All I Really Want Is To Play Basketball - Chapter 40-1

Chapter 40: Look Up, The Basket Is Shaking!

After a short timeout, the game continued.

It was now Chester’s turn to attack. The Chester players cooperated with one another at the high post under Conte’s instructions.

After DeMarcus dribbled the ball to Chris with DHO[1], the latter shot from the high post, a salute to the future Wolf King[2].

To the Wolf King—although you haven’t made your appearance on the global stage, the world couldn’t wait to witness the legend written by you.

The ball went through the hoop. It was a perfect jump shot. Beating his chest and stomping his feet, Chris let out a loud roar.

He was so excited because…

Chester had finally broken the deadlock!

8 – 2!

It was now Lower Merion’s turn to attack. This time, Schwartz didn’t even need to dribble.

After Su Feng had told Kobe about the Sewer Plan, Kobe had taken small things like dribbling to himself.

Meanwhile, Su Feng ran from a corner in the left to another one in the right.

Under his teammate Lasman’s screening, Su Feng had managed to create a small opening.

The Chester player on the wing was caught off guard. There was not enough time for him to defend. Hence, he could only hope that DeMarcus could somehow break through the screening.

As the trump card of Chester, DeMarcus didn’t let his teammates down. He fought hard and finally arrived before Su Feng in time.

However, Kobe and Su Feng both believed that it was still a perfect opportunity to shoot so long as the passing of the ball had been timed right.

A competent and observant leader, Kobe passed the ball to Su Feng at once.

Well… It was Gregg who had used the words “competent” and “observant” to describe Kobe. This was not Su Feng’s personal opinion.

Swoosh!

Although Su Feng was slightly disappointed that he hadn’t gained any Brick Shot Points from this shot, he felt that exchanging a few Brick Shot Points for the chance of entering the NBA was probably worthwhile.

11-2!

Su Feng had scored 11 points continuously.

And that was the second step in Su Feng’s “Grand Sewer Stats Farming Plan”.

With his excellent shooting skills, Su Feng wanted to convince Kobe to always pass the ball to him.

It wasn’t difficult. “Kobe, you’ve achieved perfect results in both scores and rebounds. But your assists aren’t that impressive.

“You are born to be a leader, but you only have an average of six assists per game. That’s not a fair reflection of your extraordinary ball-passing skills!

“In my opinion, it’s only a matter of time before you join the NBA. You are able to see the big picture on the court, and you can always pass the ball to the right person at the right time. You are far better than John Stockton!

“Of course, I have to admit that some people in our team aren’t that reliable.

“But you can trust me! I’ll surely help you farm up your assist stats if you can pass me more balls!”

Kobe had fallen for Su Feng’s cunning tricks again. Couldn’t help it. Su Feng was an amazing cook!

Moreover, Kobe believed that it was his duty to help his best friend.

And that was called “Sandwich Diplomacy[3]”!

On the court, Team Chester had regained their composure and confidence. They followed their coach’s strategy.

Yet again, Chris received the ball at the high post from DeMarcus.

But this time, Chris had feinted an attack.

He passed the ball back to DeMarcus. Having received the ball, DeMarcus jumped into the free throw lane. But just when he was about to end this round of attack with a spectacular slam dunk…

Pang!

Err…

It wasn’t Su Feng.

It was Kobe.

“As expected, they are targeting me!” DeMarcus thought, gladly. He wasn’t annoyed, even though his basketball dream had just been slapped away.

He was happy because he enjoyed the special attention he was receiving.

After the ball flew over the baseline, DeMarcus looked at Kobe with mixed emotions in his eyes and said, “You don’t have to be afraid of me, mate. Really.”

Kobe was confused.

“I know I’m pro. Thanks for the recognition. I’ll work even harder from now on,” DeMarcus added.

Kobe was utterly speechless.

Su Feng heard him, and he smiled.

Needless to say, maybe all basketball players called DeMarcus were geniuses.

Without really thinking about it, Su Feng asked DeMarcus, “Do you have a relative called DeMarcus Cousins?”

“!!!”

DeMarcus was dumbfounded. DeMarcus Cousins was his four-year-old cousin!

Their families were quite close with each other. Hence, when the young Cousins was born, the family gave him the same name as his elder cousin.

It was a good wish, that no matter how far the cousins grew apart, they would still share the same name.

