Champion, please stay!

Chapter 233, Section 231: The Consecutive-Winner Ticket King!

After the Knicks suffered three consecutive losses on the South Coast, voices began to predict their demise.

Many people are waiting to see what happens, and some media outlets are making sarcastic remarks—if the Knicks suffer another losing streak, they might drop to fourth place in the league, behind the Suns, Lakers, and Magic.

If we disregard the Knicks' 16-game winning streak, their record in December and January was worse than the other four teams in the top five. If they had collapsed in January, they might never have been able to catch up, and there was even a possibility that they would have been overtaken by the Cavaliers, who were then in fifth place.

During that four-game road trip, the Knicks were indeed in poor form overall. The main reason for the decline in form was the tight schedule and poor physical condition. However, this six-game stretch in nine days at the end of the month is not much better in terms of schedule density than the four-game stretch in six days.

In their first game of a six-game home run, the Knicks faced the 76ers. The gap in strength was too great, and the Knicks won by a large margin, which was not surprising and did not reveal whether the Knicks were in good or bad form.

When it came to playing the Clippers, the Knicks won, and Yi Shui even got compared to Iverson and Kobe because he got his 10th 40+ point game of the season, but!

In that game, the Knicks were still trailing after three quarters, and Yi Shui needed to score 15 points in the final quarter to complete the comeback.

When the Knicks played the Mavericks in a back-to-back game, some media outlets were already prepared for the Knicks to lose and for criticism to follow. If the Knicks lost and Yi Shui still managed to score a high number of points, then there would be even more to say.

Yi Shui scored over 40 points in both of his previous two games against the Heat, but lost both times. At that time, some discordant voices emerged, but the rest of the Knicks played so poorly that the topic didn't really get heated.

But things are different now. After that three-game losing streak, the Knicks' record in January was already quite bad. If they lose one more game, it will be their 10th loss of the season, giving them plenty of material to criticize.

谁成想，易水背靠背打小牛队再拿40+、打活塞队拿到三双奶飞全队、到了5天4战最后1场又飙了40+！

7天时间，5场比赛，易水场均出战41分钟，拿到36.6分8.6板6助攻3抢断1.4盖帽。

Aside from the game against the 76ers where he had limited playing time and fewer shots, resulting in 'average' stats, in the other four games he had three 40+ point games and one triple-double!
Under his leadership, the Knicks, against all odds, reversed a three-game losing streak and won five straight games!

眼瞅着已经要被魔术队和太阳队反超，尼克斯队靠着这波5连胜，战绩提升至37胜9负，与目前34胜12负的太阳队胜场差距拉开到3个、与33胜13胜的魔术队拉开到4个！
New York media are raving about it!
...

The next day at noon, Yi Shui was woken up by a phone call from the team.

He was a bit grumpy when he woke up, but when he heard he had won an award, he jumped out of bed, washed up, left the hotel and headed to the arena, happily taking home his fifth Player of the Week trophy.

Having just finished this run of 5 games in 7 days, all last week, averaging 36.6 points per game and winning all 5, this award is a no-brainer.

The All-Star Weekend hasn't even started yet, and he already has 5 Player of the Week awards. Yi Shui is wondering if he should set a small goal—to break LeBron James' record of 7 Player of the Week awards from last season?

This is a very rare opportunity!
In December, he won Player of the Week once. This month, he won Player of the Week again at the end of the month. The other three Player of the Week awards were won when he won all his games in the first month. Normally, he wouldn't get that many.

If we don't make a push this season, it's hard to say whether we'll have such a good opportunity again in the future.

Awards and records are things you can't miss; once you lose them, they're hard to come by again.

Yi Shui heard that Durant won Player of the Week for two consecutive weeks in the West, so he went online to check on his backpack.

Over the past two weeks, the Thunder have a record of 3 wins and 1 loss. In the six games, Durant averaged 33 points, 8.5 rebounds and 2.5 assists, with a decent field goal percentage of 45.3%.

After entering January, the gap between top teams and ordinary strong teams began to become apparent.

Teams like the Rockets and Hornets, who were still at the tail end of the playoff race in the first two months, had already fallen out of contention by the end of January.

