The year 2000 was another turning point in Maddie's life.
That summer, the Magic had missed Tim with great irony. Duncan, so they gave the 21-year-old Maddy a $93 million contract. Maddie bids farewell to Cousin Carter and cold Toronto and sets foot in the heat of Florida, which is close to his home.
If Maddie were to describe her three years at the Raptors, I'm afraid we wouldn't hear too many words of praise. In fact, at the beginning, Maddy did not believe that she could be selected with such a high pick, so she was nervous in the team to see if the coach was going to be replaced by herself as soon as she made a mistake. If carter hadn't been here, I'm afraid his days would have gotten worse. He could only hide in the corner and watch his teammates high-five, bump their chests, spray trash, occasionally dunk a basket or two or enter the inside line to complete a Jordan-style lever, and the cheers of the audience leaked one or two shy smiles.
At that time, Maddy had no friends, and on the days when he was not playing, he curled up on the couch of his apartment alone to watch the Video tapes of the Lakers in the Magician period. In addition to this, his biggest hobby is to make phone calls, family members, relatives in the United States, and Kobe Bryant. In the winter of '97, he even paid $1,500 a month for the phone bill.
Feeling home was certainly great, and Maddie immediately bought a villa on the other side of Shaker and Woods' house for $6.6 million. That way, he wouldn't have to spend too much money to pay for his phone. In addition, there is one more thing he deserves to be happy: in the raptors' final season, Maddie became the team's starter in the second half, averaging 17 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 blocks per game. In Orlando, he was partnered by Grant Hill, known as "Jordan's successor."
In the 00-01 season, Hill played only 4 games, and Maddy inevitably had to explode. Later that year, Iverson, Kidd, Carter, and Maddie were put together to discuss: Iverson had just won MVP last season; Kidd won consecutive assists, 51 wins with the Suns; Carter averaged 28+6+4 per game, with the Raptors and 76ers in seven games. But people still think Maddy is the best in the East, because he is averaging 27+8+5 per game, 1.5 steals and 1.5 blocks.
In addition to the data, what is more important is Maddy's decisive heart. He is like an eagle hovering high in the air, always able to defeat his opponents as fast as possible. At that time, Maddy was the hardest working person, he got up early and trained in the dark, and played every night with full love. Darrell Armstrong said Maddy despised lazy guys, "I score a lot because there are a lot of people who don't defend. They don't want to foul, they want to stay on the pitch. I don't respect this kind of guy. They score 25 points, OK, let them defend against the opponent score 30 points! ”
Just as Maddie tattooed "King of Kings" and "Lord of Lords" on his left arm, he was willing to give everything for winning, and his eyes were full of victories and championships.
In the 02-03 season, Maddie really reached its peak. That summer, he honed his jump shot impeccablely, averaging 32+7+6 per game and shooting six three-pointers per game with 39 percent shooting. There are no dead ends in the offense, he can use the lightning first step to cross the opponent, or he can make the opponent desperate with a dry pull from 25 feet away. This season, Maddie retained his comparative advantage over other swingers in passing, and just happened to make up for his biggest shortcomings by playing free throws far beyond the normal level of his career, which coincided with the best year on his three-point line.
So we saw that in that series in Detroit, Maddie and the other players were not at the same latitude at all. His talent and top jump shot feel make him not need to grab positions and fight, or even reach a specific area to take off to complete a leaf-free jump shot. He picks up the ball, half-turns to observe, taps his toes, and then flies backwards, his leg muscles and shot arc forming a graceful angle that flies from the opponent's inaccessible fingertips to the basket.
Maddy scored 89 points in the first two games and played as coach Carlisle also admitted in an interview: "He's already the best player on the planet." "The Magic led the Pistons 3-1, which was the high point of Maddy's brilliance, but also the beginning of the decline. Later in the story, the Pistons walked back from the brink of elimination, three times, eliminating the Magic.
