All I Really Want Is To Play Basketball - Chapter 7

Chapter 7: The Violent 1990s and the Unwelcomed Three-Pointers…

Translator: Atlas Studios

Editor: Atlas Studios

Most of the American high school students were basketball heads. Hence, the time of the year they look forward to the most was probably when the NBA finals began.

In fact, they liked it more because of the three-month summer holiday that followed afterward…

Evil capitalists!

Su Feng couldn’t help but shed a virtual tear of jealousy when he was reminded of the pathetically short, two-week summer holiday he had in grade 12 in his former life.

Due to the gunfight he had run into the other day, the school had specially arranged an end-of-semester assessment just for him.

Such assessments in the States were far more lenient and flexible than those in China. Needless to say, it was a piece of cake for a genius like Su Feng.

“Sigh. If I can’t be a good basketball player, I might as well buy some stocks and become a billionaire. That would not be so bad after all…” Su Feng thought.

But that’s not the kind of life Su Feng wanted.

Having encountered the human cheat Kobe and being gifted with a system that could help make his NBA dream come true, Su Feng found it inexcusable not to work hard on his basketball skills.

Moreover, the opportunity of a new life and the blessing of cheats convinced Su Feng that there was a gigantic hand, albeit invisible, controlling his fate in the darkness.

He was worried that he might suffer a sudden death if he rebelled against his fate, just like the supporting characters in modern fantasy novels…

Therefore, Su Feng had become unwaveringly determined to qualify for the NBA, become a basketball star and marry a rich, pretty girl.

….

The NBA Finals G1 Match of the 93/94 season would begin on the seventh of the month. As promised, Su Feng arrived on time at the basketball court where he and Kobe used to practice.

“Hey, why don’t I see anyone else here besides us?” Su Feng asked.

“Hmph, that’s because this court is mine,” Kobe said, the corner of his mouth curling upwards in pride. He looked beaming with confidence.

Kobe added, “You wouldn’t have been on this court if I hadn’t been busy preparing for my finals a while ago.”

Looking at Kobe’s facial expression, Su Feng had a rough guess in his heart…

It appeared that Kobe was the best basketball player in the area…

Besides, Kobe wasn’t someone who would give up easily. He might have made his challengers compete with him for the whole day. That was probably enough to scare people away.

Anyway, the United States had no shortage of basketball courts among all its resources.

Moreover, Su Feng had secretly stalked Kobe the other day and he had discovered that Kobe’s house wasn’t far from this basketball court. This piece of information strengthened Su Feng’s belief that his encounter with Kobe was almost destined.

….

It was 1994, and Kobe hadn’t met Vanessa then. Hence, there was no huge drama in the Bryant family just yet…

Kobe’s father was Joe Bryant, a former NBA basketball player. However, he wasn’t a very good one…

When Kobe was a kid, Joe moved his family to Italy to earn a living. There, his fancy basketball moves, especially his single-handed shots and fadeaway shots, made his Italian fans’ jaws drop in awe.

Later, they returned to the United States. Joe was even Kobe’s coach when he was in grade 11. Well, things soon spun out of the father’s control after that…

Many believed that Kobe had learned his style from Jordan, but in fact… the invaluable role that his father had played could hardly be denied as well.

“Welcome, are you the ‘Philadelphia Hero’ Kobe has been talking about?” Kobe’s father, Joe, walked towards his son and Su Feng with a wide grin as Su Feng followed his friend into the house.

Joe was clearly happy that his son had finally made a new friend. After all, no parent would want their children to be isolated by others…

When Joe stepped forward, Su Feng felt as if all the light had been blocked from him. Joe was 2.07 meters in height. It was no exaggeration to call him a little giant compared to Su Feng and teenage Kobe.

Joe gave Kobe a hug. When he hugged Su Feng, he placed his palms all over Su Feng’s body and commented, “Mm, similar height as Kobe, excellent armspan and hip and waist measurements. Not enough muscles, though you’ve got a perfect skeletal system…”

Su Feng was speechless.

It was undeniable that Americans were friendly to their guests, but Su Feng somehow felt uncomfortable…

Oh, right!

When Su Feng brought his girlfriend home in his previous life, his aunts couldn’t stop marveling at her wide hips, which was viewed as a sign of her precious ability to give birth to boys…

“Come on, gentlemen, this way. The TV is over there. Pamela has prepared snacks for you.”

