NBA: Miracle Workers

Chapter 612: Growing Leeks (Daily Chapter)

On Thursday, January 2009, 1, the NBA announced the All-Star Game reserve lineup:

The seven Eastern Conference All-Star substitutes are:

Rajon Rondo, Ray Allen, Joe Johnson, Tayshaun Prince, Danny Granger, Paul Pierce, Chris Bosh;

The seven Western Conference All-Star substitutes are:

Chauncey Billups, Steve Nash, Tony Parker, Brandon Roy, David West, Dirk Nowitzki, Shaquille O'Neal.

After the list was announced, the spectators burst into laughter. The old Shark was indeed selected and partnered with Kobe again. What's more interesting is that the head coach of the Western Conference All-Stars is still Phil Jackson!
The coach of the Eastern Conference All-Stars is naturally D'Antoni. As the schedule enters January, the records of the Cavaliers and Celtics have also fluctuated, especially the Green Army. The old men seem to be running out of energy.

38 wins and 9 losses, the Celtics defeated the bottom-ranked Kings last night, but their record was still overtaken by the Cavaliers.

After defeating the Magic that night, the team had 38 wins and 6 losses. The Chosen One was getting stronger and stronger, and Howard, who received 296 million votes, was also in great shape. The two led the team to another winning streak!
In contrast, the Knicks are relatively stable, with 39 wins and 6 losses. After losing to the Hawks and Pacers, they still rank first in the league.

Considering that the last game of January was against the Thunder with 1 wins and 11 losses, it was destined to be a big victory. New York fans were already celebrating Li You's winning the Player of the Month award in advance.

With only two games today, discussions about super teams have resurfaced after it was confirmed that both the Knicks and Celtics will have three All-Stars.

As the broadcaster of the All-Star Weekend, TNT will naturally not miss this hot topic. The program also gave a preview that Li You will participate in the commentary of the Rookie Challenge.

In the studio, Ernie Johnson was sharing the latest gossip. After Rondo was selected for the All-Star Game, his tone was a little lighter:
"It is said that the Celtics have set their sights on Rajon Rondo. Danny Ainge is very interested in this championship guard!"

"Considering there is still one year left on his rookie contract, a trade would allow them to reduce some luxury tax."

"After Yao Ming and McGrady suffered injuries, the Rockets set their sights on Metta World Peace. The champion forward recently said that he was affected by public opinion, which led to his poor form."

"."

The Knicks hold meetings every day after the game, which has taken away a lot of work from the TNT trio. The current public opinion environment is mostly flattering, and most of the time, fans express support.

In the past few years, there were die-hard fans who collected "star quotes". Everyone would just share the dynamics of their idols on social media, bragging about them every day to express their love:
“Pigeons are so cool!”

It was on Christmas that the public opinion environment suddenly deteriorated. When New York fans began to hold a "criticism meeting", everything changed.

Everyone began to dig deeper into the data, with Li You's die-hard fans taking the lead. If a player didn't get a double-double in a certain game, or was two rebounds short of a triple-double, they would all output the data after the game.

What is even more outrageous to old-school commentators is that whenever Li You loses a game, he always has a fixed template after the game:
"XX can't make an open shot!"

"XX defends the black hole!"

"The coaching staff doesn't know how to use people, Gege needs more support!"

"."

Fortunately, the Knicks don't have many chances to lose, and fans can only complain about imperfect statistics, but the criticism meetings cannot stop, and more and more fans are becoming keen on commenting on the players' personal performances.

In response to this, MSG also gave corresponding guidance, not only providing corresponding data after the game, but also introducing the adjusted APM indicator.

Among them, EFF - the average efficiency of each game - is currently in trial operation, and the corresponding scoring system has also been launched.

In short, by looking at the numbers after the game, you can find out who performed well and who performed poorly. This has intensified the interest of cloud fans. It doesn’t matter if you don’t understand football, just look at the numbers clearly!
The introduction of more advanced data also requires the support of Li You. He recently invested in Bleacher Report (B/R). This emerging sports media needs gimmicks, and data review can attract more users.

B/R participated in the B round of financing with US$360 million. The number of users grew rapidly at the end of last year. Although a lot of the news is fake, fans just like it, and all kinds of gossip are always something to talk about.

The data reviews are indeed very interesting. Reference.com was previously more popular among baseball fans, but after Li You's recommendation, more and more NBA fans began to pay attention to this data website.

Maybe you don’t have time to watch football, but by reading the news and learning a little about Excel, you can also make professional comments on football. What’s more interesting is that those who look at data look down on those who “look at impressions”, and the two sides are always engaged in a war of words.

In the studio, Charles Barkley was not happy. Gossip news could no longer attract the attention of fans, and the show's ratings declined.

The New York media took the lead in "holding a meeting", which also affected Inside the NBA. After all, the highlight of this show is "big mouths criticizing players."

