Due to the absence of Olajuwon and Charles Barkley, the game between the Trail Blazers and the Heat was uneventful, lacking suspense.
After the All-Star Game, Gan Guoyang was in scorching form, and without the two main cores, no one on the Heat’s inside could stop him from rampaging in the low post.
98:91, the Trail Blazers defeated the Heat by an 8-point advantage on the road, handing the Heat their second consecutive loss and getting their Eastern road trip off to a good start.
Kobe, who started in the game, scored 17 points, shooting 6 of 10, and 2 of 3 from three-point range, performing rather well.
Though Drexler also scored 24 points, he seemed to lack interest throughout the game, and even when Kobe broke through and dunked on him, Drexler had little response or display.
He just smiled, received the pass, and continued to participate in the offense normally, not taking Kobe’s smugness to heart — he really looked like he needed a beating.
After the game, Drexler and Gan Guoyang hugged, the two remained good friends, and Ah Gan was still the godfather of Drexler’s daughter.
More importantly, Drexler wore Avia sneakers, and when negotiating a new contract, he needed Ah Gan to help him out.
Drexler achieved quite a brilliant career as a player and was very famous, but his contracts were always relatively small.
Whether with the Trail Blazers or the Heat, Drexler was never the highest-paid, and often not even the second highest.
This summer, Drexler, Gan Guoyang, and the Heat signed a two-year, $11 million US Dollar contract, with the last year being a player option.
This salary level, at this stage, many rookies can’t match, and a veteran with four rings, who was once the core of the team and lifted the Heat’s reputation, couldn’t even get a long-term, high-value contract.
By the end of the 1997-1998 season, Drexler will be 35 years old, not completely incapable of playing, but Riley was unwilling to sign Drexler to a longer, larger contract.
From 1988 when he was lured away from Portland to the extension until the 1997-1998 season, Drexler will have spent 10 years in Miami.
Drexler was determined to become the Sun of Miami, and he finally got a new championship ring, but everything was vastly different from the future he had once imagined, far from becoming a star.
But overall, he was satisfied with these ten years, so, unlike Olajuwon, facing Riley’s stinginess and coldness, Drexler chose to make do, two years is two years.
He didn’t have a strong desire for money; anyway, the money earned in his career is enough for a lifetime. Signing a lifetime contract with Avia, the NBA will still provide a pension after 45, and after retirement, he can find a job in commentary, coaching, or management. As long as he doesn’t make bad investments or have a bunch of illegitimate children, he won’t have financial worries.
And after signing the contract, he did not shy away from telling a friendly reporter that there was a 99% chance he would retire after the 1997-1998 season, end his athletic career, and start a new life.
His pursuit of basketball was really not much.
The obsessions that once drove him forward no longer exist.
He knew he could never be a player like Ah Gan; there was an insurmountable barrier between them.
This barrier was mainly not about talent and ability, but about personality, about their views on life and destiny.
No matter how influenced he was by Ah Gan, Drexler was ultimately still that somewhat lazy, carefree big boy.
Because of this, the relationship between Drexler and Charles Barkley wasn’t very good.
Gan Guoyang could see it, after the game, Barkley didn’t greet Drexler, the two brushed past each other and left the court in different directions.
It seemed very normal, the two never really appreciated each other anyway.
In the 1995-1996 season, when the Heat was aiming for a title defense, in a game between the Heat and the Suns, Barkley hit Drexler’s leg from behind, causing Drexler to miss many games, ultimately performing poorly and falling behind in the playoffs.
In this season, Barkley joined the Heat, and the Heat formed the Big Four, with Barkley eager to win a championship.
He found out that in games, Drexler often lacked effort and held an indifferent attitude towards winning or losing.
As early as 1992 in the Barcelona Dream Team, Barkley heard Jordan and Pippen complain that this guy Drexler wasn’t serious enough about games and basketball.
Now playing on the same team striving for the championship, Barkley, of course, couldn’t accept Drexler’s attitude, and disagreements started to surface in training and games.
Drexler also felt unhappy in his heart, thinking, "You, who can’t control your weight and eat McDonald’s while riding a bike, have the nerve to say my attitude isn’t right?"
Originally Olajuwon could serve as a lubricant between Barkley and Drexler, but unfortunately, Olajuwon was also disinterested in basketball and had conflicts with Riley and Tim Hardaway.
Now, it’s a mess, four people, two pairs that don’t get along, while all four of them dislike the head coach, how are they supposed to compete for the championship?
The Heat can still maintain a spot in the top three in the Eastern mainly relying on their talent, and Riley’s authoritarian control over the team, keeping them united in games.
Once this season’s playoffs fail to achieve the predetermined goal of winning the championship, the breakup of the Big Four is foreseeable.