Jordan: I thought he was there to help me!

Chapter 622 This is the dirtiest Finals officiating I've ever seen.

"This is the dirtiest Finals officiating I've ever seen!" Barkley was so angry at halftime that he was practically jumping up and down in the studio, and he even wrote a letter to complain.

"Darkness! Utter darkness! The referee's calls are completely off the mark! It's outrageous! I've never even heard of such a call before!"

"We can't question the professionalism of the three referees; they are among the best in the NBA! But what's truly heartbreaking is that the best referees officiated a game like this. Why would they do something so blatantly?"

"18:4! 18:4 in free throws in a single quarter! Ridiculous! Absolutely ridiculous!"

"Okay, let's skip this part and let Charles calm down and rest." Kenny, listening to the voice coming from his earpiece, once again played the role of cleaning up the mess. He patted Barkley on the shoulder to stop him from continuing, and then the directors on site quickly switched to the "GG" segment!

"Charles, you can't do this! This will get you fired!" Kenny spread his hands, trying to comfort Barkley: "We all know why! We also need to know that if Los Angeles were leading 2-0 right now, the ones enjoying this whistle treatment would be the Knicks and Lin!"

"Of course I know Kenny! I understand! But we can't do it this way!" Barkley spread his hands and said, "If we're not allowed to criticize or question, not allowed to express our own opinions, then what are we two doing here? As broadcasters?"

"Then we can just find any junior high school student who can read a script; we don't need them!"

"Charles!" Kenny sighed, shaking his head. "After all these years, don't you know what you can and can't say? How many complaint letters have you received? How many people want you fired? Don't you really know?"

"When it's time to stay calm, we must stay calm!"

Just as Kenny was trying to persuade Barkley, a TNT manager walked over and said, "If you don't calm down, we won't need you for the second half. We can't tell the fans these things."

"This is going too far! It will affect our cooperation with the NBA."

"So we're just going to ignore these ridiculous rulings? We'll never even mention them?"

"You can mention it, Charles. There is freedom of speech here, and everyone can say what they want. But what I mean is, don't say too much. Know when to stop, or your words will only hurt you."

"Okay." Barkley looked at the management and nodded, "You can't keep saying the calls are unfair to the Knicks. Fine, I won't say that. I can still express my opinion and explain my understanding of the game."

"Charles, of course you can. You can say whatever you want, as long as there's a limit, a boundary! I believe you know what I'm talking about, right?"

"I understand." Barkley was actually calm this time, and spread his hands towards him, saying, "I will no longer criticize the referees, and I will no longer dwell on calls that are unfavorable to the Knicks. I swear."

"Well done! I knew you could do it." The executive smiled, walked over and hugged Barkley, then turned and left.

"You're not planning to listen to him, are you?" Kenny wasn't in a relaxed mood at all; on the contrary, he was extremely nervous!

He knows Barkley too well. This fat bastard, you think you can make him listen with just a few words?

Daydreaming!

Although he didn't know what Barkley was planning, Kenny was 100% certain that Barkley was neither convinced nor backed down.

The second half of the game was a bloodbath...

"Carmelo and Alonzo, 3 fouls; Amaré, Memet, and Allan, 2 fouls; Josh, Gerrard, and Lin, 1 foul." The assistant coach held up the statistics and read out each person's fouls one by one.

From every perspective, the Knicks committed far too many fouls and it was terrible.

"What about the other side? Has anyone committed two or more fouls?" Lin Tian asked, looking up from his seat.

"Prince, Fisher, Vujacic, and Walton all have two fouls, and Kobe, O'Neal, and others also have one foul each. If we look at the total number of fouls, we have 18 fouls and the Lakers have 14, so the difference doesn't seem that much."

"But we're already 15 fewer free throws! The Lakers had 25 free throws in the first half, while we only had 10. A lot of their fouls were non-shooting fouls, which could be resolved with a simple inbound pass, while we..."

"Damn Los Angeles guys! A bunch of sore losers!" Carmelo Anthony, who had the most frustrating first half and picked up three fouls early, angrily threw his towel on the floor. "I've never played such a disgusting game in my life, f***ing! Why are they treating us like this? I don't understand!"

"It's absolutely disgusting!" Stoudemire complained as well. "Once, that Russian guy slapped my arm so hard it turned red, but the referee just pretended not to see it, he completely ignored it!"

"That's enough!" Lin Tian suddenly said, "If complaining were useful, I would have started complaining long ago. Tonight, the referees don't want us to win, and neither does the league. What they want is an extremely long series that could ideally go to a seventh game; what they want is a closely contested final showdown!"

"I've encountered a similar situation back in Indiana. To this bullshit refereeing, I only have one thing to say: we're in this situation because we're fucking too strong! Because we've already killed any suspense in the series."

"That's why the league resorted to this tactic, trying to stop us from continuing to win!"

