I'm teammates with Kobe

Chapter 207 All-Star Weekend

The well-staffed Lakers defeated the defending champion Heat with a lore at home. The momentum and morale of the team's winning streak can be said to have reached its peak.

At present, the morale of the Lakers is very strong, all members are healthy, running-in is also in place, and their strength is at the top. In the second half of January, they will face the Raptors, Bulls, Grizzlies, Jazz, Thunder, Hornets and Suns. . January schedule.

In February, the NBA officially announced the results of the second round of the 2 Houston All-Star voting. LeBron James, who ranked first in the first round of votes, had received 2013 votes, but Kobe Bryant's current votes had reached 970314. This also allowed the soon-to-be 977444-year-old Fei Xia to successfully take the top spot from James.

In the results of the second round of voting, James, Carmelo Anthony (891) and Kevin Garnett (759) still rank among the top three in the Eastern Conference's frontcourt rankings.In the backcourt, James' teammates Dwyane Wade (328) and Rajon Rondo (716) are also similar to the last round, firmly controlling the top two.

In the West, the results of the second round of voting have not changed compared with the first round. Kobe and Chris Paul of the Los Angeles Clippers (542, 564) are still the top two backcourt players, while Chu Xiao There is still a certain gap from Paul.In the frontcourt, Kevin Durant (924), Dwight Howard (898) and Blake Griffin (616) are the top three.

The 62nd All-Star Game will be held in Houston on February 2.As of yesterday, more than 18 million ballots have been cast from 220 countries around the world.

As the days of the All-Star Game drew closer, the boxing match between Chu Xiao and Ibaka began to be mentioned frequently, and Ibaka also updated his personal social media in due course and wrote, "My six-pack abs can't wait I want to exert my strength, Chu Xiao, are you ready to be beaten?"

Thunder guard Westbrook retweeted Ibaka's push, saying, "Come on! @Ibaka, get this game done!"

Facing the ridicule and booing from the stars, Chu Xiao remained unmoved, and put all his body and mind into the game. When the All-Star Game came, he helped the team win 6 wins and 1 loss. The Lakers won 40 with a total score of 13. With a negative record, they also took advantage of the trend to surpass the Clippers of the same city and become the second in the West.

Later, the well-known American media TNT officially announced the starting lineup for the 2013 NBA All-Star Game. Although Chu Xiao received great support from the fans during the voting stage, he still regretted losing out in the final voting results.The following is the list of starting lineups for the Eastern and Western All-Star Game:
Eastern Conference: Dwyane Wade (Heat), Rajon Rondo (Celtics), LeBron James (Heat), Carmelo Anthony (Knicks), Kevin Garnett (Kays) Walters).

West: Chris Paul (Clippers), Kobe Bryant (Lakers), Kevin Durant (Thunder), Blake Griffin (Clippers), Dwight Howard (Lakers).

This year's All-Star Game "Contest of Ticket Kings" also came to an end at this time. Kobe's 1591437 votes were only 1583646 votes more than James' 7791 votes. Still overwhelmed the "Little Emperor" James, which also proves that his position in the hearts of fans is still the best.And Kobe was selected to the NBA All-Star Game for the 35th consecutive time, becoming the player with the most consecutive All-Star Game selections in NBA history.

This season, in addition to the Lakers losing streak during the opening period, as Chu Xiao entered the starting lineup and continued to grow, coupled with the replacement of a group of role players and Warcraft got rid of injuries and corrected his attitude, the team record It can be said to be rising steadily, currently ranking second in the West, which is one of the reasons for Kobe's high popularity.

In addition, because of Chu Xiao's joining, he can shoot and pass, completely sharing Kobe's scoring and organizational tasks, so Kobe's average playing time this season has dropped to 35 minutes, which is a new low over the years , but the scoring efficiency and hit rate are the highest in the past 7 years, which is the main reason for his high popularity.

When the results of the third round of voting were announced, the suspense left in the Eastern Conference was the question of which of the two insiders, Garnett and Bosh, would start. At the end of the third round of voting, Garnett only led Bosh with 390751 votes and 362973 votes. There were less than 3 votes, but there was still no counterattack in the following voting results. Although Garnett has begun to age, even though all statistics are declining, he is still in the hearts of fans. Has an extremely lofty position, so in the final vote of popularity to beat Bosh, he eventually defeated Bosh with 553222 votes into the All-Star starting lineup.

The biggest suspense in the Western All-Star lineup is whether Chu Xiao can become a dark horse. At that time, he was second only to Paul with 605624 votes and less than 651983 votes. He is very likely to enter the Western All-Star starting lineup.However, when the final results were announced, Chu Xiao was still not selected. The team's record was equally outstanding and Paul, who was the core of the team, was finally selected to the All-Star starting lineup with 5 votes to Chu Xiao's 929155 votes.

Unfortunately, Paul only had 45346 more votes than Chu Xiao, narrowly winning.

But Chu Xiao didn't feel sad for too long. Two days later, the NBA announced the All-Star East and West substitute lineup through TNT TV station, and he was still selected!

The final list is:

West bench lineup (7 people in total): Westbrook (Thunder), Harden (Rocket), Duncan (Spurs), Chu Xiao (Lakers), Aldridge (Blazers), David Lee (Warriors), Zaha C Randolph (Grizzlies).

Eastern bench lineup (total of 7 people): Irving (Cavaliers), Holiday (76ers), Tyson Chandler (Knicks), Noah (Bulls), Bosh (Heat), Paul George (walking) ), Luol Deng (Bulls).

