James' remarks after the game caused an uproar.

Although theoretically, James was criticized for a whole season, there was a reason why he fought back when the doubts reached their peak and even showed his optimism.

However, the key lies in the occasion and method of fighting back.

If James is overly criticized by the media and fans and is portrayed as a victim in public, then such a counterattack will be recognized by the outside world.

After all, although people have different personalities, they all have some sympathy for the victims deep down.

But now, the reporter just asked a very routine question, but James seemed to be waiting for the reporter to ask this, and then he couldn't wait to say it all.

Especially, this happened right after being swept by the opponent.

It gave people the feeling that he didn't care whether the team won or lost.

Especially considering Kobe's previous example of winning two consecutive championships after being called the "number one loser", his remarks seem extremely shameful in comparison.

The fact that he had already prepared a plan in mind either shows that his team has poor business capabilities or that he has a unique way of thinking.

All in all, after the Big Three were swept away at their peak and after these remarks, James' personal image has reached a historic low.

American Airlines Arena, Miami.

After being swept out, the Heat's season journey has come to an end and the players are about to begin their annual offseason.

But before that, the Heat will have to make a season summary.

This isn't something every team does, but it's the Heat's culture.

Riley was in his office at this time revising his speech.

He rubbed his forehead from time to time, and he looked ten years older than before.

Last year's offseason was very important for the Heat. If he couldn't keep Wade, the Heat would go straight into a rebuilding period.

For a competitive person like him, reconstruction was not something he wanted to do.

So he took on tremendous pressure and racked his brains to form this unprecedented top three lineup.

But he didn't expect that it would end like this, which made him feel that his reputation was ruined.

In such a context, it is indeed not easy to ask him to write a speech that can inspire morale.

"Dee-dee~"

Just then, there was a knock on his office door.

"Come in."

He put down the manuscript in his hand, looked up, and then found that the person who came in was James.

Riley gave a professional smirk.

James played an indispensable role in the Heat's formation of the Big Three, so although he struggled, Riley couldn't blame him.

Moreover, from the perspective of personal image, if you form a lineup under tremendous public pressure, and then dismantle it in the second year, wouldn't that be a slap in your own face?

So although his starting point is different from Wade's, he has no choice but to believe in James.

After James came in, he looked outside the door, then closed the door, and finally walked over and sat down opposite Riley.

Riley looked puzzled when he saw his unusual behavior.

"Mr. Riley, I think we have to make some changes next season," James said in a measured tone.

Riley put his hand on his chin and looked at James with a playful look in his eyes.

Although he was in a rather annoyed mood at the moment, he was an old fox after all, and he had also heard the news about James interfering with the management in Cleveland, so it was not difficult for him to guess that James wanted the management to do something at this moment.

"Dwyane, Chris and I have been trying to find a way of playing that suits each other. We have communicated many times in private, but it didn't work. I don't think that's something our players can do." James continued after observing Riley's expression.

"Oh?" Riley put down his hand and sat up straight.

"We need a coach with rich coaching experience to guide us, Mr. Riley, and I don't think anyone is more suitable than you." James smiled when he mentioned Riley's name.

His conflict with Spoelstra has long been public, but he has never found a good entry point.

This sweep is an opportunity. You have to know that in sports, when a team performs poorly, the most common thing is to fire the head coach.

Especially in the NBA, coaches are fired due to poor performance, internal conflicts, or indecision. The head coach is simply the scapegoat.

Not to mention young coaches like Spoelstra who are not very famous in the league.

But he also knows that Spoelstra and Riley have a close relationship. If you suddenly suggest replacing someone else, Riley may not agree.

However, this problem can be easily solved by replacing the coach with Riley himself.

You have to know that Riley also has a criminal record in this matter.

Because of the Heat's poor record, Riley resigned as head coach and the Heat was coached by Stan Van Gundy.

Unexpectedly, Van Gundy's coaching effect was surprisingly good, especially under his guidance, Wade, who had just entered the league, showed superstar potential in his second season.

