Sports Medicine Master System

Chapter 435: Chapter 371: You’ve Found Us a Formidable Opponent

Brian was stumped.

"His character... admittedly isn’t great."

Scratching his head awkwardly, Brian said, "But he’s still a player. We can’t expect everyone to be Grant Hill."

The NBA has never been a particularly wholesome place.

The NBA of the eighties and nineties was rife with chaos.

It only cleaned up its act a bit after Stern took over and cracked down.

But for stars like Ma Long who came up in the eighties and nineties, how many of them were saints like Grant Hill?

In fact, Hill was once criticized and ostracized for being *too* much of a good guy.

And even on the Suns, guys like Oakley, O’Neal, and even Hardaway had pretty messy private lives.

Even Ewing still frequented the Golden Club.

Chen Yu said, "I get all that, but if you sign Ma Long, are you really not worried about issues in the locker room?"

Locker room conflicts have dismantled more than a few teams.

The Suns’ locker room has been pretty tame these past two years, which is good. But don’t forget the couple of years before that: J Kidd’s domestic abuse, Hardaway threatening his girlfriend with a gun, Robinson using weed... there was no shortage of trouble.

Expecting Ma Long to stay out of trouble would be a tall order.

Brian hemmed and hawed, "At his age, he probably wouldn’t, right?"

Didn’t Ewing have a hot temper? Didn’t Oakley like to throw punches?

But they had all been on their best behavior after joining the Suns.

When it’s one last push before retirement, and you’re not fighting for team status or chasing a big contract, there are no conflicts of interest. It’s harder for friction to develop.

Most team conflicts boil down to playing time, money, and status.

Chen Yu shrugged. "Anyway, I’m just giving you a heads-up. Ultimately, it’s your decision."

’Even if they do end up signing Ma Long, my personal feelings about him are one thing. I’ll still do my job.’

’Work is work. Whether we can be friends in private is another story.’

Brian nodded. Deciding they couldn’t continue the conversation, he made an excuse about checking on Miller and left the office.

「May 16th.」

After nearly a week of rest, the Suns flew to San Antonio early to prepare for the Western Conference Finals.

They arrived at the hotel in the morning and booked a court for the afternoon to run some light conditioning and recovery drills.

It was an open practice, so there were plenty of reporters on the sidelines.

"You’re more popular than Skiles," Nelson couldn’t help but joke as Chen Yu returned.

Seventy percent of that media scrum just now was surrounding Chen Yu.

Meanwhile, Skiles, the actual head coach, barely had a few reporters around him.

"I’d rather not have this kind of popularity," Chen Yu said, shaking his head speechlessly.

’They know perfectly well I won’t answer their questions, yet they never get tired of asking.’

’Still, chatting with this pack of reporters is a good way to pick up some news.’

"Did you know? The Knight’s owner even called us thieves," Chen Yu said, exasperated.

Sloan was the first to come out and complain about the Suns, but he was far from the last. Right after him, Knight’s owner George Gand gave an interview where he harshly accused the Suns of stealing their number one pick, even claiming O’Neal should have been theirs.

’How shameless.’

’When you traded away Teylon Hill, why didn’t you say you were getting a bad deal?’

’The Suns got lucky, so what’s with all the sour grapes?’

’And this nonsense about O’Neal being "theirs"—don’t they realize he came to the Suns for me?’

’A guy like him wants to be on a championship contender. Why would he go to the Knight? To tank for a draft pick?’

"And then there’s Bozidar. He actually criticized us too, calling on the league to rein us in. We never did anything to him, did we?"

’The Suns and the Nuggets don’t have a feud, do they?’

’Who was it that healed McDyess? It’s not our fault he didn’t want to stay in Denver. Blame your own management for their boneheaded moves.’

’Besides, the Suns even traded J Kidd to you. You guys made out like bandits, you know?’

Chen Yu figured any team in the league could mock the Suns’ "retirement home" approach to team building, but the Nuggets had absolutely no right to.

’They traded a player who was dead set on leaving for a franchise cornerstone like J Kidd. They should be counting their blessings in secret, not jumping out to throw shade. The nerve of them.’

Nelson sighed and said, "Is this what they call ’tall poppies get cut down’? Just like Michael."

If it weren’t for Chen Yu’s help, the papers would still be full of dirt on Michael Jackson.

"By the way, have you heard any rumblings from the league office?" Nelson asked in a low voice.

In Nelson’s eyes, it was no coincidence that so many people were suddenly coming out of the woodwork to criticize the Suns.

It just showed how much jealousy the Suns had attracted over the last two years.

And when that kind of talk grew loud enough, could Stern really just sit back and do nothing?

Most importantly, the Suns’ rise was different from the Bulls’ six-championship run.

The Bulls won because Jordan was a god, and there was nothing anyone could do about it.

Teams across the league were jealous, sure, but all they could think was, ’If I had Jordan, I could do that too.’

But the Suns were different.

The Suns were using a "retirement home" team-building strategy.

They aggressively recruited aging, star-level veterans and then relied on Chen Yu’s practically god-mode medical skills to keep them perfectly healthy.

Then, by taking advantage of veteran minimum contracts, they essentially had several superstars teaming up for a title run.

Back in the day, before the luxury tax, what team could have possibly assembled such a stacked roster?

And the frustrating part was, nobody could replicate their strategy.

