Chapter 284 [The Most Popular, the Lakers Are in Chaos]

After five consecutive victories, Guo Xu's popularity has risen to the highest level in the league. He has surpassed Tracy McGrady, Carter, and Yao Ming to lead the league in All-Star voting, and is expected to become this year's "voting king."

There have been too many dunks by Suns players recently, and fans hope that Guo Xu will organize offense in the All-Star Game and have more exciting dunks.

NBA outside superstars usually have high popularity. Compared with inside players, their playing style is more agile and elegant, which is suitable for star game performances.

What has increased in popularity is Guo Xu's commercial value. With his annual playing salary and advertising endorsements, his income has ranked among the top ten in the league.

In terms of beverages, Guo Xu switched to Gatorade sports drinks. The annual endorsement fee of 4 million is not high, but he makes money in vain because the price of beverages endorsed by NBA players cannot be high.

The league requires that no matter what beverage a star endorses off the court, they can only drink Gatorade on the sidelines during games. This is the only designated drink for the NBA and the NFL.

Gatorade occupies 85% of the market share in the sports drink industry in the United States, and its slogan is "Quiet your thirst and quench your thirst better." If they really don't like drinking, players can only pour their favorite drink into a Gatorade cup, and take out the Gatorade cup to drink other brands of drinks during breaks.

Guo Xu does not intend to go against the league. Gatorade’s monopoly will only become more and more stable. In the previous life, in the 2017-18 season, the NBA Development League officially changed its name to the NBA Gatorade League. They became the first champion of the American professional sports league. name partner.

In terms of food, Guo Xu endorsed KFC. Although he hardly eats this stuff, when he was with the Lakers, he and "Zen Master" Phil Jackson had endorsed KFC for free on the sidelines for many years. He felt that he deserved the endorsement fee.

Guo Xu also endorsed Apple Computer. He purchased a large number of Apple stocks. Upon checking, the other party found out that he was a small shareholder. The interests of both parties were related, and they hit it off immediately.

With Guo Xu's strong rise, Happy Waters has also become a well-known agent in the league. He is not only responsible for Guo Xu, but also signed Amare Stoudemire, Cavaliers second-round pick Carlos -Boozer.

Stoudemire was a O'Neal fan when he was a kid and lived just a few blocks away from the Magic Arena. When he participated in the draft, he most wanted to partner with Guo Xu, so he found Happy as his agent, and his dream came true. In the eyes of others, Guo Xu's joining the Suns is directly related to his agent's promotion.

Guo Xu in turn helped Happy a lot. Boozer was the one who suggested Happy sign him. There will definitely be surprises in the future.

Happy is currently building a brokerage team to better serve customers.

Every Thanksgiving he and Guo Xu eat together and are filled with emotion. He thinks Guo Xu has changed his life and he regards him as his best friend.

At the same time, in Los Angeles, the Lakers were in chaos after losing Guo Xu.

After losing to the 76ers, the Lakers lost 71-98 to the Nets, who were defeated last season, creating the team's lowest score in a single game in three seasons. Except for Kobe and O'Neal, no one on the Lakers scored in double figures.

Kobe played 43 minutes, making 8 of 29 shots, 0 of 1 three-pointers, 5 of 5 free throws, and scored 21 points, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists; O'Neal made 7 of 13 shots, 5 of 8 free throws, and scored 19 points, 4 rebounds, and 2 assists.

The role players performed even worse, mainly relying on Fisher, Devin George and veteran Robert Horry. Last season's marginal player Brian Shaw began to be reused, and Dandy was completely unqualified to be a backup point guard.

On the Nets side, head star Kidd played for 40 minutes, making 12 of 20 shots, 1 of 2 three-pointers, 2 of 2 free throws, and scored 27 points, 11 rebounds, 8 assists and 3 steals. Under his organization, the team scored 5 goals People score in double figures.

After this game, the media exposed the news of internal strife in the Lakers locker room. O'Neal publicly accused Kobe of being too independent.

