Chapter 79: Wang Chong’s Nemesis—Garnett

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patreon.com/Chuga320 (Have more than 10 additional chapters)

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No matter what, since the system task has been released, Wang Chong must do everything he can to complete it.

The 2004 All-Star Weekend will be held on February 14th. Now that we have just entered January of 2004, Wang Chong still has nearly a month and a half to prepare for the Rookie Challenge.

At the same time, at the end of December, voting for the All-Star election also began.

Teams across the league began cheering for their stars to win votes during breaks in the game.

Among them, O'Neal of the Lakers team had the loudest voice and was the most hardworking.

There is no way. Last season at the All-Star Game, O'Neal personally experienced what Chinese power is.

As a first-year rookie, Yao Ming, with an average of only 13+8 points per game, led O'Neal in the All-Star voting by 240,000 votes, taking away O'Neal's All-Star starting position.

That was the second time O'Neal played as an All-Star substitute after entering the league. The previous time he was squeezed to the All-Star bench by Hakeem Olajuwon.

Losing to Olajuwon would have been fine, as Olajuwon already had two championship rings and a regular season MVP. O'Neal had nothing to his name and had just joined the Los Angeles Lakers, so it was not surprising that he lost to Olajuwon in popularity in the Western Conference.

Moreover, since then, O'Neal has dominated the interior of the Western Conference and even the entire league, and has been the starting center of the Western Conference All-Stars for several consecutive years until the arrival of the little giant from China in the 02-03 season.

O'Neal was very upset and unwilling to accept that he lost to Yao Ming in the All-Star voting.

Although Yao Ming is very famous, his ability is not as good as mine. Why should he be a substitute for the opponent in the All-Star Game?

Therefore, when the All-Star voting started this year, O'Neal was very active in voting for himself, and even performed much more actively in the game, averaging a luxurious data of 30+15 in many consecutive games.

Unfortunately, he didn't know that his efforts were doomed to be in vain.

Yao Ming was still the starting center for the Western Conference All-Star Game in the 03-04 season, and O'Neal still lost in the voting. In the following years, after O'Neal moved east to join the Heat, he never won more votes than Yao Ming in the All-Star voting.

To be precise, as long as Yao Ming stayed healthy and could play in the All-Star Game, his position as the starting center in the Western Conference would always be as stable as a rock and unshakable!

As a top star in China, such a presence is a must.

After the results of the first round of voting were announced in early January, O'Neal was very depressed to find that despite his efforts, he was still overshadowed by Yao Ming in the voting.

Not only that, his teammate Kobe received far more votes than him in the first round of voting.

This undoubtedly made O'Neal even more sad.

Last season, Kobe beat him in the All-Star voting and even became the All-Star vote leader.

But this season, the Eagle County incident clearly ruined his reputation, so why are there so many fans supporting this guy?

O'Neal couldn't figure it out. Of course, he didn't understand that Stern would not let Kobe, a high-quality idol whose playing style is very similar to Jordan, collapse easily. This is a commercial league, and Kobe's ability to attract money is currently among the top ranks. Making money is not shabby.

What is more surprising is that Wang Chong also received a high number of votes in the first round of voting, ranking fourth among Western Conference forwards, only behind Garnett, Duncan and rookie Anthony of the same year, and higher than Nowitzki of the Mavericks and Malone of the same team.

It's just a pity that just from the first round of voting, it is certain that Wang Chong has no chance of being selected as an All-Star starter.

Because the players occupying the first two forward positions are so capable.

Kevin Garnett and Tim Duncan, these two guys fought like gods, leaving all other forwards in the Western Conference far behind.  

In the first round of voting alone, the votes of these two people are nearly three times higher than that of Anthony, who is in third place! It is much higher than Yao Ming's first round of votes.

It is basically a foregone conclusion that these two will be selected for the Western Conference All-Star starting lineup.

Wang Chong was deeply impressed. In the 03-04 season, the final vote counts in the Western Conference from high to low were Garnett, Kobe, Duncan, and then Yao Ming.

Even Yao Ming, whose popularity in China has reached a phenomenal level, is like this, let alone Wang Chong.

If there is no chance to be selected as an All-Star starter, it will be difficult for him to be selected as an All-Star reserve unless something unexpected happens. After all, the All-Star reserves are voted by all the coaches in the league, and the coaches also have an unwritten rule that they will not consider first-year rookies.

Therefore, in the 03-04 All-Star Game, neither James nor Anthony were selected, even though their votes ranked within the top ten in the East and West respectively, and their popularity was higher than that of most All-Star substitutes.

Fortunately, Wang Chong was not very interested in the All-Star Game. After all, the game did not involve system tasks for the time being.

All his attention has been drawn to the Rookie Challenge. Nothing is more important than completing system tasks and getting rewards.

In January, the Lakers suffered a wave of injuries. O'Neal and Malone missed the game due to injuries, and Kobe also missed many games due to the same old personal reasons. As a result, in some important games, the Lakers only had two starting players, Payton and Wang Chong.

On January 6, the Lakers lost 96:106 to the Timberwolves on the road. Facing the Timberwolves led by Garnett, only Kobe on the Lakers scored more than 20 points.

Garnett, who scored 26 points, 18 rebounds and 6 assists, broke through the Lakers' inside line without O'Neal and Malone, and also taught Wang Chong a good lesson.

Wang Chong, who had hardly encountered any setbacks in previous competitions, was completely defeated for the first time.

In the future, many people have imagined who can stop a killer like Durant who is almost unstoppable on the offensive end.

Some people think that Leonard in his prime can limit Durant, but more people believe that Garnett in his prime is Durant's real nemesis.

In terms of static talent, Garnett, with a real height of over 2.14 meters and a wingspan of 2.24 meters, is no worse than Durant. In terms of dynamic talent, Garnett is even better than Durant. In terms of speed, strength, jumping ability, and explosiveness, Garnett can completely surround Durant.

As a player who is known to be able to defend from the first position to the fifth position, Garnett's defense has always been recognized as the top level in history. He was selected to the All-Defensive Team twelve times in his career and was elected DPOY Best Defensive Player, which is the best proof of this.

After playing against Garnett, Wang Chong felt that the argument that peak Garnett could limit Durant was absolutely well-founded.

Because when Garnett stood in front of him, the strong defensive pressure even made Wang Chong unable to play the ball.

The mid-range jump shot that he relied on for survival was easily blocked in front of Garnett.

Off-ball movement and pick-and-roll have little effect against Garnett, who is more mobile than him.

As a result, Wang Chong made 2 of 8 shots in this game, scored only 6 points, and was blocked twice by Garnett, which was quite miserable.

End of this chapter

Note: I will continue uploading as promised 4-5 chapters every day until 100, after 100 1-2 per day, with stones, reviews, and collections I will upload more don't worry.