no shortcuts in basketball

Chapter 158 The King and Satan Confront each other

In the large and spacious villa living room of a private mansion on the riverside of Miami, James sat on a soft chair inlaid with red gemstones and covered with animal fur. He put his hand on his head and looked sad.

The past three months in Miami had been nothing like he expected.

First, in November, the team's performance was poor, and he was forced to give up the ball rights to get the team back on track. Then there was the tragic defeat in the Christmas game and a series of off-field incidents. In January, he took the ball back from Wade. , the team's record has experienced ups and downs again, and even experienced four consecutive losses. His reputation has hit rock bottom.

"King, we better do something on the All-Star Game."

On the sofa opposite the bench, his confidants Rich Paul and Windhorst were sitting, and Windhorst suggested.

Speaking of which, he is also an unlucky kid. He wanted to help James get traffic last season, but in the end, James lost face when he participated in the slam dunk contest. This season, Xu Yong was forced to say that the Bulls want to compete for the championship. Now the Bulls have really become the winner. hot.

If he hadn't known how loyal he was, James would have thought he was an undercover agent sent by Xu Yong.

However, his proposal at this time successfully attracted James' attention.

First of all, let me make it clear that LeBron's change of jersey No. 6 has nothing to do with Xu Yong. He is a superior king, how could he have a grudge match with a rookie.

He changed to No. 6 entirely because... the Heat wouldn't let him wear No. 23.

This involves a historical issue. Back then, Riley was beaten up by Jordan in the Knicks and Heat. He was beaten so hard that he couldn't beat others, and he was truly convinced, so he called on the entire league to retire the No. 23 jersey.

That's right, Riley called before James called.

And unlike James's appeal, which did not receive any response, he successfully persuaded the Heat owner to let the Heat retire the No. 23 jersey.

So now the No. 23 jersey is hanging in the sky above the American Airlines Arena and cannot be taken down and worn.

而他穿不了23穿6号的原因是，嗯，2乘3他不得6么？
And don't say that Xu Yong also wears No. 6 or something. He is a high-ranking king, and he needs to care about what number a rookie wears?

It's just that sometimes, there will be great contradictions between the will of the world and the will of the individual.

Last season's black eight, this season's Bulls continued to beat the Heat, these topics all make him inextricably linked with Xu Yong, who is also No. 6.

And the key is, it was Xu Yongxian who wore No. 6.

Coupled with the newly emerged All-Star vote champion, he didn't care about a rookie opposite him, but this rookie ignored him both on and off the court.

So at this time, he really needs to do something in response.

It was difficult to respond in the main game. Although he would definitely not admit it, Xu Yong could restrain him every time he faced him and was already considered his nemesis.

But the All-Star Game can.

You know, in addition to being a two-time MVP, he is also a two-time All-Star Game MVP!

The All-Star Game or something like that, that's the stage he's best at.

Because on this stage, the competition is not only about strength, but also about connections.

If you want to win the MVP, in addition to winning, the key is that your teammates are willing to pass the ball to you.

At this point, he, the king of the Eastern Conference who has been in the league for eight years, is far from comparable to a second-year player like Xu Yong.

Therefore, winning this year's MVP will definitely make his reputation hit the bottom and usher in a strong rebound.

What, the All-Star Game MVP has no gold content?
I'm afraid you are too young to know the power of the media!
When something as small as 20+5+5 in his rookie season can be a major achievement, how could the All-Star Game MVP not have gold content?

And let’s talk about something that fans of Xu Yong’s era may not know. The number of times James led his team in scoring, rebounds, and assists in the finals was 7 times, while Jordan was 0 times.

Winning or not is secondary. When the media releases such a set of data, let’s ask you whether you are shocked or not!
Besides, if he wins it this time, he will become the player with the most [active] [exclusive] All-Star Game MVPs.

Because among the active players, there are only two players with 3 All-Star Game MVPs in their hands, Kobe and O'Neal, but Kobe and O'Neal shared one of them in 2009, so the single comparison is definitely the winner.

