Boston, New Garden.
Early July in Massachusetts is the rainy season, and several days of continuous rain have relieved the city of the summer heat, bringing a rare coolness.
In the spacious CEO's office, Lin Qi leaned back in his executive chair, comfortably sipping his black coffee. With the successful conclusion of the draft and the signing of Grant Hill finalized, the Celtics' busiest offseason work was essentially over. The roster was largely set, and any further moves would be minor adjustments.
Just as he was about to close his eyes and rest, contemplating whether he should take a short break, the mahogany door to his office was suddenly pushed open.
The team's chief assistant didn't even have time to knock on the door. He quickly walked to the desk and handed Lin Qi a briefing that he had just torn from the fax machine.
"Lin, you'd better take a look at this. The West Coast... is in complete chaos." The assistant's tone was filled with undisguised astonishment.
Lin Qi put down his coffee cup, frowned slightly, and took the still-warm fax paper. His gaze lingered on the title for only a second before his pupils suddenly contracted.
This is a transaction update just pushed out by the alliance's official internal system; it contains only a brief line of text.
The Los Angeles Lakers have officially notified all teams in the league that, effective immediately, management will be open to hearing trade offers for Kobe Brian.
Lin Qi stared at the line of text for a full half minute before gently placing the briefing on the table.
He knew that Jerry West's departure would cause the Los Angeles locker room to spiral out of control, and Lakers also guessed that the Lakers' young duo would inevitably clash after missing out on the championship. But he never expected things to escalate so quickly, nor did he expect the Lakers ' management to make such a ruthless decision.
Even in the original timeline, when the OK Duo was at their most bitter, to the point of publicly insulting each other's families in the media, the Lakers management still dragged it out until after their loss in the 2004 NBA Finals before finally making the decision to choose one of the two.
Now, simply because they lost to the Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals, the Los Angeles Lakers put Kobe on the trading block in the summer of 2000.
"Go, get a copy of every major newspaper published in Los Angeles in the last 48 hours, including all the tabloid sports papers," Lin Qi instructed his assistant, looking up. "Also, contact our scouts on the West Coast; I need to know what's been going on within the Lakers organization these past few days."
"Understood, I'll take care of it right away."
Half an hour later, a thick stack of newspapers and several summaries of internal intelligence were neatly placed on Lin Qi's desk.
Lin Qi didn't rush to conclusions. Instead, like a detective piecing together clues at a crime scene, he casually picked up the top copy of the Los Angeles Times and flipped to the sports section.
A huge, bold headline instantly filled his vision. "The Cracks in the Purple and Gold Legion: Who Ruined the Championship?"
The report was not only detailed, but also surprisingly explicit, exposing almost all the unspoken arguments in the Lakers' locker room to fans across the United States.
According to a columnist citing an "anonymous insider," Shaq O'Neal and Kobe Brian had an extremely heated confrontation at the season-ending meeting two days ago.
O'Neal was the first to speak out, publicly accusing Kobe of being "selfish, reckless, and lacking tactical discipline" in the NBA Finals. O'Neal complained to management that, facing Boston's suffocating defense, Kobe not only failed to deliver the ball to the low post as required by the Triangle Offense, but instead insisted on taking difficult shots from the outside.
"He thought he was Michael Jordan, but he missed those damn shots and handed the championship to Boston." The newspaper quoted O'Neal verbatim.
But the proud and arrogant Kobe was clearly not going to swallow his pride. Faced with the criticism, the stubborn young man immediately retorted. He mercilessly mocked O'Neal's abysmal free throw percentage in the NBA Finals and bluntly criticized O'Neal's bloated physique during the offseason, which resembled "fermented dough."
Even more devastatingly, at the end of the argument, a completely enraged Kobe, with a cold face, uttered a harsh statement in front of all the management and coaching staff, cutting off all avenues of retreat. "If this isn't my team, trade me immediately."
Looking at the newspaper article featuring the two men shifting blame and mocking each other, Lin Qi coldly shook his head.
He put down the Los Angeles Times and picked up the Orange County Register. This newspaper took a more professional approach, with a tactical review article written by a veteran basketball commentator that clearly analyzed the underlying basketball logic behind the Lakers' management's decision to make this major move.
The article's title is chilling: "Cold Data and Cruel Choices".
