Champion, please stay!

Chapter 182, page 180: Will the Husky team produce two number one draft picks in a row?

Yi Shui was taken aback. Why such a strong reaction?

The commentators from ESPN and CCTV quickly turned the camera to a close-up of the Yi River.

After a moment of surprise, Yi Shui burst out laughing, this time she really couldn't help it.

"Will winning MVP make my shooting better? Will it turn a losing game into a winning one? Then I will try to win more MVPs in the future... Respect is earned through games, not by shouting that you should respect me."

After speaking, Yi Shui turned around, waved to the two cameras, and walked towards the players' tunnel with his laughing teammates.

Late at night, Curry, Chalmers, Swift, Birdman, and Harrington, five of Yi Shui's closest teammates, gathered on the balcony of his suite, drinking a little wine.

Before the All-Star Weekend, Chalmers got along well with Daniels and Harrington. Although he was the younger brother, he was protected by Yi Shui and did not suffer as badly as other rookies. However, at that time, Yi Shui and Curry had only a so-so relationship with Daniels and Harrington.

After Daniels left, Harrington quickly entered the small circle of the '08 three rookies'.

Normally, after winning a game, you should go to a nightclub to celebrate, but tonight not only did James lose his temper, but the Cleveland fans did too.

Cleveland fans are extremely enthusiastic, and Walsh, who was with the team, told the players to wait until they got back to New York to celebrate, saying they could do whatever they wanted, and he would sign the bill.

The fervor of the Cleveland fans was palpable to Yi Shui and his companions even after they returned to their hotel.

A large number of fans gathered on the street outside the hotel, chanting various slogans and hurling insults.

When they first arrived yesterday, some local fans were making a ruckus outside in the evening, but there are many more people tonight.

The suite at Yishui was on the 20th floor, and quite far inside, but the voices of local fans could still be heard from the street outside the hotel building.

Curry joked about Yi Shui: "Look at what you said, Cleveland fans hate you to death."

Yi Shui replied, "You've got plenty of people criticizing you too. Looks like you'll never be able to play in your hometown again."

The elementary school student almost blurted out, "Who wants to come back to this lousy place to play basketball? I spent five months in a hospital here the year I was born, and I've never even been to Akron."

But he held back; he wasn't Emperor Yi, and he wasn't so capricious.

He wasn't worried that there was a 'traitor' among his close friends, but based on his understanding of these teammates, they were all big mouths who dared to spill anything.

Curry: "It seems impossible for you to recruit King as your helper, Emperor. He probably hates you to death."

Yi Shui: "That's a real shame..."

...

After having a few drinks and chatting for a while, the team members returned to their respective rooms.

Yi Shui closed the windows. The hotel had good soundproofing, and the noise from downstairs was barely audible. Turning on some soothing music completely eliminated the noise.

Before going to bed, he browsed the news for a while...

Tonight, Cleveland has seen a surge in robberies, assaults, and shootings. News reports have noted that in recent years, the local crime rate has spiked after the Cavaliers lose at home during the playoffs.

As expected of the Rust Belt in central Taiwan, the people here are truly simple and honest.

Yi Shui thought of the New York fans, who seemed more passionate than anyone else, and were more verbally aggressive than anyone else, but when it came to actual fighting...

In March of this year, Syracuse University, led by Johnny Flynn, lost to the University of Oklahoma, led by Blake Griffin, in the Round of 16 of the Third Madness tournament. A group of Oklahoma City residents working in New York clashed with a group of New Yorkers, and the fight made the news.

There were over 30 New Yorkers and only 8 Oklahoma City residents. The New Yorkers lost...

The news that Yi Shui saw mentioned that New York State has one of the highest percentages of British Americans in the United States, and sports fans in states with a high percentage of British Americans are often fanatical and foul-mouthed, and are always getting beaten up.

No wonder in the movies, any tough guy who comes along can beat up the New York gangsters.

His minor altercation with James at the end of the game unsurprisingly went viral, becoming the most controversial and hottest topic of the night.

The media and fans engaged in a heated debate over the topics of 'respect' and 'performance'.

Yi Shui was shocked when he saw James's stats of 31 points, 11 rebounds, and 11 assists. How could that be a triple-double? And a 30+ point triple-double at that!

上半场打完他看数据时，詹姆斯才13分5板3助攻，有8分2助攻还是首节拿到的。

部分媒体只报道了数据，易水打开官网看了下战报详情……28投11中，其中三分球8中1，加上11中8的罚球。

He scored 18 points, 6 rebounds, and 8 assists in the second half.

In fact, Yi Shui felt that James really wanted to win tonight and played very hard.

But to play so hard in the final quarter, his obsession with getting the best stats seemed a bit too strong.

He regretted it; he should have taken more shots in the second half, why did he have to pass the ball around? With the Cavaliers' lineup in the second half, he might have scored 20+ points in the half, maybe even 40+ in a single game. Originally, based on the stats and his aggrieved expression, Cavaliers fans could have stood on the 'moral high ground'.

