Yu Xiaochun and Kalonsky II talked a lot about their unexpected encounter in Phoenix, but the most impressive thing for him was the words that the old man instilled in him at the end of the chat:

"So it's time to think about bigger things, to dream. They all say that people are great because of their dreams, and I think that only by seizing every moment when dreams come true can we talk about true greatness. So the question is: does he want to be the All-Star Ticket King? ”

All-Star Ticket King?!

Do you want to reach out in the dark and jump up to catch a flying dream of such a behemoth?

Yu Xiaochun didn't dare to think about it, maybe his imagination was still a little lacking, so he decided to share this bold idea with Yang Yiming and listen to his opinion.

1/

"What? What are you asking me to be?! ”

"All-Star Ticket King." It seems that Yang Yiming's first reaction when he heard this plan was not much calmer than his own, and Yu Xiaochun repeated it for him again.

"We're crazy, how is this possible?" Yang Yiming shook his head vigorously and said, looking at Yu Xiaochun like a madman. However, Yu Xiaochun is very familiar with this look, if he wants to see the old man Kalonsky II several times, every time he listens to his nonsensical theories, he basically has to use it once.

"Yao Ming has also been an all-star ticket king before." Yu Xiaochun began to try to argue that the idea was not as crazy as it sounded.

"That's Yao Ming!" Yang Yiming denied his reason for a second, "That's the first person in Chinese basketball, the top pick in the NBA draft, the jersey was retired from the Rockets, inducted into the Hall of Fame, and now he is still the chairman of the Basketball Association." I can't do that. ”

"But don't forget, you and Da Yao, Chairman Yao Ming, have one thing in common."

"All for Team Rocket? It's not a common denominator. ”

"No, no, no, it's in the matter of all-star voting - you are all Chinese, you have a huge fan base behind you, our country's population advantage, that is your common strong vote base!" Yu Xiaochun saw that the other party didn't care, so he only packed his luggage for flying to Los Angeles in the morning, so he had to raise the volume by a few decibels, and danced to attract the other party's attention.

"But times are different, and fans won't be stupid enough to vote for you just because of fame." Yang Yiming pulled up the toiletry bag and stuffed it into a spare place in the suitcase, which was not big or small, and it fit just right.

"That's right. So Da Yao didn't get the All-Star ticket king in the next few seasons..."

"yes, then I don't have a chance."

"Not necessarily." Yu Xiaochun helped remove the iPhone plug for bedside charging, handed it to Yang Yiming, and said, "Yao Ming has not played many games in the next few seasons because of injuries. But when he was the All-Star vote champion in the previous seasons, to be honest, you were about the same as you, in terms of stats and performance, you were still a little worse, but you had a stronger upward momentum, and you can take advantage of this momentum..."

"But Yao Ming is still the team's starter." Yang Yiming took the charging cable and interrupted.

"But that's not the key to the All-Star Ticket King! In terms of ability, of course, you and Yao Ming were not the first people in the league at that time, but what did the All-Star vote for? Popularity! And you're right, this era is completely different from that of Da Yao. ”

Finally, Yu Xiaochun felt that his words had weight and asked Yang Yiming to sit down and listen quietly.

2/

"The most important thing in the All-Star Vote is popularity. As long as you are popular enough, you and LeBron James, Steve Curry are at the same level, and you have a chance to win the vote king spot. ”

"It's still a bit big."

"It's not as big as you think." Seeing that the other party was interested, Yu Xiaochun hurriedly called up the news from his mobile phone that he had carefully read many times at night: "The results of the second phase of the 2018 NBA All-Star Fan Poll: The first place in the East is Zhan Huang, with more than 1.62 million votes; The first and second places in the West are about the same, with Steve Curry almost 1.37 million votes and his teammate Kevin Durant with 1.32 million votes. There are a total of five rookies on this year's list, including Tatum, Simmons, Kuzma, and Ball, so you don't have to worry about not having enough qualifications at all, and there are so many first-graders with you. ”

"I've never worried about this, I'm like a stage fright." Yang Yiming smiled slightly, calmly not talking about himself at all. In the news just now, after the second phase of the All-Star fan voting, he received 571672 votes, the highest among the five rookies.

"So you see, you now have more than 570,000 votes, which is the fifth place in the Western Conference forward position, and in addition to Durant, there are Anthony Davis, Draymond Green, DeMarcus Cousins, more than 30,000 votes higher than "Pickled Pepper" Paul George. That said, you only need to move up two spots in the Western Conference forward position to squeeze into the starting lineup — and now you're only 40,000 short of third-place Green. All-Star Ticket King? LeBron James' fan tickets are only 1 million more than yours. ”

"Only?!"

"That's right, only!" Yu Xiaochun hammered his fists on the soft mattress of the hotel, and the mobile phone that was originally placed on it jumped into the air, "Think about how many fans there are in China, how many people are watching your game?" A million is really a small number. ”

"But I don't really know how many fans I have." Yang Yiming spread his hands and said that he had no solution. Indeed, although he also accepted an exclusive interview with CCTV 5 and received endorsement advertisements, he spent more time in the NBA focusing on the game and had no intention of taking care of off-court matters.

"That's why I said times are different, and the power of media communication is too great." Yu Xiaochun grabbed the mobile phone that he had just popped up, slid it a few times, and found the app to open Weibo to show him: "I just helped you open and register a Weibo account last night, and you already have more than 600,000 followers now." ”

3/

Although seeing is believing, Yang Yiming still couldn't believe his eyes when he saw this Weibo that had just been opened on his phone. I saw that Yu Xiaochun helped him register this new Weibo account, although it has not been officially verified, and only posted two Weibo, one is a photo of Yang Yiming warming up and playing in Phoenix the night before, and the other is just reposting the news of "2018 NBA All-Star Fan Voting Phase II Results", with the text "Los Angeles, I'm here (fist clench)", and also marked NBA China, several official Weibo of the Houston Rockets. In just a dozen hours, it has received more than 100,000 retweets and nearly 1 million likes, and the number of fans is indeed approaching 610,000 as Yu Xiaochun said.

"This..."Yang Yiming was almost speechless.

"It's just the result of less than half a day."

"So..."

"So it's time to seriously consider the possibility of an all-star ticket king."

"Hmm..."

"The voting deadline on the 18th, do you want to canvass for votes?" Yu Xiaochun happily got a little carried away.

"But..."

"But what?"

"But aren't there any changes to the voting rules this year? Fan votes are only 50% weighted. ”

Seeing that his good friend Yang Yiming frowned, and seemed to be seriously considering this issue, Yu Xiaochun was secretly happy in his heart, knowing that this conversation finally had an eyebrow:

"Don't worry, I've already thought about it for you. So the question is just... Do you want to be the all-star ticket king? ”