Don't talk trash to him.

Chapter 197: A Romance in Las Vegas

In early February, the league announced the results of the 2 All-Star starting lineup voting.

The five starters for the West are:

Kobe Bryant, Allen Iverson, Kevin Garnett, Tim Duncan, Yao Ming.

Carmelo Anthony was furious.

It would be fine if Tim Duncan took his starting spot, but the Spurs were ranked fourth in the Western Conference and the Nuggets were below him, so he had to accept the fact that he couldn't compete with them.

But this Kevin Garnett?
Last season, the team was third from the bottom in the Western Conference, and this season, it is still third from the bottom in the Western Conference.

Tell me, can he still be an All-Star starter?

Can't I vote better than him?

he is very angry.

The starting five for the East are:
Wade, Suwan, Chris Bosh, O'Neal Jr., Shaquille O'Neal.

LeBron James once again failed to be selected as an All-Star starter.

Most media speculated that it had a lot to do with the unpleasantness between him and Shaquille O'Neal.

Shaquille O'Neal is still quite popular among the public in the United States.

Even though he was at the lowest point in his life in the past two years, he was still the "three-time Finals MVP" after all, and a lean camel is still bigger than a horse.

LeBron has only one hat of "the chosen one" on his head, but his team's performance in recent years has not been as good as expected, and he has been in constant trouble off the court. When he was canvassing for votes, "Asia Times" once again mentioned that he had protected old players from bullying new players, all of which affected his vote.

In the North, Chris Bosh and the Raptors have done well this season. The Raptors are currently ranked fourth in the Eastern Conference, behind the Pacers, Cavaliers and Pistons. Bosh's average stats this season are 22.6 points, 10.7 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.3 blocks, with a shooting percentage of 49.6%, a three-point shooting percentage of 34.3% and a free throw percentage of 78.4%.

It is worth mentioning that Chris Bosh's playing style for the Raptors this season is very similar to that of LeBron James.

The No. 1 position is played by ball-handling breakout players. The Cavaliers have Gibson, while the Raptors have T.J. Ford.

LeBron's style of play is to dribble and break through, with two top shooters, "Ah Q" and Channing Frye, by his side;

Then Chris Bosh's style of play is also to break through with the ball.

Standing next to him were the 06 No. pick Bariani, as well as Maurice Peterson and others.

The only difference is that the Raptors don't have Shaquille O'Neal.

But Chris Bosh has an extra ability to catch and shoot than LeBron.

During the voting period, the Toronto media also kept attacking LeBron. Their slogan was:

"We don't have Shaquille O'Neal, but Chris Bosh is as good as LeBron James!"

Unexpectedly, they actually succeeded in the end.

Chris Bosh defeated LeBron James by less than 1 votes to become one of the two starting forwards in the Eastern Conference.

Now the picture is a bit interesting:

The first of the "03 generation" to become a starter was Wade, followed by Chris Bosh. On the contrary, the "two heroes of the generation" have not yet been able to sit in the All-Star starting position.

The benefits that Yao Ming's move to Los Angeles will bring to him are once again demonstrated.

At this year's All-Star Weekend, he became the "All-Star Ticket King" for the second time in his career.

There is no way. With Los Angeles behind him, even if Su Wan has several major forces behind him, they can only look up to him.

However, in Su Wan's opinion, the honor of "All-Star Voting King" once is enough, including the All-Star MVP, the attached values ​​are not cumulative.

Take the All-Star MVP for example, it is more of a symbol of status in the industry.

Just like last year, McGrady's status made the Western Conference stars willing to give him the award.

But because his status in the underworld was not high enough, a troublemaker emerged in the east.

In the same situation, if Nowitzki wanted to win the All-Star MVP in Dallas, even if Suwan was an Eastern Conference player, he might not compete with him.

Of course, this was Su Wan’s thought before a series of events happened in this year’s finals.

Now Suwan will definitely not give Nowitzki this face.

Given his grudges against Dallas and Cuban, it is impossible for the people of Dallas to smile as they wish.

Before the All-Star Weekend in February, the Pacers only had one big game, which was a home game against the Spurs.

