Chapter 357: Artillery Fire
Soon, Lu Xuefei fell into a sweet dream, but Yang Mo kept thinking about a question: Should I reveal my cards?
For Yang Mo, if he didn't want to disappoint anyone, he could only choose to make it public internally and let them know each other's existence. After all, paper can never cover fire. If he kept hiding and dodging, when the day came when the fire started, it would most likely be a disaster. By then, he would be left with nothing.
But the question is, is it appropriate to confess now? Would it be better to wait a little longer?
When it was almost dawn, Yang Mo finally made a decision to maintain the status quo. She would inform everyone one by one when she had the chance. Anyway, the last person to be informed would definitely be Lu Xueman, because she seemed to have the most strong personality.
Although Yang Mo stayed up all night, his physical strength was not affected at all. The fatigue after the game had been completely eliminated in the passionate battle with Xue Fei, and he was replaced by vigor and vitality, and his body was full of energy.
For Yang Mo now, physical strength is not a problem at all. Even if he plays 82 games back to back, he won't feel tired. He just needs to have enough women.
This is the biggest difference between him and ordinary men. While other men may suffer from physical harm due to indulgence in lust, he can gain great benefits from girls.
By the time Yang Mo got up from the sunlight shining through the window, almost the entire city of New York was talking about him.
Because of his confrontation with reporters at the post-game press conference yesterday, almost all New York media are now madly attacking him. The most common adjectives used in reports about him are: arrogant, brainless, stupid and ignorant. These reporters exaggerated Yang Mo's arrogance. In the reporters' writings, Yang Mo was described as an arrogant boy who looked down on others and did not take any players seriously. LeBron James was even belittled by him as worthless. The New York Times, the most famous newspaper, even wrote such an article, which roughly demanded that the Knicks trade Yang Mo because Yang Mo's arrogant remarks would cause LeBron James not to choose the Knicks next summer.
The entire city of New York is far more devoted to LeBron James than Cleveland. This is a funny and sad fact. A city that doesn't care for its own star player but flatters the stars of other teams. Is there anything more shameful than this?
When Yang Mo saw the overwhelming criticism on his mobile phone, he shook his head helplessly. The bottom line of the New York media was even lower than he had imagined.
No wonder people say that if you love someone, send him to New York, which is heaven. If you hate someone, send him to New York, which is hell.
The entire public opinion was undoubtedly like hell for Yang Mo.
This atmosphere even affected Lu Xueman, who called at noon to remind Yang Mo to restrain her words and actions. Because the influence of the New York media is indeed extraordinary in the United States. Although it is a matter of the sports circle, it will more or less affect the entertainment circle. After all, literature and sports are inseparable to a certain extent.
Yang Mo made very good promises on the phone, saying that he would never say a word to the New York media again, because they were just a bunch of bastards.
However, LeBron James responded to Yang Mo's words very quickly: "Anyway, I was the winner of the first round of the playoffs last season, not Yang. He defeated me twice, that's true. But next time, I will defeat him ten times, a hundred times, a thousand times, until he is old and decrepit."
LeBron James' words made the New York media celebrate and were extremely excited. The headlines of major sports media all used LeBron James' response.
It has to be said that LeBron James is the embodiment of an angel to the New York media. Even if he farts, it smells good.
"I finally understand why so many people shouted MVP when LeBron James played in Madison Square Garden last season." Yang Mo said helplessly in a conversation with Isaiah Thomas: "New York should just change its name to Cleveland Cleveland, since so many people love that chimpanzee anyway."
Isaiah Thomas seemed even more helpless about Yang Mo's helplessness: "The New York media was not like this before. They even dared to be enemies with Michael Jordan. But now, all those guys with balls have disappeared, and only a bunch of sissies are left, cheering for others all day long. This is ridiculous. It looked like we lost the game last night, but in fact we slaughtered Miami by a large margin."
"The only way to change these soft-boned people now is to keep defeating LeBron James." Yang Mo raised his eyebrows and said, "Only when I trample their gods under my feet will they turn around and worship me. This is the best way to control slaves."
"Then come on, I'm optimistic about you anyway." Isaiah Thomas said confidently, "I'm placing all my bets on you. I hope you can lead me to a big win and finally retire from the basketball circle as a winner."
"Of course, this is necessary." Yang Mo nodded, the confidence on his face shining brighter than the sun in June.
Isaiah Thomas unconditionally supports Yang Mo, but D'Antoni is somewhat happy because of these public opinions. He still associates Yang Mo with Isaiah Thomas. Although Yang Mo is also a shareholder of MSG, he is only a small shareholder after all, while James Dolan and his son are the largest shareholders.
Therefore, he couldn't help but find the president, Dolan, to sound him out. To see if he wanted to trade Yang Mo and get a player who was more suitable for running and gunning. However, Dolan stood firmly and decisively on Yang Mo's side.
