All I Really Want Is To Play Basketball - Chapter 46

Chapter 46: My Cheat Ran Away…

After analysing version 7.0 of his brick shots system, Su Feng’s development plan for the next stage was essentially set.

First, from the hint in the brackets, Su Feng would grow to 198cm in the future. So after he entered the NBA, the position most suitable for Su Feng would be that of a Swingman.

Thus, Su Feng needed to prepare for the NBA beforehand.

In the 90s, because of the existence of the hand-check rule and the “Old Gangster”, most perimeter players in this era were “lightweight” perimeter players.

Most perimeter players who had a height between 190cm and 2m normally weighed between 85kg and 100kg.

Everyone knew that because the hand-check rule allowed players to put their hands on their opponents’ waists when defending and referees of this era commonly felt that using your elbows to jab your opponents’ waist was a reasonable method of defending, it was very disadvantageous to play basketball during this era if you did not possess absolute speed.

Using a simple example, after the hand-check rule was cancelled in the future, “The Little Emperor” LeBron James increased his body weight every year. In the end, he increased his weight to around 115kg before stopping.

Why?

Because after the hand-check rule was cancelled, perimeter players who were heavy and powerful had a greater advantage.

When your opponent is unable to use their elbows to jab your waist, so long as you are powerful enough, you could use your body weight to push your opponent away and drive into the free throw lane.

In Su Feng’s previous life, James Harden was also a mini-tank.

After all, in his first two years in the NBA, LeBron James was also an inexperienced lad who relied on his first step to accelerate. He was just slightly more muscular than normal perimeter players.

Especially in the 05/06 season, when the no hand-check rule was enforced strictly, “The Little Emperor’s” stats rose sharply to 31.4 points per match.

But let us not talk about how Su Feng’s body shape was completely different from that of LeBron James. Let us instead talk about the version with the hand-check rule.

If Su Feng increased his weight too quickly, his speed would definitely decrease. And in this era, when you could use your elbows to neutralize your opponents’ power, Su Feng would be asking for his own death by doing that.

Unless Su Feng played like Barkley.

But Su Feng would need at least five to six years to learn to play like the “Flying Pig”. Moreover, Su Feng’s body shape and skeletal structure were obviously more similar to that of Michael Jordan.

To Su Feng, giving up what he was good at to choose a path he was completely unfamiliar with was extremely stupid.

Under the hand-check rule, a perimeter player’s speed was mainly used for defence and to instantly penetrate the opponent’s defensive line when attacking.

Allen Iverson was a good example. Although he was not very effective under the hand-check rule, he was still able to break through.

Hence, if we made use of the universally acknowledged golden ratio, essentially height minus weight equals 100, Su Feng’s future most ideal weight should be around 98kg.

But remember, there are different kinds of body weight.

Jordan was so amazing because his 98 kilogram body weight consisted mainly of muscle mass.

Gaining weight normally was, of course, very simple. But if you wanted to only gain muscle mass?

That would require a training routine that would drive people insane.

“Speaking of that, Kobe’s future weight at his prime was 96kg, I think. And when the Jamaican flying man Bolt was in his prime, he had a height of 195cm and a weight of 94kg…”

Su Feng knew that to achieve the perfect figure and body shape, he naturally had to find an expert in that area.

But very quickly, after that thought appeared in Su Feng’s mind, a person came to his mind…

Besides that, other than increasing his weight and core strength and preparing for entering the NBA beforehand, Su Feng had to try changing his potential into his true capabilities as much as possible during the summer vacation.

Lastly, he still had to be hardworking in farming Brick Shot Points.

Because if that system named “Genius” needed an extremely high number of Brick Shot Points when upgrading his potential, Su Feng would not need to worry.

…

In June, after completing the 11th grade, Su Feng watched this year’s finals at Kobe’s house.

It was exactly as Su Feng remembered it. The Houston Rockets thrashed the Orlando Magic with an overall score of 4-0 and successfully defended their title.

