Chapter 359 All-Star

Tang Tian breaking Kobe's 81-point record didn't just affect him or the Pelicans; it was a major event for the NBA's global promotion.

This was evident from the NBA's official continuous stream of news pushes.

Riding this momentum, the Pelicans won one game after another.

It was also at this time that the first round of All-Star voting results were announced.

Tang Tian received 2 million votes in the first round, more than twice that of James, who was in second place.

So far this season, Tang Tian has averaged 37.1 points, 10.4 rebounds, 11.6 assists, 2.1 steals, and 1.5 blocks, with a 51% field goal percentage and a 41% three-point percentage.

Even disregarding the Pelicans' performance compared to last season, Tang Tian's stats alone are absolutely peak performance.

And this kind of explosive and all-around performance is also a first in NBA history.

So, such a vote count is entirely reasonable.

On this day, the Pelicans were playing the Jazz at home.

After the game, his teammates were congratulating Tang Tian in the locker room.

With such an explosive first round of voting, Tang Tian is likely to break the voting record again this year, and will likely raise the bar even higher.

Tang Tian chatted with his teammates for a while, then got up to go to the bathroom.

Before he even walked in, he heard someone talking inside.

"I need to talk to the coach; if I keep getting no playing time, I'm going to request a trade."

"Be patient, train hard, and the opportunity will come."

"I've been patient enough, and Jeff, you're only on a one-year contract. If you don't fight for it, you might be out of the league next year."

"I believe the opportunity will come."

"Sigh, you're just too nice of a guy. I've decided, if the coach keeps this up, I'm going to publicly request a trade."

…

The conversation didn't last too long; Tang Tian listened for a while, and the people inside came out.

It was Jae Crowder and Jeff Green.

"Tang."

Green looked relatively natural when he saw Tang Tian.

Crowder looked a little nervous.

Tang Tian smiled, didn't say anything, and just greeted them before going into the bathroom.

The one who said he wanted to be traded was Crowder.

It's normal for him to have this idea; it's human nature.

In the Pelicans' summer trades, besides Green, the second biggest addition was Crowder.

Crowder was a starter for the Celtics last season, averaging 12.9 points and 5.8 rebounds, with a bright future.

But after coming to the Pelicans, not only did he not start, but he didn't even win the backup forward position over Siakam and Kuzma, and didn't even get into the rotation.

No one can accept this kind of difference.

You have to know that the NBA is very cruel. If you don't get any playing time in a season, a player with a contract becomes a garbage contract, and a player with a short contract might disappear from the NBA altogether.

Tang Tian wasn't familiar with Crowder; even after Crowder came to the team, he was relatively quiet, so he didn't know much about him.

But what he just heard reminded him of something.

When he used to play 2k, Crowder was a very valuable player to trade for.

His overall rating was 80+, but his contract was long, and his annual salary was only 6 million+, making him very cost-effective.

Theoretically speaking, this kind of player is very popular.

But after playing the game, you'd find that that's not the case.

If you trade for him to be a backup, he'd complain about not getting enough playing time in a few days and demand to be a starter.

If you don't trade him, other people on the team will also start complaining.

He was basically a locker room bomb.

So, experienced players basically avoided Crowder, Beasley, and other non-typical cost-effective players.

Tang Tian didn't know much about Crowder before, but judging from his brief conversation with Green just now, the 2k game is pretty realistic.

He heard it, but didn't do anything right away.

Now he wants to see how Stevens handles Crowder.

Speaking of which, Stevens was Crowder's coach on the Celtics in history.

But he also has to take a look at this year's free agent market in advance.

The Pelicans' summer reinforcements were actually very limited, but they have a lot of chips on hand now, including those trade exceptions they got from trades.

Don't look down on it just because it's air; it's the favorite of many tanking teams.

Time flew by, and it was already late January.

Crowder's emotions were temporarily appeased by Stevens.

But judging from Crowder's on-court and off-court demeanor, that was just delaying the explosion of the bomb.

The third round of All-Star voting results was also announced at this time, and Tang Tian's votes had soared to 5 million.

With one more round of voting results left, it was already a certainty that he would break the voting record he held before.

It was also at this time that Tang Tian received an invitation from the league, hoping that he could participate in this year's Slam Dunk Contest and Three-Point Contest.

Tang Tian declined the Slam Dunk Contest but agreed to the Three-Point Contest.

The reason he agreed was partly because Curry had already agreed before, and partly because he wanted to do something at the All-Star Game.

Time flew by, and it was already January 25th.

On this day, the NBA officially announced the starting lineups for the individual events and the All-Star Game in Boston in 2019.

Rookie Challenge: Pelicans' Kuzma participated, others omitted.

Skills Challenge: Omitted.

Slam Dunk Contest: Dennis Smith Jr., John Collins, Miles Bridges, Hamidou Diallo.

Compared to last year, this year's Slam Dunk Contest had no star power at all and didn't arouse any interest in watching it.

Three-Point Contest: Tang Tian, Curry, Russell, Joe Harris, Seth Curry, Danny Green, Hield, Walker, Lillard, Nowitzki.

But it doesn't matter; this year's Three-Point Contest has become a new focus event.

Tang Tian and Curry don't need to be said, and besides them, there's the showdown between the Curry brothers, and Nowitzki, who will most likely retire after the season.

These are all full of highlights.

And Tatum did make some good reforms, just like he said before.

This year, the number of participants in the Three-Point Contest reached 10, the most in history.

In the All-Star Game starting lineup, Tang Tian's final voting result was 7 million votes, setting a new NBA record.

This voting result also raised the record to another level.

Experts previously thought that this result could not be higher, but the fact proves that everything is possible as long as Tang Tian is involved.

In the West, besides Tang Tian, the remaining four starters are Harden, Durant, Leonard, and James.

It is worth mentioning that this is the first time Harden has broken out of the siege of Curry and Tang Tian to become a starter.

He averaged 32 points this season, doing the work of both a father and a mother, and his performance was remarkable.

In the East, the starting five are Walker, Irving, DeRozan, Antetokounmpo, and Horford.

Compared to the West, the star power in the East is still dim this year.

But Tatum had previously announced that he would be dividing the teams and picking players this year, just like last year.

It's just that last year it was Team Tang Tian and Team James, and this year it's Team Tang Tian and Team Antetokounmpo.