Except for the Spurs, the rest are weak teams.

Since the Pacers had just lost four games at this time, more and more media began to discuss the possibility of the Pacers breaking the Chicago Bulls' best regular season record of 4 wins and 72 losses.

Rick Carlisle doesn't want to put additional pressure on the Pacers.

The goal of this team is very clear, which is to win the championship this season and become another team to establish a dynasty after the Los Angeles Lakers!

Whether the record of the best regular season performance is broken or not is actually not important.

But the problem is...

This has a lot to do with whether Suwan can win the regular season MVP trophy again.

苏万本赛季目前为止的场均数据为29.8分6.4篮板3.2助攻1.4抢断1.2盖帽。其中场均29.8分位列联盟场均得分榜单的第二位。

Second only to Dwyane Wade's 31.2 points.

The Heat failed to win the championship last season, so Wade failed to become the first player of the "03 generation" to win the championship, and there is no saying that he is "5cm shorter than Jordan". But without the championship, there would be no summer of indulgence. Dwyane Wade did not suffer any major injuries this season, and because of Shaquille O'Neal's departure, he enjoyed more shots on the offensive end of the Heat, which brought his average points per game to a new career high.

This is what is meant by "blessings and misfortunes go hand in hand".

Wade, who lost the championship, has health.

I don’t know what he would choose if he were allowed to choose.

Judging from the statistics alone, Suwan is better than Nowitzki.

But in terms of efficiency, he is not as good as Nowitzki, who has joined the "180 Club".

Therefore, the two people's personal performances can only be considered to be about the same, with no obvious difference in strength.

The Mavericks are currently in great form. If the Pacers cannot maintain their current momentum until the end, this year's regular season MVP is likely to be taken away by Nowitzki.

Only by breaking the record for the best regular season record in NBA history can Suwan win this award.

The good news is that when the reporter asked Su Wan how to choose between the championship and the regular season MVP, Su Wan decisively chose the championship.

The reason why I didn’t say I wanted all of them as usual.

Because Su Wan is very clear about the pressure this will bring to his teammates.

To put it bluntly, the regular season MVP is a personal honor. He doesn't want the whole team to face greater pressure with him just because he wants to win this award.

The Warriors' 73-9 record was also a reminder for him.

"The best record in history" is good, but if you don't win the championship in the end, that would be a nightmare!

not to mention……

Having won the championship, who dares to say that he is not the most valuable player?
On February 2, the Pacers faced a "strong enemy battle" against the Spurs.

The impact of Battier's arrival on the team is obvious. This season, the Spurs are the team with the lowest opponent scoring limit in the league, allowing their opponents to score only 85.4 points per game.

With such defensive efficiency, Tim Duncan, as the core of the defense, should be able to take advantage of the opportunity to build momentum and compete for the "Defensive Player of the Season Award".

But Popovich repeatedly emphasized in front of the media that this was a team effort, and that everyone on the Spurs was very focused on defense this season: "I like the attitude of everyone on the Spurs right now!"

To be honest, Tim Duncan has never won a "Best Defensive Player Award" in his career, and Popovich should bear the main responsibility.

Moreover, he always emphasized teamwork, and later he became the head coach who won the most "Season Best Head Coach Awards" in NBA history.

At that time, he didn't even mention the word "team"!
Sure enough, the person who emphasizes teamwork is often the least team-oriented; the person who says he doesn't care about data will always secretly flip through the small notes with data statistics during breaks in the game.

As one of the most hated teams by Indiana people, the boos from the entire audience at the opening of today's game were deafening.

It wasn't until the jump ball ended and the Pacers took the first attack that the boos slowly turned into cheers.

Popovich, who saw through the Pacers' true tactical strategy hidden behind three-pointers in the last game, targeted the Pacers' outside shooting from the very beginning of this game.

This was in line with the offensive tactics Rick Carlisle had assigned to the Pacers.

Therefore, at the beginning of the game, the Pacers were behind 7 to 12.

Rick Carlisle called a timeout, moved Suwan to the number one position, and let him play one-on-one with the ball.

