LRAB Chapter 17 One Arrow Piercing the Clouds!
Chapter 17 One Arrow Piercing the Clouds!
After seeing Schwartz off, Lin Ze began to make his own plans.
New shoe contracts and player contracts are still too far off; they're not things he can change right now.
But the All-Star voting is just around the corner!
As Schwartz said, the Western Conference forward position is truly a den of wolves and wolves, full of wild beasts.
Duncan, Garnett, Pippen, Webber, Rasheed, Malone, Rasheed, Barkley...
The good news is that Lin Ze is aiming for a starting position, so he doesn't have to compete with everyone. In fact, he only has two competitors.
Duncan and Garnett!
The two players' abilities are beyond doubt. Duncan was the 99 Finals MVP and champion, while Garnett has always been the most popular forward.
If Lin Ze wants to make it to the All-Star game, he has to knock one of these two players out of the running. Relying solely on Chinese fans, although Lin Ze is confident, he will feel somewhat insecure.
He will almost certainly be attacked by a group of people who say he is unworthy of his position and does not deserve to be an All-Star starter.
What Lin Ze needs to do is prove that he deserves it!
Even if we can't silence everyone, we should at least ensure that his fans can fight back when they're arguing with others, so they don't get overwhelmed and verbally abused by the opposing team.
Lin Ze suddenly understood why Schwartz had come to find him at this time.
Because the Lakers are playing the Timberwolves next! Schwartz is reminding him: the next game is crucial, he must deliver a perfect performance and outplay Garnett!
Destroy Garnett!
In the next game, no matter what method you use, you must at least outperform Garnett in terms of statistics, and there must be a few moments that make it seem like you have the upper hand in your matchup.
In this way, when the All-Star results come out, if Garnett is squeezed out, Lin Ze and his fans can proudly and confidently say: I (Lin Ze) beat him, why can't I (Lin Ze) make the All-Star team?
At the same time, there is another reason why Lin Ze wants to enter the All-Star team.
He hadn't forgotten the system's mission; getting him selected for the rookie tournament was a load of rubbish.
As a fourth-year student, there was absolutely no way he could be selected, so Lin Ze started thinking of a roundabout way to achieve his goal.
You want me to make the Rising Stars Challenge, right? I'll just get straight to the All-Star Game. Rookies who make the All-Star Game, and start at that, isn't it normal not to play in the Rising Stars Challenge? Doesn't that count as completing my mission?
Even if the indirect approach fails, and the crashed system stubbornly insists that failing to qualify for the rookie competition means the mission isn't complete, he still hasn't suffered any loss.
Besides, making the All-Star starting lineup once can earn you at least several million dollars more in the offseason, so... why not? Are you afraid of being criticized for not being worthy of the position? No matter how much your fans criticize, can they be as vulgar as Jordan? Furthermore, if you're afraid of being criticized, why would you even play in the NBA!
Thinking of this, Lin Ze took out his phone and made a call.
"Reporter Su, it's me, Xiaolin!"
"Oh, I was just about to ask if you had a reporter's seat with the team, and you called me on your own initiative." The voice on the other end of the phone was quite energetic, and you could tell from the tone that this person was passionate about basketball.
On the other end of the phone was Su Qun, the chief basketball reporter for Sports Weekly, one of the very few basketball reporters now based in the United States, and an old friend of Lin Ze.
Lin Ze knew him when he was in college. Su Qun wrote a long article introducing Lin Ze's high school and college experiences and telling his life story, which was published in Sports Weekly. It was this article that brought Lin Ze into the view of Chinese football fans for the first time.
"I want to be an All-Star!" When facing someone he knew, Lin Ze got straight to the point.
"Oh? That's difficult!" Su Qun clearly hadn't truly witnessed the powerful voting ability of Chinese fans.
"And he's an All-Star starter!" Lin Ze continued.
"Then your opponents will be Garnett and Duncan!"
"Actually, I think you could settle for second best and participate in the 3-point contest. With your current shooting touch, you have a good chance of winning a 3-point contest championship."
"If you make the starting lineup with your current ability, you'll face a lot of criticism, and the pressure will be immense."
"Could it be more stressful than those two years with the Bulls? Reporter Su, you know what kind of life I had in Chicago." Lin Ze laughed. "I'm going to be an All-Star!"
"Since you're ready, let's go in!" Su Qun didn't waste any more words: "Tell me, how can I help you?"
"How about we first educate domestic fans on how to vote efficiently?"
"Leave it to me. I'll find some ways to generate buzz for you and highlight your outstanding performances in these matches." Su Qun and Lin Ze have always had a good relationship, so he naturally agreed to this small favor without hesitation.
After hanging up the phone, Lin Ze thought for a moment and then made another call.
"Old man, when I was traded, you said I could come to you if I needed anything, and you would help me, right?"
"I was just being polite, why did you take it seriously?" The voice on the other end of the phone was old but quite rough. It was Lin Ze's coach when he was with the Mavericks, the "mad scientist" Don Nelson.
"Just polite talk?" Lin Ze knew this old man quite well; he was loyal, passionate, and even in his sixties, he possessed a madness that was hard for ordinary people to understand: "Let's work together to knock Duncan or Garnett out of the All-Star starting lineup!"
"Dirk isn't that good yet, is he?" Old Nelson said. "I think he'll need another two years."
"No problem, it'll be his turn in two years," Lin Ze said. "You'll give me your full support this year."
"you?"
"Otherwise what?"
"You left me and became an All-Star starter? I lost face," said Don Nelson. "I was trash to you, but you became an All-Star to this old fox?"
"You can yell at the general manager! Tell him you wanted to keep me, but they didn't want to and insisted on trading me."
"I'm the general manager!"
"So you're going to scold the deputy general manager?"
"That's my son, damn it!"
"Then curse the boss. Haven't you always disliked him?"
"But he doesn't know this. The trade was entirely my decision." Old Nelson once again displayed his usual straightforwardness: "I think Dirk has more potential than you. He's definitely not worse than you this season. Your styles are almost exactly the same, you know Lin. I had to make a difficult decision. I can only wish you all the best in Los Angeles."
"You owe me, old man!" Lin Ze said, "Help me campaign! You can insult whoever you want, even say West paid too much, I need your votes!"
"What about two years from now?"
"If we elect a new team in two years, I support Dirk and me as a co-starter!"
"make a deal!"
"Shaq." After hanging up, Lin Ze made another call: "Your guy needs you!"