Last season, there was also a Rookie All-Star vote leader named Grant Hill.

Similarly, after being selected as an All-Star starter, Grant Hill chose to withdraw from the rookie challenge, stating that he didn’t want to take away the chance for his fellow rookies to showcase themselves.

So this year, Zhang Hao’s withdrawal from the rookie game was easily accepted.

After all, the rookie game was only introduced in 1994, and before the 1994 All-Star, the Friday game during All-Star Weekend was a celebrity game, featuring retired players, athletes from other fields, and some celebrities with basketball skills having fun together.

However, despite not participating in the rookie challenge, dunk contest, or three-point contest, Grant Hill was still a hot topic from the first day of the All-Star break last year.

After flying with the Pistons’ owner to Phoenix on a private plane, participating in several days of commercial activities, charity promotions, and giving university lectures, Grant Hill was continuously in the news even though he didn’t participate in the rookie and combined games. He still made appearances at the venues, chatted and laughed with rookie peers, star spectators, and stars participating in the combined games, making a good show.

Meanwhile, Zhang Hao, after taking the Lakers owner’s private plane to San Antonio and attending a day’s promotional activities, disappeared...

Fans watched TV but couldn’t find news about him and couldn’t find anything in the newspapers either. Some even wondered if he had been blacklisted. By the day of the combined games, the host of the TV station’s All-Star Weekend special complained that their reporters hadn’t been granted an interview with Zhang Hao in two days, nor had they captured any news about him.

A newspaper managed to get a piece about him in the evening news on February 10th, the day of the combined games — we’re offering a reward for news about Aix; has he gone missing?

In this basketball event where every athlete is vying for attention and many celebrities, singers, socialites, and even officials are trying to get camera time, even though it’s only been two days without hearing anything about Zhang Hao, many were still surprised.

It’s the All-Star Weekend, after all!

When the sports journalists from all over the world gathered in San Antonio, the most anticipated All-Star vote leader was nowhere to be seen!

Actually, it was quite simple. On the first day, he wandered around popular tourist spots that most athletes wouldn’t visit at that time.

Now, many athletes would give anything to be in front of the cameras at the All-Star Weekend venues.

The next day, someone who saw Zhang Hao at the tourist spots shared the information with the media, but it was dismissed as a hoax because not everyone could take photos back then; Zhang Hao didn’t appear at those spots that day.

Instead, he spent the entire day at a gym he rented with a small blacksmith eager to make a name for himself.

The gym had it all: a home theater, karaoke room, game room... it was equivalent to an entertainment club.

"Aix, aren’t you going to watch the dunk contest tonight?"

"What’s there to see? I’d rather dunk with you."

"You make a good point!" Kobe’s little tail was about to wag in excitement.

But... Kobe held his unused season tickets: "Then what am I going to do with these tickets? I came specifically to watch the All-Star Weekend games."

"Tomorrow, you will see the All-Star vote leader play."

"Get up! One-on-one!"

"You definitely can’t beat me, don’t try, I’m strong." 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

"I mean basketball, basketball!"

"Still seeing who can make 10 shots first?"

"... How about 100 shots?"

"No way!" Zhang Hao didn’t want to repeat Starkhouse’s mistake.

"10 shots it is!" Kobe just couldn’t believe he couldn’t win even once.

Five minutes later, Kobe was sitting on the couch, dejected.

This time he attacked first, could grab the rebound after scoring, and switch offense and defense after scoring. He made the first 9 shots, but his 10th drive was blocked... Mainly, his neck was tight after the 9th shot, and he was lucky to get the rebound for a layup, but he didn’t dare to shoot the 10th as much.

And that guy always played him off the spot, forcing him to drive up for layups under the basket!

It was a bit of cheating, but Kobe also saw Zhang Hao’s incredible strength in those situations.

After laying around for a while, Kobe got up: "Train! Let’s practice mid-range shots!"

Since he couldn’t win, he might as well practice!

After warming up a bit, Kobe suddenly remembered something and said: "You practice something else! Not allowed to practice mid-range shots! No post-ups either! No strength training... no defensive movement! No off-the-ball movement... also not allowed!"

...

After deciding to enjoy this All-Star Weekend, Zhang Hao thought he should just do whatever made him happy, like skipping the rookie and combined game on-site.

The two girls and Pierce’s mom went to the games; they were interested.

He really didn’t want to go; he’d rather find a place to train, and this year’s games, just knowing the results would be enough.

He intended to train alone, but when Kobe came along, he roped in this training maniac.

Kobe came full of interest and then wanted to leave, but... he stayed with Zhang Hao for a full day and more training.

The rookie and combined games were unsurprisingly dull, with Damon Stoudamire winning the Rookie Challenge MVP without much suspense. The dunk contest was uneventful, with Brent Barry winning the dunk king with a free-throw line dunk. The three-point contest, featuring this era’s best shooters, was quite a letdown as players like Reggie Miller, Dan Majerle, and Nick Anderson were not suited for such a competition. In the end, Glenn Rice scored 17 points in the finals to beat Steve Kerr, who scored 15 points, winning the championship.