But…

“How does he know my cousin’s name?” DeMarcus was astonished.

It suddenly dawned on him that Lower Merion was a scary team.

“Have they gone to the extent of studying my family history just to find my weakness?” DeMarcus thought, worried.

Unfortunately, though, the conversation between Su Feng and DeMarcus didn’t continue.

In fact, Su Feng himself hadn’t expected that he was actually right.

It was now Chester’s turn to attack. This time, after they had used up the attack time, DeMarcus did a jump shot, but the ball didn’t go in.

Kobe retrieved the rebound and pushed towards their goal immediately.

In the past, Kobe would have shot on his own.

But for some reason…

Kobe had been enjoying himself as of now, even though he hadn’t scored.

Therefore, Kobe slowed down after he had reached the front court.

Thenhe passed the ball to Su Feng, who had already slashed into an opening under the basket.

13-2!

You have to admit that Lower Merion had been performing crazily well today.

The audience had an illusion that they were watching an NBA match.

Hmm… They weren’t wrong, actually.

Being an audience member was much better than watching the match live on the screen.

Su Feng had been lucky enough to get a ticket to a CBA match in his former life. That was an unforgettably lit experience.

Hence, it was no surprise that the Pennsylvania spectators of this game were stunned by Lower Merion’s playing.

Feeling that he had been targeted, DeMarcus was now in high spirits.

Having received the ball, he first took a jab step to the left. Then, he tried to deceive Su Feng with his eyes.

“Really? He could see through my tricks?” DeMarcus wondered. At that moment, he almost thought that the Chinese young man in front of him was not just a defensive expert. He was almost a junior Pippen!

“He’s a genius!

“He’s studied so much about me!

“If he doesn’t succeed, who will?”

DeMarcus looked at Su Feng admiringly. “You are the best defensive player I’ve ever met.”

Su Feng was confused.

“I lost,” DeMarcus said in a melancholy manner.

“But my team will never lose!” DeMarcus shouted and then suddenly passed the ball to his teammate. Then he ran along the baseline like how he would usually do during training…

Su Feng was dumbfounded.

“Huh?

“I thought you were going to play solo?

“Why suddenly change your plan?”

Su Feng couldn’t understand, neither could the other Chester players.

That’s because…

DeMarcus’ sudden movement had disrupted the original strategy of the team, again.

Kobe seized this golden opportunity and stole the ball with his small hand!

But this time, Lower Merion didn’t succeed in its counter-attack.

In fact, the Chester teammates had already gotten used to DeMarcus’ unpredictable playstyle. They were quick to respond and defend…

This time, it was Su Feng again!

But he didn’t want to shoot. After receiving the ball from Kobe, he passed the ball back to Kobe.

Then he quickly glided toward Kobe and successfully blocked off the defensive Chester players from Kobe.

To be frank, the Chester players couldn’t make sense of that tactic.

But they would get even more confused in the next instant…

Kobe had shot straight away…

Swoosh!

Although it was Kobe’s first shot of the game, he felt fully confident with his ball sense.

16-2!

Indeed, that was the third step in Su Feng’s “Grand Sewer Stats Farming Plan”!

Su Feng needed some assist points too, where appropriate.

However, Su Feng’s current passing and vision points were far from satisfactory.

Even if he wanted to pass the ball, he wasn’t able to seize the right opportunity.

And even if he got the opportunity, he was prone to making mistakes when passing.

In his former life, all his teammates were Kobe’s fans. Hence, Su Feng had no other choice but to protect himself at the expense of his team members…

If he were to be more selfless, he wouldn’t have a chance to even touch the ball.

How sad would that be?

Therefore, Su Feng had to do that, for the sake of his assist stats, and also to avoid being labeled by scouts as someone unable to pass the ball.

After all, it was a known fact that Coach Gregg didn’t have many strategies up his sleeve. So Su Feng didn’t have to worry that the scouts might question his way of playing.

“Phew! It’s so hard to farm up my assist score!

“Sigh, I shouldn’t have judged the Sewer Brothers before,” Su Feng thought. Mixed emotions welled up in his mind.

“Su, now I feel that this tactic that you taught me is better than Gregg’s!” Kobe told Su Feng when they were retreating to the defensive position.

Su Feng was speechless.