This made D'Antoni feel frustrated. He didn't understand why Yang Mo could still get the support of the top management even though he was being criticized by thousands of people in New York City? Was it because he was a shareholder?
Of course, it was not as simple as he was a shareholder, but because MSG's stock price continued to rise due to Yang Mo's arrival. On the day when the New York media denounced it, MSG's stock price rose by the daily limit for two consecutive days on the Nasdaq.
The criticism from the media has increased the exposure of the Knicks. Investors are different from ordinary basketball fans. They enter the stock market to make money and will not be misled by such news. After all, in the past two years, anything related to Yang Mo has basically been rising. Whether it is the stock price of Nike, his own agency, or the movies he starred in, they have created one economic miracle after another.
To be fair, the scale of basketball is still too small. In a sense, Yang Mo is not just a basketball player. He is a Miami hero, a movie star, a big boss, and he has achieved outstanding success in many fields.
Therefore, his every move can trigger fermentation in the capital market.
The reason why James Dolan, the old fox in the business world, was willing to transfer a large portion of the original shares to Yang Mo at an extremely low price was because he saw Yang Mo's influence. From the current situation, it is already a win-win situation. If Yang Mo can win the championship, it will naturally be an unexpected surprise.
So, the relationship between the Dolans and Yang Mo is more like a close business partnership, not an employer-worker relationship. Trade him? Don't be silly.
Although D'Antoni was rejected by Dolan, he was still very stubborn in implementing his run-and-gun tactics in the second game of the Knicks' regular season against the Sacramento Kings. No matter what opinions Yang Mo raised, he rejected them.
Although the Knicks won the game by one point against the Kings, Yang Mo was not happy at all because he made a buzzer beater with 0.8 seconds left. He thought D'Antoni's tactics were shit. If they had used Milicic, Jeffries, Chandler, Chris Duhon and his half-court lineup, the Kings would have been defeated cleanly and the outcome of the game would not have to be decided until the last second.
After the game, Kevin Martin righteously accused Yang Mo of trash talking at the press conference. He thought the league should put a sticker on Yang Mo's mouth before letting him play. He even complained that if Yang Mo hadn't asked him at the last minute, "Who is your grandpa's grandma's father's mother's son's nephew's cousin?", he would never have missed the 13-foot mid-range shot that was covered by a screen.
It is worth mentioning that although Kevin Martin scored 28 points in this game, Yang Mo, who was facing him, scored 45 points. He made 9 of 11 three-pointers, including four consecutive three-pointers in the fourth quarter when he was competing with Kevin Martin, which was a classic among classics. Someone has calculated that in those three minutes, Madison's screams occurred at a frequency of once every ten seconds.
Yang Mo's 45 points is the highest score since the start of the 2009-2010 season. During the rough period, everyone speculated that the first person to score 40 points would be either LeBron James or Kobe Bryant. Durant and Anthony were also possible, and Wade was also a strong competitor. But now Yang Mo, who had never been mentioned before, emerged. He took the lead with his unmatched three-point shooting rate.
Of course, almost no media reported this score, because everyone was paying attention to another thing. The news came from the Knicks that Yang Mo openly confronted D'Antoni in the locker room. The two of them were red in the face and Yang Mo even cursed D'Antoni's tactics and called them shit.
Although the source of the news is unknown, it is true.
In the game that night, after Yang Mo made the buzzer beater, he ran back to the locker room with a livid face in the face of the screams and cheers of the fans. Since the hero of the victory had a livid face, the other players were not in a position to celebrate loudly, and the atmosphere was somewhat depressing.
This kind of repression was directly detonated the moment D'Antoni entered the locker room. As soon as he came in, he clapped his hands and shouted loudly: "Well played, everyone played very well. Tonight's victory proves that we are definitely a playoff-level team..."
Before D'Antoni finished speaking, Yang Mo, with a livid face, couldn't help but glared at him and said, "Are you sure everyone played well? I tell you, we played very badly. Of course, it's not because we didn't try hard, but because your tactics are so shitty."
Yang Mo suddenly lost his temper and D'Antoni obviously didn't react.
At this time, Yang Mo's anger was already surging: "Ask everyone, ask the five starting players, are they very tired? Ask the other players on the bench, see if they are anxious because they can't fight because the game is getting tense? We won this game today only because the Kings are a bad team, that's all."
D'Antoni was questioned by Yang Mo in public, and he could not help but fly into a rage. He immediately stiffened his neck and asked loudly with a stern face: "You think there is a problem with my tactics, then why did the Suns team I led win first place in the regular season and make it to the playoffs consecutively?"