In the first match of the finals, Kenny Smith, who was about to retire to become a commentator, became the X-factor of the Houston Rockets’ victory. He scored 7 out of 11 shots outside the three-point line and scored 23 points.

And in the second match, “the Alien” Cassell came forward. He scored 8 out of 12 shots, including 4 out of 6 three-pointers and scored 11 out of 12 free throws, scoring 31 points in the entire match.

In the third match, it was Horry’s turn to perform. At that time, he was not considered an experienced veteran yet. Horry, who scored 20 points, became the Houston Rockets’ best performing player behind the Dream and Clyde the Glide.

Alright, the Orlando Magic was going to collapse.

Because in the fourth match, the veteran Mario Elie arrived on the scene.

The bit-part player who could score an average of 8.5 points per match in his career scored 9 out of 11 shots in the fourth match and used the 22 points he scored to deal the finishing blow to the Orlando Magic.

In every match, the Houston Rockets would have a key player step up. Honestly, Su Feng didn’t think even TV drama directors would not dare to shoot their dramas in that way.

Because wouldn’t this be too passionate and emotional?

Of course, the Houston Rockets’ victory was due in large part to the Dream Olajuwon, who could score 32.8 points per match and get 11.5 rebounds, 5.5 assists, 2 steals, and 2 blocks per match, and Drexler, who used his experience to diss Hardaway in this series.

Reliability, and extraordinariness in reliability or vice versa, was the impression the Dream left on everyone in this round of offseason matches.

As for the Orlando Magic, although O’Neal could score an average of 28 points and get an average of 12.5 rebounds, 6.3 assists, and 2.5 blocks per match, Shaquille could only swim helplessly like a hammerhead shark this time…

Actually, judging from the situation in the finals, the young O’Neal was not at a disadvantage when facing the Dream. However…

The Dream truly had too much match experience.

In the match, the Dream kept thinking of ways to draw O’Neal away from the low post, thereby creating more space for the other Houston Rockets players.

And the moment O’Neal left the low post, it was as though the Orlando Magic’s offense line did not exist.

Such horrifying leadership skills, judgement skills, and the ability to fully utilise his strength to target his opponents’ weaknesses was the key reason why the Dream could laugh till the end in this ranking match of the Four Great Centers.

Alright…

Kobe, who predicted that the Orlando Magic would win, was very unhappy.

Because when he thought of how the Shark, who had given him his autograph and taken a photo with him, was thrashed, Kobe could not help but feel a little dejected.

Luckily, Su Feng did not know Kobe’s thoughts.

If not, Su Feng would definitely ask Kobe, “Bro, why didn’t you think of that when you quarrelled with O’Neal in the future?”

Of course, he definitely could not ask that question. After all, Su Feng still had to count on Kobe in the future…

“Oh, right, Su, I received an invitation to Adidas’ ABCD training camp.”

Kobe told Su Feng after watching the fourth match of the finals.

Huh?

Adidas’ ABCD training camp?

Oh, right!

How could I forget such an important thing!

As a walking “Human Kobe Encyclopedia”, Su Feng remembered that Kobe did go for Adidas’ ABCD training camp in 1995.

And because Kobe wore Jersey number 134 in this camp, considering the Lakers’ number 33 jersey had already been retired, he chose jersey number 8(1+3+4=8) in the end after entering the NBA in the future.

Moreover, when Kobe went for Adidas’ training camp this time, he would also meet Lamar Odom, who would accompany him on the court for a very long time and get high in nightclubs for three days straight with him in the future.

Cough. Cough.

Back to the topic.

No matter how the future would be like, Su Feng was very clear that Odom was extremely popular in America’s high school basketball world.

However, if one was familiar with this period of history, they would definitely feel bad for Odom.

Because he was the “America’s top high school student” who had the worst career in history.

In 1995, Odom, who had already garnered some fame, became a “supporting character” to Kobe in Adidas’ training camp.

