However, Durant's election as the All-Star vote leader presented a challenge for the NBA.

This year's All-Star format is the same as last year, with team selections made by the Eastern and Western Conference captains.

Originally, with Tang Tian's retirement, the original Tang Tian team would naturally become the James team.

But Durant is now the vote leader, and with a significant lead, there are different opinions on whether James or Durant should lead the Western Conference.

Perhaps the outcome will only be known after the full All-Star roster is announced.

Along with Durant's election as vote leader, the All-Star starters for this year were also announced.

In the East, the guards are Irving and Lowry, and the forwards are Tatum, Antetokounmpo, and Griffin.

In the West, the guards are Curry and Harden, and the forwards are Durant, James, and Davis.

Although Tang Tian has retired, the Pelicans still had two players selected as All-Star starters due to their popularity.

This result has drawn dissatisfaction from many fans on social media, especially San Antonio Spurs fans.

The Spurs currently have the best record in the league, but Aldridge and George weren't selected, and even Leonard wasn't!

"We need to change the voting rules. Chinese fans are now practically deciding our All-Star starters."

"I respect Durant and Davis, but Leonard is having the best season of his career. I think he's more qualified and deserving of a starting spot."

"Oh, why aren't you saying anything about James? Is James more deserving than Leonard?"

"Exactly, based on performance alone, aren't Durant and Davis better than James this season? Double standards?"

"This is actually the same as when Tang was still playing, and Harden and Curry were both squeezed out of the All-Star starting lineup at different times. Someone always has to be squeezed out."

"Stop arguing about this. Compared to this, the voting mechanism is what should be questioned."

"Agreed. I think player and media voting percentages should be added to the voting, like with individual awards."

"+1, otherwise our NBA will become an NBA completely controlled by the Chinese."

"+2, they shouldn't have opened up voting to Chinese fans. There are too many of them."

"+3, I think their voting ratio should be reduced, like three of their votes counting as one."

"+10086, change the rules quickly! @NBAOfficial"

……

The heated discussions among fans on social media quickly attracted the attention of the league.

Although the Morey incident had been quelled, the cultural differences between Chinese and American fans, as well as the sense of superiority of some American fans, were facts.

Now, seizing on the issue of voting rules, they have completely vented that emotion.

The NBA seems to have been unknowingly forced into a position of having to choose again.

Should they choose to listen to the voices of the NBA or preserve the equal voting rights of Chinese fans?

Tatum also took this very seriously. Since experiencing the Morey incident, he knew that remaining silent would only worsen the situation.

He held a press conference the next day specifically to address the issue.

"We will not change the current voting mechanism. We respect the fans' choices. Whoever they want to see on the All-Star stage, we will put on the stage."

"This is the greatest respect for the fans, regardless of which country they come from."

"We have never taken action to ban Georgian fans from voting for Pachulia, or halved the votes as you said, so we will not do the same to Chinese fans."

"This is the NBA's final decision, and we believe it is conducive to the NBA's global promotion. We are an inclusive and free league."

……

Tatum answered many questions at the press conference, but the core idea was the same: the NBA will not do anything specifically targeting Chinese fans.

This approach naturally sparked dissatisfaction among American fans, even anger.

Many people extended warm greetings to Tatum's family, even comparing him to a traitor, saying that he had Chinese blood flowing through his veins, a true representation of himself.

Some even said that the NBA should change its name and just be called the CBA; they are no longer worthy of the name American professional basketball league.

But these voices were ignored.

The United States supports freedom of speech, and Tatum couldn't say anything about these comments on social media.

But in reality, the decision he made had nothing to do with him personally, and it wasn't a decision he could make alone.

This was entirely the result of discussions by the league's board of governors.

And the reason the league's board of governors made this decision was very simple: profit, market.

The NBA's market in China is growing larger and larger. Although Tang Tian has retired, the pie he left behind for them is enormous.

Like the previous Morey incident, they can't do anything that would cut off their own arm.

Because of its population, the United States is accelerating the unshakeable position of football, but the market itself is limited.

To put it bluntly, without the Chinese market, TNT and ESPN would not have signed such a large 9-year, $24 billion contract with them.

A large part of that takes into account the overseas market, especially the Chinese market.

As for the United States itself, after the Morey incident was dealt with, the NBA's domestic attendance rate increased rather than decreased.

From this phenomenon, they knew one thing: the keyboard warriors on social media and the NBA fans are not the same group.

In other words, most of the people who are criticizing on American social media are those who can't afford to buy tickets to watch the NBA.

Most of the people who can really afford to watch the NBA are the top 30% of elite Americans, and they don't have time to argue about these things on social media.

Facts have also proven the league's judgment.

Although the criticism on social media was constant, the NBA's attendance rate did not decrease at all.

It even increased, just like the result of the previous Morey incident.

This also led to another wave of criticism from fans on social media.

Among these criticisms, the phrase "kneeling basketball fans" even appeared.

It was used to describe NBA fans, saying that the league was about to become a league controlled by the Chinese, but these people were still going to the games, filling the stands every time.

But Tatum didn't panic at all. He understood the essence of things, knowing that the people who actually watched the games and the keyboard warriors on social media were not the same group.

He just treated those comments as jokes and didn't care at all.

Time is the best solvent to dissolve everything.

The NBA was being played, but the voices of criticism on social media were getting quieter and quieter.

This is also a common problem with keyboard warriors. If you pay attention to them, they can come up with one hundred and eight theories, but if you ignore them, they will slowly forget about it themselves.

In just over a week, there was very little discussion about the NBA on social media. They had shifted the topic to international events such as the Spanish Catalonia independence referendum.

It was also at this time that the NBA coaches' selection of the bench lineup was also hotly released.

Along with that, the situation of the team captains was also released.

The league ultimately decided that Durant would serve as the captain of the West.

The official reason given was that Durant was the vote leader, and the previous Tang Tian team was also based on the vote leader.

But the real reason is that now that Tang Tian has retired and Leonard didn't make the starting lineup, they need a new spokesperson for the league.

Compared to James, who is already 35 years old, Durant is younger and a better choice.

Just like the role James played before, he is a transitional spokesperson between Kobe and Tang Tian.