Cameroon Nowitzki, holds the Big Bird Cup

On May 30, 2025, the Indiana Pacers already had the match point and suffered a defeat in New York. Before returning to Indiana to prepare for the game, Siakam was in the meeting room of Madison Square Garden as usual after the game. He reflected on the reasons for the loss and said that we would be able to return to the home court, but the reporter asked the question criticized with malicious intentions - "You didn't play hard enough."

And on June 1, Siakam, who returned to Indiana's home court, scored 31 points on 10 of 18 shots, won the Larry Bird Cup, which symbolized the best player in the Eastern Conference Finals.

But we all know that Halliburton is the boss of the team. We also know that the selection of best players in this short series is actually unspoken rules in the workplace, and the practice is to give symbolic teams. Therefore, Halliburton subconsciously walked out of the queue when announcing the winners and prepared to receive the prize...

Of course, this matter is not completely implemented as per the rules. Not only this year's Siakam, Iguodala once surpassed Curry to win the FMVP; last year the Celtics won the championship, and Jaylen Brown was elected the most valuable player rather than Tatum...

This situation often causes controversy, but this time Siakam won the award, he almost heard the voice of overcoming. On the contrary, the discussions between fans on both sides of China and the United States reached a consensus:

"Siakam is worth it."

As Indiana's only All-Star this season, Siakam has played an "irreplaceable" role in the Pacers' entire playoff journey. Judging from the quantitative data, whether Siakam is present or not, the team is the difference between winning and losing. When he is present, the Pacers can win 9.6 points more per 100 rounds, but if he is not there, he will lose 6.5 points in reverse, which means 16.1 points inside and outside. This difference is the most in the Pacers.

If we narrow the statistics to these 6 games in the Eastern Conference Finals, then this number will become 24.3 points, with the team being the first off-level.

When Siakam doesn't play well, the Pacers won't do it - this is not a reason, but an objective fact. In the 6 East Finals, the Pacers won the game, Siakam averaged 29.3 points per game and shot 55.1%.

And when Siakam averaged 16 points per game and shot only 44%, the Pacers swallowed two losses.

So, when selecting the Most Valuable Player in the Eastern Conference Finals, Siakam received 5 of 9 votes.

There is no intentional manipulation of the alliance, and there is no conspiracy to sow discord. As long as you watch this round of the series carefully and have a basic understanding of how to play basketball, you will know the content of the game contributed by Siakam and is completely worthy of the reward he received.

Tibodeau said that Siakam's comprehensiveness caused the Knicks to suffer a great loss, and he really came to the point. On the defensive end, Siakam has enough height, speed and hardness to complete the rotation and assist defense at the basket, as well as the fierce pressing of the ball-holder from outside the three-point line.

On the offensive end, the misaligned advantage formed by Siakam became a dead end that the Knicks could not cope with.

Siakam, a big man with a height of 2.03 meters and a weight of 111 kilograms, no matter whether he was protecting the basket at the end of the defensive round or pressing outside the three-point line, at the moment of the offense and defense transition, he counterattacked faster than anyone else.

, a player development coach who worked with Siakam in Toronto, Dan Tolzmann, saw Siakam's special talent for going back and forth between two halfs and felt that this could be used to form the advantage of more and less.

There is a concept of extra man in football tactics that emphasize offensive and defensive drills. Simply put, it is to accumulate the number of people in a certain part. If you can play one more player in each split part, you will finally have significant advantages over your opponent from a global perspective.

The concept of locally accumulating numbers is also common in the basketball world. This year's Rick Carlisle accurately embeds Siakam's sprinting ability into his running and bombing offense - if your big man can also participate in the process of offense and defense conversion, not just the defender is running, then isn't it a situation of more and less playing every time?

Many people say that Halliburton's magic allowed Carlisle to achieve a fast attack that drove the Knicks Five Donkeys to collapse. But in fact, Siakam, who has scored 89 points through a switch counterattack so far, has a larger share of his name in the credit book.

His fast break score is only less than Alexander, the most valuable player of this year, but his efficiency is much higher than that of the Canadian (Siakam can score 1.56 points per conversion and Alexander 1.33 points), while Siakam is 5 cm taller than Alexander and weighs 23 kg.

is taller than Siakam, and is not as fast as him. And the rate that can keep up with Siakam is not as high as that of him.