It was as if all the teams were playing honestly by one set of rules, and suddenly an unreasonable cheater showed up. How could they not be ostracized?

Chen Yu frowned slightly and shook his head. "No, I haven’t heard any rumblings, anyway."

’I can usually get an early warning about any stirrings within the league. After all, even Brian comes to me for information.’

"Besides, even if the league did decide to do something, what could they possibly do? I’m just a team doctor. Are they going to forbid me from being one?"

’If they’ve got the guts, they can tell their players not to come to me for treatment when they’re injured. Obviously, that’s not going to happen.’

’So all this clamor about restricting the Suns is just noise. There’s no real way to do it.’

Nelson thought, ’You’re no ordinary team doctor,’ but he just smiled and let the matter drop.

The game tipped off at six o’clock the next evening.

As Duncan spun in a flash for the help defense, soared through the air, and stretched his long arm to swat Marion’s floater out of bounds, the brand-new AT&T Arena erupted with a thunderous wave of applause.

The Spurs bench erupted in celebration.

The Texan fans in the stands were howling with excitement.

In response, all Chen Yu could think was, ’Well, the arena is nice and new.’

’And it definitely had the atmosphere of a hostile home court.’

The previous Alamo Dome was a football stadium that could hold up to sixty-five thousand people, but it was so large that the Spurs only used half of it for their games. The stands were poorly laid out, and it always felt a bit desolate.

Now, however, was different. Eighteen thousand people were somehow generating the energy of over thirty thousand.

"Chen, you really created a powerful opponent for us," Nelson couldn’t help but remark from beside him.

Duncan’s help defense just now had been incredibly timely.

His rotation was fast and his vertical was impressive. With that ridiculous wingspan, a small jump was nearly enough to blot out the sky.

Chen Yu had heard this more than once and offered a weak rebuttal, "His athleticism was never that great to begin with. My surgery just restored a little of it. It’s not as exaggerated as you all claim."

Nelson shook his head. "That ’little’ improvement in his athleticism was like the flap of a butterfly’s wings—it directly triggered a hurricane."

Duncan’s physical gifts were astounding, and his athleticism was solid too. For a big man of his size, even if not top-tier, he was well above average.

You could tell just by watching him play.

Before he won the championship in ’99 and injured his meniscus in 2000, Duncan primarily operated around the elbows. He would catch the ball with his back to the basket, face up, and use his exceptional athleticism to power through his defender on a cut to the rim.

After his injury, however, his playstyle changed over the last two years. He operated closer to the basket and rarely made those kinds of driving cuts.

David Robinson getting older and Parker’s development were major reasons for this shift in his role on the team, but his diminished athleticism was also an undeniable fact.

But now, Duncan had evolved.

He could both cut like he used to and also operate deep in the post, acting as the team’s core—its lighthouse.

And his evolution wasn’t just on offense; it was on defense, too.

His defensive range was wider, his presence was felt all over the key, his rotations were timely, and his blocks were accurate—all of it thanks to his physical conditioning.

Without Chen Yu’s surgery, he really couldn’t have done any of it.

Just as they were talking, Duncan took a single dribble, backing down McDyess like a bulldozer toward the basket before jumping up for a hook shot and sinking it.

Chen Yu propped up his chin, no longer trying to argue. "If nothing else," he said, "at least Shaq is being severely contained today."

The Spurs’ strategy was clear: collapse their defense and relentlessly double-team O’Neal.

They were now halfway through the second quarter, and O’Neal had only managed to score 9 points.

He was 3-for-8 from the field, with the other 3 points coming from free throws.

By his standards, this was a major disappointment.

The newly mobile Duncan, who was strong and could keep up, was really making O’Neal uncomfortable.

At halftime, the Suns trailed 52-47, down by five.

The defense was fierce, keeping the score low for both teams.

The halftime lead sent the home crowd into a frenzy, but back in the locker room, Popovich’s face was a stony mask. He stood with his arms crossed, his expression grave.

His three assistant coaches—Mike Brown, Budenholzer, and Peter Carlesimo—looked just as grim.

"Greg, we can’t keep collapsing the defense this much in the second half. We should consider letting David guard Shaq one-on-one," Carlesimo was the first to speak.

Popovich rubbed his face, his expression noncommittal.

They were leading at halftime, but a lot of problems had been exposed.

O’Neal had been contained, but the price was McDyess efficiently racking up 10 points on 5-of-6 shooting.

He was no slouch; if they relaxed their defense on him even a little, it wouldn’t be a surprise if he dropped thirty points.

Furthermore, while collapsing the defense limited the Suns’ drives, that very strategy was most vulnerable to outside shooting.

And the Suns could certainly shoot the three.

With three minutes left in the half, the Suns had been trailing by 10. Then Hardaway and Marion each hit a three-pointer, instantly cutting the lead to five.

Then there was the issue of the bench players.

The Spurs’ bench was nowhere near as deep as the Suns’. If not for Duncan’s brilliant performance—erupting for 19 points in the half—the Spurs might not be leading at all.

"Let’s play it out a bit longer,"

Popovich finally said. It wasn’t as if he could devise the perfect counter-strategy in just a few moments.

The key issue was that he had studied the Suns for an entire season and still hadn’t found any glaring weaknesses.

Even O’Neal’s one weakness—his free-throw shooting—had been patched up by Chen Yu.