Chu Xiao's popularity and strength finally turned into the coach's trust. He averaged 20.6 points and 10.8 assists per game this season. The "20+10" data made him almost squeeze Paul out of the All-Star Western Conference starting lineup, and the gap was very small. Even though he was not selected for the starting lineup in the end, the coaches put him on the bench.

In this way, the Lakers and the Heat became the biggest winners. The Lakers started with Kobe and Warcraft, and Chu Xiao came off the bench. The Heat started with James and Wade, and Bosh came off the bench. These two teams have three All-Stars in the league. team.

Chu Xiao officially became the third player to participate in the All-Star Game in his rookie season after Yao Ming in 2003 and Griffin in 2011.

In the league, the Thunder, Knicks, Bulls, Clippers, and Celtics have two All-Star teams.In addition, only one player was selected from 5 teams including the Rockets and Trail Blazers.

Among the playoff teams in the East and West, the Nets, Hawks, Bucks, Nuggets and Jazz have no players selected for the All-Star.

In this year's All-Star Game roster, there are still many new faces, most of which are concentrated in the East.For example, Chandler of the Knicks, Holiday of the 76ers, Noah of the Bulls, Irving of the Cavaliers, George of the Pacers and so on.

In the west, there are mostly old faces. The only two All-Star recruits are from the host Rockets and the Lakers, namely "bearded" James Harden and Chu Xiao.

Among the 24-man roster in the East and West, a total of 7 players were selected to the All-Star for the first time.

According to the rules, the candidates for the All-Star coaches will be the coaches of the two teams with the best records in the East and West as of February 2 local time, and the previous coaches cannot be re-elected, so Thunder coach Brooks was elected.

Before the release of the All-Star list, Kobe, Garnett and the retired Jordan, Malone, and West were all 5 All-Stars.But now Kobe and Garnett have raised their numbers by one more place, so they are no longer on an equal footing with Jordan, but tied with O'Neal.

O'Neal has been selected to the All-Star 15 times in his career, tied with Kobe and Garnett for second place in the history list.Skyhook Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has been selected to the All-Star 19 times, which is the first in history. At present, it is difficult for Garnett to break his record. Kobe needs to look at his retirement time to determine.

"Dr. J" Julius Erving has been selected to the All-Star 16 times, but 5 times were in the ABA before the merger. According to the convention, it is not counted in the history of the NBA, so he has only 11 All-Stars in the NBA.

Bryant's 15 All-Star appearances have never been interrupted, of which no All-Star Game in 1999 is not counted.This also allowed Kobe to surpass the 14 consecutive All-Star selections made by Malone and others, and rose to the first place in history.With Kobe's current state and popularity, I believe this record will continue to expand.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was not selected for the All-Star in 1978, and the 19 All-Star games were divided into 8 consecutive times and 11 consecutive times.O'Neal was not selected to the All-Star in 2008, and Garnett was not selected to the All-Star last year, both of which were interrupted 14 times.Although both West and Malone have been selected consecutively, their total number is only 14.Jordan has only 14 All-Star experiences in total, and he retired twice in the middle.

Among the active players, Duncan followed Kobe and Garnett with 13 All-Stars. According to his performance this season, he was selected as a substitute and qualified for the 14th All-Star.Nowitzki was selected 11 times, but this season he was greatly affected by injuries and eventually missed the All-Star. The 10-time All-Star active players include Ray Allen, Kidd and Pierce.

James led the All-Star votes at the beginning, and finally got a total of 1583646 votes. At the last moment, Kobe narrowly defeated him with 1591437 votes. James was naturally asked by the media if he would be unhappy when Kobe took the votes. It doesn't matter, he said: "The fans come to the arena every day to watch the game, whether it is on the road or at home. At least we give them the opportunity to choose the best players or players who they think can be selected for the All-Star. I have been lucky enough, So it's pretty cool."

Although he has played in the NBA for 10 seasons, being selected as an All-Star starter is still of great significance to James. "There is no doubt that because the fans like the way I play, the way I play. I also know very well in my heart that if there are no fans, we are nothing." James said.

Wade agreed, thinking it was a cool moment to be named an All-Star starter. "As long as it is voted by the fans, it means great support, no matter what, they will always be with you." Wade said, "I played in the NBA for 10 years, and I was selected to the All-NBA for 9 years. Star, that's an amazing achievement."

"It means a lot, like I said, I think the NBA is based on the fans. So every time I participate in the All-Star, I represent the fans, and I hope they can be proud of me." Wade said.

Kevin Garnett and Carmelo Anthony, who had conflicts in the game before, were both selected for the Eastern Conference starting lineup. They will become teammates in the All-Star Game, so the delicate relationship between the two has become the focus of media attention.Garnett talked about the "trash talk" incident again, but he said that he and Anthony are fine, they will no longer quarrel over this matter, and will enjoy the All-Star Game very well.

"From my point of view, Anthony and I are fine, I don't think there will be new friction." Garnett said.

In that game between the Celtics and the Knicks, Garnett and Anthony exchanged trash talk during the game, and Anthony even rushed to the Celtics locker room and the bus to block Garnett after the game , This matter caused a lot of noise inside and outside the league, and he was even suspended for one game by the league.

"I'm a man, he's a man, I don't think that's going to continue, it's going to mess up the atmosphere of the All-Star Weekend," Garnett said.

"We're both very professional players ... but you never know, I'm just speaking from my point of view." Garnett said, "It's just that I don't think there will be any more unpleasant things. We will all go to Houston and enjoy the game. That's probably it."

(End of this chapter)