The Way of Basketball: Never Talk Shit to Him!
Chapter 211 - 141 Whenever any media discusses the regular season MVP, they should add

Chapter 211: Chapter 141 Whenever any media discusses the regular season MVP, they should add

October had arrived, and various media outlets began to anticipate the new season.

The Indiana Pacers, as the defending champions, ranked first on most media team power rankings.

Even ESPN, which often likes to stir things up, didn’t purposefully rank them behind other teams for a change. Instead, they reasonably said, "Reggie Miller’s retirement won’t impact the team at all because Ron Artest is coming back. Most importantly, we have Su Wan, 20-year-old Su Wan, who will bring us even more surprises than when he was 19!"

On July 1, Su Wan’s 20th birthday, ESPN even issued a headline news article speculating about his future.

The last person to receive such treatment from them was LeBron James.

Ranked second was the Miami Heat.

Shaquille O’Neal’s weight loss, Dwyane Wade’s third season, and Pat Riley’s series of masterful moves during the summer... All these combined are the reasons why the Miami Heat ranked second on the power ranking list.

In fact, many media outlets placed them first on the new season’s power rankings.

Marv Albert from TNT has expressed, "I mean no disrespect to Su Wan and the Indiana Pacers, but if I don’t place the Heat first, that would be disrespecting the ’OK’ pairing, everyone knows what that duo brought us those years."

However, his remarks drew dissatisfaction from the media in Los Angeles:

"Anyone who thinks the ’K’ in the ’OK’ combination can easily be replaced, well, let the facts speak for themselves!"

Following in third place were the Phoenix Suns.

Joe Johnson’s move to Atlanta didn’t knock the Suns out of contention for the championship favorites list because they added ’Championship Wing’ Stephen Jackson.

Some media in Phoenix were quite superstitious: "Stephen clearly carries a certain trait, just like Robert Horry, who helped the Rockets and the Lakers claim championships respectively; Stephen will surpass him."

Unexpectedly, the Rockets were ranked seventh.

The reason was many media believed their unexpected breakthrough in last season’s playoffs would accelerate them becoming even stronger.

Especially...

Yao Ming!

In Sports Illustrated’s preseason top ten players to watch, Yao Ming was placed seventh: "We all know that players in a contract year often explode. Yao is in such a period, he declined to renew his contract with the Rockets early, hoping to prove his worth in his fourth year for a maximum salary contract, making his performance this season something everyone is waiting to see!"

By the way, Su Wan was ranked first on the list:

"What else is there to say? At the age of 19, he became the youngest to win Finals MVP since Magic Johnson. Who could possibly be more anticipated than Su Wan?"

The Mavericks were ranked thirteenth.

Most media believed they would perform similarly to last season, with their best achievement being reaching the second round of the playoffs.

Here it comes, here it comes!

The Texas Classic: The Mavericks are weak, the Rockets are strong, the Spurs are...

Well, this season, it was no longer about age for the Spurs, it was simply that they lacked players.

ESPN ranked them 27th:

"We mean no disrespect to Tim Duncan, but we all know what Gregg Popovich is up to, and that’s how he got Tim Duncan."

Additionally, ESPN also released the NBA player power rankings.

This fresh list immediately maximized traffic, capturing everyone’s attention.

They knew how to play the game by releasing a part of the rankings each day, counting down from the back, starting with the top 100 on the first day, top 50 the next day... decreasing gradually, ending with what they considered the top ten players of the new season on the last day.

Su Wan was ranked ninth on this list.

He was only second to Dwyane Wade in the shooting guard position.

What caused controversy was Kobe’s ranking, as he was placed in the 12th position.

Okay, that’s so ESPN!

As everyone knows, ESPN’s attitude toward Kobe has always been one of underestimating him compared to LeBron—ESPN really thrives on Kobe-generated traffic.

LeBron James was ranked tenth, and they stated:

"We believe LeBron could be ranked higher, but at least for now, he can’t be ranked ahead of Su Wan."

They also released the list of regular season MVP candidates, placing Su Wan in fifth place, which also sparked some controversy. The reason was simple, Su Wan was only 20 years and 3 months old, and there has never been an MVP so young in the NBA.

The League also announced the new season’s schedule during this period.

The Indiana Pacers’ season opener would be held at home, welcoming the challenge of the Detroit Pistons.

David Stern really knows how to provoke by having the "arch-enemies" witness the unveiling of the Pacers’ first championship banner.

On the same day, there was also the "Western Conference Final 2.0" between the Suns and the Rockets.

You thought that was it?

The next day, there was Dwyane Wade versus LeBron’s "03 face-off" and Allen Iverson versus Kobe Bryant’s "scoring battle."

Indeed, this was a period rich in stars, where arranging games could easily pull in massive audiences.

Just as Su Wan had predicted, once his mid-range shooting reached 80 points, his Skill Panel was updated with several mid-range-related techniques:

Jumping mid-range shot, jump shot, backstep mid-range shot, floater, and step-back mid-range shot, as well as catch and shoot.

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