Chapter 612 [Xingxiu Laoxian, Taiyang Temple]
Stern convened a meeting with league officials, and everyone almost unanimously agreed that Kobe was going to be in big trouble.
Kobe forgot that Yang Rui was a major shareholder of Facebook, and Buss Jr. was slow to respond and did nothing. However, Stern and others knew how deep Yang Rui's background was, because the two sides cooperated very happily.
The Facebook website has a dedicated NBA section and has purchased the rights to broadcast online games. Much of the league's publicity is conducted through Facebook.
If Yang Rui wants to smear someone, that person will have no chance of survival. Facebook’s pop-up news, video bombing, and ability to guide online public opinion are better than the three major cable TV networks in the United States. However, Yang Rui just criticized Kobe a few times during the interview, leaving some room for it, which gave the league face.
Even without the background, officials feel that Yang Rui is better than Kobe. They all know how difficult it is for a team to achieve 70 wins in the regular season. Yang Rui has done it three times himself. And whichever team he joins, the team will be able to successfully rebuild immediately and compete for the championship. It is so strong that it is a bit evil.
What about Kobe? Before Yang Rui coached, he was simply possessed by a god of decline. His only personal honor was the scoring champion. In terms of popularity, he never won the All-Star vote. The only championship he won was said to be because of O'Neal's thigh. Because of the Eagle County incident, his image was greatly damaged and he was sold by Adidas and others. Endorsement companies have terminated their contracts. On the court, Kobe performed poorly in three Finals and was brutally beaten by the Raptors.
In this meeting, what they discussed was not to continue to praise Kobe, but to worry that Yang Rui would stop playing if he got excited and use Facebook to say bad things about the NBA, which would be really fatal. Yang Rui can do this. His family has a big business. If he is not a coach, he can also develop Facebook, invest in movies, and there are many things to do.
Thomas Bentley, Yang Rui’s brother, made news when he customized a luxury yacht, the Serenity, which is the largest in the world. The cost of one boat can wipe out Kobe Bryant’s entire net worth. With people like this, what can Kobe fight against?
After the discussion, Stern decided to communicate with Yang Rui through Facebook to test his tone. It took a lot of effort for Kobe to gain his current popularity, and they were unwilling to give up easily.
Yang Rui doesn’t want to offend the league severely, unless he completely withdraws from the NBA in the future. Even Facebook is unwilling to give up such a big piece of cake, and cooperation is just making money.
Therefore, Yang Rui expressed his stance to Stern and said that he would give Kobe three chances. Before the end of the regular season, he will give Kobe one last chance. As long as he is willing to apologize and repent, the Lakers will be fine. If he cannot be caught, it will prove that this person is hopeless. I suggest the alliance stop praising him.
Even if a mentally retarded person is cast as the protagonist, he still has to find someone like Guo Jing and Xu Zhu, right? Kobe's character can be compared to the old monster Xingxiu in martial arts novels. He is arrogant and arrogant, and there is always a group of people behind him waving flags and shouting: "Old Immortal Xingxiu has boundless magic power, is invincible in every attack, and is invincible in all battles"!
After understanding Yang Rui's bottom line, Stern wanted to make peace and sent someone to contact Kobe during the All-Star Game to ask him to surrender quickly.
Unfortunately, the alliance's efforts are doomed to be in vain.
Kobe is as stubborn as Batman in the comics. This kind of person will stick to his beliefs, even if his beliefs are wrong.
How far will Batman go to stick to his beliefs? No matter how bad a criminal is, I will not kill him, I will only arrest him and put him in jail. Even if there were problems with the law and the bad guy was released within a few days and he killed 10,000 civilians, including all of my subordinates, I couldn't kill him.
This kind of person is crazy.
Kobe held back his energy and participated in the All-Star Game. Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle did not limit his playing time. Kobe was really playing, not performing. He scored 30 points, 8 rebounds and 2 assists, helping the Western Conference 146. Defeated the Eastern Conference with 119 and won the All-Star Game MVP.
