Madison Square Garden will see a historic performance tonight. The historic performance with the fewest points in history, but the symbol behind it is too enormous. Hector does not talk much, but he is an exemplary leader.
It provides support to others and nourishes the sense of collectiveness. His selflessness, integrity, and "leftness" make the players on his team follow him as he takes the initiative. But ultimately, he is someone who fits easily into the crowd. He lacks the thing that sets him apart from people.
This match in New York was the trigger expected by Pat Ewing. Hector doesn't realize it, but those who personally commit to idealizing their goals are often the best players. Simply put, Hector's leadership style was unsuitable for the long term and with teams that needed to show their skills.
Like the Kings right now.
If they were all motivated and ambitious, in its wake, the team would move forward. But the Kings currently don't meet the requirements. Hector is aiming for the top, but he can't expect his team not to follow him. But the rest of the teammates know that the aura around Hector is different today.
Hector's confidence is clearly out of the ordinary. But they need it so that everyone will follow him. And this confidence in his judgment and the absence of doubt will pay off. They will follow him to the end of the ravine.
Hector is not going to joke. After entering the game, he will make two consecutive blocks after offensive rebounds. Hector's body language embodies tyranny. The Knicks players are overtaken, they were back to 8 points of the Kings, but Hector started to go wild ... without scoring a single point.
Alec Burks will have the ball stolen during a layup attempt. Randle will be blocked on an attempt to post a dunk. But Hector is not idle on the other side of the field. On the contrary, he runs the machine, and the Kings have a blast.
Hector broke their defense. He does not move from the post-up, but no one dares to let score, which causes space. The Knicks had prepared an anti-Hector plan, but Hector needed to get into their mind games. Training with Divac is visible. He makes assists, and the other players don't have to worry about the rest.
This is a perfect example of the added value of a defensive breaker. Once the defense is broken, the initial tactic is useless for the opposing team. The probable MVP of this season, Nikola Jokic, is difficult to play in part because of this ability. And it turns out that Hector is good at this but in a different register.
Holmes at alley-oop, Barnes and Hield bombard the three-pointers. Mitchell goes back to pick and roll. The Sacramento Kings' offense resembles the Nuggets' today, a well-oiled orchestra. At halftime, the Kings led by 13, 63-50. Not paying attention, Hector did not notice, but he was already in the legend.
It is not an isolated case with him, so no one tells him anything. But he doesn't know that he tied Hakeem Olajuwon's career five-by-five record with six achievements and could surpass it tonight. When that statistic came across on ESPN, everyone realized something was wrong with that player. He was only known for his Dunk Contest, but no one ever spoke objectively about the player.
He didn't score any points at half-time because he didn't even try to shoot. But at halftime, 8 rebounds, 6 assists, 8 steals, and 6 blocks. But that's only half-time. Possibly Wilt Chamberlain has also realized it, but this is unheard of in the modern era of the NBA.
Ewing finished giving his tactical instructions and stopped when he was going to compliment Hector. The whole dressing room stopped talking and turned to Hector, the team's ace.
As a veteran and supervisor of Hector, Barnes observes Hector, who has a towel around his neck. He decided not to disturb him. No one dared to do so. He is "in the zone." The silence will last a few minutes. It is Hector himself who will interrupt him with a single sentence:
"Where and it's going."
And the Kings follow their leader. Everyone got the message.