NBA: I am the god of basketball

Chapter 91 Unexpected, selected as an All-Star substitute!

(Happy New Year everyone, the first update is here, and there will be another update tonight.)
Bill Duffy has officially become Wang Chao's manager, but he has no work to do yet.

After all, this season is not over yet, and Wang Chao's contract renewal will not start until the end of this season.

What Bill Duffy can do now is to help Wang Chao contact and count how many teams are interested in him and how much these teams bid.

Staying with the Suns is not the only option. If the Suns are willing to give a maximum salary to renew the contract, it is of course good. Both Nash and Stoudemire still have a few years of peak time. Continue to partner with the two. Wang Chao is estimated to be in the Suns. At least a few NBA championships can be won.

But staying in the Suns also has disadvantages. After all, this is Nash's team. No matter how much he grows in the next few years, he will be the team's third child at most. He is not even qualified for the second child. That is Stad Meyer's.

With Wang Chao's current overall rating of 67, it may be a bit ridiculous to talk about the boss of the team, which is too ambitious, but soldiers who don't want to be generals are not good soldiers, and there is a system. Wang Chao feels that it will not take a few years for him to really rise.

Of course, this is just an unformed plan and inner thoughts.

It's true that he can't even be the second child in the Suns, but it's enough to worry about here.

Wang Chao’s ability to average 20+ points per game in the regular season so far is not due to him alone. Without Nash’s superb, ubiquitous passing, and without the Suns’ offensive rhythm that tops the league, Wang Chao would like to rely on His ability to average 20+ points per game is simply a dream.

Switching to any team in the league, Wang Chao will not get the same level of support as he did in the Suns.

There are pros and cons to this matter. At present, Wang Chao has no way to make a judgment. He can only wait until the end of this season to conduct research.

……

The Suns' regular season journey has not been affected in any way by Wang Chao's signing of an agent.

In the follow-up schedule in January, the strength of the opponents the Suns faced gradually increased, and the winning rate dropped significantly compared to November and December, but they still maintained a winning rate of 1%.

1月29日，太阳队客场对阵明尼苏达森林狼，狼王凯文.加内特全场爆砍44分11篮板，帮助森林狼121:112击败太阳队。

At this point, the Suns' January schedule is officially over.

From the beginning of the regular season at the end of October to the end of January, the Suns played a total of 10 games, winning 1 of them and only losing 45 games, with a winning rate of 39%.

If you continue to play the remaining 37 regular season games according to this winning percentage, the Suns' record can reach an exaggerated 70 wins, which is second only to the Bulls' 72 wins in the regular season!
It's just that this possibility is not great.

The Suns' schedule has more and more strong teams as it progresses. The intensity of the schedule and the strength of the opponents are not comparable to last year's winning streak.

But in any case, the Suns' record in the Western Conference and even in the league has stabilized. The only suspense is whether the team's record will be in the early 60s or above 65 wins at the end of the regular season.

……

At the end of January, the league officially announced the final voting results for the 1 All-Star Weekend.

James defeated Dayao and was elected as the All-Star vote leader, while Dayao ranked second, but he won the most votes among players in the Western Conference, stabilizing Kobe, Iverson, Tracy McGrady and other top outside superstars.

So far, the East and West starters have been confirmed.

On the west side are Dayao, Garnett, Duncan, Kobe and Tracy McGrady.

In the east are James, O'Neal, Bosh, Wade and Arenas.

Among the stars of the Suns, Stoudemire ranked second among the centers in the Western Conference in terms of votes, second only to Dayao. It seems to be well-known, but in fact his number of votes is less than half of Dayao's. The gap is huge.

Nash, the two-time regular season MVP winner, can only rank fourth among Western Conference guards. As a player who mainly focuses on passing assists, his popularity is still higher than that of Kobe, Tracy McGrady and Iverson, who are the top three guards. Much less.

