Basketball boy, starting to shine from the slam dunk

The group of people's smiles faded, and Holiday even sighed softly.

Although Harden was not selected as an All-Star starter, it is a foregone conclusion that he will at least make the All-Star reserve lineup, while Holiday himself may not even make the All-Star reserve lineup this time.

Last season, both Zhuang Yu and Lopez were selected as starters for the Western Conference All-Star Game.

Holiday was also selected as a reserve for the Western Conference All-Star Game. It has been a long time since the Lakers had three players selected for the All-Star Game.

But this time Lopez will miss the All-Stars due to injury.

Although Holiday is still performing well this season, the competition in the Western Conference is too fierce.

Some players have already become famous, and some new stars are rising...but there are only a few seats in the All-Star reserve lineup, so it is difficult for him to be selected as an All-Star reserve.

Zhuang Yu patted Holiday on the shoulder: "The substitute lineup has not been announced yet, you still have a chance."

Holiday nodded and smiled, but it was a forced smile.

......

A few days later, the NBA officially announced the All-Star reserve lineup.

The All-Star reserves from the Western Conference are James Harden (Rockets), LaMarcus Aldridge (Spurs), Anthony Davis (Pelicans), Damian Lillard (Trail Blazers), Karl-Anthony Towns (Timberwolves), Russell Westbrook (Thunder), and Nikola Jokic (Nuggets).

Holiday was ultimately not selected as an All-Star reserve, and neither was Derrick Rose, which made many people feel sorry.

After all, in the previous All-Star voting event, Rose's number of fan votes was once higher than Harden's.

This time, only Zhuang Yu from the Lakers was selected for the All-Star team.

Of course, in addition to the Lakers, some other teams also have many players who performed very well this season, but they also failed to be selected for the All-Star team.

For example, Klay Thompson of the Warriors, Luka Doncic of the Mavericks, CJ McCollum of the Trail Blazers, Devin Booker of the Suns, Zach LaVine of the Bulls, DeMar DeRozan of the Spurs, etc.

As for the Eastern Conference All-Star reserves, they are Bradley Beal (Wizards), Blake Griffin (Pistons), Kyle Lowry (Raptors), Khris Middleton (Bucks), Victor Oladipo (Pacers), Ben Simmons (76ers), and Nikola Vucevic (Magic).

It is worth mentioning that this All-Star Game will add two additional spots.

Just two days after the All-Star reserve lineup was announced, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver announced that Dwyane Wade of the Miami Heat and Dirk Nowitzki of the Dallas Mavericks received additional spots and will also participate in the All-Star Game.

This is obviously not a routine operation. The reason for adding two extra spots is that this season is the farewell season for Wade and Nowitzki.

Allowing the two to enter the All-Star Game is the league's way of expressing respect for the two great players.

Wade was naturally very happy when this news came out.

In the previous All-Star voting event, his number of fan votes ranked second among Eastern Conference backcourt players, but he was ultimately not selected as an All-Star starter or an All-Star reserve. Fortunately, he now has an extra spot to participate, so he can be considered an All-Star.

Being able to participate in the All-Star Game in his last season in the NBA makes this farewell season a perfect one.

It's just that Nowitzki has not publicly announced that he is going to retire, nor has he planned any retirement tour. It's just that other teams thought he was going to retire, so after the game some players would take the initiative to find him to exchange jerseys.

It is said that Nowitzki himself does not want to retire, but now he is in a difficult situation. He has completed the retirement tour process and even entered the All-Star Game with an extra spot.

Now there is no way not to retire.

Subsequently, the NBA officially announced the player lists for the Celebrity Game, Rookie Challenge, and individual events.

The so-called celebrity competition is naturally for some celebrities in society.

For example, actors, singers, TV hosts, and some retired NBA players, WNBA players, NBA team owners, including former NBA superstar three-point shooter Ray Allen, Bucks owner Marc Lasry, etc.

As for the rookie game, it will still feature some first- and second-year players with outstanding performances.

For example, Luka Doncic, Ben Simmons, Donovan Mitchell, Kyle Kuzma, Jayson Tatum, Trae Young, etc.

However, what really excited the fans was not the Celebrity Game and the Rookie Game, but that they saw Zach LaVine and Aaron Gordon on the dunk contest list for the individual events.

"Holyshit, is this true? LaVine and Gordon are going to participate in the dunk contest again?"

"Yes, brother, you read it right, LaVine and Gordon are going to participate in the dunk contest again. It's really exciting. The dunk contest in 16 is still fresh in my memory. That dunk contest was so exciting that I have no interest in the dunk contests in the following two years. Those players are really too far behind LaVine and Gordon."

"Hey bro, did you miss someone?"

"what?"

"Didn't you see? It's not just LaVine and Gordon who are participating in the dunk contest this time, there's also Zhuang Yu from the Lakers."

"Wait, let me take a closer look. God, Zhuang Yu is really here. I was just too happy. Now the dunk contest is even more interesting."

"Haha, I can't wait. There is no doubt that LaVine and Gordon's dunks are beautiful, but Zhuang Yu's dunks are also beautiful. He has dunked from the free throw line before, and his strength is no worse than LaVine and Gordon. And Zhuang Yu has won the Skills Challenge and the Three-Point Contest before. If he can win the Slam Dunk Contest this time, he will become the first player in NBA history to win three championships in a single event."

"I heard that LaVine and Gordon didn't want to participate in the dunk contest originally. It was Zhuang Yu who initiated this challenge and invited the two to participate together."

"Tsk tsk, this is going to be a good show."

When seeing the list of players for the dunk contest, the fans were all excited.

This time, not only will there be a rematch between Lavine and Gordon, but Zhuang Yu will also participate. The matchup between the three has made the fans extremely looking forward to it.

By the way, there was another player in the dunk contest, John Collins from the Atlanta Hawks. There were a total of four players participating, but people's attention was on Zhuang Yu, LaVine, and Gordon, and John Collins' name was directly ignored.

No one discussed him at all.

In addition, the three-point contest also aroused a lot of discussion, because this three-point contest included a brotherly duel between Stephen Curry and Seth Curry, as well as three-point masters such as Damian Lillard, Devin Booker, Kemba Walker, and Dirk Nowitzki.

It’s just a bit of a pity for fans that neither Zhuang Yu nor Klay Thompson will participate in the three-point contest.

However, the duel between brothers Stephen Curry and Seth Curry is still very interesting.

Of course, the focus of people's discussion is still the dunk contest. In fact, in the hearts of many fans, the expectations for the dunk contest are even greater than those for the All-Star Game.