Chapter 49

The honor of being named the Player of the Week could make the Jazz players happy for Lin Han, make Stockton and Malone envious, and even surprise Lin Han himself.

In the NBA, the current Player of the Week is truly the best player of the week. There is no distinction between the Eastern and Western Conferences; there is only one Player of the Week in the entire league. In this situation, the NBA almost never awards the weekly honor to non-stars. It would be a joke if a regular role player or a star player from the East had an outstanding week, as there would still be a group of superstars in the West. The same logic applies to the West.

Therefore, even last season's regular-season MVP and the top star in the West, Charles Barkley, only won the Player of the Week award twice. Similarly, last season's top player in the East, Michael Jordan, only won the Player of the Week award once. The players who won the most Player of the Week awards last season were Patrick Ewing from the East, with three times, and Hakeem Olajuwon from the West, also with three times. As for the Jazz's star player, John Stockton, he never won the award, and Karl Malone barely managed to win it once, with an average of 36.5 points and 14.3 rebounds in four games.

In this situation, many people in the NBA hope that the league will split the Player of the Week and Player of the Month awards between the Eastern and Western Conferences to give more players a chance to win the honor. However, the league has been hesitant because splitting the awards would reduce their value by more than just half.

Therefore, in the history of the NBA, a rookie winning the first Player of the Week award of the season has only happened twice in the past few decades. Lin Han is one of those cases, and the other was last season, when the top draft pick, Shaquille O'Neal, burst onto the NBA scene with a bang. O'Neal's early performance as a rookie was no less impressive than Lin Han's this year, averaging 31.7 points, 16.3 rebounds, and 3 blocks in his first few games, which earned him the Player of the Week award and even outshone stars like Jordan, Olajuwon, and Ewing.

Moreover, O'Neal was even more reckless than Lin Han. Lin Han, after a period of intense performance, knew his limits and did not provoke established stars in the league, so the previous game, Wilkinson let him off. However, after winning the Player of the Week award, O'Neal immediately started taunting everyone, and the established stars like Olajuwon and Ewing could not tolerate it. As a result, O'Neal had a tough season, averaging 14 points with less than 50% shooting in two games against Olajuwon, 21 points with just over 40% shooting in four games against Ewing, and 17 points in two games against another super center, David Robinson.

Although O'Neal was severely punished for his taunts, he still had the true talent to perform well against most other centers in the league, which is why he averaged 23.4 points, 13.9 rebounds, and 3.5 blocks as a rookie. These numbers were only slightly behind the top center, Olajuwon, and comparable to the other two top centers.

Compared to O'Neal, who was "taught a lesson" by the league's veterans, Lin Han is much wiser. He will not provoke other established stars in the league, but whether those stars will let him off is another matter. For example, the case of Brandon Jennings, who did not say anything provocative but lacked the absolute talent of O'Neal, and was thus marginalized.

Whether Lin Han will end up like O'Neal or Jennings is not a choice he wants to make, nor is it a choice he can make.

"Deliberately getting hit by a car to increase one's karma value, dying from the hit to make the karma value skyrocket, becoming disabled to significantly increase the karma value, or getting slightly injured to slightly increase the karma value, and if nothing happens or the incident is minor, the karma value decreases. Is this really so cruel? It seems that self-harm to increase karma value is not an option."

"Going to a casino and losing 10 million to make the karma value skyrocket, or donating 20 million to a charity to make the karma value skyrocket, are also not options. Even if I wanted to, I don't have that much money."

"Speaking well of public figures every day, the more significant the impact, the better the effect, such as saying that Rodman is a civilized and well-mannered superstar, or that the Rockets' rookie alien Cassell is very handsome. This is really a trap. If I really said these things to the media, these guys would definitely ruin me in the game."

"Being heavily criticized by fans and the media every day can slightly increase the karma value, but the key is that most of the media are praising me, not criticizing me. As for the fans, although more are criticizing me now, most are neutral. So, this part hardly increases the karma value at all. I really miss the summer when I was criticized a lot."

"Missing 20 shots in a game slightly increases the karma value, missing 40 shots moderately increases it, missing 80 shots significantly increases it, and missing 160 shots makes the karma value skyrocket. This is not an option. Even missing 40 shots in a game would be enough to get me kicked out of the NBA."

Lin Han was very happy to win the NBA's first Player of the Week award, outperforming Hakeem Olajuwon, who had a perfect 4-0 record, averaging 30 points, 14 rebounds, 4 assists, and 4 blocks. However, after the happiness, he was left with only melancholy.

Lin Han has already tasted the benefits of glory, seeing the envy and jealousy in his teammates' eyes when he was crowned the Player of the Week, and seeing the team's general manager and owner come to the training ground to encourage him. For anyone, such glory is not something they want to lose immediately.

Lin Han wants to bask in this glory every day, but the embarrassing shooting percentage and scoring efficiency in the last game against the Hawks, if not for Malone's poor performance, Lin Han would have been ridiculed by his teammates.

Moreover, although the Hawks are a strong team, they are not a defensive powerhouse. His opponent, Grant, is a decent player but not a top-tier defender or scorer. More importantly, the Hawks did not double-team him.

Without the double-team, Lin Han had over 20 shot attempts in the game, scoring 20 points with high shot volume. If other teams double-teamed him, what would he do? Take only 8-9 shots and score 7-8 points?

It's important to note that although the team's shooting guard, Jeff Malone, is currently on the bench due to Lin Han, he is still one of the top three players on the team and is waiting for Lin Han to make a mistake. One or two poor performances are not a problem, but continuous mistakes would make it difficult for Lin Han to maintain his position.

"Truly melancholic."

At this moment, Lin Han, lying on his bed at home after the training session, felt disheartened as he stared at the ceiling.

What is even more disheartening and melancholic is that after winning the Player of the Week award, Lin Han did not think about how to help the team win but instead constantly thought about how to improve his stats to maintain his position on the team.

If Jerry Sloan knew Lin Han's current thoughts, he would probably come over and strangle this unambitious young man.