Sports Medicine Master System
The game ended with a floater from McGrady, assisted by Billups.
The final score was 131-124.
The East won by 7 points.
And McGrady dropped a game-high 37 points.
Barring any surprises, the All-Star Game MVP award would be his.
The stands erupted in thunderous applause.
MVP chants echoed throughout the arena.
This was, after all, the Magic’s home court!
To outsiders, the Magic were the unluckiest team in the league. They perennially made it to the Finals, only to fail every single time.
But in the eyes of the local Orlando fans, they were the second-strongest team in the league. They had watched as their team—one that used to just hover on the edge of the playoffs, sometimes failing to even make it in—was completely transformed. Thanks to some ‘divine’ moves from management, they traded for Hill and McGrady. The team rose from the ashes, becoming a perennial Finals contender and one of the league’s top powerhouses.
Last year, they had even won a historic championship.
They absolutely adored this team and its stars, Hill and McGrady. To them, they were the heroes of Orlando.
So, for McGrady to win the All-Star Game MVP was the perfect outcome for them.
However, everyone else—the media and the players on the court—had rather calm expressions.
It wasn’t that they were unhappy with the result.
The league had hosted the All-Star Game in Orlando, which was all but an official announcement that the MVP award was going to McGrady.
And McGrady’s performance certainly deserved the award.
It was just that their attention was focused on someone else.
Nowitzki!
Whether they were players from the East or West on the court, guests on the sidelines, or other players just there for the spectacle, everyone was now curiously sizing up Nowitzki.
He went 8-for-11 in the second half.
That was an incredibly high shooting percentage.
Of course, defensive intensity is limited in an All-Star Game, but that was still impressive.
But what mattered most was *how* Nowitzki was shooting.
They’d seen one-legged shots before, but they’d never seen someone use it as their go-to move.
As fellow players, they knew exactly what that meant.
It meant that Nowitzki had perfected this shooting form and turned it into a regular weapon in his arsenal.
It was nothing new for players in the league to work on a new skill.
Every ambitious player spent the offseason developing a new signature move.
But developing a shot like *that* was truly rare.
The shot was so unconventional that they couldn’t help but wonder if they could stop Nowitzki if they were the ones guarding him.
After all, Nowitzki was up against Rashid Wallace and Chris Bosh.
On a few of those plays, Wallace’s defense had been textbook.
But he still couldn’t stop the shot.
‘He’s that tall, and he’s still doing a fucking fadeaway? On top of that, it’s a high-arcing shot. You’re really not giving the defender any chance at all, are you.’
More importantly, Nowitzki wasn’t on some weak team; he was on the Phoenix Suns.
His improvement was bound to have a chain reaction.
‘Are the Suns about to take off?’
The thought surfaced in many people’s minds.
Last season, when the Suns traded O’Neal, many people truly believed the team had given up on championship contention.
After all, they had already achieved a historic three-peat.
‘But it’s only been one season. Are the Suns back already?’
At that moment, some were suddenly reminded of the terror of being dominated by the Suns.
The Five-star Phoenix Suns!
They were unstoppable, crushing the dreams of countless players.
Nowitzki, oblivious to all this, excitedly high-fived Hardaway before walking over and pulling Chen Yu into a hug.
It was a release of all the frustration and gloom from the past half-season.
Chen Yu noticed many people looking his way, but he didn’t care. He patted Nowitzki on the back and gestured for him to go do his interviews.
Members of the media were already swarming him.
The All-Star Game was over.
But it seemed Nowitzki had stolen the show.
The next day, after covering McGrady’s All-Star Game MVP win, at least a third of the media also reported on Nowitzki’s strange new shot.
Skiles even approached Chen Yu to discuss whether Nowitzki should start using the technique in their upcoming games.
Chen Yu had already considered it and decided against it.
First, Nowitzki hadn’t mastered it yet.
His consistency and form still needed gradual adjustments to reach a perfect state.
He needed a lot more training to build solid muscle memory.
Finally, he needed to learn how to integrate it with his other skills, for example, in various post-up situations.
Simply put, he still had a long way to go.
It would be better to train for another half-season and unveil it in the playoffs.
Using it now wouldn’t improve the team’s record by much.
Even without this move, Nowitzki was already a top power forward in the league, more than capable of leading the Phoenix Suns to a guaranteed playoff spot.
If he used it now, other teams would start analyzing it.
By the time the playoffs rolled around, they might have already figured it out.
So, it was better to keep it under wraps and save it for a critical moment in the playoffs.
“As for your concern that he might shoot well in practice but not in a real game, don’t worry. We’ll simulate game conditions as much as possible.”
After their discussion, Skiles agreed with Chen Yu’s plan.
For Nowitzki, this Golden Chicken Standalone move was the icing on the cake, not a lifeline. He wasn’t in desperate need of a change.
Not using it wouldn’t have much of an impact.
So, he would just keep practicing.
So, on the first day of practice after the All-Star break, Nowitzki arrived at the training center only to find that his workout load had been increased.
His training intensity had suddenly doubled, if not more.
“Where’s Chen?”
Amid a wry smile, Nowitzki realized Chen Yu wasn’t there today.

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