Eight Hundred and Thirty-Eight. Western Conference Finals Part 1
In May, it is already the hot summer, but Chinese players are like celebrating the New Year. The Western Conference Finals between the Emperor and the Grizzlies VS Yao Ming is about to begin!
In the current playoff situation, no matter whether the Mavericks or the Grizzlies enter the finals, the Eastern Conference teams can't stop them.
On the evening of May 17, the Bulls, who returned to their home court, defeated the 76ers 92-81 to win the seventh game and advance to the Eastern Conference Finals. The teams for the Eastern and Western Conference Finals are all out.
Judging from the regular season match between the Heat and the Bulls, the Heat has a clear advantage in strength.
The Bulls led by Rose have a better record than the Heat, and his MVP ranking is higher than James, but this does not mean that the Bulls are better than the Heat, nor does it mean that Rose is better than James.
The Heat started on the right track in December and played a record of 50 wins and 14 losses. From December to the end of the regular season, the Heat was the best team in the East, but it was only 8 wins and 10 losses at the beginning that dragged them down.
As for the individual performance of the regular season star player, Rose's MVP ranking is higher, but James and Sun Ce have three monthly best players, Rose only once, and Howard is the second best player in the East, with two monthly best players.
When James led the Heat to defeat the old rival Celtics, although his reputation was still not redeemed, people had to admit that his decision was right.
If there were no Wade and Bosh, he would have stayed in the Cavaliers with a bunch of teammates who had become premium players for whatever reason, and it would still be difficult to beat the Celtics, and he might even be surpassed by the Bulls and 76ers.
However, whether it is the Heat or the Bulls, they have no chance of winning in the finals, whether facing the Mavericks or the Grizzlies. The performance of these two teams in the playoffs is obviously better than that of the Heat and the Bulls.
So, Chinese fans are so excited about this situation!
Whether Sun Ce and Yi Jianlian win, or Yao Ming wins, there is a high probability that Chinese players will win the NBA championship as the main force or even the core!
This is not comparable to the previous Battelle and Sun Yue, who have never established a foothold in the NBA.
As early as 12 o'clock on the night when the Grizzlies advanced to the Western Conference Finals, the Grizzlies began pre-selling tickets for the first two games of the Western Conference Finals, which destined Memphis to become a Chinatown in the next period of time.
Now the way to buy NBA tickets has quickly changed from buying tickets by phone to buying tickets online. In terms of Internet speed, China is not as fast as the non-monopolistic private Internet speed in the United States, but in terms of penetration rate, the United States is far behind China. China covers the Internet as much as possible wherever there are people living.
Moreover, China has a large population... The Grizzlies arranged a total of 18,300 seats for the Western Conference Finals this year, of which more than 17,900 seats are for sale, of which 70% are online sales, and the remaining 30% are reserved for local fans.
Then, when it came to the time to grab tickets, it was early in the morning in the United States and noon in China. At this time, domestic fans actually had the "time difference advantage", and almost half of the tickets sold online were snatched by Chinese fans! And Asian countries also grabbed a lot of tickets.
Even some fans from China and Asian countries and regions who didn't get tickets came to Memphis. On the 18th, the day before the opening game of the Western Conference Finals, a large number of Chinese and Asian faces poured into Memphis. Since Chinese people accounted for the majority, they were directly regarded by the American media as all Chinese people...
On the 18th, according to data released by the US Immigration Bureau, the number of foreign tourists who were supposed to stay in Memphis this year exceeded 500,000, including more than 400,000 Chinese fans and nearly 100,000 fans from Asian countries and regions.
Together with fans from North America and Europe, the tourism industry in Memphis and surrounding cities has reached its peak in history.
Fortunately, when the Grizzlies made it to the second round last year, the Memphis City Hall and the Tennessee State Assembly had already had experience and were preparing before the start of the playoffs. The previous series against the Lakers was already very popular. In half a month, more than 100,000 Chinese tourists stayed in Memphis. The Tennessee State Assembly vigorously contacted local residents to operate homestays. Some people even vacated their homes as homestays and slept on the floor in the church. Although several cities in the entire Memphis metropolitan area were busy, they also made a lot of money!
