Champion, please stay!

Chapter 124, page 122. Such a comparison
After the Olympics, Yi Shui and James actually had little interaction, and he almost never talked about James in public.

When he first entered the NBA, he felt that he was not good enough in any way. He was so busy every day that he was just trying to take care of himself. He had no time to care about other people's business. His usual entertainment was browsing the news before bed and playing basketball. Despite his sunny and positive work, he lived like a homebody.

When he browsed the news, he rarely saw James mention him. Occasionally, when the media pressed him for details, James never said anything bad about him. On the contrary, he praised him for his strong immediate impact and maturity.

If there's anything that makes him feel awkward, it's probably that 'leader' attitude.

Yi Shui could tell that James and his team didn't really want to have a direct conflict with him, at least on the surface, and wanted to create the atmosphere that 'the league leader is optimistic about the rookie'.

On his side, Bartelstein's management team shared the same idea. They didn't want to directly break ties unless necessary, and only wanted to compete on media resources. After all, James was in his sixth year in the league and already had a huge fan base in the United States. Even without a direct confrontation, some of those fans were potential buyers of his endorsed products... Anyway, they had New York as their backing, so they couldn't afford to lose in terms of media resources.

However, ever since he signed a 7 million yuan endorsement deal in July, he and LeBron James have inevitably been discussed together.

From the Olympics to training camps, preseason games, and the opening game... even the videos or photos released by the team during matches and training sessions are compared by the media and fans.

Initially, people compared him to LeBron James in his rookie season.

In the past few years, media outlets led by ESPN have used Jordan's rookie year average of 28+6+5 as an "anchor" to promote his stats, emphasizing how versatile and amazing a 20+5+5 average is, making the "value" of this data seem ridiculously high in the minds of most fans... Currently, many people genuinely believe that LeBron James has the best rookie season performance since Jordan.

As for David Robinson, who was named a third-team All-NBA First Team and a second-team All-Defensive First Team in his rookie year, Tim Duncan, who was named a first-team All-NBA First Team and a second-team All-Defensive First Team, and Shaquille O'Neal, who averaged 23.4 points and 13.9 rebounds per game... none of them averaged 5 assists per game.

Interestingly, while browsing news about Yi Shui's impressive 20+5+5 average during the Olympics, the articles about how amazing he was gradually disappeared as the season progressed, especially after December, when they stopped appearing altogether.

Today, the news and forum posts that Yi Shui saw comparing him to James didn't compare him to James' rookie year, or even James' second-year season. Instead, they compared him to James' third-year season and even his fourth-year season when he made it to the Finals!
05-06赛季三年级的詹姆斯，场均31.4分7板6.6助攻1.6抢断，入选一阵。

06-07赛季四年级的詹姆斯，场均27.3分6.7板6助攻1.8抢断1.1盖帽，入选二阵。

LeBron James' fourth-year stats were not as good as his third-year stats because Larry Hughes had his only full season with the Cavaliers without suffering any serious injuries. James' ball-handling rate dropped from 38% the previous season to 29%, and his playing time also decreased by two minutes. However, the Cavaliers' strength and playoff performance improved significantly, and they eventually made it to the NBA Finals.

When Yi Shui saw the table listed by the columnist, he realized that his performance in his rookie season so far was inferior to that of James in his third or fourth year, except for his rebounds. However, this data was marked with a note that his height was not the officially recorded 201 centimeters.

至于为什么不拿新秀赛季作对比，专栏作家的理由——05年12月詹姆斯刚满21岁，易水已经21岁，应该拿詹姆斯05-06赛季作对比。

The reason for the 06-07 season was that although Yi Shui was still a rookie, he had played three years in college, so his 'actual playing experience' was already his fourth year. It would be fairer to compare him to James in his fourth year.

After reviewing the comparison, Yi Shui moved her newly purchased "small-sized" notebook over, opened the same article, and commented: "The blogger's reasoning is sound and convincing!"

...

After a night's rest, Yi Shui arrived at Madison Square Garden the next day to participate in the team's training session.

With an opera performance tonight, and shows scheduled for the next nine days in addition to tomorrow night, Madison Square Garden is bustling with activity, filled with theater companies.

When the Knicks players practice, actors and singers often come to watch, including many female celebrities with great figures and looks.

The players train very hard, and they also go to great lengths to flirt with female celebrities during their free time... except for elementary school students.

Because Ayesha was there, as the host, she was involved in filming the documentary and spin-off variety show for this music festival, and whenever she had free time, she would come over to keep an eye on Curry.

Seeing his teammates either having lunch with this female celebrity or going to the opera with that female celebrity in the evening... the elementary school student was extremely envious. He was in the throes of a new love and didn't have any thoughts of messing around, but how could he not be envious of such things?
The elementary school students were especially envious when they saw that the top scorer's trash can in the locker room was full of small cards.

But Yi Shui had no interest in dating today, focusing instead on preparing for the game. He spent his time watching videos, thinking, and discussing defense with Cheeks.

