My Name is Kobe Bryant

January of the 2002-2003 season passed quickly.

As the time comes to February, the NBA schedule is officially halfway through. At this time of the NBA, many things are beginning to take shape.

Halfway through the season, a series of stories happened in the league.

Countless superstars, as well as dark horses, are taking turns to tell their stories in this legendary league.

Iverson scored 40+ in 7 consecutive games.

Garnett scored 30+30.

Grant Hill contributed a triple-double in 5 consecutive games.

Carter once again performed the dunk of the century.

Wait for the legendary stories to take turns to unfold

This is a big world!

After the players of Michael Jordan's generation withdrew from the league, the league once again entered an era of bright stars and heroes competing for the throne this season!

And the brightest star is undoubtedly Kobe!

Star within a star!

The best player in November and December was Kobe, who had his greatest performance at the start of the season.

Consecutive triple-doubles, leading the team to victory, Kobe had a legendary start.

With Yao Ming hitting the wall and the Lakers' record correction, people began to think that Kobe's data would gradually decline. After all, the last player who averaged a triple-double per game was Big O, and not many people think that Kobe can maintain a triple-double per game until the end of the season.

Even so, Kobe's performance in the first two months was eye-catching enough to impress countless basketball stars.

Kobe's performance in the first two months was phenomenal, but even the fanatical Comey didn't think this performance would last the entire season.

Time slowly advances to January.

In January, Kobe Bryant was like a killer. Facing the strongest defensive team in the NBA, the Indiana Pacers scored 44 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals, 2 blocks and 2 turnovers in 26 minutes, especially in the third quarter of the game. The performance shocked a large number of basketball commentators.

People have speculated about what happened to Kobe, which made him rarely play like this, slaughtering the Pacers in half a quarter and leaving the game in the third quarter.

In the end, it was Vanessa's relatives who revealed it, and Kobe and Vanessa welcomed their first daughter.

With the birth of Natalia, Kobe's fighting spirit became even stronger.

50+ in three consecutive games!

Kobe pushed his scoring average to 41.6 points per game!

Kobe's performance on the court is like a king who rules the country. Everywhere he goes, it is like patrolling his territory.

Everywhere you go! It’s a celebration!

Whether away or home! The sensation caused by Kobe is already global!

Not only the United States, but also a large number of international fans poured into the United States to chase every game of Kobe!

Thousands of fans attend every Lakers game. Whether it is home or away, the madness and fanaticism of the fans are amazing.

Kobe also continues to work hard under the extremely high attention this season!

Then the NBA entered a stage before the All-Star Game.

At this stage, the NBA All-Star voting has been conducted for two rounds, and it is basically close to ten, and the starting stars in each position have almost been fixed.

There are two amazing statistics on the All-Star ballot.

One is the number of votes Kobe received, breaking the history of the NBA and winning an astonishing 4.07 million votes!

It broke the previous record of 3.62 million votes held by Kobe himself.

what does that mean?

You must know that in the 1990s, even in Michael Jordan's hottest season of 1996-97, he only received 2.45 million votes!

After the 1996-97 season, Jordan's votes at other times were just over 1 million!

This shows that in this era when the US professional basketball is highly globalized and the basketball market is booming, Kobe's popularity has completely surpassed Michael Jordan!

Kobe's influence is even as amazing as 1.5 Jordans!

Of course, it is somewhat far-fetched to use votes to compare popularity. There is no doubt that Kobe has achieved greatness now.

After five championships, Mamba Sports spread all over the world, as well as being the sole leader of the team this season, coupled with the massive Asian popularity brought by Yao Ming, Kobe's influence has become a veritable number one in history.

The synonym of basketball in this era - Kobe Bryant.

After O'Neal left the Lakers, Kobe finally led the team alone!

As of February, Kobe is averaging 40.2 minutes per game (second in the league, second only to Iverson’s 43.7 minutes per game), scoring 38.6 points per game (first in the league), averaging 10.1 rebounds per game (twelfth in the league), and assists per game. 10.7 (first in the league), 3.1 steals per game (first in the league), 1.1 blocks per game, and 3.7 turnovers per game.