A big man inside, the finishing shooting percentage of the playoffs with a ball breakthrough was as high as 53.3%. This is still a high efficiency achieved under a large sample base - Siakam and his teammate Nembukhad broke through almost twice the efficiency.

And in the low-level singles event that best reflects the ability to dislocation, Siakam is the highest level in the entire playoffs, and his efficiency is even higher than Antetokounmpo, who is dislocation-killing. Among the big players, only the hard candy that burned all the time in this round of the Eastern Conference Final can barely catch up with him in terms of efficiency.

Whether it is the defender, front line, or the big center against Siakam, the latter's sports battle shooting percentage is no less than 50%. Siakam can score in any area, in any way.

If Miro is guarding him, dealing with this big man with a terrifying arm span and reaction speed, Harden will be defeated. Shooting is not a good choice. It will break through and rush to the basket and create a foul. Instead, it will be the best solution.

If the Knicks use a small man to attack Siakam's lower plate, then he can sit and play Mikal Bridges, who is smaller than him; when encountering Anunobi, the mid-range jump shot in the box is also a stable choice. In this round of the series of fights against the Knicks, the Pacers will lose their skin as long as they have played.

Carlisle actually did not expect his disciples to maintain high offensive efficiency in such a game where they devoted a lot of energy to the fight. Siakam scored 39 points in the G2 of the Eastern Conference Finals. When he scored two away games in Madison Square Garden, Carlisle was really shocked - because in his memory, the last big player who was able to be as stable as a clock on the offensive end under extremely high intensity consumption and elegantly punished defense was Dirk Nowitzki.

Interestingly, in the summer when the Raptors won the championship but lost their core, Siakam, who realized that he would be responsible for more tasks, has been thinking that he should increase his independent offensive methods.

And the German iconic "Golden Rooster Independence" was the skill he spent a lot of time studying.

Before Siakam proved his ball-holding ability in actual combat, the Raptors assistant coach Hines, who accompanied him to polish his skills, already felt that Siakam was indeed somewhat similar to Nowitzki.

, and former Raptors coach Nick Nas, who brought Siakam out, gave a more forward-looking evaluation, "The Golden Rooster Independence can help Siakam gain more relaxed shooting space when facing the frame. When his attack range is larger, he can shoot directly and pass the ball, which will be a nightmare for many defensive players."

Facts have proved that Nas's judgment is not wrong. In the 2019-20 season, Siakam, who was the only player, increased his score from 16.9 points to 22.9 points and was selected as the All-Star. The All-Star starter is a recognition of popularity, while the substitute is the coaches' reward for the evolution of the game content.

Originally, Siakam's path was just a dream-green-style all-round blue-collar worker, but in the first year he left Leonard, he became the tactical core of being able to carry the flag on the offensive end.

Siakum said that he did not want to be a dream, and he wanted to turn the name Pascal into a system.

And the year he worked with Leonard touched him deeply because he saw with his own eyes how Brother Kazi's old-fashioned style of playing pressed the Warriors who symbolized the new era of basketball to the ground, so he had already established such a basketball awareness in his heart:

If he only relies on conversion and eating cakes, then in the playoffs where the pace is slower, stronger confrontation, and needs to participate in more positional wars, it is chronic suicide.

This understanding has made Siakam trained to become the black-skinned version of Nowitzki. This also allowed Carlisle's Pacers, created by the second visit to the palace, to obtain the most critical piece of the puzzle.

Before Carlisle got Siakam, relying solely on the immature Halliburton who had the ball at the time, how to break the intensive defense of the positional battle has always been a stubborn disease for the Pacers. Last year's playoffs, Siakam, who had only been running out for half a season, allowed the Pacers to see the dawn of evolution; this year, Siakam's first full season in Indiana basically wiped this weakness out of the Pacers' scout report.

In fact, since Carlisle changed his thinking in Dallas and catered to the offensive philosophy that is more in line with the trend of modern basketball, his tactical system has attached great importance to the element of "displacement".

You can find that the size of the No. 4 position, but the offensive fulcrum with the No. 2 position skills is a common feature. When the Mavericks who defeated the Heat Big Three, Carlisle gave Nowitzki a lot of opportunities to punish the small man by using back-playing and misaligned shooting. Carlisle also used the idea of ​​

after entering the palace in Indiana for the second time.

Now, he has found a successor who is more like Dirk back then.

Also, 2011 when Nowitzki won the championship was the best year for three-point output and efficiency since he played for Carlisle.

