Basketball's most talented forward is on the left

In the early morning of January 17, an orange charter flight landed slowly at Phoenix International Airport.

In recent days, I have flown from New York to San Francisco, then from San Francisco to Sacramento, and then from Sacramento to Phoenix overnight. I didn't miss a game or a training session in between. I even took the initiative to practice more. Zuo Li walked off the plane with a yawn.

I looked at my watch. It was two-thirty in the morning. Even an iron man must be tired at this time.

I conveniently sent out the text message I had edited before boarding the plane to inform Omei that she was safe, and straightened my collar. Even though Phoenix is ​​not a cold city, the late night wind was still a bit cold.

Behind him were the Knicks, all of whom were half asleep and half awake.

"Brothers, let's have a midnight snack!" Zuo Li waved his hand and chose a way that everyone liked to hear and wake up.

"good!"

After the game, most people only ate the box lunch prepared by the team and some fruits. After all, this is an away game, and it is not as convenient as New York. Moreover, it is an iron rule of the NBA to be careful when eating in away games, so everyone usually chooses

Meals cooked by familiar merchants or team chefs.

And when we come to the away game again, it's still back-to-back, and we can't play without having enough food. Although late-night snacks are not recommended, professional players are different from ordinary people after all.

So a dozen Knicks brothers had a hearty meal at a 24-hour restaurant in downtown Phoenix before returning to the hotel to rest.

There is no training session in the morning, so they will sleep until noon and then get up to prepare for the evening game.

The Knicks, who had eaten and drank enough and won the game by the way, fell asleep in a happy mood, but far away in New York, a group of people were destined to stay up late.

That's the NBA staff member responsible for statistics. Even though the United States barely says on its face that they don't work overtime, with five times the overtime salary, there will naturally be people working day and night.

There aren't many nights like this. After all, the All-Star Game only happens once a year, and what they are doing right now is counting the votes received by each star and confirming the final All-Star starting lineup for the Eastern and Western Conferences.

This job is exciting in most years. After all, employees will also have their own favorite stars. It is a very happy thing to watch their favorite star become the starter. If he is still the top vote-getter, it is simply a blessing.

Double the joy.

In addition, in the past, the gap between the stars was not too big, so the moment they got the result, many people would feel like they were on a roller coaster.

But now, four big words are written all over the faces of the staff: boring.

Investigate the reason, and the news early the next morning will tell you the answer.

The results of the All-Star starting lineup were announced on TNT's first morning sports news.

Barkley came bleary-eyed to work overtime, and then announced the results amidst much anticipation.

Then, the news broke!

"Congratulations to Zuo Li! He has been selected as the All-Star vote winner for three consecutive years."

"Who else would be the starting center in the Eastern Conference? Zuo Li will continue his glory!"

"Howard: Fortunately the rules have changed."

"With three votes in three years, Zuo Li is expected to tie Jordan's record for the top votes!"

"Beyond Yao Yao! Zuo Li became the yellow man who won the most All-Star votes in history!"

…

That's right, the results of the annual three-round All-Star voting were officially released at 9 a.m. on January 17th. Zuo Li became the All-Star voting leader without any doubt. This was also the third consecutive year that he was voted the voting leader, and he also surpassed

Dayao and Grathill's two times tied Kobe's three times.

The starting lineup for the Eastern Conference is: Zuo Li, Howard, James, Wade, Rose.

West: Dayao, Durant, Anthony, Kobe, Paul.

For some reasons, this year's All-Stars have made slight changes to the voting rules. They no longer vote based on specific positions, but are divided into forwards and defenders.

This is why Zuo Li and Howard, who also play center, and Durant and Anthony, who also play the third position, can start together.

Obviously, this rule can allow more popular players to enter the starting lineup.

So this year's East and West debuts are no surprise.

The reason why the staff found it uninteresting was of course because of the number of votes.

In the past two years, Zuo Lidu successfully won the vote in the voting, and he basically won it in a crushing manner. However, this year, people finally understood what crushing means!

6458858 votes!

This is the number of votes Zuo Li received alone, and he is also the first player in NBA history to receive more than 5 million and 6 million votes.

In second place is Kobe, who received 3,658,581 votes, which is nearly 500,000 votes more than Howard, who is third. However, the two of them combined are about 300,000 votes less than Zuo Li.

It’s no wonder that the staff found it uninteresting and uninteresting. The gap was really too big. As soon as the votes for left and right came out, the suspense of the top vote was lost.

In fact, the suspense has long been lost. Zuo Li received more than 2 million votes in the first round. The news broke once at that time. However, the Knicks were still in a winning streak at that time, which meant that Zuo Li had lost his own.

The limelight was stolen.

And this time, unless Zuo Li scores more than 80 points in the evening game, not even he will be able to steal his own limelight.

There is no way, in this era, more than three million is already the ceiling for a superstar. Last year, when Zuoli's votes exceeded four million, it aroused heated discussions. Many people thought that Zuoli had a chance to continue to dominate and become an All-Star.

He has been the vote king for many years, just like Jordan when he won seven consecutive championships.

But even so, when more than six million votes came out, people were collectively shocked.

Some people even couldn't help but ask: "This vote number...can't be fake, right?"

Don't blame them for being confused and thinking in wrong places. In fact, getting more than six million votes in this era is really beyond people's cognitive level.

Fortunately, the alliance was well prepared and immediately announced the source of Zuo Li's votes. In addition to Zuo Li's stronghold in New York, votes from Asia accounted for more than 30%, especially China. The grand occasion was no better than when they voted for Dayao.

weak.

Some fans said that fortunately the league had changed the rules a long time ago. If it had been the same as in 2003, Zuo Li's vote count would have exceeded 10 million every minute!

Only then did people have a clearer understanding of Zuo Li's popularity.

Many people feel that Zuo Li is already number one in the league in terms of popularity alone, and the same is true in terms of strength.

The last person to do this was Michael Jordan.

Could it be...

Many people dare not think about it anymore, so let time test it.

By the way, the 2011 NBA All-Star Game will be held on February 21 at the Staples Center, the home arena shared by the Los Angeles Clippers and Los Angeles Lakers.

This year is still a special day because it is the 60th All-Star event in NBA history.

Therefore, this All-Star Game will definitely be very exciting, and fans can look forward to it.

In addition to the main game, Zuo Li will also participate in individual competitions, such as the dunk contest and the three-point contest, which have been officially announced.

As for the skills competition, as a two-time champion, Zuo Li has already proven himself by defeating the previous champions last year, so Zuo Li will not do it this time.

"Let's give more defenders opportunities." Zuo Lili said in the interview.