Chapter 2: If You're Not Convinced, then Let's Fight!
February 26, 2006, night.
Basketball legend Jordan was urgently taken to the hospital from the presidential suite of a Las Vegas hotel by a Brazilian female model. Although Jordan's camp refused to discuss the incident and denied any connection to the recent divorce case, inquiries revealed that on that day in Las Vegas, Michael lost two million dollars, indulged in alcohol, smoked cigars, and due to the use of stimulants, became excessively excited and fainted on the model's bed.
Interestingly, these news didn't cause much commotion, after all, everyone knew about Michael's three major hobbies: smoking, drinking, and pursuing Brazilian models. (T/N: WTF?!)
When Jordan woke up from the hospital room, he suddenly felt a hollowness in his body, as if something had been taken away.
He stretched out his hand and flexed it.
Then he sighed.
Ah, his body wasn't what it used to be.
He had to accept aging!
...
Li Zhen woke up the next day at noon, by which time the sun was shining brightly on his face.
He opened his bleary eyes, blinked forcefully, sat up, and noticed that there seemed to be something different about his body.
He walked to the bathroom, about to take a shower. But he discovered that all his hair was standing on end, as if struck by lightning, quite rock and roll.
Damn!
He tried to smooth down his hair: "How did my handsome hairstyle turn into this???"
But as soon as he grumbled this, a faint voice suddenly appeared in his mind: "Treasure it. Twenty years from now, your hairline will move up by five centimeters. At that time, even taming an afro will be difficult..."
Who? Who is it??
Li Zhen was taken aback, he jumped up and looked around, afraid that a thief had entered.
"I'm in your head," the voice continued weakly, "Perhaps you'll find this hard to accept, but I must tell you, lucky one, the lightning brought you an adventure. You were chosen under a one in a trillion chance."
"I'm very tired now, there's not much I can say. Last night, I inspected your body and found that you have some advantages in speed genes, so I took some measures. But your body's capacity is too weak, I could only increase your speed to 80. The remaining energy, I used on your hands. In the next week, you'll find that your appetite will increase significantly, and your palms will noticeably enlarge. Don't be surprised, this is a normal process. You see, back then I made that jerk grow by twenty centimeters in half a year, turning him from a 1.76-meter tall little black dude into a 1.98-meter god of a specimen..." (T/N: Take a guess on what's happening.)
"Unfortunately, most of my energy was consumed by that selfish, paranoid, alcohol-drinking, gambling, womanizing man."
"I hope you'll be a positive person, stick to the right path, and train hard. When you accumulate enough energy space, I will awaken again, and I will help you seize talents from the fallen, further developing your body!"
"Goodbye, lucky one..."
The voice grew weaker and weaker.
This left Li Zhen feeling bewildered, he couldn't help but ask, "Hey, who are you? What's your name? Are you an accompanying old man, or a system? Speak up!"
??????
When he said this, Li Zhen himself was surprised. He didn't know how he suddenly burst out with such bizarre words. Could it be because of that nightmare?
"Don't ask me such high-level questions. I'm a positive energy baby who just learned to talk, rest! Rest a little! Rest..." (T/N: Dafuq is a positive energy baby?? I don't care anymore. Chinese is weird.)
The faint voice in his mind faded away like the sound of a departing car engine, finally disappearing.
Li Zhen stood still.
He suddenly felt like a fool.
Am I having a mental breakdown?
He quickly took a cold shower, and then realized that he was still having a mental breakdown. He slapped his head hard, feeling dizzy and in pain. Am I going crazy?
Ding-a-ling!
The phone on the table rang.
He walked over and pressed the answer button.
On the other end, assistant coach Jamie Lin's impatient voice came through, "Hey, Li Zhen, what are you doing? Are you planning to give up on yourself? Didn't we say you're going to be a source of pride for the Chinese? Now you have at least three games left to prove yourself, hurry up and come to practice."
"Tomorrow night is the match against the University of Southern California, and you've already made it to the starting lineup. I don't want you to mess up everything again!"
Jamie Lin said very seriously. He was a Chinese-American coach, and he had always encouraged and supported Li Zhen, who shared the same skin color. After all, in the realm of basketball, people with yellow skin were truly few and far between. (T/N: Bruh.)
Li Zhen thought for a moment, finally clenched his fists, and replied, "Okay, I'm on my way!"
Afterward, he changed into different clothes, then went out and rushed to the arena.
He didn't know why he suddenly became so positive. He clearly didn't have a basketball dream anymore, what could three more games change? It would be better to contact the professors at Harvard and prepare for returning next semester.
However, there was still a burning fire within him, a determination to give himself an account.
...
When Li Zhen arrived at the gym, most of the players had already gathered, except for two injured star players.
The team's primary Power Forward, Scott, couldn't wait to rush over and hug Li Zhen: "Are you ready? My dear Li, today we'll all be wearing the yellow vests representing the starting players. I can't wait to conquer USC's basketball and those unruly female students on their campus."
