NBA: Goat is actually me

Chapter 174 The most classic scene

The conflict between Magic Johnson and Pat Riley is well known to everyone, but the Lakers management treated it as if nothing had happened. The Lakers' record is so good now that it is impossible to fire the head coach. Magic is the biggest star of the team, so it is even more impossible for him to leave.

Old Bass could only appease the two men separately and say things they wanted to hear to stabilize the morale of the troops.

The Bulls are now the second most hated team among Lakers fans, second only to the Boston Celtics, but in the eyes of Lakers staff, the Bulls are the most annoying team, no doubt about it.

Because every time the Bulls came to play, they had to prepare two cubicles, one for Meng Jin and one for Jordan.

The popularity of these two players is really high. Usually there are a lot of reporters coming to watch the Lakers play against the Bulls. There are at least 20 or 30 reporters surrounding them. It is impossible not to prepare partitions in this situation.

It is not difficult to see their popularity from their All-Star votes this year. Jordan once again won the most votes with 1321114 votes. Meng Jin's number of votes ranked third among all players, second only to Jordan and Magic Johnson.

There is no way. The competition for the Eastern Conference All-Star forward position is too fierce. Meng Jin has to share votes with popular forwards such as Larry Bird, Barkley, and Wilkins. Being ranked third in this environment is enough to show Meng Jin's popularity.

This year's All-Star Game starts on February 2 in Miami, and the Bulls have a game against the Nuggets before that.

Jordan has been practicing three-pointers during training these days, which is a bit like cramming. Sometimes Jordan even pulls the team's sharpshooter Craig Hodges to compete with him. This guy always feels good about himself.

Meng Jin has been thinking about dunking moves these days. Yes, he is participating in the dunk contest again, this is his third consecutive year.

This year, Meng Jin originally wanted to reject the league's invitation, but David Stern gave him a reason he couldn't refuse: CCTV5 would broadcast this year's NBA All-Star Game live.

The first NBA broadcast in China in history was in 1994. The appearance of Meng Jin brought this time forward by four years.

Meng Jin had no interest in the dunk contest, but after hearing the news that it would be broadcast domestically, his fighting spirit was rekindled. Meng Jin decided to try something new in this dunk contest.

With the All-Star Weekend approaching, Meng Jin and Jordan are not focusing on the regular season. Both of them were absent-minded in the first quarter of the game against the Nuggets.

The Bulls fell behind by 7 points in the first quarter, but Bulls fans were not panicked at all because they had Jordan and Meng Jin.

Although they were still behind in the second quarter, the fans were not worried because they had Meng Jin.

At the end of the third quarter, the deficit reached 16 points, but the fans were still as steady as ever.

In the second half of the fourth quarter, when the score difference reached 20 points, the Bulls fans realized, damn, this game was going to be lost!
At the end of the game, the Bulls lost the last game before the All-Star Weekend 106-126.

乔丹这场比赛18投5中，只拿到了15分，比格兰特得分还低，孟进20中8拿到23分。

In this defeat, neither of the two core players played well, and no one can blame anyone else.

Meng Jin is not omnipotent, and neither is Jordan, otherwise they would not have lost a single game and should have won the championship with all wins.

After sorting out their feelings, the two set off for Miami.

Unlike last year, they acted separately this year. Although they did not have any conflicts during this period, they did not reconcile either.

After Meng Jin landed in Miami, his college classmate Ronny Seikaly invited him to dinner. Although Ronny Seikaly did not make it to this year's All-Star Game, Miami is his turf.

This season, Ronny Seikaly is averaging 16.6 points and 10.4 rebounds per game and is the top star of the Miami Heat.

Ronnie Seikaly also brought another person with him, Sherman Douglas, who joined the team this year and is also Meng Jin's college classmate.

Sherman Douglas averaged 14.3 points and 7.5 assists per game this season, and he is considered the Heat's number two player.

Meng Jin joked that the two brothers wanted to turn the Heat into a small Syracuse University!
Sherman Douglas responded with a smile that if Meng came to the Miami Heat, maybe this team could really become a little Syracuse University.

Meng Jin smiled and said that he would go after the contract was completed and asked them to keep the position of boss for him.

The two men laughed after hearing this. They knew Meng Jin was joking. Miami has no attraction except for the better weather. So far, they have only won 9 games.

Ronnie Seikaly asked Meng Jin what new moves he had prepared for this year's dunk contest. Meng Jin smiled mysteriously and said it was a secret, as it would be meaningless if such things were spoken out.

The two college classmates smiled at each other. They knew that Meng Jin was not being mysterious. Since he said so, there must be something interesting to watch.