Coincidentally, Siakam in the playoffs this year scored 46.3% of his three-point shooting percentage under Carlisle, which was also the best three-pointer in his playoff career.

Siakam, who picked up Larry Bird Cup, scored a total of 149 points and 21 assists in the entire East Finals series, but only 6 turnovers.

Any defender can force himself to eat without any defense, and no one can defend, like the killing god Dirk in the summer of 2011, even people can see a little bit of the shadow of a big bird.

I don't know whether Larry Bird, who has moved from behind the scenes in 2017, has participated in the Siakam transaction - if the answer is yes, I wonder if Bird has noticed a similar commonality to him in Siakam?

Although the gentle Siakam does not have the powerful aura of being as arrogant and cool as Bird, the resilience of not bowing to anyone may be the same.

When I was a child, Siakam, who wanted to play football, became a priest, and also wanted to join the Cameroonian government as a civil servant, had his growth path in the basketball world with the word "underestimation". Basketball has never been Siakam's first choice, it is his father's dream. Old Siakam thinks he should train one of his sons to become an NBA player. This person can be the eldest brother Boris Siakam, the second brother Christian Siakam, and the third brother James Siakam, and the fourth brother Pascal, who is least willing to play basketball, is the most talented one..

In 2013, Siakam was invited to South Africa to participate in the basketball frontier training camp. He was not interested in the NBA and did not even know who Ibaka and Roll Deng were present, nor did he understand why everyone present respected these two people very much. It was also like this ignorant boy who knew nothing about basketball and was most appreciated by scouts. Under the instigation of his father and the persuasion of scouts, he followed the footsteps of his three brothers and crossed the Atlantic Ocean to the United States of America.

And interestingly, after going to the United States, Siakam made up his mind to play basketball:

He was not influenced by the crazy basketball atmosphere, nor was he suddenly fell in love with the sport, but could not stand the preparatory school classmates and teammates rumbling in his ears for two months, "This big man can't dribble, shoot, and can't do anything well."

Siakam doesn't like playing basketball so much, but he doesn't want to be looked down upon. He has the traits that all great athletes have:

doesn't want to lose, even if it's not at all. In the summer of 2016, Siakam ran around to try out for different teams. The Buffalo Station was a special session selected by the Toronto Raptors. He saw Scar Rabisier, who was very popular at the time, and his later teammate Pelter in the stadium. Just as Siakam was fantasizing about how to show himself in the matchup later, a coach of the Raptors came towards him, blocked him off the court, and told him - "This is a special game between Rabisier and Pelter, you are going to try somewhere else."

That year, Siakam was still selected by the Raptors, but the pick was 27th in the first round. And Pelter who tried alone? The Raptors won the 9th pick in the first round.

4 years later, Siakam and Peartel are still in Toronto. However, the former is already the core of the team, while the latter is still competing for a starting position.

Siakam is not willing to give in, and "struggling for everything" for anything is the main story of his entire basketball career. In the historic moment of the Raptors' cup win in 2019, Eric Corian, who has been following the team for many years, wrote this passage, saying that Siakam has been doing his best to complete the tasks required by any team throughout his career, and he adapted to the transformation of his tactical role and helped the Raptors win their first championship in the history of the team.

That year, he became the most progressive player of the year. And on the June championship podium, he watched Leonard beside him hold the FMVP trophy. Perhaps at that moment he would wonder whether one day in the future, he could also receive his own personal trophy under the cheers of fans and the surroundings of his teammates.

And on the first day of June 2025, he picked up the Big Bird Cup and took the first step.

"First of all, salute the Indiana Pacers!"

This is the first sentence Siakam, who came on stage to receive the award, said to the 18,000 spectators of the Gambrigi Arena. Even though this is a personal moment for Siakam to enjoy the applause, he still puts the "team" before the "personal"...

If the Pacers really fight back as a dark horse in the end, he may not be able to win the most substantial trophy in the highest hall of honor like Leonard and Dirk Nowitzki who have been imitating.

Sometimes, people always give all praise to those who represent "face", and ignore the existence of "inside". Similar stories abound in this league where star-making is the top priority.

Fortunately, everyone made a fair choice in the 2025 Eastern Conference Finals.

And we should also be pleased with this moment of basketball:

Let this man who silently supports the backbone of Indiana basketball behind the scenes have the opportunity to come to the stage occasionally and accept cheers and praise!