All I Really Want Is To Play Basketball - Chapter 36

Chapter 36: A Destiny-changing Conversation

Translator: Atlas Studios

Editor: Atlas Studios

“I’m Back!”

Su Feng, who had experienced two lives, was very clear on just how impactful Jordan’s return would be.

However, because he already knew that was going to happen, Su Feng originally thought that he would not be that affected by Jordan’s return.

However, Su Feng very quickly discovered that he was still too young.

One could only feel the impact of the news of Michael Jordan’s return in March of 1995 when they personally lived in this era.

At that moment, all of America’s TV stations stopped no matter what news or show they were broadcasting.

And such news treatment was normally reserved for when the US president got assassinated or during the Gulf War.

When Michael Jordan appeared on TV, people first felt confusion, then nostalgia, and finally an unstoppable wave of excitement.

In the Bryants’ home, when Su Feng, Kobe, and Kobe’s dad saw this piece of news, Su Feng noticed the changes in the Bryants’ expressions.

Kobe’s body was trembling uncontrollably.

Joe slowly put down the Coke in his hands. But Su Feng noticed an obvious dent on the can.

At this moment, Kobe seemed to be about to unleash the bundles of flame burning in his chest.

Joe kept shaking his leg and his breathing got faster and faster.

“I’m back!”

Him.

Michael Jordan.

He’s back!

All of North America went wild!

All endorsements and stocks related to Jordan shot up instantly.

At the same time, North America’s seven biggest lottery companies immediately adjusted the odds of the Chicago Bulls winning the NBA from 40/1 to 5/1.

Next, the remaining tickets for both home and away games for the Chicago Bulls were all sold out.

The NBC TV station also made emergency adjustments to their broadcast plans of the first match of Jordan’s return: Chicago Bulls vs Indiana Pacers. They changed their original plan of only broadcasting the match to half of America to broadcasting it for all of America.

The next day, Michael Jordan’s photo appeared on the front pages of all newspapers alongside his classic “I’m back!”.

All major TV stations and news stations urgently activated all their basketball reporters that could be activated. Next, these people only had one task.

Fly to Chicago and bring back firsthand news about Jordan.

What level of influence was this?

What level of power was this?

What level of popularity was this?

Everyone knew, this was an era without social media.

However, the chain reaction triggered by Jordan’s return would be considered pretty rare even if it happened in the future.

Some people said that Michael Jordan was only officially crowned a legend after his second three-peat with the Bulls.

But in reality, when he announced his return in March of 1995, he was already a legend.

The NBA was shaken.

The four great sports leagues of North America were shaken.

If we were to say that David Stern single-handedly made Michael Jordan a legend, then now, this diminutive, Jewish old man already could not believe what he was seeing.

Even if the NBA knew in advance that Jordan was returning, and even if Stern already made countless pre-arranged plans, in front of Jordan…

None of these were worth mentioning.

All of America had already gone crazy.

All of the NBA’s superstars instantly felt increased pressure on their shoulders.

Among them, the defending champions, the Houston Rockets, took the brunt of the pressure.

The moment Jordan announced his return, people wanted to interview the Dream and Tomjanovich.

But Su Feng knew that…

Tomjanovich was still charging up his ultimate move at that moment.

So, the Houston Rockets chose to remain silent this time.

Countless Jordan fans were already unable to suppress the excitement in their hearts.

Look, no matter how exciting the matches you previously played were.

Now, let us watch the ending together.

To America, which was in the middle of an unemployment crisis, when American president Bill Clinton found out Jordan was returning, he proclaimed excitedly during an interview that Jordan’s return would create 10 million new jobs for America.

At this moment, what Chicago’s mayor wanted to do the most was hug Jordan and kiss him. That was because he knew Chicago’s economy was revived!

Cough cough.

Anyway…

Su Feng was uncultured.

He could only use “What the heck!” to summarise the emotions he felt.

…

And just as Su Feng was recovering from the impact Jordan’s return brought him, beside him…

Kobe suddenly said, “I’ve decided.”

Su Feng turned his head to look at Kobe and threw him a confused look.

Bro, what did you decide?