但雷霆队没有，靠着这波6胜2负，从20胜18负冲到了26胜20负，距离西部第八开拓者队的27胜19负只差1个胜场了！与28胜18负的马刺队和爵士队，也只差了两个胜场，正式挤进了西部季后赛竞争行列！
In the past two years, the last-placed team in the Western Conference that made the playoffs could barely be considered a 'top team'. For example, the Jazz, currently in eighth place, would have around 50 wins in 82 games.

Now that the Thunder have "entered the game," Yi Shui thought of a terrible situation—what if the Western Conference doesn't make the playoffs even with 50 wins?

While browsing the news, Yi Shui saw a clip of Curry's interview from last night.

"I've heard people say that we're ranked number one in the league not because we're that strong, but simply because Big is strong."

This is hurtful, you know, but who can say that what was said was wrong?
I've been trying my best to help Big more. When I play well and help the team win, I'm very happy. And when I don't play well and feel frustrated, just seeing Big walk onto the court tells me that we still have hope of winning!

The elementary school students were clearly dissatisfied with ESPN's statement, which Yi Shui saw as a good thing.

As the second-in-command in his mind, he should have this mentality, instead of treating himself as a role player.

After receiving the trophy, Yi Shui did not practice more, but went home to rest.

Having just finished four battles in five days, he didn't have any physical problems. The extra training on the '7th day' and taking the socialite to experience the process of creating life with protective measures were effective ways to restore his physical strength.

But the mental pressure is immense. Three out of four matches were comebacks or games that required resilience. I need to take a break, watch a movie, play some games, and relax.

...

休息了一天，31号，1月份最后1天到了，尼克斯队9天6战的最后1个比赛日也到了！
In the morning, D'Antoni arranged a very small amount of training, just running through the main tactics a few times and that was it.

They also gave the team some good news—Benjamin has recovered from his injury and is back in action!
Actually, a few days ago, Ben Wallace had passed the team doctor's test and was allowed to play, but at that time it was a 4-game stretch in 5 days, and D'Antoni gritted his teeth and let Swift continue to start for 4 games.

After the team's training session, Yi Shui, as usual, called up Curry and Clark to practice a set of half-load dribbling and fadeaway shots.

There isn't much time to practice, but we can't stop practicing; we at least need to master the movements first.

At noon, Yi Shui and his teammates gathered in the lounge, sat around the TV, and watched the NBA live broadcast on American cable sports—the announcement of the All-Star starters!

On the 11th, when the alliance announced the first round of votes, Yi Shui paid attention.

Kobe, who just won the Finals MVP last season, ranked first in the league with 107 million votes.

At that time, only two players had more than one million votes. The other was Yi Shui, who ranked first in the East with 101 million votes.

James is close behind, with 98 votes, ranking second in the East and third in the league.

The MVP award wasn't won for nothing; after winning it, James's popularity outside the United States soared.

Just like how domestic actors are keen to make so-called "art films," win awards overseas, and then promote them back home, this is really useful in the current domestic market environment.

Originally, James's popularity in the Chinese market was relatively low. Despite his efforts in promotion, his popularity remained relatively low. But things changed after he won the award!

The NBA regular season MVP—that sounds impressive.

With his team achieving over 60 wins and outstanding stats last season, his popularity in overseas markets has soared.

However, Yi Shui failed in his attempt to start a media company; it would have been better to have communicated with Dolan more.

At first, he thought it was a problem with his senior's ability, and that the person in charge of management was hired from Cornell University.

Until the middle of last month, media outlets revealed the financial report of James's "Firefighter Media," showing a loss of over 08 million in 900...

The people of Yishui are all numb. The endorsement fee he got from Gouzi might not even be enough after deducting taxes!

The senior student was also reluctant to spend hundreds of millions of yuan on publicity and promotion every year, mainly because he knew that Yi Shui was not interested in 'creating a persona' and had New York as a backing, so there was no need to spend that money.

Therefore, after 2010, under the leadership of senior students and agents, "Setting Fire to Your Heart" Media changed its business scope and became a media that positively guides fans' behavior.

This action made Yi Shui a laughing stock among the management.

On the 22nd, the vote count for the second round was announced.

