I'm teammates with Kobe

Chapter 181 Christmas Battle

During the meal, Chu Xiao did another embarrassing thing. He lowered his head to eat the steak. It was tender, juicy and delicious, so he couldn't help but praise, "Judy, did you fry this steak? Good!" Eat, it seems that Tracy got your true biography, no wonder she made such amazing steak."

"Chu Xiao, where do you and Tracy live?" James asked upon hearing this.

Chu Xiao didn't notice that Tracy was giving him winks all the time, so he replied naturally, "The house we rent is in Santa Monica, but James, don't worry, I'm confident that in the coming year You can buy a house."

"Hmm." James didn't look very happy when he heard that.

"What's the matter?" Chu Xiao asked in a low voice when he came to Tracy's side.

Tracy looked helpless, "I forgot to tell you, I kept telling them that I shared the rent with my friends, and we didn't live together because... my father is a very traditional person, and he firmly opposes premarital sex. "

"Ah, no." Chu Xiao shrunk his neck. He really didn't think that there were such traditional parents in the United States. Maybe it was the father's special love for his daughter that caused this.

Later, during the meal, Chu Xiao didn't know what to say. She had prepared carefully, hoping to make a good impression, but she always picked up which pot and which pot was left unopened. No matter how embarrassing it was, now he I finally know what it means to talk too much.

Fortunately, Judy is a very considerate elder, and James is a little henpecked.In the following time, whenever James wanted to ask something, Judy blocked him, and Chu Xiao only answered when he had a question, otherwise he would eat obediently and dare not say more, so although the atmosphere was occasionally silent, but It is also considered harmonious.

After dinner, Tracy took Chu Xiao to visit the house. After returning to the living room, everyone watched the Super Bowl together and chatted with each other while watching the game. Tracy took the opportunity to show her parents that she loves Chu Xiao very much now. , hoping to be with him, Chu Xiao also took the opportunity to express that he loves Tracy very much and will treat her well in the future, even though they are from different countries, but he is willing to go to the countryside and adapt to the customs, and will continue to accommodate Tracy.

Speaking of "do as the Romans do", both Judy and James remembered praying before meals, and couldn't help laughing.This made Chu Xiao think that they were expressing satisfaction with him, so he became happy too.

In the end, the smiles on everyone's faces turned into laughter, and Chu Xiao also completed his first meeting with his father-in-law in this joyful atmosphere.

"Mom and Dad, Chu Xiao has to get up early for training tomorrow night to prepare for the Christmas battle tomorrow night, so let's go back first?" Tracy finally said.

"Okay, let's go back." James and Judy sent them to the door, and James said with a straight face, "Chu Xiao, I don't object to you dating my daughter, I just hope you can treat her well, you can do it are you there?
"It can be done, don't worry!" Chu Xiao vowed.

"En!" James continued, "Also, I am very happy that you are a player of the Lakers. Have a good game tomorrow night, and we will sit in front of the TV and cheer for you."

"Oh, by the way, I forgot if you didn't tell me." Chu Xiao hurriedly took out two tickets from his pocket and handed them to James and said, "This is the side ticket for the Christmas game tomorrow night. I sincerely invite you and Zhu Can you go to the game with Dee?"

"Hmm..." James took the ticket first, then pretended to think for a while and said, "Tomorrow should be very busy, let's see."

"Okay, okay, I hope you will come as much as possible, then we will go back first." Chu Xiao said goodbye to them.

"Well, let's go." After sending Chu Xiao and his daughter away, James still stood at the door and watched their backs until they disappeared at the end of the road.

Judy couldn't help but patted him on the shoulder, "Look at your airs, you're so eager to watch the game live, and you're still pretending to think."

"Hey, don't I have to be a little reserved in front of young people." James said while loving the tickets in his hand, "This is a VIP ticket on the sidelines. Not only are they sold at sky-high prices, but they are also hard to find! Tomorrow, no matter what Go and have a look and experience what it’s like to watch a game from the sidelines.”

