against the front

Chapter 89 All Stars and Rewards
On January 2009, 1, the All-Star voting for the 24-2008 season finally came to an end. The head star of the Orlando Magic and the current No. 2009 center in the NBA, Dwight Howard, was elected as the No. The All-Star vote king, and became the starting center of the East All-Star, and after Dwight Howard, it is the head player of the Cavaliers, LeBron James, and Kobe Bryant of the Lakers. They are 315 million votes and 294 million votes.

In addition to the above three, Dwyane Wade of the Miami Heat, Kevin Garnett of the Boston Celtics, and Allen Iverson of the Detroit Pistons received 274 million votes and 206 million votes, respectively. And 180 million votes to become the All-Star starter in the Eastern Conference.

In the Western Conference, after Kobe Bryant occupied a starting spot as the Western Conference vote king, Yao Ming of the Houston Rockets was elected as the All-Star starter for 253 consecutive seasons with a total of 7 million votes. After Yao Ming, San Antonio Tim Duncan of the Spurs, Chris Paul of the New Orleans Hornets, and Amare Stoudemire of the Phoenix Suns also won the Western Conference with 250 million votes, 213 million votes, and 146 million votes, respectively. The league's All-Star starters.

In this year's All-Star voting, apart from Allen Iverson's return to the Eastern Conference to squeeze out Jason Kidd's starting spot, the biggest variable is the loss of the popular fried chicken Carmelo Anthony. In the All-Star voting, Carmelo Anthony became the starter at the forward position of the Western Conference with a total of 172 million votes. The number of votes won in the ballot was directly lost by more than 50 votes, and it could only be ranked fifth in the western forward position. Among them, it is absolutely impossible to say that Iverson fans are not playing tricks.

As a veteran superstar and one of the "Four Great Shooting Guards", Allen Iverson is very popular in the NBA. In the previous All-Star voting, Allen Iverson often ranks among the top five in the league. Column, although Carmelo Anthony was already a popular star before Allen Iverson joined the Nuggets, but in the All-Star voting, Carmelo Anthony's votes have been unsatisfactory until After Allen Iverson joined the Nuggets, Carmelo Anthony was selected as an All-Star, and even became the All-Star starter with Iverson last season. So when Iverson broke up with the Nuggets and was traded to the Pistons, in the subsequent All-Star voting, Carmelo Anthony was also resisted by the fans behind Iverson. The star is starting, and I am afraid that even the substitute position may be lost.

Two days after the All-Star votes were settled, the NBA officially announced the 2008-2009 Phoenix All-Star Game bench lineup. Unlike the All-Star starters, which are voted by fans and the media, the East and West All-Star bench lineups , are all voted by the head coaches of each team in the league. Unlike the main lineup, which has more fans, the selection of the substitute lineup is based on strength in principle. However, when voting for the substitute lineup, there are also some Unspoken rules, those players with the highest number of votes in the All-Star voting, as well as the core players of the host team hosting the All-Star Weekend, will be given priority.

In this season's All-Star voting, as a rookie, Yan Hua ranked 198th in the entire league and 9th in the Western Conference with 5 million votes. Although because of Yao Ming, Yan Hua failed to Became the starter of the All-Star, but in the subsequent selection of substitutes, Yan Hua was "favored" by many head coaches, and was selected as a substitute for the Phoenix All-Star Game.

Along with Yan Hua, Shaquille O'Neal, Brandon Roy, Tony Parker, Pau Gasol, Dirk Nowitzki, Chauncey were selected as substitutes for this Phoenix All-Star Game. - Billups has 6 players. Among the 12 All-Stars in the West, except for Yan Hua, all of them are first-tier stars in the league or veteran superstars. Even if you count the 12 All-Stars in the East, all 24 Among the All-Stars, only Yan Hua is a rookie, so after the NBA officially announced the All-Star substitute lineup, it still caused some controversy, because for all players, he was selected as an All-Star in his rookie season. It is a very difficult thing. Even LeBron James, who is known as the "Pride of Heaven", failed to be selected as an All-Star in the first two seasons of entering the league.

Therefore, after the All-Star lineup was released, some media reporters and players talked clichéd and veiled the current selection rules, because in their view, many of them, even if they tried their best and played beautiful statistics, would not There is no way to be selected as an All-Star, but those players from Huaguo can easily be selected for the All-Star as long as they perform a little decently. The current Yan Hua and his compatriot Yao Ming are ready-made examples, especially Yao Ming, even In his rookie season, he squeezed out O'Neal, who was at his peak, and became the All-Star starter.

Although these media did not name their names, the target they pointed to was very obvious. However, before Yan Hua and Yao Ming stood up to speak out, O'Neill jumped out first, and stood for Yan Hua. O'Neal, who had reached the twilight of his career , is not afraid of offending people, of course, even the young O'Neal is not afraid of offending these people, a guy who dared to shoot at Olajuwon and Jordan when he first entered the league, would be afraid of these bums?
After O'Neal, NBA President David Stern also came out to speak. After emphasizing the voting rules for the All-Stars, David-Stern said that Yan Hua's selection as a substitute for the All-Stars The results of the coach's vote did not have any off-court factors, and David Stern also said that with Yan Hua's data and the King's current results, it is a very normal thing to enter the All-Star.

