I'm teammates with Kobe

Chapter 67 The Secret Was Discovered
In addition, Kobe's personality is very paranoid and competitive. When the media attacked him, he never backed down and always countered with practical actions. For example, when it comes to player rankings, Kobe's career has made great achievements. There are few remarkable achievements, not to mention his perfected skills, nor to say that he has created countless records. Just 5 championship rings are enough to make many top stars in the NBA suffer. I have been chasing after it all my life.However, several major mainstream media like to rank Kobe 12th.
Especially the well-known black media ESPN has always been biased against Kobe. In 2011, in the player ranking list given, Kobe was only ranked 7th, and in 2012 it was ranked 6th.

Kobe is known to have 60 billion fans, and the fans quit immediately. At that time, there was a lot of noise on the Internet. They insisted on asking for an explanation. The competitive Kobe was also very upset, and he directly criticized ESPN. As a big man in the American sports world , ESPN is also unrelenting, and started a wave of counterattacks against Kobe, and the relationship between the two parties is also in dire straits.

The end result is that ESPN "won" because they earned enough eyeballs.If this matter is placed on other players, the opponent will generally swallow their anger, and the heat will disappear within a few days.Even if the opponent fights back, if Kobe's reputation is not as great and fans are not as many as Kobe's, it still won't be able to cause much trouble, and naturally the profit will be much lower.

Therefore, this matter is only useful for Kobe.He is so unique, he is obviously a world-class superstar with countless fans, but he has never been a well-rounded person, even a bit aloof.

In Kobe's career, there are only a handful of his good friends.If you want to be Kobe's friend, it's very simple. You have to make him think that you can be equal to him in terms of ability, such as Tracy McGrady.Maybe he can feel more "love" in you, such as Gasol and Odom.Or maybe you made him feel that he worked very hard, and even saw the former self in you, such as Chu Xiao, which aroused his desire to protect.

This is Kobe, those who love him love him to the core, and those who hate him also hate him to the core.Therefore, it is reasonable for him to be at odds with the media.

The post-match press conference ended in a hurry when Kobe blocked him, and Zen Master got up and took Kobe, Chu Xiao and Tracy back to the locker room.

On the way back, Tracy kept a distance from Chu Xiao deliberately. In fact, since they met tonight, Tracy pretended not to know him as she said.

As a result, Chu Xiao couldn't talk to her more, let alone get close to her, so seeing her appearing so close yet seemingly far away in the sky, she felt inexplicably scratchy.

"Hey, it looks like I'll have to get used to it slowly in the future." Looking at the back of her walking in front, Chu Xiao couldn't help comforting herself.

Back in the locker room, everyone was there. When they saw Zen master coming in, they all stopped what they were doing, because Zen master usually didn't come to the locker room after the game, unless there was something to announce.

Sure enough, the Zen master cleared his throat and said, "Tomorrow is Thursday, November 11, which is the annual Thanksgiving Day. The league has not arranged any games. Therefore, we will not train any more. We will have a day off for you and your family. Have a good reunion."

"Oh, That's so great! It's so great!"

Everyone was excited to hear that training was cancelled.

"Morris, come out for a while." After the Zen master finished the news, he called Morris out alone. The people didn't care what they were talking about, and turned around and started to pack things quickly, and put them in the bag three times. , ready to leave to enjoy a rare holiday.

As a professional sports league, the NBA does not enjoy the so-called "statutory holidays" like other industries.In fact, on other days off, such as weekends, they are often scheduled to participate in more games, because only at this time, fans can have more leisure time to pay attention to the game.

But Thanksgiving is an exception. This festival is somewhat similar to our Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival. It is a day for American families to get together.At the beginning, there was no fixed date for Thanksgiving, which was decided temporarily by each state in the United States.It wasn't until 1863, after the independence of the United States, that President Lincoln declared Thanksgiving a national holiday.

The NBA used to arrange a large number of games on this day every year. Because it is a holiday, it is often the highlight, similar to the Christmas game.

But later, the game was not arranged, but the players were given a day off.Speaking of it, it is said that this matter is also related to a sentence that Kobe Bryant said back then.

November 2005, 11 is Thanksgiving this year. The NBA has only arranged two games. One is that the Lakers led by Kobe sit at the Staples Center against the Supersonics (predecessor of the Thunder) with the golden double guns Ray Allen and Rashad Lewis. Brown James led his Cavaliers to challenge the Pacers.

In the game between the Lakers and the Supersonics, Kobe was in excellent form. He made 5 of 4 three-pointers and scored a game-high 34 points. At the same time, he defended Ray Allen with only 19 points and led the Lakers to win the game 108-96. .However, after the game, he didn't seem happy.

"I don't understand why the game is scheduled on Thanksgiving. It sucks not to be at home with my family." Bryant complained in an interview after the game.

Americans have a strong family concept, so Kobe's complaints have spoken out the voices of many people. Many NBA players have come forward to support Kobe, saying that the league should consider having a holiday on Thanksgiving.And David Stern, then NBA chairman, seemed to have listened to the voices of the league's signature figures and the general public. In the following 2006-2007 and 2007-2008 seasons, no games were arranged on Thanksgiving.

