NBA: I am the god of basketball

Chapter 132 The All-Star Game against Kobe Bryant

The 2009 All-Star Game was a special one in Wang Chao’s memory, because in this All-Star Game, NBA President David Stern manipulated the game to a certain extent and staged a The reconciliation of the century allowed Kobe and O'Neal to smile away their grievances and win the All-Star MVP trophy together.

But in fact, Kobe scored 27 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists in the All-Star Game, while O'Neal only had 17 points and 5 rebounds. No matter how you look at it, O'Neal is not eligible to share the All-Star MVP with Kobe.

But there is one thing to say, the moment when Kobe and O'Neal lifted the trophy together, it did arouse many people's fond memories of the Lakers' three consecutive championships.

It's just that if you watch it more than ten years later, this scene will be somewhat too embarrassing. This kind of drama of forcibly resolving grievances and smothering grievances makes Wang Chao feel uncomfortable watching.

I am afraid that the two parties involved are also very disgusting in their hearts. After all, they are very tired of each other. At that time, they had no intention of reconciling at all. They just had to be magnanimous in order to create a good image in front of the fans.

Of course, Wang Chao didn't want to cooperate with them in acting, and the league officials didn't control the whole process, they just pushed the boat along when the game progressed to a certain level and there was such an opportunity.

In fact, Wang Chao didn't know that Stern had many plans, and Kobe and O'Neal just smiled and wiped out their grudges and enmity was just one of them.

The peak match between Kobe and James is also one of the scripts for staging the 24vs23 finals in advance.

Wang Chao's sudden emergence, overwhelming the crowd and winning the All-Star MVP is also in his script plan.

No matter which of these scripts is successful, it can gain the attention and love of a large number of fans.

Wang Chao’s two previous trips to the All-Star Game were basically soy sauce. As a foreign player, his popularity and attention in the NBA is not as good as that of American players. .

The same problem exists in Dayao, Nowitzki, Nash and others, and it is a common problem.

But this All-Star, Wang Chao clearly felt the difference as soon as he appeared on the stage.

This is the first time that Wang Chao appeared on the stage of the main game as an All-Star starter. He thought that after a few minutes of debut, he would be replaced by the coach and replaced by other popular players in the United States, such as Garnett.

But what surprised him was that in the first quarter, he actually played for a long time, and was not replaced until about 7 minutes into the game.

And in these 7 minutes, Wang Chao also got a lot of shots.

James is naturally unwilling to pass the ball to Wang Chao. Wang Chao is now James' direct competitor. Not only is the rivalry between the Cavaliers and the Magic in the Eastern Conference, Wang Chao's explosive personal data during the regular season also makes James feel threatened.

As James, who aspires to rule the Eastern Conference and even the entire league, he does not want to see Wang Chao overshadow him, including in the much-anticipated All-Star Game. After all, Wang Chao has already surpassed him in the All-Star voting. It made James feel very uncomfortable.

However, this kind of thing is not up to James alone.

The Eastern All-Star starting center is Wang Chao's partner Howard.

For all the defensive rebounds that Howard grabs, as long as he can see Wang Chao, he will choose to give the ball to Wang Chao as much as possible. Cooperate to make the latter active on the field as well.

On the All-Star stage, there are usually few inside centers who can perform well because it is difficult for them to get the ball.

Howard also wants to show off on the stage of the All-Star Game, so handing over the basketball to Wang Chao is obviously the best choice.

两人互利互惠的结果就是王超在7分钟的出场时间里，6投3中得到8分2助攻，霍华德也有5分5篮板入账。

In the All-Star game where all star players played, it is already very good to get such data in a single quarter. In the first quarter of the Eastern Conference, James had 7 points and 2 assists, which can be compared with the two.

Compared with the more flowering in the East, the offense of the All-Stars in the West is mainly concentrated on Kobe.

In the first quarter, Kobe took as many as 10 shots and scored 13 points. Anyone could see that Kobe wanted to compete for the All-Star MVP.

Driven by Kobe, the Western All-Stars played much more united and serious than the Eastern All-Stars. The two sides were evenly matched in the first quarter, but as the game entered the second quarter, the situation began to take a turn for the worse. Occupy the initiative on the field and constantly widen the score gap.

At halftime, the score of the two teams came to 82:67, and the Western All-Stars had already achieved a 15-point lead.

Wang Chao was not surprised by this. In his impression, the final score of the All-Stars this time should be 146:119. The Western All-Stars beat the Eastern Conference by 27 points.

Wang Chao didn't play a lot of time in the second quarter. He only played for a few minutes in the second half of the game and didn't have much performance.

This is normal, even for top superstars, usually the playing time of the All-Star Game will be limited to about 25 to 30 minutes. After all, the 12 players in the team are all star players, and everyone has to make an appearance. There is only so little time in total, and there is not enough time.

However, he didn't play much in the second quarter, which also allowed Wang Chao to have more playing time in the third quarter, and he played as a small forward during James' rest time.

At this time, Nowitzki appeared at the small forward position of the Western All-Stars.

