Chapter 126: Kobe

Andrew Bynum didn't expect that even if he pasted Fan Xi's name on the locker in the corner, it wouldn't change a clear fact.

That is, the team's center of gravity had shifted toward Fan Xi.

Kobe Bryant, upon returning to the locker room and seeing this scene, took the initiative to move his position to Fan Xi's side, and then Lamar Odom also moved over, and Pau Gasol didn't want to be an unsociable person either.

When these main cores leaned over, the center position Bynum originally thought he had was instantly marginalized.

He became a loner.

Although the management was very good to him, trying their best to help him return. The staff also maintained his privileges as before.

However, when he saw that Fan Xi also had such privileges as him, he felt very uncomfortable inside.

He wanted to prove himself.

This was the reason he returned early; he claimed that he had no problems at all.

But in fact, there were still some problems.

He felt pain during training, but he said he didn't.

Phil Jackson asked about his feelings and strictly controlled his playing time.

Bynum wanted to stay in the therapy room for a while before the game started, but found Kobe and Fan Xi lying there, the two chatting interestingly.

Fan Xi became the most shining star in Los Angeles last night; his performance at Taylor Swift's concert made people imagine, and also made him the focus of media attention.

But for Kobe, his relationship with Fan Xi had advanced a step; he now had a real family-like feeling for Fan Xi.

Fan Xi helped him win back his wife, and his wife Vanessa also recognized Fan Xi very much. She felt Fan Xi was an honest person, and she was very interested in Fan Xi's scandals.

This was the reason Kobe invited Fan Xi to be a guest at his house on the weekend.

Fan Xi didn't refuse.

Tonight's opponent is the Golden State Warriors.

It felt like a reincarnation.

The game where Fan Xi rose was the Golden State Warriors playing away against the Lakers. Now that he had stood firm at the Lakers and became the future successor, it was the Warriors coming to visit again.

When Stephen Curry saw Fan Xi, he kept marveling.

He felt incredible about Fan Xi's experience during this time, saying he never dreamed that Fan Xi would achieve such amazing achievements.

He said he watched Fan Xi's game against Chris Paul, and he thought the shot of Fan Xi shaking Paul away was the best in history.

Fan Xi also congratulated Stephen Curry.

Curry finally became the core of the Warriors; the Warriors management made a brave decision, directly trading the long-famous Monta Ellis, establishing sophomore Stephen Curry, and handing the team's offensive responsibility to this cute little guy.

"So, what is your relationship with Taylor Swift? Have you officially announced it? When can we meet together, call my girlfriend."

Curry and Fan Xi were also like family; they were close friends in college, in the same team, in the same room, and sometimes even in the same bed.

Fan Xi thought about it and said: "There will be a chance. However, the situation is more complicated now."

Fan Xi also didn't know how to tell Curry.

Then don't say it.

Good friends are like this, they won't get to the bottom of it; they both know that if the other party wants to say it, they will definitely find them to chat.

The game started quickly.

Andrew Bynum was still entrusted with a heavy responsibility and was able to start.

There was a great force within the Lakers supporting Bynum; they still felt that Bynum was the future of the Lakers.

After all, super centers had always been the foundation of the Lakers.

Bynum got the treatment of starting.

Fan Xi, Kobe, Dunleavy, and Gasol were the other four.

This was theoretically the strongest starting lineup for the Lakers.

Before this, the Lakers had always been a triangle offense.

However, when Bynum came up, it immediately felt a bit like a quadrilateral offense.

A triangle is the most stable shape, but a quadrilateral is not.

Bynum's return didn't increase the Lakers' combat power; on the contrary, it produced very serious internal friction, and the offense became very unsmooth.

He played too much one-on-one in the paint, dragging down the Lakers' originally smooth offensive momentum.

Fan Xi's advantages couldn't be manifested.

Kobe and Gasol were not affected much.

This made the Zen Master feel very annoyed.

He replaced Bynum in the second half of the first quarter, and Fan Xi immediately returned to perfect condition.

They played until the end of the first half, the Lakers led by 11 points, and Fan Xi had 11 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists, and 2 steals in the half.

