The next day when Hansen woke up in the hotel, he found out that he had gained tens of thousands of haters overnight.
Upon checking social media, he realized that his comment section was completely overrun.
Taking a closer look, he was almost amused by his anger.
Durant, instead of sleeping in the middle of the night, was crazily trolling him using a burner account.
Wasn’t it better to use that time to find some girls and party?
However, these haters weren’t actually from Durant, because the system only counts the person, not the number of accounts; even if Durant used many accounts, he could only contribute the haters value of one person.
Even though he is a celebrity, at most it would be an addition of the old 1.5.
Most of his haters came from Kobe fans.
"You personally destroyed Kobe’s chance to surpass Jordan, do you know that?!"
Better late than never.
If the Lakers had lost in the Western Conference Finals, the Kobe fans might have reluctantly accepted it, since Paul either chokes or is on his way to choke during crucial moments.
But now, the super Lakers getting flipped over in the division semi-finals was simply unbearable for them.
"Only know how to complain about the refs," "Relies on teammates in crucial moments," "If only Paul wasn’t injured"...
Hansen found that these people kept repeating the same few things, which were far from Durant’s comments.
At this time, Scarlett woke up and went to the bathroom to shower.
Hansen was still looking, when he heard the sound of knocking on glass.
Then, he looked up to see Scarlett leaning on the glass door, her eyes smoldering, and seductively smiling at him with an invitation, "Join me?"
Hansen was no stranger to showering together, but unlike previous times with Swift, this time it was Scarlett who took the initiative.
Hansen glanced at Durant’s comments, then at Scarlett, and then at the bathroom.
Hmm, it felt a bit weird.
He eventually put down his phone and got up.
The early bird gets the worm.
The day after the Grizzlies and Lakers finished their game seven, the latest episode of TNT reached a new high in viewership ratings.
Compared to other shenanigans like kissing donkeys, this dramatic twist in the show was much more explosive.
The fans had been anticipating it for over a week, most of a playoff series.
Moreover, everyone wanted to know whether Barkley would actually follow through with his bet, since it was quite a spectacle.
As the show started, O’Neal initially gave Barkley a way out, allowing him to change the bet’s location from Star Avenue to a beach as long as Barkley agreed to stand and let him slam dunk over him live on air.
However, Barkley, stubborn as ever, refused to step down from O’Neal’s offer.
As a result, he would be heading to Hollywood tomorrow to honor his bet.
It must be said, Barkley is truly a commentary genius, turning a bet into a soap opera.
Later in the show, they immediately started a new round of predictions without catching a breath.
By now, the matchups for both the Eastern and Western Conference Finals had been set; Thunders vs Grizzlies in the West and Heat vs Celtics in the East.
There wasn’t much suspense in the East, as the Heat had steamrolled their way here even with Bosh absent, and with Bosh’s imminent return against the Celtics, who struggled through seven games to beat the 76ers, it would be a loss for the Heat if they didn’t resolve the series in less than six games.
On the other hand, things were less clear in the West; the Grizzlies had pushed the Thunders to a game seven last year, and although the Grizzlies had added Guy this year, Harden’s improvement was evident (he had won the Sixth Man of the Year award), making it tough to pick a clear winner.
However, the funny part came at the end.
This time both Barkley and O’Neal firmly supported the Grizzlies, rigidly unwilling to change their stance.
The new bet didn’t materialize, and they ended up just guessing the scores.
The results from their guesses also carried a great show effect.
Barkley guessed 4-1, and O’Neal went all in with 4-0.
It seemed both were under the impression that the Thunders stood no chance against the Grizzlies.
Whether their predictions were correct or not, they had already succeeded in hyping up the show. Tʜe source of this ᴄontent ɪs 𝓷𝓸𝓿𝓮𝓵※𝖿𝗂𝗋𝖾※𝙣𝙚𝙩
While TNT’s Big Three were busy drawing viewers with their antics, the League also announced the final batch of season awards and all-star teams.
Unexpectedly, Hansen not only made the second defensive team but was also selected for the first team All-NBA!
The surprising part wasn’t that Hansen didn’t deserve it—as he was fourth in the MVP voting—but because he wasn’t part of the Nike camp, which theoretically should have favored Paul.
However, one can’t ignore the media’s voting "timeliness."
Theoretically, the All-NBA team is awarded for the regular season, but votes are cast during the playoffs, making it hard not to be influenced by playoff performances.
If Paul hadn’t choked that one time, the spot would have been his.
Having Hansen in the same playoff series only highlighted this—like choosing between a plate of shit and a plate of chocolate; even holding your nose, you couldn’t bring yourself to go for the former.
After seeing the results, Hansen posted a status on social media.
This time it wasn’t about increasing haters or anything, but to express injustice for Little Gasol.
"Mark should have made the defensive team."
Even if you put aside Little Gasol’s playoff performance, his regular season average of 9.2 rebounds and 1.8 blocks per game, both his stats and on-court display deserved a spot.
However, some of this year’s voting results were quite abstract.
Despite Tyson Chandler being announced as the Defensive Player of the Year, he surprisingly didn’t make the first defensive team.
In contrast, it was another year where James made both first teams.