Although Su Feng very much hoped that he could receive the reassurance from legendary figures such as Barkley, Elgin Baylor, and Michael Jordan, he understood that this was simply wishful thinking and that these thoughts should be dismissed at once.
After Su Feng had prepared a feast for Kobe for lunch, they shared what they had learned over summer with each other.
Kobe was very interested in Su Feng’s special attack technique which involved feinting a shot followed by a turn and a jump shot.
Actually, Su Feng remembered that in his former life, Kobe had already had that trick in his arsenal. It came as a surprise that this time, Kobe had learned it from Su Feng.
After lunch, the topic of their conversation drifted to the new season that year.
They were in grade 12 now, and they were determined to win the championship again. But Su Feng had greater ambitions.
He understood that few NBA teams were willing to try their luck on high schoolers, especially high school perimeter players.
Therefore, Su Feng had upgraded his Grand Sewer Stats Farming Plan to version 2.0 before the end of summer.
Kobe was in a good mood after lunch. Su Feng seized this opportunity to advise Kobe.
That worked very well. Kobe didn’t have any objections.
Kobe was pleased with Su Feng, especially after Su Feng had said that “in my opinion, you are a far better leader than Earvin Johnson. You would have been ‘Magic Bryant’ if you had been born a few years earlier”.
That was downright flattery that shouldn’t be taken literally nor believed.
But Su Feng’s substantiated argument and flawless logic finally convinced Kobe.
That couldn’t be helped. Su Feng had been the master of nonsense on the internet since his former life.
Kobe was only 17 years old then. He was too young and naive!
“Oh, and here’s your birthday present. I brought it from Orlando.”
Su Feng couldn’t be there with Kobe on his 17th birthday because Kobe was in the training camp then. But Su Feng knew that he would have to bid farewell to the pair of AJ sneakers on his feet if he dared to forget about Kobe’s birthday.
That’s to be expected, given Kobe’s straightforward personality. He could be rather “petty” sometimes.
The present was O’Neal’s signed Orlando Magic jersey. Su Feng had bought it from a Magic fan at a high price.
It was from an absolutely die-hard fan of O’Neal. At first, he didn’t want to sell it to Su Feng no matter how hard Su Feng had tried.
But after Su Feng offered an irrefutable price, that Magic fan finally agreed to give the jersey away.
“Cool! I love Shaquille so much!” Kobe was very pleased with Su Feng’s present.
“But this is too precious.”
Kobe knew that jerseys with the signature of any NBA superstar were extremely rare. People collected them as a form of valuable possession.
Kobe felt sorry that he had only given Su Feng a pair of AJ sneakers, but in return, he had received such an expensive gift.
“We are friends. Friends shouldn’t care too much about the price of gifts. I know you’ve sacrificed a lot to help me too,” Su Feng said.
Kobe felt so touched. The encounter with Su Feng one year ago suddenly felt like the most precious gift he’d ever received in his high school years.
“Don’t worry. With me by your side, the next Pennsylvania scoring leader will be you!” Kobe said, patting his own chest as reassurance.
Now that Kobe had been fully enchanted with Su Feng’s personal charisma, Su Feng’s “Grade 12 Stats Farming Plan” was half done.
…
That afternoon, Su Feng and Kobe went to the “same old place” again for more matches.
Although Su Feng still couldn’t defeat Kobe, he had made huge improvements. At the very least, he could win some matches from time to time.
There had even been some occasions where Kobe hadn’t managed to advance at all under Su Feng’s intense defense.
“What’s this defense technique of yours?” Kobe asked. He hadn’t been able to score very well due to Su Feng’s defense.
“I call it the magnetic defense,” Su Feng answered.
Su Feng didn’t think that there was a need to keep that as a secret. After all, you need both the talent and the attitude to excel in defense.
“If your dribbling were as impressive as your defense, I would have a hard time playing against you,” Kobe commented.
Su Feng was speechless.
The topic of dribbling was such a pain for him.
When he was having special training with McGrady in summer, McGrady had always been a fast learner of dribbling under Frazier’s coaching, but Su Feng…
He could pick up a few moves, but something was clearly lacking.
Su Feng knew that the new title he’d earned, “The Dribbling Mistalent”, would probably stay with him until he joined the NBA and upgraded the system in the future…
After a full afternoon of one-on-one matches with Kobe, Su Feng had gained even more confidence in his goal of skipping college and entering the NBA directly.
“Six wins and 38 losses. Yep, if I round it up, I’m almost winning half of the games!”
Su Feng had a clear understanding of his own position. His playstyle was different from Kobe’s, and it wouldn’t produce any constructive results if he solely focused on winning one-on-one matches against Kobe.
After all, victories in one-on-one games wouldn’t give you any favor in the NBA selection round.
Actually, Su Feng had already been preparing for his future career in the NBA.
As known to all, many high school or college freshman players had been picked by NBA teams only to run errands for the team because they had been playing like a basketball star in school.
But did the NBA really need so many basketball stars?
The answer was apparently no.