“I’m going to skip college and bring my talent straight to the NBA!” Kobe proclaimed while looking at Su Feng with absolute seriousness.

Su Feng was speechless.

Hmm…

Right.

Actually, Su Feng really wanted to tell Kobe that he knew he was going to make that decision long ago even if he did not tell him.

But in this life, after befriending Kobe, Su Feng could be said to have dispelled all rumors regarding why Kobe skipped college and entered the NBA directly with his own ears.

In reality, there were many different kinds of guesses as to why Kobe skipped college in Su Feng’s previous life.

And the version used by Kobe himself as well as Kobe biographies was,

“I must challenge him officially on the court before he retires!” Kobe exclaimed to Su Feng excitedly.

Su Feng was not silly. He knew that the “he” Kobe was referring to was Michael Jordan.

Although the NBA of this era allowed players to skip college, Su Feng, who knew his history very well, was very clear that even during this era, players who skipped college were one-of-a-kind in the NBA.

In 1974, Moses Malone, who had just graduated from high school and had a poor family background, could not bear to see his mother toiling away and decided to skip college to go make lots of money in the NBA.

In 1989, Shawn Kemp, who sacrificed his intelligence in exchange for talent in basketball, felt that since he could not pass the college entrance exams even if he cheated, he might as well go play in the NBA.

There were only two more players who skipped college: Daroby and Wilkens. That’s right, before 1995, high school students in the NBA were as rare as wild giant pandas.

Hence, those players who dared to skip college and enter the NBA directly were either extremely talented or had their own reasons as to why they had to skip college.

But Su Feng remembered very clearly that in 1995, there would be Garnett. In 1996, there would be Kobe and Jermaine O’Neal. In 1997, McGrady would join the list.

Next, many players would drop out of college to join the draft.

One had to take note that this was not the future.

This was the 90s. Players playing in this era would normally play for three to four years in college first before entering the NBA.

Even Vince Carter stayed in college for three years first before entering the NBA. As for Duncan, the “Rock Buddha”, he only entered the NBA after graduating from college.

Judging from the quality of the draft, other than the golden generation of 1996, the quality of 1997 and 1998’s drafts was very high as well.

Then, what made it such that these talented basketball geniuses could not wait to enter the NBA?

After all, the NBA had already established new rules in 1995.

Nowadays, draftees could not ask for ridiculous salaries like they did before.

In reality, in Su Feng’s previous life, when many keyboard warriors and experts were arranging biographies, they all came to the same conclusion:

That was that people in the 90s seemed to be very reckless.

The different perspectives of different eras created many misunderstandings.

After Jordan announced his return, it seemed to add an invisible passion buff to these teenage talents.

My God, Jordan has returned!

Come, brothers. Prepare your weapons!

That’s right, to many newbies who joined the NBA after Jordan returned, they all had one belief:

I want to challenge Jordan!

If one was not reckless, they would be wasting their youth.

Although not everyone had that mentality, there were indeed many teenage talents who entered the NBA with that mentality in this era.

They wanted to challenge Michael Jordan before he retired.

In Su Feng’s previous life, many people thought Kobe had anxiously entered the NBA because he wanted to thrash Hardaway to take revenge against him for not giving him an autograph and not taking a photo with him back then.

But in reality…

At this moment, Kobe did not know Hardaway would be written off for an entire season in the future. To young Kobe, Hardaway was also equally young back then, and there would be many chances for him to play against Hardaway.

After all, Kobe felt most excited when he got to play against Jordan after he entered the NBA.

That included 1996’s first draft pick Allen Iverson.

All these young lads seemed to go crazy and wanted to play against Jordan.

Meanwhile, Jordan did not reject any challengers.

That was because Jordan, who had returned, seemed to have become a symbol.

Chicago had already become the new holy land of basketball. And when faced with these young pilgrims, Jordan did not tell them the future was theirs…

Because Michael Jordan took greatest pleasure in leaving shadows in those new players’ hearts.

Come, children. Work harder and you’ll soon surpass me!

If you’ve watched 90s era NBA before, you would know just how “dirty” Jordan was.