And he has only played for 8 years, does he know what 3/8 dominance is?

Therefore, not only James was interested in Windhorst's proposal, but even Paul on the side nodded in agreement and gave specific operational details.

James nodded in the soft chair.

After Paul finished speaking, he stood up from the soft chair and nodded to his two confidants in agreement.

……

There is still half a month until the start of the All-Star Game. Naturally, there are more and more discussions about the All-Star Game.

For example, in this year's dunk contest, although Xu Yong and James did not continue to participate, Griffin, Nate Robinson, and DeRozan were all invited to participate, and the attention was not less than last year;

Another example is the Shooting Star. Xu Yong, who has attracted the most attention in this year's All-Star Game, will not play in the rookie game, but he will represent Chicago in the Shooting Star;
Finally, there is the most watched main game this year. Kobe Bryant has already stated in previous games that he will keep his victory in this year's All-Star Game in Los Angeles, which indicates that this year's All-Star Game will be full of competition.

It was at this time that James suddenly became active.

He first liked the fans' comments on social media that "Howard is more worthy of starting the All-Star Game than Yao Ming."

Then he publicly praised Rondo after the game against the Celtics: "Rajon (Rondo) is a competitive competitor and the smartest player I have ever seen."

Immediately after the news broke in the media, in a "giant meeting" of the Heat that only involved the Big Three, James clearly expressed the concept of team and sacrifice.

In the subsequent game against the Raptors, James limited his shots to 15 and gave out as many as 15 assists, 6 of which were given to Wade. This approach also won the favor of Wade. Public praise after the game.

This series of consecutive operations has earned James a good reputation among Eastern players, both teammates and opponents.

Finally, in an exclusive interview with ESPN about this year's All-Star Game, when a reporter asked James if his goal this year is to win the third All-Star Game MVP in his career, James gave a textbook answer.

"Of course, winning the MVP is the goal of every player participating in the All-Star Game, but for me, what I hope more is to lead the Eastern Conference to win this year's game. That is what I must do."

After the broadcast of this exclusive interview, fans responded strongly.

James' personal voice in the All-Star Game reached a peak.

Kobe about James VS was also mentioned again by fans, which has become a focal topic in this year's All-Star Game.

……

Half a month flies by, and in the blink of an eye it is mid-February, and the 2th All-Star Game officially kicks off in Los Angeles.

The number of spectators at this year's All-Star Game may not be as good as last year, but the All-Star Game in Los Angeles is unmatched by other cities in terms of the professionalism of media promotion and the star power at the scene.

So in terms of live broadcast viewing experience, this year's All-Star Game is definitely a grand event.And the games in the past few days were also interesting. In the rookie game on the first day, James Harden scored 35 points to pay tribute to his teammate Durant, led the second-year team to defeat the first-year team, and won the rookie game MVP.

The individual events on the second day were more exciting.

The earliest starting shooting star, Xu Yong, together with Steve Kerr and Katherine Kraft of the WNBA Chicago Sky, defeated Los Angeles, Texas and Atlanta to successfully win the final championship;
In the skills challenge that followed, Stephen Curry, a young player who was also grade 09, beat Paul, Rose, Westbrook and others to win the championship;

The next three-point shooting contest was full of entertainment.

There are still many players to watch in this year’s Three-Point Shootout Contest. For example, the addition of Durant and Ray Allen has added new light to this year’s game, while Korver and James Jones have added more to the Three-Point Shootout Contest. It has a hint of the Eastern Conference.

But once the game started, none of this mattered.

The point is, Durant finally scored 6 points in the preliminaries!
6 points. This score is one point shy of tying the record of 5 points set by Jordan in the three-point contest that year!

So it doesn't matter who is the champion at all, because of these 6 points, this year's three-point contest is destined to go down in history.

Of course, after the entertainment, this year's dunk contest is still very exciting.

Among the four players this year, in addition to the three previously introduced, one is JaVale Olajuki of the Wizards.

