NBA's King of Talking

Chapter 194 All-Star Game

“Even if she hugs you, you can refuse to let her!” Sharapova started to act unreasonably.

Jia Fei was speechless. This was utter nonsense! Sharapova, how insecure are you? Scarlett Johansson is beautiful and sexy, but are you really that bad? Besides, she has a fiancé. Do you really distrust me and think I would try to steal her away?

Jia Fei didn't want to argue with her anymore; what was supposed to be a fun All-Star weekend was completely ruined. Feeling depressed, he and Art Mayork went out for drinks.

Art Mayork was of course willing to risk his life to accompany his friend. He was here to be with Jia Fei, and if his buddy needed him, he would do his duty without hesitation.

The two went to a bar and had a great time drinking.

Looking at the wine in his glass, Jia Fei murmured, "Ah, it seems it really is better to be alone!"

Art Mayor shrugged: "Being alone has its advantages; it's really liberating. But sometimes it can be lonely."

"Loneliness!" Jia Fei sighed. How many people find a girlfriend because of loneliness? Including himself, didn't he also have reasons for loneliness?

Silent all night.

February 17th, the last day of All-Star Weekend, is also the day the main course is served.

Early in the morning, the All-Star players took a group photo. Jia Fei, as an Eastern Conference All-Star, took a photo with A Tan and others.

After that was the pre-All-Star concert, and at 9 a.m. Beijing time, the All-Star Game officially kicked off.

Many NBA legends were present, including basketball god Michael Jordan, his perfect sidekick Scottie Pippen, Charles Barkley, Clyde Drexler, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Besides NBA legends, there were also the Kardashian women, celebrities like Rihanna and Jazz, soccer stars David and Victoria Beckham, tennis legend Andre Agassi, and many more.

Scarlett Johansson, who hugged Jia Fei yesterday, also came. She sat in the front row and waved to Jia Fei as he prepared to go on stage!

Jia Fei was also smiling bitterly to himself. He never expected that Scarlett Johansson's actions would plunge his relationship into the "red light zone." No one would believe it if he told others.

The starting lineup for the Eastern Conference is Jia Fei, A Tan, Paul George, Wade, and Irving; the starting lineup for the Western Conference is Xiao Shuai, Shaq, Love, Harden, and Curry.

Thunder fans were heartbroken to see both teams' starters on the court, especially considering that just two years ago, their team had 3 out of 10 All-Star starters!

But now, only Durant remains. It's a testament to the team management's keen eye for talent, but the actual controllers of the team clearly don't know how to retain players! If they had been willing to spend more money, Jia Fei and Harden would most likely still be wearing Thunder jerseys. Neither of them ever actively requested to leave; they only left out of desperation because the team didn't offer satisfactory contracts. To consider them traitors is a gross oversimplification.

Ah Tan warmly embraced all five of them, constantly cracking jokes. His words even made the usually reserved and shy Xiao Shuai laugh. Curry's baby face made it impossible to believe he was actually the oldest of the Western Conference starting five; Harden's beard had grown longer and longer since leaving the Thunder, steadily resembling Marx; Blake Griffin still looked goofy, showing no signs of intelligence, and his arms were indeed very short, appearing even shorter next to Xiao Shuai; Love's blond hair made him resemble Xie Xun from the novel "The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber," and Jia Fei felt his looks could challenge both him and Parsons, but his proportions were a bit off.

Times have really changed. The NBA has transformed. None of the starting 10 are proper centers anymore. We've truly entered the era of guards and forwards.

A-Tan actually arranged for Jia Fei and Duan Fen to jump ball.

Jia Fei readily accepted, since the jump ball was just a formality anyway; he couldn't very well have Irving and Curry jump the ball!

Duanfen doesn't like Jia Fei; the two had previously exchanged trash talk during a match.

When they reached center circle, Blake Griffin scoffed, "LeBron should have jumped the ball himself, why did he pick you!"

Jia Fei smiled slightly: "Sending me is enough to deal with you!"

"Hmph—" Duanfen said with disdain.

The jump ball began, and Jia Fei and Duan Fen jumped almost simultaneously to touch the ball.

But Jia Fei touched the ball first, and the Eastern All-Stars gained possession of the first offensive possession!

"Having long arms can be a good thing sometimes!" Jia Fei muttered to himself.

But these words had already reached Duanfen's ears. The speaker may not have meant it unintentionally, but the listener certainly took it to heart. Duanfen felt that Jia Fei was definitely implying that his arms were short again, and she immediately became quite angry!

The Eastern Conference All-Stars executed a fast break, with Wade passing to Azpilicueta for an alley-oop, showcasing a "James-Wade connection" on the All-Star court.

The crowd immediately erupted in cheers, demonstrating the star power of the celebrity.

Curry dribbled the ball over and passed it to Harden.

Harden bent over and attempted a three-pointer—but it missed!

Jia Fei grabbed the rebound and passed it to Irving for the drive!

Irving dribbled over, executed a series of impressive moves, and hit a pull-up jumper, giving the East a 5-0 lead at the start!

But soon, the Western team broke the deadlock with Xiao Shuai's pull-up jump shot.

On the Eastern Conference side, Irving missed a jump shot, Love grabbed the rebound, Curry dribbled over and hit a long-range three-pointer to tie the game!

Both sides barely defended, so they couldn't play too aggressively. It was mostly three-pointers, dunks, or jump shots after a quick layup. The point was to show off, to show off like crazy, Lyca, I'm the style, I'm the style!

As a newcomer participating in the main competition for the first time, Jia Fei showcased his dunking prowess when given the opportunity, but didn't rush to shoot when he didn't. As for defense, he should have played it easy; it's supposed to be an entertaining game, and taking it too seriously would be a waste of time and energy. Getting injured would be counterproductive, so why bother?

In the East, despite being hailed as the "best player in the league," DeAndre Azkarov seemed uninterested in taking shots and mostly coasted along. Meanwhile, his teammate Kyrie Irving was constantly dribbling the ball and taking shots, acting as if he were the team's leader, with only one-on-one situations and the basket in his sights.

Jia Fei suddenly remembered something: Kyrie Irving was also a "Mamba disciple." Players who liked the Los Angeles Iron Man all shared a common trait—they were generally quite selfish. He was also quite puzzled. Logically, was the Mamba Mentality about holding onto the ball and making everyone else run back and forth? Shouldn't the Mamba Mentality be about never giving up and relentlessly pursuing victory? If it's just about being selfish, then the core of the spirit is flawed. Basketball is a team sport; taking a lot of shots is fine, but not too much! If a game has 80 shot attempts, and you take 40, how are the other players supposed to compete?