Utah Jazz, who gave headaches to many of the league's strongest teams, is back.
In their first year (05-06 season), they won 41 and lost 41 to ninth in the West.
The following year they fought 51 wins and 31 losses, winning the Northwest Division championship and fifth in the West.
So in the first round of the playoffs, they ran into the Rockets, who were 52-30 and fourth in the West.
That year, Yao Mai experienced repeated injuries in the previous season, and they all showed their due excellent state.
Maddy 24.6 points 5.3 board 4.5 assists, league three,
Yao Ming 25.0 points 9.4 board 2.0 blocks, league second team.
As long as they were not injured, they were the strongest "internal and external fists" in the league at that time.
In the first game, Yao Ming had 28 points and 13 boards, Maddy 23 points, 4 boards and 7 assists, and the Rockets relied on such a superstar duo, plus the third defense in the league. 84-75 easy to take.
In the second game, Boozer burst out and scored 41 points, but Maddy responded with 31 points, 10 and 10 and 5 assists, plus Yao Ming's 27 points and 9 boards. The Rockets started all in double-doubles and went on to go down 98-90 at home.
With a 2-0 lead in two games, the vast majority of people at the time were not thinking about qualifying, but whether they could sweep.
But the rockets kept the problem simple.
Back to the Salt Lake City Energy Program Arena, where Michael Jordan once won the jackpot.
In the third game, the Rockets only scored 67 points, although Yao Ming had 24 points and 16 boards and Maddy 24 points, the rest of the people except For Battier's 11 points and Alstom's 6 points were zero. The Jazz pulled back a city 81-67.
In the fourth game, amid the deafening cheers of jazz fans, the Jazz frantically strangled Yao Mai at both ends of the offensive and defensive ends, and the two were in foul trouble at the same time. Yao Ming 20 points, 9 boards, Maddy 18 points, 4 boards and 4 assists, such a performance can not lead the Rockets to victory.
In the fifth game, Yao Ming showed his superstar style with 21 points and 15 rebounds, Maddy 26 points and 16 assists, and the Rockets also won the crucial Tianwangshan with the help of Howard on 6-of-6 shooting and Hyde, who made two three-pointers in a row.
But Utah wasn't worried at all, because they knew the opponent in front of them was already afraid of the away game.
Sure enough, the Jazz, who returned home, won another 94-82 victory over the Rockets, successfully dragging the series into the seventh.
In the seventh game, both sides had no way to retreat.
The Jazz led by seven points in the first quarter and led by 10 points at 53-43 at halftime. Delong and Boozer combined to score 32 points, overpowering the Yao Mai all-Star duo (21 points).
In the third quarter, Yao Mai scored 14 points to narrow the point difference 24-22.
Yao Ming scored 15 points in the fourth quarter, but Boozer also scored 10 points in the single quarter with color.
With one minute left in the game, Yao Ming made two free throws and once chased the score to 97-99, but the Jazz used more tenacious will and more resolute tactical execution to reach the free throw for two consecutive rounds.
With Boozer and Kirilenko making four free throws, even if Maddy finally completed a breakthrough layup, it still couldn't stop the Rockets from losing 99-103 at home to their opponents.
At the time, the Rockets, who had two All-Star starters in their seats, were blown up with a small and unpopular goal.
Compared to the disappointment in 2007, the rocket'snother setback the following year was less surprising.
Although they had the second-best record in history at the time of 22 consecutive wins in the regular season, the Jazz (54-25) won only one less game than them. It is also the league's number one offensive efficiency (113.8) team.
In the third year, Delong gradually became another qualified commander under Coach Sloane, averaging 18.8 points and 10.3 assists per game, and it was at that time that he had the "eat and sleep to beat Paul" segment.
More importantly, Yao Ming was injured. In February 2008, he suffered a stress fracture in his left ankle, was reimbursed for the season, and nearly delayed the Beijing Olympics.
So the playoffs faced the Jazz again, and Maddy, who was no longer in a state of waist injury, had to bear it alone as a leader.
That was probably the saddest round of Maddy's career.
Compared with the previous year, he was less Yao Ming around him, but more of a rookie scola, and opposite was the wolf-like Utah wolves.
At the beginning of the game, he lost two home games to 2-0, and there was only despair that pervaded the Rockets.
But this time at the Jazz's home, the Rockets exploded with a tenacious desire to survive. Maddy scored 27 points, Scola had 16 points and 10 double-doubles, and Alstom threw in four three-pointers to score 20 points and five assists.
The Rockets 94-92 snatched a victory from Salt Lake City.
In Game 4, the Jazz won 86-82, with Maddy playing a quasi-triple-double with 23 points, 10 boards and 8 assists, and was the only player on the Rockets to score twenty.
But they brought the suspense back to Houston,
In Game 5, the Rockets played a suffocating defense at home, leaving the Jazz with only 67 points. Maddy scored 29 points, Scola 18 points and 12 boards, Alstom 14 points, and the Rockets won 26 points 95-69!
But at this time, Maddy's body could not hold back. At the age of 29, he not only had a back injury, but also had a knee problem that season. After five games with the Jazz, his knees didn't allow him to play anymore.
So he made a decision that most people could not understand and completely ruined his final peak: to close the door
Although game six was in Utah, the Rockets were eventually eliminated by the Jazz for the second year in a row, 91-113.
But Maddy was the last to give up.
He pulled out three-pointers, he killed inside, he made a sharp stop to shoot, ignoring defenders and injuries again and again, and bombarding the basket as if he were still the two-time leading scorer, 35.13 seconds.
40 points, 10 boards, 5 assists, 18 free throws.
Those who say Maddy wasn't tough enough, not tough enough, didn't want to win should really look back at the game.
Since then, Maddy has never returned to all-star level, and the following year he even fell out with the management, directly announcing surgery and season reimbursement.
The Yao Mai era ended.
Is jazz strong? Strong of course.
In that Wild West in the first decade of the 21st century, they only missed the playoffs for one year.
But compared to the Spurs, Lakers and Mavericks and Suns in the same period, they still can't reach that level.
They eliminated the Rockets for two consecutive years and were easily wiped out by Kobe Bryant's Lakers for two consecutive years.
They also reached the Western Conference Finals, but eliminated the Rockets and Black Eight Warriors all the way before being swept by the Spurs 4-1 gentleman in the Western Conference Finals.
They are a playoff team that is overall outstanding and outstanding in style, but has a limited core level and a low ceiling.
Never reached championship level.
However, it was such an iron army that eliminated yao mai for two consecutive years at the peak age, and even indirectly let Maddy end the peak early.
Is it a power gap? Boozer and Delon have only been in the All-Star six times and the All-Roc Team three times. Not even any one of Yao Mai's people.
For two consecutive years, the Rockets have home-court advantage, but they just can't fix the coffin a little more firmly when they are close to victory.
Perhaps, this is fate.