Durant just exploded, swinging back and knocking Tang Tian to the ground.

The referee was right there and, seeing Tang Tian get up ready to go, he slid right in between them.

Before either of them could react, he tossed Durant a technical foul.

Good thing the referee reacted quickly, Tang Tian lowered his raised hand.

Durant was also pulled back by Ibaka and Westbrook who had rushed over.

"Woah, this isn't a boxing match." Barkley couldn't help but say after seeing Durant's reaction.

Although Durant's strength already put him as a top two small forward in the league, his sensitive personality was a really big problem.

At least he still had a long way to go in learning to control his temper on the court.

Durant was persuaded by his teammates to calm down, but the game had completely derailed from the track he wanted.

Under Tang Tian's full-court pressure defense, he put on a game reminiscent of Kobe, going 10 for 31 from the field and racking up 4 turnovers.

For a scorer who was usually stable and efficient, Durant completely came up short under Tang Tian's hands.

Tang Tian became the absolute MVP of the game, not only defending Durant to death, but also putting up an eye-catching stat line of 20 points, 3 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals, and 2 blocks.

"The berserk Durant was defended! Tang might really become the fifth perimeter player in league history to win Defensive Player of the Year!"

"Yeah, Durant's state at the beginning was really unsolvable, but Tang managed to defend him little by little. This is the first time I've found defense to be so entertaining!"

"After this game, I've decided to go vote for Tang in the All-Star Game!"

…

After putting up eye-catching performances against Harden, Kobe, and Durant in a row, the team's praise for Tang Tian reached a peak.

And this time, Durant was uncharacteristically silent on social media, it was obvious he was feeling a little down after being beaten.

Two days after the Spurs and Thunder game, the league announced the fourth round of All-Star voting, which was the final voting results for the 2013 NBA All-Star Game.

This year's All-Star voting was different from previous years, because in October of last year, league vice president Stu Jackson announced the new voting rules.

Starting with the 2013 NBA All-Star voting, due to the approaching small-ball era and the scarcity of big men, the league decided to eliminate the center position and instead have two guards and three forwards.

This decision would allow more outstanding frontline players to be selected for the All-Star Game.

Kobe received the most votes with 1.59 million votes, only about 7,000 more than James, and was elected the 2013 NBA All-Star vote leader.

The voting results for the other players in the East and West were also finalized.

In the Eastern Conference backcourt, Wade (1 million) and Rondo (900,000) became the Eastern Conference starting backcourt with a huge advantage of nearly 500,000 votes over other guards.

In the frontcourt, James (1.58 million) and Anthony (1.46 million) remained highly popular.

Garnett (550,000) defeated Bosh to be selected as a starter by a narrow margin of 30,000 votes.

The Eastern Conference voting results were basically as expected, but the Western Conference results were a surprise to everyone.

The NBA once again felt the terrifying power of fans from the East.

Ever since Yi Jianlian almost became an Eastern Conference starter in 2009, the NBA had begun to dilute the votes from the China region.

But the voting channel still existed, it just required a series of operations involving bypassing the Great Firewall and registering, which was more difficult than in the past.

But this year's voting results…

In the Western Conference frontcourt, Durant (1.5 million), Howard (920,000), and Griffin (860,000) were successfully selected as starters.

These three were at the peak of their popularity and strength, so there were no surprises in the voting results.

But in the backcourt, everyone was really stunned.

Kobe (1.58 million) was the vote leader, but the second-ranked guard was Tang Tian!

He received 1 million votes!

This vote total was second only to Kobe, James, Durant, and Anthony!

80,000 more votes than Paul (920,000)!

And not only Tang Tian, ​​but Jeremy Lin also crushed his teammate Harden (480,000) with a total of 880,000 votes, ranking fourth among Western Conference guards!

Tang Tian received nearly 500,000 votes in the final round of voting, completing an incredible reversal and becoming a Western Conference starting guard!

When this result came out, fans on social media exploded again.

"Paul: Why the f*** is it always me who gets injured?!"

"Haha, there's no way around it, the fans in China are really crazy. Can you imagine Jeremy Lin getting 400,000 more votes than Harden?"

"Didn't we already limit the votes from the China region? How can there still be such unreasonable results?"

"Dude, do you know that there are 1.3 billion people in China? We only have 300 million..."

"Yeah, and this voting result is only 1.5 million at most. The number of fans in China is really much larger than you think."

"This voting mechanism really has a big loophole. Tang shouldn't be an All-Star starter."

"Bro, I agree with the first half of your sentence, but I don't agree with the second half. Go look at Tang's stats this season, 17.6 points, 3.8 assists, 2.5 steals, and 2.1 blocks per game. Do you think he shouldn't be selected?"

"And he just beat Harden, Kobe, and Durant. Although this voting result has some influence from Chinese fans, there's no problem with him being selected."

"Exactly, and to put it another way, this is within the rules. The NBA is very popular in China, and they have the right to choose the stars they want to see."

"Just like Yao back then, Tang has improved significantly this season, and he helped the Spurs win the championship last season. I don't think there's anything wrong with it."

…

There were criticisms and support on social media.

But no matter what, Tang Tian became an All-Star starter this season in a situation he hadn't even imagined.

Suddenly, things became even more complicated.

Would you say that an All-Star isn't worth a poison pill contract?

And this All-Star is also very likely to become the Defensive Player of the Year.

The All-Star voting results brought shock to the league and fans, and at the same time, some subtle changes also happened to Tang Tian.

On this day, after the third game of the season against the Pelicans (the Hornets officially changed their name to the Pelicans in January), a local New Orleans media reporter asked him a question.

"If you have the opportunity in the future, would you be willing to play for the Pelicans?"

This was the first time he had heard this question, but he was somewhat prepared in his heart.

It was already well known that he was in a contract year, and as he was selected as an All-Star and the season deepened, there would be more and more of these questions.

This reporter was the first person to ask such a question, but he certainly wouldn't be the last.

"I have a good impression of this city, just like I do of other cities. Every place is worthy of love, but the question you're asking isn't what I'm considering right now. Right now, I just want to help the Spurs defend the championship this season," Tang Tian said.