Six Hundred and Eighty-Five: An Impossible Record

Bill Simmons was really frightened. He didn't even calculate that Link would actually participate in the slam dunk contest!

From the beginning, he called Link a softie because of this. As a hard-core fan who has followed his father to the field since he was a child, Simmons knows the NBA too well. He believes that in this day and age, it is impossible for a famous superstar to take risks in a dunk contest.

However, Link's decision took Simmons by surprise.

What level of star is Link? Before halfway through the season, Link had already accumulated a bunch of honors.

No. 1 in the new season's top 50 stars, the league's longest winning streak, three times the best player of the week, two times the best player of the month, the fifth player in history to record a triple-double in the Christmas battle... ..

You know, this season's regular season hasn't even been played yet, and Link's honors can already be listed a lot. If we wait until the end of the season to count the statistics, Link's honor will definitely be much more than now.

It is such a guy who has already made a name for himself to choose to participate in the slam dunk contest!

Link's courage is beyond Bill Simmons' imagination.

Now, Bill Simmons had to seriously consider a question, "What if Link really won the dunk contest? Do you really want to wear women's clothes!?"

After all, Simmons is also one of the best sports columnists in the United States and even in the world. It would be a shame to wear women's clothes in front of everyone!

Simmons just wanted to slap himself in the face now, and he made the bet on wearing women's clothes.

The mouth was happy for a while, but I didn't expect it to cause such a big trouble.

But after calming down, Simmons found that things had turned around!

Not to mention whether Link can win in the end, even if Link wins, Simmons still has a chance to cheat.

In the All-Star Game last season, the rules of the dunk contest were changed. The number of people participating in the game has increased from 4 to 6, but the game is no longer based on individuals, but every three players as a team, with a divisional alliance as a team.

After two teams of players dunk, it is not the individual score, but the team with the higher total score of the three players wins.

That is,

There was no slam dunk king in last season's slam dunk contest. In the end, it's the Eastern Conference star team that wins the game, not one person.

Simmons pinpointed the cut, ready to drill the horn. This year's All-Star, even if Link wins, it's a victory for the West team, not Link's personal victory.

Link is not the slam dunk king, and that's Simmons' excuse for refusing to wear women's clothing after a month and a half!

Simmons laughed, lamenting his astonishingly high IQ.

Want to piss me off? You Link is too young! Simmons hacked the hot Isaiah Thomas for so many years, and Thomas couldn't do anything about him.

How could it be possible for a young Chinese player to bring down Simmons.

But as the saying goes, plans can't keep up with changes.

Just a day after Simmons made a bad idea, the league official released the news again.

"The NBA All-Star individual event cancels the East-West confrontation system and returns to the previous individual system. This year, only four people will participate in the slam dunk contest, and each person only represents himself."

Simmons looked at the message on his phone and couldn't help shaking.

This is playing with me! ?

The new system has only been implemented for a year, so you can change it!

A cruel fact is that the league did change the game system again because Link wanted to participate in the dunk contest.

Last season, why did the league change the slam dunk contest and other individual events to the East-West confrontation system? Isn't it because there are no big-name stars involved, and there is no stimulation point, so we can only innovate in the rules.

Since there are no stars participating in the dunk contest, the "individual first" format is changed to "team first".

In this way, wouldn't it be possible to cover up the shortcoming of lack of star flavor?

But now Link has announced his participation in the Slam Dunk Contest, and the Slam Dunk Contest suddenly has a star. There is no doubt that a "team first" format is not in the best interest.

People came to see Link win the championship, not to see Link dragging two teammates who didn't know who they were to win the championship. What people want to see is Link torture the other three challengers, or three challengers make Link roll over.

There is no doubt that only the traditional slam dunk contest rules can stimulate Link's business value the most.

Therefore, the league is equivalent to making a special trip to modify the slam dunk contest format for Link to maximize benefits.

Fans applauded for such a change. Only Simmons suddenly felt hopeless.

The league has already paved the way for Link, and all Link has to do is to win the championship with much anticipation.

The excuses that Bill Simmons justified for himself were instantly irrelevant. Moreover, he has no other excuse to find.

As Link said in an interview at the Toyota Center yesterday, "You have nowhere to run, asshole!"

Simmons is still thinking of a way, and he believes there must be a way. But silently, Simmons has also ordered a few sets of women's clothing...

Well, be prepared.

※※※

Link is going to participate in the dunk contest, which makes all the fans very excited.

Fans who like Link are eager to see Link's best performance in the slam dunk contest. For fans who hate Link, this is a chance to witness a superstar roll over in a slam dunk contest.

No matter which crowd, this year's slam dunk contest is worth watching because of Link's participation.

For perhaps the first time ever, the league has made a slam dunk contest a high-profile example of just announcing a single participant.

As this matter continued to ferment, a hot topic was also involved.

"There are many players in NBA history who have participated in both the three-point contest and the slam dunk contest, but no player has ever won the three-point contest and the slam dunk contest at the same time. After a month and a half, can Link make history again? Woolen cloth?"

Once this topic was raised, it caused extensive discussion.

There are indeed many people in NBA history who have participated in the slam dunk contest and the three-point contest at the same time, but they usually can only dominate one of them.

For example, Ray Allen, who participated in the three-point contest five times in 2000, 2001, 2005, 2006 and 2011, won the three-point contest in 2001. He gives the impression that he is a three-point shooter, and it is understandable to participate in the three-point contest.

But in fact, the first single challenge Ray Allen participated in when he was young was the slam dunk contest, but he was invited to participate in the first round in 1997, but unfortunately he was out in the first round, and he never participated in it again.

Another example is Brent Barry, who created the legend of "white people can fly". In 1996, he won the slam dunk contest championship with a free-throw line jump and dunk, becoming the first person to be able to complete such a difficult action in the slam dunk contest. white player. In 2003, Barry also reached the final of the three-point contest strongly, and was very close to winning the double championship. But in the final, Barry unfortunately withdrew from the championship with 17 points, and unfortunately failed to make history.

Link's good brother Paul George has also tried the three-point contest and the slam dunk contest in recent years, but he has not achieved any decent results in both events.

The only person in NBA history who can achieve "firsts" in two events is the "old hooligan" Michael Jordan.

Jordan won the All-Star Slam Dunk Contest for two consecutive years in 1987 and 1988. He was absolutely dominant in the Slam Dunk Contest, and he created a "League First" record in the 1990 Three-Point Shootout Contest. .

In the three-point contest that year, Jordan scored only 5 points in total, the lowest scoring record in the All-Star three-point contest so far. The two-time dunk contest champion and the penultimate record in the three-point contest are all Jordan can do.

It can be seen that it is not easy to dominate these two events at the same time. Every athlete has his or her own specialty, but few are truly proficient at everything.

Link has won the 3-point contest once before, and also broke the scoring record in the 3-point contest. This time, if Link wins the dunk contest again, it will really create a record that cannot be broken.

Now, fans around the world are waiting a month and a half for Link's performance in the Slam Dunk Contest. Not since 2000 has the slam dunk contest garnered so much attention.

Before the game started, the slam dunk contest was already saved by Link.