The Spurs' number one player is Tony Parker, and when Suwan plays him in a mismatch, he's always accurate.

And no matter who Parker is defending in a mismatch, he is a "big hole".

When defending Anthony Parker, he made two consecutive three-pointers; when defending Artest, he ended up in an even more miserable situation, as Artest used his strong body to make him lose all his temper.

The score gap was quickly reversed.

Popovich cursed.

This player, who was originally the Finals MVP of this season, became a huge defensive loophole for the Spurs in this game.

This can actually be another proof that Popovich is praising JB.

Tony Parker is not Steve Nash, nor is he Stephen Curry, but in order for the Spurs to continue their strong performance, Popovich made him the offensive core of the "post-Tim Duncan" era, sacrificing Tim Duncan's peak period and focusing on the defensive end to protect Tony Parker.

The result of forcing this to happen was that the Grizzlies staged the "Black Eight Miracle".

Do you really think that the Spurs were eliminated in that series because Tim Duncan was beaten by the "Black and White Bears"?
In fact, the outside line was also locked tightly.

That Spurs team was actually pretty similar to the current Suns team. They played fast-paced offense and defense very well in the regular season, but then got destroyed by defense in the playoffs.

The Spurs' performance during that period alone shows that Popovich's success was mainly due to Tim Duncan.

Just like this game, the Spurs' offensive core was Tony Parker at the beginning, but when he was beaten and the Spurs were overtaken, Popovich called a timeout and arranged the tactics...

Give the ball to Tim Duncan!

Isn't Tyronn Lue better at using this tactic than him?
In the following period, the Pacers continued to focus on Tony Parker.

Popovich had to arrange more help defense to relieve the pressure on Tony Parker on the defensive end.

There is still some effect.

However, due to being targeted so much on the defensive end, the "French sports car" whose condition was affected was like having a flat tire in this game. The previous lightning-fast dribbling breakthroughs were completely missing in this game.

The Spurs put the ball in Tim Duncan's hands more and more frequently.

The "Stone Buddha"'s stable offense allowed the Spurs to keep close to the score.

But when entering the fourth quarter, Rick Carlisle began to attack Tim Duncan more.

There was no chance to rest on both ends of the offense and defense. Even the "Stone Buddha" felt his legs getting heavy. At 6 minutes and 14 seconds in the fourth quarter, during the crucial rebound, his hands had already touched the ball, but Tim Duncan failed to hold the ball. Suwan successfully stole the ball, completed the "key steal", and made a "chase-three-pointer" after the counterattack, widening the score to 10 points.

Barkley said: "Su Wan is getting more and more confident in shooting three-pointers now!"

Kenny Smith said: "Suwan has made 90 three-pointers this season! This is the total number of three-pointers he made in the regular season of the previous two seasons. He did it in just 53 games this season!"

Barkley shook his head slightly, his face full of emotion.

Unconsciously, after his mid-range shot gradually became stable and became Su Wan's "signature shot", Su Wan's three-point shot has also gradually become stable.

Let's look at LeBron in Cleveland. He was just like him in the past. He is still just a breakthrough player. As for shooting, it was not stable two years ago and it is still not stable now. The key is that he is becoming less and less confident. As long as there is a chance to drive to the basket, he will give up the chance to shoot.

The growing gap between the two is reflected in all aspects, including their scoring methods.

Suwan is becoming a more comprehensive scorer.

With the ball, without the ball, breakthroughs, mid-range shots, three-pointers, Su Wan now has all kinds of weapons in his "arsenal" that he can use.

The final score was 108 to 98.
The Pacers completed a season "double kill" against the Spurs, the original 07 champions. Su Wan had a different emotion after defeating them.

Well, even if he didn’t know this, Su Wan would still feel a different kind of pleasure.

Who made them the Spurs?
There is really no good thing about Texas!

In the post-match interview, Popovich praised Suwan, who had 35 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals: "He is definitely the best No. player of the younger generation. To be honest, I don't even know who is better between him and Kobe now!"

Ok……

If that's high praise!