On offense, D'Antoni is well-prepared, so Yi Shui doesn't need to worry about him. But on defense, he really needs to come up with some ideas.

Fortunately, the presence of players like Harden, Beast, and the originally future Warriors provided ample material, and since their team never aimed to defend against the opponent's offense, a strategy quickly emerged.

However, D'Antoni's offensive preparation and game plan once again made Yi Shui feel the core concept of 'run and gun'.

The day before yesterday, the Knicks played the Lakers. It was the second game of a back-to-back. The night before, they fought until there were only 10 seconds left. They arrived in Los Angeles at noon and arrived at Staples Center at 3 pm. Under such circumstances, the Knicks conducted two sets of 10-minute tactical runs. D'Antoni's tactical goal was to crush the Lakers.

D'Antoni's tactical goal today is the same: to crush the Cavaliers.

The Cavaliers currently have a 17-3 record, ranking first in the Eastern Conference. Before the game two days ago, the Lakers had a 17-2 record, ranking first in the league.

It's so wild! Yi Shui thought of what the Fire Cloud Evil God said to the Condor Heroes—

However, Yi Shui was greatly encouraged by D'Antoni's decision to set this direction for preparation, and he could feel that his teammates had also developed that 'fearless' mentality.

Just like the Lakers team the day before yesterday, who were dominated by "three highs and one blacksmith", no one backed down even though they were being pressured, they just couldn't beat them.

Who cares who the opponent is, who cares if they're the top seed in the East or the top seed in the league, let's go for it!
...

On December 8th, fans' attention turned to New York, and sports media from all over the world flocked to the basketball mecca. Entertainment media that were originally gathered in New York also came to join the fun.

During the pre-game meeting in the morning, the Knicks chanted a few slogans, and their training session turned into a display of poses in front of the cameras.

Yi Shui's teammates had ulterior motives. One by one, they lined up in front of the camera to invite him to train together. Nate Robinson wanted to compete with Yi Shui in dunking, Curry and Da Q wanted to compete with Yi Shui in shooting, David Lee wanted to have a one-on-one low post game with Yi Shui, Harrington dragged him to practice passing... Even the usually composed Du Hong dragged Yi Shui to practice a set of ball-handling drills.

Unsurprisingly, Yi Shui suffered a complete defeat.

He definitely dunks more than Nate Robinson in a game; he can dunk more times in a month than Nate Robinson does in a whole season.

In terms of three-point shooting, Yi Shui's consistency in the game is definitely higher than that of Curry and Da Q.

In the low post, Yi Shui specifically targets players who are shorter or weaker than him, and his success rate in games is even slightly higher than David Lee's.

But training...

However, he did not refuse and actively participated, allowing his teammates to appear in front of the camera more often. He enjoyed the support of his teammates during the game, so what was a little 'sacrifice' in front of the camera during training?

Players like Yi Shui, Curry, and Nate Robinson, who are quite popular in China and have secured endorsement contracts for domestic sneakers, etc., also had promotional materials to shoot, so the morning was indeed quite busy.

Having been in New York for quite some time now, Yi Shui has gradually gotten used to this busy schedule, and all the necessary preparations were completed yesterday.

Moreover, these things aren't exactly tiring, just complicated. For many players, they would love to have this level of attention in every game. For example, the guy from the North hopes that there will be other cameras on the training ground besides the team's cameras every day.

After closing the training ground and locker room for interviews in the afternoon, D'Antoni and Cheeks each led the team in a simple offensive and defensive positioning drill.

As evening fell, after warming up, Yi Shui arrived at the players' tunnel.

After a day of excitement, he and his teammates felt no fatigue; on the contrary, they were even more excited and eager to get back on the field!

At 7:40 p.m., the lights went out and boos began to fill the air. When the spotlight shone on the players’ tunnel, the boos became more unified.

The boos grew louder with each Cavaliers starter who ran out, reaching a fever pitch when James was the last one to run out!
This made James feel very uncomfortable; before, when he came here, everyone would cheer for him.

Just as people no longer see him as the 'greatest rookie since Jordan,' he is very uncomfortable!

reason……

The spotlight was turned off, and after it shone on the opposing home team's tunnel, James looked across.

David Lee, Curry, Duhon, and Birdman ran out one after another, but James didn't focus his attention on them at all, simply ignoring them.

As the DJ screamed "The Big Emperor" and the fans chanted "BIG" and "Emperor" at the top of their lungs, Yi Shui slowly ran out of the home team's tunnel, and James's eyes focused on him.

It's all because of this guy!

After the opening ceremony, the two, who are both brand ambassadors for the Hook logo, came in front of the camera to exchange pleasantries.

With his signature smile, James said, "Congratulations, Brook, you've won over New York fans so quickly. Keep it up!"

Yi Shui smiled and replied, "Do you also want to be loved by New York fans? Why don't you seriously consider coming to assist me?"

(End of this chapter)