But the complete cancellation of the Thanksgiving Day Wars began with the league lockout in 2011.Some people say that the league gave up the Thanksgiving Day game because of Kobe’s words and chose to go with the flow, while others said it was to avoid the NFL (rugby, the Super Bowl, known as the American Spring Festival Gala, also arranged a Thanksgiving Day game.), NBA games are played there. One day tends to turn out to be a super-background for the NFL.

But in any case, the NBA no longer arranges games on Thanksgiving Day. The players still think that Kobe contributed to the flames, and they have been thinking of him.

When everyone finished packing their backpacks, they would come to Kobe’s side to say hello with a tacit understanding, and then say a thank you word with a teasing nature, “Thank you, let us be with our families on Thanksgiving Day, and don’t have to enjoy the exhaustion of traveling. .”

Often at this time, Kobe has long been used to it, so he chooses to accept it with a smile.

When Gasol also rushed over to thank him, Kobe couldn't help but scolded in Spanish with a smile, "You're a Spaniard and it's not Thanksgiving, what thanks?"

"Hey, you're wrong, who said we don't have Thanksgiving in Spain?" Gasol also responded in Spanish, "Thanksgiving is already a traditional festival in Western countries, whether it's young or old Elderly Spaniards will find a bar on the night of Thanksgiving, where the family enjoys Thanksgiving while sipping cocktails and eating tapas. And the people of Madrid will party all night, you don’t know this, right?”

"Oh~ I really haven't heard of it." Kobe sighed, "Then what are your plans for tomorrow? There is only one day off, it is impossible to fly back to Spain, why not come to my house for the holidays, Jaina is arguing every day that she misses her Uncle Gasol."

"Lovely Gianna, so good! I miss her too, but I really have to go back to Spain tomorrow with Marc (Marc Gasol, Pau Gasol's second brother, they have a third brother Adria Gasol) made an appointment, and my parents are old, so I can spend one day less." Gasol said apologetically, "Tell Gianna, I will come to see her in a few days."

"OK, that's it. Say hello to my family." Kobe hugged him with open arms.

When Gasol turned to leave, he saw Chu Xiao silently packing up his things in front of the locker room. His heart moved, and he turned to Kobe and said, "Why don't you invite that rookie? He seems to be the only one in the whole team. But for Thanksgiving, it’s even more impossible to fly back to China, since you like him so much, why don’t you invite him to your home for the holiday?”

"Good idea!" Kobe agreed without thinking about it, "I guess he has no place to go alone, and he can help take care of the children at my house, haha..."

The two looked at Chu Xiao's back and laughed together, but they didn't know that he was packing up his things silently as a cover, and was lowering his head and holding his mobile phone to send a message to Tracy, "Xi Xi, you have a holiday tomorrow too? How about tonight Come to my house for vacation?"

"You have a good idea! You foolishly took advantage of me at noon, and it won't be so easy after that. Hmph!" Tracy also quietly replied to the message from an angle, but there were many people behind her who were about to enter the locker room to continue the interview. reporter.

"I'm wronged, I didn't want to do anything bad, I just wanted to be with you." Chu Xiao hurriedly explained.

"Don't want to do bad things? Forget it, don't go!"

"Think about it, trying to do something bad."

"Then you can't go, rascal..." Tracy stuck out her tongue and made a face while others were not paying attention.

"You girl, you're so naughty, I'll tie you up later, hmph!" Chu Xiao was "gritting her teeth" after being teased, wishing to teach her a lesson right away.

Tracy was like "la la la" what can you do to me, and he was helpless.

"Okay, I won't tease you anymore, I really can't come over tonight, because I promised my father, how about staying with you tomorrow?" Trish just sent the message, and saw Kobe walking towards Chu Xiao.

"Chu Xiao, do you have any plans for tomorrow? I want to invite you to my house." Kobe directly sent out the invitation.

Ah, Chu Xiao was both surprised and a little flattered when he heard the words, because he was really curious about what Kobe's parents were like, but tomorrow he wanted to be with the beautiful woman and enjoy the rare two-person world... So he took a peek at Tracy with a look of embarrassment. , I wanted to see her opinion, but she nodded, but I don't know if she meant to agree to Kobe's invitation, or if she wanted to be with her.

So he continued to ask with a blink of an eye, and she pouted to respond.

The two had a brief but exciting facial exchange right under Bryant's nose.

How could Kobe not find out? He was surprised at first, and then he understood what was going on, and immediately showed a see-through smile on his face, "If your beauty has an appointment, then forget it, I will invite you to my house some other day, thank you Happy Holidays!"

"Um, no appointment, no appointment." Chu Xiao still wanted to hide something.

Kobe couldn't help smiling, leaned into his ear and whispered, "Then bring her with you tomorrow, and I'll keep the secret for you two."

Chu Xiao wanted to deny it, but Kobe patted him on the shoulder and walked away. The matter was settled.

(End of this chapter)