Mountain Peak System: a Path to NBA-Chapter 610 - 206: Gun Gate and the Defended GOAT (First Update! Begging for Subscription and Monthly Tickets!)

Before every season starts, the league holds meetings to set the tone for the new season.

Just a week ago, the NBA officially announced its latest promotional slogan - Big-things-are-coming.

Considering the reshuffle various teams achieved through the free agent market this summer, this is undoubtedly a very fitting slogan for the 10/11 season.

However...

An unexpected earthquake...

Turned the league's newly unveiled slogan into a boomerang overnight.

This earthquake starts with the trade between the Philadelphia 76ers and the Memphis Grizzlies involving Andrew Bynum this summer.

During this unprecedentedly lively summer, the trade between the 76ers and the Grizzlies initially caused no waves.

ESPN and many other media outlets only gave limited coverage to this trade.

Until the 76ers' preseason training camp arrived.

October 4th.

During a card game after a team practice, Bynum, having a good streak of luck, won 4,000 US dollars from his teammate Crittenton in one go...

So, when the card game ended...

A very upset Crittenton asked Bynum to return the 200 US dollars that Bynum had borrowed from Boeckins during the game.

"I'll definitely return the prize to Earl, but I'll be damned if I listen to a rookie like you," Bynum said arrogantly, "and you better show some respect when you talk!"

Originally, if Bynum had returned the 200 US dollars as he claimed, many of the subsequent issues might never have happened.

But two days later, when Crittenton brought it up again with Bynum...

Bynum replied, "You keep nagging, and you can't even play on the court. I said it, I'll be damned if I listen to you, who the hell do you think you are?"

Hearing this, Crittenton was furious and got into a heated argument with Bynum.

As the argument escalated, Bynum, who joined the 76ers with a savior mentality, said in his rage, "If you keep nagging like this, believe it or not, I'll shove you in a car and set it on fire!"

Seeing this, Crittenton sneered, "If you dare to do that, I dare to bring a gun!"

Bynum, who had developed the habit of bullying others during his Grizzlies career, scoffed, "Bring a gun then, you think you're the only one who can bring a gun?"

A day later, before the 76ers' team practice, Bynum arrived in the team's locker room with three loaded guns, pointing to the locker and said, "Here's the gun you wanted, to be fair, I'll let you pick one first."

In Bynum's view, most people would have been scared out of their wits by such a sight.

But, unfortunately, Crittenton was not most people.

The next second, Crittenton, cocked a revolver in a Western movie gesture, pointed it at Bynum's head, and said, "Spare me your stuff!"

Inside the 76ers' locker room, when Crittenton and Bynum were pointing guns at each other...

At this suffocating moment, Wall, the rookie just selected by the 76ers this year, immediately fled the locker room in a panic.

Meanwhile, Igoda, who had been the team leader for the 76ers for years, quickly brought in team security.

And Bynum, who just wanted to scare Crittenton?

During the standoff, Bynum was terrified and sweating as Crittenton was ready to pull the trigger at any moment.

According to the recollections of eyewitness Boeckins, "Those few minutes could have been the most excruciating of my life, as I kept persuading Galivas not to shoot. Fortunately, Andrew didn't provoke Galivas further, allowing Galivas to vent for seven or eight minutes, finally calming him down."

Bynum escaped unscathed thanks to his tendency to bully the weak and fear the strong.

But this heinous gun incident immediately made the Philadelphia 76ers the brightest star in the NBA even before the new season started.

"This is the league's 'Big-things-are-coming'! The new season hasn't started yet, and we almost witnessed two NBA players having a Western-style shootout!"

Amidst the media frenzy, the outraged league swiftly intervened to investigate the incident.

So, here's the question...

This gun incident, similar to what Qin Yue remembered but with Bynum instead of Arenas, ultimately caused what kind of terrible impact?

The answer is, if this incident had occurred before the Dallas incident, it could have even affected the results of the NBA's new labor negotiations.

"I said it before, we shouldn't have given these players such good treatment!"

At the league owners' regular meeting, Jordan was seen furiously saying, "Look at what these bastards have done. The new season hasn't even started, and they've already damaged the entire NBA's image beyond repair!"

Clippers owner Sterling told Stern with an undeniable tone, "If I could predict the players would treat us this way, I certainly wouldn't have agreed to sign the new labor agreement!"

"What a 'Big-things-are-coming'! Now, we've become the laughingstock of the Big Four sports leagues!" Herb Cole, the Bucks' owner, snorted coldly from the side.

Under the pressure from the league's team owners, Stern quickly imposed severe punishment on the two protagonists of the gun incident, Bynum and Crittenton, banning them for the entire season.