After the live broadcast began, Bill Wharton teased at the beginning: "Brother Bill, who are you more optimistic about in this game?" ”

"Brother Bill, the Knicks have the golden twin guns of the madman and the mid-range king, and it is not so easy for the Iron Fist King to win against the Knicks." Ranbier said.

"Brother Bill, Patrick Ewing is no longer good, Larry Johnson is worse than him, their interior combination can't take advantage of the supersonic inside, the supersonic can even have an advantage in rebounding, and the madman and the mid-range king can't do the Iron Fist King, so I'm on the supersonic side." Bill Wharton laughed.

Ranbir glanced at his partner and said angrily, "You're the same bastard as Isaiah, when didn't you stand on the team of that kid of the Iron Fist King?"

Last time, you and he actually knelt down to the Iron Fist King, but you are seniors, and your old faces have been lost. ”

Bill Wharton laughed and said, "Brother Bill, without our kneeling, will the Iron Fist King really come back?"

Don't forget that he made hundreds of millions of dollars in a boxing match, and this time he gave up the four belts of the unification king for the NBA, how big is the loss?

I think all of us who rely on the NBA for our jobs should be grateful for his efforts, shouldn't we? ”

Bill Lanbill shrugged his shoulders and didn't speak again.

In the players' tunnel, the two starters meet.

"Iron Fist King, good evening."

When Alan Houston and Charlie Ward saw Zhou Quan, they immediately greeted respectfully.

Patrick Ewing and Larry Johnson, and the madman also nodded at Zhou Quan.

"Hello, Charlie, Alain."

Zhou Quan nodded at Houston and Ward.

Then he smiled and nodded at Ewing, and then smiled and stretched out his left fist at Larry Johnson, who was stunned and quickly stretched out his fist and touched it.

Larry Johnson sighed deeply in his heart, thinking that he competed with the Iron Fist King for the best rookie and finally won this honor at the same time, and he was still very unconvinced at that time.

But now, in the face of the achievements of the Iron Fist King, he has long been unqualified to be unconvinced, and the Iron Fist King can touch his fists and greet him with the etiquette of a boxer, which is also worthy of him.

Zhou Quan looked at the madman, this guy who entered the alliance a year later made the throat lock incident after he retired, and the movement was not small, and he was attacked by the national media, but now he is standing up again.

He nodded at the madman, and then followed his teammates out on the field.

"Tekken ......"

"Bang Bang Bang ......"

When Zhou Quan appeared, he received very enthusiastic cheers and applause at Madison Square Garden.

There were Hollywood stars sitting in the front row, several of whom were his friends, and when they saw him appear, they got up from afar.

……

At half past eight, the game officially began.

Campbell jumped the ball to win Ewing, and the supersonic offense.

The best outside defense of the madman defense Zhou Quan, Alan Houston to defend Barry Jr., point guard Charlie Ward to guard small forward Corey Magetti.

This made the rookie Margeti a little depressed, and let the point guard, who was ten centimeters shorter and more than ten kilograms lighter, defend him, was this looking down on him?

He immediately entered from the left wing, forced Charlie Ward close to the paint, and then turned around, crossed his arms to the sides, stuck Ward behind him, and asked Zhou for the ball.

Margeti has yet to shoot a three-pointer, and the main consideration for starting the No. 3 position as a rookie is his ability to force the restricted area with the ball.

Zhou Quan has broken through a lot and definitely needs to rest, and at this time Margeti took over the impact on the penalty area, he is a tactical supplement to Zhou Quan.

Now the average time per game is 25 to 28 minutes, but there are not many shots, the average is close to ten points per game, because he is Zhou Quan's tactical supplement, and there are no three points, so there are not many opportunities to shoot in the open position, most of them are holding the ball to break through the attack, but now the shooting rate is 47.8%, the ability to make fouls is good, and the performance is not bad.

Zhou Quan passed the ball to Cory Magetti and let him play big and small.

Margeti received the ball in his hand, arched after dribbling, and immediately turned to break through with the ball after knocking back Charlie Ward, and smashed into the paint from the right midfield.

A rookie, Ewing, who defended Campbell in the low post on the left wing, didn't return to the basket because there was still Larry Johnson under the basket.

Corimagetti's newborn calf was not afraid of tigers, and after closing the ball, he jumped towards Larry Johnson with the ball in his arms, and was then pulled down by his opponent.

"Tick!"

The referee blew the whistle and pointed at Larry Johnson.