He was like a senior with a “fetish”. He was deeply engrossed in having one-on-ones with newbies and took great pleasure in doing so.

Meanwhile, the newbies were happy to play against Jordan. Because if their score was similar to that of Jordan, they could boast to their friends that they could hold their own against Jordan.

Su Feng remembered that the newbie who was thrashed the hardest was the NBA’s famous male supporting actor, Stackhouse.

Hmm, why does this guy always appear when these kinds of things happen?

Don’t be surprised. If one considered it humiliating to be defeated by Kobe in a one-on-one before he participated in the draft, then the consequence of Stackhouse making impertinent remarks towards Jordan was a public execution.

In the 95/96 season, Stackhouse, who could get an average of 19.2 points per match, felt that he was already invincible. So he went to tell the media, saying, “I’m not scared of Jordan, I can shut Jordan out. He’s not the Jordan he used to be.”

Then, after finding out about this incident, Jordan absolutely destroyed Stackhouse’s confidence when the Chicago Bulls played the Philadelphia 76ers.

When playing against his junior from the University of North Carolina, Jordan scored a whopping 48 points and defended so hard that Stackhouse could only score 12 points.

Then, to avoid being tortured again in the future, Stackhouse could only comment wholeheartedly after the match, “My senior is way too hot-tempered. I hope he can be less hot-tempered in the future…”

Moreover, there were many famous cases of Jordan teaching newbies a lesson, like Payton for example…

Of course, there were exceptions.

Jordan liked Kobe a lot.

Because when faced with this imitator, Jordan felt that his systematic and patient guidance was worth it. See, even if I’m not around any more in the future, people will be reminded of me when they watch Kobe play…

My disciple, Kobe, can take on the entire NBA!

Oh, talked too much.

…

In the Bryants’ home, when he heard Kobe’s classic line, Su Feng acted extremely cooperatively. “Are you serious?”

Kobe nodded. “Of course I’m serious! I’m going to skip college. I must play against Michael.”

Su Feng gasped in feigned shock and gave Kobe a thumbs up.

Go for it!

Kobe!

You’ll do great!

And just as Su Feng was thinking about how he should act next, Kobe suddenly looked at Su Feng and asked, “Oh, right, Su. Have you considered your future? Do you want to go to college? Which college do you want to go to?”

Su Feng was stunned.

Then.

He…

Froze.

“!!!”

Because the moment Kobe asked that question, in his mind,

“System: It’s time to plan your path towards the NBA!”

“Please choose a mission to complete from the two listed below.”

“Mission 1: ‘Slow and steady is the way to go’: You decide to enter the NBA after going to college.

Because this can increase your chances of entering the NBA and you can continue to sharpen your skills in college.

Difficulty: Ordinary.

Mission requirements: Get admitted into a college and enter the NBA after playing for at least one season in the NCAA.

Mission completion rewards: One Golden Epic Large Gift Pack(Click to check contents of gift pack).

If you have already upgraded the system to version 7.0, the system will upgrade randomly after you have completed this mission. Best: “Teenage Sensation”, worst: “Pitifully Mediocre”.

“Teenage Sensation” system introduction: Because you have honed your skills in college, all your skills have reached their peak. Under this system, your potential for all your statistics will be redistributed based on your position. You will be a superstar the moment you debut.

“Pitifully Mediocre” system introduction: Because you were honing your skills in college, you missed the opportunity to enter the NBA early. Thus, you are destined to be an ordinary player. Under this system, your potential for all your statistics will be automatically upgraded to NBA benchwarmer level.

(Click to check the other random systems).”

“Mission 2: “Path of a Genius”: A genius walks their own path, and leaves no path for others!

So you decide to skip college and bring your talent straight to the NBA!

Difficulty: Nightmare.

Mission requirements: Participate in the draft after graduating from high school and get picked.

Mission completion rewards: If you have already upgraded the system to version 7.0, then your system will be automatically upgraded to “Heaven-Chosen Prodigy”.

Moreover, you will receive a Golden Legendary Large Gift Pack (Click to check gift pack contents).

And…”

“!!!”

“Free from illnesses for the rest of your life!”

…