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Chapter 462 - 207. Why is the style of the second round so biased?

Chapter 462: 207. Why is the style of the second round so biased?

"Jack, you’ve made the headlines again; how come I never thought to say it like that? We were just talking about those teams that almost pulled off ’upsets’ yesterday and even mentioned that line..."

During the lunch break, Big Fatty went online and saw a video clip of Little Brother’s interview with the Detroit media had gone viral and he was green with envy.

Sure enough, as Zhang Yang had predicted, the words he had given in the interview that morning had gone viral.

For their team, such confident statements definitely had a positive effect.

Before the playoffs started, Felton had said something that Zhang Yang found very sensible—for their team, it was more appropriate to charge forward with strong confidence rather than to remain calm and low-key.

They weren’t yet at the stage where they could face formidable opponents with calm and ease; they needed momentum.

Zhang Yang smiled and said, "Next time, let the boss say it."

Felton, "Alright... no! I need to come up with it myself!"

Zhang Yang, "Uh, that works too, but you should watch what you say. Don’t be too arrogant, or people will berate you."

Felton, "Can I be more arrogant than you? T-Mac only said that phrase when leading 3 to 1; you had said this before the series even started. Look, James’ fans are cursing you like crazy."

Zhang Yang, "No worries, they curse you even worse."

Felton, "That’s exactly what I’m talking about! It wasn’t me who said we should consider the next round’s opponent; why are they cursing me!"

Zhang Yang, "Don’t mind these details... anyway, both generations of Bad Boys Legion fans will curse back for us."

Felton, "Haha, you say this to the Detroit Free Press, the Pistons fans must be thrilled; they see it as you challenging them to meet in the Eastern Conference finals, as if you believe the Pistons would definitely beat the Bulls."

The Old Bad Boys Legion fans seem to really look down on James, suggesting he should switch to racewalking.

Hey, Jack, this guy cursing me doesn’t look like a Knight fan at all. He doesn’t even know the year when James entered the NBA, calling James the Rookie of the Year of our batch."

Zhang Yang, "Well, Boss, copy his username, open the search engine, paste it... there you have it!"

Felton, "Eh? It’s all posts and replies from that same guy who cursed you! So you can do this... a T-Mac fan? I thought so; they can be really petty!"

Zhang Yang, "That’s just a small part of T-Mac’s fans; most of them just watch it for fun. Of course, some normal people might be influenced by these people and join in the curses, it’s okay, we are moving to the second round...but Boss, we can be confident, but we absolutely must not be complacent. Look at these news items."

Felton leaned in to look at the homepage that Little Brother had switched back to, asking, "What about these news reports?"

Zhang Yang, "These reports say we’re too arrogant, criticize us, help the Knight team analyze how to win... but none of them talk about our possible defeat. Fans’ comments are the same; even Knight fans aren’t thinking about beating us or slapping our faces but only about cursing you."

Felton, "True, if we were Knight players and nobody thought well of us, we would absolutely fight with all our might to prove ourselves, we must not be careless... wait, Jack, what do you mean only cursing me? There’s plenty cursing you too!"

Zhang Yang, "They curse you more."

Felton really wanted to argue back, but Little Brother was telling the truth! It was infuriating!

But who made him the boss? It was his responsibility to bear...eh, what is this?

Felton noticed a post that had just been pinned to the top of the forum, a few minutes old with thousands of replies already.

He clicked it and was speechless; he called Little Brother over to look together... Zhang Yang was speechless too.

It was an activity thread started by a Knight fan, with fans uniting to petition the North Carolina General Assembly and the White House, demanding that the Bobcats change their mascot.

The reason: James hated cats; the Bobcats’ mascot was too ugly, affecting James’ mood and performance.

Zhang Yang, "Joyful education... really an eye-opener."

Felton nodded, grateful for his good education, opening his eyes to the world...

...

Here it comes again!

James, standing in the players’ tunnel, watched Rufus, the Bobcats mascot, riding around the court on a bicycle, launching gifts into the crowd, and felt very irritated.

He used to love cats; in high school, after getting sponsorship, he had more than ten cats, and later when he bought a big house, he moved in with his family...over the past year, he had given all his cats away to neighbors and friends.

Normally, seeing a cat wouldn’t bother him; seeing Rufus before a game just made him find it a bit ugly, but after a game against the Bobcats, seeing Rufus made it loathsome, causing him to lose sleep or have nightmares if he did fall asleep...

But today, seeing Rufus before the game made him extremely uncomfortable.

Who could explain to him what the Knight fans were thinking? They actually demanded that the Bobcats change their mascot and forbade Rufus from entering the arena?

Now he felt too embarrassed even to enter and play!

The post Zhang Yang and Felton saw got a firestorm of responses online by the afternoon, shared across major forums, and even mainstream media outlets reported on the Knight fans’ maneuver, overtaking the buzz from Zhang Yang’s morning statement that "we are already considering the next round’s opponents"!

This left James both embarrassed and enraged.

Regarding their series with the Bobcats, the hottest topic turned out to be about a mascot... rather than "The Bobcats are already considering the next round’s opponents"!