"Tch, look at you, you are happy, you still don't wash the dishes, do you want to wait for me to do it?" Judy said loudly.

"Hey, here we come, here we come." James sneaked into the room with Careful in an instant and began to pack up.

Judy smiled from behind, "You, a die-hard Lakers fan, have been happily spreading the word since you knew Chu Xiao was my daughter's boyfriend, and you must watch every game in front of the TV, especially when he hits the ball. After those ultra-long three-pointers, he yelled like crazy...Why, have you learned to hold your airs when you see me?"

"Hey, I'm his father-in-law anyway, how could he know he's afraid of me if we don't show some seriousness when we meet?" James said with a smile on his face.

"Hey, you're starting to call yourself father-in-law? Just now when you went out to buy wine, your daughter came back early to want us to treat him better because she wants to marry him. Are you satisfied? Can you marry?" Judy Rao asked with interest.

"Satisfied, satisfied, of course satisfied." James said while washing the dishes, "After they get married, I will go to the scene to watch the game every day, and I don't have to stay in front of the TV anymore, haha..."

"Look at you." Judy smiled and walked away. She was very satisfied, and went upstairs while humming.

"Honey, what are you doing up there?" James asked upon seeing this.

"Aren't you going to watch the game tomorrow? I'll go up and see what clothes to wear."

"Ha, by the way, find out Chu Xiao's No. 21 jersey that I just bought. I will wear it to support him at the scene tomorrow."

"Know it!"

-

The Christmas War is a few heavyweight games that the NBA arranges on Christmas Day every year in the United States. These games are called the Christmas War.

Since the 40s, the NBA has had a tradition of launching heavyweight games on Christmas Eve. This kind of business thinking seemed quite advanced at the time.After the prevalence of television broadcasts, watching wonderful NBA live broadcasts on Christmas Eve has become a tradition for Americans.

Therefore, the annual "Christmas Game" is the NBA's "money-absorbing period". This day's game can generate considerable economic benefits in various aspects such as ticket revenue, broadcast fees, and advertising fees.

Last year's Christmas game, the ticket price at the Staples Center Arena in Los Angeles was as high as $3000, and the average ticket price exceeded $800.And this year's Christmas game between the Lakers and the Knicks, the average ticket price has risen to 1000 US dollars. Tickets can bring in $1900 million.

Today, the NBA has arranged a total of 5 games. In chronological order, they are the Celtics against the Nets, the Knicks against the Lakers, the Thunder against the Heat, the Rockets against the Bulls and the Nuggets and the Clippers.And the most eye-catching ones are the duels between the Lakers and the Knicks and the Thunder and the Heat.

Because the NBA's selection criteria for the annual Christmas game lies in a "grievance".It can also be an open arena where popular stars compete for popularity and market, all for the purpose of attracting attention.

For example, the Thunder and the Heat, in the 2011-2012 season, the "Thunder Three" met the "Heat Big Three" led by LeBron James in the finals, and finally lost the championship. Now Harden, one of the three, left for Houston , "Third Thunder" has changed to "Double Young", and the Heat are still the "Big Three", so their duel is "Double Young" vs. "Big Three", which is very eye-catching.

As for the matchup between the Lakers and the Knicks, it will be a "battle for the scoring champion."Before the game, Kobe ranked first in the league with an average of 30.3 points per game, followed by Anthony with 30.1 points and Durant with 29.8 points.In this game, if Anthony scores more points, it is very likely that he will overtake Kobe and become the top of the list. Otherwise, Kobe will continue to lead and eventually win his third scoring title.

At the same time, Kobe will also unlock a new record.This game is the 15th time in his career to participate in the Christmas game, ranking the most in history.He had scored 349 points in the Christmas game before, second only to "Big 0" Oscar Robertson's 377 points. If he scored more than 28 points in this game, he would be crowned the "Christmas scoring champion" and become the real "Christmas scorer" in the NBA. elder".