Um...
Li Zhen thought Scott was being a bit too naive.
This is the University of Southern California, after all!!
He didn't believe that being listed in the starting lineup with Scott would change anything. The core point guard, TJ Walton, and star small forward, Nicholas, were both injured, leaving the Cardinals Team without an elite player who could control the ball. In the lineup, it was either shooters or rough guys like Scott who played based on physicality. There was simply no way to form an effective offensive system. The reason he was in the starting lineup was probably because he was throwing caution to the wind.
Now everyone knew that the Cardinals Team had given up on the 2005-2006 season. The coaching staff's focus was on recruitment, and they were currently scouting talented high school players everywhere. Even the head coach had gone to Los Angeles in advance to evaluate a pair of twin centers in preparation for next season.
So... not getting beaten up by USC would already be a relief.
But regardless. Since he had this opportunity, he should showcase himself well, even if it's a farewell performance.
Li Zhen quickly changed into his gear in the locker room. When he stepped onto the court to start warming up, he noticed something was off. This feeling of something being off came from his own body. He realized that when he took a step forward, his center of gravity noticeably surged forward. At first, he thought it was accidental, but after a few tries, it was the same. After some stretching, he quickly did a shuttle run.
As he sprinted out with all his might, he instantly felt the rush of air whistling past his ears.
Before this, he wasn't slow. But now, he felt like the phrase "as fast as the wind" perfectly described him. He even had a feeling similar to when he watched TJ Ford's videos in the past.
He even started to think that if he went all out, he could easily beat everyone on the team.
Including Chris Pat.
And just as he completed a sharp full-court sprint with the ball, Chris Pat suddenly yelled, "Listen, Jamie! I need an explanation!! Why am I not a starter, and Li Zhen is! I know you're all Chinese, but you can't joke around with basketball. Basketball is something that speaks with strength, not this kind of clumsy mutual warmth and protection."
Chris Pat was a small black guy, only 1.72 meters tall, and he always saw himself as the California version of TJ Ford. But in reality, whether it was scoring ability, assist ability, or height, he was far behind Ford. The only similarity between them was that they were both fast short point guards.
Pat had always harbored dissatisfaction towards Li Zhen. Both of them were backup point guards for the Cardinals, and when TJ Walton was around, neither of them got much playing time. In the limited playing time, the two always seemed to be in a state of competition.
But he believed that the coaching staff didn't understand basketball at all: why give this skinny Chinese kid nearly five minutes of playing time in every game, when they could give it to me instead?
Just because there was an assistant coach with yellow skin in the coaching staff?
So, he always took the opportunity to taunt Li Zhen. But Li Zhen couldn't be bothered to respond to him. In Li Zhen's eyes, this guy was just a loser who talked a big game, had little ability, and couldn't stand seeing others do well. The best response to this kind of person was to treat him like he didn't exist.
But this time, he actually directly aimed his gun at Assistant Coach Jamie Lin.
Everyone in the team knew that Jamie Lin was a talented and responsible assistant coach. He even did many things beyond the scope of an assistant coach, including video editing and individual technical analysis sessions with players: he won the respect of most people with his professionalism and passion.
Many players even sympathized with him. If it weren't for his skin color, he could totally handle the position of head assistant coach. But now, the position of head assistant coach had been vacant for three years.
"I am not favoring anyone, I am just being fair. This is a decision made by Coach McHaney. If you have any objections, you can call the head coach." Jamie Lin replied very seriously.
But Chris Pat was still relentless, and he even brought out the trump card that black people were best at: "This is discrimination! This is racial discrimination!! Why look down on black players? Aren't we black players worthy of being starters? I clearly have better talent and a better level..."
His accusations made Scott and other black players unable to listen any longer. In the entire Cardinals Team, more than seventy percent were black, and four out of the original five starting players were black. In the basketball field, wasn't it black people discriminating against other races?
At this moment, Li Zhen, standing nearby, suddenly remembered the scene from that nightmare.
At that time, Chris Pat was making a similar commotion.
But that time, to avoid putting Jamie Lin in a difficult position, coupled with his loss of confidence in basketball at the time, he chose to step back voluntarily. But it later led to Jamie Lin being reprimanded because Chris Pat messed everything up after being put in the starting lineup. He was utterly selfish and didn't pass the ball at all. He let the team fall behind by 21 points in the first quarter, ultimately resulting in the 94-36 beatdown and NCAA historical tragedy.
Stanford couldn't bear this kind of shame, and Jamie Lin, who had the best chance of becoming the head assistant coach, was subsequently fired.
Li Zhen, who had experienced this in a nightmare, absolutely would not allow it to happen in reality. So, he stood up very firmly and stared coldly at Chris Pat, "Stop whining like a pussy. If you're not convinced, then let's play!"
...
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