Fans did not watch the All-Star Game last season, so the atmosphere of this season's All-Star Game is extremely hot. There are still half an hour before the game starts, and many fans have already begun to enter the venue.

At this moment, Jiang Dongbing was sitting on the sidelines chatting with Eastern Conference head coach Larry Bird. The conversation was so hot that his words were flying. Bird was a talkative himself, so the conversation was endless.

Bird is currently in his third season coaching the Pacers, and the Pacers' results have always been quite good, ranking among the top three in the Eastern Conference.

Jiang Dongbing thinks Bird's coaching ability is quite good. With a lineup like the Pacers, he can still lead the team to achieve such results, which shows that he is still very talented in the coaching profession.

It's a pity that Jiang Dongbing remembered that Bird quit coaching forever after coaching this season.

"Jiang, after I finish coaching this season, I may have to take a back seat. How about it? Are you interested in coaching in Indiana?" Bird asked, hugging Jiang Dongbing's neck affectionately.

Seemingly intimate, Jiang Dongbing suspected that if he dared to say a word "no", Big Bird might break his neck.

Nowadays, Jiang Dongbing chats with various big guys in the league, and usually they can't talk for more than a few words. The other party will directly ask Jiang Dongbing to invite Jiang Dongbing to their team.

To say who is the real star in this league, it is not those players, but Jiang Dongbing.

If the players are strong, it can indeed help the team improve its strength, but the improvement is limited. At most, it can only raise the team to a higher level.

From a weak team to a playoff goalkeeper, or from a playoff goalkeeper to the second round of the playoffs or the conference finals, or from a playoff powerhouse to a finals contender, it is impossible to let a player

A weak team can directly become a championship team, something even Jordan couldn't do.

But if you can get Jiang Dongbing, it will be completely different. Was the Grizzlies considered a fish belly before the start of last season? It was definitely a fish belly. If you say that the Grizzlies are not a fish belly, you are definitely a fool.

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But it happened that such a weak team allowed Jiang Dongbing to win the championship directly in just one season. What a miraculous thing it was.

Which player can accomplish such a magical feat? Absolutely no one can do it.

A player as strong as O'Neal, a player of historical level, transferred from the Magic to the Lakers, but he could not help the Lakers win the championship.

Therefore, it is absolutely reasonable for the big players in the league to compete for Jiang Dongbing. Everyone knows that acquiring Jiang Dongbing means they can have countless top players.

With Jiang Dongbing, you have everything!

"Ahem, Larry, pay attention to your image, with so many fans watching?" Jiang Dongbing pulled Bird's arm away and coughed.

"Image? Do you think I'm the kind of person who pays attention to my image? When I'm playing ball, they call me redneck hillbilly? I don't really care." Bird grinned.

"Larry, do you think the West or the East will win this All-Star Game?" Jiang Dongbing asked curiously.

Bird shook his head directly and said, "Who knows, no matter who wins, I don't care. I just hope that this All-Star weekend will not affect the state of my players."

"We are still going to compete for the Eastern Conference championship and the championship this season. I hope my players will not be in as bad a state as last season."

Last season, the Pacers reached the Eastern Conference Finals. It was originally a great opportunity to reach the Finals. After all, the opponent's core player Ewing of the Knicks was injured? However, due to Miller's poor performance, they missed this opportunity in the end.

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This season the Pacers are making a comeback, but Bird actually doesn't want to come to the All-Star Weekend at all, nor does he want his players to participate.

Fans should be able to find that the All-Star Weekend is actually a hurdle. Some players may not be affected by the All-Star Weekend, but there are also some players whose standards before and after the All-Star Weekend are completely different.

"There should be nothing that can threaten your team in the Eastern Conference now? Don't worry, Larry, you will definitely make it to the finals this season." Jiang Dongbing said with a smile.

Under normal circumstances, this season's finals would be the Pacers versus the Lakers. In the end, the Lakers successfully won the championship with a score of 4:2.

But now the Lakers definitely have no hope of entering the finals, because they still have the Grizzlies as a mountain above their heads, so this year's finals opponents are likely to be the Grizzlies and Pacers.