Speaking of which, the All-Star lineup of the Western Conference this time is a bit deformed. There is no small forward in the traditional sense in the lineup. Anthony was injured before the All-Star Game, and his vote rate was low. David Weiss Tete took the position of the All-Star substitute, and the other players selected for the forward position were Duncan, Stoudemire, Gasol and Nowitzki, all of whom were all power forwards.

Although Nowitzki has an advantage over Wang Chao in terms of height, but after Wang Chao has raised his speed and agility to the level of a first-line defender, the opponent can no longer keep up with his speed.

After Wang Chao appeared on the field in the third quarter, he frequently used his speed advantage on the outside to forcefully break through Nowitzki's defensive frame and score.

Wang Chao's wave of efforts directly drove the scoring efficiency of the Eastern All-Stars, and quickly recovered the 15-point difference to within single digits.

Seeing that the situation was not good, the Western All-Stars immediately called for a timeout adjustment, and after the timeout, Kobe was rearranged to play.

The adjustment of this timeout is obviously an arrangement for winning the game.

After Kobe came on the field, he directly played against Wang Chao, and the defensive intensity imposed on Wang Chao on the defensive end was obviously greater than that of other players.

"..."

Wang Chao frowned slightly as he looked at Kobe who was determined to win the game today with a serious expression.

Is this the Mamba Mentality?

Anyone can see that the players on the stage are all about performances, and basically no one will seriously defend others on the defensive end.

But now Kobe is clearly aiming at Wang Chao. He doesn't want Wang Chao to score more points, and he doesn't want the Eastern Conference to catch up with the Western Conference, so he is completely serious.

But in this case, Wang Chao couldn't help cheering up.

Originally, the system didn't release tasks in the All-Star Game. Wang Chao didn't pay much attention to this kind of entertainment game. He didn't think it was a big deal whoever won the All-Star MVP. Soy sauce to relax and relax.

But what do you mean by defending me so seriously?Think you can really stop me?

If it was two seasons ago, facing Kobe's defense, Wang Chao might really have to avoid the edge for a while. After all, this is recognized as one of the players with the strongest defensive ability in shooting guards after Jordan. The best defensive lineup also fully proved Kobe's ability on the defensive end.

But the current Wang Chao is really not afraid of Kobe's defense at all. No matter how strong Kobe's defensive ability is, Kobe's considerable flaws are his height of 1 meters and his wingspan, which is not outstanding among players.

Wang Chao's static talent naturally has a huge advantage over Kobe, and at this stage, his dynamic talent is only at a disadvantage compared to Kobe in terms of jumping and explosiveness. In addition, he can touch Kobe in terms of speed, agility, and strength. .

Wang Chao, who believes that his offensive ability has reached the top level of the league at this stage, really has the idea of ​​confronting Kobe head-on. When they met in the finals, with Kobe's character, the two are bound to have a battle, so let's regard this as a preview before the finals!

Holding the ball at the top arc, Wang Chao grabbed the ball with one hand and placed it behind him to prevent it from being intercepted by Kobe. At the same time, he leaned forward and fixed his eyes on Kobe.

Seeing Wang Chao's attitude, Kobe's heart was also trembling. He knew that Wang Chao had also become serious.

But just like Wang Chao is not afraid of him, Kobe is not afraid of Wang Chao being serious.

For a moment, the atmosphere on the field froze a bit, and the players on both sides stood in their respective positions, looking at the two confronting each other.

At this moment, Wang Chao moved.

He jumped up suddenly, and when he raised his hand, he shot a crisp jumper.

Kobe reacted quickly, jumped up immediately and raised his hand to try to block the shot.

However, the difference in height and wingspan made Kobe only able to interfere with Wang Chao's shooting sight at most.

The basketball came out of his hand and fell straight into the net, brushing the net hollow.

"Beautiful pull-up three-pointer! Wang Chao's pull-up jump ball skills have reached the level of perfection, and it is exactly the same as McGrady in his peak period, so similar!"

For the NBA All-Star Game, Huaguo CCTV Sports will naturally broadcast the whole process live, and the players who are responsible for explaining the game are Director Yu and Director Zhang, who are familiar to the audience.

Director Zhang couldn't help admiring when he saw Wang Chao's crisp jumper hit against Kobe's defense.

"Wang Chao is 2 meters tall. This height really has a considerable advantage when it comes to pull-up jump shots. Moreover, Wang Chao is different from other big players. He has both speed, bounce, explosiveness and physical coordination. His pull-up jumper has a picturesque feel to it like Tracy McGrady."

When it comes to McGrady, it is regrettable.

In the All-Star voting stage, McGrady won a lot of votes. After all, he is in the Rockets and has a large fan base in Huaguo. McGrady finally won 167 million votes, second only to Kobe and Paul among the guards in the Western Conference. Way to start the game, there is still a chance to be selected as a substitute with his influence.

But at the end of January, McGrady suffered another injury and was reimbursed for the season. Naturally, there was no way to participate in the All-Star.

……

A three-point shot by Wang Chao made Kobe feel ashamed. In the next round, facing Wade's defense, Kobe directly hit back with a mid-range jumper to fight back.