It is worth mentioning that, among the votes of Western forwards, Wang Chao actually reached the top ten. Although he is only No.9, he is on the list anyway.

This shows that his popularity is steadily increasing. Even without the support of Hua Guo fans like Dayao, he still has a group of local fans in the United States, or the support of local fans in Phoenix.

As for Nash and Stoudemire, although they failed to be selected as the All-Star starters, with their strength and status in the league, there is no problem in being selected for the All-Star Game as substitutes.

Sure enough, 2 days later, the bench list was released, and the Suns Nash and Stoudemire were both selected.

But what is very surprising is that the Suns have three players selected for the All-Star bench, and besides Nash and Stoudemire, the third player is not Marion, but Wang Chao!

This surprised many people.

Wang Chao has averaged 20.7 points per game in the regular season so far, shooting 52% from the field and 49% from the three-point range. His scoring and efficiency are indeed impeccable, but there are still many stars with 20+ points in the league. Why is it just What about Wang Chao?

Especially when the Suns have already selected two All-Star substitutes, the league should be more inclined to find a star from those teams without All-Stars, rather than letting the Suns dominate.

But Wang Chao was selected. It is not uncommon in the league to be selected as an All-Star in the third season of his career. However, as a Huaguo player, Wang Chao became the second Huaguo to be selected as an All-Star in NBA history after Dayao players.

"This... should be Stern's handwriting."

Wang Chao was surprised at first, and then guessed.

How much Stern wants to open up the Huaguo market, but any fans who understand NBA history know that.

In the early 90s, Stern personally went to the Huaguo TV station to sell NBA game videotapes. During the years of cooperation, he provided Huaguo TV with broadcasting games for free.

Whether it was Big Zhi, Daba or the later NBA No. [-] pick Dayao joining the NBA, it was all facilitated by Stern's strong support.

Wang Chao's ability to join the NBA is no exception.

The performance of Wang Chao's rookie season made Stern no longer look forward to it.

Who would have thought that from the middle of last season, Wang Chao would suddenly rise up, and his performance was very impressive.

Although the league now has Dayao, and uses it to cooperate with many companies in Huaguo, more and more products of Huaguo companies are also appearing on NBA billboards.

But who would think that there are too many Chinese players who have performed well?

If Wang Chao can also be supported to make him a top star in the league, it will definitely be beneficial and harmless.

In this way, Wang Chao, who performed very well this season, suddenly became the second Huaguo All-Star player in the history of the league.

It's ridiculous to say that in the first two years, Wang Chao was not even eligible to participate in the Rookie Challenge. Who would have thought that in the third year of his career, Wang Chao, who officially got rid of the title of rookie, became the first batch of All-Stars selected in the 04 class Players, and there are only 2 people in this batch, Wang Chao and Howard.

For the All-Stars in 07, Wang Chao was quite impressed.

The West side encountered a wave of injuries before the start of the All-Star Game. Nash and Dayao were accidentally injured before the All-Star Game. In order not to lack people, two substitutes were temporarily selected to participate in the All-Star Game.

In this time and space where Wang Chao lives, he is not sure whether Nash will be injured accidentally, but it should not be very likely. After all, his arrival has changed a lot of things. The Suns have the second longest winning streak in history. , With him, Nash needs to take on fewer responsibilities on the offensive end, and it is very likely that he can avoid an injury because of this.

……

On February 2, the Suns beat the Spurs 1:103 at home, beating the Spurs for the second time this season.

斯塔德迈尔18投9中罚球7中6得到24分，但在比赛过程中却抢下23篮板，24+23的两双数据压制20分18篮板的邓肯。

Wang Chao made 14 of 6 three-pointers and contributed 22 points in the game. At the same time, Bowen once again doubted his life.

The defensive master Bo Wen has not yet come up with a way to limit Wang Chao's scoring. When the opponent runs, he can only run with him. After running for more than ten minutes, he starts to have more energy than he wants.

