After defeating the Wizards, the Suns returned home and faced another challenge from the Lakers.

Lao Wang accidentally injured his left index finger during a hand-to-hand fight with O'Neal and left the game midway, resulting in the loss of the game.

He will take a truce for about three games next, and the specific number of games will depend on his recovery.

However, this did not affect the All-Star voting. At the end of January, the voting ended and Lao Wang became the top vote-getter with 4.12 million votes.

This number of votes is the highest in NBA history, more than 2.6 million votes higher than the second-placed Kobe, who had just 1.5 million votes.

After Lao K and Jordan retired last year, Vince Carter, the All-Star voting champion, only had 1.47 million votes. Before Lao K retired, he was elected as the voting champion for many years, but at that time, the highest number of votes in a year would be 3 million. After his comeback,

Directly hit 4 million.

In New York, David Stern was in a daze holding a statistical table, his hands shaking a little.

"4.12 million?"

This is the reason why his hands are shaking. There are too many votes, even far exceeding the three consecutive championships of Old K.

What does this mean? Does it mean that the popularity of Lao K, who has come back, has increased instead of falling?

The old K, who is nearly 30 years old, is in such a violent state that he scores 4050 in a row, and his playing style is even more gorgeous than before, without losing the violence of the past, which is indeed very popular.

However, he felt that was not the case.

The reason why Lao K has such a crazy number of votes is because overseas voting channels were opened this year, which activated Lao K's popularity overseas.

In other words, he believed that Lao K was already so popular.

What appeared in front of him was Lao K's All-Star voting information. 35% of the votes came from North America, 29% from China, 8% from Japan, 5% from South Korea, and 23% from all over the world.

.

The number of votes in North America is just over 1.5 million, which is also more than Kobe's North American vote. What does it mean? It means that Old K is still the most popular superstar in the American basketball world. Kobe is sitting in the big ball market of Los Angeles, and the number of North American votes is not as good as that of Old K.

Kobe is the most popular of the four shooting guards this year.

42% of the votes came from Asia, and 65% of the votes came from overseas. This shows that Lao K’s popularity around the world has truly reached a world-class level.

What has he been pursuing for many years, isn't it to promote the NBA to the world? The domestic fan market is already dominated by football and baseball, and the NBA has limited development space. The only way out is to go global.

And now, he has a world-class active superstar in his hands.

However, this superstar is not an American. Many Americans are unwilling to let a Chinese become the number one in the league and the world.

Even he couldn't resist this kind of power.

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but smile bitterly.

Put down the information sheet in his hand, made a phone call, and said: "Announce it, let the people who oppose Old K see it, this is a giant dragon, they can't suppress it, even if overseas channels are closed, Old K's North American vote will still be

First in the league.”

"Yes, Mr. President."

…

At 9 a.m. on February 1, as the NBA announced the end of All-Star voting, countless people, including a large number of media, were shocked.

"God, Old K, you actually have four million votes?" Buckley called immediately, and his surprise could be heard from the tone of his voice.

"It's funny, I had three million votes the year before last, and this year it's just one million more. Let me tell you, our country's current network level is not very good. If it is comparable to the United States, I can get at least 100 million votes."

Wang boasted.

"One hundred million? Ouch!" Buckley cried out in pain and bit his tongue.

Then Dayao called and said with envy: "Brother, I only have more than one million votes, but you actually have four million. My God, I can't imagine it!"

"Dayao, you don't have to be envious, I am a legend and a myth!" Lao Wang continued to seize the opportunity to pretend to be 13.

Kobe also called and said dissatisfiedly: "Old K, you are actually twice as old as me?"

"You're so stupid. It's obviously 2.7 times. Can't the calculator in your phone make up for your IQ?" Lao Wang scolded with a smile.

"The dynasty we built together, why didn't anyone overseas vote for me? I only had less than 100,000 votes overseas." Kobe said unconvinced.

Lao Wang laughed and said: "Did you know that at least 200,000 girls in Japan voted for me and 100,000 girls in South Korea voted for me."

"Bragging, how do you know?" Kobe asked.

Lao Wang avoided answering and continued to brag: "Do you know why no one overseas voted for you? Because the girls only have me in their eyes. Who remembers you as a little stick? Only I can satisfy all their fantasies about men, haha

…”

"vomit!"

Kobe immediately vomited over there.

…

On the evening of January 20th, Lao Wang and Fei Ge called home.

The eldest sister and the second sister's due date are only one month apart. I want to say hello. Besides, the Chinese New Year is coming soon and Dabao is on winter vacation. I want to ask him if he wants to come to the United States.

"I won't go. I'm not used to life in the United States and I'm afraid I won't adapt to the local environment." When Dabao heard that he was asked to go to the United States, he quickly raised his voice and shouted.

"Don't you miss your parents and your sister?" Fei Ge said with some disappointment.