Now the situation has changed, they have competitors, and they cannot surpass talk shows like PTI, so the trio are feeling the pressure.

The good news is that there are fewer complaints, the bad news is that the quality of the "whole job" has declined.

Kenny Smith has his own opinion on Excel, and he has been working hard recently to interpret those advanced data:
"In my opinion, Marbury is in an awkward situation! His influence on the team has been declining in every 48 minutes of statistics."

"Some poor defensive habits dragged down his performance, which seemed to affect the team as well, with Kevin Garnett taking on more help defense tasks."

"If Rondo can join the team."

Charles Barkley turned his head and interrupted his partner. He didn't like to analyze these data, but gave his own point of view from another perspective:

"New York will not send players to opponents, just like the Bulls no longer make any trades with the Knicks, the defending champions will not allow opponents to strengthen their teams."

"The Knicks have a good record, but they also have problems. Thaddeus Young can't make up for the decline of World Peace. The rookie lacks game experience and his performance is not stable at the moment."

"I don't like these imaginary news. In my opinion, some teams have lost motivation and they are playing numbly, which makes me disappointed."

The Eastern Conference is extremely polarized, with a clear gap between the top three teams and the rest, which has led to more people choosing to lie low.

If you pay attention to more games, you will find that the bottom teams usually give up early when they meet the Knicks. Many players even give excuses for this:

"We stopped Lee from getting any more points!"

There are more and more matches of this kind, and the players just clock out and go home. There is less confrontation and the programs can't find material. This is also the reason why Big Mouth is dissatisfied, as there is really no work to do.

"Do you think super teams affect the game? Chuck, we've talked about this many times. The Knicks built their team through the draft."

Ernie Johnson reminded his partner that this topic is a bit outdated, but Charles Barkley couldn't help but complain again:
"I know! But it is undeniable that the Eastern Conference All-Star roster is mostly monopolized by the top three teams. It is said that Mo Williams also received a lot of coach votes."

"The gap in strength is too big, and the game has lost its suspense. Will you watch the Thunder or Wizards?"

"."

Kenny Smith was speechless after hearing his partner's words. Even if fans wanted to watch the Thunder's games, they didn't have many opportunities because their nationwide live broadcast ended in November.

The ratings of games broadcast by TNT have declined. The fundamental reason is that the content is not good. If there are players who can play like Li You, everyone will naturally stay in front of the TV.

On YouTube, the NBA's official collection of Li You's highlights has been increasing in views. Some fans have also edited the duel between Li You and Iverson to help new fans review history, and related content has also exploded in popularity.

The super team did affect the ratings, but the other stars lacked topicality and could not support the nationwide traffic. Kenny Smith summarized this:

"I think Lee has almost monopolized everything in the NBA, and there is a clear trend this season!"

"All the fans are paying attention to them. It's more like a reality show. I can't comment on whether it will have an impact in the future, but I believe that many fans are looking forward to someone breaking this monopoly."

"."

On January 1st, the Knicks visited Oklahoma City, and the Ford Center was boiling that night. Thunder fans loved the defending champions!
After the move, although the Thunder could not get national live broadcasts, Oklahoma City did not have any of the four major sports leagues before, and the fans burst out with 12 points of enthusiasm for their own team.

Affected by the economy, season tickets for most NBA teams are not selling well, and home attendance is also declining. Just like the Nets next door, tickets are very cheap, but no one comes to watch the game.

It’s different for the Thunder. Not only did the season tickets sell out early, but the attendance was also among the best. The fans used real money to support the home team!

After the game started, more than 18,000 fans cheered without booing. Every smooth cooperation and wonderful dunk ignited the atmosphere of the stadium.

In this environment, players usually perform better, but Durant encountered difficulties. In addition to the fact that his physical fitness was affected by back-to-back games, it was more caused by staying up late and "screen-scanning".

Read more latest popular novels at 6.9*shuba!

The goddess has been very active recently. Not only did she announce that she will star in a commercial film, she also often shares her family life.

There are photos of her boxing and working out with Li You on Facebook. Not only have they not "split up", they seem to still be living happily together.
Durant is very popular in Oklahoma City, and the Hooker team has pushed him to the third position. This year, he is going to officially launch his exclusive signature shoes and enjoy the same treatment as Kobe.

At the end of the first quarter, Durant, who was not focused enough, had just received the ball on the right wing when Artest, who came on as a substitute, stole the ball. He then watched the opponent make a fast break dunk!
Head coach Scott Brooks on the sidelines had to remind him loudly, but when he looked back, Westbrook's pull-up jump shot after the pick-and-roll missed again:
Li You, who got the rebound, advanced quickly. Although the newbie kept confronting him on the side, Westbrook encountered Chandler's screen when he reached the top of the arc and quickly lost his defensive position.

Li You turned quickly while moving and switched to his left hand. After getting rid of the defense, he immediately increased his stride, lowered his center of gravity, and directly broke through Nick Collison's defense on the three-point line.

