The No.1 Anti-Fans in Basketball-Chapter 179 - 120 [Classical Master]_2

The San Antonio Spurs’ performance this season once again confirms the three Texas illusions, with hardly any major changes in their lineup and everyone being a year older on average; they now sit atop The West, leading the pack.

The Celtics are ranked fourth.

The Lakers have dropped to fifth place for the first time.

They first lost to the Grizzlies in early December, then suffered a 16-point defeat to the Heat in the recently concluded Christmas Day game, and the successive losses in big matches hint that the Lakers are facing unprecedented difficulties this season.

The Grizzlies continue to climb in the rankings, reaching the sixth position for the first time.

The Grizzlies still hold the fourth spot in The West, but over the past month, they have successively beaten championship-contending teams like the Lakers, Magic, and Bulls.

The Mavericks have slipped to the seventh spot.

O’Neal put up 25 points and 11 rebounds in the game against the Brooklyn Nets on November 27, becoming the oldest player to achieve a 25+10 since 1986.

But soon after that game, he began to miss matches due to an Achilles injury.

At this time, the annual All-Star voting had started once again.

Hansen, as one of the four candidates from the Grizzlies, entered the selection.

Compared to his last season with the Cavaliers, his performance so far this season with 19.6 points, 3.4 rebounds, 2 assists, and 2.3 steals (second in the League), a field goal percentage of 48.5%, and a three-point percentage of 41.2%, are clearly more All-Star worthy.

And soon after the voting officially began, Swift publicly campaigned for Hansen on social media.

After being caught by paparazzi at a hotel last time, Swift admitted her relationship with Hansen to reporters not long after.

Now that she’s campaigning for Hansen, it’s only fitting.

A week later, the first round results of the All-Star voting were revealed.

In the votes for The West’s guards, Hansen was second only to Kobe, ranking second in The West.

If the All-Star Game were to start at that moment, he would be the starting guard for The West.

This result instantly threw Hansen into a whirlwind of public opinion.

It’s known that The West has a lot more popular guards than The East, including Nash, Deron, Jide, Parker, Manu Ginobili... each one a renowned name.

Of course, the most important is Paul, who, as the number one point guard currently, is extremely popular in the United States.

"Letting music fans vote for players in the All-Star game? That’s just cheating!"

"This is another challenge to the All-Star voting system! Those music fans won’t even watch the All-Star game!"

"How are you better than Paul? Just because you’re handsomer than him? Taller? More charming to women?"

...

Hansen suddenly gained a whole lot of haters.

As the subject in question, he was naturally asked by reporters about the campaigning.

"Is there any problem with my girlfriend campaigning for me? If you have the ability, you can get one too!" Hansen retorted, leaving the reporter speechless.

After all, campaigning is all about capability; not to mention players like Pachulia from the Hawks calling for national votes.

If you really have what it takes, you could even get the President of the United States to campaign for you!

By this time, we’ve reached early January, and the Grizzlies were about to head to an away game to challenge the San Antonio Spurs—in what would be the first matchup of the season between the two teams.

The Spurs have performed unexpectedly well this season and they also hold a special place for Hansen.

The worst game of his career so far came courtesy of the Spurs’ craftsmanship.

Especially with the All-Star drama placing him in the eye of the storm, if he performed his season’s worst against the Spurs, he’d definitely be trashed by the critics.

As for the hatred he’s amassing, Hansen doesn’t give it much thought.

Because he had just redeemed "Classical Master", he needed time to train, and he wouldn’t exchange the new haters for other talents just yet.

So, rather than dwelling on the haters, he’s more eager to prove himself.

Especially after a month of hard practice, although not yet reaching a plateau, he has felt a significant improvement in his mid-range game.

Taking on his old rival, the Spurs, seems like the perfect opportunity to test his blade.

On the day of the match, the Spurs conducted their regular training open to the public.

After training, Popovich was interviewed by the sidelines.

With the Spurs team, the core is the "GDP," but the trio isn’t fond of dealing with the press, so it’s usually up to Popovich to step up.

Beyond questions about the game, the All-Star voting inevitably came up, especially with Hansen’s high-profile campaigning.

"What do you think about Hansen’s off-court campaigning?"

"Who’s Han?" To the reporter’s surprise, when asked about it, Popovich started playing dumb.

"Oh, you mean that Han. You know I’m an old man, I don’t own a cell phone, so I haven’t paid much attention to that," he feigned ignorance until the reporter elaborated.

"If what you’re saying is true, it’s no big deal. But I wouldn’t vote for him; after all, I’ve got two guys over here more deserving of the spot."

That evening, at the AT&T Center, the attendance was around eighty percent.

Although the Spurs consistently perform well year after year and have claimed several championships, their attendance rates have never been very high.

This is mainly due to the Spurs’ style of play; hardly any dunks in a game, plus being a small-market team, it’d be surprising for their attendance to be high.

Thanks to Hansen’s recent popularity, tonight’s decent attendance was quite an accomplishment.

During the pre-game warm-up, the camera kept focusing on Hansen.

Whether Popovich was paying attention to Hansen was unknown, but the Spurs’ interest in him was obviously not low.