Chapter 613: Jack is the One True God

Chapter 613: Chapter 97: Jack is the One True God

Phil Jackson remained defiant at the press conference. He stressed that it wasn’t the Lakers’ tactics that were flawed, nor was it that they didn’t play well enough—and it certainly wasn’t that the players weren’t trying hard enough.

There was only one reason: the officiating was questionable.

Furthermore, the Knicks were just lucky.

Phil Jackson was a real piece of work.

In these past two games, the referees might as well have been wearing Lakers jerseys.

The Lakers had more free throws than the Knicks in both games.

On top of that, Su Xi barely got any calls when he drove into the paint.

As the face of the league, Su Xi wasn’t even getting superstar calls.

Yet even with all that, the Lakers still lost.

And Phil Jackson was still trying to pressure the officials.

It was a classic case of “the squeaky wheel gets the grease.”

Phil Jackson was a master of this game.

He was certain the league didn’t want the Finals to end in a four-game sweep, so applying pressure at this juncture was a must.

…

Cruising at thirty thousand feet, Su Xi contemplated the upcoming “four-way summit.”

He wasn’t particularly worried about the game itself.

Game 2 had been the toughest challenge the Knicks had faced. It couldn’t possibly get any worse.

And what did it say that the Lakers still couldn’t manage a win, even under those conditions?

It meant they just weren’t good enough.

As for his duels with Kobe, Su Xi thought, ‘There’s always tomorrow.’ It didn’t matter if he didn’t get the better of Kobe this season.

‘I’ll dethrone him eventually. Time is on my side.’

‘Next game, I’ll definitely take him on one-on-one, and I’ll make sure I score just a few more points than him.’

‘And the win? That’s definitely going in my pocket.’

He had no national team commitments this offseason, so Su Xi could properly enjoy his vacation.

‘Jessica and Scarlett won’t actually fight, will they?’

‘Fox has done a lot of groundwork, but what if they get jealous and start vying for attention when they’re all here?’

‘Should I make some “love tokens” and let fate decide the order? That way, none of them can complain.’

‘If they really start arguing, how will I suppress the rebellion?’

‘Brute force? A gentle push notification? Or maybe a pop-up warning?’

The more Su Xi thought, the more carried away he got.

He was a meticulous planner who liked to have a Plan A, a Plan B, and even a Plan C for every eventuality.

He mulled it over for a while.

Milicic walked over, holding two bottles of beer. “Jack,” he said to Su Xi, “want a drink?”

Su Xi waved his hand. He didn’t drink, but he supported Milicic drinking. He hoped Milicic would get a bit heavier; a little extra weight would increase his power in the post while still allowing him to maintain his impressive flexibility.

In contrast, if he got too shredded, his flexibility would take a hit.

In the first two games, Milicic had done a decent job against Yao Ming, but he was too passive on defense and truly couldn’t stop Yao’s one-on-one attacks.

With Kobe on the floor, the Knicks couldn’t afford to double-team Yao Ming recklessly.

“Jack, any plans for the offseason?” Milicic asked.

“Not sure yet,” Su Xi replied.

Milicic then lowered his voice, speaking very quietly to Su Xi. “The Lakers’ GM came to me after the game tonight. They offered me a ten-million-dollar annual salary.”

Su Xi was slightly taken aback.

He hadn’t expected the Lakers to approach Milicic.

Nor did he expect Milicic to come and tell him about it right away.

Both developments were rather unorthodox.

“Right, it’s your contract year,” Su Xi finally recalled. He and Milicic were from the same draft class, but Su Xi had taken a special route. He had already secured a supermax contract after just two seasons, while other players were still on their rookie deals.

Initially, Milicic would have had zero chance of landing a ten-million-dollar annual salary.

Based on his performance with the Magic and the Pistons, he would have been considered lucky just to get another contract in the NBA.

But now, the Lakers were willing to offer him a ten-million-dollar annual salary.

In fact, the media had even listed him as one of the big fish in this year’s free-agent market.

