Slam Dunk: My Study Abroad Career in Northern Hunan

Chapter 651 All-star!
Nonsense.

Garnett's nonsensical behavior made the rest room completely quiet. Everyone looked at Garnett in a daze. Tom, who was held by Garnett's head and kissed fiercely, was also stiff and dumbfounded. Looking at Garnett in front of him, he didn't realize what happened.

"Tom, we are teammates who love each other, aren't we?"

"Don't be angry, we are about to enter!"

Under the gaze of everyone, Garnett smiled at Tom. Tom, who reacted belatedly, wiped his forehead and pushed Garnett away.

Being made such a fuss by Garnett, even though Tom was still angry in his heart, he couldn't let it out for a while.

Getting angry also requires so-called continuity. After being interrupted by Garnett, even if Tom had the intention to cause trouble for Chris, he lost his "interest" at this moment.

Everyone was a little confused by Garnett's operation, but when everyone saw Tom sitting back in his seat in silence, everyone knew that this conflict should have been resolved smoothly.
Chris silently walked out of the lounge with the relief of several friends. It would be a bit awkward to continue to be in the same room with Tom at this time.

Seeing Chris walking out of the lounge accompanied by the team members, Garnett glanced at Tom who was on the bench with his feet tied, and raised his chin in the direction of Martial Arts, as if to show off to Martial Arts that he was using his own This conflict was perfectly resolved.

Glancing at Garnett, Wu Dao ignored Garnett. While changing his shoes and jersey, he asked Tom next to him:
"What happened? Tom."

"Your behavior today is a bit unlike you."

Faced with Wu Dao's inquiry, Tom shook his head and said perfunctorily: "It's nothing, I just saw that he was unhappy."

Such an answer is obviously not from Tom's heart. What level of player is Chris? Will Tom look upset at Chris?

Moreover, Chris is a very smooth and gregarious person, and has a good relationship with all the members of the team. Such a person will not attract the hostility of Tom.

unless
Something touched Tom's core interests.

My girlfriend was abducted by Chris? Impossible. Tom's girlfriend is a very traditional white man. Although she does not engage in discrimination, she has always been very "polite" towards black people.

If it’s not a matter off the court, it must be a matter on the court.
Wu Dao quickly thought of the previous incident where Tom was called by Coach Phillip to talk, and he had some guesses in his mind.

Philip's desire to adjust the team's tactical system is no longer a matter of a day or two, but the Timberwolves' current winning rate is high enough that Philip has never had any legitimate reason to adjust players.

Sometimes, it is not easy for a coach to implement his own coaching philosophy on the team. He must take care of the players' emotions and find a suitable entry point.

This is especially obvious in the alliance.

Every NBA team makes major tactical adjustments, usually after the team loses a big game. Very few teams make any major adjustments after a victory.

The Timberwolves are now stabilizing, and it is not easy for Philip to change something.

"If you want to say something, just tell me."

"If your demands are reasonable, I will stand by you."

"I hope something like this never happens again, Tom."

Martial Arts' tone was gentle, but there was a hint of warning in his words. With his current position in the team, Tom also needs to weigh carefully before saying this.

It has nothing to do with the unhappiness with Chris, but if he has the unhappiness with Wu Dao, he really has no way to stay and play with the Timberwolves.

Tom also has his own judgment on the prospects of the Timberwolves. He believes that the Timberwolves are a team that has the potential to compete for the championship. He does not want to leave the Timberwolves if it is not necessary.

When talking to Phillip before, the reason why Tom said so forcefully, "If you want to make way for Chris, ask for a trade" was because he knew that compared to Chris, he is undoubtedly more capable as an All-Star substitute. Taken seriously by the team.

But if compared with the "cornerstone" level of martial arts, Tom believes that he will definitely be traded.

"Don't worry, it won't happen again."

Tom listened to Wu Dao's warning, nodded slightly, and agreed.

A conflict caused by the starting position ended because of Garnett's unreasonable intervention.