Of course, we can't just put the blame on Maddy, the players the Magic equipped for Maddy: Girisek, Armstrong, Gooden, Garretti, the only one who can be remembered is probably Mike. Miller. Even the Magic's then-head coach, Rivers, had to say, "We're the best player on a team with only one All-Star." ”
Building a team with any player as the core must fit the characteristics of the player, maximize the relative advantages of the player, and cover up the player's disadvantages. A player like Maddy, who can both serve as a perimeter point and a pick-and-roll within a three-point line, either has enough shooters and blockers to maximize his passing skills; Either stack up the inner frame guard and the peripheral countermeasure points to liberate his ability to end the attack.
But those years of magic even let go of Mike, who was known for his three-pointers. Miller, the team's perennial offensive rebounding rate is in the bottom ten, lack of responsive players...
After the team experienced a wave of 19 consecutive defeats at the beginning of the season, Maddy's patience reached its extreme, and the decisive killing gas in him began to dissipate, replaced by inexplicable hostility and endless complaints. He got into a lot of trouble with management and even began to talk about leaving the Magic in February 2004, although Maddy still took the top scorer with a back injury that year.
If we look at it now, it's not so surprising that Maddy has made such a move in a similar situation. In fact, when high school players first poured into the league in the seventies, some people predicted that these half-grown children who had never experienced college careers at all would be forced into the adult world of drunken fans, suddenly leaving the family, leaving the division, directly facing huge dollars, nightclubs, women, independent life, spotlights, tens of thousands of expectations and media flies like questions, but also hope that they can cultivate professionalism, ethics, good locker room attitude and strong and healthy competitive mentality in the process. This is almost impossible.
But such a move really made Maddy, who should have stood on the moral high ground, instantly become the target of public criticism, and of course, everyone had to re-start the topic that had been repeatedly chewed:
Is it the talent for competition or a brave heart that restricts flying?
Maybe Maddie really carried too much weight he couldn't. People like him because he is dashing, flowing, and debauched, and of course because he seems to be like the youth, growth, rebellion, and change of many people. But based on this, Maddie has tortuously walked a long way on a road, a road that no one wants to walk with. Loneliness, jealousy, criticism, there is always a voice of complaint here, but there is very little love.
Just as he printed "King of kings" and "Lord of Lords" on his left arm, he also slightly contradicted a passage from Isaiah chapter 54 verse 47 on his right arm:
“NO weapon formed against me shall prosper；and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn.”
Perhaps, in the years when he was hailed as a genius, a leading scorer, and a superstar, his heart was still in the body of the 18-year-old Maddie who only wanted to have a pair of Air-McGrady sneakers, couldn't help but communicate with his family, and kept talking to Kobe on the phone.
Before Orlando embarked on a new journey, Maddie's original idea was to do a good job of "Jordan's Pippen" around Hill, but the sad truth pushed him from behind the scenes to the front of the stage, like a child who had been forced into the adult world. He wasn't ready, but the ability arrived, and Coach Rivers started using him like a star, and he started galloping, cutting points, and dunking on everyone's head. Hill finally failed to get out of injury, and in the days of loneliness and losing streaks, injuries began to find Maddie again, and The Story of Orlando ended in a confused end. What continues is the blame, blame, and questioning of the media and fans because of the gap in talent and speech that he has previously burst out.
Later he went to the Rockets, failed, injured, came back, and tried to make up for his lost athletic ability with his skills: take his breakthrough and go to the jump shot, take away the waist strength he used to jump shot and he would be the glue and the long-range shooter. But I have to admit that the murderous gas that rose from Orlando has quietly faded. The last moment of 35.13 seconds against the Spurs in 2004 became an ancient song, and at the same time, it also drained the last trace of "Orlando" breath on Maddie's body. Finally, his body fell from the sky with his mind, so he went to the CBA, returned to the Spurs, and covered his eyes in panic during Leonard's Finals free throw...
What exactly is restricting flight? For Maddie, maybe these are really less important.
We really don't have to care about the hatred of those people, not everything in this world has to be asked. As we endlessly wrestle with what would happen if we were to end this way or that, Maddie has begun to smile at the world and look at loneliness, and in front of us is the noisy fireworks. Success and failure, sin and punishment, talent and reality, dreams and reality, aside from these, Maddie finally brings us enough joy. And these will eventually disappear along with a faint sadness, and then one day when you open the photo album of memories, the dragonfly recalls the Maddie and herself along the way.