Laughing loudly, Joe led Kobe and Su Feng to the living room. When Su Feng was about to plant himself on the sofa, Joe suddenly reminded them, “Of course, as athletes, Coke is not allowed in your diet.”

As he spoke, he pulled the ring off a Coke can in front of Su Feng and Kobe.

Su Feng and Kobe both remained silent.

Actually, neither of them wanted Coke.

But Su Feng suddenly realized that he might have found the reason for Kobe’s strange personality.

As usual, the commentators had begun to analyze the competing teams before the game started.

Kobe asked Su Feng, looking interested, “Who do you think will win, Su?”

“Houston Rockets,” Su Feng answered.

“Why? Don’t you think the New York Knicks have a higher chance this year?” Kobe asked, perplexed. He had expected Su Feng to share the same view as him.

Su Feng explained, “I think Hakeem is better than Patrick. Although there’s been no clear winner in their rivalry so far, Hakeem has actually always had an advantage over Patrick.”

Unconvinced, Kobe blurted out a string of names of other famous basketball players from the New York Knicks, “But the Knicks have Starks, Oakley, Davis, and…”

Su Feng shook his head with a smile. “You are right, Kobe. Judging from the overall performance of the teams, the New York Knicks do seem to be stronger than the Houston Rockets.”

A smug grin appeared on Kobe’s face as he thought he had won the argument. However, Su Feng continued, “But, I still believe that Hakeem’s slight advantage over Patrick will determine the final winner of this match.”

Following Jordan’s retirement, the NBA games of this season had suffered a plunge in popularity. Objectively speaking, however, the final match of the 93/94 season was one of the classics.

First of all, the game featured two of the greatest players of all time. The Beast of the East, Ewing, had won the 1985 first overall NBA draft pick and was known as one of the top 4 centers, while the Dream, Olajuwon, was the 1984 first overall draft pick and also the best player among the top 4 centers. In this match, they found themselves fighting against each other as opponents, as Ewing played for the New York Knicks and Olajuwon for the Houston Rockets.

Before the start of the game, it was irrefutable that the New York Knicks had the advantage in terms of team formation. However, since Su Feng knew the outcome of this series, he was well aware that the New York Knicks would not benefit much from their formation this round…

Starting off with the shooting guard, the New York Knicks seemed well equipped with the star player, John Starks. One of the toughest defense players, Starks was also the team’s all-time leader in three-point shooting.

In the 93/94 season, Starks scored 19 points per game on average and he was an NBA All-Star and the All-Defensive Second Team player of the season. In the future, Starks would earn himself the title of the Sixth Man of the Year, and he would play a critical role by Ewing’s side in this season.

On the other side, Houston Rockets star Vernon Maxwell was a comparable counterpart to Starks.

While Starks was a star player, Maxwell did not have the privilege of enjoying such fame. But one did not need the limelight to prove their greatness.

A competent two-way player, Maxwell’s contribution to the two consecutive championships won by the Houston Rockets was undeniable. In this series, Starks, who had a build similar to Maxwell, would have difficulty leveraging his physical advantages.

In fact, no one could gain a clear upper hand over Maxwell, unless you had a few secret cards up your sleeve or you were a human cheat.

As for Oakley, the New York Knicks cheater… Well, he was a real disappointing “cheater1”, not a “human cheat”, which carried a more positive light.

Oakley was famous for the lack of grace in his playing style. However, to many of his die-hard fans, it was exactly his rugged style that made him unstoppable.

Nevertheless, Oakley’s tricks wouldn’t work on the Dream.

What else did you expect? The Dream was an unparalleled player in the mid-1990s. Even Shaq, one of the greatest players in NBA history, had to be cautious around him.

Besides, there was a counterpart to Oakley in the Houston Rockets too—Robert Horry.

If you analyzed this series from another angle, Horry could be the Houston Rockets’ MVP without a doubt.

Having traveled back in time, Su Feng knew very well that Horry was perhaps one of the most important players in NBA history.

If you had Horry in your team… you’d have a 43.75% chance of winning the championship.

Seven championships in his 16-year career. Horry’s incredible luck was widely known among NBA fans.

Therefore, in Su Feng’s opinion, the New York Knicks didn’t actually have that much of an edge over the Houston Rockets.

Now that the teams had similar formations and strengths, the Dream would dominate the game.

In Su Feng’s previous life, the two teams had come to a draw with 2:2 in the first four rounds. Having won the fifth round, most believed that the New York Knicks would claim the champion trophy without a doubt.

