On January 9th, Beijing time, the CBA officially announced the second week of All-Star voting. The backcourt players in the South Division have become a focus of attention. In addition to the heated discussion among fans about Hu Mingxuan's approach to Guo Ailun, Xu Jie has also firmly established himself as the top player in the South Division. Perhaps Du Feng's continuous mention of fans voting more for Xu Jie at post-game press conferences has had a certain effect. After all, the Guangdong head coach personally campaigning can exert significant market influence. It is also the only instance so far this season where a head coach has helped his protégé campaign for votes.
The top four backcourt players in the South Division are:
Xu Jie (496,052), Guo Ailun (407,493), Hu Mingxuan (386,402), Sun Minghui (246,391).
For Sun Minghui, he has clearly become the "biggest loser" in this All-Star voting. Compared to Xu Jie's first place in the backcourt, there is a difference of one time, a full 240,000 votes.
Guo Ailun and Hu Mingxuan are only about 20,000 votes apart. According to the fact that both are top-tier stars in the CBA, even if they continue to be on the sidelines, they can still receive a large number of fan votes, with 407,493 and 386,402 respectively. Who can lock down the starting position in the third stage will require the final week of voting. Given that both have massive fan bases, a fierce competition is foreseeable.
Sun Minghui is quite embarrassed. According to the attendance rate and performance of the new season, he would not be much different from Xu Jie, but he only has 246,391 votes. However, when the two directly face each other, it can be seen that in the double-killing of Guangsha over Guangdong, Sun Minghui exploded in the fourth quarter against Xu Jie. Even many Guangdong fans admit that Sun Minghui's ball-dominant core playstyle and strong low-post ability are not yet comparable to Sun Minghui's game influence at this stage.
However, in terms of voting, Sun Minghui's thigh-level performance has only just qualified as a candidate. With only 2 starters, Hu Mingxuan and Guo Ailun are already two mountains, and Xu Jie's strong outbreak in the second stage has attracted many new fans' votes.
Excluding some absolutely loyal fans of Guangsha, if it were normal voting choices, Sun Minghui would also be at a disadvantage. Most of the backcourt in the South Division is dominated by Xu Jie and Guo Ailun, followed closely by Hu Mingxuan. With Yi Jianlian's retirement, Hu Jinqiu, who does not have much social media operation in the North Division, has become the mainstream choice.
Guangsha Men's Basketball Team's record in the new season is still 24 wins and 4 losses, ranking first in the standings. However, whether Sun Minghui can get more votes seems to have no direct connection with the team's record.