In the next few minutes of the third quarter, it became a scoring show for Kobe and Wang Chao, and Wang Chao was obviously superior in scoring ability, because the point difference between the two teams was constantly narrowing during the duel. .

Wang Chao's scoring ability is stable and his efficiency is extremely high. This is something that is well known throughout the league. Wang Chao, who averaged 34 points per game in the regular season, has maintained a stable shooting rate in the early 50s, and his three-point shooting rate is also 46%.

This kind of efficiency looks at the top level of all perimeters in the league. If you compare it with Kobe, Kobe, who averaged 27 points per game this season, only shot 46.7% from the field, which is similar to Wang Chao's three-point shooting percentage.

Even if a player's strength cannot be fully measured by statistics, Wang Chao's scoring ability is enough to prove his strength.

Moreover, the confrontation between the two is not a direct confrontation in the true sense. Kobe is facing the Eastern Conference shooting guard Wade on the offensive end, and defending Wang Chao himself on the defensive end. In a sense, it is a disadvantage.

But Wang Chao never thought of having a real 1v1 duel with Kobe.

After all, so far, his training has focused on how to make his scoring ability stronger, and he has not devoted any time and energy on the defensive end.

If you use the system's ability value scoring system to compare, there are as many as 19 offensive abilities. His current average ability value has reached 85, and many shooting ability values ​​​​have reached 90 or even higher.

However, there are only 7 defensive abilities, and the average value is only in the early 60s. This is the case when the 84 defensive rebounds raise the average score.

Wang Chao's defense is entirely based on dynamic and static talents such as speed, agility, height and wingspan. When he defends carefully, he can reach above the league average. But when the opponent is Kobe, James, the league's top scorer , is definitely not enough to watch, and these opponents only need all simple temptations to find the loopholes in Wang Chao's defense and score easily.

Wang Chao is very aware of his own shortcomings, so he always uses his strengths to avoid weaknesses on the field, and tries to avoid direct confrontation with the opponent's offensive arrows.

The same is true for the top scorers in the league in the future, such as Durant, Harden, Curry and even Doncic at the back, who will put all their energy on offense and hand over defense to other players.

It must be admitted that this method can indeed make it easier for players to score on the field. After all, there is no need to worry too much about defense, and Kobe's strength can be seen from another aspect.

In his career, he was selected to the best team 15 times and the best defensive team 12 times. He can take into account both offense and defense for a long time, and he can do both very well. The difficulty can be imagined.

It's just that even the current Kobe has to admit that he can't guard against Wang Chao.

"Wang Chao raised his hand with the ball and pretended to shoot to deceive Kobe's center of gravity, and then accelerated to break through and score a layup with the ball! Kobe's defense is really serious. It is not the defensive attitude that an All-Star should have at all. Even in the finals, I am afraid." That's all, but he still can't stop Wang Chao from scoring!" Director Yu said: "Scoring this goal, the point difference between the two teams has narrowed from the initial 15 points to only 5 points, and the third quarter is about to start. At the end, Wang Chao has already scored 16 points in this quarter, and his shooting percentage is as high as 67%!"

"Actually, Kobe's performance wasn't too bad. He scored 8 points on 4 of 10 shots, but Wang Chao was obviously better in this score matchup. The only suspense now is the final outcome of this game. Which side of the Eastern and Western All-Stars will win the game? Does Wang Chao have a chance to lead the Eastern All-Stars to win the game, win the All-Star MVP, and become the first Chinese player in NBA history to win the All-Star MVP?" Director Zhang also said To: "Although an All-Star MVP award is irrelevant to Wang Chao's career history, it still has a certain symbolic significance for all the top superstars in the league to have won this award."

……

"Wang, do you want to win the All-Star MVP?"

During the game break, Howard came to Wang Chao and muttered in a low voice: "If you want to take it, I will fully support you!"

Wang Chao thought for a while, then nodded and said, "Okay."

To be honest, Wang Chao really didn't think about this issue at first. Originally, the All-Star MVP was not something worth competing for.

But after scoring 16 points in the third quarter, his personal score at this time has unknowingly reached 26 points, and he scored 30+ casually in the fourth quarter.

More importantly, Kobe Bryant's persistence in wanting to win the game in the third quarter also made him a little bit competitive.

Originally, All-Stars is an exhibition game mainly for entertainment, and you were the one who got serious first, so since you are serious, it’s okay for me to be serious too, right?

Wang Chao now really wants to win the game and win the All-Star MVP by the way.

Since he had such an idea, he didn't hide it, and directly expressed his attitude to his good brother Howard. With the assistance of Howard who can help fight for rebounds under the basket, it will naturally get twice the result with half the effort.

……

In the fourth quarter, Wang Chao did not appear at the beginning, because he played nearly 10 minutes in the third quarter, and the cumulative playing time in the three quarters also reached 20 minutes. Head coach Mike Brown still arranged for other players to appear in rotation.

But such behavior immediately brought him a price.

Taking advantage of the absence of Wang Chao, the Western All-Stars immediately launched a wave of strong offensives, a wave of 12:4, widening the point difference to more than 10 points again.

It's not that the All-Stars in the East are not strong enough, it's that their attitude is obviously not as serious as that in the West.

(End of this chapter)