You should cross the mountains like a brave man

Chapter 979
"Does that sound weird to you, Kobe?"

On the eve of the Eastern Conference finals, Wei Xia asked Kobe this.

"What's so strange?"

"Ten years ago, we played the Celtics together," Wei Xia said with emotion, "Ten years later, we played the Celtics together again."

Only then did Kobe realize that 2008 was already ten years ago.

"I didn't expect that I would still be playing ten years later." Kobe shook his head and smiled wryly. "This is really a long time."

"Then will you continue to fight?"

Wei Xia's question is actually asking whether Kobe should retire at the end of the season.

He originally signed a three-year contract with a player option for the second year.

If he plays the full three years, he will be 41 when his contract ends.

Right now, there are only two players in the league older than Bryant.

One is Carter and the other is Nowitzki (two months older than Kobe), but they have not played in the NBA for as long as Kobe.

"I've thought about it," Bryant said. "You should know, I don't want to wait until the day when fans remind me to retire."

Wei Xia asked: "What if we win the championship this year?"

Bryant said lightly: "That would be a perfect ending."

His answer is already obvious.

Wei Xia could only complain: "It's an unreasonable person who can't even keep you as a champion."

Kobe glanced at the No. 11 season of the documentary "Havoc in the Air" that was being broadcast on TV.

In fact, when I watched the first season, Kobe was thinking about whether to sell his plane.

So creepy.

This documentary is not only sad for the viewers, but also fearful of flying.Kobe did not give up his private jet in the end, but he greatly reduced the frequency of taking private jets.

Although he doesn't quite believe that the accident will happen to him, the lessons the documentary has taught him are enough for him to avoid all flying risks in his life.

Although his safety awareness has been developed, watching this documentary has become the habit of Wei Xia and Kobe.

This habit is stronger than watching an uncut version of Game of Thrones together.

Because "Game of Thrones" has become a drama with cerebral palsy since the fifth season, but as the series progressed, the plot became more and more unreliable. Kobe was originally a loyal fan of the drama, but when he watched it with Wei Xia, as long as the plot had a problem, he completely forgot the movie-watching etiquette, and his uncontrollable spirit of complaining successfully changed Kobe.

They watch "Game of Thrones" not to follow the drama, but to see how low the lower limit of double DB can be.

Next year, that is, in 2019, when the final season of "Game of Thrones" is broadcast, Wei Xia and Kobe will surely find that there is no most cerebral palsy, only more cerebral palsy. Double DB is the essence of cerebral palsy among American screenwriters.

Now, they can only watch documentaries when they have nothing to do.

The documentary "Havoc in the Air" is released every year. Wei Xia and Kobe watched it for two years, and only saw the No.11 season.

The next day, the Eastern Conference Finals arrived as scheduled.

The Celtics have an extremely strong lineup: Irving, Jaylen Brown, Tatum, Horford, Embiid.

In the starting lineup alone, there are three All-Stars.

Brown, Tatum, and Embiid are all rookie contracts.

They are very similar to the Warriors in 2015. With the rise of super rookies and the contract benefits of rookies, they can introduce stars at will.

After forming such a lineup, I didn't expect that Irving and the young people in the team were not on the same page.

Owen is a philosopher. Although he has never won a championship, he is very good at educating rookies.

But he himself never proved himself without James, and the Celtics had reached the Eastern Conference Finals before he came.

As soon as the game started, Irving made his magic visible.

Outstanding singles ability, this has always been his strong point, no one doubted this point.

The 76ers also focused on defending against him, but he was obsessed with singles and seriously lacked in combing the team's offense.

Wei Xia took the initiative to defend against him, as if with a hint of conspiracy, he guided Owen very patiently.

It not only gives strength, but also prevents it from being too deadly.

His purpose is not to defend Owen to death, but to make Owen feel that he has the ability to break his defense.

If that feeling never goes away, you won't give up easily.

Irving was obsessed with personal offense. Brown, Tatum, and Embiid watched him play alone for a few minutes. It was Celtics coach Brad Stevens who called a timeout to slow down his desire to attack.

The Celtics are a typical embryo of a super strong team that is young, talented, and chasing results.

It is very difficult for this kind of embryo to appear, and it is even more difficult to form it.

It is necessary to prevent Irving from allowing his personal will to override the team in order to have healthy development.

In the first half, the Celtics and the 76ers were tied.

In the second half, Wei Xia began to show Owen the most authentic singles.

Thanks to Wright's sudden replacement of Cousins ​​and the one-star four-shooter system with Zhou Qi as the center, Wei Xia has four people to help him stretch beyond the three-point line every time he plays singles.