The Heat ranked fourth in the Eastern Conference in his first year, and directly topped the Eastern Conference in his second year after trading for O'Neal.

Although they lost to the Pistons 3-4 in the Eastern Conference Finals that year, Van Gundy's coaching was generally very successful.

As a result, in Van Gundy's third season as coach, Riley fired Van Gundy on the pretext of a poor start and took over the job himself.

So now the team is eliminated in the Eastern Conference Finals, and the situation is extremely similar to that year. Even Spoelstra is not as famous as Van Gundy back then, and Riley won't even have any pressure from public opinion if he leaves the court again.

And speaking of it, when the Big Three were formed, the three of them discussed whether to let Spoelstra or Riley coach, but the discussion ended because of Wade's words, "Riley is a training maniac, you don't want him to coach."

But now is the perfect time to say this.

Riley didn't say anything or express his opinion, but just smiled.

James was a little confused about Riley's attitude for a moment.

"You go back first, I'll take care of it." Riley finally said.

James wanted to say something else, but Riley had already picked up the speech again, so he could only get up and leave.

After James left, Riley called Spoelstra and said he would be at the training hall in fifteen minutes and asked Spoelstra to gather all the players.

After hanging up the phone, he threw the written speech directly into the trash can.

To be honest, he has thought about coaching the Heat again, but his habit is to wait and see for a while.

Just like what Van Gundy did back then, he will only do it if he thinks he can succeed.

But after observing this season, the relationship between this Big Three team is too complicated, especially James' obvious weaknesses as a player and too many privileges, which ultimately made him give up the idea.

However, James's approach gave him an opportunity, something that was more useful than any speech.

Fifteen minutes later, Riley showed up at the practice facility.

Spoelstra had gathered all the members of the team, including the coaching staff, as he requested.

Because Riley was going to give a season summary speech, it was just brought forward.

Of course, Spoelstra was still a little surprised when he saw Riley with empty hands. His teacher actually went off the script this time?

"All team members, stand facing the wall."

Then the first words Riley said shocked him.

My goodness, what’s going on with facing the wall?

The players on the Heat team also stood there in a daze, seeming to be caught off guard.

But seeing that Riley's expression was serious and he didn't seem to be joking, everyone turned around one after another and stood facing the wall.

At this time, Riley continued: "Just now, a player came to my office and told me something. I won't tell you who that person is, but now, I want to give him my reply."

When Riley said this, James suddenly felt something was not right.

Because if Riley really wanted to change coaches, there would be no need for him to make such a big fuss and do something like facing the wall.

"You never came into my office and told me to fire a coach. Your job is just to play basketball. That's the culture of the Heat!"

Riley's words were powerful, and the Heat players looked at each other in surprise.

Wade, in particular, almost instinctively turned his head to look at James.

In the Heat team, the only three people who dare to ask Riley to change the head coach at this time, or have the ability to do so, are these three.

But he and Bosh were always in the training hall, only James left for a while.

This basically confirms that it is James.

James' face was burning at this moment.

He never expected Riley to treat his request in this way.

Even if Riley disagreed, he could have rejected him tactfully, but now he chose to use him as a stepping stone to boost morale.

The point is, you, Riley, are not an ignorant person, but now you are talking to me about team culture.

However, even though he was unhappy at the moment, he could only keep it in his heart.

Because if he showed it, the whole team would know that it was he who asked to replace Spoelstra.

This was also the first time he felt Riley's ability as a "magician".

Although in fact, based on James' reputation and his relationship with Spoelstra, most of the Heat players guessed it was him.

Riley continued. As a veteran who had been in the business for many years, he knew that as long as he found the right entry point, he didn't really need a speech script or anything like that.

"The culture of the Heat is unyielding. No matter how big the difficulties are, we will fight like a fighter. This has been formed since Alonzo Mourning came to the team and will continue. So I don't need anyone to be responsible for this year's loss. I just want you to get up from where you fell, all of you."

I have to say that Riley's speech was very well-placed and it also boosted the morale of the Heat.

