against the front

Chapter 91 It's Not That Simple

At 2009 o'clock in the evening on February 2, 13, at the US Airways Arena in Phoenix, the highlight of the second day of the All-Star Weekend, the All-Star Rookie Challenge will begin here soon.

Due to the lack of stars, the competition is relatively less intense, so the Rookie Challenge has never received much attention. In addition, as the host, the Phoenix Suns, there are no players selected for the Rookie Challenge, which led to the failure of this game. The attention was even lower, but due to the relatively cheap tickets for the Rookie Challenge, the attendance at the US Airways Center Arena today is still very impressive.

However, the NBA has tried its best to increase the ratings of the Rookie Challenge. First of all, all players participating in the All-Star Game, the Slam Dunk Contest, the Three-Point Contest, and the Skills Contest are all required by the league. You have to sit on the sidelines to watch the game, so as to add some star flavor to the Rookie Challenge. Secondly, in terms of game rules, unlike previous years where the assistant coach of the Eastern and Western All-Star coaches served as the head coach of the Rookie Challenge, this year's The Rookie Challenge has added two player-coaches. The player-coach of the first-year team is Dwyane Wade, the star of the Heat, and the player-coach of the second-year team is the star of the Magic. This year's All-Star ticket king Dwight - howard.

The All-Star Weekend is an annual grand event in the NBA. Therefore, TNT, the main broadcaster of the NBA, has also arranged an unprecedentedly large broadcast lineup to broadcast the whole process of the All-Star Weekend live to the world. The highlight of the second day of the weekend will also be broadcast live in front of the whole world, and the ones in charge of explaining today's game are Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith, TNT TV network's golden partners responsible for the live broadcast of basketball programs.

"Charles, do you think it is possible for today's rookies to end the embarrassing record of six years of invincibility between the first graders and the second graders?" When the first-year rookies who participated in the Rookie Challenge began to walk out of the player tunnel one after another, they sat on the sidelines and commented Kenny Smith, who was present at the table, also asked his partner an old-fashioned question. The first-year rookies are not as good as the second-year team in terms of game experience, ability to read the game, and even overall strength. In the six years of the rookie challenge, the first-year team has suffered miserably. Even the talented 03 Platinum generation has not been able to beat the veterans of the second grade in the rookie challenge.

"It's difficult. Perhaps in terms of strength, the first-year rookies are not much worse than the second-year rookies, but in terms of game experience and mentality, there is an obvious gap between the two sides. Once they fall into adversity, it will be difficult for the first-year team to pull back They are back, but facing a second-year team that is stronger than them and has more game experience than them, they are easy to fall into adversity." After Kenny Smith asked, Charles Barkley quickly shook his head , In this kind of competition without any tactics, pure strength, experience and luck, the first-year team is at an absolute disadvantage.

"Yeah, it's really difficult." After listening to his partner's answer, Kenny Smith also shook his head helplessly. Why is no one paying attention to the Rookie Challenge?In addition to the lack of stars, there is another key factor, that is, there is no suspense. For six consecutive years, the All-Stars and the first-year team lost, and it was the kind of loss of tens of points, the worst loss. The year was the 2007 Las Vegas All-Star. In the Rookie Challenge that year, the first-year team lost to the second-year team by 41 points.

"Yan, your task today is to grab every rebound, I believe you will be able to do it."

After the brief appearance ceremony, Yan Hua, the first-year team's starting center, walked towards the first-year team's half, ready to warm up before the game, but Yan Hua just ran a few steps, Derek Rose After catching up, he put his arms around Yan Hua's shoulders and "ordered" Yan Hua the task in today's game.

Although besides Yan Hua, the first-year team had another insider, Michael Beasley, but Derrick Rose couldn't trust that guy. When he participated in the draft, Michael Beasley was Rose's competitor, and After Derrick Rose became the No. [-] pick, Michael Beasley also made insulting remarks many times, thinking that he should be the No. [-] pick, so don’t even think about it. In today’s game, this guy will definitely compete with Rose for the MVP. , Derek Rose also knows that even if he takes the initiative to "communicate" with Beasley, that guy will definitely not listen to him, so Derek Rose found Yan Hua, because in Derek Rose's view , Yan Hua from Huaguo, like his fellow countryman Yao Ming, is a reliable "honest man". As long as Yan Hua supports him, plus Eric Gordon who has already stated that he will support him today, Rose believes that he will be able to lead the first-year team to defeat the second-year team. As for the MVP of the Rookie Challenge, that will definitely be in his pocket.

"Huh?" After hearing Ross's words, Yan Hua found it funny for a while. Although Ross didn't explicitly ask Yan Hua to help him, the meaning between the lines was already obvious, but the relationship between Yan Hua and Ross was not even normal. No, so Yan Hua didn't know what Ross was thinking, why did he think that he would definitely help him?However, Yan Hua did not directly refuse, after all, grabbing rebounds is Yan Hua's task.

After Derrick Rose left, Yan Hua also smiled and shook his head when he saw Michael Beasley's unkind eyes when he looked at him. It seemed that he had underestimated Rose just now, and Michael Beasley didn't like it. Many people know about Yan Hua. After all, Yan Hua got the nickname of "Beast Tamer" from Beasley, so Ross took advantage of this very cleverly, blatantly getting close to Yan Hua, No matter what the final result is, Beasley will think that Yan Hua has colluded with Rose, because in Beasley's view, Yan Hua will not help him anyway, just like he will not help Yan Hua. So whether Yan Hua is willing or not, he has already been tied to his chariot by Ross.