Not only did Kobe not intend to bow to Yang Rui, he also wanted to use this method to prove his strength.
The extreme Komies were also very happy. They ridiculed Yang Rui on the Internet, as if he had won the MVP of this All-Star Game and his idol was the king of the world. Yang Rui, who was complaining about Kobe, was blind.
There are some Komies who will never give up until Kobe’s character is completely ruined.
After the All-Star Game, Kobe continued to stick to his style of play and compete for his fifth scoring title.
Originally, he was a little worried whether Yang Rui would talk to him again, or say bad things about him on Facebook as his agent said, affecting his image.
In the end, nothing happened. Yang Rui just asked Kobe to practice shooting alone during training, and arranged for Yao to be the offensive axis and lead the role players to practice tactics. Even if Kobe was singled out in the game, these tactics would not be possible.
This seems to isolate Kobe. The average player must communicate with Yang Rui and strive to return to the team. The arrogant Kobe is still angry with Yang Rui for publicly spitting on him, waiting for Yang Rui to coax him.
You come to coax me, so I will consider giving you face. If you ignore me, why should I care about you?
People with this kind of selfish mentality will find it difficult to get married if they are not rich and powerful, even if they are beautiful women, and they will be dumped after being played.
When the team is in internal strife, the record will inevitably deteriorate. If the players are not aligned, how can they cooperate smoothly?
The estrangement between Iguodala and Kobe was the most serious, and the two stopped talking.
Iguodala also has selfish motives. When he first joined the Lakers, he said that Kobe was his idol and wanted to gain a foothold in the Lakers as soon as possible and learn from Kobe to improve his strength.
What now? Kobe always treated him as a blue-collar player and rarely passed the ball to him. On the defensive end, the opponent's strongest scorer is usually guarded by Iguodala. It is said that Kobe needs to focus more on the offensive end. As a result, at the end of the regular season, Kobe Bryant was named to the All-Defensive Team, and Iguodala was not included. Mention.
The judges select the best defensive team based on popularity. Iguodala can't help it. Kobe can just thank him privately.
As a result, Kobe didn't even mention it. He was so much dragged into the team. Even when Iguodala was beaten by the super scorer, Kobe glared and yelled twice. This was too bullying.
Over time, even though Iguodala was recognized as an elegant person, he couldn't help but want to raise his middle finger to Kobe and yell - "Kobe, I am too! Yang! Ling! Tang"!
Jim Buss was driven by his father to communicate with Yang Rui and Kobe twice more. On the surface, he was trying to make peace, but in fact, he was still a little bit towards Kobe. His tone seemed to say: "He is just a child!"
Bass's bias came about unconsciously. Yang Rui has received countless praises during his five years with the Lakers, but Buss is rarely mentioned by the media. Most fans don't know that he has replaced Buss as the owner of this team. He was jealous of Yang Rui and resented that Yang Rui was too crazy.
Although Old Buss saw the hidden dangers, he was powerless and had no energy to take care of the Lakers' affairs. He could only let the situation develop.
On April 15, the regular season ended.
Kobe played an average of 38.7 minutes per game, took 23 shots per game, shot 45.3% from the field, and 34.6% from the three-point range. In addition to free throws, he scored 29.1 points, 5.4 rebounds, 4.6 assists, 1.2 steals, and 0.4 blocks, and finally ranked first in the scoring list. Two, the first is Dwyane Wade of the Heat.
Wade said in an interview during the season: "I am not pursuing any scoring title. If we lose in the playoffs, people will soon forget (this title). I like winning, and I want to place myself as a Being in a position where I can help the team win, I’m always fighting for a championship and I always want to win a championship.”
However, after all, the Heat lacked scoring points. In order to win, Wade could only increase his personal offense. He reluctantly averaged 22 shots per game. This was the only season in which he took more than 20 shots.
He averaged 38.6 minutes per game, shooting 49.1% from the field, a career-high 31.7% from three-point range, 1.1 field goals per game, 30.2 points, 5 rebounds, 7.5 assists, 2.2 steals and 1.3 blocks.