The competition between Yi Shui and James remains fierce, with Yi Shui's votes rising to 185 million and James' votes to 179 million.

However, both players were affected by their losing streaks, and Howard caught up, reaching 171 million votes.

The agent who cultivated Howard's "sunny boy" image must have been incredibly skilled.

Shaquille O'Neal's move to the Eastern Conference had a smaller impact on Dwight Howard's All-Star voting than the media and fans had anticipated. Meanwhile, Kobe Bryant extended his lead over the past ten days, becoming the first player this year to surpass 200 million votes.

After the second round of votes was announced, Yi Shui didn't have high expectations for the vote leader.

These past few years have been the happiest time for Kobe fans, with the old blacksmith at the height of his fame.

But in the last few days, the situation has changed subtly.

23号开始到29号，易水7天时间拿到3次40+、1次三双，率队豪取5连胜。

Media reports indicate that polling stations in the greater New York area are packed with people every day, almost all there to vote for Yi Shui. This has greatly boosted sales for NBA partner brands that set up polling stations, and each station has increased its staff to receive fan votes.

Yesterday morning, the NBA's official website voting link even experienced server crashes. With the 5-day, 4-game battle in Yishui just ended, fans' enthusiasm for voting was pushed to the extreme!

After noticing these news reports yesterday afternoon, Yi Shui began to have some ideas.

The live broadcast started at 12 noon.

Yi Shui was a little nervous; he could feel it himself. He seemed to care more about winning the vote than he did last year.

He was initially a little confused. His understanding was that winning the title of "vote king" once was enough, and winning it again wouldn't bring the same qualitative improvement to commercial value as the first time he won it.

Just like Yao Ming, after O'Neal went to the Eastern Conference in the summer of 04, Yao Ming won the All-Star Game in the 04-05 season with 255 million votes, defeating O'Neal who received 248 million votes. It was a huge sensation.

但05-06赛季姚明以234万票击败227万票的科比拿到票王，就没有那么轰动了，也没有像05年那样新增好几家大牌代言。

But this morning Yi Shui realized that he cared because he didn't want to lose as long as he had a chance...

This year, the NBA representative announcing the All-Star starters' numbers changed; another vice president, Adam Silver, appeared on the screen.

Yi Shui clicked his tongue.

Sure enough, NBA owners didn't like Stu Jackson, who looked too much like Stern.

Yi Shui used to think that Stern, who single-handedly transformed the NBA from a regional event into a top-tier sporting event watched by the whole world, would have a very high status in the eyes of NBA team owners and management.

But in his interactions with Walsh and Dolan, he discovered that this was not the case at all.

It seems that all the bosses disliked Stern, and consequently, Stu Jackson, who has been regarded as 'the most like Stern's successor' in recent years, was also disliked.

When Yi Shui was participating in an endorsement event, he chatted with his agent about this topic during his free time. Bartelstein, of course, knew a lot about this. The reason why Stern was disliked by the team owners was just one thing—he hindered their ability to make money.

The team owners privately nicknamed Stern "Basketball Roosevelt".

Stern increased the NBA's visibility and raised player salaries, from a million dollars being considered high in the 80s, to tens of millions of dollars a year being common in the 90s, and now to $2000 million being the salary that veteran superstars should have after a decade...

Almost every decade brings a major leap forward, and the NBA has maintained steady and healthy development despite Stern's annual introduction of various restrictive regulations.

The entire basketball industry has benefited from Stern's series of regulations, except for team owners.

However, in terms of revenue alone, it is generally the owners of smaller market teams who dislike Stern. Players like Dolan, Bass, and Sterling don't care about this aspect, as they earn the most. But Stern always tries to use the money they earn to subsidize other teams. This approach neither pleases the owners of smaller market teams nor offends the owners of larger market teams.

Xiao Hua's shrill voice made Yi Shui feel a little uncomfortable. After a while, Xiao Hua's self-introduction, All-Star introduction, and so on finally ended, and the vote count began to be announced.

east.

Forwards: James (247 million votes) is second, Garnett (165 million votes) is third, and David Lee (101 million votes) is fourth.

Guards: Wade first with 219 million votes, Iverson second with 149 million votes, Curry third with 133 million votes, and Carter fourth with 102 million votes.

