So I am the god of basketball?

Three Lakers players were selected as All-Stars, restoring the star power that Los Angeles deserves.

After February, the Lakers continued to maintain their strong momentum. Before the All-Star Weekend, they won all seven games. With the 2-game winning streak at the end of January, the Lakers' winning streak unknowingly reached 7 games.

The chemistry of this team has reached an unprecedented terrifying level.

If in January the Lakers relied on a sudden "scoring spree" at a critical moment to win the game, then now no matter what kind of team it is, they can use a wave of offense to widen the gap when the opponent is about to get close, and then use defense to firmly control the score.

In fact, this is because Kobe is still a "high-level nervous knife". If he reaches his peak level, it will be a piece of cake for the Lakers to win by 30 points in every game.

Of course, if Kobe had reached his peak, the Lakers' locker room atmosphere might not be as stable as it is now...

This year's All-Star Weekend is held in Orlando.

Ever since "Rain Man" gained weight, this city has completely fallen into ruin.

The first All-Star Weekend of the new century was a little consolation given to them by David Stern.

Even the president of the league felt that they were too miserable!
Since there has been no results in the past two years, let Orlando make some money before the All-Star Weekend.

This is true not only for the Orlando team, but for the entire city of Orlando.

Even though the All-Star Weekend only lasts three days, the revenue exceeds 3 million in half of the cases.

Otherwise, there wouldn’t be so many cities vying to host the All-Star Weekend.

Meng Lang went to Orlando with Kobe and Ben Wallace.

What surprised Meng Lang was that there were many fans holding his posters to welcome him at the airport.

But Meng Lang's expression did not change.

Looked coldly.

He was not sure whether these fans were local fans in Orlando or tourists from outside.

He really couldn't laugh at the Orlando fans.

He could not forget that after he brought two championship rings to the city, he was booed wildly because he could not play due to injury.

Even though three years had passed since all this happened, this was already the fourth year, and it was also the new century, but Meng Lang still couldn't forget it, and didn't want to forget it.

If you want to be successful as a player, you must remember those who have brought shame to you.

What Meng Lang remembered was the crazy boos from the Orlando media and fans at that time.

Come to think of it, this place is different from Duke.

He had no feelings for Duke alumni, but Duke at least gave him an undergraduate diploma, and the subsequent postgraduate and doctoral examinations were also being arranged. And Meng Lang didn't need to worry about it at all.

Duke even opened courses related to sports science in advance for Meng Lang to continue his graduate and doctoral career.

These are things Duke can bring to him that work very well.

Let's put it this way, when his sons and daughters graduate from high school, if they don't have basketball talent, he can write a letter of recommendation, and the "Second Dream" and "Third Dream" can enter Duke for further study. And there, they will never be bullied.

What about Orlando?

They could only give Meng Lang the identity of a Magic team legend.

This……

What’s the use?

With Meng Lang's ability, which city would he not be a future star in?
When Meng Lang and others arrived, Grant Hill and Hardaway also arrived. They were going to have dinner together. Kobe is Hardaway's "die-hard fan". Even after so many years in the league and they have played against each other, it is still the same.

Although Hardaway took his starting position, he was a little annoyed. But only Hardaway and Meng Lang got the starting position, which made him feel a little better.

But Chris Webber said: "This is a gathering of college sparring groups. Were you one of them back then?"

Kobe: “…”

He did want to, but he was only a freshman in high school at the time and not even the top high school student in Philadelphia, so how could he play?
But he did remember a legend that has not been solved yet. When he saw Chris Webber again the next day, he asked curiously, "What happened when you played a training match with the Dream Team that year?"

After Webber told Kobe what happened that day.

Kobe was stunned...

To be honest, he thought he was good enough. At the age of 18, he could fight back and forth with NBA players in bullfighting.

He didn't expect that the 18-year-old Meng Lang could score as many points as Jordan.

If Jordan and Pippen hadn't teamed up to double-team them at the end, they might have won.

That means Jordan has used his ultimate move.

That was a defensive intensity that even Magic Johnson couldn't withstand.

Is it that strong?