在NBA历史上，圣诞大战共有5大经典战役，分别是1992年的公牛VS尼克斯、1997年公牛VS热火、2001年湖人VS76人、2002年湖人VS国王和2003年的湖人VS火箭队。

The reason why I mentioned these 5 classic battles is because the fifth of them happened to be related to Chu Xiao, because the gimmick of that time was "Yao Shark War", and the young Chu Xiao not only watched it, but also determined to one day definitely To appear on the stage of the Christmas War and become one of the protagonists, some people laughed at him for daydreaming, but he didn’t think that sometimes daydreams are just like that, and they can’t be said to come true when they are doing it.

In 2003, Yao Ming had just been crowned the No. 16 pick in the NBA draft as a Chinese player, so the outside world carried out endless hype on this "Chinese little giant", which obviously made the "big shark" who claimed to be the most dominant player in the history of the league "O'Neill was very unhappy, which also affected his mentality.In that game, O'Neal indulged in the one-on-one duel with Yao Ming, but Yao Ming's height and perfect peripheral shooting touch made it difficult for O'Neal to guard against, and secondly, whenever O'Neal attacked with the ball, Yao Famous clubs will cleverly use the strength of their teammates to create double-teams, causing the "big sharks" to pay a great price every time they score.The result was that Yao Ming and O'Neal had an almost even matchup. They both scored 18 points in the first half, Yao Ming scored 8 points and 22 rebounds, and O'Neal scored 10 points and [-] rebounds.

In fact, the protagonist of the "Yao Shark War" is not Yao Shark. Kobe and Francis became the focus of Christmas Eve.Bryant scored 11 points in the third quarter to help the Lakers take the lead for the first time in the game 68:67, but the Rockets quickly took advantage of their better defense and team offense and defense to regain the lead.With 6 minutes and 03 seconds left in the fourth quarter, the three-pointers of Mobley and Norris helped the Rockets hit a 10:1 climax. The Lakers failed to score in more than 7 minutes and could only sit and watch the Rockets The team took the lead and won 99:87.

Through the above 5 games, it is easy to find that the NBA's painstaking intentions to create a Christmas game are obvious, that is, to create "extraordinary grievances", so that attendance, ratings and TV broadcast fees will naturally be worry-free.

When Jordan was still in the league, he was the protagonist in this drama. After he retired, the Christmas game naturally became the Lakers' backyard party. As the first dynasty team to win three consecutive championships in the new century, O'Neal He and Kobe are also indispensable guests on Christmas Eve every year, and their opponents, from the Trail Blazers to the 76ers to the Kings, are all carefully selected by the NBA considering the deep hatred formed by the two sides in the playoffs last season. Best dance partner.The only special thing is the Rockets. Yao Ming didn't even meet O'Neal in the playoffs, and he swaggered into the auditorium of the Christmas game.It can be seen that Yao Ming's charm is extraordinary. For the so-called center battle between him and O'Neal, the NBA did not hesitate to issue a green card to the Rockets.

To this day, after continuous preparations and atmosphere creation in the early stage, the brand effect of the Christmas game has been very effective. Except for the popular stars sacrificing a little bit of family happiness to spend a good time with their families, the league, fans, TV stations, advertisers and everything related to basketball The surrounding industries have benefited a lot from it.

Kobe has not been able to spend Christmas at home for 15 consecutive years. He said, "My family is used to Christmas games. This is part of my job. I don't mind playing on Christmas. I used to play on Christmas before entering the NBA. Whether it’s streetball or training.”

But Artest doesn't like to "work overtime" on Christmas. "I don't like the Christmas battle at all. I almost forget that it is a holiday now. I bought gifts but can't go home to accompany the children."

For Chu Xiao, his home is in China, so this day is not as important as the game or not, but he still made serious preparations. First, Tracy's parents will come to watch the game, and he needs to show more in front of them. Good state; second, Kobe is about to be crowned the Christmas scoring champion, and he wants to do his part for the coronation ceremony of his boss.

(End of this chapter)