A triple-double close to 40+!

This kind of performance made basketball fans all over the world truly realize what GOAT is!

Countless NBA stars are praising Kobe's performance this season!

Impeccable!

From the performance on the field, to the winning percentage of the team, to the critical moments, and the data, there is no problem in every aspect.

No matter how harsh Kobe is, he can only blame Kobe for not winning the championship this season, but not Kobe's own performance.

Kobe's performance this season is even compared to Chamberlain, Jordan, Magic, Bird, Russell and others at their peak! Also inferior to it!

This is a stat that Kobe could not have produced when O'Neal was with the Lakers!

This is the performance of Kobe's single-core leadership!

On the other hand, the Lakers' No. 1 pick, the little giant Yao Ming from China, actually received 1.35 million votes for the first center in the Western Conference, beating O'Neal's 1.04 million votes, becoming the center with the most votes in the league!

Even Yao Ming was stunned when he heard the news!

In 2 months, he has become the most popular center in the NBA?

At the height of his power, Shaquille O'Neal averaged 31.8 points, 15.7 rebounds, 5.6 assists, 2.1 blocks, 0.5 steals and 3.6 turnovers per game. He was the last king of the center era, the second in charge of the OK Dynasty, the first center in the NBA, and the second player on the MVP list. In this way, he was forced to sit on the bench.

"LOL! Ayaozi!" Even the Lakers teammates were extremely surprised, Xiaoyu exclaimed. At the same time, his eyes rolled as if he was thinking about something.

"If Yao Ming can share his popularity with me, will I also be able to be an All-Star one day?"

"Or even if I don't make it to the All-Stars, wouldn't it be nice to make a lot of money if I go to Asia?"

Yao Ming didn't see Xiaoyu's little thoughts, and even if he did, he wouldn't point it out.

At this time, he was immersed in his own expectations of starting in the All-Star Game with Kobe Bryant.

surprise!

His countrymen! Supporters of Asia! And American Lakers fans! Pushing him to such a position that even he himself couldn't believe!

All-star dream! It’s come true! ?

"Congratulations, Dayao." Kobe smiled and patted Yao Ming's butt, happy for his little brother.

This All-Star is a great encouragement to Yao Ming's growth!

"Thank you." Yao Ming looked shy.

"Yao, do you know? When you win this All-Star award, the NBA will target you twice as much."

"I'm afraid every center who is under you will be unconvinced and try to defeat you with crazy provocations."

"Especially, Shaq."

Yao Ming, who was still in the midst of surprise, didn't know what winning this award meant.

"Damn! That stupid big guy from China! Why should he become an All-Star starter?"

"Me? Shaq? All-Star backup?"

"Insider! There is an inside story on the alliance's votes!"

"No one knows voting better than me! All-Star voting is rigged!"

"I was shorted! This is not my real number of votes! There must be shadow votes! I need the alliance to investigate this matter thoroughly!"

. . .

. . . . . .

. . . . . . . . The moment O'Neal learned the news, he tweeted 11 times in 75.3 seconds.

The hand speed soared to 300APM, and the typing speed made a large number of Internet writers sit up in fear of dying!

O'Neal is crazy!

He can accept being on the bench.

But that was when I was 40!

Why did the arrogant O'Neal leave the Lakers and join Houston?

Just to stop being Kobe’s second-in-command!

He wants MVP!

He wants FMVP!

He wants AMVP!

O'Neal wants them all!

If it wasn't for personal honor, why would he leave the Lakers?

O'Neal had never considered that he would be a substitute in the All-Star Game. He simply did not believe that such a thing would happen.

After all, in the past two years, his vote rate at the center position has been terrifyingly high!

After leaving the Lakers, my personal exposure has become even higher! He was the news throughout Houston. Without Kobe to steal his limelight, he had the best season of his career so far!

This is the peak of O'Neal's career!

O'Neal doesn't know how many more years this peak can last, but at least this year, he should fully harvest all kinds of honors!

During the All-Star Game, he has always been thinking about how to win the AMVP.

have to!

Now that he's gone to that damn place in Houston, he's not even a starter anymore, and he's still MVP? ‘

O'Neal's tweet instantly detonated social media!

