The Way of the Center

This year, David Stern was merciful. On the first day of the new year, there was no game in the entire NBA league. The players also got a rare opportunity to celebrate the new year.

Although the players get a day off, the NBA statisticians must work non-stop. The best rookie of the month in the east and west that caught Anjie's attention the most will also announce the owner of the award today.

The East is still the undisputed title defending for Derrick Rose. The No. 1 pick won all the rookie of the month for a whole season. This kind of thing is not unheard of. In the East, few people seem to be able to compete with Derrick Rose. Although Brook Lopez performed well, he still can't compare with Rose's strength.

The situation in the West is much more tragic, O.J. Mayo, Eric Gordon, Kevin Love, and of course the Thunder's Westbrook and Anjie. The competition between these few people made the statisticians in a dilemma, but because of the team's performance, the official still focused on Anjie and Westbrook.

So on the morning of the 1st, after An Jie woke up, he couldn't wait to pick up his phone, entered the official website of the nba, and expertly found the page announcing the best rookie of the month. After seeing the result, An Jie was both happy and disappointed.

Disappointed that Anjie missed this award again, happy that his good buddy Westbrook was crowned successfully. And the person who ranked second behind Westbrook in the selection of the best rookie in the Western Conference was An Jie.

Although Anjie frequently scored double-doubles and quasi-triple-doubles, Anjie is indeed lower than Westbrook in terms of scoring. In December, Westbrook repeatedly beat Durant to become the highest scorer in the game, but Westbrook's rebounds and assists were much lower than Anjie, which is why the statisticians were in a dilemma. After struggling for a while, the nBa still selected Westbrook to win this award.

Pat Riley will definitely regret it when he sees this list, because Michael Beasley, the "Number One Talent" he chose, doesn't even appear on the list. One and two are covered.

"Come on, Ann, next time it will be you." Westbrook thought that the winner of the award would be An Jie, so he was a little surprised when he saw his name. Although he scored a lot, Anjie's data is more comprehensive.

"Come on Russell, let's get the best rookie award for the rest of this season." Angie didn't care much about who won the award, as long as it was one of him and Westbrook.

There are good things at the beginning of the new year. Angie and Westbrook have already saved up enough energy to prepare for a big fight. Unexpectedly, the Nuggets led by Carmelo Anthony gave him the two and the entire Thunder team A blow to the head.

January 2, 2009,

On the first game day of the nBa new year, the Denver Nuggets attacked the Chesapeake Energy Arena. Maybe it was just winning the Warriors that made the boys a little carried away. In this game, everyone's mind was on offense, and Van Gundy's emphasis on defense was left behind by most people.

Playing against Carmelo Anthony, Durant went crazy. He played more singles with the ball, but his previous stern coordination decreased relatively.

His poor performance against James was commented by the media as a soft guy who only bullies the weak, so Durant is eager to prove himself in this game against Anthony.

He succeeded, with 33 points, 9 rebounds and 5 assists. This data is slightly better than Melon's 31 points, 9 rebounds and 2 assists, but he also failed because the Thunder suffered Anthony's lore at the last moment.

Although Anthony scored a lot, he did not disrupt the Nuggets' system. Chauncey Billups scored 24 points, and Nene still scored 15 points under Anjie's strict defense.

And Durant's crazy shots made it difficult for others to find the rhythm. For example, Westbrook, who just received the Rookie of the Month Award before the game, only scored 11 points in this game. Even Damie Well, Wilkins, the main defensive guy, scored higher than Westbrook.

As for An Jie, the temperature in Oklahoma dropped sharply after January, and An Jie, who was hot all over after training, walked out of the gym with less clothes that day. As a result, An Jie had a low-grade fever since the night of the 1st.

He didn't give up the game because he was unwell, but he was not very serious during the warm-up, which led to him accidentally spraining his ankle in a fast-paced and high-intensity confrontation with Denver's "track and field team".

First the head, then the ankle, everyone was worried about An Jie's health. It was clearly agreed that they would not leave the team behind and leave early, but in the end it ended like this.

Looking at the swollen ankle, An Jie was also very scared, but fortunately, after the examination, An Jie's injury was the same as Tony Parker's, it was just an ordinary sprain, and his joints and bones were completely healthy.

122 to 12o, Anthony's fatal blow gave the Nuggets a healthy retreat from Oklahoma. And Van Gundy officially informed Anjie that he would not even think about playing for the next week.

