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Since 2007 when James, and in 2008 when Kobe, won the runner-up, starting from the 2008-09 season, Stern began to hype the 23 VS 24 topic.

As a result, James choked in 2009 and 2010, Kobe choked in 2011 and 2012, and in 2013 Kobe's side almost collapsed. In five years, the two together won 3 championships, but they never met in the finals.

When Stern announced his retirement, the Lakers were still in their adjustment period before the outbreak in January. Over in the East, the Pacers were dominating all the teams, sitting at the top of the league. At that time, it seemed like the finals had nothing to do with number 23 and 24.

Then less than half a year after he retired, the 23 VS 24 became a reality!

The Jew: Are you guys playing me together, huh!

This serves as another 'legacy' Stern left for Silver. After so many years of hype, the Lakers won the Western Conference Finals, and number 23 and 24 met in the finals, unleashing the accumulated heat and topics, leading to the most watched finals in NBA history!

The media were all hyping up this finals, and the fans were endlessly debating.

The hottest and most controversial topic - Who is better, Kobe or James, and who has more honor?

'One championship to equal Kobe' has come, albeit late...

To elevate the value of that one championship, a small group of extreme fans said the outrageous statement that 'James never had superstar teammates', meanwhile, Gasol, Bynum, Odom... even Fisher, Ariza, became superstars.

The majority of James' fans were normal, and they couldn't stand this statement, but as soon as they expressed a different opinion, they would be 'expelled from being James fans', accused of being a Kobe fan in disguise.

This made the rational James fans not want to speak, so a few extreme fans seemed to represent the entire James fan group, and James' fan base is large, so 'a few' is actually quite a large number.

All the fans following this finals saw was the debate about these two, even the finals itself became less noticeable, until the first game of the finals on June 3rd...

First quarter score 36 to 25, second quarter score 28 to 25, third quarter score 29 to 23... After three quarters, the Lakers led the Miami Heat by 20 points with a score of 93 to 73!

Zhang Yang played 28 minutes, shooting 10 of 15, with 3 out of 5 three-pointers, plus 5 out of 7 free throws, scoring 28 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals; Kobe played 24 minutes, shooting 4 of 7, with 1 out of 1 three-pointer, plus 4 out of 5 free throws, scoring 13 points, 2 rebounds, 6 assists, both clocking out after three quarters!

The fourth quarter score was 25 to 21, with Nash leading the Lakers' role players against the Miami Heat's role players led by Ray Allen.

After a game lasting 2 hours and 18 minutes, the final buzzer sounded.

James scored 22 points, 5 rebounds, 7 assists, Bosh scored 22 points, 4 rebounds, 1 assist, falling short against Zhang Yang's 28 points, Kobe's 13 points, Nash's 15 points, and Gasol's 15 points.

Wade's exhaustion from the East Final's all-out effort had hit, averaging 24 points and 8 assists over 6 games in the East Final, his fatigue was evident in the first game of the finals, shooting 3 of 8 to score only 11 points, 2 rebounds, and 3 assists.

118 to 94, the Lakers defeated the Heat!

At this time, the bystander fans remembered, this was the most predictable finals in nearly 7 years, determined before the Western Conference Finals had even concluded!

The last time a finals was perceived as the season having already ended before it started was the 2007 finals...

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The difference in the first game was 24 points, a shockingly large gap, but there were still some who held hope, thinking it was just an accident, but on June 5th the Lakers defeated the Heat again 110 to 92, shattering that unfounded hope.

Wade left his brilliance in the East Final, Bosh had regressed to just a shooter with no offensive threat, and James faced Zhang Yang's tight defense, Kobe's help defense, Gasol or Kaman's rim protection, his shooting percentage was dismal... The best offensive efficiency among the Heat starters came from Ray Allen!

But soon-to-be 39-year-old Ray Allen, shooting 10 or so times a game to score twelve or thirteen points, was already performing beyond expectations, unable to do much more.

The public opinion generally believed that the difference in strength between the two sides in this finals was greater than the difference between the Spurs and the Cavaliers in 2007, with Los Angeles fans already popping champagne to celebrate the championship after the first two games.

Even the media and experts favoring James concluded that tactically the Heat had no chance of winning. The only way they could win was if the Lakers shot terribly and the Heat shot lights out from the perimeter, and both conditions had to be met.

However, the media and experts are just professionals who analyze from a professional standpoint, when it comes to 'finding a way', it still requires non-professionals to do it.

In the morning of the 6th, on various fan forums, 'Zhang Yang fans' and 'Kobe fans' started arguing over the FMVP ownership topic.

The argument and insults between 'two groups' quickly spread and expanded, with countless fans joining the fray.

The major media were stunned to see this, they realized that it could be operated this way! Their skin was still not thick enough...

The main reason was that in the first two games Zhang Yang scored 28 and 31 points, while Kobe only had 13 and 15 points, who would normally think this way?

The media all joined in on the hype, and for a moment, in terms of public opinion, Kobe and Zhang Yang seemed to be at loggerheads.

Then, on June 8th, Zhang Yang shot 15 of 32, with 4 out of 10 three-pointers, plus 7 out of 10 free throws, scoring 41 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists; Kobe shot 2 of 6, scoring 5 points, 8 rebounds, 10 assists, the Lakers defeated the Heat 104 to 88, leading 3 to 0.

