Chapter 1 All-Star Voting Attracts Attention, But Not the Most

The All-Star voting was eye-catching, but not the most attention-grabbing.

On the very night the All-Star voting results were announced, in the game between the Thunder and the Trail Blazers, although the Thunder lost, Russell Westbrook still recorded a triple-double of 30 points, 12 rebounds, and 10 assists!

This triple-double brought his season total to 19!

This also allowed him to officially surpass Magic Johnson's record of 18 triple-doubles in the 1981-1982 season, becoming the player with the third-most triple-doubles in a single season in NBA history!

And this wasn't the end!

The regular season had only been going for 40-plus games, in other words, just past the halfway point, and Westbrook was already third in history!

At this rate, it was only a matter of time before he caught up with Chamberlain (31), and breaking Robertson's record (41) wasn't impossible!

The All-Star voting results released by the league were like Wang Feng incarnate; Westbrook instantly snatched the headlines.

After taking this headline, Westbrook received a lot of praise, but also a lot of criticism.

As the intensity of the game increased, Westbrook's unstable shooting made scoring difficult when he was targeted.

But his choice was to keep shooting. Take the game against the Trail Blazers, for example. He took 33 shots but only made 10, a very low efficiency.

A triple-double is very versatile, but such efficiency is obviously a bit of an eyesore.

Kevin Durant's departure to Golden State, Westbrook's own mental health issues, and now Westbrook had also become a data-obsessed maniac.

Looking back now, this decision was truly a lose-lose situation!

"Tang's triple-doubles are much more enjoyable!"

A Pelicans fan's comment on social media received a lot of likes.

Westbrook's number of triple-doubles is unique, but in fact, Tang Tian also has quite a few triple-doubles this season.

As of now, he has also recorded 10 triple-doubles, second only to Westbrook and the second most in the league!

Moreover, although fewer in number, the quality is obviously higher.

Whether it's scoring efficiency or rebounding, Tang Tian does it better, and even his passing is more spectacular.

Without comparison, there is no harm.

Westbrook is carving out his own data path, but in comparison, Tang Tian has once again gained a wave of attention.

From the All-Star voting to the triple-double topic, Tang Tian has passively absorbed several waves of popularity.

And this wasn't the end.

In the subsequent release of the third and final fourth-round voting results, he continued this trend.

After the final round of voting results were tallied, everyone felt incredible and couldn't hide their excitement.

Because Tang Tian received a total of 4.04 million votes!

This number of votes not only broke his own record for most votes, which he set last year, but also elevated it from the 3 million level to the 4 million level!

This is an epoch-making record!

This result shocked everyone, including Tang Tian himself.

The Pelicans' momentum this season is not as rapid as last season, giving people more of a feeling of stability.

Including Tang Tian's press conferences, although his stats have increased, he hasn't been scoring like crazy as he did last season.

But fans' thinking is sometimes very simple. They are grateful that Tang Tian brought them the basketball of the new century, so they cast their votes for Tang Tian.

It's as simple as that!

Tang Tian was elected as the historical vote leader, and along with it came the All-Star starters for the new season in the East and West.

In the East, DeRozan failed to overtake at the last moment, and Wade and Irving teamed up to start in the backcourt.

In the frontcourt, James and Antetokounmpo took two spots, and for the last spot, Anthony edged out Paul George to become the starting forward.

In the West, Curry regained his popularity with his recent rebound performance, and his votes successfully surpassed Paul to rank second in the West.

In this way, he will partner with Westbrook as the starting backcourt in the West.

In the frontcourt, the West, like the East, was decided at the last moment, and it was even more thrilling and exciting.

Tang Tian and Durant had already locked in two spots, and the remaining four spots were to be decided among Leonard, Davis, Butler, and Cousins.

At the end of the third round, Leonard's lead was still relatively obvious, leading fourth-place Davis by a full 200,000 votes.

But when the results of the last round came out, he actually had 20,000 fewer votes than Davis!

In other words, Davis had 220,000 more votes than him in one round!

Incredible!

But there is a reason for it.

Although the league still has some restrictions on voting in the Chinese region, it can't stop many people from using VPNs to vote.

And Tang Tian got a lot of votes, and Davis's votes also increased as a result.

Of course, another point is that this year's All-Star Game is being held in New Orleans, which will also increase Davis's votes as the home player.

Under the influence of several favorable factors, Davis finally completed the reversal, and this is also the first time in his career that he has been selected as an All-Star starter.

The Cavaliers, Pelicans, and Warriors each occupy 2 of the ten starters, which also illustrates the current landscape of the league.

Although the Spurs, Mavericks, and Rockets are all strong, the top tier is still these three teams.

Time flew by, and a week later, the list of All-Star individual events and substitutes was finally announced.

Thomas, Walker, Irving, Brogdon, Davis, Embiid, Porzingis, and Cousins will participate in the Skills Challenge;

Lowry, Klay Thompson, Irving, Walker, Nick Young, C.J. McCollum, Bogdanovic, and Eric Gordon will participate in the Three-Point Contest;

Jordan, Derrick Jones, Glenn Robinson III, and Aaron Gordon will participate in the Slam Dunk Contest;

The star power of this year's individual events is not as good as in previous years, and the attention is much less.

However, compared to individual events, the All-Star substitute lists for the East and West are more eye-catching.

The East is getting attention because it is now in a somewhat embarrassing situation where there are few players to choose from, while the West is getting attention because of the unprecedented competition.

The final selection results also reflect these two characteristics.

In the East, Walker and Thomas, who performed well this season, were selected, and the remaining 5 players were George, Wall, DeRozan, Millsap, and Drummond.

In the West, the seven selected were Paul, Harden, Leonard, Jimmy Butler, Cousins, Jordan, and Klay Thompson.

Under the fierce competition, Hayward, Green, Lillard, Griffin, Gasol, Jokic, Conley, Towns, Bosh, and others all failed to be selected.

While fans and the media were discussing the newly released list, and talking about which player was the biggest omission, Tang Tian took advantage of the game break to return to China.

The CCTV Sports Figure of the Year Awards will be held in Shanghai, and the Chinese men's basketball team is invited to participate. Tang Tian has time to return to China.