All-Star Weekend, LeBron: Why is it always me who gets injured?

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The 2010-11 All-Star Weekend in Los Angeles was undoubtedly the perfect stage for Kobe Bryant to shine. Being at home, Kobe was the center of attention, and he was the player most eager to perform. In fact, this was true in the original All-Star Game, where Kobe scored 37 points and grabbed 14 rebounds, leading the Western Conference All-Stars to defeat the Eastern Conference. While winning the All-Star Game, he was also crowned All-Star Game MVP for the fourth time in his career, becoming the player with the most All-Star MVP trophies in league history.

As a time traveler, Wang Chong was very familiar with this, but once again, he didn't care in the slightest about the All-Star Game. He had no interest in this valuable but ultimately meaningless honor. If someone wanted to fight for it, they could fight for it. Wang Chong simply showed up at the All-Star Game and gave a symbolic performance, nothing more.

A total of six players from the Bulls traveled to Los Angeles for the All-Star Weekend. Wang Chong, Garnett, Curry, and Gasol were selected for the All-Star Game. Danny Green signed up for the Three-Point Contest, and Marcus Thornton, as a second-year player, participated in the All-Star Rookie Challenge.

In fact, given Thornton's current performance with the Bulls, he wouldn't have been able to compete in the Rookie Challenge. Although the Rookie Challenge didn't get much attention and featured a group of rookies, these rookies were the future stars of the league. Especially those from the 2009 draft class, which included many hidden talents.

There was no need to mention Curry, Harden, Griffin, and DeRozan, not to mention Tyreke Evans, Ricky Rubio, Brandon Jennings, and Ty Lawson. Compared to this elite first-class class, Thornton had no real advantage.

He got lucky. A player who turned out to be a second-year rookie temporarily withdrew from the Rookie Challenge due to an accidental injury. Thornton stepped in as a replacement and thus got the chance to participate.

Thornton, of course, was thrilled by this opportunity, thinking it was a once-in-a-lifetime chance, but Wang Chong wasn't very optimistic about it.

There were too many outstanding players from the 2009 rookie class, and the shooting guard position was packed with talent. Curry and Harden were guaranteed to start, with Evans, DeRozan, Rubio, Jennings, and others behind them. Would Thornton even get a chance?

It was more or less what Wang Chong had expected.

On February 19, the All-Star Rookie Challenge began.

Second-year rookies like Curry, Harden, Evans, and others competed against first-year rookies led by Griffin, Wall, Cousins, and others.

Griffin, the number one pick in 2009, was in the same class as Curry. However, since Griffin missed the entire season due to an injury, his rookie year was technically considered his first season, which placed him in the first-year rookies lineup.

At the time, Griffin was compensated for his entire season of not playing, which had caused a lot of concern for the Thunder. They feared that Griffin would end up like Greg Oden, the number one pick in 2007, who also missed his rookie season and went on to have a career plagued by injuries.

Griffin's talent and future prospects were undeniably much better than Oden's, the once-promising center who was supposed to dominate the league. Among the 2009 rookies, Griffin's talent was clearly a step above the rest.

Fortunately, after returning from injury, Griffin immediately lived up to the Thunder's expectations, averaging 22 points and 12 rebounds per game, proving that the Thunder did not make a mistake by selecting him.

Of course, if time could be pushed forward a few years, the Thunder might have thought differently. The two standout players from 2009 were Curry and Harden. Both had MVP-caliber regular seasons and showed exceptional performances in the league. Curry's dominant performance completely overshadowed Harden's in terms of honors, but during the two years when the Five-Star Warriors were at their peak, the only real challenge for them came from the Rockets, led by Harden.

Even LeBron's Cavaliers couldn't force the Warriors to a Game 7, and if Chris Paul hadn't gotten injured in the 2015 playoffs, the Warriors might not have been able to defeat the Rockets.

Since Griffin entered the game as a first-year rookie, second-year rookies didn't have much of an advantage over the first-year rookies. Also, Curry played only a few minutes in the Rookie Challenge, as he had to participate in the All-Star Game. Since Curry didn't play in the final part of the game, the second-year rookies lost to the first-year rookies 140-148.

