Chapter 35: The Gambling Table Plague!
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With Lin Tian ejected and the gap between the two teams growing wider by the minute, the game quickly lost all suspense. In the end, the Bulls cruised to a 109–76 victory, winning by a comfortable thirty-three points.
Jordan barely broke a sweat, scoring 31 points with 5 rebounds and 4 assists in thirty minutes. Pippen put up an all-around line of 15 points, 7 rebounds, and 5 assists, while Rodman recorded his trademark performance of 4 points and 15 rebounds.
As for Lin Tian, he had scored seven straight points in the second quarter to widen the lead, but unfortunately, he was ejected after barely playing in the third. He logged only eleven minutes in total, yet still finished with 12 points and 3 assists. On a per-minute basis, that was an outstanding contribution.
During the postgame interview, however, Jordan did something that took everyone by surprise: he suddenly spoke up for Lin Tian.
“The officiating tonight was a pile of crap! Absolutely terrible! So bad it was disgraceful. I don’t know why they threw Lin out. What did he do to deserve it? Just because he embarrassed some weakling by blowing right past him? If embarrassing your opponent is grounds for ejection…”
“Then I have nothing to worry about, because I’d be thrown out every game. I’d be ejected every night! All I do is embarrass my opponents and crush them. I think the league is picking on rookies. They’re picking on Lin! If I had made that move…”
“Alonzo wouldn’t have dared to do anything, and the officials certainly wouldn’t have thrown me out. If I had to evaluate what happened tonight, I’d say Alonzo is a fake tough guy who only bullies the weak. And the officials tonight were idiots! Their calls were unbelievably stupid! Why was Lin thrown out? I’ll always stand behind my teammates. It’s that simple!”
Jordan’s words were widely circulated by the major media outlets and became the headline story of the night.
SEPN: “Fierce Clash Between Mourning and a Rookie! Jordan Speaks Up for Him After the Game!”
TNT: “Jordan Calls Mourning a Weakling! One Remark Turns All of Miami Against Him—All for a Rookie!”
CBS: “Fury on Behalf of a Rookie! What Is So Special About This Year’s Fifty-Second Pick?”
ABC: “Offends the League’s Heavyweights After Only Two Games! Why Is This Rookie So Arrogant? Because He Has Jordan’s Backing!”
MSG: “This Is What a Championship Team Looks Like! Even a Superstar Will Stand Up for a Rookie!”
Bleacher Report: “Jordan, Back from the Dead, and a Rookie Just Starting Out! A New Dynamic Duo May Be Emerging on the Bulls’ Road to the Championship!”
On the flight back from Miami to Chicago, Lin Tian read the newspapers he had picked up before boarding. He honestly had never expected Jordan to speak up for him.
Yet the man had not said a single word to him after the game. Even now, with the plane already in the air and the temporary card table all set up, Jordan had not spoken to Lin Tian once.
At that moment, a flight attendant came over and handed Lin Tian a note.
“This is from Mr. Michael.”
Lin Tian glanced at the attendant, who was already nearing fifty, and could not help sighing inwardly: capitalism was not worth learning from in every respect.
At the very least, flight attendants in capitalist countries were not all long-legged young beauties. Middle-aged women and grandmothers made up at least half the workforce.
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What a complete collapse of human decency!
Thinking to himself, Lin Tian opened the note. It contained only one sentence:
“I don’t owe you anymore!”
Good grief. What a tsundere.
Lin Tian sighed, then suddenly felt a faint pang of guilt.
Not only had he “cheated” Jordan out of four million dollars, he had now made the proud man feel as though he owed Lin Tian something. That did seem a little excessive.
Still, explaining himself probably would not help. Jordan definitely would not believe him.
Since Jordan would not believe him… perhaps Lin Tian should lose a little money tonight and let him regain some confidence at the card table?
At that thought, Lin Tian suddenly felt a surge of compassion and stood up.
He decided that, tonight, he would grit his teeth and aim to lose fifty thousand dollars.
Yes, he would lose Jordan fifty thousand and let him leave the plane happy. It could be a small gesture of compensation.
As for whether losing fifty thousand this time would make Jordan think he was back in form and tempt him to gamble with Lin Tian again next time… Lin Tian swore this was not some scheme to fleece him.
He had not thought that far ahead. His heart was not that filthy!
What Lin Tian had not expected was that the moment he stood up and took a single step toward the makeshift card table, everyone noticed.
“Ah, I suddenly feel like going to sleep.” Pippen was the first to stand and walk away.
“I need to write Madonna a letter! She wrote to me last month, and I still haven’t replied.” Rodman sprang to his feet right behind him.
“I only make a little over a million a year, and I take home less than four hundred thousand. I’m sitting this one out.” Kerr was the most refreshingly honest of them all. He stood up and fled.
In the end, only Jordan remained, too concerned about his dignity to run. He stared awkwardly at Lin Tian. The man who had always feared nothing, who believed himself to be the greatest in the world, whose confidence and arrogance bordered on the absurd, now spoke with a slight tremor in his voice.
“Then… then… how about… how about a couple of hands?”
After all, even Jordan could accept losing four million dollars once. But getting on a plane every time with the intention of losing four million…
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He might have been the god of basketball, but he was not the god of money printing. Even Michael Jordan had his limits.
Besides, he liked gambling. That did not mean he liked losing money.
Everyone on the Bulls had already reached the same conclusion: aside from fighting, Lin Tian was also unbeatable at the card table.
He was now the “plague of gambling.” Everyone avoided him like the plague.
“Forget it. You guys play. I’m just going to use the bathroom.”
Lin Tian finally understood. After what had happened last time, he had become the single most unwelcome person at the card table among this group.
It seemed no one on the entire Bulls roster dared to gamble with him anymore.
…
For the next two weeks, Lin Tian and the Bulls continued their endless cycle of games, practices, games, practices, games, practices…
Lin Tian and Jordan remained as fiercely competitive in practice as ever.
That rotten man Jordan still demolished Lin Tian during every practice, never sparing him the slightest bit of dignity.
If all he did was beat him badly, that would have been one thing. But after losing four million on the plane and then defending Lin Tian in front of the media, Jordan seemed to feel that he no longer owed Lin Tian anything.
From that point on, all that remained between Jordan and Lin Tian was the grudge born from losing four million dollars in one devastating blow.
Afterward, whenever Jordan faced Lin Tian, his trash talk and dirty tricks became more and more outrageous, more and more vicious. Quite a few people even began to wonder whether the two of them had some deep personal feud.
Phil Jackson, for example.
Jackson knew how little Lin Tian cared about sparing Jordan’s feelings. He also knew how stubborn Lin Tian could be when Jordan was tearing him apart on the court.
He was deeply worried.
He worried that one day Lin Tian would lose his temper and cripple Jordan outright.
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