Bill Wharton laughed and said: "Rookie has the ability to make fouls with one hand, and generally when the iron fist does not break through, he will do it." ”

Ranbir said disdainfully: "That's also because there are rules for the reasonable collision zone now, and he has the opportunity to do so." In our era, he would now lie on the floor, dare to rush the basket, and lie down. ”

Margeti made okay free throws, 75 percent shooting, and luckily hit two free throws.

The Knicks attacked, and Zhou Quan followed the madman.

Now the Knicks' first scoring point is mid-range shooting king Alan Houston, the second scoring point is the madman, the old and injured Ewing is the third scoring point, Larry Johnson is the fourth, and the backup center Marcus Camby is the fifth, which is the Knicks' five double-doubles in the regular season.

Houston averaged 19.7 points per game and Maniac 18.6 points, not much difference, the Maniac's shooting rate was 5 percentage points lower than the mid-range shooting king, but the Maniac was the one who broke through with the ball the most in this Knicks team, with the most lethality, and made a little more free throws than Ewing and was more threatening, so Zhou Quan chose to defend him.

With Zhou Quan's defensive deterrence, Charlie Ward, who was in possession of the ball, did not dare to pass the ball over, but handed it to Alan Houston on the right wing.

Houston received the ball and swayed from side to side, and after Barry's center of gravity moved, he quickly dribbled the ball behind and moved a step to the right, and then pulled up.

The traversal speed of the mini-bari is average, half a beat slower, and the cap is too late.

"Brush!"

The water splashed and hit the three-pointer.

"Oh roar!"

Madison Square Garden resounded with enthusiastic cheers.

Bill Wharton laughed: "The king of the pitch has already established himself here. ”

"Traitors in Detroit." Ranbir dismisses authenticity.

"Huh!" Bill Wharton couldn't help but laugh.

Supersonic attack, Zhou Quan came to the top of the arc, saw Margeti go deep into the left wing, and was very active, in order not to hit the enthusiasm of the rookie, he passed the ball over.

Margeti was very excited after receiving the ball, and he smashed past Charlie Ward to break inside.

Ewing chose to defend back this time, but the movement speed was far less than before, and he was a step slower.

After Margeti was running, Larry Johnson, who was facing the basket, jumped up again.

"Damn rookie!"

Larry Johnson's injury was so bad that he was even considering retirement, and in the face of the impact of the strong Margety, he didn't dare to fight in the air anymore, adjusted his feet, and jumped off the side to block it.

"Bang!"

The rookie ignored Larry Johnson's block and smashed the ball into the basket with his strong upper body strength and holding the opponent's hand.

"Tick!"

The referee blew for a second foul on Larry Johnson, this time for a thug.

"Oh! The aunt was beaten by the rookie with a two-plus-one, and she was fouled twice at the beginning. Bill Wharton said in surprise.

"These two fouls have no value, and this '91 champion is not even as good as a finger of the Iron Fist King. Stupid Knicks management, who ate Larry Johnson's 100 million dollar contract, was the biggest mistake. Ranbir said dismissively.

"Shet!"

Being on the head by a rookie, Larry Johnson's face is very ugly, but there is nothing to be done, who made him injured?

"Corey, good job." Zhou Quan came over and encouraged.

"Yes, Boss." Margeti said excitedly.

In this game, Margeti became the brightest star of the SuperSonics, playing the first highlight of his rookie season.

Zhou Quan frequently gave him the ball, and he constantly attacked the Knicks' restricted area, shooting 10 of 18, shooting 55.6%, 9 of 12 free throws, shooting 75%, hitting a game-high 29 points, helping the SuperSonics beat the Knicks and won the best of the game.

Winning this game, the SuperSonics' record became 34-9.

The Lakers, on the other hand, lost in a losing streak and lost to the Jazz on the road, 33-9.

In this way, the SuperSonics' regular season record surpassed the Lakers by half a win, topped the West and the league.

Then, for the rest of January, the SuperSonics beat the Nets and Bucks to go 36-9.

The Lakers, on the other hand, beat the Bucks first and then lost to Mosaic, with a 34-10 record, and the difference between the SuperSonics and the SuperSonics has widened to 1.5 games.

On Feb. 28, the league announced the end of All-Star voting.

Zhou Quan created another miracle, receiving another 6.61 million votes this year, following 4.41 million votes in '97.

This number of votes far exceeds the all-time voting record of All-Stars in the four major commercial sports leagues in North America.

