After the Christmas Day game against the Lakers, the Spurs had two days of rest before flying to the Bay Area to challenge the Warriors in Golden State!
He Xi Meng requested a two-day leave from Popovich, asking not to return to San Antonio with the team. Instead, he would stay in Los Angeles and meet the team in the Bay Area on the third day.
Popovich agreed to He Xi Meng's request, but patted him on the shoulder with a knowing look and earnestly advised him, "It's not the offseason, take care of yourself and save some energy, you still have a lot of games to play..."
He Xi Meng nodded awkwardly in agreement. As for whether he could do it, it seemed He Xi Meng didn't have the final say...
After parting ways with the team, He Xi Meng returned home and, as expected, found his championship ring in Kayla's bed! However, to find the ring and get another look at it, He Xi Meng had to "work hard" for it... Even after finding it, it wasn't easy to get away unscathed.
Kayla's bed, how could you come and go as you please? Since you're already here, would it be polite to leave without leaving anything behind?
As a result, during these two days of vacation in Los Angeles, He Xi Meng was more exhausted than playing back-to-back road games.
This led to He Xi Meng having almost no offensive desire in the game against the Warriors on the third day when he flew to Oakland to rejoin the team.
He vividly remembered promising in the Christmas Day game against the Lakers that he would score at least 20 points in the next game... Sorry, he didn't keep his promise!
Throughout the entire game, He Xi Meng was all about passing, passing, passing... It was as if the ball in his hands had wronged him; as soon as he got it, he couldn't wait to pass it out, not wanting to touch it for a moment longer...
The result of this was an exceptionally "aloof" and "uninterested" He Xi Meng, who only scored 16 points but incredibly dished out 20 assists! The stat line of 16 points, 20 assists, 3 rebounds, 2 steals, and 1 block was truly bizarre!
This meant that after scoring 50 points in his previous game, setting a new league high for the season, He Xi Meng had now set a new single-game assist record!
Before this, the league's highest assist record for the season was 18 assists in a single game by Stockton! He Xi Meng, directly surpassing Stockton's record by 2, reached a staggering 20...
With these two strong performances, He Xi Meng immediately became the darling of the San Antonio media. At the post-game press conference, He Xi Meng initially wanted to decline participation by citing physical fatigue. After all, He Xi Meng wasn't the highest scorer for the Spurs that day; it was Duncan. Under He Xi Meng's "crazy" assists, Duncan's score for the game was fed up to 40 points!
Duncan was definitely going to attend the post-game press conference, and He Xi Meng, who wanted to ask for leave, ultimately did not succeed. Under the strong demand of the media present, he was forcibly dragged to the press conference venue by Popovich from the locker room.
"You ask me why I scored 40 points? No, no, no, you've got the wrong person. You should ask the person next to me about this! If he hadn't kept shoving the basketball into my hands, how could I have scored so many points..."
Duncan showed no signs of joy despite scoring 40 points, immediately shifting the responsibility to He Xi Meng. The reporters present thought this was Duncan's humility and modesty, giving all the credit to He Xi Meng, but only He Xi Meng knew best that Duncan was complaining!
Duncan was blaming He Xi Meng: "Why do you keep passing me the ball? Are you trying to wear me out?"
He Xi Meng pretended not to hear Duncan's complaint and spoke on his own, "We have more of an inside advantage than the Warriors, and I didn't want to waste our advantage, so I focused the offense on the inside... The results were very good. I dished out a lot of assists, and my teammates, Tim and David, got a lot of easy scoring opportunities... I think we should play more games like this in the future, maximizing our inside advantage as much as possible..."
A reporter asked He Xi Meng, "Why didn't you continue your scoring streak from the last game? Fans should love watching you score..."
He Xi Meng shook his head and said, "Those who know me well know that scoring has never been my main job! My positioning has always been that of an excellent point guard! A point guard who can lead his teammates to win games through tactical play..."
Although He Xi Meng said this, because Duncan "maliciously" repeatedly used his ability to draw double-teams to pass to He Xi Meng, causing He Xi Meng's open three-point shooting opportunities to greatly increase in the following games... Even if He Xi Meng wanted to be low-key, he couldn't. His average score steadily rose from around 20 points to an average of 25 points before the All-Star break...
With a brilliant performance of averaging 25 points and 11 assists, coupled with the fervent support of Chinese fans, He Xi Meng, as expected, beat Carter and became this year's All-Star vote leader!
The 2000 All-Star vote leader should have been Carter of the Raptors! Carter received 1.91 million votes, far exceeding Iverson's 1.84 million and O'Neal's 1.80 million! 138 Reading Network.
But unfortunately, a mighty man descended, a Chinese mighty man at that!
With the strong support of Chinese fans, He Xi Meng's votes steadily surpassed 1.8 million, 1.9 million, 2 million... and only slowed down after reaching 2.2 million, finally stopping at 2.27 million!
As the All-Star vote leader, He Xi Meng became the starting point guard for the Western Conference!
Besides He Xi Meng, the Spurs also had Duncan who successfully made it into the Western Conference All-Star starting lineup, and David Robinson made it into the All-Star reserve lineup.
Three All-Stars on one team! The Spurs were undoubtedly the most dazzling team at the 2000 All-Star Weekend!
For the remaining three starting spots in the Western Conference, two belonged to the Lakers' O'Neal and Kobe; the last one belonged to Garnett of the Timberwolves!
Center O'Neal, power forward Duncan, small forward Garnett, shooting guard Kobe, and point guard He Xi Meng! This was the super luxury lineup of this year's Western Conference All-Stars.
The Western Conference All-Star reserve lineup only had veteran players like Malone of the Jazz, David Robinson of the Spurs, and Payton of the SuperSonics!
A new generation fully rising! Webber of the Kings, Kidd of the Suns, Finley of the Mavericks, and Rasheed Wallace of the Trail Blazers were all starting to step onto the league's most glamorous stage.