The Spurs could only arrange players to help Bowen defend, but in this way, the Spurs' original defensive formation was completely disrupted by Wang Chao's off-ball running, giving Nash an opportunity.

After defeating the Spurs, the Suns played against the Nuggets, Trail Blazers, Eagles, Jazz and other teams one after another, each winning or losing.

In this process, Nash has always remained healthy and was not injured.

Sure enough, Wang Chao's arrival still fluttered the wings of a butterfly, changing many things.

On February 2th, the Suns narrowly beat the Supersonics at 14:114 in an away game. With the end of this game, NBA players finally ushered in a short holiday-the All-Star Weekend is coming!
From February 2th to February 16th, these four days belong to the All-Star Weekend.

All the players participating in the All-Star Game set off for Las Vegas, the host of the All-Star Weekend. Of course, there are also some players who have no projects during the All-Star Weekend but want to rub their faces to get acquainted. .

For the Suns, five people left for Las Vegas. In addition to Nash, Stoudemire and Wang Chao who participated in the All-Star Game, there was also the head coach D'Antoni who was in charge of coaching the Western All-Stars. , and James Jones, who signed up for the three-point contest like Wang Chao.

"Don't worry, don't be nervous, the All-Star Game is a stage for show, everyone is pretending, no one will seriously defend, just boldly display the moves you think are the coolest and coolest."

While sitting on the plane, Stoudemire was still teaching Wang Chao his experience in participating in the All-Star Game.

But in fact, Stoudemire had only participated in the All-Star Game once before.

It was the 04-05 season. Stoudemire played a career-best average of 26 points and 8.9 rebounds per game, and was successfully selected to the All-Star bench. Then he played 20 minutes in the All-Star Game and scored 6 points and 9 rebounds. .

In the subsequent 05-06 season, that is, last season, Stoudemire failed to participate in the All-Star team because of his injury and reimbursement for the season.

Therefore, this season is only the second time in Stoudemire's career to participate in the All-Star Game, and he is definitely not experienced.

But this does not prevent him from imparting his experience to Wang Chao, who has zero experience.

Wang Chao naturally listened attentively.

他知道这次全明星，斯塔德迈尔也是在场上表现最好的球员之一，不出意外他应该可以在全明星正赛上砍下29分9篮板3助攻的数据，表现仅次于31分5篮板6助攻的科比。

Of course, among them, D'Antoni, as the head coach of the Western Conference All-Star, also played a certain role. Stoudemire even played more minutes than other starters other than Kobe.

……

James Jones, who was sitting not far away, frowned, with a displeased expression on his face.

"Hmph, what's the air? Isn't it just luck to be selected as an All-Star substitute?"

Of course Jones was not talking about Stoudemire, but Wang Chao.

Thanks to Wang Chao, Jones now has almost no living space in the Suns. So far this season, he has averaged less than 5 minutes per game, and his statistics are even more pitiful 2.2 points and 1 rebound.

With such data, it is basically impossible to get a contract extension offer from the Suns this summer.

The game was not going well, and Jones naturally blamed all of this on Wang Chao.

After all, Wang Chao is in the same position as him. It is precisely because of Wang Chao's performance that he squeezes his playing time step by step. Especially after Wang Chao voluntarily asked to return to the bench, Jones has fewer opportunities.

"I will definitely win the three-point contest champion this time!"

Jones clenched his fists and thought in his heart.

As soon as the contract expires this summer, Jones will start to have a headache for finding another home.

Based on his performance in the Suns this season, I am afraid that few teams will be interested in him.

Therefore, he has to rely on the three-point contest champion to gain popularity in order to have a chance to get a contract in the summer!
For this reason, he has started to practice a lot of three-pointers since the beginning of January, especially the targeted training for the five fixed-point shooting positions in the three-point contest.

At this moment, Jones is full of confidence. Even if the opponent is Wang Chao, he feels that he has a chance to win!

