While Darren Moon was swamped with work, Chen Xi himself didn't come forward to respond to any of the news.
The most he did was take a call from Kobe.
Interestingly, Kobe didn't choose to immediately help the Lakers recruit Chen.
He only called Chen Xi to confirm whether the rumor was true, then told Chen to think carefully about his choice of team.
As a superstar who had spent twenty years in Los Angeles, he had once flourished there, and he had also hit rock bottom there.
So Kobe knew all too well the pros and cons of playing for a team in a big city.
The dazzling spotlight brought not just wealth and exposure, but also enormous pressure and a storm of public opinion—not to mention attacks from people with ulterior motives...
Despite having confidence in Chen Xi's abilities, their friendship made him feel it was worth saying a little more.
Chen simply agreed, saying he understood.
He also took the opportunity to make his own position clear to Kobe.
He had no interest whatsoever in playing for the Lakers with LeBron James on the team~~
"Don't get me wrong. I have nothing against him. I just don't think the two of us would be a good fit, based on my own considerations. It definitely has nothing to do with the bad blood from the DeRozan incident back then, or me holding a grudge~~"
"You can ask around. Everyone in Oklahoma knows Chen is famous for being magnanimous!~~"
While Chen remained silent, the Thunder organization also didn't respond to the rumors right away.
But with both sides keeping quiet, that basically amounted to indirect confirmation that Woj's report was true.
In those circumstances, public opinion naturally began to snowball.
The next few days were a veritable holiday