The Way of Basketball: Never Talk Shit to Him!
Chapter 109 - 98 Finally someone is putting this old thing in order!

Chapter 109: Chapter 98 Finally someone is putting this old thing in order!

"He said he’s looking forward to it? Are you sure he used the word ’looking forward to’ and not something else?" LeBron James was somewhat surprised upon hearing Su Wan’s response. In his view, it could have been anyone else, but definitely not Su Wan.

But now, after repeated confirmations, the reporter still asserted to him:

"Yes, LeBron, that’s exactly what he said!"

LeBron still couldn’t believe it until he saw the interview video.

Su Wan actually said that?

Why though?

He’s not "Sister Li."

Of course, he couldn’t understand, and even all the reporters thought that what Su Wan was looking forward to was LeBron leading the Cavaliers into the playoffs.

Their imaginations couldn’t keep up with Su Wan’s bold creativity.

Su Wan didn’t pay too much attention to the subsequent reports on this matter. Whether the possibility he envisioned could become a reality in the future, he would know on April 10th, and it wasn’t something he had to do. All his energy was focused on improving himself.

All the past collected zone points were channeled into his "breakthrough" ability, and now his potential value for breakthroughs had reached an impressive 95 points.

He decided that the upcoming zone points would be poured into the "dribbling" ability.

Breakthrough and mid-range shot were his two skills with the most potential and fastest growth rate and occupied all of his training time. In the upcoming playoffs, these two skills would become his mainstay.

As the playoffs approached, he heard more news related to the postseason.

It was a completely different stage from the regular season.

If during the lengthy regular season, even the core players on the team occasionally felt slack, then every single game in the playoffs was like fighting for meat in the jungle, incredibly intense.

Such a stage would expose the "pretenders" of the regular season and allow true "superstars" to shine even brighter.

Su Wan wanted to shine even brighter, even though this was his first playoff in his professional career. While a slump might be excusable, he didn’t want to lose the halo he currently wore.

And to achieve this goal, all he could do was practice more, more, and even more.

To the point of becoming somewhat impatient.

Rick Carlisle noticed his unusual behavior and took the time to talk to him: "Buddy, compared to a slump you might have in the playoffs, I’m more worried you’ll miss the playoffs due to an injury. That would be the real disaster."

Carlisle’s words were as un-warm as ever, but this time they struck deep into Su Wan’s heart.

He began to adjust his mentality and no longer practiced so frantically, allowing his training rhythm to return to what it was before.

On March 20th, after sweeping a bunch of weak teams and achieving a 7-win, 3-loss record in March, the Pacers were back home to welcome a "highlight game." Although the opponent’s strength wasn’t great, ranking twelfth in the Western Conference, the game drew considerable attention.

Their opponent was the Los Angeles Lakers!

It was Su Wan’s "second battle" against Kobe.

Many media outlets speculated before the game that "Kobe would choose to come back in this game," thereby drawing a lot of attention.

However, in the end, Kobe watched from the sidelines without playing.

Everyone thought they wouldn’t see any interaction between Su Wan and Kobe after all.

But unexpectedly, during the warm-up before the game, Su Wan suddenly walked to the Lakers’ bench and looked at Kobe with a grin, saying, "I heard you can’t play today, huh? No worry, just sit here, and I’ll put on a ’show’ for you. You just sit tight and watch quietly, I won’t even charge you admission."

This speech was another one that seemed out of place.

Nearly 20 years ago one evening, an injured Johnson sat on the bench, unable to play against the Celtics. Larry Bird walked over and said something similar.

Now, the same scenario unfolded, and faced with Su Wan’s mean smile, Kobe, just like Johnson did back then, could only respond with a resigned smile.

It’s worth mentioning that tonight, the player in the number two spot for the Lakers whom Su Wan was facing was also an "old acquaintance":

Sasha Vujacic!

Since he joined the Lakers, this Slovenian "Golden Boy" has been glued to the bench. Seeing that he lacked opportunities to play, management sent him down to the development league, where at least there were games to play, and he could maintain his condition.

Therefore, he missed the first game when Su Wan visited Staples.

After that game, with Kobe injured, there was a rotation problem in the two spot, and the coaching staff called him back from the development league. It was unclear if it was intentional or not, but tonight they let him start.

Vujacic, who had just gained the opportunity to start, was quite happy until he heard that his opponent would be Su Wan and the Pacers. He instantly showed a face of reluctance, but he did not ultimately refuse the head coach’s suggestion. He was well aware that if he refused to start tonight, his rookie season would likely end like this.

In the NBA, lacking confidence is more frightening than lacking ability.

So he still braced himself to stand opposite Su Wan.

From July last year to March this year, half a year had passed, and the changes between Vujacic and Su Wan could be described as "worlds apart."

Su Wan had become the league’s hottest new star, while Vujacic was becoming another testament to "European players struggling to adapt to the NBA."

But what was even greater than the gap in public opinion was the gap in their abilities now.

Even without switching on "The zone" mode, Su Wan could easily dominate Vujacic, but at that moment, his eyes no longer saw the "European genius." With each score, as he passed by the Lakers’ bench, he would ask Kobe:

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