Chapter 134: All-Star Voting

ESPN Sports reported: Yesterday the Suns beat the Mavericks 106-99 at home, and the Mavericks have never been a team in the league that is often full of topics, so they have not attracted much attention from fans. However, because of the magical performance of Suns rookie Marc Lee, this game will go down in history. Li Mojie, who was only 19 years old in this campaign, scored a high score of 51 points.

Li Mojie had a god-like performance in this game, and he broke three records in the NBA league. First of all, Lee broke the previous record held by Rookie Brandon Jennings in '09 for the youngest player to score more than 50 points in a single game. Jennings' record time was 56 at the age of 20 years and 52 days, while Lee Mojie scored 51 points at the age of 19 years and 217 days.

Second, his 51 points also set a new personal record for the most points scored in a single game this season, and also broke the previous record of 29 points held by him for a Suns rookie in a single game, which belonged to Barbossa, who scored 27 points as a starter against the Chicago Bulls on January 5, 2004, and shot 41.8% from the field.

If you look at Li Mojie's performance this week, it is hard to think that he can score a high score of 51 points in this game, after all, the team only played a full night in the Denver Nuggets the day before, and Li Mojie's statistics in the last game were 12 points, 6 assists, 3 rebounds and 5 turnovers, completely lost in the Nuggets' bag defense. But just when everyone thought that Li Mojie had encountered the rookie wall, he stood up and shot 20 of 34 in 38 minutes, including 6 of 8 three-pointers and 7 of 8 free throws, and blasted 51 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 steals and 1 block.

"Mo Jie, Mo Jie, well done, that's it, continue to brush points like this, do you know about the data? I promise you'll be selected as an All-Star starter in the West this time! Early the next morning, Li Mojie received a call from Fleicher, and Fleicher on the other end of the phone praised Li Mojie's performance almost ecstatically.

"Huh? All-Star, has voting already started? Li Mojie was surprised. Although Li Mojie did remember that Ryan, the general manager of the Suns, came to him and helped him report his position, but then as soon as the time passed, Li Mojie was busy forgetting about it. Since entering the league, Li Mojie feels that he has been closed up a lot, and he has put a lot of energy on basketball every day, except for playing games and training, and he doesn't want to move when he is tired every day.

"I know you're not paying attention to that, and I know you're going to be a must-have for this year's Rookie Challenge, but we're going to look ahead and make it to the All-Star in the rookie, and you think about it, what a great start that was? This year's All-Star voting began earlier than in previous years, with voting beginning in mid-to-late November, and in previous years, it would have taken two days to start on the 24th. You haven't been in a good state this week, so I didn't tell you about it, for fear that you would be more stressed. Fleicher patiently explained.

In fact, Li Mojie didn't pay attention to it, he was simply nervous (in fact, the author wrote that the competition was overwritten and forgot. On December 13, 2013, the first round of voting for the 2014 NBA All-Star Game was released. The Heat's LeBron James was the first-round pick with 609336 votes, the Thunder's Kevin Durant was second with 607407 votes, Lakers guard Kobe Bryant was third, and the Suns' Jack Lee was seventh.

However, on December 17, 2013, Bryant was injured in the sixth game of his comeback against the Grizzlies against Tony Allen, fractured the base bone plateau of his left knee, and was subsequently announced to be out for the season.

"So, Kobe Bryant is reimbursed, you have a very good chance of being a Western Conference All-Star starter this year, you know?" Fleischer preached.

"Please, Kobe Bryant is a guard, I reported the position as a forward, and we don't conflict." Li Mojie asked with a question mark on his face.

"Hehe, who said that it doesn't matter between you, we have done statistics on this, among the Chinese-Americans, that Jeremy Lin also stole a lot of your votes, and he is currently the fourth in the number of votes in the Western Guard. And in China, your votes are actually behind Kobe, can you believe it? I really don't get it anyway! As an American, Fleichel said angrily.

"Ugh." Li Mojie was also stunned by this result, and was speechless for a long time.

Why is Bryant so popular among Chinese?

This reason can be related to three days and three nights, countless papers can be written, and the author can write a million words on this issue, but think about it. In any case, even the American media was shocked by Kobe's popularity in China. Many Chinese like him, and many Chinese don't like him, and the combined effect is: Kobe Bryant has been the NBA star that Chinese fans pay the most attention to for many years, and he is the biggest focus, not one.

"It's not about the Lakers, it's not even about the NBA, it's just Kobe!" Li Mojie sighed and made an evaluation.

"On December 27, 2013, the NBA will officially announce the results of the second round of All-Star voting, and my team and I are constantly canvassing for you, and Adidas is also building momentum for you. Later, Amy will ask you to record some videos, you remember to cooperate with her well, position canvassing, a video in Chinese and English, and there are 5 days to go, and you have to continue to play beautiful data, you know? Fleischel continued.

"All you care about is if I can play good stats, what about the team's victory?" Li Mojie asked with a wry smile.

"Boss, I'll call you Boss, okay, let's not pay attention to this issue for now, okay? Let's break down your opponent: Durant, let's let him go this season. Your current opponent in the West is the Clippers' Griffin and the Timberwolves' Love, the Clippers' current record is fourth in the West, and you are third in the West, but that Griffin is about to become the second leader of the team! The Timberwolves still have a negative record, losing more than winning, and you're going to have to squeeze one of the two of them out anyway! Fleischer shouted with his fists clenched on the other end of the phone.

Since October 24, 2014, when the league revised the star voting rules, eliminating the center position and replacing it with three frontcourt players, the competition for the three positions of forward, power forward, and center has become more fierce for All-Star starters.

"By the way, Erik, where are this year's All-Stars?" Li Mojie asked curiously.

"In New Orleans." Fleihill replied lightly.

"How did you get there?" Li Mojie asked curiously. Because in Li Mojie's impression, New Orleans is a small city, with a small population, an underdeveloped economy, and no Orleans grilled chicken wings, and a hurricane hit a few years ago, and the whole city fell into reconstruction.

"Hehe, how did you choose there, it's the same reason why New Orleans had a champion in 12." Fleischel sneered.