America's King of Poetry

Chapter 39 Still Playing Like This

April 1994, 4, the second game day of the first round of the NBA playoffs.

The New York Knicks, ranked second in the league's Eastern Division, ushered in their first game of the playoffs. They can be regarded as rivals in the same city, just across the river from the New Jersey Nets.

For the New Yorkers, this is a very ideal matchup. They are equivalent to playing at home throughout the series without suffering from fatigue.After playing the first two home games, you don’t need to go on an expedition. You can rest at home and drive across the George Washington Bridge on the game day to go to the Continental Arena in East Rutherford for the game.

Night fell in the Big Apple City once again, and the circular Madison Square Garden once again became a sacred place in the hearts of New York fans tonight.This year is a year when people from all walks of life are very optimistic about the Knicks. Among the heroes in the Eastern Conference, New York is the most powerful.Although the Eagles, the No. [-] player in the Eastern Conference, overwhelmed the Knicks in the rankings based on the relationship between wins and losses, the Eagles sent away their number one star, the pride of Atlanta, Dominique Wilkins in the middle of the season, in exchange for Danny Manning.

The All-Star forward, who played for the Hawks for 12 seasons and still averaged 24 points and 6 rebounds per game before the trade, is self-evident to the team.The consequences of this deal are likely to be revealed in the playoffs.

Behind the Knicks are the Bulls who have lost Jordan, and the Magic, which has just acquired the O'Neill-Hardaway combination and has not yet formed a climate.For the Knicks, this year will be the best year to break out of the Eastern Conference.They almost did it last year, leading the Chicago Bulls 2-0 in the series, but unfortunately they still died at the hands of that man.

Abramo drove to the garden on time again with his son Angelo, and then entered the arena with the team of fans.

Angelo still wore Ewing's No. 33 jersey tonight, and his face was full of uncontrollable excitement.The playoffs and the regular season are completely two kinds of games. The regular season is half competitive and half entertaining. The playoffs are competitive. Every game, every quarter, and every round is crucial.In Angelo's view, the playoffs are the real war.

Of course, Abramo doesn't think so. He is more concerned about how many points the Knicks can beat the Nets tonight.

The handicap offered by the casino today is that the Knicks have a handicap of 9.5 points. Many gamblers think that it is not a problem for the Knicks to win the Nets by 10 points, just like what Arthur thought when he bet with Jackie yesterday.As a banker, Jackie needs most people to lose money, that is, to control the points within 10. If the Nets win the game unexpectedly, the gamblers will lose even more.

Abramow knew nothing about how Jackie manipulated NBA games. This was his casino operation and core secrets.But according to Abramo's observations in many games, there may be players betting on the ball, or the referee may be causing trouble.

The father and son came to the seats with completely different moods to watch the game. Abramovich did not buy a front row seat tonight. Tickets for the playoffs were really hard to buy.

Fifteen minutes before the start of the game, Abramo beckoned to the staff selling water, ordered two cups of Coke and a large box of popcorn, took a sip and handed it to his son, and Abramo got up to go to the bathroom.

It was still the men's toilet in the garden square. Abramo stood in front of the urinal for a while, and Hunter came in quietly.

They made an appointment to meet before tonight's game, and Hunter's ticket was given to him by Abramo.There were many people coming and going in the toilet, and the two stood in front of the urinal looking for opportunities to communicate.Hunter took out a piece of paper that was folded squarely from his pocket, put it in front of Abramo's urinal, and said, "I've tried my best about the little girl, and I really can't find it among my peers. But... you can take a look at it when the time comes, and I will give you an explanation."

Abramo took the paper and put it in his pocket without opening it.Arthur asked him to check Anna's background, but he had no clue for a month, and the dogs near Russell's apartment were almost dead.

"Hey, which team should I bet on tonight? How many points?" Seeing Abramo put away the paper, Hunter leaned over and asked with bright eyes.Since joining Abramo's game last time, Hunter has been fond of gambling, and has made a lot of money relying on Abramo's inside information.

"Who are the FBI and the police targeting now? Has there been any action recently?" Abramo didn't pick on Hunter, and Abramo would not give him cheap if he didn't get some information from him.This is also the way the two get along and use each other.Abramo will give Hunter financial benefits, and occasionally give some news to the police to catch some small shrimps for business.Hunter revealed the movements of the police station to ensure the safety of gang crimes.

Hunter waited until there were no one around before he said cautiously: "Yesterday's party was watched by the higher-ups, Jackie, Massino, Gigendi, Nino, Montolo, and you! You are all on the state police's focus list after the FBI, especially Montolo. He just took over, and the higher-ups are watching him closely, and want to take the opportunity to get rid of him. But there is no good reason for the time being. The few brothels under his name should be more careful recently. Is it very close?"

"There is no permanent enemy." Abramo borrowed Churchill's famous saying, "Is there any news? Tell me something about me."

"You've been very good lately." Hunter shook his head with a smile, then changed his expression, and asked again, "Do you know Arthur? Arthur Luciano?"

Hearing Hunter mentioning Arthur, Abramo felt alert, and said, "I know, a cook in Luciano's restaurant is said to be Tony's nephew. What's wrong? He's not a member of the gang."

