The No.1 Anti-Fans in Basketball
Chapter 313 - 174 "You haven’t touched the Western Conference Finals court yet, have you?

Chapter 313: Chapter 174 "You haven’t touched the Western Conference Finals court yet, have you?

Before the playoffs kicked off, "Octopus" Stan made his first-round playoff predictions as usual.

This year, he again predicted two upsets, but both were in the East; he predicted the 76ers would overturn the Bulls, and the Hawks would eliminate the Celtics.

Regarding the West, the Grizzlies and the Mavericks posed the greatest suspense; he predicted that the Grizzlies would ultimately win and also forecasted a game seven battle between the two.

This year, his predictions were off the mark; the Celtics eliminated the Hawks, and the Grizzlies won more easily than he had predicted.

However, his status remained intact because he successfully predicted the fourth instance of a black-eight miracle in history!

Stan thought that Ross’s injury issues were too significant and likely to recur during the playoffs.

As a result, Ross, still on the court in the final quarter with the outcome already decided, suffered a season-ending injury again.

Thibodeau’s system was built around Ross; Ross’s injury turned the team into a completely different squad, much like the 2001 76ers when Iverson got injured.

Then, fans began to flood his social media with messages asking him to predict the result of the Western Conference semifinal between the Grizzlies and the Lakers.

Stan didn’t hesitate; he boldly predicted that the Grizzlies would eliminate the Lakers!

Once this prediction was out, his social media instantly exploded.

After all, the Lakers were the biggest favorites to win the championship this season, even more favored than Heat’s Three Giants.

You’re predicting that the Lakers would lose in the Western Conference semifinals, Stan? That’s incredibly bold!

The Lakers do have the league’s largest fan base, after all.

Still, many fans supported Stan, some of them even mentioned the Heat Team.

Because the Bulls were eliminated in the first round, the Heat theoretically had no more competitors in the East; so although only the first round had just ended, LeBron fans were already considering their opponents in the Finals.

At this time, if you ask them whether they’d prefer to face the Lakers or the Grizzlies, their answer was, of course, neither.

The Lakers’ strength was evident, both on paper and in actual combat power, standing as the strongest team in the league.

As for the Grizzlies, believe it or not, since the creation of Heat’s Three Giants, they had never won against the Grizzlies.

"You know, our styles of play are contradictory."

However, it was foreseeable that between the two remaining teams in the West, whether the Spurs or the Thunders, both of them had a higher chance of winning against the Grizzlies than against the Lakers.

What, they lost last season?

Last season the Spurs were without Duncan and Manu Ginobili due to injuries, while the Thunders were still not mature; this season, the Thunders’ maturity was clearly different from last season.

Thus, for the Heat, the perfect scenario would be the Grizzlies eliminating the Lakers, then the Spurs/Thunders taking out the Grizzlies, and finally, the Heat facing the Spurs or Thunders in the Finals to secure the championship.

Of course, at this point, LeBron fans still felt quite overshadowed by Kobe fans, and Stan was ultimately blasted for this prediction.

Especially since the league had just announced the second batch of important regular season MVP award results.

Kobe received 121 out of 123 first-place votes, securing his second MVP trophy with a nearly unanimous 40% of the total votes.

Despite much effort from outlets like ESPN, LeBron ended up with only about 16% of the votes.

It wasn’t that the media weren’t giving LeBron a courtesy; it was simply that the Lakers significantly outperformed in records and stats over LeBron.

Whether you compared records or victories, it was a double block.

After all, you can’t just give LeBron the votes because he had a few more assists, can you?

You might do that for Anthony, who has few fans and not a great off-field image, but this is Kobe!

Surprisingly, Hansen also received 5.8% of the vote.

That might not seem like much, but it actually ranked him fourth among all players who received votes, just behind Kobe, LeBron, and Durant.

Although the Grizzlies ranked fourth in the West, their record tied with the Heat for fifth in the league.

Ross wouldn’t typically get the vote due to his limited appearances, and Parker’s stats were very average; it was perfectly reasonable for the league’s fifth-best primary player to rank fourth.

Of course, this was also related to Carrell’s hard work on TNT.

That series of witty reports made it hard for media friends not to remember Hansen.

However, this year’s MVP discussion still centered around Kobe, who also announced that he would not go to New York for the award but would receive it during the first game of the next round at Staples Center.

This choice wasn’t surprising, as receiving the award at home would not only allow him to give a speech in front of fans but also boost the team’s morale.

This was indeed a major piece of news for the playoffs.

During the Lakers’ open practice session, reporters also asked Paul about this matter.

Paul was in a unique position, being not only Kobe’s teammate but also LeBron’s good friend.

Naturally, such a question was no problem for the clever Paul.

"Without a doubt, Kobe is the MVP; his performance this season has been incredible, making the game look easy. As for LeBron, we all know he’s the best player, and I think he should have gotten more votes."

"Are you suggesting someone got too many votes?" the reporter picked up on Paul’s implication, given that there’s a limited pool of votes; if someone got fewer, naturally someone else got more.

"That’s not what I meant, but if your stats aren’t outstanding and you’re just getting votes due to team strength, it indeed seems a bit unjust."