hanger TV Station's broadcast camera focused on Fly and Taylor, quickly sparking a heated discussion on the Chinese internet.
The topic #Fly and Taylor Personally Attend NBA Christmas Game at Staples Center# instantly surged to the top of the trending searches.
Even the topic #NBA Christmas Game, Lakers VS Heat# was pushed down to second place.
From this, it's clear that Fly's popularity in East Asia is currently at its peak.
After all, even superstars like Kobe and LeBron James, who have cultivated the East Asia market for many years, were pushed to second place by Fly in terms of Weibo popularity.
This is no simple matter.
Many basketball fans online who don't follow football also discussed this extensively.
[Damn, so this is Fly and his girlfriend Taylor, gotta say, although I've seen news about him many times, I've never actually seen his photo, so this is what he looks like, holy crap, he's almost as handsome as me!!!]
[The guy upstairs is really shameless, I could say I'm Yanzu, anyone with a mouth can talk.]
[Who do you guys think Fly went to the Lakers' home game to watch, Kobe or LeBron James?]
[Does that even need saying? It must be Mamba, the Lakers' home court is his territory, if Fly came to Staples it's for him, who else?]
[Hilarious, the Kobe fan upstairs probably doesn't know that Fly is LeBron James' good brother, Fly already knew LeBron James in the '07 Finals, that's three years of friendship?]
[Hehe..... If I hadn't climbed over the wall and seen Fly's reply to Six-Step LeBron on Twitter, I would have actually believed your nonsense, Fly openly challenged LeBron James to play 'brotherhood basketball' with him, don't you understand what he meant? He was mocking Six-Step LeBron's action of joining the Heat this summer in the name of 'brotherhood basketball', understand?]
[Dying of laughter, fans sure know how to fantasize, didn't you see the interaction between Fly and LeBron James before the game? It was clearly a way good brothers greet each other, can't a QJ offender like Aqian with poor social skills stop trying to mooch off others? Fly's upbringing wouldn't allow him to call a QJ offender brother.]
[Holy crap, the so-called Chosen One is actually playing second fiddle, hahahahahahaha!!!]
[Nonsense, he's clearly a big boss with Wade, two big bosses, understand?]
[Hehe... two big bosses? I think Six-Step LeBron is a typical old 1.5, he's lost his roots, understand?]
[....]
Soon, the basketball fans who were originally discussing Fly started cursing at each other because of their respective idols, and the topic gradually deviated.
Only a very small number of football fans who don't follow the NBA were discussing Fly himself.
However, this type of person is a "rare species" in China nowadays, as influenced by Yao, basically any sports fan in China who follows ball games in this era follows the NBA.
The terms "doesn't watch NBA" and "sports fan" cannot even be put together to form a logically coherent sentence.
This is the current status of the NBA in China, basically anyone who watches sports events watches the NBA.
In comparison, the number of people watching the European top 5 leagues is much smaller.
Fly merely attended an NBA Christmas game in person, and the number of related Weibo topics generated exceeded his hat-trick against Manchester United recently.
It can only be said that Fly indeed made the right move.
For East Asia, the current popularity and attention of the NBA completely dominates the Premier League by a hundred streets.
Even though he is not an NBA player, by linking up through watching games, he can still capture significant event traffic.
However, Fly, who is currently watching the game live at Staples, is temporarily unaware of all this.
After the second half began, LeBron James entered rampage mode, immediately dunking over Lakers' second-in-command Pau Gasol.
Even though Kobe responded with a timely fadeaway jumper, the score was gradually widened by the performance of the Heat's Big Three.
In the final few minutes of the third quarter, the Heat even launched a 9:0 run, at one point pushing the game's point difference to 20+.
The Lakers fans in the arena also seemed to realize their team was going to lose this game, so they started booing the Heat players frantically, trying to put pressure on them.
However, for veterans like LeBron James, Wade, and Bosch, fans' boos are commonplace and nothing remarkable.
Seeing Zen Master Phil Jackson by the sideline completely unable to sit still, Fly knew that the Lakers had no hope in this game.
"Hani, are the Lakers going to lose? I feel like the score can't be caught up."
Even Taylor, this fake fan, could see that the Lakers were done, Fly nodded and whispered in her ear:
"Elder sister, the Lakers' lineup can't beat the Heat's, the gap is too big....."