Although Yan Hua is just a rookie, there is nothing to say about Yan Hua's performance after entering the league. In the 42 regular season games that have ended, Yan Hua averaged 30 points per game in 17 minutes of playing time. With 11 rebounds and 2 assists, Yan Hua's stats are enough to be among the top five in the center position today when excellent centers are increasingly scarce, and the King's current record of 26 wins and 16 losses is also very impressive Yes, after all, at this time last season, the Kings had a record of 17 wins and 24 losses, and basically missed the playoffs. The excellent personal data and team record, coupled with the All-Star vote Yan Hua, almost reversed the situation. With the number of votes in the sky, almost all the coaches who participated in the selection of the All-Star reserve lineup included Yan Hua in their consideration.

Yan Hua's selection to the All-Star Game is not only the honor of Yan Hua alone, but also the honor of the entire Kings Club. After all, after Peja Stojakovic, the Kings Club has not had a player selected to the All-Star Game for 5 seasons , So in the early morning of January 1th, when Yan Hua came to the training hall, the operations president, general manager and other management personnel of the Kings Club were all waiting there and congratulated Yan Hua one by one.

Especially Geoff Petrie, who is the general manager, after Yan Hua was selected as an All-Star, he had an expression of complacency. , Geoff Petrie has done many commendable trades, such as Chris Webber from the Washington Bullets and Verratti Divac from the Hornets. Became a strong player in the league. In addition to trading skills, Geoff Petrie also selected many outstanding rookies in the draft, such as Peja Stojakovic, Walter Williams, Kevin Martin Wait, but Geoff Petrie is most proud of this draft pick this season.

When the Kings selected Yan Hua with the No. 12 pick, almost the entire league laughed at Geoff Petrie, the general manager of the Kings. All kinds of praises, praise Geoff Petrie for his sharp eyesight, he selected the best rookie of the year with only the No. Like being a DM, every time I think about it, I feel very comfortable, and the better Yan Hua's performance, the stronger Geoff-Petrie's feeling, especially Yan Hua was selected as an All-Star in his rookie season, And after having a great chance to win the best rookie, Geoff Petrie felt more and more proud.

After the king selected Yan Hua, the team's record has also changed by leaps and bounds. Compared with the sluggish king of last season, the king of this season is simply a difference between cloud and mud. They are young, energetic, and full of fighting spirit. Everyone can see that the Kings are about to rise, and Geoff Petrie's decision to send Ron Artest and Mike Bibby away during the offseason has also changed from stupid to wise Wisdom, as long as the Kings can continue to maintain their current record and successfully enter the playoffs after the regular season, then the best general manager is basically in the pocket of Geoff Petrie.

"Yan, congratulations." After finishing the chat with the management, Yan Hua went directly to the training ground, and after entering the training ground, the teammates who had arrived earlier also congratulated Yan Hua, congratulations Yan Hua was selected as an All-Star in his rookie season, and after the congratulations, these guys asked Yan Hua to "donate generously" and go to the biggest nightclub in Sacramento to celebrate at night.

Yan Hua could see that the teammates who congratulated him congratulated him, but also had envious expressions on their faces, especially the team leader Kevin Martin, who entered the league this year. It’s the fifth season. In last season, Kevin Martin averaged 23.7 points and 4.5 rebounds per game, but because of the poor record of the Kings, Ron Artest, the team leader Neither of them was selected as an All-Star, let alone Kevin Martin. In this season, Kevin Martin's average data has improved compared to last season, and the King's record has also improved by leaps and bounds. There are too many guards, and Kevin Martin still missed the All-Star, so after hearing that Yan Hua, who had just entered the league, was selected for the All-Star, Kevin Martin was also extremely envious.

But envy is nothing but envy, Kevin Martin still can't feel jealous towards the little brother Yan Hua, because Kevin Martin knows that he wants to secure the position of the king in the king, and wants to lead the king to the playoffs Even going one step further, Sai cannot do without Yan Hua, so Kevin Martin's attitude towards Yan Hua is basically the same as that of the King's management, that is, to win over, follow him as much as possible, and coax him , let him pay for the team willingly, just like how Jordan won over Pippen back then. Of course, Kevin Martin also knows that he can’t be compared with Jordan, but he can learn from the methods and minds of his predecessors. Kevin Martin It can still be done.

After Yan Hua was selected as an All-Star, not only the King's management and teammates congratulated Yan Hua, but that night, Yao Ming, Yi Jianlian, and Kevin Love, who had a good relationship with Yan Hua, all gave Yan Hua a slap. A call came, congratulations to Yan Hua.

Even though Yan Hua was very excited to be selected as an All-Star as he wished, what excited Yan Hua the most was the system rewards he received after being selected as an All-Star, because this was the first time Yan Hua was selected as an All-Star, and he was selected as a rookie All-star, so Yan Hua won a David Robinson experience card in addition to a milestone reward.

Yan Hua was excited for a while by the Patrick Ewing experience card that Yan Hua obtained after completing the talent duel task. For Yan Hua, whose current strength is only 80, Patrick Ewing, whose peak ability value is 96 Basically, it is a god-like existence, and after being selected as an All-Star, the David Robinson experience card that Yan Hua obtained is a stronger experience card than the Patrick Ewing experience card. David Robinson's peak ability value reached 97. In this era when the ability value was 92, he was already the number one center. Yan Hua was a little unimaginable. How did the center forwards survive.

(End of this chapter)