Barkley shouted it out loud, and everyone around heard it, followed by a burst of laughter.
Jordan, Ewing, and others who were being interviewed couldn’t help but laugh. How come this guy let his true thoughts slip out?
The interview atmosphere, which was originally a bit serious, suddenly became lively and cheerful, with joy in the air.
Jordan did not lose his fighting spirit due to losing the finals for the second time; he actively threw himself into the preparation for the Olympics.
He didn’t even give himself much time to be frustrated; immediately after the finals ended, he started a new improvement plan.
In his view, the reason for the loss, ultimately, was that he wasn’t strong enough.
If in the fifth game, he could have gone for a layup himself instead of passing, the championship would have been his.
When asked by a reporter about Ah Gan, Jordan shrugged and said, "I know Sonny and his teammates are undergoing secret training in Portland. I called him the day before yesterday. He’s leading his national team in a scrimmage with local college students for training. Charles is right; we all hope to meet China Team in the Olympics, especially the China Team with Ah Gan. We want to have a good contest and exchange, in a friendly way."
Talking about "friendly," Jordan himself laughed.
However, there’s one person who certainly couldn’t laugh, and that was Pippen.
Pippen is going through the most difficult summer of his life, even harder than losing to the Detroit Pistons in 1990.
That missed dunk has become the nightmare of his life. After the finals, he jumped from the same position, dunking dozens of balls without failure.
But that one dunk failed, missed, causing the Bulls to lose the most crucial game and fall short of the championship.
Everyone knew that at the time, whoever won the fifth game would be the champion, with no need for a Game 7.
That shot destroyed a season’s effort for the Bulls and nearly destroyed Pippen; he even saw a psychologist.
In the face of reporters’ interviews, he seemed despondent, never interested, including being able to thrash Ah Gan at the Olympics.
Who knows when this shadow will finally be lifted.
In the evening, Nike invited nearly half of the Olympic delegation to an opening night party.
The banquet was held at the Nike campus, which was set up as a beautiful buffet area.
There was a large amount of seafood, premium ribeye, and strawberry cream cake available, with basketball celebrities everywhere.
In the center of the campus is a lake, and at around seven in the evening, with a "bang," beautiful fireworks burst in the sky above the lake.
Nike prepared an extraordinarily lavish fireworks display to show off its financial strength, with more than a dozen fireworks simultaneously rising and exploding, filling the sky with color and noise.
After the fireworks show ended, everyone’s attention returned to the food and the people around them.
However, just five minutes later, a loud noise was heard again from the sky, and a red light shot into the sky.
Following that, a massive explosion sound, and an extraordinarily large and splendid giant firework bloomed in the sky.
Everyone was dumbfounded; was the earlier fireworks show not over?
No, this firework wasn’t from the campus; it didn’t rise from the lake.
This giant firework was just a signal, followed by an even more spectacular fireworks display starting in the dark sky.
It was estimated that the entire Portland could enjoy this magnificent display, and Team USA was even more astonished.
Jordan asked Nike’s president, Phil Knight: "Was this firework show arranged by you? A second one?"
Knight’s face didn’t look good; he shook his head and said: "No, from the direction... it should be Avia’s arrangement."
Tonight, Avia also held an opening banquet at their campus, and the other half went there.
Among Team USA, Stockton, Barkley, and Drexler went because they’re Avia-sponsored players.
"I guess it was arranged by Ah Gan," Knight continued: "No one plays with fireworks better than the Chinese people."
As he was saying this, another loud bang was heard in the sky, and a bright spot of light soared into the sky, with everyone looking up.
After the explosion sound, a giant yellow five-pointed star appeared in the sky with crackling noises, eclipsing all the stars in the sky.
Jordan watched the star from bright to dim and muttered: "It must be that dog Ah Gan."