After the short warm-up, Yan Hua, who represented the first-year team jump ball, walked directly into the middle circle under the call of the referee. After Yan Hua walked into the middle circle, Yan Hua's opponent Al Horford also walked into the middle circle. Into the middle circle, but it seems that Al Horford's mood is quite good.

Horford is really in a good mood now, because his old opponent Greg Oden is now sitting on the bench in the first grade, while Horford is standing on the court as the starting center in the second grade. Such a contrast, for Horford Said, it can barely be regarded as elated.

In the NCAA finals before Horford participated in the draft, although Horford's team had the last laugh and won the championship trophy, Horford and his partner Noah made Oden's background board and have been ridiculed so far. After entering the NBA, Horford and Oden ushered in completely opposite fates. Horford, who was selected by the Hawks with the third overall pick, proved his strength and talent in his rookie season. Deng was reimbursed in his rookie season.

Due to the direct reimbursement of his rookie season, Horford did not have the opportunity to play against Oden in his rookie season, so after Oden came back this season, Horford wanted to compete with Oden, but when the Eagles were a guest in Portland , Oden happened to be injured, so Horford has been waiting until now, and finally he was able to compete with Oden on the court again. However, according to the news before the game, Oden may not be able to play today. , But even so, Horford is happy, just like what Larry Bird said when he molested Magic Johnson: "It's a pity you can't play today, so you can watch brother's performance on the sidelines." . "Larry Bird's words are what Horford thinks now.

As for Yan Hua standing in front of Horford, to be honest, Horford did not regard Yan Hua as an opponent, although Yan Hua is one of the best rookies this season, and he is the starter of today's game, and he is the player facing Horford , but in Horford's eyes, Yan Hua is just a rookie who has just entered the league, because the two sides had played against each other at the beginning of the season. In that game, Horford scored 21 points and 14 rebounds. 9 points and 7 rebounds.

As for the upcoming jump ball, in Horford's view, he will definitely crush this "best rookie" very easily. Don't look at Horford's height of only 2 meters, which is much shorter than Yan Hua. In terms of bullet speed, Horford believes that he is definitely better than this Huaguo boy.

However, with the whistle of the referee on duty, Horford, who had completed the jump at the moment the referee threw the basketball, was surprised to find that Yan Hua had already taken a step ahead of him and directed the basketball in the air to the first-year team In the first half, there was almost no suspense, and Yan Hua defeated Horford at the opening jump ball.

"This Huaguo boy's jumping and bounce speed are really good." Since the Kings did not broadcast many games in the United States this season, there was only one game that was arranged to be broadcast live in the United States by TNT, and it would take almost two months Afterwards, so for Yan Hua, Kenny Smith can at most take a look at the highlight highlights and the top ten balls. As for Yan Hua's true strength, Kenny Smith is completely ignorant, only knowing that Yan Hua is A very talented rookie, and from the jump ball just now, it is not difficult to see that Yan Hua still has a few brushes. The bounce speed and explosive power that Yan Hua showed in the jump ball just now can already crush Overwhelmed most of the insiders in this league.

Yan Hua, who fell from the sky, looked at Horford with a surprised expression on his face, and after showing him a teasing smile, he ran towards the frontcourt. Yan Hua's explosive power is nothing to say. After O'Neal's explosive power at his peak, Yan Hua's explosive power has reached 99. It is not an exaggeration to say that he is the strongest in the league. As for jumping, Yan Hua's jumping itself is not weak. After receiving a milestone reward, Yan Hua added all the bonus attribute points to the bounce, 99 explosive power, 95 bounce, not to mention Al Horford, all the insiders in this league, one counts as one, I am afraid None of them can reach Yan Hua's current level.

After the jump ball is over, the focus on the court naturally becomes Derrick Rose who is advancing with the ball. As the No. It is no exaggeration to say that in the entire United States, Derrick Rose is the No.1 balloon star among their rookies, and in this year's All-Star voting , Derrick Rose also received a total of 50 votes, ranking sixth among all guards in the East.

After receiving the basketball from Yan Hua in the backcourt, Derek Rose took the ball through the middle circle without any haste, and after reaching the top of the arc, Derek Rose didn't even put Ah Ron Brooks took it seriously, and he got rid of Aron Brooks' defense with an acceleration. After getting rid of Brooks, Rose didn't shoot or choose to pass the ball, but continued to accelerate, under the gaze of all the fans on the scene Next, Derrick Rose passed Jeff Green and Kevin Durant one after another, and dunked directly.

"It seems that today's game is not as simple as imagined!" The game has just started, and Derrick Rose used a dunk dunk over three people in a row, which instantly exploded the atmosphere in the US Airways Center Arena Get up, and amidst the cheers of the audience, Charles Barkley, who was sitting on the sidelines, also looked at Derrick Rose, who was celebrating with his teammates, with a smile on his face. It seemed that he really underestimated the first-year These are rookies.

The overall strength of the first-year team is [-]% inferior to that of the second-year team, but they are not at a disadvantage in some positions, and even have an advantage, as can be seen from the opening jump ball and the attack just now. There are some clues. First of all, in the first position, Derek Rose of the first-year team is definitely better than the second-year Aaron Brooks and Rodney Stuckey in terms of personal strength. In terms of position, the physical fitness shown by Yan Hua when jumping the ball also made Charles Barkley shine. Therefore, after only one round, Charles Barkley changed his original idea. In today's game, Maybe it's really possible to be upset.

(End of this chapter)