However, what they didn't expect was that the first to perform was Michael Jordan, whose performance in the three-point contest shocked everyone.

Meng Jin was being interviewed by a reporter, and Zhang and Xu were asking him some questions. Suddenly, a voice came from the side: "Michael Jordan broke the record!"

The three of them looked towards the court at the same time. Jordan shook his head in embarrassment and left the court. He did not look happy about breaking the record. Meng Jin looked up at the big screen and realized that Jordan broke the record for the lowest score in the All-Star Three-Point Contest.

It is indeed not easy to score only 30 goals out of 5.

This scene was also recorded by the broadcast camera. Many domestic fans were not familiar with Jordan at that time. They all said that this bald guy was too weak and they could not score more than 5 goals!

In order to ease the embarrassment, Coach Xu said, "Jordan doesn't look very good today. He may be feeling unwell. What is Jordan's usual routine like? Is it regular?"

Meng Jin thought for a moment and said, "It's very regular."

Meng Jin was not talking nonsense. Jordan did live a very regular life. He usually went to bed at three or four in the morning and was very stable.

"He likes to gamble..." Meng Jin suddenly braked halfway through his words. He suddenly realized that this was a live broadcast by CCTV, and if he told the truth, there might be a live broadcast accident.

He didn't want the NBA's first time in the country to become his last.

Old Zhang next to him took a deep breath. He used to be Meng Jin's masseur and knew some of Jordan's living habits.

Meng Jin cleared his throat and said, "He likes to read some books and magazines."

Lao Zhang wiped his forehead beside him. Fortunately, Meng Jin reacted quickly.

Coach Xu didn't see any problem, and continued to ask with a smile: "What kind of books does Jordan like to read?"

"Some about sports, some about finance, so Michael is pretty good at financial management."

After Meng Jin made some nonsense, Coach Xu changed the subject: "Xiao Meng, what are your prospects for the upcoming dunk contest?"

Meng Jin said: "The only way is to win the championship, because not winning the championship would mean regression."

"Okay, then I and the audience watching the sports channel across the country will wait and see." Coach Xu nodded with a smile. Meng Jin was not modest at all, and this character was very different from the players who grew up in China. After the three-point contest, there was the dunk contest. Jordan had slipped away before the dunk contest started. He was not in the mood to watch the dunk contest now. If Meng Jin won the dunk contest, his pain would double.

In addition to Meng Jin, other players participating in the dunk contest this year are Dominique Wilkins, Kenny Smith, Shawn Kemp, Scott Pippen, Chapman, Billy Thompson, and Kenny Butler.

Dominique Wilkins can be said to be determined to fight Meng Jin to the end. He has lost to Meng Jin in the dunk contest for two consecutive years. It is said that he will use his ultimate move this year.

Meng Jin took a look at the participating players and felt that it would not be difficult to win the championship this year. Except for Wilkins, everyone else was just a supporting role. Even Pippen and others participated in the dunk contest.

Meng Jin suddenly understood why David Stern insisted on participating in the dunk contest himself. If he didn't come, this dunk contest would definitely be the one with the least star power.

"Meng, I'm going to do a free throw line dunk tonight. I've been preparing for a long time!"

Before the game started, Pippen rushed to Meng Jin with great interest.

Meng Jin said expressionlessly: "Oh, it sounds good, but it's just what I had left over from two years ago."

"Do you have any creative dunks prepared?" Pippen asked.

"Prepare some."

After Meng Jin finished speaking, he started to warm up on the sidelines. Pippen made a noise and thought to himself, it's just a basket and a basketball, can you do anything fancy with it?
Meng Jin advanced easily in the first round. Meng Jin didn't even take off his coat. He first made an ordinary 360-degree dunk after throwing the ball, and then a Carolina dunk after a walk in the air.

There was nothing creative about these two goals. Meng Jinsheng used stretching and strength to score 48 points in one goal and 49 points in the other.

The players who advanced with him were Kemp, Wilkins and Kenny Smith.

Pippen was eliminated in the first round, which was not surprising to Meng Jin. Pippen did dunk from the free throw line, but the aesthetic was too poor. There was no feeling of flying. He looked like he completed a long jump and then forced the ball into the basket.

In the semi-finals, Meng Jin exerted a little effort and dunked the first ball by himself. The dunking action was very ordinary, just a simple two-handed dunk, but everyone's mouth widened when the ball went in.

Meng Jin put both hands into the basket. What kind of jumping height is this?
Everyone in China was stunned at first. At that time, the Chinese people's understanding of dunking was still to slam the ball into the basket with one hand. They had never seen a dunk like this?

But soon, domestic fans exclaimed, and they immediately realized how high Meng Jin had to jump to get both hands in!