After Su Wan knew what Popovich said, he immediately said in his heart:
That Indiana fan is still too soft-hearted!

This "Old Bidden" should have been strangled to death at that time!
The Spurs have already implemented their tactics for tonight, but they still can't beat the Pacers. Popovich obviously sees that he can't do anything about Suwan, so he starts to sow discord.

But the little snake in Los Angeles will definitely take this matter to heart in order to prove this point.

This is an open conspiracy, the kind that cannot be avoided!
Popovich is such a stinking piece of shit...

So disgusting!
After defeating the Spurs, the Pacers won two consecutive games and finally finished all the games before the All-Star Weekend with a record of 2 wins and 7 loss.

Then Artest, who was selected as a substitute for this All-Star Weekend, hurriedly took Suwan and O'Neal to Las Vegas overnight.

As the largest "gambling city" in the United States, it is also a place that many NBA players like to visit.

For example, the "God of Basketball" Michael Jordan.

Jordan's self-control is really terrible. He likes gambling, but he has never caused any serious trouble because of it. This is really rare among "gamblers". More gamblers go further and further on this road, and finally embark on a road of no return.

However, there are also rumors that Michael Jordan retired at the peak of his career because he caused a big mess when gambling, and in order to protect him, he was arranged to retire at the peak of his career. But this is not very credible.

After all, Michael Jordan has never had any financial problems. Instead, he is the most successful player in the world.

Of course, this is inseparable from his AJ.

This is Suwan's second visit to Las Vegas.

When I first came here, I was still a member of the summer league and my future was uncertain, so I didn't try it out.

This time, since Artest and O'Neal Jr. also wanted to play, he went along. After exchanging about $10 in chips, Su Wan played the simplest game of guessing the number of points.

After just one play, he didn't want to play anymore.

People who like gambling like the excitement and stimulation they feel at that moment when the results appear.

But at that moment, Su Wan did not feel any excitement, but instead a strong sense of uneasiness.

Maybe it was because Su Wan was always in control of everything now, and he was used to the feeling of being in control of everything on the court. He really couldn't accept encountering something out of his control.

Gambling is not a suitable pastime for him.

He simply went to the nightclub next door.

As a world-famous "entertainment capital", gambling has attracted countless wealthy people. In order to make these wealthy people have fun, all entertainment facilities must be fully equipped, and the specifications and grades must be the best.

In addition, because there are many wealthy people, the public security in Las Vegas is also the best in the United States.

Ok……

Since ancient times, there have been very few people causing trouble in casinos.

Su Wan ordered a non-alcoholic drink and sat at the bar for a while.

Jiang Taigong is fishing, those who are willing to take the bait will do so!
Soon the "fish" came. A beautiful woman with fair skin and long legs walked in front of him. She had blonde hair, blue eyes, and big curly hair. The key was that her hips met Su Wan's requirements. After chatting for a while, Su Wan took her back to his hotel room.

The girl obviously didn't expect Su Wan to live so well: "Fortunately I didn't insist on going to my place."

Su Wan was a little surprised. He had seen everything about the woman, so she should be a "white, rich and beautiful woman". - He had seen too many people in the past two years, so he had trained his nose to smell the stench of these women.

Is it possible that I made a mistake?

But he quickly overturned this point because all her actions were pampered like a rich girl.

After a night of in-depth communication, the woman woke up earlier than Su Wan the next morning. When she left, she did not forget to say hello to Su Wan: "I'm leaving, Huaxia boy. Have a nice night. See you again if we're lucky. By the way, my name is Ivanka-***."

Su Wan was sleeping soundly, but the moment he heard the name, he opened his eyes immediately.

Wake up!
No way?
Is it such a coincidence?
Su Wan watched her back disappear in front of his door, then quickly got up and searched the Internet for a photo of Lao Deng's daughter.

Sure enough, it was her!

I didn’t expect to sleep with the “future princess”…

This is much more exciting than gambling.

Before he could calm down, Artest called him. His tone was so mean that Su Wan could imagine how wretched his expression was: "How did you sleep, Su? You finally couldn't help it!"

"What?" Su Wan asked knowingly.