……

The host of the 07 All-Star Weekend was Las Vegas. This was the first time the NBA held an All-Star Game in a city without an NBA team.

However, as the most luxurious place in the United States, Las Vegas has always been one of the first choices for NBA stars to spend their summer vacations.

After arriving in Las Vegas and checking into the hotel, Stoudemire couldn't wait to go to the most famous industry in Las Vegas-the casino with Nash and others.

It's no secret that NBA players like to gamble. Even Michael Jordan, the most famous star in the league and known as the god of basketball, is also a gambler. Anyway, most of them are multi-millionaires and can spend recklessly.

Wang Chao was not interested in this, so he stayed in the hotel to rest.

But he didn't stay in the hotel for long, because after a while, Dayao called him to invite him.

Nash on the Suns may have avoided an injury disaster because of Wang Chao, but Dayao couldn't avoid it. He was still injured before the All-Star Weekend.

Dayao's starting position was replaced by Nowitzki, and in the absence of an All-Star spot, the West chose to let Josh Howard replace him.

As for Dayao, although he was unable to play in the All-Star game due to injury, he still came to Las Vegas. On the one hand, he cooperated with the Rockets to increase his popularity and influence; Chao Wang, talk about what was conveyed through Bill Duffy earlier.

Wang Chao and Dayao met in a certain restaurant, and there was another Chinese man sitting beside Dayao.

"Hi Wang Chao, this is my partner, Zhang Mingji."

Hearing Dayao's introduction, Wang Chao raised his eyebrows slightly.

Zhang Mingji's name, of course he has heard of it, the general manager of Yao's team, the man who single-handedly planned Dayao's business empire, and maximized Dayao's commercial value.

More importantly, with Dayao's success in the NBA in recent years, Zhang Mingji has gradually begun to get in touch with the management of domestic CBA teams, and he can be regarded as a very influential figure in the domestic basketball world.

After the brief introduction, Dayao didn't write any ink, and said straight to the point.

"Today I specially called you here. In fact, there is only one thing, which is about your return to the national team."

"I have used my relationship to help you operate before, but I still encountered some resistance in the process. We cannot solve this problem, and you must handle it yourself."

Wang Chao raised his eyebrows and didn't speak immediately, but looked at Dayao.

"Let me say it, simply put, I hope you can play a better performance in the NBA, or you can continue to maintain your current state."

Zhang Mingji took over and said: "Although you may not see many reports about you on the Internet, your performance in the NBA in the past year has indeed caused a lot of repercussions in China, and many people have already appealed to you. The matter of recalling you to the national team, after all, with Dazhi Yuzhu in front, it is easy to accept this kind of thing."

"In the 08 Capital Olympics, the Basketball Association was under a lot of pressure. They had to let the men's basketball national team achieve at least the quarter-finals in the Olympics. Having a strong support like you in the team will undoubtedly get twice the result with half the effort."

Zhang Mingji smiled.

"So, what you have to do is very simple, that is, try your best to play better and more outstanding performance in the NBA. If necessary, it is also possible to deliberately brush up the data, after all, it is to increase the bargaining chips for returning."

Wang Chao: "..."

He really wanted to tell Dayao and Zhang Mingji, if this was the case, there was no need to remind him at all.

As Wang Chao, who came here from the era of 2022, when the commercialization was serious, and swiping points and swiping data was like eating and drinking, he knows how to swipe data better than anyone else, and he can swip data with peace of mind than anyone else.

team?victory?What it is?Is it tasty?Can you get a maximum salary renewal and get countless advertising endorsement contracts?
At least for Wang Chao at this stage, the team's championship is far less important than his star-level performance, and it cannot be compared with system tasks.

He took the initiative to retreat from the starting position to the bench, in order to be able to abuse the opponent's bench players, so as to lose data more easily.

"Don't worry, I know what to do."

Thinking in his heart, Wang Chao said to Dayao and Zhang Mingji solemnly.

(End of this chapter)