After hearing Jiang Dongbing's words, Bird smiled, but then put on a mask of pain. He also felt that it would not be a big problem for the Pacers to reach the finals this year.

But then what? Facing the Grizzlies, what is the winning rate of the Pacers now? One percent? Not even one percent. Looking at the roster of this year's finals, Bird doesn't know how he can solve the Grizzlies' problem.

Five All-Star players.

Even excluding these five All-Star players, the Grizzlies' Artest, Ginobili and even Peja are also a huge problem for the Pacers.

The Pacers' main attacker, Reggie Miller, will definitely encounter Artest's strict defense. Bird is extremely worried that Miller will perform abnormally like last season.

It can be said that against the Grizzlies, the Pacers had no chance at all and had a 99% chance of being swept out by the opponent.

"Ginger, you are such a monster. I really don't understand how you managed to produce so many powerful players."

"If I meet you in this year's finals, I feel that there is basically no need to play this game."

"But as someone who has been there, I have to remind you that what Stern wants most now is to maintain the balance of the league. The two dynasties of the Bulls actually broke the balance."

"Now the Bulls have just established a dynasty. If you create another dynasty here, Stern will definitely not be happy."

"So you understand what I mean?" Bird said earnestly.

Jiang Dongbing nodded. Although Bird did not say it so straightforwardly, Jiang Dongbing fully understood what Bird meant, that is, Stern did not want a situation where one team in the league was dominant.

Especially for a team with low profitability like the Grizzlies, Stern would definitely not accept it if the Grizzlies were allowed to dominate.

The NBA is a business league, and the ultimate goal is to make money. Teams like the Lakers and Knicks win the championship. Compared with teams like the Grizzlies, if Stern were to choose, I'm afraid he would choose a hundred times, and he would definitely want the Lakers.

Or the Knicks win.

Now Bird's meaning is very obvious, which is to advise Jiang Dongbing not to do things too harshly. It is not impossible for the Grizzlies to win the championship, but don't do it to the detriment of other teams.

This is not to say that Bird is warning Jiang Dongbing not to win the championship this year, he is just telling Jiang Dongbing how to behave in this league as a person who has experienced it.

"Thank you, Larry, I will pay attention." Jiang Dongbing thanked him.

In fact, even if Bird didn't say it, Jiang Dongbing would be aware of these problems. For example, if he stayed with the Grizzlies for his entire coaching career, how many championships could he win with the Grizzlies? Ten or twenty?

By then, not to mention that Stern can't tolerate him, I'm afraid the owners of the other 28 teams in the league can't tolerate him either, and the fans may not even be able to tolerate him.

Then his only fate will definitely be to be completely banned by the league, and no team will hire him as their head coach.

In fact, Jiang Dongbing himself has plans in this regard. He cannot stay with the Grizzlies forever. However, the Grizzlies are the first NBA team to accept him. Jiang Dongbing also wants to repay the Grizzlies' goodwill.

But now that the owners of the Grizzlies have changed, and McCaw Jr. has made a lot of money from the transaction, Jiang Dongbing feels that he has given back what he should pay back. Maybe after this season, it is time to consider where to go.

"There is no need to say thank you to me. We have such a deep friendship, saying thank you would be too intrusive." Bird affectionately hugged Jiang Dongbing's shoulders again.

Jiang Dongbing smiled bitterly. If he remembered correctly, this was the second time he and Bird had chatted face to face. How could they have become very close friends? These old fritters were really able to talk a lot.

After a while, all-star players from the East and West began to enter.

Although there are many star players in the Grizzlies team, Jiang Dongbing couldn't help but sigh when he saw so many stars standing on the court.

The quality of All-Star players in recent years has been quite high, and many of them are superstars who will forever go down in NBA history. Especially here in the Western Conference, the lineup is really scary.

The starting lineup is O'Neal, Garnett, Jackson, Kidd and Billups, and there are two big guys like Duncan and Kobe on the bench. What a luxury.

The lineup in the Eastern Conference is even more impressive, with Iverson, Mourning, Carter, Grant Hill and Eddie Jones. Although the players on the bench are also famous, in terms of overall strength, the Eastern Conference is definitely not as good.

Western.