Artest said, "Don't pretend, it's all in the newspapers, don't try to hide it from me!"

When Su Wan heard that they were photographed by the media, he didn't bother to continue listening to Artest's obscene voice, and quickly searched the Internet for related news. Fortunately, the photos did not capture the woman's front, and he was only photographed in the background from a distance.

That's it!

Being caught having fun is not a big deal, as long as no one knows that it is the "future princess"!

As for whether Lao Deng can find out that it is his daughter...

Not to mention whether he has time to pay attention to such gossip, from what Su Wan knows, Lao Deng's relationship with his daughter is not very good, and it is not certain whether he can recognize that this is his daughter.

Su Wan regained his composure.

This incident also became the most impressive thing for Su Wan when he recalled the All-Star Weekend later.

On the first day of the All-Star Weekend, Suwan simply did not go to the Rookie Challenge because there were no Pacers rookies participating; he missed the "Three Major Challenges" on the second day for the same reason; and he did not appear in front of the media until the All-Star Game on the third day.

As the man who has been in the NBA spotlight the most times in the past two or three years, he suddenly didn't appear in front of the media for several days, and everyone really missed him (his mouth).

One after another, they rushed over for the interview, and the urgency on their faces was clearly visible:
Su Wan!
This NBA is really boring without you saying something in front of the camera!
Irene stayed until the end, looking accusing: "It seems like you are having a lot of fun here!"

Su Wan scratched his cheek. He had just asked Irene to take care of a woman not long ago, and now he was in the gossip newspapers with other women. It seemed a bit promiscuous.

Yet he was so promiscuous and yet he rejected her so many times.

Su Wan could understand Irene's feelings.

"I don't want to talk about gossip anymore. I've talked enough just now!" In order to avoid being at a disadvantage, Su Wan blocked Irene's mouth first.

Unexpectedly, Irene still said, "Don't you want to talk anymore? But that woman came to me and asked me about you."

"You mean..." Su Wan stopped abruptly and didn't continue.

Impossible, absolutely impossible!
This woman is cheating me!

She couldn't possibly know.

"What? You think I don't know Ivanka?"

This Irene really knows him well now. Su Wan just rolled his eyes, and this woman can actually know what he is thinking.

"You really know her?" Su Wan was surprised, but then he thought that it was normal for her, a reporter, to know people he thought they would have no intersection with, so he regained his composure.

However, with her next words, Su Wan's expression became abnormal again.

"She said she will come to watch your game tonight. Come on, Su, this is a real white, rich and beautiful girl!" Irene patted Su Wan's shoulder.

Su Wan said: "Do you know what you look like now?"

"what?"

"You're becoming more and more like a pimp now!"

"Fuck you...it's her phone."

"..."

Su Wan had a strong premonition that this woman would interfere in every one of his "fleeting romances" in the future.

But if you think about it carefully, it is indeed safer to have a "third party" to make the transition.

Just as Irene said, Ivanka appeared in the audience that night.

Although many celebrities came that night, Ivanka also got several close-up shots thanks to her good looks.

The stone in Su Wan's heart fell.

Because no media linked him to Ivanka.

Sure enough, no one guessed that the person who followed Suwan back to the hotel the night before yesterday was Ivanka, the "rich daughter".

However, even with Ivanka's presence, Suwan did not have a strong desire to perform in this game. He only played for more than 4 minutes before being replaced by this year's All-Star Eastern Conference head coach Rick Carlisle.

There was a sudden sound of regret at the scene.

There is no NBA team in Las Vegas, and most of the fans present tonight are neutral fans. However, Suwan's personality and his presence on the court are still very popular among neutral fans.

They expected Su Wan to perform well tonight, but now it seems that Su Wan is not in a good mood tonight.

Ivanka also looked at her mobile phone with a focused expression at this moment.

Still no text message from Su Wan.

She thought that Irene gave Su Wan her cell phone number and Su Wan would contact her soon.

Is it because I didn’t behave well in the past few days?

It shouldn’t be!

I have done all the actions that should be done!

It was already the second half when Su Wan appeared on stage again, and he only played for a few minutes before leaving the stage.