It was as if Kobe was meeting Meng Lang for the first time.

Meng Lang just glanced at him and said, "You'd better prepare for your dunk, otherwise you will embarrass me!"

Kobe:…

Really, I can’t admire this mouth at all!
The first day of the All-Star Weekend is the Rookie Challenge.

A big fight between the rookies born in 99 and those born in 98.

McGrady scored 30 points, 5 rebounds and 7 assists, and successfully won the final Rookie Challenge MVP.

He is also a participant in this year's dunk contest, and the host asked: "Do you think you will be the final champion tomorrow?"

Maddie was not very sure, and his face was obviously troubled: "I think...it will be Vince..."

The host was not surprised, after all, Vince Carter's dunks were famous all over the United States.

When all the fans knew that he was participating in the "Slam Dunk Contest", they were ecstatic.

Meng Lang is well aware that in the future many fans will think that Zach LaVine's dunks are better than Vince Carter's.

But what they didn't know was that before the dunk contest, Carter and McGrady encountered an emergency. Because they were tired after participating in the fan event, Carter wanted to take a nap. The league arranged a car for Carter and McGrady to rush to the game site, but the traffic conditions were so bad at the time that their car didn't show up at all. As a last resort, they could only squeeze five people into one car. Carter felt in poor physical condition and didn't even have much time to warm up when he arrived at the scene. He thought he would mess up this dunk contest.

Even so...

He still gave a perfect answer. The "Slam Dunk Contest" came that day.

According to the rules of the first round at this time, each player dunks three times, and the two highest-scoring dunks are counted as the total score.

Kobe was the first to appear on the court and he completed a folding dunk, but only scored 33 points.

As the "Slam Dunk King" in 97, this result is obviously not good enough.

But if you think about the fact that he was competing with Ray Allen at the time, you can roughly imagine the quality of that class.

Ray Allen's physical fitness is indeed not comparable to that of ordinary players, but...

If compared with dunkers, his physical fitness is not that outstanding.

This year, there are many top players, so the judges gave fairly safe scores.

Facts have also proved that their insurance was correct.

McGrady was the second to appear on the court, and he also performed a back-to-back dunk. However, the difficulty and beauty of McGrady's self-throw and self-dunk dunk far surpassed Kobe's. Even so, he only scored 45 points.

Francis was the third to appear on the court. He threw the ball from the center line, dunked it in the air, and then slammed it with one hand, also scoring 45 points.

The nickname “King of Sky Stasis” is not for nothing.

It is said that his ability to stay in the air is better than Jordan's.

Of course, these are just rumors.

When it was Carter's turn, he adjusted his plan and changed the dunk he had originally planned to use at the beginning of the game to the second dunk. For his first dunk, he used a move that he had only completed two or three times. This adjustment was very risky because he had almost never completed it during training.

Carter started from the left side of the basket and took off after a few powerful dribbles. He completed a 360-degree turn in the air, but he turned in an unconventional direction for a right-handed dunker, and then completed a windmill dunk. This dunk was almost unprecedented.

With this dunk, Carter got his first perfect 50 points of the night.

Meng Lang had to admit that Zach LaVine was definitely skilled. Whether it was his jumping height, the distance he flew in the air, or the difficulty of his dunk, he was only better than Vince Carter.

But his light body resulted in his dunks not having much power, and he always felt staggering when landing.

And these are the aspects that Vince Carter is better at.

Stackhouse made his fifth appearance and completed a two-handed dunk, which was very exciting, but compared with Carter, it was a bit worse. In the end, he only scored 41 points.

Davis was the last to appear on the court. He completed a two-handed dunk and only scored 40 points.

In his second dunk in the first round, Kobe felt the pressure and tried a pull-up dunk, but the swing was too big and he ultimately failed, scoring only 30 points, which was equivalent to being eliminated early.

Meng Lang covered his face and shook his head slightly.

Kobe also asked him to help pass the ball later, and now...

With the help of Carter, McGrady completed a wonderful windmill slam dunk and scored 49 points.