This is undoubtedly a bolt from the blue. From the first NCAA confrontation against Michael Beasley to the present, Anjie has never missed any game, and he has always maintained a good attendance rate.

But it is impossible for a hard-working player to not miss a game in his entire career. A sprain is just a minor injury. A week of injury is already very short for a professional player. Think about the week of Morris and Anjie Injuries are simply negligible. An Jie also knew Van Gundy's character of not risking his players' health, so he had no choice but to accept the order of a truce to recuperate.

In the next few days, Anjie was only allowed to do upper body strength training, and then he practiced fixed-point shooting under Jeff Van Gundy's 360-degree and no-blind gaze, and he still kept his feet on the ground.

Can't practice more, can't run and jump. When An Jie cut off the time of playing basketball in his life, he realized that his day was so boring. There was no way, family and friends were not around, Catherine was far away from him, and the teammates of the Thunder team were busy with training, even if An Jie wanted to go out for a walk, he couldn't find anyone with him.

But after only one day, An Jie wished he could have more boring time.

Seeing that An Jie was injured, Moslav was not idle. Various commercial activities and commercial shootings that did not affect the injury made An Jie feel more tired than playing on the field.

There is no way, the nba is not only a sports arena, but also a commercial arena. Moslav's task is to let Anjie earn every dollar as much as possible into his pocket. But of course, all of this comes at a price.

On January 6, when the Thunder played against the Knicks at home, Anjie also sat on the team's bench for the first time in a suit. At this time, Anjie's ankle had already subsided, and he was able to walk around freely, but Van Gundy told him to just sit on the bench and watch obediently.

Therefore, in this game, An Jie also became the most active person on the Thunder bench. Whenever a teammate on the field scored a wonderful goal, An Jie would use various exaggerated actions to cheer for his teammates.

Anjie's cry was not in vain. Facing the now struggling New York Knicks, the Thunder did not allow the team to embark on a losing streak. 107 to 99, the Thunder defeated the weak New Yorkers without Anjie.

Seeing that An Jie was very distressed, Divac, an old trickster, also called to tease him. "Now you can get a good salary just by sitting on the sidelines and refueling, and you can drink Gatorade as much as you want. You should enjoy this rare relaxing time."

But An Jie is not the kind of person who can relax. He would rather fight those big men for forty minutes now than just sit on the bench and wave a towel.

On the second day, An Jie didn't even have the chance to wave a towel. The team went on an expedition to Minnesota and met their old rival Timberwolves again. And Anjie can only stay in Oklahoma, facing the empty training hall and team locker room, Anjie feels as if his heart is also empty.

In the past two days, Catherine has been very happy, because An Jie has a lot of time to talk to her on the phone or video chat, and now there is no one he knows around him, so An Jie's heart needs Catherine's comfort.

After the Thunder returned triumphantly from Minnesota, they will have a non-stop battle with the Houston Rockets on January 9. Looking at the leisurely An Jie, some old Thunder players were really envious.

An Jie still could only sit on the sidelines in casual clothes, watching Yao Ming do whatever he wanted on the court. But the Thunder did not surrender because of the loss of the inside barrier. On the contrary, their tenacious resistance made the Rockets play very hard.

1oo to 96, the Rockets only beat the Thunder by 4 points, but Yao Ming's 26 points and 7 rebounds still made An Jie clenched his fists off the court. He really wanted to play, but because the team was going to play back-to-back games the next day, Van Gundy didn't rush to get Anjie back now, but stayed until tomorrow.

After the game, Yao Ming also asked about Anjie's injury. The second Chinese Derby was not staged, not only the fans, but even Anjie himself felt very regretful.

A week passed quickly, but for Anjie it seemed as slow as another year. The Thunder have just three games in the span of the week, and they're two wins and one loss. This can be regarded as good luck for the Thunder team. Two of the three opponents they encountered during Anjie's injury were not strong.

Looking at the schedule, An Jie can't wait to make his comeback in the next game. In addition to An Jie himself, everyone in the Thunder team and fans are also looking forward to An Jie's reappearance.

On January 10, the Thunder challenged the Bulls back to back. As soon as the game with the Rockets ended, Anjie took a special plane to Chicago with the team, and he could finally continue to sweat on the court!

Derek Rose, the O8 champion, is ready to compete with Westbrook and Anjie! (To be continued.) 8