"So, everyone can actually be a little proud now. This kind of boasting means we've already dominated the series, dominated Los Angeles, and dominated everything!"

"Then what do we do? We can't just sit here and suffer this loss." Anthony spread his hands, still looking indignant.

"Let me start in the second half," Mourning volunteered, grumbling. "Three minutes! Three minutes at most, I guarantee I'll provoke that bastard Shaq into throwing a punch at me, and then I'll fight him! I promise I'll pin him to the ground and beat him to a pulp!"

"Back then, you didn't need to help. I could handle it myself. I'd take down every single one of the Lakers! I'd cripple them every time they came!"

"I guarantee that Shaq and anyone else who dares to come will be bedridden for at least two weeks!"

"You think you're as good as me? Are you planning to take on the entire Lakers team by yourself?" Lin Tian rolled his eyes and said, "Even if you are that good, I won't let my guys get beaten up on the court while I just stand by and watch."

"This has nothing to do with winning or losing the game or series; it's just about my personality. I will never let my teammates get beaten up on the court."

"Yes, of course. If we have the upper hand, I can pretend I don't see them beating others up."

Lin Tian's words made the players laugh for a while, which slightly dispelled some of the anxiety within the team. At least for now, everyone was more or less relaxed.

"So what should we do in the second half?" After a burst of laughter, Stoudemire still raised the crucial question.

"Just play the way we're used to." Old Nelson showed the same ease and composure as Lin Tian: "Just play the way we're most used to and like the most! The referees' whistles have a limit; they can't keep blowing them indefinitely."

"They have their moments of complacency, moments of reluctance to continue, and that's when we wait. We wait for the right opportunity, when both the Lakers and the referees relax and think the game is over, and then we launch our counterattack!"

"Until that opportunity arises, what we need to do is relax, stay calm, and try to narrow or stabilize the score as much as possible, and not let the referees pull too far ahead of us."

"And, most importantly, I need a volunteer now!"

"Is it the kind of volunteer who can take down the other side? I'll do it!" Smith quickly raised his hand, indicating that he was willing to take care of someone on the other side.

"You're young and inexperienced, let the veterans handle this! Anyway, my career is over, one more malicious foul won't make a difference. Tell me, coach, who should we go for? No matter who we go for, I guarantee he'll be in the hospital for at least a week!" Mourning flexed his biceps, demanding a guarantee from Don Nelson.

"Didn't we say we wouldn't fight?" Old Nelson was extremely helpless. What kind of people were on his team? They were all violent, always thinking about elbowing others in the head, not one of them had a brain.

"I need someone to go with me after the game to yell at the referee, yell at the reporters, yell at them to death. After that, we'll probably be fined 2 to 3 yuan. I'll pay for that. I just need a volunteer to go with me so we can look more imposing."

"Me! Me! Me! Me!"

"Pick me! Pick me!"

"I'm a pro at swearing!"

"I used the foulest language!"

"I yelled at the referee so badly he won't be able to sleep tonight!"

"I've kept the reporters up at night!"

"I don't need reimbursement, I'll pay for it myself!"

……

If when it came to hitting someone, everyone was just eager to try, some excited and some wanting to hold back, now that it's time to start cursing, there are countless people responding!

Okay, everyone responded; there wasn't a single person on the team who didn't want to participate in this fun and carefree activity.

The world has long suffered from poor referees.

Old Nelson watched as this group of guys frantically volunteered, going from simply raising their hands to signing up, then showcasing their talents and abilities, and finally, in the locker room, a bunch of them started freestealing!

Xiao Si even brought a speaker and placed it next to them, and a group of people started gesturing and cursing.

Listen up, old Nelson...

Hey!

I must say, the guys sang really well, the rhythm and everything was fantastic.

Then, a 10-minute intra-team battle ensued within the Knicks!

Then, when Old Nelson glanced at his watch, he abruptly stopped the group, who were still not satisfied, and said to their expectant eyes, "Alright, it's decided. Lin will come with me. The rest of you can practice some more."

Well, in the end, Old Nelson still chose to go with Lin Tian, ​​who hadn't participated at all, to yell at the referee after the game.

As for the others... they have too many techniques, too many rhymes, and too much profanity.

It's not appropriate to criticize others after the game.

"Alright, it's almost time!"

"Time to go out and compete! Let's teach the Los Angeles guys a lesson! Let them know that you can't win a championship by relying on referees and underhanded tactics!"

"yes!"

The Knicks team was inexplicably invigorated at this moment. Everyone stood tall, shouted slogans, and then walked out of the locker room with great pride!

Their imposing manner even startled old Nelson.

What's going on?

It turns out that having everyone perform a rap or other talent show during halftime can increase team cohesion and player morale?

That's outrageous...

Regardless of how outrageous it may seem, the Knicks once again marched onto the court with high spirits.

At the same time, the three referees were also almost ready. They looked at each other and then nodded to one another.