It's just that although there is no direct conflict between players, the morale of the Timberwolves players has been somewhat hit because of this conflict. At the same time, the states of Tom and Chris who caused the conflict have also been affected. It had some impact. When playing against the Cavaliers, neither of them was focused enough.

However, the Timberwolves are stronger than the Cavaliers in terms of physical strength. At the same time, Wu Dao also completely suppressed the Cavaliers' Cedric Henderson on the court. Garnett and Wallace also teamed up to contain the Cavaliers center Zarunas Yi. Ergoskas.

Therefore, even if two players in the Timberwolves' standard rotation lineup are out of shape, winning this game is still a no-brainer.

During the game against the Cavaliers, an assistant coach privately told Philip what had happened in the locker room before. When he learned that Tom and Chris had a fierce conflict, Philip couldn't help but feel a little sinking in his heart.

He knew that he was too eager for success after all.

After the Timberwolves defeated the Cavaliers, Philip also used the excuse to celebrate and invited the team's players to drink and relax.

After the game against the Cavaliers, the Timberwolves will have a day of rest before returning home to face the New York Knicks.

After the game against the Knicks, most of the team's players will have several days of rest.

Because within a few days after February 2, the league will hold the All-Star Game, and the team will get a valuable rest!

Voting for the All-Stars will generally begin at the end of December of the previous year, and statistics will be conducted before the beginning of February of the following year to determine the All-Star team members.

The voting results for the 97-98 season actually came out at the end of January. For example, in the Western Conference, there are the Jazz's Malone, the Timberwolves' Garnett and Wu Dao, and the Lakers' O'Neal, Kobe, Eddie Jones, and Nick Van Aye. Kewell and others, Gary Payton and Vin Baker of the SuperSonics, David Robinson and Duncan of the Spurs, Kidd of the Suns.

Things like the All-Stars are determined by audience voting. Teams with high exposure tend to get more attention from fans. Teams like the Lakers, which have big ball markets and big media, are even more popular. Four All-Stars.

The Timberwolves have ranked first in the Western Conference from the beginning of the season to the present. Because of the yellow race of martial arts, the Timberwolves have always attracted much attention in the field of public opinion.

Garnett has a certain fan base in the Timberwolves itself, and coupled with some media attention brought by martial arts, it is natural to be selected as an All-Star.

As for Wu Dao, who is the core leader who has led the Timberwolves to their current status, the number of fans is not to mention. Although he is young, he does not lose much to other players in terms of audience votes. It's worth saying.
The Bulls' Jordan still has the highest popularity in the league. As the vote leader, he was once again selected as an All-Star.

During the Bulls dynasty, Michael was considered the best in the league both in terms of on-court ability and off-court influence. And those players in the Eastern Conference are also star-studded.

Rainman Sean Kemp, Pistons' Grant Hill, Hawks' Uncle Mu, Steve Smith; Bulls' Jordan, Magic's Anfernee Hardaway, Heat's Tim Hardaway, Nets' Jay Sen Williams, the Pacers' Rick Schmitz and Reggie Miller; the Hornets' Glen Rice and the Celtics' Antoine Walker.

The competition in the Eastern Conference is fierce, even stronger than that in the Western Conference. The Bulls' "best second-choice player in history" has been an All-Star for several years, but he missed out this year.

As the All-Ming Day is approaching, even Martial Arts, which has not paid much attention to off-site information, can feel that the atmosphere is somewhat different.

On February 2, after the Timberwolves defeated the New York Knicks 4:95, Budao, Garnett and a group of Wolves players boarded a chartered flight to New York.

Although only Wu Dao and Garnett of the Timberwolves were selected as All-Stars, their teammates also like to join in the fun. Anyway, there have been no games in recent times. They also took this opportunity to go to New York to have fun. One play.

Although New York is the legendary "Sin City", in this era, New York is also one of the most prosperous cities in the United States, with a wide variety of entertainment activities that cannot be compared to Minnesota.