Over the years in the Rookie Challenge, second-year rookies had generally won most of the time. After all, they had been in the league for an entire season, and with more game experience and professional coaching, second-year players were usually stronger than their first-year counterparts.

But special cases like this weren't uncommon, so it wasn't all that surprising.

As Wang Chong had expected, Marcus Thornton participated as a second-year rookie in the Rookie Challenge, but his playing time was minimal. He played only a few minutes, scoring 0 points, 1 rebound, and 0 assists—just a few minutes of sitting on the bench, pondering life.

In the first half of the season, Wang Chong had consciously been giving Thornton more playing time and ball-handling opportunities. This gradually increased Thornton's average points per game to 9.6, which was close to double digits, making him the highest-scoring player on the Bulls' bench.

Of course, this also had to do with the injury of O'Neal, which affected the offensive power of the Bulls' second unit.

O'Neal was highly efficient as a backup. Who doesn't like a center who can score 9 points on 66% shooting in 15 minutes of play?

But the aging O'Neal was really fragile. He didn't even get injured during an official game—he hurt himself during daily practice.

Fortunately, O'Neal's injury wasn't serious, and he returned to play after a few weeks of recovery. However, after returning, O'Neal realized that things were different from the past. He couldn't just play aggressively anymore. He had to be more careful and no longer participated in high-intensity confrontational plays. As a result, Marcus Thornton took on more offensive opportunities.

"After the All-Star Weekend, try to find a way to let Billups rest a few more games, give Thornton some starting opportunities, and see if he can perform well enough to boost his trade value for facilitating the summer draft operations in the conference..."

Thornton would probably be very happy if he had the chance to leave the Bulls. On a team so full of talent, he wasn't really in a good position.

On February 20, the second day of the All-Star Weekend, the unique event began.

In the Skills Challenge, Curry defeated Westbrook, Rose, Wall, and Paul, winning the Skills Challenge trophy.

But in the Three-Point Contest, Danny Green, who had replaced Curry in previous years, was eliminated in the first round of the preliminaries. He enthusiastically watched James Jones, a former Heat and Bulls player who had joined the Heat last summer. In the final, Jones defeated Pierce and Ray Allen to win the Three-Point Contest trophy.

It's worth mentioning that Kevin Durant also participated in the Three-Point Contest and scored just 6 points in the first round of the preliminaries. This score was almost as low as Jordan's 5 points in the 1990 Three-Point Contest, allowing Durant to occupy the second-lowest spot in the history of the event.

The Dunk Contest final was a battle between Griffin and McGee. Wang Chong was quite impressed with the Dunk Contest, as McGee's dunk in the final was clearly more creative and difficult, but his score in the live voting session was much lower than Griffin's.

This can only be attributed to the overwhelming popularity factor in the online live voting system. In the first half of the season, Griffin had gained countless fans with his explosive athleticism and several exaggerated dunks on the court.

On the other hand, McGee was just an unknown worker-center for the Wizards. The popularity gap between the two was so large that it wasn't even worth considering who performed better in the Dunk Contest. The winner could be determined directly by the popularity votes.

On February 21, the third day of the All-Star Weekend, the All-Star Game finally arrived.

The main attraction of this All-Star Game was the battle between Kobe and LeBron.

From the very start of the game, it was clear that both players were determined to win.

But there was no way around it. Since Wang Chong couldn't compete for other honors, winning the All-Star MVP was the only way for him to boost his popularity.

With this in mind, the two players went head-to-head on the court, even engaging in a one-on-one duel.

What people didn't expect was that LeBron suffered a disadvantage in his one-on-one matchup with Kobe. Kobe made consecutive jump shots behind his back, and LeBron couldn't defend against him at all. Meanwhile, his own drive to the basket was blocked. As Kobe had predicted earlier, the ball was considered a steal.

Wang Chong watched the excitement from the sidelines and could clearly see the change in LeBron's expression.