Jeff Green, who was guarding the lower left side of the basket, was already numb. He watched his opponent come to the paint area. While he was still hesitating, Li You had already taken off into the air.

He subconsciously jumped up to block the shot, but it was too late. Jeff Green only had time to stretch out his left arm in the air before he was hit in the chest. Then he watched Li You hover in the air, grab the ball with his right hand, and slam dunk!
"Oh!!"

Cheers broke out again in the arena. Jeff Green, who was acting as the background, fell out of the baseline and simply lay down next to the camera in frustration.

The Thunder's home commentator is Brian Davis, whose NBA career was not successful. He is mainly known for playing at Duke University and is a good friend of Christian Laettner.

"At the moment, there is a big gap between us and the defending champions. Lee controlled the tempo at the start of the game and the boys just ran without any awareness."

His partner, Grant Long, is also a retired player. He played for many teams in his career and also played against the Knicks. Seeing the one-sided game, he could only comment euphemistically:

"Jeff Green has to be tougher. We have big problems rebounding."

Nick Collison plays very tough, and he alone cannot take on the task of rushing for the rebound. Chandler easily receives the ball with an obvious smile on his face.

Becoming the rebounding champion is a technical job. Fortunately, Li You supports him, and in some games his teammates help him achieve the goal. Currently, he is suppressing Howard, and Chandler is fighting harder.

"What the hell!"

Westbrook cursed inwardly as he retreated. His teammates suddenly disappeared, and he kept missing shots. All these situations made him very depressed.

Westbrook tried hard to squeeze through the screen and wanted to call on his teammates for help defense, but he found that Durant had already followed his opponent and slipped across the baseline from right to left, and the two of them did not expect to go in the same direction.

At the free throw line, Li You leaned against the defense and suddenly slowed down. When the two big guys squeezed to the basket, he calmly pushed away the newbie, took a step sideways in the right elbow area, leaned back sharply and drifted to shoot the ball.

Westbrook's block didn't work at all, and the newbie even had the illusion that his opponent seemed to be falling slower than him.
"Swish" the basketball with a higher arc went into the net again.

The extremely fast pace of the game and the continuous goals made the Oklahoma City fans feel the charm of New York basketball. The opponent's playing style was not complicated, and Li You always started with pick-and-roll.

This also gave Oklahoma City fans an illusion that the Thunder could also play like this and that their athletic ability was equally excellent.

Durant broke into the basket and turned around to shoot but missed. Amid the cheers of the fans, Li You suddenly sent a ground pass across the court, and Raja Bell easily dunked and scored.

In the remaining minutes, without any timeouts, the Knicks launched continuous counterattacks and quickly widened the score.

37:21, with 6 turnovers in the first quarter, the Thunder were defeated by the transition offense before they could even encounter the three-point rain. Head coach Brooks could only shake his head.

It was another three-quarter game. Many Oklahoma City fans sighed when they saw Li You had changed into training clothes in the fourth quarter. They could only watch one game in a season, and everyone wanted to watch it longer.

In garbage time, Durant and Westbrook still played for half a quarter, but Artest, who had been in a slump for more than half a month, finally had a good time, breaking through and shooting, and continuously scoring!
When the game was over, cheers rang out again. The Knicks won 118:88 and ended their January schedule with a record of 13 wins and 3 losses.

After the game, the Ford Center was still lively, and many Oklahoma City fans were still shouting Li You's name.

Li You was being interviewed by a sports reporter and waved to everyone, and soon received another round of cheers. When asked about the All-Star Weekend, he also encouraged the newbies:
"I know Kevin, he has made great progress compared to last year and has further realized his talent!"

"As a great scorer, he has a chance to win an MVP trophy, and the GEICO game is also very interesting. I hope he can enjoy this weekend."

"."

Durant will continue to participate in the Rookie Challenge and has also received an invitation to the GEICO shooting competition. Compared with other newbies, the league still takes good care of him.

Freshman Westbrook does not have this treatment. Apart from participating in the Rookie Challenge, he can only be a spectator.

The newbies who returned to the locker room were all feeling a little depressed. Losing was not a pleasant experience. They were really tired of losing!

Chucky Atkins, the veteran who was recently signed, is also an old rival of Li You. Seeing Westbrook's depressed eyes red, he immediately joked and comforted him:

"That's how it is with Lee! As long as you praise him before the game and play against him again in the game, things will get better."

"Don't provoke him, and don't say you are a fan of Kobe or Allen. You all know that the league is always looking for opponents for Lee, but in fact, the two of them are not good enough."

"You have to get used to this kind of game. Only playing against each other twice a season is good enough!"

"Don't laugh at Lynch Hunter. Many veterans know that he just stated some facts. Basketball games are sometimes Lee's games, games that can only be won and not lost."

Westbrook's mood has improved. He can feel his own progress, but he will never forget the "humiliation":

"You're right, but that's the past. I swear, we will win it back."

(End of this chapter)