According to Fox Business Channel, during this year's playoffs, the total tourism revenue brought by the Grizzlies alone in the Memphis metropolitan area will exceed 4.5 billion US dollars.
The income from accommodation, transportation, food and various attractions is the pinnacle of the city of Memphis in history.
Although this seems to have nothing to do with the Grizzlies, it is bound to make the Memphis City Hall and the Tennessee State Assembly pay more attention to the Grizzlies. In this era when the Internet is becoming more and more developed and the gap in city size is becoming more and more blurred, the league will also pay more attention to the team with Sun Ce.
Moreover, compared with Dallas, which has serious racial issues, Chinese fans are more willing to come to Memphis to watch the game.
To sum up, the biggest beneficiary of these things is Sun Ce.
In the view of the Grizzlies management, the tourism craze caused by Sun Ce's entry into the playoffs will definitely promote the changes in the rookie renewal terms they want.
On the day of the tourism craze, the Grizzlies and Mavericks came to the FedEx Center for the last day of preparation.
The Mavericks have experienced a lot of ups and downs, and the Grizzlies have 3 days less rest time than the Mavericks.
However, for the Mavericks, this little bump can be overcome with a smile. Veteran superstars like Kidd and Nowitzki have played for so many years and even played in the finals. They have long been accustomed to such situations, and there are actually ways to avoid it. The Grizzlies did not open the stadium for them to train until the end of the Eastern Conference Finals at the time stipulated by the league. They could have come to Memphis on the 17th and started training on the 18th. There would be nothing wrong. It was their boss who wanted to stimulate the Lakers and brought the team to Memphis too early.
After a day of preparation, press conferences, and interviews, on May 19, the first game of the Western Conference Finals between the Grizzlies and the Mavericks arrived!
After another day of preparation, Sun Ce and his teammates suppressed their excitement and took the pre-match warm-up seriously.
According to Paul, Paul slipped and injured his knee, which was not just as simple as slipping and fatigue.
According to the Knicks trainer, Paul's warm-up before each game was extremely perfunctory, which led to constant minor injuries. Although most fans and media regarded the Knicks trainer's statement as a scapegoat, they would rather believe that it was caused by the Knicks' poor recruitment of role players.
But for the players, it is better to believe it than not, and the warm-up is not perfect, there will indeed be dangers in this regard, and the state is secondary, because the probability of injury increases due to the failure to do what should be done, which is unacceptable for players with strong self-discipline.
Most of the Grizzlies players have good self-discipline, and those who are not self-disciplined, like Mayo, have been cleared out long ago.
This is a team culture. Of course, the foundation for establishing a team culture is that they have become stronger year by year in the past two years. If they are in a bad team, it is impossible to cultivate such a rigorous team culture. At best, they will maintain the desire to win like the Warriors, even if they are weak.
…
On May 19, at 7:10 in the evening, Sun Ce and his teammates entered the court after warming up.
The first players to appear were the Mavericks. With the presence of Yao Ming, the Mavericks almost plundered all the Rockets' domestic fan resources. When Kidd, the second-in-command of the team, appeared for the first time, the fans cheered everywhere.
The pure Grizzlies fans were speechless. Those Chinese were too good at grabbing tickets. If there were not five or six thousand tickets for local fans, they would not be able to grab any tickets.
Then DeShawn Stevenson appeared. Many Grizzlies fans did not know this player very well. They only knew that he was a bad mouth. However, the Chinese fans cheered very loudly, just like Vazquez, who had not played much in the Grizzlies, was very well-known in China. The domestic fans of each Mavericks player could tell his resume like a treasure.
After the two guards appeared, the Mavericks center came out.
Sun Ce was in the home team's player channel, listening to the fans cheering for the tallest big man on the opposite side. He was very upset: Whose home court is this? What are so many domestic fans doing? The traffic has become congested. There is a traffic jam when you go out early in the morning!
In comparison, although Sun Ce is destined to surpass Yao Ming in terms of NBA honors, even if he retires after playing this year, his personal honors are still beyond Yao Ming's reach. However, for Chinese basketball and the expansion of the NBA overseas market, Sun Ce may never be better than Yao Ming in his life. Yao Ming is the pioneer of Chinese basketball going global, and Sun Ce is the one who enjoys the dividends brought by Yao Ming.