If Kobe was elected MVP immediately, the controversy in public opinion would probably not be so terrifying!

Online fans are divided into countless factions! We started discussing this matter like crazy!

"Oh my God! That Asian guy is more popular than Shaq?"

"There are too many people in Asia, and it's not fair."

"I wouldn't have a big problem with him being an All-Star. But is he an All-Star starter? Is that true?"

"Hey! The All-Star Game is a fan-centered game. Since there are a lot of fans who want to see Yao Ming play, then he deserves this position!"

"This is the Lakers' second-in-command! Why isn't he worthy of being a starter?"

"Shaq, have you forgotten Yao Ming's 7 blocks?"

First the fans!

What follows is a debate between celebrities!

"Come on! Don't eat the pickled vegetables! Yao Ming deserves to start in the All-Star Game!" Ewing was the first to stand up and support his half-apprentice!

"Shaq is the number one center now." Even after Olajuwon left Houston and joined the great cause of the Mamba Academy, he highly praised O'Neal, who inherited his glory inside Houston, and of course he would support Houston's No. 1 center. One center.

"Crazy! Absolutely crazy! Do we really want to see a starter averaging 17+8 per game in the All-Star Game? Isn't there a better center in the NBA?" Barkley said with a big mouth.

"Don't you see Yao Ming's influence on this team? He is half of the Lakers' offensive system!" Sabonis took a liking to this junior who played similar to his own at a glance. He prefers the all-powerful Yao Ming to the bulky O'Neal.

"Is there something wrong with the voting system of the NBA?" Isaiah Thomas watched the excitement and directly initiated a vote on Twitter.

In the end, 54% of netizens thought there was no problem!

31% of netizens believe that change is needed!

15% of netizens think it needs to be discussed!

If the game between the Lakers and Rockets hadn't happened this season and the Yao-Shark confrontation hadn't been such a dramatic scene, then the debate at this moment would have been one-sided!

I'm afraid that if O'Neal raises his arms, countless American Yang Yi will smash Yao Ming to pieces.

Even the league will be forced to adjust the voting rules amidst the shouts of a large number of local American fans. Next season, there will no longer be the problem of changing the All-Star starting lineup due to large numbers of non-local fans voting.

Otherwise, if five people come from India! From now on, the All-Stars of the US NBA will be India and the US!

but now! It is impossible for Stern to be coerced by Yang Yi of the United States!

Because Yao Ming's fan base in the United States is also exaggeratedly large!

In a team with exaggerated exposure like the Lakers, Yao Ming, the No. 1 pick who was teammates with Kobe, is no longer the insignificant rookie!

He represents the second in charge of the Lakers, a wealthy family! Kobe's next helper!

He is almost regarded as the leader of centers in the new era! Candidate for the next No. 1 center!

Yao Ming's supporters online are definitely not limited to Asian fans. There are also a large number of fans in the United States who have fallen in love with this naive, shy and calm big man!

Stern would also like to see this kind of controversy!

The bigger the argument!

The more attention the NBA gets!

There is only one view of sports events that no one will like.

Only contradictions and disputes will ignite the passion of fans!

Now, this year's All-Stars may have been promoted to their peak!

Stern was mentally prepared for the surge in popularity as the NBA entered the big world era.

Such a controversial All-Star this year will be the most watched All-Star in history!

Next, the league announced this year's All-Star starters!

West: Kobe Bryant (3.62 million votes), Vince Carter (1.86 million votes), Kevin Garnett (1.57 million votes), Tim Duncan (1.31 million votes), Yao Ming (1.35 million votes).

East: Allen Iverson (1.63 million votes), Anfernee Hardaway (1.17 million votes), Tracy McGrady (1.79 million votes), Grant Hill (1.55 million votes), Amozo Mourning (970,000 votes).

Except Yao Ming!

Almost every player is a long-famous Mikado!

Every player can be cultivated as the cornerstone of a championship team!

No player averages less than 20 points per game!

Kobe, Carter, and Iverson averaged over 30 points per game!

This is the horror of the All-Star starting lineup in this era of bright stars!