"What nonsense! You've been here for four years, how come I didn't notice that you were acclimated?" Lao Wang scolded.

"Brother, come here, I miss you!" Zhou Zhou shouted from the side.

"No, I won't come anyway," Dabao shouted.

"What, are you used to being around your second aunt? Don't you like living with your second aunt?" Fei Ge asked.

"Clang!"

There was an accent there, and then Dabao's voice disappeared.

"Run away, Dabao put down the phone and ran away."

Wang Aiguo picked up the phone and said: "It's vacation. He is staying at home now. He has been playing around for the past two days. He has not seen three meals a day, so he can only come back after sleeping."

"This little bastard, no wonder he doesn't want to come." Lao Wang cursed.

At this time, Sister Liu's voice sounded: "Tie Jun, Dabao is doing very well in studying. This time he got double hundred points in the test. I asked his second aunt to ask the teacher. It's true. I didn't add zeros at the end. I just want to study."

Okay, let him play if he likes to play, what child doesn’t like to play?”

"..."

Lao Wang is ashamed, my mother seems to be less good at nagging recently.

At the end of January 2003, the Suns played 48 regular season games, with 30 wins and 18 losses, with a winning rate of 62.5%, ranking fifth in the Western Conference, behind the Trail Blazers, Kings, Mavericks, and Lakers.

After the Lakers were defeated repeatedly by the Suns, Kobe actually experienced a change, and his relationship with O'Neal unexpectedly eased. This is the only reason why the Lakers' record has climbed rapidly recently.

Kobe very much hoped to defeat the Suns, but he lost to the Suns consecutively. He knew that without the help of O'Neal, he alone would not be able to defeat the old K.

The Suns didn't care about the record and still polished the lineup and tactical system step by step.

The Western Conference is too strong this year, especially the Pacific Region. The result of trying hard to climb up may be excessive consumption and the inability to polish the lineup and tactics.

Lao Wang has always been ranked second in the MVP rankings, but after the Suns were surpassed by the Lakers, he also fell to third, behind Kobe.

His personal data also declined further, averaging 30.1 points per game and playing time between 33 and 35 minutes.

Most of his energy is still focused on defense and rebounding. The team is inherently deficient and has several loopholes. He is the core of defense and can only be filled by him. This is also the most important reason for the decline in scoring data.

However, the Suns are not short of scorers now. Marion averaged 21 points per game, Nash averaged 17.5 points per game, Stoudemire averaged 11 points per game, and Joe Johnson averaged 9 points per game. With five starts, almost everyone scored in double figures.

Therefore, Lao Wang is content to make other contributions and let the young people play more offensively, with him, the old guy, as their backing.

He felt that this lineup might be able to last longer.

In the past few years with the Suns, the lineup was too fluid. Young players wanted to leave after they were good, and they wanted to leave even more after winning the championship. Why? It should be because his data was suppressed.

Without data, there is no chance to stand out. Everyone wants to be an All-Star, especially a talented person like Kidd. How can he be willing to be a green leaf next to him?

However, due to the decline in personal data, the media is now promoting the news that he is no longer good, and even believes that he is no longer the number one active player.

These media turned to support Kobe, believing that Kobe had four championships and was one of the important forces for the Lakers to complete the dynasty. If there was no Kobe beside Old K, let alone the dynasty, the Lakers would probably not be able to win any of the three championships. They believed

Kobe's current strength is above that of Old K. With his honor and strength, he is qualified to replace Old K and become the new number one active player.

In fact, this argument has been around since Lao Wang retired last year, but Kobe has not yet led a team to win a championship alone, so he lacks confidence and has not been recognized. Then after Lao Wang made a violent comeback, this argument became rare, but

Now as Lao Wang's personal data declines and the team's record is surpassed by the Lakers, this argument has appeared again.

Some media even interviewed Kobe and asked: "Kobe, do you think you have the strength to replace the old K and become the new number one active player?"

Kobe rolled his eyes and said, "You should wait until the Lakers win the championship before asking me this question. I'm not qualified at the moment."

As a brother, Barkley couldn't bear to see the media dealing with Lao Wang. He accepted an interview with the media that day and said: "Old K has averaged 33.6 minutes per game so far, 30.1 points, 17.1 rebounds, 6.5 assists, 1.9 steals, 4.5 blocks, 1.5 turnovers and 2.8 per game.

foul.

His field goal percentage is still as high as 61.5%, ranking first in the league. His rebounding is still first in the league. His blocks are also first in the league.

With such a strong and comprehensive performance, you tell me that he is not the number one player in active service. Do you only focus on the score and ignore everything else? Okay, let's look at the score.

Old K's highest score in a single game this season was 70 points in three quarters. He scored 50 points in 4 games, 40 points in 3 games, and 30 points in 20 games. Everyone knows why his scoring average dropped to 30 points.
To be continued...