NBA's King of Talking

Jia Fei suddenly realized that the All-Star Game was about to start again! Last year, he participated in the Slam Dunk Contest and won the championship with his creativity and excellent dunking moves. Almost a year has passed in the blink of an eye; time really flies.

2013年NBA全明星赛于北京时间2013年2月17日拉开帷幕，新秀挑战赛同日在乔治·布朗中心开战，18日举行技巧挑战赛、三分球大赛、扣篮大赛和投篮之星比赛，全明星正赛于19日在丰田中心上演。

Reggie said, "Yesterday, the NBA officially announced the results of the third round of voting for the 2013 Houston All-Star Game. Did you know that Kobe was the top vote-getter, LeBron was second, and our team's KD was third?"

Lamb adopted a "not my problem" attitude: "Whatever their ranking is has nothing to do with us. Anyway, I didn't even get a chance to participate in the rookie tournament!"

"Uh..." Reggie was a little embarrassed because Lamb's words were so true, so heartbreaking. He himself never even had a chance to participate in the Rising Stars Challenge; how could a benchwarmer possibly participate in the Rising Stars Challenge!

Jia Fei remained calm. It didn't matter if they didn't participate in the All-Star Game or the Rising Stars Challenge. It was just a show anyway, and given their current performance, it was normal for them not to participate.

As for the All-Star Game voting rankings, he didn't even pay attention to them. He's not Yao Ming, so how could he possibly be voted into the All-Star starting lineup?

After returning home, a thought suddenly popped into his head: if the All-Star organizers invited him to participate in the Slam Dunk Contest this year, should he go or not?

Emotionally, he didn't want to go. A three-peat in the Slam Dunk Contest wasn't particularly prestigious, and the difficulty of achieving that feat was immense. Losing would only earn him the title of "failed to defend his title," which wouldn't benefit him. But if going would allow him to complete his mission, would he still go?

Reason told him that if there were tasks to do, he should still go; he had already offended many people for the sake of points.

Checking the task list in the system, he was surprised to find that there were no tasks related to this. This made him determined not to go; even the system seemed to be hinting that he shouldn't participate. Besides, the organizers hadn't even invited him yet!

I've made up my mind not to participate, regardless of whether they invite me or not.

However, even if he doesn't participate in the Slam Dunk Contest, he can still take on tasks related to the All-Star Game. He accepted a total of 4 tasks, all of which were related to the All-Star Game.

The first is "being selected for the All-Star Rising Stars Challenge," a task he feels he has at least a 3% chance of achieving. Unlike Reggie Lamb, he has played in all but the first three games of the season and the Christmas Day game, and his overall performance has been good. He feels that among his fellow rookies, although he is a reserve, his overall performance is still quite good, and he is very confident of being selected, considering that the coaches are quite knowledgeable about basketball.

The second task is to "become an All-Star starter". This task is not yet achievable and is an advanced task. We'll take it for now and deal with it later.

The third task is to "become the All-Star vote leader," which is an advanced task and should be followed up first.

The fourth task is to "win the All-Star Game MVP", which is the same as the previous task.

After accepting these four tasks, he is currently handling a total of ten tasks.

Two days later, the Thunder defeated the Raptors on the road, achieving their sixth consecutive victory.

After a six-game winning streak, the Thunder's record stands at 28 wins and 5 losses, surpassing the Spurs and taking the top spot in the Western Conference.

从开赛的3连败到如今的28胜5负，等于说雷霆打出了28胜2负的恐怖战绩。这个战绩是同期的联盟第一，防守效率联盟第一。

The Thunder's goal is not just the regular season; they want to win the championship.

On January 8, the Thunder suffered a narrow defeat to the Wizards in a back-to-back away game, ending their seven-game winning streak.

In the NBA, a long 82-game regular season includes many away games and back-to-back games, which is why the Chicago Bulls' current record of 72 wins and 10 losses is the best in NBA history. To win all 82 regular season games or only lose one or two is extremely difficult.

Two days later, the Thunder, back at home, easily defeated the Timberwolves, avoiding a losing streak.

On January 12, the Thunder narrowly lost to the Lakers on the road, failing to achieve a two-game winning streak.

After this game, their record improved to 29 wins and 7 losses, still ranking second in the league and first in the Western Conference.

The following day, Jia Fei received an invitation from the NBA All-Star Game organizers to participate in this year's All-Star Slam Dunk Contest.

He wasn't surprised at all by this. The NBA is a business league, and having the defending champions play adds a lot of hype. Whether the defending champions successfully defend their title or a new champion is crowned, it generates a lot of buzz and attracts a large number of fans.

Moreover, Jia Fei is the first Asian to win the Slam Dunk Contest in NBA history, which makes him even more special and generates a lot of buzz and discussion even before the contest begins.

But Jia Fei doesn't want to participate! It's not a matter of giving face; he feels that participating is meaningless to him, so he won't participate. Even the system doesn't support his participation, what do you think?

Jia Fei declined the invitation; he was waiting for the All-Star Rookie Challenge roster, which was what he was looking forward to participating in!

On January 14, the Thunder defeated the Trail Blazers on the road, continuing their losing streak. In the following three games, they defeated the Suns, Nuggets, and Mavericks, achieving a four-game winning streak.

On January 20th, the NBA officially announced the rosters for this year's All-Star Rising Stars Challenge. Jia Fei's name was prominently featured!

Following a vote by assistant coaches from all 30 NBA teams, nine players each from the first and second years of the league were selected for the 18-man roster for the new season. This year's format continues last year's, with NBA legends Shaquille O'Neal and Charles Barkley serving as general managers to select players and build teams. This will be the second consecutive year that teams will be formed using a mixed first- and second-year roster.

Jia Fei didn't care about the mixed team or any other team formation, as long as he was selected! He immediately entered the mission system and completed the mission of "being selected for the All-Star Rookie Challenge".

He earned 1000 points for completing the task, and with the 1212 points already in his account, he now has a total of 2212 points.

Jia Fei was selected for the All-Star Rising Stars Challenge, and the Thunder's official website immediately announced the news. This is great news for Thunder fans, and General Manager Putin naturally showered him with praise. It's worth noting that the team acquired Jia Fei with only a second-round pick. While the Rising Stars Challenge is certainly not as prestigious as the NBA All-Star Game, for a rookie, it's a recognition of his ability and performance. There are only nine spots available each year, and many lottery picks don't even make the cut.