Soul of the Golden State

Chapter 745 The End of the Era
The Croatians are tenacious. Facing Li Weisi's unreasonable scoring, they used the same excellent offense to fight back. Under the indiscriminate bombardment of the dream team, they withstood Li Weisi's chasing points until Li Weisi's rest. The Croatian team still maintained the lead with 25:23.

In the nearly 8 minutes of the game, Li Weisi made 6 of 4 shots and scored 14 points, which was higher than the rest of the Dream Team combined.

The Croatian team was better on the surface, especially Petrovic and Kukoc. The two teamed up to score 4 three-pointers, one more than Li Weisi's three.

However, the disadvantages of the Croatian team are still obvious. All they can rely on is just a few stars. On the other hand, the dream team has too many players who can play.

This is why Nelson still dared to make substitutions even though the team was behind, because he believed that the performance of other players on the court would not be worse than that of the starters.

In fact, before Li Weisi was replaced, other starters had been replaced one after another.

As the last player to be replaced, Li Weisi did give a sample to the other new players of the Dream Team, telling them what it means to play.

The Croatian team didn't dare to make substitutions like the Dream Team. At most, they would swap Petrovic and Kukoc, and never dared to replace them at the same time.

But even so, with the loss of one core player on the field, the Croatian team's offensive threat firepower has still dropped significantly, and it has become more and more difficult to maintain their lead.

However, if you defend for a long time, you will lose. With Barkley's dunk, the Dream Team finally overtook the score.

By the end of the half, the Dream Team had overtaken Croatia by 56 points 42:14.

In the second half, the Dream Team played more freely. In addition to Li Weisi who was still abnormally accurate, Jordan finally began to recover, making sudden shots and playing more and more actively.

A Li Weisi is already very difficult to deal with, plus a Jordan, the Croatian team can enjoy the full treatment of the two superstars.

In the end, the game was fixed at 117:85. The Dream Team beat Croatia with 32 points and won the Olympic gold medal without any surprise.

Seeing that the Olympic Games is coming to an end, but at the final awards ceremony, there were still some problems. On the surface, it seemed to be a problem with brand clothing, but in fact, it was a power struggle between the US Olympic Committee and the NBA.

In fact, the US Olympic Committee has always been hostile to the Dream Team, and this has always existed since the establishment of the Dream Team.

For the U.S. Olympic Committee, they don't want the Dream Team to receive so much attention. They hate the Dream Team's privileges, separate residences, extra security, demand for game tickets, and everything. The U.S. Olympic Committee is quite annoyed. The two previous members of the Olympic Committee, Iloy Walker and Manette Marr, are by no means just isolated cases.

In addition, the Dream Team itself is a significant political struggle in the eyes of the Olympic Committee. Harvey Schiller, then chairman of the Olympic Committee, once said: "There is indeed a concern that the NBA will take over. People have been arranged into the US Basketball Association, so how to prevent them from infiltrating the decision-making level of the US Olympic Committee?"

What's more, it is regarded as the beginning of professional sports destroying Olympic sports. In short, there are many people in the Olympic Committee who are hostile to the dream team.

Therefore, these bureaucrats have turned the award uniform into a focus of struggle between the two sides.

The previous basketball sportswear of the US team was in charge of the champion company. The sportswear they launched had a small logo and did not look conspicuous, so it was not boycotted by the players of the dream team.

Today's award uniform is sponsored by Reebok, and there is an obvious logo on the right shoulder. One can imagine how much the players resisted this award uniform?

In fact, Reebok, which was the fuse, was just hit by an unwarranted disaster. They spent 200 million U.S. dollars to become a provider of award uniforms, but in exchange, Buckley said: "I have 200 million There is no reason not to wear this stuff!"

In the end, the players came up with two solutions to solve this problem.

One is a trio composed of Jordan, Magician and Barkley, wearing the national flag and standing on the podium. The reason there are only 3 people is that the audience on the main side of the court can only provide 3 national flags.

As for others, pins are used to fasten the collar and block the Reebok logo, thus achieving the same effect as wearing the national flag.

No matter how many quarrels there are between the players and the bureaucrats on the stage, except for the reporters and media staff who noticed this secret struggle, the audience did not care about it. They only saw the smiles on the players' faces and watched Seeing these superstars waving to the fans in every corner, they are still immersed in a harmonious and beautiful scene.

After receiving the gold medal and hoisting the national flag, several players of the Dream Team waved to the head coach Nelson and several other assistant coaches, wanting them to also stand on the podium and receive applause together.

In the past few weeks, the players and coaches of the Dream Team have gotten along very well, and everyone respects Nelson very much, and likes Nelson's unpredictable brainstorming and calmness.

However, in the face of the players' signal, Nelson and their assistants did not go on stage. Under the stands, Nelson and his assistants were still happy for the players, and he did not want to spoil the moment that belonged to the players.

Of course, this does not mean that he is not excited. In fact, Lenny Wilkens, the team's first assistant coach, was beside Nelson, and he could clearly see tears falling from the corners of Nelson's eyes.

With an overwhelming advantage, he conquered the world, let the world know basketball again, know the NBA, and get to know each star who is vivid and full of personality. All this is finally over, and the dream has come to an end.

A few days after the finals, the players of the Dream Team boarded the special plane, and on the plane, they had a poker game.

But when they returned to the United States and got off the plane, this dreamy and wonderful journey ended. They returned to reality, and each had to face their own troubles.

Bird, who was suffering from a back injury, announced his retirement shortly after returning to the United States. The same retired also included the long-retired magician. The two veterans thus stayed away from the basketball stage, and an era ended.

Before they parted, Bird also said to the players of the Dream Team: "The era that belongs to me and the magician is over, and it will be up to you next."

After all, he came to Li Weisi, stroked Li Weisi's bushy cut, and said, "This time, the future really belongs to you!"

(End of this chapter)