The Way of Basketball: Never Talk Shit to Him!
Chapter 230 - 149: Who can even tell you apart from Dennis Rodman now!

Chapter 230: Chapter 149: Who can even tell you apart from Dennis Rodman now!

Su Wan sent a text message to Yao Ming to congratulate him for being named the Western Conference Player of the Month for November.

Leading the team on his own, he averaged 25.4 points, 11.2 rebounds, 2.2 assists, and 2.4 blocks per game, with a shooting percentage of 51.9%. The Rockets’ November record was 10 wins and 5 losses, ranking them fifth in the Western Conference.

He edged out Elton Brand to become the final Western Conference Player of the Month.

Actually, the record wasn’t great, but without McGrady, no one expected Yao Ming to put up such a performance, and for the Rockets to maintain their Western Conference standing.

This prompted the constantly critical Houston media to change their tune and start vigorously cheering for Yao Ming.

Nevertheless, the Rockets management had no intention of using the max salary to extend Yao Ming’s contract.

The reason was simple: if they gave Yao Ming the max salary now, how would they extend McGrady later?

If both were given max contracts and the team was built around the two of them, needless to say, the salary cap definitely wouldn’t suffice.

So, until the last moment, the stingy Alexander wouldn’t possibly give him the max salary.

Just like with Yao Ming’s retirement jersey ceremony, Alexander waited until he was nearly ready to sell the team, capitalizing on the sentiment to boost the team’s selling price.

Ultimately, Alexander is a businessman.

A greedy businessman with no satisfaction.

However, Yao Ming could at least catch his breath, and his text message response also reflected a sense of relief:

—— I’m finally catching up to you, Brother Su.

Last season, Su Wan received the Player of the Month once, the first Huaxia player to do so.

Su Wan humbly replied:

—— Did I receive that award? I’ve forgotten, too many to remember.

Yao Ming didn’t reply.

It took him a long time to reply with a string of ellipses.

Probably because Su Wan’s humility had stunned him.

For the first game of December, the Pacers headed to San Antonio to challenge the Spurs.

How to describe this season’s Spurs?

An endless darkness.

In the 14 games of November, they lost 12 of them.

Their first win of the new season didn’t come until November 20, and their only other win came at the end of the month when Tim Duncan returned.

This was their weakest season since they had Tim Duncan.

Comparable to the tanking madness of the 1996-1997 season.

But that was to get Tim Duncan.

With each loss, it felt like they could see another piece of Tim Duncan added.

Now what?

The 2006 draft class wasn’t stellar, comparable to that of 2002.

No, wait!

At least in 2002, the No.1 pick didn’t require much thought.

Just pick Yao Ming with your eyes closed, and you’re done.

Up until now for the 2006 draft, experts haven’t reached a unanimous decision on who should be the "No.1 hot favorite."

The top ten picks, basically no difference, they’re all "lottery tickets", purely a matter of luck.

And the San Antonio media are well aware that even if the Spurs truly have the worst record in the League, it’s still uncertain whether David Stern would be willing to give them the No.1 pick.

The Spurs’ losses were just pure losses, with no hope in sight.

As a result, the already sparsely attended Spurs home games now saw an even higher rate of empty seats, except for the game when Tim Duncan returned, which completely filled the arena. The rest of the time, the attendance rate hovered around 70% to 80%.

But this game was beyond just a full house, a sea of black pressing in, with faces full of anger, all Spurs fans coming to personally hurl a few insults at Su Wan.

The on-site security reminded Su Wan of last year’s "Christmas Battle" at Conseco Arena.

Dozens of security personnel, fully equipped, with serious expressions as if a major battle was looming.

High barricades were also raised on both sides of the court to prevent the enraged San Antonio people from rushing onto the court.

But Su Wan wasn’t too worried.

If there were to be a brawl, considering the fighting capabilities of the Indiana Pacers, they surely wouldn’t be the ones ending up in the hospital.

At most, they’d just have to protect Calderon during the scuffle.

The San Antonio people were agitated.

Here’s the thing, they couldn’t even care about the home player’s pre-game rituals anymore as they kept jeering at Su Wan.

The Spurs players were puzzled upon their entrance, wondering if they were playing an away game today?

Moments before the game started, you could see Popovich, Bruce Bowen, Manu Ginobili, Tony Parker, and Horry all seated neatly on the bench, solemn as if attending their own funeral.

When they saw Su Wan, their angry expressions were no different from those in the Spurs’ fan section.

They all thought it was Su Wan’s fault.

That’s how Westerners are!

On the other hand, tonight’s player, Tim Duncan, had much clearer eyes.

As the jump ball commenced, Foster again asked, "Tim, do you think I’m a good person?"

This comment caused the Stone Buddha’s body to instinctively twitch, missing the moment he should have jumped, and Foster easily captured the tip-off. Tinsley, who got the ball, didn’t even cross half-court before passing it to Su Wan.

They all knew that tonight they had to not only win but also win disgustingly!

What’s the nastiest way to win?

Nothing more than Su Wan racking up high scores, and then the Pacers achieving a big victory.

But that was the original plan.

As everyone knows, plans never keep up with changes, and it seems the Spurs also knew the Pacers wanted Su Wan to score high tonight. They swarmed around Su Wan, relentless, preferring to let others score than letting Su Wan score.

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