Very versatile.

The second half started, it was the previous starting lineup again, and the lineup started to grind again.

The Zen Master felt tricky about this, so he simply replaced Fan Xi and let Bynum, Gasol, and Kobe play.

These three, when facing the Warriors, played high and hit hard; the Warriors couldn't handle it either and soon surrendered.

In the end, the Lakers defeated the Warriors 111:99.

Bynum played 21 minutes in his first game back, getting 15 points, 8 rebounds, 2 assists, and 1 block.

The efficiency was very high.

Only when he was with Fan Xi, the effect had a cancellation.

After playing the Warriors, the Lakers continued their away trip.

They went to the East, and in Boston, they lost to the Celtics.

In Atlanta, they lost to the Hawks.

Returning home, they lost to the Portland Trail Blazers, Dallas Mavericks, and Orlando Magic again.

The five-game losing streak dropped the Lakers' record from second in the West to fourth.

It was precarious.

The Lakers had only two regular season games left, first going away to play the Sacramento Kings, and then returning home for the finale against the New Jersey Nets.

Both teams had already announced they would miss the playoffs.

However, the Lakers' current state made people very worried about whether they could win.

Bynum's return didn't achieve the expected results; on the contrary, it made the team's chemistry completely lose balance.

Experts were all shocked; originally everyone felt the Lakers were the favorites to win the championship this season, and Kobe Bryant's second three-peat in his career was just around the corner.

However, Bynum's return made the plot turn around.

Lakers fans were all dumbfounded.

Some fans suggested simply letting Bynum continue to rest.

However, other fans didn't allow it; after all, a center is the anchor of the playoffs, and a team without a center won't go far.

Then, critics proposed simply letting Fan Xi play as the sixth man, reducing his ball possession ratio.

This also drew criticism from fans; Fan Xi's hard work this season was visible to the naked eye.

Nothing worked.

The Lakers fell into a classic paradox.

The Sacramento Kings were a bottom-tier team this year; they were aiming for the number one pick in the draft.

However, what people didn't expect was.

In Sacramento, the Lakers lost.

Bynum was beaten up by the young rookie, Cousins.

That's right, beaten up.

Cousins hung Bynum up and beat him; Bynum had no power to fight back, and he kept reaching out for the ball.

After the game, Bynum explained himself, saying it was because his injury hadn't fully recovered, he was finding his game state, and as long as he entered the playoffs, he would immediately be full of spirit.

This was of course comforting himself.

Fan Xi watched the replay of the game and felt that as long as the Lakers didn't pass the ball to Bynum, the probability of winning was 100%.

Moreover, Fan Xi also felt that the probability of Bynum defeating Cousins was less than 10%.

In Fan Xi's heart, Cousins was already a better center than Bynum, and he had more future.

It's just that the Lakers couldn't bear to give up this full-size center.

The Lakers returned home with a six-game losing streak, and they would welcome the New Jersey Nets.

The core leader of the Nets had changed from Devin Harris to Deron Williams.

This was the first meeting between Deron Williams and Fan Xi after joining the Nets.

Deron Williams didn't play ideally on the Nets; after leaving Sloan's pick-and-roll tactics, although his stats rose a little bit, experts said his role on the court was sliding rapidly.

Moreover, as Fan Xi shook Paul away, shaking him covered in blood. He even had his "Paul Nemesis" title snatched away by Fan Xi.

Those vicious commentators began to question how long Deron Williams could last in the league; these pessimistic remarks made Deron Williams very angry.

So, he wanted to take it out on Fan Xi.

Before the game, he told the media: "Paul is my good friend, I am here to avenge Paul. However he shook Chris, I will shake him."

Deron Williams said it with certainty.

It was rendered by the media as a life-and-death battle.

When Fan Xi saw Deron Williams's interview, he was sitting on the sofa in Kobe Bryant's mansion.

Fan Xi had become a frequent visitor to Kobe's house.

The restoration of Kobe and Vanessa's relationship benefited from that song by Fan Xi, and Vanessa's curiosity about Fan Xi's scandals exceeded her passion for those soap operas.