It can be said that as long as both sides perform normally, the Western Conference can actually win the Eastern Conference, which means that the All-Star MVP will definitely appear among the Western Conference players.

Jiang Dongbing first came on the court to shake hands with Bird, and then each left the court. After the referee blew the whistle, the starting players from both sides began to take the field.

The atmosphere at the scene immediately became high, and ten of the most popular and top stars in the league appeared on the stage!

Although there are actually very strong players on the bench, such as Duncan. If his strength is placed in the Eastern Conference, it would not be an exaggeration to say that he is the strongest player. However, because he did not get high enough votes, he could only be ranked as a substitute.

Jiang Dongbing actually didn't expect that Garnett would be more popular than Duncan, but the actual number of votes was there, so Jiang Dongbing couldn't help but not believe it.

Jiang Dongbing recalled the All-Star game voting in his memory. It seemed that most of the time, Garnett received more votes than Duncan, while Nowitzki, one of the three major centers, was always at the bottom of the vote...

"Come on, guys, although some of you may not care about the honor of All-Star MVP, but you still have to come on, because your teammates may care." Jiang Dongbing said to the five starters before the players took the field.

Several people couldn't help but wonder, do they care about the All-Star MVP? If they could get it, who wouldn't care? An extra honor for nothing is still better than nothing.

Although the value of All-Star MVP is not high, its importance is more impressive than the Player of the Month or Player of the Week. To say that you don't care at all is to completely deceive yourself.

…

The game on the field has begun. O'Neal won the jump ball with his old enemy Mourning, and the Western team sounded the horn of attack.

In the first offensive round, Billups passed the ball directly to Jackson, who then hit a three-pointer.

In the next offensive round of the Eastern team, Iverson held the ball alone, dodged and moved, and used his super breakthrough ability to score two points.

The two sides went back and forth, and the ten top players played lively on the court, which truly demonstrated what it means to have the Eight Immortals cross the sea and show their magical powers.

Jiang Dongbing sat on the sidelines and laughed out loud. Jackson has great hope of winning the All-Star MVP this time!

Don't forget the two-point guard combination in the backcourt of the Western Team. Billups keeps passing the ball to Jackson, and the other starting backcourt is Kidd!

Kidd doesn't attack much at all. Even if he has the ball in his hands, he will find an opportunity to pass it out. Compared with passing it to the inside players, it is definitely easier to pass it to Jackson who is on the outside.

This resulted in Jackson taking nearly two-thirds of the Western team's shots. Even if his shooting percentage was not particularly good, his scoring skyrocketed, far ahead of other players on the field.

O'Neal vomited acid in his heart with disgust. He felt that he and the Grizzlies were completely at loggerheads. As long as he was unlucky, there must be a Grizzlies, either a Grizzlies coach or a Grizzlies player.

With O'Neal's temperament, he is actually very interested in the All-Star MVP, but now he doesn't get many shooting opportunities at all on the court.

In addition, the opponent was his old enemy Mourning. After seeing him, it was like meeting the enemy who killed his father. He tried his best to fight against him, which made O'Neal extremely depressed...

Mourning's strength is definitely far inferior to O'Neal. Judging from the match records between the two, O'Neal has always been able to dominate Mourning in the game, regardless of whether it is offense, defense, or rebounding.

O'Neal once even scored 46 points and 20 rebounds on Mourning, of which 14 were offensive rebounds.

However, although Mourning is not as strong as O'Neal, it is not just a matter of mud. Because he has been compared with O'Neal, so as long as he meets O'Neal, Mourning will definitely strangle him with all his life, let alone the current situation.

At the moment when the whole world was watching, he cherished every opportunity to defeat O'Neal.

Mourning also knows very well that as long as O'Neal receives the ball, it will be difficult for him to defend O'Neal's offensive attack at the basket. After all, he is only 208 centimeters tall and is not a player like David Taillon, so Mourning simply uses it directly.

Go around and cut off other people's passes to O'Neal.

The two outside point guards didn't pass the ball to him, and now Mourning is fighting with him. It's no wonder that O'Neal can play comfortably. He is just following his teammates on the court and running back and forth...
Chapter completed!