Western.

Forwards: Carmelo Anthony first with 198 million votes, Tim Duncan second with 135 million votes, Pau Gasol third with 115 million votes, and Kevin Durant fourth with 109 million votes.

Guards: Rose (127 million votes) ranked second, Paul (119 million votes) ranked third, and Nash (104 million votes) ranked fourth.

The six confirmed players—James, Wade, Iverson, Anthony, Duncan, and Rose—were announced first, along with popular stars who were not selected but received over a million votes.

This also means that the six selected players have lost their eligibility to compete for the title of "most popular player".

Howard's votes have indeed surpassed James's again, which is a bit of a surprise to Yi Shui.

Beast is a great character!

However, once such a persona collapses, their reputation will also suffer a severe blow.

Yi Shui is probably also related to their Knicks team.

Normally, even if Jamison's addition has a negative impact on both the Cavaliers' offense and defense, it won't happen immediately; it will take time.

But in Jamison's very first game, the Cavaliers were exploited and their weaknesses were exploited. The game was also highly publicized, and other teams learned from it, resulting in the Cavaliers suffering a three-game losing streak.

Then came another team with a record of 2 wins and 3 losses, and 2 wins and 6 losses in their last 8 games, bringing their record to 31 wins and 15 losses. They have been overtaken by the Pacers, who have a record of 32 wins and 15 losses, and have fallen to fourth in the East. They have also been overtaken by the Mavericks, who are third in the West. In just half a month, they have fallen from third in the league to seventh.

The backlash from the hype came. From December to mid-January, the Knicks' record plummeted in a month and a half. Some media seized the opportunity to hype up the Cavaliers' imminent overtaking of the Knicks and James's potential to surpass Yi Jianlian to top the MVP rankings. But before the MVP rankings for the new month were even released by the major media outlets, the Knicks' record didn't collapse but stabilized, while the Cavaliers themselves experienced a minor setback.

Yi Shui paid special attention to James because he knew that James would win many honors in the future.

His teammates had a completely different focus than him; he heard them talking about one thing—Iverson's popularity.

So far this season, Iverson has only played 25 games, averaging 13.8 points and 4 assists per game. He hasn't played a single game in the last two weeks, but he was still selected as an All-Star starter.

The elementary school student averaged 17.3 points and 5.6 assists per game. Despite being in the Big Apple and having Embiid as a mentor, he still lost the vote to Iverson.

Yi Shui leaned closer to Curry and asked, "Stephen, you didn't even make the cut, are you feeling really upset and wronged?"

Curry: "Unfortunately, I'm not upset or aggrieved. The answer is about to retire, and I'm already third. I might be selected next year."

Yi Shui felt that the elementary school students were becoming increasingly boring, and he couldn't amuse them anymore!

However, he was a little puzzled by something and asked, "When did the answer say he was going to retire?"

Curry was taken aback by the question. Indeed, when did Iverson ever say he was going to retire? But it seemed that everyone was convinced of it.

Wait a minute, it seems that the saying 'The Answer is about to retire' really started circulating after the 76ers came to visit them at the end of November and they played a 33-second tribute video.

The one who suggested, "The Answer is back in Philadelphia, let's pay tribute to the fans' youth," wasn't that Brother Zhi?
At this point, the highlights of the six players selected for the starting lineup finished playing, and Adam Silver began to announce the remaining four players on the starting roster.

Yi Shui, Yao Ming, Kobe, and Howard—these are definitely the four. They had already surpassed one million votes when the vote count was announced for the second time, but they weren't on the list of those who just broke the one million vote mark.

Unlike Stu Jackson, who imitated Stern to a great extent, Adam Silver didn't keep everyone in suspense and announced the votes for the remaining four people all at once.

This is very much in line with Adam Silver's personality, just like how he skipped Russell and directly handed the Finals MVP trophy to LeBron James and Kevin Durant...

Yao Ming received 271 million votes, Dwight Howard received 269 million votes, Kobe Bryant received 301 million votes, and Yi Shui received 317 million votes.

Yi Shui defeated Kobe, Yao Ming, and Howard to be voted the All-Star vote leader for the second consecutive year!

(End of this chapter)