The NFL opened online voting last year, setting the league's highest All-Star voting record of 4.25 million votes, which is less than the number of votes in Zhou Quan's 97 years.

David Stern is ecstatic about the statistic, as are the owners of the teams, and the most popular sports superstar in the country is in the NBA, and they believe the NBA will return to glory.

The major media got the all-star voting results in advance, and Zhou Quan made the front page headlines of the major media that morning, all accompanied by the three huge Arabic numerals "661".

And Vince Carter, who finished second in the first week, also received 1.91 million votes, which surpassed Michael Jordan's highest All-Star votes and was widely praised by the media.

The third is Mourning, with 1.87 million votes.

Fourth is Iverson with 1.84 million votes.

The fifth is O'Neill, with 1.8 million votes.

Suddenly, under the hype of the media, Vince Carter, who is good at dunking, has become the second signboard in the NBA league, and his popularity is only under Zhou Quan.

The other three All-Stars, who have more than 1.8 million votes, have also garnered a lot of attention.

The league also announced its 2000 All-Star roster.

Western starting All-Stars: O'Neal, Duncan, Garnett, Kobe, Zhou Quan.

Western Conference Substitute All-Stars: David Robinson, Karl Malone, Chris Webb, Rasheed Wallace, Jason Kidd, Michael Finley, John Stockton.

Eastern Conference starting All-Stars: Alonzo Mourning, Grant Hill, Vince Carter, Iverson, Gary Payton.

Eastern Conference Substitute All-Stars: Mutombo, Ray Allen, Eddie Jones, Alan Houston, Reggie Miller, Jerry Starkerhouse, Dale Davis.

……

On February 1, the league announced last month's best of the month and MVP rankings.

Zhou Quan won the Monthly Award for the second time this season and his 11th Monthly Awards.

At the same time, because his record surpassed the Lakers, he also surpassed O'Neal and topped the official MVP rankings.

After the MVP list was announced, he made a phone call to O'Neal and joked: "Shark, I've been waiting for a long time, why didn't you call me?" Didn't you call me every time this time in the first two months? ”

"Why should I call you?" O'Neill said depressedly.

"Shark, run into Sabonis and Rasheed Wallace, you lose. When you run into the postman, you lose too. Even if you are too old to run, you dare to lose? You still lose against Spurs. Anyway, if you run into a slightly better insider, you'll lose it all. Shark, aren't you okay? Zhou Quan continued to tease.

"What I can't do, I can do it!"

Hearing the last sentence, O'Neill was almost furious.

"Haha......" Zhou Quan laughed.

"Doodoo ......"

O'Neill hung up the phone in annoyance.

At this time, Whithitt suddenly received a trade offer from the Spurs.

"'96 second-round pick No. 15 small forward Marik Cross, single for Bruce Bowen." He pinched the quotation and muttered for a moment.

The Spurs are strong on the inside, not very good on the outside, especially the No. 2 position, which is not even a main point guard, and several role players rotate to play the starter.

But the Spurs' No. 3 position is also average, the main small forward Mario Elie is almost 37 years old, and he is about to retire, and the No. 3 position is unavailable.

"Popovich is taking a fancy to Bowen's defense? Hehe! ”

Without much thought, he would never have been able to bolster the Spurs with his own players, who are now the SuperSonics' most formidable rivals.

"Say no, and tell Mr. Popovich that Bowen is not for sale." He threw the quote on the table and said to the assistant.

"Poof!"

The assistant burst into laughter.

"He's not for sale? A lost draft that no one wants, a broken base salary player, hell not for sale! Receiving a reply from the supersonic, Popovich couldn't help but curse.

February 3 is the trade deadline for this season, and on Thursday of week 16, before the trade deadline, many teams made their final trades.

After rejecting the Spurs, Whithit received several more offers.

The Pistons have their eye on Ben Wallace, the Magic have their eye on Corey Maggetty, and the Bulls have their eye on Brad Miller.

The chips were low, and it was intended to pick up leaks in his hands, so these transactions were vetoed by him as a trader.

The three young players combined for a combined annual salary of only two million, and although they have all shown some potential in the past three months, the trade value is too small, and it is not the best time to trade at this time.

Especially Ben Wallace, this is a treasure that has been picked up, and the big shark can carry it, he can't find a better center at all, how can he trade it?

On February 3rd, the trading deadline, the trading window closed.

……

(End of chapter)