After the game, he heard an even more disheartening piece of news:
Su Wan had scored another 41 points in tonight’s "Huaxia Derby."
Why say "another"?
Because since the game between the Pacers and the Cavaliers, in seven games, this was the third time Su Wan had dropped 40-plus points.
Su Wan’s condition was especially outstanding after LeBron’s suspension.
The "Huaxia Derby" also ended with the Pacers winning easily by 14 points, 112 to 98.
After defeating Yao’s team, the Pacers’ ranking had stealthily climbed to third in the Eastern Conference, matching the record of the leading teams.
Yao Ming hugged Su Wan after the game, looking at him with evident envy.
In November, Yao Ming could be described as being "on top of the world"; both his individual performance and the team’s results had exceeded expectations, earning him his career’s first "Player of the Month." He had thought that with McGrady’s return, they could take it a step further and become a powerhouse in the Western Conference.
But the outcome had been unexpected...
After McGrady’s return, the Rockets’ record had worsened instead of improving, and they had slipped to the sixth position in the Western standings.
The recently-returned "Best Calves Award" winner had shown a poor state, which was one issue, but more importantly, his comeback had pushed Yao Ming out of the tactical position of the absolute core. On the court, Yao could no longer receive the ball as frequently as before and was mostly left running around.
Offensive form needs to be maintained through shooting rights; without it, it’s tough to keep that momentum.
Like in tonight’s game, Yao started by scoring 6 points straight, showing very good form.
But then McGrady inexplicably became the main attacker. Not to mention his 1 for 4 shooting, when the ball returned to Yao, his offensive form had also disappeared.
The Pacers had nearly controlled the rhythm of the game from the first quarter.
By the end of the game, Yao had hit 8 out of 17 shots, made 3 out of 3 free throws, scoring a total of 19 points, about 8% less than his shooting percentage in November.
McGrady’s situation was even more dire, hitting only 7 of 22 shots, with a 31.8% shooting percentage!
Already anxious about his own poor form after his return, McGrady was even more eager tonight facing the excellent performance of Su Wan. How could a two-time Scoring King be overshadowed by a second-year player?
This was absolutely unacceptable.
As a result, they let Artest and Su Wan take turns in a "tag-team battle," and McGrady ended up losing his temper completely.
But, frustratingly, while the problem obviously lay with McGrady, Houston’s media began to bombard Yao Ming, saying he wasn’t worthy of a max salary and should hurry up and sign the contract offered by the Rockets.
Su Wan was a sensitive person.
He had only suspected, but now he was very clear that there was definitely someone behind these voices.
As to who it was, it wasn’t hard to guess.
Often in such cases, whoever benefits is the culprit, and Bill Duffy thought the same.
This was what Yao Ming found most distressing. He was truthful with the Rockets’ management, but they played him with public opinion.
"If I were you, Yao, I’d walk away tonight, come what may," said Su Wan.
Yao Ming gave a wry smile.
This "if you don’t like it, just fight it" attitude of Su Wan’s... how he envied it!
He truly wanted to live that freely.
But Su Wan only needed to consider his own feelings.
Yao had much more to think about.
However, he was starting to realize that he might not be so concerned about whether he must stay with the Rockets.
The words from Su Wan that had the deepest impact on him were, "If you don’t respect yourself, how can you expect others to respect you?"
Whenever he was persuaded by "Yao’s team" to "take a step back for a boundless vista," he would remember this phrase and then say with determined conviction, "I can’t just compromise like this!"
Now, he was even more resolute.
It was clear that he had played well, while McGrady played terribly.
The Houston media didn’t blame McGrady but instead blamed him.
That really made no sense!
After the "Christmas Battle," it was the annual opening of the NBA All-Star starter voting.
On December 27th, LeBron James, eager to make a statement in his comeback game against the Bobcats, vented his frustrations by scoring 37 points, grabbing 8 rebounds, and dishing out 8 assists.
Cleveland reporters, witnessing such a heroic LeBron, shouted, "The King of Cleveland is back!"
In the post-match interview, LeBron also expressed vigorously and confidently, "I hope I can make it into this year’s All-Star starting lineup. I believe I have the ability and the qualifications to do so!"
However, what LeBron didn’t expect was that his comments would come under fierce attack from many in the media:
"A team leader who defends bullying aspires to be an NBA All-Star starter? Has the NBA run out of players?"
"Racists don’t deserve to be All-Star starters!"
"The NBA really is going downhill year by year. LeBron, suspected of bullying and racism, is let go so quickly!"
These opposing voices left LeBron stunned.
He thought everything was behind him, but now it seemed...
Nothing had passed at all!
In fact, it looked like it never would.
If Su Wan knew how surprised LeBron was, he’d probably tell him,
"The Eagle County incident is two and a half years old, enough time for a trainee to debut. Do you see the media letting Kobe off the hook?"
Even though LeBron was only suspected, his defense of bullying was pretty much confirmed; otherwise, Jeff McInnis wouldn’t be chasing him around on Facebook like a mad dog now.
So how could it possibly blow over so quickly!