Before this, Vanessa almost stayed at home every day watching ABC soap operas; this rich wife's life was very boring.

After knowing Fan Xi, she had become Fan Xi's emotional expert.

"You mean, Big Y called you last night for a sexy call? Said she wanted to meet you? Eat you?"

Vanessa was as curious as a cat that found a can of fish.

Fan Xi was a bit embarrassed, he said: "Said some explicit things. However, I feel she might just be talking."

"Then what about Little S? Does she have any updates recently? Didn't you say that last week, Little S and Little T had a verbal dispute backstage at an awards ceremony? Did they fight because of you?"

Vanessa continued to ask.

Fan Xi shrugged his shoulders, he said: "Maybe."

Fan Xi was very helpless; he had a headache about these intricate relationships, fortunately, none of them asked him to preside over justice.

Vanessa said, this is actually very easy to handle, you just need to pretend you don't know.

"... As long as a woman loves you, you don't need to say anything, they will deceive themselves."

Vanessa said a classic quote.

Then Kobe found Fan Xi to train in the training hall.

Kobe shared his trainer with Fan Xi; his trainer was the top-tier kind in the basketball circle, charging millions every year.

Fan Xi mainly corrected his shooting, as well as his control over his physical talent.

During this time, although the Lakers were on a losing streak.

But Fan Xi's strength was improving rapidly.

He could already fully control Anfernee Hardaway's hop-step floater, and also integrated Isiah Thomas's breakthrough skills into his talent 100%.

What Fan Xi lacked now was one-on-one ball handling.

Like Kobe Bryant's aggressive one-on-one ball handling.

Fan Xi's stop-and-go jump shot and mid-range were unstable, and relied on Curry-style one-stage shooting, which had very high requirements for shooting speed, and was easily blocked under high-intensity confrontation.

"Actually, you can keep practicing like this; as long as your shooting speed is fast enough, no one can defend you. Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors is like this."

"However, fast shooting speed actually requires very, very, very top-tier hand-eye coordination."

The trainer said pointedly: "Your physical coordination is very strong; you can do many, many high-difficulty moves, whether in the air or in a high-speed breakthrough state."

"However, shooting is different. It is a sport closely related to the eyes."

The trainer said: "Actually, Jack, your biggest problem is that your off-ball shooting and on-ball shooting are disconnected; this is a situation I have never seen in all my years in the industry."

"Your open catch-and-shoot ability is simply top-tier in history; you can hit every ball passed to you. However, letting yourself hold the ball and then stop-and-go jump shot is very unstable; you can only rely on fast one-stage shooting."

The trainer knew Fan Xi's problems like the back of his hand.

Everything he said was right.

This was the problem Fan Xi was facing now.

Kobe signaled Fan Xi not to worry; these were things time could solve.

He believed that through day-by-day training, Fan Xi would soon become a top scorer, because he firmly believed in a concept: a player with top-tier off-ball shooting ability in history cannot fail to practice one-on-one jump shots.

"... Also, the Lakers don't need you to be the main output now; you just need to do a good job of weak-side follow-up and connection."

Kobe wanted Fan Xi not to have too much pressure.

Fan Xi had already performed very well and was already a true All-Star player.

In Kobe's heart, Fan Xi was already stronger than Lamar Odom, had a more obvious role than Bynum, and was only a line away from Pau Gasol.

As for Deron Williams who came to provoke, Kobe had great confidence in Fan Xi: "I think you can easily beat him up."

Fan Xi said very seriously to Kobe at this time: "Boss, the cooperation between Andrew Bynum and me is too bad. This is a problem, we have to solve it."

Kobe nodded; he had long realized this point; the recent six-game losing streak was because Bynum was out of the system.

He thought with a cold face for a few seconds, and then gave Fan Xi an explanation: "If this problem cannot be solved, I will solve the person who created this problem."

"Our two brothers winning the championship doesn't necessarily need him, this so-called future number one center."

Kobe Bryant said with great spirit.

He always stood on the side of his little brother Fan Xi.

For him, what is Bynum?

Although Jeanie Buss likes him very much and has high hopes for him.

But so what?

... ===== CHAPTER 127 =====