The author points out in the article that all the locker room conflicts are just the surface. What really made Jerry Buss decide to break up the duo was the unavoidable truth exposed by the recent NBA Finals.
Facing the Celtics ' league-leading defensive resources, Shaq O'Neal still averaged nearly 60% shooting and racked up high scores. He proved with his actions that even under the high pressure of the NBA Finals, he remained the low-post dominator that could not be contained by any conventional tactics.
In contrast, Kobe's performance was extremely lackluster.
The article focuses on analyzing the offensive and defensive matchups in the NBA Finals: "Look at the Celtics! Gary Payton, Eddie Jones, Ron Artest, and Bruce Bowen. Just on this one team in Boston, you can find at least four perimeter defenders who can effectively limit Kobe."
"What does this show? It shows that Kobe's offensive firepower, which he was so proud of, is far less indispensable in this league than he imagined. When your opponent can easily field four players on just one team to take turns limiting you, your tactical indispensability is completely undermined."
"But what about the other side? You could search through the rosters of all 29 teams in the league and you wouldn't find even half a center who could defend Shaq O'Neal one-on-one. One is a guard who could easily find four players to guard, and the other is an unstoppable low-post dominator in the entire league. In terms of tactical value in a head-to-head matchup, it's obvious who is replaceable and who is truly untouchable."
Upon seeing this, Lin Qi paused slightly, his hand holding the coffee cup twitching involuntarily.
Can you just randomly pick four people?
The columnist's conclusion did pinpoint the Lakers ' weaknesses with remarkable accuracy, but the reasoning behind it was utterly absurd, leaving Lin Qi speechless.
Looking at the entire history of the NBA, apart from the Boston Celtics, who ruthlessly assembled Gary Payton, Jones, Artest, and Bowen onto the same team, what other team in the league could boast such an insane array of perimeter defensive resources?
To twist this one-in-a-million extreme defensive situation into irrefutable proof that " Kobe is easy to contain," the Los Angeles media really went to great lengths to create momentum for the management to break up the duo.
However, Lin Qi certainly wouldn't be kind enough to correct this beautiful misunderstanding.
With their absolute dominance in the paint and the media's assessment of their "not indispensable" struggles on the perimeter, if Los Angeles had to give up one of these two rival stars, the Answer would be obvious.
Moreover, in this era, inside players have a higher margin for error and a greater tactical importance than outside players.
Lin Qi continued flipping through the pages, and in the crevices of a sports tabloid, he found the final piece of the puzzle—head coach Phil Jackson's attitude.
In this locker room showdown, " Zen Master " unhesitatingly sided with O'Neal.
This is not surprising. Jackson was the coach that O'Neal strongly advocated for back in the day, and he has always been a staunch " O'Neal supporter" in the Lakers ' locker room politics. Tabloids have reported that Jackson has been frequently visiting Jerry Buss's office over the past two days, putting continuous pressure on management.
He bluntly told the owner that Kobe's style of play—extremely eager for shots and frequently detached from the Triangle Offense —was "unmanageable." Jackson even stated that if the team couldn't clearly establish O'Neal as the absolute and sole core player next season, he wouldn't be able to guarantee the team's operation.
The combined pressure from the head coach and star player, along with Kobe's own harsh words, became the final straw that broke the camel's back in Los Angeles.
Lin Qi closed all the newspapers, pushed them to the corner of the table, leaned back in his chair, and let out a long sigh.
The entire sequence of events is now completely clear.
In the fiercely competitive locker room of Los Angeles, the situation might have been somewhat stabilized when only Jerry West was still around. But even for this godfather-like figure, the only prerequisite for persuading this group of arrogant and fierce players to continue working together was winning the championship.
The O'Brien Trophy is the only reason these proud and arrogant people can tolerate each other and maintain a superficial peace.
Now, the championship is lost. This group of people really can't find even the slightest reason to continue working together. What's more, West, the only one who could keep things in check, is gone, and the situation has naturally slid into an irreconcilable abyss.
Even Jerry Buss, the owner who has always favored Kobe and even treated him like his own son, had to bow to reality after witnessing the contrast in performance in the NBA Finals, facing the double pressure of being both the head coach and the core of the interior, as well as Kobe's resolute attitude.
Kobe Brian, a young man who should have achieved legendary status in Los Angeles, was affected by the flapping of butterfly wings and prematurely fell into the vortex of the trading market.