Francis once again threw the ball to himself and dunked it. He completed a one-armed tomahawk slam dunk in mid-air, which was very domineering and earned his second perfect score of 2 points in the game.

The reason why the 00 Slam Dunk Contest was so exciting was because of the unexpected Francis!

Carter came on the court, he started from behind the backboard, performed a half-turn windmill dunk, it was clean and neat, and he scored 49 points.

Stackhouse then cooperated with his teammates. His teammate smashed the ball to the ground and then fell to the ground, allowing Stackhouse to fly over him and dunk. Stackhouse completed the one-arm dunk after two attempts, but due to limited difficulty, he only got 36 points in the end.

Davis attempted a windmill dunk with both arms, but failed and only scored 32 points.

After his third dunk in the first round, Kobe, who was eliminated early, did not give up and called Meng Lang up.

As a result, the camera was always on him, regardless of how many points Kobe scored in the end.

"You'd better go back and practice your dream footwork!" This was the first sentence Meng Lang said to Kobe when he left the court.

McGrady also put on a perfect performance in the third round, turning around and slamming home to get his third perfect 50 points of the night.

Francis performed poorly on his third dunk. He and his teammates failed to complete the slam dunk and only scored 33 points. However, because he scored a total of 95 points in the first two dunks, he still advanced.

Carter came on the court and scored 2 points in his first two dunks, but he did not hold back on the third dunk. With the help of McGrady, Carter completed a crotch-changing windmill dunk, which made the whole audience boil. Carter scored his second 99 points, and got two full marks in three dunks in the first round, and he advanced perfectly.

After completing the dunk, Carter made the classic "game over" gesture to the camera.

Kobe puffed his beard and glared.

The three finalists are:
Francis, McGrady and Carter.

In the first round of the finals, Francis scored 43 points with a windmill dunk.

McGrady scored 45 points with a two-handed alley-oop dunk.

It was Carter's turn. Carter started from the right side of the basket, sprinted, squatted slightly to accumulate strength, and then flew into the sky. He grabbed the ball high with his right hand, at a height much higher than the basket, and inserted his arm directly into the basket.

This is his "hanging arm dunk".

The scene was quiet until the camera covered the ball, then cheers broke out.

Because Carter's entire arm was stuffed into the basket.

Carter shows off his jumping height!
The judges gave Carter a full score of 50 points, recognizing his masterpiece.

In the second dunk of the final, Francis threw the ball to himself and dunked it again. He caught the ball with both hands in the air and completed a folded back dunk with one arm. The referee gave him 48 points, and his total score reached 91 points.

McGrady came on the court and tried to catch the ball in the air with his back to the basket and then half-turn to dunk, but ultimately failed and missed the chance to compete for the championship.

Carter was the last to appear. He only needed 42 points to win the championship. He chose to take a long run and then dunk from the free throw line. However, Carter did not dunk with one hand from the free throw line like Julius Irving, Michael Jordan, and Rick Barry did. Instead, he took a step inside the free throw line and finally completed a two-handed gliding dunk. Although Carter did not get full marks, 48 ​​points were enough for him to win the championship over Francis.

Before the classic duel between Zach LaVine and Aaron Gordon, the 2000 Slam Dunk Contest was the undisputed best dunk contest in history.

Even compared with that session, Meng Lang thought it was definitely not inferior in terms of excitement, and even better.

The reason is also very simple...

Vince Carter encountered many unexpected situations that night, and many of his moves were improvised. If he had been allowed to prepare carefully for this dunk contest, he would undoubtedly have performed better.

Of course, the most important point is that compared to Zach LaVine's style, Meng Lang prefers Vince Carter's dunking style, which is elegant, powerful and skillful.

After the dunk contest, Iverson watched Vince Carter win the championship and said: "The artist I admire most is Michael Jackson. In basketball, this dunk contest is the closest to Jackson's concert. A dunk contest of such a high level can never be replicated. This is why this dunk contest is so successful. Francis and McGrady can win the championship with a huge advantage in any dunk contest."

Reggie Miller sighed: "At this moment, everyone is thinking: 'Thank God, Carter came down from the sky, and the dunk contest is back!'" (End of this chapter)