But when James' full post-game interview video was posted online, it caught Cavaliers fans completely off guard.

"The referees were very unfriendly to me tonight. I had a lot of offensive possessions where I should have gotten free throws, but the referees didn't blow the whistle. I'm not complaining about anything; I just want fairness."

I think there's nothing we can do about losing tonight. We faced the best offensive team in the league. Yi has Curry, Lee, Harrington, and Duhon around him; there are many players who can step up and solve problems. But our team only has me as a star.

When we needed to score, our role players didn't step up and make the shots, while the Knicks' Richardson, Anderson, Swift... they kept scoring.

After reading this, Yi Shui finally understood what James was doing—his hands clasped together, his hands shrugged, and his occasional pointing and looking in their direction.

The latter half of the video shows him making a 'crown' gesture towards James, James demanding respect from him, and him retorting...

However, he noticed something very interesting: ESPN was the first to release the full interview video.

He remembered that in the past, whenever James had any negative news, the media that reported on it the most was ESPN, which was also the one that praised James the most…

...

The "crown incident" has turned the Knicks and Cavaliers into bitter rivals.

On the rest day, the media from both sides attacked each other and the fans hurled insults at each other, which became even more intense.

Yi Shui remained unmoved by this. If nothing unexpected happened, the fans here would stop paying attention to him next summer.

He was more interested in Curry's new nickname—Mount Akron.

Media outlets in New York and California went wild, sharing videos of Curry's low-post defense against James, captioned: "Curry from Akron, like a mountain, stands unshakeable in front of the son of Akron."

Today's hot topic has expanded to include LeBron James's low-post offensive capabilities.

This topic shouldn't even be worth discussing; James has never demonstrated his ability to score in the low post.

However, some media outlets posted James's inside offensive efficiency. Apart from his 60% inside field goal percentage in his rookie season, which was average for a forward, James's inside field goal percentage reached 70% starting in his second year... This excited Cavaliers fans who only care about statistics, who insisted that James was strong in low-post offense.

Later, the topic evolved into whether James would prove his low-post ability in the upcoming games...

Yi Shui felt something was interesting. Would James still try to attack in the low post in tomorrow's game? If he did... that would be great.

He was glad that he had never created a 'perfect' persona, and that his agent, the brands he endorsed, and the club owners did not require it either.

Fans of 'perfect' players always strive to be the best in everything, which puts a lot of pressure on the players themselves. After all, which player has all the skills?

In the past, Yi Shui would occasionally complain that when New York fans criticized him, they were even more extreme than haters, saying all sorts of things. Now he realizes that it's actually quite good.

In the afternoon, Yi Shui participated in pre-season training with the team. In the evening, he and several teammates watched the draft lottery live on TV.

Several people each put 100 yuan on the coffee table. Whoever guesses correctly gets to take all the money. If multiple people guess correctly, they split the money equally.

Yi Shui guessed it was the Clippers based on his memory, Curry guessed it was the Wizards with the worst record... Most people guessed the team with the worst record in the bottom five, but Chalmers was different, he guessed the Bulls who were 'ranked' ninth in the East.

As it turned out, Chalmers guessed correctly!
The Chicago Bulls, with 34 wins, ninth in the Eastern Conference and twelfth from the bottom in the league, have a 1.7% chance of winning the number one draft pick!

Chalmers himself was stunned when he guessed correctly; he had just said it casually, it was only a hundred dollars.

I should have bet bigger!
Yi Shui watched as Chalmers first put his 100 yuan into his pocket, then happily took and counted the 500 yuan from everyone else at the table... Indeed, one must refuse gambling and drugs!

The second overall pick was different from what Yi Shui remembered. After all, the Grizzlies had 40 wins, and the probability of them pulling off two upsets was too low. The Clippers, who had the fourth-worst record, were the ones who got the pick.

The third overall pick was drawn by the Thunder, who were third from the bottom.

The Timberwolves, holding the Wizards' unprotected lottery pick (which was last in the draft), only got the 4th pick, while the Kings, who were second to last, only got the 5th pick.

后面的顺位按排名，第6顺位森林狼队、第7顺位勇士队、第8顺位猛龙队、第9顺位雄鹿队、第10顺位篮网队、第11顺位山猫队、第12顺位活塞队、第13顺位灰熊队、第14顺位太阳队。

After the draw results were announced, the media and fans shifted their attention to the draft.

Who will be the number one draft pick?

Yi Shui initially thought it was definitely Griffin, but the public opinion he saw didn't think so.

The reason seems to lie with him.

Thabeet led his team to a successful title defense in his junior year, and his stats during his "March Madness" phase were phenomenal, earning him the nickname "the taller version of Mutombo," which led people to connect the two!

(End of this chapter)