Once the score difference reached double digits, Kobe passed the ball to Zhang Yang whenever he could, making Zhang Yang's shooting percentage drop from getting too many passes for the first time in his career.

Old Ironsmith: I want a solid championship!

As for being a runner-up, it's not like I haven't taken that before...

After this game, those 'fans' who forcibly hyped up the 'FMVP battle', regardless of the circumstances, felt like clowns. Damn old Ironsmith played them like monkeys!

They were so furious that they couldn't even pretend anymore and went straight to cursing online.

These days, Zhang Yang loves to browse the news. Whenever he has time outside of team training, games, and learning from Kona, he'll scroll through his phone.

He thinks it's great to be Kobe's teammate. Back in the 2012 Finals, he was attacked by opposing fans, but this time, the opposing fans all went to attack Kobe.

The date is now June 10th, 8 PM, at Miami's American Airlines Arena, where Game 4 of the Finals kicks off.

At the end of the first quarter, a third of the seats were empty...

James went 2 for 5 with 4 points, Bosh went 1 for 4 with 3 points, Wade was 1 for 3 plus 2 for 4 on free throws for 4 points, and the Miami Heat had just 11 points in the quarter.

That's right, the rest of the Miami Heat shot six times without scoring a single point!

The Heat only attempted 18 shots this quarter, with a hit rate as low as 22.2%, and also committed 6 turnovers!

Zhang Yang had 14 points, Kobe had 5 points and 2 assists, Gasol had 4 rebounds and 2 assists, Nash had 1 rebound and 3 assists... The Lakers led the Heat by 19 points with a score of 30-11 at the end of the first quarter!

In the second quarter, Zhang Yang also started to enter passing mode, feeding the role player teammates who worked hard on the dirty work throughout the year for the win.

This was kind of flashy given that it was only the end of the first quarter, but the Miami Heat players had no fighting spirit at all, their minds and bodies already in vacation mode, and even though James was nearly shouting to motivate his teammates, no one responded.

Actually, you could tell in the first quarter that most of the Miami Heat players were not in the mood to play anymore. James and Wade combined for 5 turnovers, almost all passes that teammates normally should have moved to catch.

But being down 0-3 in the series, losing by nearly 20 points on average in the first 3 games, such a wide gap, they had no motivation whatsoever.

The second quarter score was 25-18, the third quarter score was 23-26, and the final quarter score was 22-29...

In the second half, the Miami Heat, led by James, narrowed the gap a bit but it didn't affect the final outcome.

At 10:16 PM, the game countdown ended.

Zhang Yang played 33 minutes, hitting 7 out of 12 shots including 2 out of 4 from three-point range, and 4 out of 5 free throws, scoring 20 points, 5 rebounds, 7 assists, 1 steal, 2 blocks;

Gasol had 9 points, 11 rebounds, 4 assists; Kobe had 16 points, 4 rebounds, 6 assists; Nash had 4 points, 3 rebounds, 6 assists; Meeks had 11 points; Jordan Hill had 9 points; Ed Davis had 11 points...

100 to 84, the Lakers easily defeated the Miami Heat, sweeping the series 4-0!

In the fourth quarter Zhang Yang played only two minutes before being subbed out. After the final buzzer, he got up to celebrate with his teammates and wave to the Lakers fans who had traveled for the game.

He looked around... the arena was so empty...

Out of over twenty thousand seats, only two thousand people, or three thousand people were left? And the vast majority of these people were wearing Lakers jerseys, while the home team fans had almost all left before the game even ended!

For this championship, Zhang Yang wasn't worried about the FMVP thing at all; the big screen had already shown the average statistics of the main players from both teams.

He, Zhang San, averaged 30.25 points, 5.5 rebounds, 4 assists, 1.5 steals, and 1.5 blocks over the 4 games.

Kobe averaged 12.5 points, 4.7 rebounds, 7.5 assists, with 1 steal, with less chance of winning the FMVP compared to Gasol who averaged 14 points, 11 rebounds, and 3.75 assists.

Kobe's low score was pulled down by Game 3 where he only scored 5 points, while the other 3 games were 13 points, 16 points, 16 points. Given his playstyle and the actual finals performance, he should have averaged 15+5+7, but it had nothing to do with FMVP.

On the other side, the Miami Heat's stats... Zhang Yang found them a bit interesting.

Wade averaged 14 points, 3 rebounds, 4 assists, visibly exhausted, which Zhang Yang found regrettable, as the strongest number 3 in the East had exhausted his stamina in the East Final.

Bosh averaged 15 points, 7 rebounds, and was inconspicuous in the last 3 games besides a good first game.

James averaged 28 points, 7 rebounds, 7 assists, 2 steals, which Zhang Yang didn't expect, just like he didn't expect James to end up with 31 points tonight...

However, something even more puzzling occurred.

During the award ceremony, FMVP... Zhang Yang took it smoothly, but when the Bill Russell Cup was handed over by the etiquette lady, the joke took the trophy from her hand and directly thrust it into Zhang San's arms, pulling him for a photo together.

Zhang San: ???