Bishop of the Devil

On Sunday night, Richard finally got to watch the long-awaited All-Star game.

The head coach of the Western Conference is Popovich.

There has never been a warm relationship between Richard and Popovich because of Larry Brown.

However, there has been no friction, and it is usually a state of affairs.

But Popovich didn't know what happened today. He seemed to be in a good mood and waved at Richard and smiled.

Richard also nodded politely and smiled.

What Richard didn't expect was that Popovich walked directly towards him.

"Lee, congratulations. The Pirates are growing well. I feel like it won't be long before they become another Trail Blazers or Pistons." Popovich walked over and said to Richard with a smile.

"But it's normal to think about it. With your draft vision, it's not surprising that you can build such a team in a short period of time."

"Next time you go to San Antonio for an away game, I'll treat you to a taste of my treasured red wine. It's definitely good stuff. Even I'm not willing to give it to Tim."

Richard was dumbfounded. He entered the league in 1996, and it is now February 2006. It has been almost ten years.

It seems that in the past ten years, Popovich has said less to himself than just now...

"Greg, forget about the red wine. I know it is your lifeblood. If you really drink the red wine you have collected, I'm afraid you will fight me." Richard became cheerful and shouted at Popovich. It was a joke.

Popovich also laughed. He didn't expect Richard to know him so well.

He has an incomparable fascination with red wine. He can be called a wine addict, but he is not an alcoholic.

"Li, feel free to play in this All-Star Game..."

"There may be areas where I need your help in the future."

After saying that, Popovich winked at Richard and returned to the Western Conference bench.

Richard was confused. Is this naughty old man drunk today?

Why are you talking so carelessly?

Could it be that he also thought he could help the Spurs in the draft?

He is really an old man who has no profit and cannot afford to be early...

Richard smiled bitterly. He didn't have any bad feelings towards Popovich's approach.

The Spurs are really poor, which requires Popovich to be careful and spare no effort to save money for the Spurs.

And for NBA teams, what is the cheapest deal? That's signing quality rookies.

Some rookies have star-level abilities, but they are only given rookie salaries. This is naturally the cheapest deal.

Think about the teams that Richard coached, they have never paid luxury tax, but their strength is far stronger than those teams with high luxury tax.

One of the reasons is that Richard can get many high-quality rookies on hand.

Popovich must have seen some clues from the previous draft and Sanders' actions, so he came to contact Richard just now.

No matter what, let’s sell a favor to Richard first, and we’ll talk about it later if it works.

Richard smiled and shook his head. Although he didn't really need this kind of favor, it was hard to refuse it.

But after Popovich said these words, Richard became more confident about winning the super suit.

How can Popovich sell Richard a favor? It must be a waste of time and reduce the playing time of some powerful players.

The All-Star Game is probably a joke in the eyes of Popovich. He has led the Western Conference All-Stars several times, but basically he is too lazy to arrange his troops...

Popovich will definitely not give them too much playing time for his All-Star players in the competition, for fear that they will get injured.

Although this possibility is very small, even if it is only one in 10,000, Popovich is not willing to try it. For the same reason, the Spurs are too poor...

If the season ends, the Spurs will suffer a huge loss.

This can also see the difference between Richard and Popovich.

Richard can't wait to let his players play the entire game in the All-Star Game...

He wants his players to shine.

If Popovich hadn't been concerned about the feelings of some fans, he might not have allowed his players to participate in the All-Star Game.

He doesn’t want his players to get the limelight…

…

Anyway, Duncan doesn't want to play for too long this year. Under normal circumstances, Duncan only played 20 minutes this year because Popovich led the team...

…

The whistle sounded over the arena, and the annual All-Star Game was about to begin.

Cleveland fans wildly cheered James' name, their home team's only All-Star this season.

The Pistons are the strongest in the East, with three All-Stars.

But this is James' home court after all. In the eyes of the fans, James is the protagonist tonight.

I'm afraid Richard has to say sorry. The protagonist tonight is not James, but him, Richard.

Richard holds the power of life and death over players' playing time.

Not only James, but any non-West Lafayette player in the East tonight cannot be the protagonist.

You must know that Richard also paid a price in exchange for the qualification to lead the All-Star team. If he did not get the super suit, he would have lost money.

How could Richard do such a loss-making thing?

…

"Dudu!" The referee blew the whistle and the game officially started.

The starters from both sides came on stage.

Eastern All-Star starters: Yao Ming, O'Neal, James, Wade and Iverson.

Western Conference All-Star starters: Big Ben, Duncan, McGrady, Kobe and Nash.

What's funny is that when McGrady was in the Eastern Conference, he always participated in the All-Star Game as a backcourt player. However, after arriving in the Western Conference, he began to participate in the All-Star Game as a frontcourt player.

Richard couldn't figure out what McGrady was doing...

O'Neal came on and executed a jump ball with Duncan, winning the ball for the Eastern team.

Richard couldn't help but feel speechless when he saw that Duncan didn't even have the desire to stand on tiptoes to jump for the ball.

I don't know how these Spurs players have been tempered. It seems that they have no interest in this seemingly useless game.

The game started. After Iverson got the ball, he quickly advanced to the frontcourt. He watched Yao Ming settle on the side of the basket and pass the ball directly.

Yao Ming directly hit the ball with a graceful and elegant sky hook.

Next it was the Western Conference's turn to attack. Their starting lineup was rather strange. Four of the five starting players were West Lafayette players...

After Kobe received a pass from Nash, he succeeded in a pull-up shot.

It's the Eastern Conference's offensive round again. This time it's an aerial connection between Wade and O'Neal. The two completed an alley-oop, which won a burst of applause from the fans at the scene.

O'Neal and Wade have been working together for more than a year, and they have developed a lot of tacit understanding.

At least the alley-oop was pretty good.

The alley-oop is fun for a while, and the alley-oop is always fun...

However, the Cavaliers fans at the scene soon became unhappy because they discovered something they couldn't accept.

It's been almost four or five minutes since the start, and their James has only touched the ball once, and he hasn't scored yet. After the rebound was grabbed by O'Neal, it was passed to Wade.