It was fine if he couldn't beat Wang Chong, but to not even be able to beat Kobe while on the All-Star stage? How could LeBron let that happen?

But Kobe's one-on-one skills were truly impressive. He had too many offensive moves, some dazzling when he's strong and absolutely terrifying when he's feeling on top of his game. With Kobe in his best form, few players in the NBA could stop him.

On the contrary, LeBron's driving power is immense, but his offensive method is too simple. Anyone can predict what LeBron will do on the court.

LeBron's most lethal move is the fast break transition between offense and defense. His size and explosive power make him unstoppable when he fully charges forward. When both teams are in position and ready to attack, LeBron, whose shooting ability is lacking, can't be as effective as Kobe.

Even though LeBron eventually became the player with the most dunks in NBA history, few still think that LeBron's ball-handling skills are better than Kobe's.

LeBron was defeated in a one-on-one duel with Kobe. As a result, the Eastern All-Stars didn't perform as well as the Western All-Stars in the final quarter. They lost to the Western All-Stars 144–148, and LeBron lost the All-Star Game.

LeBron recorded a triple-double with 29 points, 12 rebounds, and 10 assists. His individual statistics were impressive, but he could only watch as Kobe Bryant, who scored 37 points and grabbed 14 rebounds, lifted the All-Star MVP trophy with a smile on his face.

Wang Chong performed well as always on the All-Star Game stage. Although he played nearly 30 minutes, he took only 10 shots and made 7, including 3 three-pointers. He scored 17 points, 6 rebounds, and 5 assists.

What's worth mentioning is that in the final quarter, when the Eastern All-Stars were in a passive position and on the verge of losing, James might have become genuinely anxious and actually decided to pass the ball to Wang Chong, hoping that Wang Chong would step up.

James's hopes were realized because, even though Wang Chong scored consecutive points in the final quarter to help the Eastern All-Stars turn the game around, his stats were definitely not as impressive as James's triple-double. When the Eastern All-Stars won, the All-Star MVP (AMVP) would be guaranteed to go to James.

However, Wang Chong had already noticed this small detail about James and had no intention of doing it. Despite being completely capable of helping the Eastern All-Stars win the game, Wang Chong chose not to.

When James passed him the ball, Wang Chong immediately transferred it to Wade without hesitation, showing his excellent unselfish play.

James was furious watching this. As an opponent, he had lost to Wang Chong countless times on the court due to Wang Chong's unpredictable plays in the final quarter. Now, he was finally able to experience Wang Chong's uncanny ability to score as a teammate. Wang Chong was really not passing to him, was he?

Not to mention how upset James felt after not being able to win the All-Star MVP as he had hoped.

As for the other three Bulls All-Star players, they had little opportunity to shine in the game.

As is typical in the All-Star Game, Garnett had lost interest in the event long ago, and given his age, he was only there for face value. He played for about 7 minutes, the least among all Eastern Conference All-Stars.

Curry and Gasol were first-time All-Stars, and their status was not high. Both played around 15 minutes. One had 6 points and 4 assists, while the other had 5 points and 5 rebounds. They didn't make much of an impression.

But no matter what, both were very satisfied with their first All-Star appearance. After all, they were still young with a long career ahead of them. With such a promising start, their futures looked bright.

The lively All-Star Weekend officially ended with the host, Kobe Bryant, winning the All-Star MVP trophy.

The players returned to their respective teams and began preparing for the second half of the regular season schedule.

The post-All-Star schedule would only become more intense and difficult, and even the teams with the best records in the league wouldn't dare to neglect it.

Additionally, the end of the All-Star Weekend also signaled the approaching trade deadline. All teams in the league had to do everything they could to strengthen their rosters through trades before the deadline, making their teams more competitive.

As everyone knows, the 2010-11 trade deadline was considered the largest transaction event in recent years.

Just a day after the All-Star Weekend, shocking news of a trade reverberated across the league.

Carmelo Anthony, one of the leaders of the 2003 draft class, considered a superstar only surpassed by Wang Chong, LeBron, and Wade, was traded away from the Denver Nuggets.

End of this chapter

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