After the game started, McGee also successfully stole the spotlight. He smashed three goals with two hands in the preliminaries, setting a Guinness record.

But it was Griffin and DeRozan who finally met in the finals.

Xu Yong fulfilled his previous promise. Although he did not participate in the dunk contest, he became DeRozan's assistant.

And he is a very dedicated assistant, not just throwing a ball, but also providing DeRozan with a lot of creative ideas.

This is crucial, because before Aaron Gordon and Zach LaVine came along, the dunk contest was actually more about creativity.

But in the end, Griffin won the slam dunk contest with his dunk over the car.

This dunk is actually not very difficult, but it is full of gimmicks, entertainment, and even commercial nature.

In the face of such a dunk, unless you can use the free throw line and action dunk like Xu Yong did last year, you will not win.

And that kind of difficult dunk action is not something DeRozan can do.

However, these eventually became the topics of discussion among fans on social media and served as a warm-up for the final day of the race.

On the game day, the All-Stars from the East and West returned to the locker room to rest after completing the public training on Fan Day.

In the Western Conference locker room, Kobe was chatting with everyone around him.

"That kid will look for every opportunity to score tonight." Kobe turned around and said with a smile while chewing gum.

Others couldn't help but laugh when they heard it.

Although Kobe didn't say the name, they all knew who Kobe was talking about.

The contract between Xu Yong and AJ is not a secret.

Moreover, Xu Yong is the All-Star vote winner this year, and the Bulls are ranked first in the league. He has to fight for it both publicly and privately.

"You guys don't come tonight, I'll guard against that guy." Kobe continued.

Since he promised to keep the victory in Los Angeles, he must have a head-on confrontation with Xu Yong.

Not to mention the last time the two teams met, Xu Yong severely restricted him once.

The others smiled and nodded.

It can be seen from their reactions that Xu Yong's personal strength is still quite recognized by them.

Durant showed very high interest.

Xu Yong suffered a lot at last year's World Championships. If Kobe Bryant could teach Xu Yong a lesson in the All-Star Game, that would be really nice to see.

……

Later in the evening, the Staples Center was bustling with activity, and the front rows of the auditorium were all filled with Hollywood superstars.

Like Swift, there was no front row seat, just a seat in the middle of the auditorium near the audience aisle.

She was not shy about wearing Xu Yong's home white jersey, holding a large bag of popcorn.

Because the two had not made their relationship public before, this scene also attracted frequent camera shots from photographers before the game.

The game hasn't even started yet, but fans are already talking about it on social media.

Many fans are discussing the relationship between Seo Yong and Swift.

You must know that Swift's popularity is very high now, and she only wore Kobe's No. 24 jersey in public before.

User "KBforever" took advantage of this moment to post a photo of Megan Fox wearing Xu Yong's No. 6 jersey during last year's All-Star Game, with the caption: Xu from China has many female star fans in the United States.

This comment quickly became a highlight.

Unlike his predecessors such as Yao Ming and Yi Jianlian, Xu Yong has had a lot of "scandals" this year, which is a lot for a Chinese player.

Of course, in addition to Swift, the on-site photographer also found the man in the middle of the auditorium on the other side.

Jordan's appearance in the All-Star game is not too many, and his appearance also makes tonight's game more exciting.

Because of the Christmas fight, Xu Yongke showed off his turning and leaning back skills in front of everyone.

Now the encounter between Xu Yong and Kobe is also very interesting.

However, there was a slightly "weird" phenomenon at the scene, that is, when the appearance ceremony was over and the on-site cameras were warming up the players, they kept looking for Xu Yong and Kobe, and even arranged some pre-match clips for Xu Yong.

But James, who was highly praised by players and fans before the All-Star Game, was somewhat left out.

Although there is nothing wrong with Xu Yong's arrangement as the vote king, such differential treatment is somewhat disrespectful to James, who has early revealed that he wants to compete for the All-Star Game MVP signal.

　Congratulations to the men's basketball team for their first win. Wouldn't it be better to use Hu Jinqiu earlier?

　　
　
(End of this chapter)