There were a lot of big names in the free-agent market this year.

Combined with Su Xi’s absolute dominance over the NBA, many people believed that the moment the trade window opened, there would be a massive chain reaction, possibly even the formation of multiple superteams.

After all, reality had proven that not even two superstars were enough to beat Su Xi.

So what about three? Or four?

It was simple math.

“Yes, Jack.”

Milicic replied.

Su Xi patted his shoulder. “The Knicks aren’t short on cash,” he told him. “Whatever they offer, the Knicks will match it.”

Su Xi’s words were a great reassurance to Milicic.

Then he asked, “We aren’t going to draft a new center this year, are we?”

“I doubt it. There’s no need,” Su Xi said.

Milicic was completely put at ease. He said to Su Xi, “Jack, thank you. I don’t want to leave the Knicks, which is why I haven’t even told my agent about this. I know very well that everything I have now is because of you. If I leave you, leave New York, I’ll probably just go back to being my old self.”

“No, Darko, you can’t go back. You’re an elite center now. You want to go back to being a bust?” Su Xi asked, raising an eyebrow.

Milicic shook his head vigorously.

“Keep working hard. Your best days are just getting started.”

“Thanks, Jack.”

The two chatted for a while longer, and Milicic downed both beers straight from the bottle.

Then, he headed back to the front of the cabin.

It was quiet again where Su Xi sat.

He took a nap.

After arriving in New York, Su Xi went straight home.

To his surprise, Fox had been waiting for him for some time. She had even hired a cleaning service to tidy the entire place, inside and out.

He had lunch with her. Su Xi was very satisfied with Fox.

He felt she understood the bigger picture, always considered the overall situation, and had helped him with a lot of things.

She was the reason he had the foundation to even hold this “four-way summit.”

After lunch, Su Xi rubbed Fox’s stomach, ostensibly to help her digest.

As he rubbed, his hand started to wander.

In a daze of passion, Fox murmured, “Jack, Jessica will be over soon, and Scarlett is coming tonight. I can’t start the meeting ahead of schedule.”

Fox knew how to play by the rules.

Su Xi liked people who knew how to follow the rules.

Su Xi turned on the TV and flipped to the local New York news.

On TV, the media was praising Su Xi to high heaven.

“…Without a doubt, Jack is the greatest player in the history of New York sports. Last year, he brought an incredibly precious championship to the Knicks. This year, he will fulfill his promise. Absolutely no one can contend with him; he’s in a league of his own. Kobe, O’Neal, Duncan, James… those guys are leagues behind him. We’re going to win a second championship, then a third, a fourth…”

The host was gushing, and Su Xi felt a little embarrassed, so he changed the channel. This one was also fawning over him, except this channel was using various stats to prove that Su Xi was greater than Jordan, with superior numbers in every category.

Su Xi changed the channel again.

More fawning!

All of New York State was singing the Knicks’ praises.

Su Xi flipped through several more channels before he finally saw something different.

It was a relationships channel.

A Black woman was saying with great conviction: “I believe Jack is just insecure, despite his unprecedented success on the basketball court. He has very low self-confidence, like all shy Asian boys. He doesn’t dare walk down the aisle with a white woman. He thinks he can’t handle a Hollywood starlet. So, he’d rather find a Chinese wife.”

“It’s a tragedy. He needs to be more courageous.”

“Come on, Jack, you’re so powerful already. You can be with any one of them. You’ve won the respect of every woman in America. You need to be assertive! Say bye-bye to your Chinese girlfriend. Scarlett is perfect for you.”

Then a white woman chimed in, “I don’t think he lacks confidence. I think he’s a bit of a racist, an Asian supremacist.”

“Hey, don’t talk about Jack like that. He has never discriminated against anyone, including us Black people.”

“Then why doesn’t he have a Black girlfriend?”

“…”

Su Xi frantically changed the channel. That conversation had scared the hell out of him.

That was a taboo topic.