Chapter 407: Rivals
James Hart has been very proud recently, not that he has peach blossom luck, but his NBA career has been very smooth, not only did he immediately become the core of the team as soon as he came to the team, but he also led the team from the bottom of the league to the first place in the East as a rookie, which has never been seen in the history of the NBA for many years.
This made James Hart quickly become a rising star in the league and made him an idol in the hearts of many fans.
With increasing prestige, James Hart signed a huge endorsement contract of seven years and $100 million with the world's largest sporting goods manufacturer Nadi in the past 2020.
In 2020, James Hart took a big step forward in his life, going from being the best college player of all time to being the best rookie of all time.
In the Christmas game promoted by the league, James Hart's play also allowed the league to determine the situation in which the East supported James and the West pushed the Runners.
James Hart brushed up the second triple-double of his career in the Christmas game between the Washington Wizards and the Boston Celtics, a large triple-double of 27 points, 14 rebounds and 12 assists made James the brightest star on Christmas Eve, which is even more attractive to North American fans than the game between the Runners and the Lakers in the West, because James Hart is always a native of North America anyway, and the oriental attributes of the runners certainly allow them to make a fortune in Asia, but in North America, There are still quite a few people who don't like the Runners.
Soon after entering 2021, the league announced the shortlist for this year's All-Star Game, and James Hart suddenly became the starting small forward in the East with his super performance after entering the league.
In the West, the Runners have also shocked the entire league, with their unrivaled popularity in Asia, four of the Runners have made the All-Star Game roster, and if it weren't for the league's final control of the situation, maybe the starting five of the Runners would have been selected for the All-Star Game.
Although the league has decided to support the Runners, if players from such an emerging team are selected for the All-Star Game too much at once, it will be a very big blow to other teams, and the league does not want to see such a situation, so appropriate restrictions are still necessary.
The Runners were selected for the All-Star Game lineup only Turgun was the only starter, and the likes of Blair Bowman, Salehi and Ervin Butler could only be substitutes, and Elvin Butler's selection was full of various controversies, but in fact, his votes were no less than other starters, in the eyes of Asian fans, even if Erwin looked dull and starless, but as long as he was a player for the Runners, he should be supported by Asian fans.
This year's All-Star Game was held in Dallas, which is a move made by the league to support Dallas, after all, the farce at the beginning of the season was more or less controlled by the league, and now it is considered to compensate Dallas.
The All-Star Game coincided with Valentine's Day in the West and coincided with the Lunar New Year in the East, so this time the league planned to use the All-Star Game as an opportunity to promote the All-Star Game in Asia.
But for James Hart, he has a very important game ahead of the All-Star break, and that is the away game against the Runners at the end of January.
James Hart has had a huge aura since he entered the league, but after the last meeting between the two teams, the Runners, especially the weird Oriental named Turgon, left a big shadow on James, who he felt was perhaps the biggest rival of his career.
The Runners and the Washington Wizards originally didn't have any grudges, but after the last meeting, James Hart himself took this emerging team very seriously, especially after Turgun's successive super stats, James has always wanted to prove that he is the best one on the other side.
And now that the Runners are at the top of the league, keeping the Washington Wizards and Lakers under him, James also wants to use such a game to make the team truly number one in the league.
In fact, the top management of the league has also noticed some changes in the Washington Wizards and the Runners, and in their vision, it is necessary to change the league's popular style of play now, and it is consistent to create new rivals for hype.
In the 80s of the last century, the league used this hype to make the NBA the most popular sports event at that time, and the feud between the Boston Celtics and the New York Knicks, and the feud between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Houston Rockets were the result of the league's single-handed promotion at that time.
In previous years, as the league's teams lost their dynamism and more fans were snatched up by other sporting events, the league's long-hyped feud series lost its appeal to fans.
Now the emergence of the Runners has broken the old rules of the league, and it has also allowed the league to see a new rival hype, among which the battle between James Hart and Turgun is the most important point in the league.
In addition, there is also some hype between the Lakers and the Runners, and the Lakers and the Dallas Mavericks are very topical.
However, these are just the ideas of the alliance now, although the foundation has been laid, but everything still depends on the development, if the runners are just a flash in the pan, then all this is impossible to talk about, and if there are other variables, the alliance will not hesitate to change the hype.
Of course, the current Runners have preliminarily completed the run-in of the whole team, and after Blair Bowman's comeback, the Runners' lineup is completely complete, Wang Lei has more weight in his hands, and the team's tactics can also be more changeable.
Wang Lei continues to instill his basketball philosophy into the players, through this half a year of running-in, the players of the Runners have also established a new understanding of basketball, as their understanding deepens, the Runners' style of play began to become more and more freewheeling, they can play the fastest fast break in the league, but also can play the classic blocking and dismantling that makes other teams have a headache, this changeable style allows the Runners to maintain a very high winning rate, and they have great hope of breaking the best results in the history of the regular season.