The Lakers originally had the ball shared by three players, but now it was split between two players, but there was a contradiction. Fans found it inconceivable.

In fact, both of them took more shots, but they were unevenly distributed. O'Neal came back from 15 games and found that Kobe was shooting like crazy and couldn't stop at all. O'Neal currently only takes 18 shots per game, while Kobe takes 22.6.

On November 7 this year, in the Lakers' away game against the Celtics, Kobe made 17 of 47 shots and scored 41 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists, 4 steals and 5 turnovers. His 30 irons in a single game set a hard-to-break league record. After this game, Kobe went crazy and opened the door to a new world.

When Guo Xu was in the Lakers, it was impossible for Kobe to shoot so many balls. As long as his touch was not good, Guo Xu would stop passing the ball and cooperate with O'Neal to leave him alone.

Now Fisher is one of the worst point guards in the league. He passed the ball to Kobe after halftime, opened the perimeter, and let Kobe decide the distribution of the ball.

In the past, Kobe would pass the ball to Guo Xu, believing that the opponent could make the shot. He doesn't recognize the current group of Lakers teammates, and feels that no one passing to the outside can be as reliable as his own. Phil Jackson tried to communicate with Kobe many times without success. In fact, Kobe's personal ability is indeed the strongest on the Lakers. Others can't attract double teams, so "Zen Master" simply let him play casually.

In Guo Xu's previous life, Kobe competed with Tracy McGrady for the scoring title this season, and became extremely popular in the mid-term and became the All-Star vote winner. Now he is lagging far behind in votes, and his popularity is only ranked fifth in the league.

This is a butterfly effect. Guo Xu's argument of "no brothers, no basketball" has made countless fans appreciate team basketball. The Lakers have tortured players with individual heroism. This season, Kobe has suddenly developed in the direction of personal heroism. The Lakers have gone from a championship team with a record-breaking 35 consecutive wins to an underdog with a winning rate of less than half. Which fan can bear it?

It would be okay if Guo Xu wasn't there for comparison. Once compared, everyone wouldn't think Kobe is great, it's just that the data is beautiful.

On the 23rd, the Lakers defeated the Raptors 109-107 in overtime in an away game, with an 11-18 loss.

In this game, two Raptors stars, Vince Carter and Antonio Davis, were absent due to injuries. The Raptors' top scorer was Guo Xu's college teammate Maurice Peterson, who scored 27 points.

The Raptors' center is Jelani McCoy, who was a fringe player with the Lakers last season, the guard is Lynch Hunter, who was rejected even though he wanted to try to get a leg with the Lakers, and the power forward is blue-collar Jerome Williams. Even so, the Raptors fought the Lakers until overtime.

In another game on the same day, the Suns defeated the SuperSonics 108-89, winning their sixth consecutive victory.

Guo Xu suppressed veteran Payton and played 40 minutes. He made 8 of 16 shots, 4 of 7 three-pointers, and 4 of 4 free throws. He scored 24 points, 4 rebounds, and 12 assists.

Payton played 38 minutes and felt very bad. He made 5 of 18 shots, 0 of 2 three-pointers, and 2 of 2 free throws. He scored 12 points, 4 rebounds, and 6 assists.

Playing the same way as in the past, Payton's shooting percentage has dropped. His data performance looks good, averaging 20 points and 8.5 assists per game. In fact, he averages 19 shots per game, and his offensive efficiency is not high.

"Drunkard" Vin Baker was a defensive black hole when he came on, not guarding the pick-and-roll at all. Brent Barry was also beaten by second-year rookie Joe Johnson. Power forward Reggie Evans can grab rebounds. On the offensive end, he is missing. Can trip himself up off the dribble.

After the game, the Sonics had 13 wins and 16 losses. After this season, Payton will be 35 years old. He began to feel inadequate. In order to win the championship, he planned to leave the Sonics.

On the 24th, everyone from the Suns took a bus to Los Angeles to prepare for the Christmas game.

The media predicted a one-sided outcome, with all optimistic about the Suns.