But at this time, James really clenched his teeth and clenched his hands into fists.

Riley not only responded to his previous request, but also stepped on his remarks after the loss.

These morale-boosting words turned directly into scoldings in his ears.

But he had no choice but to stand next to it.

A lot of things are mutual. Riley and Wade know that their Big Three cannot be disbanded in one season, and the same goes for James.

If he really proposed a trade during the offseason, he would become a rat crossing the street and everyone would shout and beat him, which is why he only proposed to change the head coach.

So now no matter how angry he is, he has to just bear it and swallow it.

But he remembered everything Riley did today.

…

The Eastern Conference Finals has come to an end, but the Western Conference Finals is still going on, with the Mavericks currently leading 2-1.

This is the third consecutive time that the Bulls have waited for their opponent after the series ended.

But this time the fans will not be lonely, because something more worth looking forward to than the Western Conference Finals is coming.

The Bulls successfully defeated the Heat, and it was a quick sweep. Whether Barkley will fulfill his promise to drink horse urine is more interesting than the game.

On this day, Thibodeau only conducted daily training in the morning and gave the players a day off in the afternoon.

At night, Xu Yong was at home and wanted to call O'Neal to ask him to witness this classic moment together.

O'Neal named the liger Barkley, and he also said before that he wanted Barkley to drink ready-made horse urine. He must be looking forward to this.

However, no one answered the phone, and he recalled that O'Neal did not come to have breakfast this morning, and it seemed that he did not go to training either.

I don't know where this guy went.

Every player has his own private life, and he didn't care too much about it. He just turned on the TV and watched TNT's live broadcast.

The data shows that at this moment, the ratings of TNT's program actually exceeded that of the Eastern Conference Finals Game 4, which just set a new ratings record. It can only be said that there are always the most people watching the fun.

After the show started, Barkley was seriously analyzing the situation in the Western Conference Finals, while Smith kept reminding him indirectly that it was time to fulfill his previous promise.

I have to say, they are absolutely professional when it comes to creating program effects.

After Barkley finally started talking about the bet, Smith said he was thoughtful and had arranged everything.

Then, the camera was pointed at the door of the opening game. After the door was pushed open, an unexpected figure appeared.

No, two to be exact.

When Xu Yong saw it, he was stunned for a moment, and then he immediately realized.

Because it was clearly O'Neal and his lion-tiger that appeared there.

No wonder this guy disappeared for the whole day, it turns out he went to record a live show.

Barkley was originally quite angry, but when he saw the liger he was so scared that he dared not say anything. His expression was very appropriate.

O'Neal led the liger and demonstrated some animal training commands, then sat next to the two men.

The show then turned to the liger, which O'Neal introduced and finally revealed to be Charles Barkley.

Barkley was angry and wanted to fight, but was stopped by Kenny Smith.

"Charles, I don't think horses are worthy of you, so I brought this." O'Neal said as a test tube of yellow liquid jumped out of his pocket.

"It's tiger urine, Charles Barkley drinking Charles Barkley's tiger urine, which I think is pretty cool."

Barkley resisted at first, but when O'Neal's personal breeder walked over to them with the liger, Barkley reluctantly opened the test tube, sniffed it, turned his head and showed a painful expression.

Then he pinched his nose and took a small sip, then drank it with a painful expression on his face. After a while, he was holding the trash can and retching.

A real man doesn't drink horse urine, he only drinks tiger urine.

What is the show effect? ​​Just max it out.

Then O'Neal and Smith chased him and asked him what it smelled like.

Xu Yong couldn't help but laugh when he saw this.

This group of people really know how to make things happen.

He was also a little confused when O'Neal said he wanted to take Mara to the scene.

Barkley is a celebrity after all, and it is hard to imagine him drinking freshly collected horse urine in public.

But now, O'Neal brought the liger to the scene, and no one paid attention to what he did before.

As for what Barkley drank, it was most likely just a yellow drink.

But that doesn't matter at all.

Because the show was effective, and O'Neal also showed his presence on TNT in advance, it was a win-win situation.