However, in the final seconds of game six, Olajuwon made a decision that would change the future path of his life.

At that moment, the New York Knicks were in possession of the ball, which left their opponent with little chance of surviving the series. Seconds before the game ended, the ball landed in Starks’ hands…

Decisively, the Dream gave up his defense against Ewing and rushed towards Starks, who had just gained the opportunity for a three-pointer.

After the match, Olajuwon explained his action. “They wanted the championship just like us, and they would have gotten it if they had scored that shot (Starks’ last-minute three-point field goal). Hence, I was certain that John (Starks) would do it.”

The Dream’s decision had miraculously changed history.

As he had expected, Starks attempted to shoot.

But this time, Olajuwon didn’t let the championship slip away from his fingertips like what had happened in his college years.

He successfully intercepted the ball. As a result, the Houston Rockets made a narrow escape and managed to equalize the score to 3:3.

In Game 7, Starks had lost his spirit after the failed last-minute shot. He had made a total of 11 three-pointer attempts, but none had gone in, which, in some ways, “helped” the Houston Rockets secure the championship.

Reviewing the playoff final, it was not hard to realize that the Dream had fulfilled the true definition of MVP. You can see his figure on both sides of offense and defense. On the contrary, Ewing had verified that popular opinion about him…

He was somehow lacking in that last bit!

That was also why Su Feng believed that the slight difference between Olajuwon and Ewing would turn the tide in this match.

However, Kobe was unconvinced by Su Feng’s explanation. Familiar with Kobe’s temper, Su Feng had no intention to argue any further.

But Su Feng’s argument interested Joe.

….

“How violent…” Su Feng couldn’t help commenting as the game started.

“Dreadful…” Kobe finally agreed with Su Feng for once.

The 93/94 NBA Finals would be commented as a “badly mangled” one in the future, for neither of the teams had managed to score above 100 points in the seven-round fierce combat, with the highest score of one single game being only 93…

Other than the pleasing sounds of brick shots, the members of the two teams were almost wrestling with one another ferociously at the free throw lane…

“Seems I was right to focus on practicing jump shots…” Su Feng mumbled as he watched images shown on the screen. He made a secret vow that he would never step inside the free throw lane before hand-checking was made illegal.

It was impossible to break through the opponents’ defense line. Hence, the offense players could only try to maintain the status quo via jump shots and throwing bricks. In fact, Su Feng was rather fond of jump shots…

As known to all, the unbreachable defense of this NBA season was most notably attributed to the permission of hand-checking.

Put more simply, you are allowed to place your hands on your opponents’ bodies as you defend. This makes any attempt at scoring from outside the three-point arc almost impossible, unless the shooter has some ingenious moves.

In fact, the difficulty of breaking through the defense line was halved by the no hand-checking rule introduced later on.

As for why Boss Jordan had focused on practicing shooting in the later stages of his career and aimed to master the art of single-handed shots and fadeaway shots?

That’s because shooting was the offense technique outside the three-point arc that’s least affected by the hand-checking rule.

After all, once you get hold of the ball, you can toss it with a jump shot or a fadeaway shot, allowing close to no time for your opponents to block your moves.

In Su Feng’s former life, rumor had it that it was precisely the hand-checking rule that resulted in widespread dislike towards three-pointers.

But that was actually not true, and many rookies had since been misled.

Shortly after, the NBA decided to shorten the range of the three-point line. How do you think the teams would have responded to this?

Ever since then, even Boss Jordan couldn’t resist the temptation of three-pointers…

In other words, three-pointers hadn’t been welcomed at the start because it had been a newly introduced rule.

Take Larry Bird for instance. He hadn’t been a fan of three-pointers because basketball players of his time felt that it was merely a pompous way of showing off one’s skills.

If the NBA suddenly decides to add in four-pointers tomorrow, there’s no doubt that it would take a while for many players to adjust to this new rule.

Actually, many experts had still been convinced that a team of shooters would not go far until the Warriors won the championship for the first time.

In conclusion, the true reason behind people’s rejection of three-pointers in the 1990s lay in the difference of mindsets. If you traveled back to the 90s and told everyone that their cities would go cashless one day and that phones would replace wallets, people wouldn’t believe you. They might even think you were nuts…

Not to mention the fact that people of the last century weren’t as receptive to changes as people of the internet age.

Regardless, the hand-checking rule was definitely an insurmountable barrier to offense players of that time…

“People of the 1990s are truly violent!” Su Feng exclaimed.

….