In the minds of domestic fans, even if Sun Ce is destined to be stronger, Yao Ming is the greatest one.
When Yao Ming came on the court, the cheers reached the peak when the visiting players came on the court.
Marion and Nowitzki also received a lot of cheers when they came on the court.
Finally, when the visiting players finished their appearances, the DJ on the scene was speechless. He really didn't expect that at least more than 10,000 fans on the scene were Asian faces.
The spotlight was on the entrance of the home team's player channel, and the DJ immediately played the Japanese song that all Memphis basketball fans could hum. After a season, some local fans even regarded it as a Chinese dialect and directly regarded a certain island as part of China.
When the two emperors led their substitute teammates out of the player tunnel with a new look, the Chinese fans who came to watch the game were all wet with tears. Seeing this scene with their own eyes was more tear-jerking than watching the live broadcast on TV. It was a memory of my youth...
Just the hair color of the two stunned the fans at the scene. There was a grassland on their heads!
Sun Ce was stunned when he saw the new hair color of the two people during training yesterday. These two people are not only at the forefront of fashion, but they are simply going to lead children astray. How dare humans use this hair color?
Jordan's pure green is okay, but what is Yi Jianlian's red circle around and green on his head?
Home court is still home court after all. When Sun Ce, as the second in command of the team, led the team out of the player tunnel, the fans at the scene began to cheer. This time, even the pitiful 6,000 local spectators began to cheer.
Especially seeing Sun Ce's stinky expression, the Chinese and Asian fans who have long been accustomed to Sun Ce's personality tried their best to cheer louder than when they cheered for Yao Ming, to make Sun Ce happy.
What if this guy is unhappy and hits Yao Ming?
The Lakers are a lesson for us!
Sun Ce's new hairstyle has caused heated discussions again.
However, Sun Ce's new hairstyle is not for any reason. He simply shaved the rest of his hair short after his hairline grew a little bit again. The half-centimeter hair was shaved into a round head similar to Ikkyu's.
After the players of both teams came out, they had a friendly exchange before the game. The reporters took photos and the fans took photos with their mobile phones.
The exchange between Sun Ce and Yao Ming was very concise. Now they were opponents, and it was not the regular season, but the playoffs where they were eliminated after losing 4 games. There was no so much small talk.
However, from the moment he entered the court, Sun Ce felt a gaze that seemed to want to eat people. After searching for a long time, he found that it was Cuban, the owner of the Mavericks who came to the scene with the team to watch the game...
Cuban didn't know how much he had been angry these days. He wanted to stimulate the Lakers. Whether he succeeded or not was not important. Since he led the team to Memphis, he began to be teased by local fans. Even the police could find "reasonable reasons" to find fault with them. Although this did not affect their preparations, rest was more important to the Mavericks than training. Memphis was beautiful after all, and it was better to rest than in Dallas.
But he was angry! He wanted to "help" the Grizzlies, but was targeted by the Grizzlies fans.
And the media in Dallas were also laughing at him...
He had planned to secretly ask people to fan the flames among the fans when he went back, so that the Grizzlies could enjoy the enthusiasm of the fans when they went to Dallas to play away games, but that guy blocked him with a tweet!
Now if the Grizzlies go to Dallas and are harassed by fans, even if he didn't fan the flames and he did nothing, the media would blame him! Instead, he had to find a way to prevent the Grizzlies from suffering the same fate...
Sun Ce didn't care when he found out that the evil eyes came from the owner of the opponent. He came to the sidelines to take photos with the stars and celebrities who came to watch the game.
Zooey and Wang Keying were chatting with Scarlett Johansson. After Sun Ce took photos with others, the three of them and a beautiful girl Sun Ce didn't know came up to take photos together.
The thick eyebrows that were unique to Shin-chan were too eye-catching.
Scarlett Johansson saw Sun Ce staring at the girl with his eyes wide open, and shouted: "boy."
This word scared Sun Ce, and he quickly said: "Your friend's eyebrows... are really special. Have you seen Crayon Shin-chan?"
"Crayon Shin-chan? I'll take a look when I have time, but this is a friend brought by Chloe, we just met..."
