Soul of the Golden State

Chapter 710 Consummation
This year's All-Star Game will be held in Orlando on February 2.

Although Magic Johnson announced his retirement due to AIDS long before the start of the season, fans still chose him as the starter for the Western Conference All-Star.

Therefore, with the special permission of the league, Johnson, who has not played a game all season, can return to the All-Star game.

As a result, due to the absence of Li Weisi, the lineup of the Western All-Star team is: Magic Johnson, Drexler, Chris Mullin, Karl Malone, David Robinson.

The West bench lineup is: Tim Hardaway, Richmond, Hornacek, Olajuwon, Stockton, Dan Marley, Worthy, Rodman.

Because of the addition of Johnson, the Western Conference has an unprecedented 13 players.

Although Bird was selected as the starting small forward in the Eastern Conference, he still withdrew from the All-Star Game due to injuries. The starting five players who actually played were: Isiah Thomas, Michael Jordan, Pippen, Barkley and Patrick Ewing .

Subs: Price, Kevin Johnson, Dumars, Reggie Lewis, Dominique Wilkins, Brad Doherty, Horace Grant, Kevin Willis .

It can be seen that the Bulls became the biggest winner in this season's All-Star game, which made Jordan become the All-Star vote leader again after three years. At the same time, 4 Bulls entered the All-Star team.

In addition, although Li Weisi is still absent from the Warriors, the team still has 3 All-Stars, and at the small forward position, Mullin still crushes veteran star James Worthy in terms of popularity.

Of course, the same three were selected as the All-Stars and the Jazz.

In addition, this year, there are a group of new faces who are on the All-Star stage for the first time, including old warriors such as Price, Lewis, and Hornacek, as well as young heroes such as Marly and Grant.

On the day before the main game, according to the usual practice, a three-point shooting contest and a slam dunk contest were held.

Among them, a total of 8 people participated in the three-point contest, namely Curry, Craig Hodges, Hornacek, Petrovic, Price, Richmond, Stockton and Mullin .

It can be seen that except for Hodges and Stockton, almost all of the other six have a deep relationship with the Warriors. This three-point contest can be called a civil war for the Warriors.

In the end, Mullin lived up to expectations, withstood the pressure and scored 18 points in the final, narrowly beating former teammate Price's 17 points, and won the first three-pointer in his life.

It can be said that in the past two years, Mullin's three-point shooting ability has improved rapidly, and now he has long lived up to the title of "God's Left Hand".

As for the slam dunk contest, after fierce fighting, the finalists were the new top pick "Auntie" Larry Johnson and Jordan's substitute Cedric Ceballos for the Bulls.

In the final, Ceballos performed exceptionally well, especially his third dunk, which changed the famous "face-covering dunk" of the previous champion Dee Brown into a "blind dunk" with a black cloth covering his face. Surprised everyone, let him get a perfect score of 50 points.

However, Larry Johnson's performance in the final was lackluster. Neither of the two dunks exceeded 35 points, which caused him to give up the last chance of the dunk.

In this way, Ceballos also became the second Bulls player to win the slam dunk title after Jordan.

After the game, as the boss of the team, Jordan, who was watching the game from the sidelines, was the first to hug Ceballos and send his blessings.

It wasn't until this time that people were surprised to find that this year's All-Star Weekend, the three-point champion belongs to the Warriors, and the dunk champion belongs to the Bulls, which happen to be the top two teams in the league recognized by fans.

Moreover, the two teams also have their own unique skills. The Warriors are rich in three-point shooters, and the Bulls are rich in jumpers. Except for Jordan, Pippen, Grant, and Ceballos are all top dunkers.

The appetizers of the previous day were already so exciting, so how could the dinner of the next day disappoint the audience?

First of all, when Magic Johnson entered the arena, he was applauded by the audience including Li Weisi.

Although Li Weisi was unable to play due to injury, he flew all the way to Orlando and sat on the sidelines in formal clothes to cheer for Johnson.

For Magic Johnson, Li Weisi has a very complicated mood. If you want to say who is the biggest enemy in his basketball career, for outsiders, they may choose Jordan, but for Li Weisi himself, he will choose Johnson.

The two are in the same position, but also in the west, and the competition they face is more intense.

And when the Warriors were not yet big, Magic Johnson suppressed Li Weisi for two years. Maybe two years is very short for others, but it was these two years that made many book lovers abandon their books.

At that time, Li Weisi had just entered the league. Facing the future Johnson at the Presidential Hill level, he had never had the confidence to win. Immediately after this mountain, he soared into the sky, and no one could stop him.

If Thomas is Jordan's whetstone, then Johnson is Li Weisi's whetstone. However, unlike the relationship between Thomas and Jordan's deadly rivals, Li Weisi and Johnson have always maintained a relationship of both enemies and friends.

Therefore, when he heard the news of Johnson's retirement, Li Weisi was so shocked, but now seeing Johnson galloping on the court, he was very emotional and happy for him.

Of course, it would be even better if we could compete on the same stage with him again!
The stars on the court have the same idea as Li Weisi off the court at this time. As a basketball courtesan, Johnson has almost no deadly enemies in the league.

Even Bird, who has been arguing with him for more than ten years, is also a close friend with Johnson. As for Thomas, although he made some inappropriate remarks after Johnson's accident, which damaged the relationship between the two, they have always been brothers. famous.

As for Jordan, he has great respect for Johnson, and he has no idea of ​​competing with Johnson at all.

Therefore, this All-Star Game is not so much a game as it is a farewell party.

No one cared about the score on the court, nor did they care about their performance on the court. As long as the Western Conference team can win in the end and Johnson can get the AMVP, all this is enough.

And Magic Johnson naturally lived up to expectations. Although he hadn't touched the ball for more than three months, his personal strength was still there. He played 29 minutes and scored 25 points and 9 assists. He led the Western team to a 153:113 victory over the Eastern team by 40. point.

In the end, he won the AMVP trophy without any suspense, which can be regarded as a successful end to his NBA career.

(End of this chapter)