Su Feng had placed heavy emphasis on farming up his statistics because he understood that impressive stats was what scouts looked out for the most. This had been the case in the entire history of basketball.
He also understood that the main thing that made him stand out from the rest was his excellent defense, and his unique playing style that didn’t require the ball to be in his hands most of the time.
Every NBA team of that time loved a good defensive player.
As long as a team was willing to pick him, Su Feng believed that he would adapt to the NBA environment faster than genius players like Kobe and McGrady, unless he was so unlucky that his coach didn’t want to give a rookie like him any opportunities, like Larry Brown.
In fact, Su Feng wouldn’t mind being an Ariza[1] for a while to gain some Brick Shot Points.
After all, he needed time and experience before he could usurp the throne.
After Su Feng had decided on the “Grade 12 Stats Farming Plan”, he felt that his chance of completing the “Path of Talents” had risen to almost 90%.
…
“Strange.” Inside the NBA headquarter situated in the Olympic Tower along Fifth Avenue in New York, Stern had had a troubled mind for these past few days.
“Mark, are you sure our Chinese correspondents have received our video tapes and documents?” Stern asked.
Mark nodded. “I believe so. But why have they not responded yet?”
“Yeah…” Stern couldn’t figure out why no matter how hard he racked his brains.
In Stern’s original plan, Su Feng’s current performance was impressive enough for some press material…
Su Feng was only 17 years old then, so it would take another two or three years before he could play as an NBA professional player. But two or three years was more than enough time for Stern to do many things.
They had granted two-year permission for the Great Dynasty TV Station to broadcast the NBA All-Star matches and the finals for free. The feedback from the Chinese side had boosted Stern’s confidence about the future of the Chinese market.
At this time, if they could introduce a Chinese player into the NBA, Stern firmly believed that it would only be a matter of time before the NBA matches became a popular show in China.
At first, Stern hadn’t expected much from Su Feng.
But Su Feng’s performance in the previous High School Basketball League was beyond stellar, and he had drawn a significant amount of media attention to himself by playing alongside Kobe. As a result, Stern now had high hopes of using Su Feng as the means to open the Chinese market.
Anyway, compared to the “Chinese Jordan” Hu Weidong, who was playing in China far beyond the reach of the NBA, it would be much more convenient and practical to work with Su Feng.
“Forget it. We should do something…” Stern decided after a long while of thinking.
“David, what should we do now? Ask the media to publicize for us?” Mark asked.
“No. All we need to do is drop an appropriate amount of hints.” In the NBA, no one knew how to make someone famous better than Stern.
Stern understood that he would have achieved the opposite effect if too much attention had been drawn to Su Feng all of a sudden.
“During the meeting later, we can briefly mention to the bosses that we are looking into full cooperation with China. But don’t mention when the details can be finalized.
“And tell them that there is a high school basketball talent from China in Philadelphia, and ask them to judge for themselves how promising that student is,” Stern said.
“Understood.”
After Mark walked out of the CEO’s office, Stern rubbed his temples in frustration.
Speaking of which…
“Why has there been no response from China yet?
“All the video tapes of the Pennsylvania High School Basketball League finals have been sent over…”
Alright, in fact, what Stern was not aware of was that the video tapes had actually created some reaction in China.
After the Great Dynasty TV Station had received the tapes and newspaper reports from the NBA, they had directed the material to the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) at once.
But the CBA had been utterly confused about the information.
Who was this Su Feng?
He didn’t exist in our system!
Could it be some fake news that the Americans had intentionally made up?
But it was impossible to fake the video tapes and newspapers…
Moreover, judging from the tapes alone, the CBA couldn’t say for sure whether Su Feng could join the NBA in the future like the newspapers had predicted…
Besides, the NBA…
Is that the same NBA where Michael Jordan played?
Don’t be surprised. Information and communications were rather backward in the 1990s.
Therefore, the CBA was in a hard position to decide whether Su Feng truly existed, and whether he was as talented as the newspapers had claimed.
In 1992, the Dream Team dominated all the basketball matches in the Barcelona Summer Olympics. Ever since then, the name “NBA” had inspired awe and respect in people’s minds.
In the past two years, the Great Dynasty TV Station had been broadcasting NBA shows such as the NBA All-Star matches and the finals, which had been extremely eye-opening and mind-blowing for many Chinese basketball fans.
The same applied to the CBA too.
Hence, due to the uncertainty, the CBA had decided to leave the matter aside.
Despite the hesitation of the CBA, Su Feng’s appearance had opened a new door for others.
Therefore, after a painstakingly long time of examination and approval, a Chinese team had set off for Philadelphia. The team consisted of the CCTV basketball games broadcast consultant, Xu Jicheng; the foreign correspondent of the China Sports Daily, Su Junyang; and a former member of the Chinese men’s basketball national team, Zhang Weiping.
The team had a simple task, which was to collect any information about Su Feng.
They would also compare Su Feng’s basketball abilities to Hu Weidong’s, so as to judge whether the NBA had been bluffing…
…
[1] Trevor Ariza. His coach, Larry Brown, once forbade him from shooting because he didn’t trust that Ariza could score well as a rookie