Pippen, who was eliminated, watched from the sidelines and complained: "This guy treats the basketball hoop as one of his lovers, right?"

Kemp, who was also eliminated, was giggling nearby. At this time, Kemp was still very young and had no status. His average score per game was only about 6 points. He always regarded Meng Jin as his idol and an object of imitation. Kemp knew that the common point between him and Meng Jin was that they both had explosive bodies. Today, he was still wearing the MJ generation's clothes when he came to participate in the dunk contest.

The scene of Meng Jin winning the dunk contest wearing this pair of shoes was very impressive. At that time, Kemp was just a child in front of the TV. He had always dreamed of standing on the NBA stage one day. Now he has done it, but Kemp did not tell Meng Jin about these things because he is not the kind of person who is good at expressing himself.

Meng Jin himself could not have imagined that when he was only in the third grade, fans who grew up watching him play basketball had already joined the NBA.

The finalists of the dunk contest were Meng Jin and Kenny Smith. This result was beyond most people's expectations. Most people thought that Wilkins had a greater chance of entering the final. Tonight, Wilkins was as simple and rough as ever, showing his violent aesthetics.

Wilkins' dunks were very complete, but he does the same thing in every dunk contest, which is bound to cause aesthetic fatigue.

Kenny Smith tried a little creativity, which won him the favor of the audience and judges.

Kenny Smith's move is to turn his back to the basket, hit the ball from under his crotch and throw it to the backboard for bounce, then turn half way and do a two-handed dunk.

With this move, Kenny Smith successfully became the dark horse of this year's dunk contest, and together with Meng Jin, he scored the winning goal.

Dominic Wilkins was eliminated just like that. Losing to Meng Jin for three consecutive years did not make Wilkins feel ashamed. He just felt a little regretful and unwilling.

In an interview, Dominique Wilkins said that if nothing unexpected happened this would be his last time participating in the dunk contest. He had originally planned to save his big move for the finals, but now he has no chance.

Kenny Smith made the first dunk in the final. He threw the ball high up, then took a run and jumped, rotated 360 degrees in the air and dunked the ball with one hand.

The completion of this ball was still good, but Meng Jin was not excited at all, and many spectators were also not excited. Watching Meng Jin's dunks in recent years has raised their threshold. Unless they see a very amazing dunk, it is difficult to arouse their cheers and screams. Even Meng Jin's first few dunks received average responses.

It was Meng Jin's turn to shoot, but the first thing to come out was not Meng Jin, but a basketball hoop.

That's right, the staff slowly pushed a basketball hoop into the court. At this time, there were two basketball hoops on the court.

Everyone was confused. What was this guy going to do?
In that era, everyone just dunked a basketball honestly, and no one played prop games. Meng Jin's actions aroused everyone's interest.

When the two basketball hoops were placed side by side, Meng Jin raised his hands, stirring up the emotions of all the fans in the stadium.

Then Meng Jin held a ball in each hand, took a run-up and threw the ball to the backboard with his right hand. Then he jumped and dunked the ball in his left hand into the basket first. Then he grabbed the basketball with his right hand in the air and slammed the second dunk!

Unbelievable!

Impeccable!

Perfect!

This was the feeling of all the audience at the scene and in front of the TV at this moment. Coach Xu and Lao Zhang looked at each other and were speechless. After a while, Coach Xu slowly said, "So dunking can be done like this?"

Kenny Smith was also shocked by this dunk and finished the second dunk in a hurry.

After Kenny Smith finished his dunk, the staff pushed in a small room similar to a telephone booth. The audience stood up and applauded before Meng Jin even dunked. It seems that Meng Jin is determined to carry on with the prop game to the end this year.

Meng Jin walked into the telephone booth amid the cheers of fans and took off his coat in the phone booth. 30 seconds later, a Meng Jin wearing a Superman costume appeared in the public's field of vision.

The cheers from the entire audience reached a peak. Meng Jin was puzzled. Why are you guys getting so excited when I haven't even dunked the ball yet?
The commentator said excitedly: "Meng is not dunking, he is putting on a show!"

Meng Jin asked his teammate Grant to throw the ball, and he took a run-up amid huge cheers and jumped from near the free throw line. In the air, Meng Jin, wearing a cloak, leaned his body forward as much as possible and made a Superman flying move!

Grant threw the ball into the air at the right time, and Meng Jin caught the ball and slammed it into the basket with one hand!

This slam dunk was captured by a photographer and became the most classic scene in the history of the NBA Slam Dunk Contest.

"50 points!"

Before Meng Jin even landed, the judges had already given their scores.

(End of this chapter)