Scarlett Johansson hasn't finished speaking yet, Wang Keying exclaimed: "It really looks like it! Lord, if you didn't tell me, I wouldn't have noticed it. This is Lily Collins, my schoolmate, a classmate of news broadcasting. The tickets I asked you for are for her. Don't make fun of her eyebrows..."
Sun Ce's tone really sounded like he was teasing someone else's eyebrows. Wang Keying, who had been paying attention to Sun Ce's eyes, could feel this, because Sun Ce was staring at Lily Collins' face, and when Lily Collins looked back, Sun Ce didn't even blink, which means that Sun Ce didn't look at the other person's eyes at all, just like the trick to looking at each other without blinking is to look at the other person's nose.
However, Lily Collins was not angry. She had been teased and even laughed at because of her thick eyebrows since she was a child, especially as a second-generation star, she had always been treated differently.
Lily Collins now needs the camera. The importance of the Chinese film market in the American film industry is increasing, and it is almost as important as the local market. Lily Collins extended her hand very friendly: "Hello, Lord, I'm Lily."
Sun Ce gently shook the other's fingers and said, "Sorry, I'm not teasing you. You look like the anime character I like, and his eyebrows are also very distinctive."
"I'll watch the anime you mentioned when I have time. I also admire my eyebrows." Lily Collins squeezed her Crayon Shin-chan-style eyebrows.
...
After a brief chat, the three female stars who are now and will be in Hollywood took photos with Zu Ge and Sun Ce, and then Sun Ce returned to the home team bench to make final pre-match preparations.
The game was getting closer and closer, and Sun Ce was getting more and more excited, even more excited than when he played against the Lakers.
Although the Mavericks were ridiculously strong, Sun Ce did not have any so-called fear, but wanted to play against them.
This emotion became stronger and stronger as the game was about to start.
In a game, of course, playing against a strong enemy makes people more eager to play. Fans like to watch strong teams compete, and players naturally want to play as a strong team against other strong teams.
The last preparation time before the game was over, and when Sun Ce walked to the technical table to wipe the magnesium powder, the system prompt came!
"The divisional finals are approaching, and the O'Brien Cup is just around the corner. The S-level event Attack of the Little Overlord Phase 8 event: Champion Journey Prequel is triggered."
"Champion Journey Prequel:
Goal: The host needs to help the team reach the finals.
Event rewards: 1. Get a random star experience card for the star player of the top four teams in the playoffs. 2. Start the final event of this event: Champion Journey.
If the event of this stage fails, this event ends and the comprehensive score of this event will be entered."
"The host has helped the team reach the divisional finals, and the S-level event Bear King Road Phase 6 event: Our Champion is triggered."
"Our Champion:
Goal: The host needs to help the team win the first NBA championship in team history.
Event rewards: Michael Jordan 1990-1991 version of the star experience card.
Note: There is no failure penalty for this stage event, and the host has no time limit during his playing time with the Grizzlies. The overall score of the event in this stage will be raised by a small level after completing it."
"Oh my god..."
Sun Ce looked at the two events that suddenly appeared, and both rewards were so tempting.
Jordan's first championship star experience card, no doubt, this is the strongest star experience card in basketball history so far!
This year's playoffs top four team star experience card... If you get it, there is a 50% chance of getting one of Nowitzki and Yao Ming.
But the former has to make it to the finals, and the latter the championship...
Ignoring this incident for the time being, Sun Ce walked onto the court and watched Battier jump the ball in the center circle.
Sun Ce didn't think about those negative things. In his opinion, playing against a team like the Mavericks in the Western Conference Finals is the most enjoyable thing, and those negative things are completely unnecessary.
Playing in the Western Conference Finals has exceeded their expectations before the season. Although the goal was to get through the second round at the beginning, it is much more difficult to enter the Western Conference Finals than the Eastern Conference Finals.
No matter whether the opponent is strong or weak, Sun Ce plans to fight hard with his teammates, so that this season will not be in vain!
Let everyone see their progress! They have entered the Western Conference Finals!
Thinking of this, Sun Ce squatted down and touched the floor in the stunned eyes of the fans at the scene and the fans in front of the TV. The hairstyle that was almost bald and the number 3 behind him...