The Heat eliminated the East-first Bucks 4-1 to complete the Black Eight miracle.
Butler's performance in this series won fans a full house. On the contrary, the letter was also pushed to the forefront of public opinion. In the life and death battle, when the performance of the letter 23 free throws and 10 was still hotly discussed by fans, the remarks of using Jordan as an analogy to losing after the letter lost the game put himself on the fire.
After the Bucks were eliminated by the Heat's "Black Eight", they were interviewed by Bucks reporters after the alphabet game. Reporter Eric asked if Alphabet failed this season?
The alphabet let out a long breath and shouted while holding his head in his hands, "Oh, my god."
After a moment of thought, Alphabet began to respond emotionally to the reporter: "Eric, you asked the same question last year. Do you get promoted every year? Nope. Do you feel like you're a failure every year? Yes or no? Surely not, right? ”
After saying this, the mood of the letter eased slightly, and the tone began to calm down.
He continued: "Every year you have a job goal, a promotion and a raise, to support your family. Or other goals that I don't know about. For example, buying a big house or something. Working towards a goal is not a failure, it is a path towards success, and I am not targeting you. First of all, if you want to succeed, you must experience failure."
At this point, Alphabet paused for a moment, pondered, and continued: "Michael Jordan played 15 seasons and won 6 championships. So did he fail the other 9 seasons? ”
After Chunchun finished teaching, Alphabet spread his hands, feeling that the reporter understood what he was saying.
After saying his reasoning, Alphabet summatively asked the reporter: "So, why do you ask me this question?" This in itself is a wrong question, and there is no such thing as failure in competitive sports. In the 50 years from 1971 to 2021, we haven't won a single championship. So, have the last 50 years failed? No! Of course not. That's a step towards success. ”
Alphabet's remarks were immediately forwarded by well-known sports media such as TNT, ESPN, B/R and so on. Once it spread, it quickly aroused heated discussions among fans. At the same time, the interview clip in which Alphabet used Jordan as an example to talk about "failure" also quickly appeared on the hot search list in the United States.
Former NBA European star Paul Gasol retweeted a video of Alphabet about the defeat. At the same time, the post expressed its approval. Finally, he wrote "Proud of you Giannis".
After the game, "Inside The NBA" discussed Alphabet's failed remarks.
Before the discussion began, Barkley turned to ask how many seasons O'Neal had played, and O'Neal replied "19 seasons."
After the game, Barkley began to state his opinion: "I agree with the letters, O'Neill played 19 seasons and won four titles, but I don't think his other 15 seasons were failures".
O'Neill offered a different view. In his opinion, Alphabet and Bucks are failures this season, there is no middle ground, failure is failure.
O'Neill said: "Alphabet missed too many free throws and when you are the core of this team, losing is your failure. I can't speak for everyone, but I look at the players in front of me, like Larry Bird and so on, and they all admit the failure of the season. Alphabet wasn't a loser, but this season alone was a failure. And I think when my team doesn't win, it's always my failure. ”
In fact, back last season, journalist Eric asked questions similar to letters.
In the 2021-2022 season, after the Bucks' seven-game defeat to the Celtics, Alphabet answered his thoughts on the failure of the season in an interview with Eric: "This is sports, and there are winners and losers. There could be people who have been winning since their first season in the league. But in the end, your career is an up-and-down learning process that takes it step by step. I don't think we have to think we've failed, but to be able to realize that we've gained something and continue to grow for the championship after that, maybe next season or two seasons from now, and no one knows what the future holds. Somebody is going to win the championship, hopefully it's us. But I don't think our previous experience was a failure. ”
From the Rockets, who won the league's first place in 2018, to the league's No. 1 Bucks being eliminated this season, the team that won the league's first place in the league in the past six seasons has not made it to the Finals. Of these, the Bucks accounted for three times. 2019: Bucks East defeated the Raptors; 2020: Bucks lose to Heat in the Eastern Conference semifinals; 2023: The Bucks lose to the Heat in the first round.
In the last 6 seconds of the fourth quarter, after the scrum was in hand, Alphabet did not dare to execute the free throw, passed the ball to Middleton, and narrowly missed.
In the last 9 seconds of overtime, Alphabet went to the front, faced Butler's defense, and chose to pass to Middleton.
In terms of the words of the alphabet alone, it is very philosophical. If it's just writing, this philosophical statement of the alphabet will definitely get a perfect score. But in this series, Alphabet missed 2 games, and the Bucks won 1-1; Alphabet played in 3 matches, 0-3. In the last life and death battle, he handed over 23 free throws and 10 of them, passing the ball at key moments and other fan operations. The sixth time in NBA history that it was "Black Eight".
In the face of failure, not admitting failure, but dialectically explaining the truth to the public and escaping the reality of failure, it is indeed a loss of grace.