Taylor thought for a moment upon hearing this, then looked directly into Fly's eyes and said worriedly, "In that case, Hani won't be able to fulfill his promise, right?"
"Huh? Promise, what promise?" Fly was a bit confused, had he made any promise?
Taylor rolled her eyes beautifully, poked Fly's forehead with her finger, and said irritably, "Didn't you boast in front of the media that you'd win the Champions League this season? You didn't forget about it yourself, did you?"
Fly suddenly understood, nodded, and said in a matter-of-fact tone, "Yeah, so what? Is there a problem? I didn't say anything wrong."
Taylor was speechless upon hearing this, she stared at Fly's face for a full ten seconds before speaking:
"But didn't you just say the lineup gap was too big and you couldn't win the game?"
"Then how big is the gap between your Arsenal's current lineup and the lineups of Real Madrid and Barcelona? Don't you have any idea yourself!"
"Don't lie to me, although I didn't understand English football before, I've been cramming relevant knowledge recently, so I naturally know that the two universally recognized strongest teams right now are Barcelona and Real Madrid."
"I checked the market values, Barcelona's is the highest, followed by Real Madrid, and your Arsenal's lineup market value can't even rank in the top seven, how can you compete for the championship with these two clubs!"
Fly showed a strange look and said to Taylor, "Elder sister, market value doesn't explain everything, just like my current market value is only 70 million euros, but that doesn't mean I'm worse than Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo."
"Market value often depends on the platform, for teams like Real Madrid and Barcelona, their players' market values have platform bonuses."
"That is to say, many players from these two teams, if moved to other clubs, their market value would definitely decrease, and by quite a bit."
"Furthermore, market value isn't entirely linked to a player's immediate combat strength, a high market value doesn't necessarily lead to the conclusion of strong ability."
"I don't deny that Real Madrid and Barcelona's paper lineups are indeed stronger than Arsenal's at this stage, and this gap cannot be bridged in a short time."
"But to say we'll definitely lose if we meet them in the Champions League, I don't think so."
Speaking of this, Fly paused and told Taylor a heartfelt truth: "Elder sister, I'll be honest with you, Arsenal's probability of winning the Champions League this season is at least 50%, I have a trump card I haven't used, trust me!"
Hearing her man's confident words, Taylor gave him a deep look, her Persian cat-like eyes full of charm.
"Okay, I believe you, Hani, I believe everything you say..."
Although Taylor didn't understand where Fly's confidence came from, or what the so-called trump card was.
But she is a smart woman, she wouldn't ask too many questions, her man would tell her when he should.
As the game progressed, the situation on the court had completely become one-sided.
Phil Jackson saw that there was no hope for this game, called a timeout, took off the starters, put on the bench players, and declared surrender.
Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra saw the Lakers surrender, so he also put on the bench players, replacing all the starters.
The rest of the game was typical garbage time, and the atmosphere in the stands significantly decreased.
Many Lakers fans chose to leave early, judging from their dissatisfied facial expressions and the spit they occasionally spat out, they were clearly very disappointed with the home team's performance in this game.
After LeBron James returned to the bench to rest for a while, he started communicating across the distance with Fly, who was less than ten meters away from him.
However, due to the large number of people around, the two didn't say too much.
Fly gave him a thumbs up, while LeBron James pointed at Fly, then pointed at himself, and then made a gesture that Fly didn't expect.
LeBron James spread the thumbs and middle fingers of both hands to form a crown shape, and then placed it on his head.
The meaning was very clear: You and I, we are both kings!
Fly was so stunned by this gesture that he froze on the spot.
Big brother! It's still 2010, you haven't even won a championship yet, and you're already putting a crown on yourself?
At this moment, even Fly, who prided himself on being as thick-skinned as a city wall, felt a bit embarrassed.
Taylor also clearly saw the communication between her man and LeBron James from the side, and she covered her mouth in surprise at LeBron James's very easy-to-understand hand gesture.
Clearly, Taylor was also dumbfounded by LeBron James's gesture of comparing himself to a king.
As for Nicholson, this Oscar-winning actor, who watched the entire scene from the side, he couldn't help but start ranting.
"Shit! LeBron is too arrogant, Kobe hasn't even called himself king yet, and he's already putting on a crown first? A softie who took a shortcut by teaming up, where does he get the nerve?"