In 1996, after Kobe entered the NBA and the mystical beasts who should have gone to play in the NCAA all went to do that… Odom officially ascended the throne of “America’s top high school student”…

Then that was it. He got thrashed by a certain sleepy-eyed lad in 1996’s Adidas ABCD training camp.

After that lad defeated him, his popularity shot up and he got picked by the Raptors as 1997’s first round 9th draft pick.

Afterwards, when he was in college, because Odom was pretty dense, people suspected him of cheating. Therefore, the college that had originally already accepted him rejected him…

All in all, Odom’s life was a tragedy.

“Sigh, I was originally thinking of bringing you to go play basketball with that guy in the summer. He invited me last year, but you were way too trash last year,” Kobe told Su Feng while looking at him.

Su Feng nodded while ignoring the second half of Kobe’s sentence.

Kobe-Grand Senior-Bryant smiled while saying, “However, you improved very quickly, and that makes me very glad. If I get the opportunity to, I’ll introduce him to you.”

Although Kobe loved to create suspense, as an avid Kobe fan, Su Feng had actually already guessed who Kobe was referring to.

After all, in Su Feng’s previous life, Kobe and him were like best friends forever.

And these two people were Adidas’ two great assets in Su Feng’s previous life.

But to be fair, Su Feng actually really wanted to go to Adidas’ ABCD training camp as well.

After all, he could make himself known and present himself to various scouts.

However…

The training camp had a strict age limit and only accepted those aged 13-16.

So Su Feng did not…

Eh, no!

Hold on!

Su Feng seemed to discover something amiss.

Looking at Kobe, Su Feng was suddenly stunned.

Kobe looked back at Su Feng and laughed while saying, “So for this summer, you have to train properly by yourself. If not, I’ll surpass you too quickly!”

Sss!

What?

That means…

My cheat ran away?

That’s what it means, right?

Su Feng was stunned.

Kobe patted Su Feng’s shoulder while proclaiming, “Hehe, do you know, Su, there’s a guy called Lamar in this training camp. People say he’s similar in ability to Carter. I wanna go see just how amazing he is.”

Alright, for the next five minutes, Kobe kept mentioning Odom in front of Su Feng as though he was already very close to Odom at that point in time…

Su Feng was speechless.

Hmm…

Odom?

Su Feng knew that Kobe was purposely trying to hurt his feelings!

Virgos were way too petty!

I just kept showing how my palms were bigger than you in front of you previously, right?

Do you have to take revenge like that?

Although he was a little taken aback by the news that he was going to lose his cheat in the summer, Su Feng quickly reacted. America’s so big. How could I be unable to find another cheat for myself?

“Eh, that’s not right. If I remember correctly, Duncan, Iverson, and Iverson would all represent America in… the World College Student games this year!”

Su Feng: orz!

Dang, the heavens have given up on this little bricklayer!

Is the bricklayer sect going to be ruined by my hands?

Su Feng knew that it was definitely impractical to look for NBA players just to farm Brick Shot Points. After all, he was just a little kid to all those NBA players right now.

So Su Feng could only go look for players who had not gone to college yet.

Garnett?

Impractical. That little wolf was preparing for the draft right now.

As for others he was unfamiliar with, Su Feng really did not know where they were. Also, it was unknown how many Brick Shot Points they could provide Su Feng.

After all, the number of Brick Shot Points Kobe had provided him was boosted by the fact that he was one of the Four Great Shooting Guards.

Hmm?

Su Feng felt suddenly enlightened.

Four Great Shooting Guards…

Kobe in the West, Iverson in the East, Carter in the North…

“Go look for your Odom. I’ll thrash you when this summer ends.” Although Su Feng had already lived through one life before, one had to admit that every boy had a childish side.

Su Feng decided that he would go buy plane tickets tomorrow.

He was going to find a new cheat!

Meanwhile, he was going to find a reliable trainer!

…