The wide attack space provides the perfect stage.

Wei Xia beat Shuangjie Tanhua violently at will. The young man has a temper and wants to fight back when he is singled out.Wei Xia's single defense is no joke.

In those five rounds, Wei Xia either broke through and scored, or made an emergency stop jumper, or made a three-pointer from the outside, or 2+1, none of which were scored by the opponent fouling the free throw line when the offense was initiated.

Every score is very tough, and it is a manifestation of strength and technology.

Conversely, Shuangjie Tanhua's counterattack only caused his foul to go to the free throw line in one round, and he blocked the other four rounds.

The ball was blocked, and there were two counterattacks for the 76ers to score.

The singleness of young people has caused more serious consequences than Irving, but the Celtics feel that they should not be too harsh on them if they want to give young people the opportunity to make mistakes.

The end result of giving young people a chance is to let Wei Xia bring a wave of rhythm.

The coaching staff wants to give young people a chance, but Irving's attitude towards the camera is: No, I don't want to!

At halftime, the Celtics trailed by double digits, acting as helpless as the Bucks and Raptors.

Irving began his speech decisively: "Some young people don't know the severity. They think that Wish is the mediocre opponents they have encountered before. When they see Wish, they want to take the ball and play alone. This is a selfish performance. They should know that their actions are hurting the team! If we want to win and beat a powerful team like the 76ers, we should focus and reduce selfish behavior!"

One of the wonders of basketball is watching Irving promote selfless play.

I don't know if it was influenced by Owen, the morale of the Celtics has dropped a lot.

"Why does it look like you gave up?" This is not the Celtics Kobe is familiar with.

The Celtics in his memory will never show weakness early in the playoffs.

Of course, the Celtics he met just happened to revive the most unique aspect in the history of the Green Cays, and the new Celtics today don't have that kind of temperament.

But he didn't expect it to be so different.

In the fourth quarter, Embiid led the team to counterattack.

Up to 7 points.

However, Wei Xia's chasing three-pointer, Kobe made another three-pointer, and Cousins ​​hit Embiid 2+1 in the low post, ending the suspense of the game.

Wei Xia scored 34 points, 9 rebounds and 7 assists in the game. It is rare to see that he finally played good data at the beginning of the series.

Before the Raptors and Bucks seriously affected his average data.

He only leads the team in assists, and his scoring average is actually less than Cousins ​​and a little more than Kobe.

Cousins ​​defended his authority as the league's No. 27 center in this campaign, scoring 15 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists and [-] blocks on Embiid.

In terms of statistics, the 76ers played the best player in the playoffs this season. He was selected for the annual team together with Wei Xia.

The difference is that Wei Xia was also selected for the first defense.

In the DPOY vote, he lost to the French Spider-Man Gobert by a narrow margin.

At the same time, Kobe, at the age of 40, averaged 22 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists per game in the regular season, somewhat controversially overwhelmed Jimmy Butler, who averaged 21 points, 5.3 rebounds and 4.9 assists per game, and was selected to the third team of the best team.

The controversy is that Kobe seems to be the third-best player in the 76ers, but his statistics are similar to Butler's, and his efficiency is better. As a 40-year-old man, his attendance rate is also higher.

However, Kobe is worthy of statistics, records, efficiency, and attendance. Butler can only be dumb and eat coptis, admit it.

In the first game of the Eastern Conference Finals, the 76ers' inner and outer core were on display, but Kobe was the only one who was tossed enough by the young Celtics.

They couldn't prevent Weixia and Cousins ​​from playing, so they focused on Kobe.

How can a 40-year-old comrade stand up to the torture of a young man?

So Kobe didn't play well all night.

Scoring single digits, rebounds and assists are not many.

For a while, voices complaining about Butler flooded social media.

"I don't know where these doubts come from. Even though Kobe played so badly today, his average data in the playoffs is still better than most players." Wei Xia tweeted to help Kobe speak.

This is also true.

Kobe is currently averaging 19 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists per game, and against the "tragic player suppressed by big-name players" Butler, he led the team in the first round of the Timberwolves.Sure, leading a team that didn't know what it's like to play in the playoffs after Garnett was a big feat, but in four games in the first round, he averaged just 15.8 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists.

It is unreasonable to complain about his performance in the playoffs.

Kobe didn't appreciate Wei Xia's help in speaking for him, which he took for granted.

"You spent half of your efforts to smear me outside on these things, and I have long been innocent!" Kobe always remembered those things.

Wei Xia was stunned on the spot, unable to speak.

(End of this chapter)