One Year Left to Play

Chapter 377 - 114: This Is a Good Deal

Since the 1960s, whenever the Lakers won championships, the Celtics have always been the biggest contenders in the East. Now, as the Lakers are starting to rise again, who knows how long the Celtics will be down, giving the era a real sense of being divided by the class of ’84.

This, however, is just the idea in the minds of fans who long for the revival of the Lakers-Celtics rivalry after the Christmas game. More fans prefer to look forward, as players are replaced by new ones, and so are the fans who watch the games.

Fans who were in their teens or twenties and had all the time in the world to watch games have now reached the age where they have to take care of their families.

Fans of the new era are more interested in the competition for the top player between Jordan and Olajuwon, prefer news about Grant Hill and Anfernee Hardaway, and like to discuss whether a player like Zhang Hao, who finishes without the ball, or an all-around cornerstone player is better...

Sure enough, on December 26, Zhang Hao became one of the hot topics again — being included in the list of Western Conference All-Star forward candidates selected by 125 commentators, broadcasters, experts, and prominent journalists!

These 125 people pick players from each team, with a varying number of selections from each team, to compile a list from which fans can only vote for the candidates.

On the morning of the 26th at 9 o’clock, the NBA officially opened the All-Star voting channel.

From the Lakers, Van Exel, Campbell, Sibaros, Magician, Jason Williams, and Zhang Hao were selected into the list of candidates.

Zhang Hao’s inclusion in this list was a sure thing, as everyone knew he would be on the list because players who averaged over 10 points, over 8 rebounds, and over 5 assists per game were all on the list, and even players with even lower stats were included.

After all, it’s just a list of candidates, with many popular stars having consistently occupied All-Star starting positions for many years.

Once the list was announced, confirming Zhang Hao’s inclusion, the media and fans were buzzing with the question — could Zhang Hao make it to the All-Star game in his rookie season?

Because a topic sparked by Sports Illustrated was "Zhang Hao or Hill," Grant Hill was directly the All-Star vote leader in his rookie season. It wasn’t just about being an All-Star, but the question of whether Zhang Hao could make it as an All-Star in his rookie season naturally emerged...

...

After yesterday’s Christmas game, Zhang Hao, Pierce, Pierce’s mom, and Aprile Clark returned to the villa. With many rooms, the little girl’s housekeeper helped make the beds. Pierce’s parents also stayed over last night, and the Schultz couple were also dragged by the little girl to stay for a night.

The Lakers got two days off after the Christmas game, with a home game against the Spurs coming up on the 28th. The team is off today and will prepare for the Spurs game tomorrow, which is the 27th.

The little rich girl provided three brand-new computers last night... rented ones.

They installed the latest version of win95-pack-1, all had Warcraft 2 installed, and Zhang Hao, Pierce... along with the little girl’s dad, Howard Schultz, played until four in the morning.

No matter how old a man is, he still has a gamer at heart...

After a few rounds of Warcraft 2, Zhang Hao started missing StarCraft and Warcraft 3.

But StarCraft would have to wait until ’98, with the updated graphics, and until toothpaste factories redefine GPUs.

You just can’t control gaming; it’s hard to practice restraint. With the holiday, there was nothing much to review from last night’s game, and James Worthy would be with his family today and wouldn’t come to help him train... It was rare for Zhang Hao to sleep until noon when Aprile Clark came to call him up for lunch.

After freshening up, Zhang Hao went to the living room and asked Aprile Clark, who was setting the table, "Has Mr. Schultz already left?"

Having just passed the master bedroom where the Schultz family stayed, the door was open, and he peeked inside to see it was already cleaned and tidied up.

Aprile Clark answered, "They left after breakfast at half-past seven. I asked, and Mr. Schultz said no matter how late he slept, he would be up working by six in the morning."

"Truly... loves his work."

"Successful people are always special, just like you."

"Am I special?"

"Very special."

"Specially... handsome?"

"Pfft... specially shameless!"

Just as the two were chatting happily, Pierce burst in, shouting while clutching a bottle of soy sauce, having been sent by his mom to buy it.

"Aix... oh... huff..."

"Take it slow..." Aprile Clark quickly helped Pierce to sit down.

"Catch your breath first before talking." Zhang Hao calmly took the soy sauce bottle from Pierce’s hand, "It’s fine if you get out of breath, but it would be a shame if the soy sauce bottle broke."

Pierce, who wasn’t out of breath before, almost did get out of breath from this comment in frustration.

Once he finally caught his breath, suppressing the urge to hit someone, Pierce said, "Aix, you made it to the All-Star candidate list."

Zhang Hao gave Pierce a curious look, saying nothing, and both could tell his meaning — isn’t that a given?

"That’s not the point! The point is the news! Look..." Pierce brought out a bunch of newspapers tightly clenched in his other hand.

Zhang Hao and Aprile Clark leaned over to read them, going through one and then another.

After reading, Zhang Hao asked, "Paul, it seems your mom gives you too much pocket money at college, buying so many newspapers with similar content, why?"

"I do get a lot of pocket money for college; Mom wants to make sure I don’t embarrass myself... What’s with that! Is that the point? The point is the content of these news articles! They say that if you don’t make it as an All-Star starter, you’re not worthy of being compared to Hill! Look, many newspapers say this, and I bought every one that said so."