"If a team has players like Steve Nash, Stoudemire, Shawn Marion, Boris Diaw, Raja Bell, and Barbosa, and his team still can't make the playoffs, it only shows that the coach is a fool. Also, you are so good, have you ever made it to the Western Conference Finals? Do you have a championship ring? If not, please shut up. Being humble won't make you worse." Yang Mo was even more tit-for-tat, and every word he said went straight to D'Antoni's heart, making him feel heartbroken and trembling with fear.
"I'm the head coach, and my responsibility is to find the key to victory. If you question me, you can refuse to play." D'Antoni flicked his sleeves and said this directly. A more straightforward translation of this sentence is, either you or me, we are irreconcilable.
D'Antoni's words were irreconcilable, but Yang Mo was not an easy target either. He said bluntly, "If your way of winning is too stupid, as a player, I will of course refuse to play. However, as the leader of this team, I should be responsible for the entire team at all times. Therefore, if you make tactical mistakes in the future, I will correct them directly and will no longer care about your emotions."
What Yang Mo said was even harsher than what D'Antoni said. To put it simply, if you dare to mess around again next time, I will isolate you and sideline you.
D'Antoni wanted to cut off the water with a knife, but Yang Mo directly cut off the firewood from under the cauldron.
"Do you think all the players will listen to your encouragement? This is my team. I have been playing with them for a year and they will all listen to me." Seeing that he could not defeat Yang Mo in a verbal confrontation, D'Antoni immediately used his big move to win over the players.
As soon as he made this move, many players avoided looking at him.
Yang Mo took a quick look and roughly estimated that there were quite a few people. It seemed that D'Antoni must have been behind the isolated incident last time.
Damn it, I have to replace all the people in the team with my own people.
Yang Mo said to himself, he felt threatened. So, he immediately said: "You rely on nothing more than your tactics to make some players' data better, that's all. I can tell you that I am better than you at making my teammates better, and not just the data. In Miami, I can lead a group of NBDL-level players to defeat the Los Angeles Lakers, and I can also lead the team to double-kill the first team in the Eastern Conference away from home when no one is optimistic about it. Here, my teammates are stronger, and everyone is a hero. Of course, I can lead them to create greater miracles. We are all passionate men, why can't we raise our arms and sweep the entire NBA?"
When Yang Mo said this, it was like he had activated his "incitement" skill. Yang Mo was originally a leader player with great speaking charm. Although he did not make any substantive promises, his passionate call subconsciously won him the attention of many players. Which player is not passionate? Basketball is a passionate sport. Yang Mo's words undoubtedly hit their G-spot.
In terms of eloquence, D'Antoni is definitely no match for Yang Mo.
Therefore, he could only say: "Anyway, I have already proved everything with my actual actions, but you? You are still a brat who only talks with your mouth."
Having said that, he turned around and left the locker room.
The fierce conflict within the team ended with his departure, but when the news reached the media, it immediately caused a shock.
For the media, this revelation is undoubtedly the best ingredient to blacken Yang Mo, as they are worried about not being able to find any black spots on Yang Mo. Although Kevin Martin accused Yang Mo of trash talking after the game, famous stars love to trash talk, including Michael Jordan, who is also an expert in this field. It is really difficult to write about it. What if it is not done well and people ridicule her, wouldn't it trigger a collective counterattack from the big stars in the circle?
However, it is different to openly oppose the head coach and claim to undermine the head coach. This is a huge black material. In the most serious case, this is an attempt to commit treason. In the least, it is at least a disregard for the law and an overriding authority.
Therefore, almost all sports media stood on D'Antoni's side. They collectively attacked Yang Mo, believing that Yang Mo, a young boy, dared to attack a first-class head coach and was tired of living.
Amid the overwhelming attacks, many stars and head coaches chose to remain silent. This is not uncommon in the basketball circle. There are many cases of stars kicking out head coaches. The most famous one is Jason Kidd, who fired at least three head coaches. As long as the tactical concept does not match his, he will immediately pack up and leave.
However, Celtics head coach Rivers stood up and said: "I think Young is a player with a great sense of the overall situation. He gave a strong surprise in last year's All-Star Game. He was able to put on an extremely mature chain offensive combination for completely unfamiliar teammates on the court. In the battle with the Celtics, he also constantly made tactical arrangements. I think his overall view of the court is extremely good, and he can keenly observe the changes in the game. In the future, he will definitely become an excellent head coach."
Although he did not clearly support anyone, it is not difficult to find that he is on Yang Mo's side. After all, as a traditional defensive head coach with a little academic style, D'Antoni's run-and-gun style of play is really not to his liking. Of course, he likes Yang Mo more.
While public opinion was criticizing Yang Mo, news came from D'Antoni's side that the head coach cut his little finger while peeling an apple at home. Although he underwent surgery in time, he will miss at least a week of games.
