Happy New Year
Chapter 315: Which Window Did God Close For Him
The Suns and Lakers were going all out in their final preparations, and on the other side of the country, the Eastern Conference Finals matchup was set.
Cleveland Cavaliers versus Detroit Pistons.
For a while, every basketball discussion revolved around these 4 teams.
Especially Suns versus Lakers.
In schools, in cafeterias, on sidewalks and buses, people were arguing about the Western Conference Finals everywhere you turned.
Kobe, the best player in the league, was leading the Lakers, a franchise with a massive global fan base. Chen Yan's Suns, meanwhile, had long been treated as the "Franchise Face" by Fans.
Everyone was waiting for the collision.
...
Time moved fast.
May 15 arrived, Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals.
After a few days of rest, Steve Nash's back was still stiff.
His back had been a nagging problem for years. That kind of chronic pain was not something a short break could fix.
He was not alone.
Kobe was playing through his own injury. On February 15, in a regular season game against the Nets, he had suffered a complete tear of the ulnar collateral ligament, an avulsion fracture, and a volar plate injury in the little finger of his shooting hand.
To chase the title, he had refused surgery.
The price was that he had to tape his little finger and ring finger together with a brace for the rest of the season.
Other players on both rosters also had smaller injuries. That was just part of the job. Pain was something every player in this league learned to carry.
Thinking about that, Chen Yan quietly thanked the system again.
It was only because of it that he could go all out every night without worrying if his body would hold up.
On the ride from the hotel to Staples Center, Nash was quieter than usual.
The veteran was nervous, which was rare.
The Western Conference Finals were about to start, and Nash knew exactly how hard it was to even get here at this stage of his career.
He had been hungry for the Finals for a long time.
Among all players who had never reached the NBA Finals, Nash had played the most playoff games.
He was also the only regular season MVP in history who had never made the Finals.
Those were ugly records to carry.
"Hey, Steve, relax. It is only the Western Conference Finals," Chen Yan said as he sat next to him with a grin. "We still have the NBA Finals to play after this."
"I will try to enjoy it," Nash answered with a small smile. "At this point, I think the only thing I can really do is enjoy every moment that comes with being here."
The embarrassing labels did not crush him.
They only lit a stronger fire. Underneath all that toughness, though, Nash still carried his usual calm and open minded nature.
...
"He is a great passer, a great penetrator, a great shooter. His teammates get better around him, and that team is a great offensive team."
During his pre game media session, Kobe summed up Nash in that one line.
The connection between the 2 went way back.
Both had entered the league in the 1996 draft.
Both had blended elements of soccer and European rhythm into their approach to basketball. Both had flair in their games, even in the brutal, physical grind of the playoffs.
Kobe did not forget to mention Chen either.
"He has had an incredible rookie season that everybody envies," Kobe said. "Away from the court, I see him like a little brother and I will answer whatever questions he has. On the court, he is my opponent, and I do not go easy on opponents."
On the other side, the Suns players were also giving their pre game sound bites.
Most media and analysts were clearly leaning toward the Lakers. Stoudemire was not impressed.
Hadn't they said the same things about the Spurs and their size advantage with Duncan?
"It is fine," Amar'e said. "They said the same stuff last round. They said our run and gun could not beat their defense. How did that turn out? Honestly, people have been sleeping on us all year. We have already done things they never thought we could do."
D Antoni looked almost relaxed in front of the microphones.
"Before the game, I just keep telling my guys to stay calm and play our game," he said. "Let Steve run the show, give Chen space to shoot, let Amar'e attack the rim, keep running our pick and rolls like we have been. If we do that, we will be fine."
"We do not want to let them drag us into their pace, into slow half court sets where they can lean on their advantages," Nash added. "I want us to move the ball, keep the tempo up, create as many shots as we can and keep the ball hopping."
Chen Yan was stopped by Los Angeles local media on the sideline.
"Chen, if you look at Lakers history, they have reached the Finals 28 times and lifted the Larry O Brien Trophy 14 times," one reporter said. "The Suns have only reached the Finals 2 times and have never won a title. Facing such a storied franchise, do you feel pressure?"
The question was dressed up in history, but it was really a psychological jab.
Chen did not flinch.
He shrugged. "History is always written by someone first. I do not see it as pressure for us. I see it as motivation."
"So you believe the Suns will make new history this season?" the reporter pushed.
"Why not?" Chen answered simply.
Warm ups were starting. He turned and jogged back onto the floor. He had no interest in staying with the cameras any longer.
...
From the moment the players started stretching on court, the noise in Staples Center aimed at the Suns never let up.
Boos. Insults.
The attitude of Lakers Fans toward the Suns was almost identical to how Fans felt about the Jazz.
In 2 words, pure hatred.
The Suns had knocked the Lakers out of the playoffs 2 years in a row. In a recent poll of most disliked opponents among Lakers Fans, the Suns came in first.
The Celtics, the historic rival in all those old yellow green battles, only finished second.
Most young Lakers Fans had never watched Bill Russell dominate Jerry West and Elgin Baylor. They had never seen peak Magic versus peak Bird.
In their eyes, the Suns were the team that had sent Kobe home twice, the team they wanted to beat more than anyone else.
The television cameras swept across the stands.
Staples was loaded with stars.
Jack Nicholson.
Leonardo DiCaprio.
Snoop Dogg.
David Beckham.
Jessica Alba.
Charlize Theron.
Cameron Diaz.
Hilary Duff.
Paris Hilton, with her shadow Kim Kardashian next to her.
Taylor Swift was there too.
In his previous life, seeing this lineup would have had Chen Yan buzzing. Those were people you usually only saw on screens.
Now it felt different.
Because on this court, in this moment, he was 1 of the stars at the center of the show.
And some of those women were here for him.
Besides Taylor, several actresses had come specifically to watch Chen play. Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian were the most obvious. They shouted his name from their seats over and over, hoping to draw a look or a smile.
That little performance made Taylor Swift, sitting not far away, more than a little jealous.
No one could say for sure whether Paris and Kim were genuinely into him or just building a headline, but 1 thing was clear.
Chen Yan had something most other NBA stars did not.
Black superstars usually relied on charisma and game. Chen had that, plus a face that could walk into a fashion shoot and a frame that looked like it came out of a menswear ad.
The actresses judged by looks as much as highlights. Their open preference for Chen only made a lot of Lakers Fans even more annoyed.
When Chen finished his last jumper, scooped up his warm up top, and walked into the tunnel back to the locker room, the boos and curses around him rose to another level.
Most of that sound was not about basketball.
It was about jealousy.
In that moment, you could almost hear the inner voice of every bitter Lakers Fan in the arena.
Damn it. He is that good and he looks like that? Which window did God close for him?
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