What's more, the All-Star Game is considered a grand event for NBA players. Taking advantage of the camera to increase your exposure can also be helpful to a player's career!
"Come on, everyone, get ready, let's take a makeup photo first!"

In the studio, the photographer clapped his hands and greeted the players who had changed their jerseys. Before the All-Star Game, the players are also quite busy. They need to cooperate with the NBA's official publicity work.

It is normal to take some promotional photos, some promotional videos, and even some behind-the-scenes photos together.

"Hey! Martial Arts!"

"Come on, Martial Arts, sit next to me, over here!"

After changing their jerseys, Wu Dao and Garnett walked to the stage. Several Western Conference players who had already changed their players greeted Wu Dao.

O'Neal and Kobe greeted Wu Dao with smiles. O'Neal also pointed to the seat beside him and said with a smile.

As the biggest O'Neal, and also the league's top inside star, O'Neal enjoys the C-position treatment for taking photos.

According to the previous arrangement, the huge O'Neal sat at the front of everyone, while the rest of the people sat around O'Neal. At the back, there would also be a row of players. Young players like Kobe needed to go. Standing in the back row.

Although it is just a simple photo shoot, there are many ways to do it.

The cameraman's expression changed slightly when he heard O'Neal's greeting. The players' positions were determined and informed to the players in advance. Changing them without authorization would be against the rules.

Moreover, players who occupy positions randomly may also cause dissatisfaction among other players.

Don't think that only Asia has so-called sophistication. The United States also attaches great importance to this. The so-called cocktail party is a place to show "humanity and sophistication", and this is also the case for this occasion.

The photographer's face changed suddenly, but everyone taking the photo didn't care at all. Ma Long, who was sitting behind O'Neal and had some conflicts with Wu Dao, just glanced at Wu Dao and didn't care that Wu Dao was sitting next to him. Or sit next to O'Neal in front.

According to the original seating arrangement, Budokai, Malone and two other players sat behind O'Neal.

"Oh, okay!"

Upon hearing O'Neal's greeting, Wu Dao nodded calmly, walked up to the stage, and sat next to O'Neal.

O'Neal seemed to have some knowledge of photography. He was sitting on the wooden box with his legs crossed and turned sideways, giving up half of his body to martial arts.

When Wu Dao saw this, he also understood and sat down sideways.

As the other players arrived one after another, they seemed to have not seen the martial arts sitting with O'Neal, and they didn't talk nonsense and went to their respective positions.

The photographer didn't have any opinions when he saw the players. Naturally, he wouldn't express any opinions at this time. He could only silently take the makeup photos of the Western Conference players.

After the photo session, some reporters entered the studio, found the targets they wanted to interview, and conducted some simple interviews.

The questions asked are also relatively standardized, and they are nothing more than asking the players how they feel, whether they are excited or not, what kind of performance they want to perform in the All-Star Game, and so on.

Young players such as Wu Dao and Kobe Bryant, who participated in the All-Star Game for the first time, were asked more questions, which can be regarded as giving young players such as Wu Dao more exposure opportunities.

The All-Star Game is held in the holy land of basketball, Madison Square Garden in New York.

This is the center of Manhattan, and the train station is not far from the arena.

On the game day, tens of thousands of tickets have been sold out long ago. Even outside the arena, there are many fans who have not successfully bought tickets.

Hundreds of media arrived early, and the players did not stay in the lounge all the time. They came to the arena early a few hours before the game to accept interviews from media reporters from all over the country.

Highly anticipated.

The exposure that the All-Stars can get is perhaps second only to the exposure that the NBA Finals can get. To some extent, the exposure of the All-Stars is even higher than that of the Finals.

After all, the number of stars is not of the same level!

After a brief interview, the team members returned to their respective lounges.

At this time, many players will come to visit.

All-Star is a game, and it also has some entertainment qualities. Although the players take it seriously, their mentality is very relaxed.

"Hey!"

"Guys out west!"

"Who are you going to send to defend me in today's game?!"