The Way of Basketball: Never Talk Shit to Him!
Chapter 80 - 78: A player like Su would have been cried foul if it was in the 90s.

Chapter 80: Chapter 78: A player like Su would have been cried foul if it was in the 90s.

However, amidst the unanimous applause, there were exceptions, such as Kobe, who had also suffered from Bruce Bowen’s "groin grab," kicks to the groin, and other underhanded tactics. Kobe believed, "Bruce Bowen’s crimes have been blown out of proportion. His actions don’t deserve to be elevated to this extent."

He also expressed great admiration for the zeal Bruce Bowen showed in defending him.

Popovich flipped through the newspapers and finally saw Kobe, his "ally," which absolutely delighted him. He reciprocated in kind, lavishing praise on Kobe, "Kobe is the most determined player I’ve ever seen. There were many players like that in the 90s, but they’re rare these days!"

There was no need for Su Wan to counterattack, the Indiana media did it for him, "Greg hopes the League’s other teams will turn a blind eye to Bruce Bowen’s injurious behavior so they can continue to win games by hurting the main players of other teams. That’s how San Antonio got their two championships. They can’t win a game without injuring their opponents."

San Antonio struck back immediately, "At least Bruce Bowen, no matter how excessive, only injured players, he didn’t attack the fans!"

The Indiana media fought more vigorously, "The Spurs still need to come play at the Pacers’ home court. If the Indiana natives do something impolite to the Spurs’ players at the game, I’m sure you’ll be able to forgive them unconditionally!"

This statement was a kill shot, and the San Antonio media didn’t dare to respond.

If they agreed, who knows what the Spurs’ players might experience that day.

The media on both sides were at each other’s throats, while Su Wan and his team returned to Indiana. They had a day of rest, and then they would head to Dallas to challenge the Mavericks.

On the way back, Su Wan also saw LeBron’s response to the incident. freewёbnoνel.com

"Bruce made non-basketball moves, and he should bear any consequences that follow," he said.

He too was on the side of applauding the incident.

The reason was simple:

He was also one of the victims of Bruce Bowen’s defending tactics.

Though it didn’t result in substantial injury or serious consequences, every time he faced Bowen, he played extremely uncomfortably. Later in the 07 Finals, Popovich used Bruce Bowen to lead the defense against LeBron, resulting in a mere 35.6% shooting percentage for LeBron.

When Bowen retired in ’09, he even went so far as to say, "The entire League will breathe a sigh of relief."

But as it turned out, only LeBron James breathed a sigh of relief. Others did not, such as Danny Granger, Gordon Hayward, Stewart, Wiggins, Bridges, Jaylen Brown, Stephen Curry, Anthony Davis... The list could be extended to an NBA 108 Warriors.

Back home, Su Wan also learned of Bruce Bowen’s injury report from Bill Duffy:

Nasal bone fracture, multiple minor fractures in the bones, severe neck contusion, as well as a mild concussion. It was estimated to take three weeks to a month for a full recovery.

That’s light!

This was Su Wan’s first reaction after hearing Bill Duffy’s report.

At the time, seeing Bruce Bowen unable to move on the ground, he thought it would take at least two to three months to recover.

NBA players’ physical fitness is just amazing!

Before hanging up the phone, Bill Duffy asked Su Wan, "Buddy, did you see Kobe’s comments?"

"What?" Su Wan had just gotten off the plane, and there were so many comments about the incident that he really didn’t know what Kobe had said.

Bill relayed Kobe’s views to the media.

Su Wan was not surprised.

"Black Mamba" was just like that.

Not that he’s not smart.

But he really is not smart.

He liked playing rough with his opponents, the more aggressive and harder they defended, the more excited he got. In ’09, his battle with Anthony was so fierce that, if it had been officiated by the standards of post-2015, both of them wouldn’t have lasted a quarter on the court before fouling out.

Furthermore...

Kobe himself was rather tough on the court.

In a regular season game against the Cavaliers in ’09, he used a Bruce Bowen-esque flying kick in a scramble for the ball, scaring Mo Williams out of his wits so much that even after the game was over, he was still shaken, thinking he was about to meet his great-grandmother.

Another thing, when Kobe entered the league in ’96, you just had to look at Rodman and Karl Malone to know the league’s atmosphere at the time—wrestling on the court was common, so naturally, he would think of Bruce Bowen as just a player influenced by the ’90s style.

What’s the big deal?

Anyway...

He was also tough!

The next day, the entire Indiana Pacers team arrived in Dallas. During the pregame interview, reporters inevitably brought up Kobe’s comments in front of Su Wan.

Su Wan wasn’t scared to hit back, "When Kobe ends up in the ICU one day from a kick by Bruce Bowen and there’s no one to speak for him, he’ll realize just how ridiculous his comments were!"

At that, the reporters surrounding Su Wan all laughed.

On January 20th, the Pacers would face the Lakers in what would be the season’s first showdown, and with Su Wan’s words, the game was sure to be full of entertainment.

In fact, there was quite some intrigue with the Mavericks due to previous trade rumors involving Su Wan.

Especially since Mark Cuban had wanted Su Wan, even willing to throw in Devin Harris, the 5th overall pick from the ’04 draft, as part of the trade bait.

Two days before the game, when reporters asked Devin Harris what he thought about the matchup, he plainly said he would prove his abilities in this game.

But Su Wan "administered justice" all of a sudden in San Antonio, which meant the focus on him was all about the off-court verbal sparring. The match-up with Devin Harris got overshadowed and seemed to go unnoticed.

Or rather, Harris seemed to be the only one concerned about it.

Su Wan didn’t care about Harris’s comments either.

Come on, he was now the Eastern All-Star Starting Guard Line’s number one vote-getter. He naturally compared himself with the new generation of superstars in the league, or the ’03 class, not with a rookie like Harris who got high draft rankings based on potential.

During the game, the few times they matched up proved this point, as Su Wan’s aggression made Harris’s ball-handling offense very uncomfortable.

Harris took shots against Su Wan three times, missing all of them.

In contrast, in this game, Su Wan scored 22 points, and in the rounds defended by Harris, his shooting was on target.

Barkley commented on this game, saying the gap between Devin Harris and Su Wan was even greater than the distance from Beijing to Dallas.

Still, it was the Mavericks who had the last laugh at home, taking it easy before finishing with a 115 to 108 victory.

Dirk Nowitzki made O’Neal look utterly frustrated with his turnaround jump shots.

The Pacers’ six-game winning streak came to an end.

However, after the game, reporters did not have any questions about the match.

Because...

Kobe’s latest response had arrived:

"Players like Su, if they were in the ’90s, would be crying on the court!"