Hmm…

Indeed, it was a good plan if you wanted better-looking stats.

Take for instance the third step of the “Grand Sewer Stats Farming Plan”. Under Su Feng’s threatening stare, all their teammates would rush to fight for the front court rebound once Kobe had made the move to shoot.

In that case, if they retrieved the ball, they could pass the ball out to Su Feng. That would be a perfect chance to shoot.

Even if they failed, that was fine too. Positioned outside the three-point arc, Su Feng could quickly retreat to defend. Given his outstanding defensive abilities, he could hold the defense line until Kobe had gotten into a defensive position too.

Put more simply, it was a Sewer Plan devised under the combined dominance that Su Feng and Kobe had exerted over the Pennsylvania High School League. Not only could it ensure the smooth running of Team Lower Merion, but it would also allow Su Feng and Kobe to have impressive stats.

The only disadvantage was that it would look bad on other team members’ scores.

However, the other teammates weren’t that eager to get high stats too. Besides, it would be fun to participate in this novel way of playing!

Well, of course, the “fun” was based on the prerequisite that they would obtain the state championship this year.

The pair’s performance invited another wave of cheering around the court. The game continued in great excitement and anticipation.

…

Looking up, the basket was shaking…

Ah spat!

You can’t accuse a shooter if he missed a shot!

Su Feng would never have expected that after the legendary start of the game…

He would transform into a bricklayer.

In the entire duration of the game, Su Feng had only scored 13 out of 32 shots, including four out of 14 three-pointers and one out of one free throw. Although he was the MVP of the team with a high score of 31 points, Chester had lost to Lower Merion with 79 – 55[4]…

After the first period, Su Feng had thought that he might be able to hit 50 points that day.

In addition, he had even obtained five rebounds, three assists, three blocked shots, and two steals.

And by Su Feng’s hands…

Kobe’s stats that night had taken the Pennsylvania people by astonishment.

After Wilt Chamberlain, another genius had recorded his legend in the Pennsylvania High School League.

By the end of the game, Kobe had achieved nine out of nine shots, including two out of two three-pointers and four out of four free throws. He had scored a total of 24 points with a 100% field goal percentage…

Other than that, Kobe had retrieved 23 rebounds under Su Feng’s assists and ten assists for himself too…

To top it off, he also had five blocked shots and five steals!

His stats were shouting one word: “all-rounded”!

Kobe was rather pleased with himself after the match because he felt that it was actually quite fun to play that way.

Hmm…

Right.

If Su Feng remembered correctly, in grade 12, Kobe would break the Pennsylvania High School record held by Chamberlain.

However, he wasn’t sure whether any other Pennsylvania high school student had achieved a triple-double.

Su Feng believed that Kobe would be able to create an unbreakable record on the number of triple-doubles if he could cooperate with him from then on…

Anyway, in Su Feng’s previous life, Kobe was only about three assists away from getting a triple-double every match in grade 12.

Now, with his help, it was very likely that Kobe could achieve a consistent triple-double in his grade 12 matches.

“What if that can improve Kobe’s draft pick order?

“Will the Logo Man[5] jump out of the logo to beat me?” Su Feng wondered with an awkward smile.

But he soon realized that he was thinking too much.

In his former life, Kobe had been picked at the 13th position mainly because he was a high school student.

And also because he was a perimeter player.

Picking a high school student was like buying a lottery ticket. Actually, not many teams were willing to buy the “high school student” lottery.

As for that man in the future?

He had been picked precisely because there had been so many successful seniors before him!

Honestly speaking, it was hard to change people’s mindset nowadays.

Su Feng had a chance to get in the NBA via the second round of the NBA draft pick if he could farm up his stats. But it would be difficult for Kobe to get a better order in the NBA Lottery using his high school results alone.

Only time could bend the rules and change people’s mindset.

It could also take away geniuses one after another.

“Next up, it’s the semi-finals!”

After the match, Su Feng started to make plans for his next game.

Unsurprisingly, the Sewer Plan was great fun.

…

[1] Dribble Hand-Off

[2] Refers to Kevin Garnett, who fought for the Minnesota Timberwolves. His signature move was the DHO and a lob pass at the high post

[3] In reference to the Ping Pong Diplomacy between China and the US in 1971

[4] The author’s convention is that the score of the home team precedes that of the away team

[5] Jerry West