Like many people, Barkley thought this would be a year when the East was extremely strong and the West extremely weak. Shaquille O'Neal, however, shook his head, picked up a bottle of mineral water, and took two big gulps as if it were medicine.
"I can't agree with that bullshit."
Barkley asked, "Oh? Then tell me your bullshit."
The two of them were always joking and fooling around when they were together.
Shaquille O'Neal said, "I actually think the West will still be stronger than the East this year."
Barkley shook his head. "As expected, your bullshit really is enough to leave people speechless. Just tell me this: with more than twenty All-Stars against three, how is the West still stronger?"
Shaquille O'Neal laughed and said:
"Forget twenty All-Stars against three. Even if the East had fifty All-Stars and the West had just one, as long as Wang Yi was in the West, the West would always be stronger."
"Oh, crafty Shaq. You've left me speechless with that one."
Barkley understood what Shaquille O'Neal meant and laughed as he spoke.
The truth was, he was right.
Among all the stars in the East, who could beat Wang Yi?
Which team could beat the King?
Wang Yi was the strongest.
So when Shaquille O'Neal said that wherever Wang Yi was, that conference was the stronger one, he wasn't wrong.
Over the years, how many teams had Wang Yi broken up in the West?
He'd broken up the Grizzlies, the Denver Nuggets, the Timberwolves, the Rockets...
Even the Lakers, known as the Galaxy Battleship, had been broken up by him.
Of course, there were still some haters who kept making excuses, claiming those teams hadn't been broken up but had sought trades of their own accord.
They said the East had been