Randolph gained a lot of family.
He also received the sincere blessings of the Knicks fans. The most direct evidence of this was his All-Star vote count. It skyrocketed from being the lowest among all candidates to third in the East, surpassing Ben Wallace and trailing only LeBron James and Little O'Neal.
This showed two things. First, the forward position in the East wasn't that competitive, unlike the West, where everyone was beating each other's brains out. Tracy McGrady, a small forward, was literally forced into the guard position to compete with Steve Nash for a spot.
Second, Su Xi's words carried a lot of weight. New York fans listened to him, and they had immense voting power. His votes increased by 500,000 in just one night and one morning.
And this was for a damn player who was infamous and universally despised.
But what could you do? He was family now.
On the flight back to New York, Zach Randolph started performing a Chinese dance he'd invented himself.