Rick Carlisle has a really bad taste.

He let Shaquille O'Neal, Wade and LeBron share the stage for a long time, performing "Burning Winter" in full view of the public.

This drama did not disappoint:

Shaquille O'Neal obviously cooperates with Wade on the court much more frequently than with LeBron.

In one shot, he even ignored LeBron who was passing behind him and passed the ball to Wade who cut to the basket from the middle, assisting him in completing an "alley-oop slam dunk" and even colliding with him very passionately.

When Shaquille O'Neal left the Heat, he hated Wade.

But after living in Cleveland for so long, he missed Wade more.

LeBron's face was full of embarrassment.

Suwan had no desire, Wade and his team staged a "burning winter", the Eastern Conference was obviously not as united as the Western Conference, and in the end Kobe won the All-Star MVP with 32 points.

He was also the All-Star MVP that year.

The end of the All-Star Game means that the All-Star Weekend in Las Vegas has come to a successful conclusion.

When Su Wan left the field, he was stopped by reporters in front of the bench.

Ivanka stood up and noticed this scene. She looked at Su Wan first. After the two of them looked at each other for a moment, she walked towards the fan passage.

Reporters' questions also began at this time.

The last question asked him to talk about what he gained from the trip to Las Vegas. Ivanka's face suddenly popped up in Suwan's mind. He said, "I think it's time for Polis to hold an All-Star Weekend. Indiana needs such an opportunity. I hope to see the All-Star Weekend atmosphere in Las Vegas appear in Polis as soon as possible."

Since Suwan had spoken, David Stern naturally could not pretend not to hear it. The next day, the league officially revealed that in the next two seasons, Polis would become the host city of the All-Star Weekend.

The moment the news was announced, Polis Market personally called Suwan.

“Cornfield” is really not easy!

Suwan was adding Ivanka's contact number to his address book, and finally sent a message:

——Su Wan.

The other side quickly replied:
--it is good.

The end of the All-Star Weekend heralds the end of the regular season.

The final ranking of each team will have a final result during this period.

Of course, there have been some big deals in the league at this time of year in previous years.

Only this year, the free trade market closed quietly.

There has been no movement, including the Cavaliers, who everyone thought would make a big deal.

The Cleveland media breathed a sigh of relief.

Admittedly, they all knew that the atmosphere within the Cavaliers was very bad, especially the relationship between Shaquille O'Neal and LeBron, and they could also see the clues from the All-Star Game.

But no matter what, the Cavaliers are now ranked second in the Eastern Conference. This record shows that the Cavaliers are still very strong this season.

Even for this ranking, they don't want Danny Ferry to be traded.

At least go touch the floor of the Eastern Conference Finals first...

Based on the Cavaliers' current performance, they can do this.

I don’t know when the last time the Cavaliers touched the Eastern Conference Finals was.

Now that they have such an opportunity, they really don't want to miss it.

Danny Ferry probably thought so too, and he did not make any move until the door to the free trade market closed.

He finally...

Made a decision that we in Cleveland are happy with!

They were very satisfied, but LeBron James was in a bad mood.

During the All-Star Weekend, Shaquille O'Neal embarrassed him again.

Now with all the new and old grudges added together, he really wanted to ask the team to trade Shaquille O'Neal immediately.

But Bill Duffy, that wimp, refused to let him and Danny Ferry put pressure on him and told him to just focus on the court and perform.

How can I concentrate on the court?
After thinking about it, LeBron called Rich Paul. He felt that only his good brother could come up with a solution and speak out for him.

Paul was a little confused when he received LeBron's call and his question. Bill Duffy repeatedly told him not to give LeBron any advice, and the most important thing for LeBron now was to stay on the court.

He hesitated, which made LeBron even more annoyed: "Who are you hanging out with, Rich?"

When Paul heard what LeBron said, he offered his own solution: "LeBron, your back injury should not have recurred this season, right? Why don't you take a few games off and let the outside world see how bad the Cavaliers are without you?"

8 words, brothers, please give me monthly votes.


(End of this chapter)