Hunter said: "I know, but last night's dinner was cooked by him himself. It is said that he had close contact with Jackie. Do you have more information about him?"

Abu shook his head and said, "No, I said that he is not a member of the gang, and he is a bastard with half Chinese blood. The gang will not accept him."

I don't know what kind of information the police used to notice Arthur's strangeness, but Abramo tried hard to cover it up for him.The reason why Arthur wanted to stay in Luciano's restaurant as a cook and let Montolo inherit the big treasure was not only about his own blood, but also because he wanted to hide behind the scenes so as not to attract the attention of the police and the Bureau of Investigation.

If Montoro dies or is arrested, Silvis, Dior, and the leaders of a large group behind him can take the position of the family leader, and Arthur can be the informant forever.He has no property in his name, no huge unknown income, no criminal record, and he is an absolutely clean person. It is impossible for the police to catch him with any real evidence.

There wasn't even a picture of Arthur in the FBI or NYPD's anti-crime offices.

"Okay, I'm just asking casually, hey, can you tell me how you bought it for tonight's game?"

"Buy the Knicks, let 9 points."

……

In the evening, Arthur picked Gina back home after school, and after dinner, they nestled on the sofa and watched TV.

Gina likes to watch the TV series "The X-Files" broadcast on FOX TV. This sci-fi drama that started broadcasting in 1993 has an important position in the history of American dramas, so Arthur later looked for it on the Internet and watched it.And now he is in the United States in 1994, lying at home watching this show on TV, and his story can be written into the script of the X-Files.

The newly bought Panasonic TV has a larger and clearer screen than the previous one. During this time, Gina has been muttering "Why did you throw away the previous TV?" Now that she has a new TV, the worry on her face is much less.

At 07:30, Arthur prompted to change the channel, "There is an NBA game tonight, let me watch the game."

Gina held the remote control and refused to let go, "No, let me watch it, I haven't watched TV for weeks."

Gina nestled in Arthur's arms and acted like a baby. Arthur picked his face, thinking that he didn't care about the process of the game, he just wanted to know the result of the game.As for the TV series, he has already watched this season on the Internet.

"Gina, is there something on your mind recently?" Arthur asked softly, putting his arm around Gina's shoulder.

"No, nothing on my mind." Gina said so, but the expression on her face completely betrayed her.She was staring at the TV intently, but her eyes suddenly dimmed a lot, and she cuddled closer to Arthur.

"You can tell my Gina, I can solve any of your problems." Arthur said, not wanting Gina to look like this.

"But you are a chef, what can you do for me?" Gina whispered, these words really hurt my heart.

The shooting at the gymnasium made Gina think that Arthur was working for the gang, but later she found that Arthur seemed to be just a cook... It can only be said that Arthur hid it so well that even the people next to his pillow were deceived by him.

Arthur didn't know how to explain it for a while. It seems that hiding his identity has its disadvantages. Most of the time when he is in society, his name is still very important, and he can solve many problems and troubles without doing anything.He thought for a while and said, "Maybe I can't help you, but my friends can, trust me."

Arthur's tone was as convincing as ever. Gina bit her lower lip, hesitated for a while, and said to Arthur, "I don't know what to say... um... I recently found out that my friend Jenny is having sex with my dad."

"What?" Arthur thought it would be some kind of school violence, or money problems, these are small problems for Arthur, which are easy to solve.Who knew that Gina let go of a thunder, it was her father's problem.Arthur thought, this cheap old man is okay, Gina's mother is a beautiful woman, Gina's friend Jane Arthur also met once, she is a charming and hot girl, half of his old man can get such a high school student...

The first idea in Arthur's mind was to meet this cheap old man, ask him for advice, and the husband and son-in-law would discuss and exchange ideas with each other.But seeing the embarrassed look on Gina's face, he knew that Gina must be quite distressed by this.She was worried that Jenny would abduct Arthur, but she didn't know that she was not interested in Arthur. What she was interested in was Gina's father.

"Don't worry, Gina, I'll help you with this matter, OK? I won't embarrass you." Arthur knew in his heart that what really upset the girl was the embarrassment he felt after his good friend got mixed up with his father.Jenny is still Gina's best friend.Women's friendship is really unpredictable.

After comforting Gina and watching the X-Files with her, Arthur hurriedly switched to CBS.

There is no real-time live broadcast of the mobile phone network, so it is really troublesome to understand the game trend.The live broadcast of the game is still going on, but it has reached the last moment of the fourth quarter. The Knicks lead the Nets by 91 points at 80:11. The Knicks have secured the victory and there is no suspense.Arthur looked at the score, 11 points difference, less than 10 seconds left, garbage time.

It seems that he won the bet with Jackie.

But at this moment, a strange scene happened on the court. With less than 10 seconds left in the end, when the players on both sides had given up the game, the referee called the Knicks a defensive foul!A very ordinary contact action inside, but the referee blew his whistle and sent Derek Coleman to the free throw line.

Coleman made two free throws at the free throw line, rewriting the score to 91:82, and the point difference became 9 points.

This did not help the outcome of the game, but changed the mood and fate of many gamblers tonight.

Arthur is one of them.

"Shit, you can still play like this."

(End of this chapter)