During halftime, they also came up with a strategy.

In the third quarter, keep praising the Knicks to the skies!

Continue to widen the gap.

Then in the fourth quarter, when the game is no longer in doubt and the Lakers are about to win, give the Knicks a few more chances to make the foul count and free throw ratio less ugly, ideally making the game feel like a "close match" or a "narrow defeat for the Knicks".

In this way, even if the referees face a severe media storm in the next few days, after those days, when people are too lazy to review the game and only want to take a look at the post-game statistics, they will think: This game wasn't that great!

The number of fouls and free throws were about the same for both sides. Even if the Lakers had a slightly higher number, it would be news if the Lakers had Shaq. The Lakers had fewer free throws!

In short, the referees are ready!

As for the Lakers?

Although they didn't have a significant lead in the score in the first half, they had completely established a psychological advantage.

Jackson even said just one sentence during halftime.

"If you guys can't win a game like this, you might as well go home and grow corn! Stop fucking playing basketball, I can't afford to lose face like this!"

The Lakers players' reaction was quite simple: You old fox, you can't afford to lose face, but we can? We have to crush the Knicks in the second half! And not just win, but win spectacularly!

We must completely destroy the Knicks!

That way, even if others later say that the Lakers' victory in this game was unfair, the Lakers players will have something to say.

If you're only 5 or 10 points behind, it's fine to say the referee helped you.

We beat the Knicks by several tens of points, and you're saying the referees helped us?

If referees were this capable, we would have won 82 games in a row!

Both teams of players stepped onto the field with absolute confidence and a determination to defeat their opponent outright.

The second half continues!

The first wave of possession was held by the Knicks.

Lin Tian dribbled the ball to the frontcourt, then gestured for Stoudemire to set a screen for him. The two quickly separated, and Lin Tian slammed the ball to the floor. Stoudemire caught the ball and flew towards O'Neal under the basket!

I'm going to force myself on you today!

A real man fights sharks!

"Go to hell!" Under the basket, O'Neal wasn't afraid of a springy guy like Stoudemire. When he saw Stoudemire coming to challenge him, he mustered all his strength and slapped the flying Stoudemire across the face.

"Snapped!"

With a crisp sound that echoed throughout the court, O'Neal's slap, which was meant to frighten Stoudemire and prevent him from ever attacking the paint again, didn't touch the ball at all; it hit Stoudemire's arm instead!

Then, the referee chose to ignore it!

They didn't call a foul on that play!

As soon as the Lakers players saw that there were no whistles, they didn't hesitate at all and sprinted towards the frontcourt.

With Kobe in the lead and Prince and Kirilenko on the wings, the Lakers seized the opportunity and launched a full-scale counterattack!

The Knicks' defense was indeed mediocre. When Kobe stepped into the Knicks' three-point line, only Lin Tian managed to get back to his defensive position in time and stand under the basket, making it a one-against-three situation for Lin Tian.

Kobe didn't force the ball at all. He passed it to Kirilenko on the left, who then passed it to Prince on the right. Prince then threw the ball directly into the air.

Then, Kobe cleverly dodged to the side, and a huge figure had already caught up behind him!

Shaquille O'Neal!

After gaining an advantage on the defensive end, this guy became extremely excited and, unusually, got involved in the fast break.

O'Neal leaped high into the air, caught the basketball, aimed at the basket, and was about to smash the ball in!

But Lin Tian was still standing in front of him!

Seeing O'Neal charging towards him, Lin Tian showed no fear whatsoever. He gathered all his strength and slapped O'Neal's arm!

At this point, Lin Tian stopped thinking about blocking shots and defending!

He was determined to get revenge for Stoudemire!

"Snapped!"

A crisp sound, even louder than the previous one, rang out as Lin Tian slapped O'Neal across the face, without even touching the basketball.

At the same time, Lin Tian exerted great force with his other hand, pushing O'Neal in mid-air.

O'Neal is heavy and old, so his core strength is naturally not the same as when he was young. So he lost his balance and fell to the floor in a very awkward way. He was lying on the floor, which was quite an ugly sight!

"Next time you defend like that, I promise I won't aim for your arm!" Lin Tian didn't fall after landing; instead, he looked down at O'Neal and continued to taunt him: "Bullying my man? You really think you can do whatever you want just because the referee doesn't blow the whistle?"

"If you're not afraid of dying, we'll see!"

"You think I'm afraid of you?" When O'Neal heard Lin Tian threaten him, he didn't care whether he was a match for Lin Tian. He pushed himself up from the floor and was about to argue with Lin Tian.

But even faster than him was Kobe, who was bad at playing but had a strong addiction to it.

Kobe shoved Lin Tian, ​​about to unleash a torrent of abuse, but Lin Tian glared at him fiercely, preventing him from uttering the trash talk he was about to say! (End of Chapter)