Facing the challenge from the Toronto Raptors, looking at Jaylen Rence who had hurt him in the 2000 Finals...

Kobe Bryant.

This most outstanding shooting guard in the league today pressed the button called Celestial God Descending.

Although by halftime, Kobe had only scored 28 points, shooting 11 out of 18.

But soon, by the end of the third quarter, Kobe's score quickly increased to 55, showing no signs of stopping.

This caused panic to start spreading on the Raptors' bench.

At Staples Center, throughout the entire fourth quarter, the scoreboard flashed with MVP, MVP.

With 4 minutes and 28 seconds left in the final quarter, the reporters on site were no longer focusing on Kobe Bryant but on the "Zen Master" Phil Jackson on the sidelines.

The reporters frowned.

Because the Lakers' lead had reached 17 points, they were worried that Jackson would take Kobe out early, as he did against the Mavericks when Kobe scored 65 points by the end of the third quarter.

However, the "Zen Master" did not spoil the night and decided to keep Kobe in the game.

Thus, on the score sheet...

Kobe's score finally settled at 84 points.

After the game, Lakers assistant coach Brian Shaw excitedly said in an interview: "When we played the Mavericks before, I discussed with Kobe whether he could score 80 points if the 'Zen Master' kept him playing in the fourth quarter.

After getting Kobe's confirmation, I knew he had the ability to achieve all this!"

On January 22nd of that year, as Kobe scored an earth-shattering 84 points on Dragon Slaying Night...

The entire basketball world went completely crazy.

Former Chicago Bulls legend Scottie Pippen, upon learning of Kobe scoring 84 points from a friend at 3 AM, lay sleepless all night and immediately pondered how he would handle such a Kobe if it were him...

"I think in some aspects, Kobe Bryant has done better than Michael Jordan." Pippen said in an interview.

As for Pippen's teammate Michael Jordan, he did not comment on Kobe scoring 84 points in a single game immediately.

"This is the most spectacular scoring performance I have ever seen in my life." Later, "T-Mac," who was still asleep at the time, said in an interview; even in games, he didn't know how to control a player to score so many points.

Overnight, Kobe stole all the attention of the basketball world.

However, not all media gave Kobe positive reviews after Dragon Slaying Night.

For instance, The San Diego Union-Tribune stated that this game was utterly meaningless.

And George Koochi from The Chicago Sun-Times commented in an article: "Kobe doesn't have anything to do with being a hero."

Additionally, Kobe received polarizing comments within the league.

For example, Vince Carter said Kobe had set a bad example.

And Kobe's former teammate, Shaquille O'Neal said, "Give me 50 shots, and I can score just as much."

Meanwhile, O'Neal's teammate Antoine Walker supported him, saying, "If someone scored 84 points in front of me, the next time we meet, I'd surely punch him."

Needless to say, this January...

The previous "Goodnight, Los Angeles" scorer and the one being scored upon seemed like they had arranged it all together.

The former was praised as the greatest rookie in NBA history by Jovan Buha, a journalist from The Los Angeles Times.

While the latter washed away the negative impact of the Eagle County incident with an 84-point scoring feast at the end of January and sparked a debate in the basketball world about whether he could score 100 points in an NBA game.

But regardless of whether these two were intentional or not...

They inadvertently joined forces to make numerous holes in Shaquille O'Neal's already small heart.

Previously, in an interview with reporters, O'Neal had said, "When will Jovan Buha shut up? I've teamed up with 'D-Wade' to defeat the Warriors. How can the kid the Warriors drafted be as great as he claims?"

However, what caught O'Neal off guard was that Buha, who has always hated him, added a specific note in his article praising Qin Yue:

"Trust me, that lazy and stupid fat pig will someday say he teamed up with 'D-Wade' to defeat the Warriors...so here, I must tell everyone, in that game, 'D-Wade' scored a total of 37 points, 4 rebounds, and 7 assists. And our Shaq? Let's see, he only scored 14 points and 8 rebounds, shooting 4 out of 14 free throws. Is this the so-called best center in the league?"

As the protagonist of this article, even Qin Yue himself probably didn't expect...

Buha would inadvertently stir up a wave of hatred from O'Neal.

In fact, if it weren't for the racial discriminatory remarks, which he said were just jokes, that O'Neal made when Yao Ming entered the league...

Upon seeing Buha's article, O'Neal might have wanted to rush to Oakland to duel with Qin Yue immediately.

Because he, with his always small-mindedness, could never tolerate Buha using a mere rookie to criticize him.

Even though Qin Yue is also a Chinese player and O'Neal is already aware of the consequences of offending the Chinese market, he still couldn't bear to see a rookie who has never even touched the Finals court exceeding his image in the world.

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