Chapter 17: Bossy Hillbillies
The news of the Stanford Cardinals defeating the USC Trojans quickly set the entire campus abuzz. There has always been a rivalry between Northern and Southern California. In basketball, the Southern California region has traditionally held the upper hand. So whenever Stanford beats UCLA or the University of Southern California, it always causes a stir on campus.
As the MVP of this game, Li Zhen received a warm welcome at the school cafeteria. Students kept coming up to give him high-fives, strike up conversations, take photos, and even invite him to parties. Most of the high-fives came from guys, while the conversations, photos, and party invites were mainly from girls.
Li Zhen was still quite unaccustomed to becoming a campus star. Especially when... a girl shouted in an exaggerated manner, "Wow! Do you basketball players all eat this much?" He even blushed in embarrassment. He looked at the steaks piled up like small mountains on the table and quickly explained, "I might be an exception."
"How do you manage to eat so much and still stay so thin?" The girls quickly sought advice. Maintaining one's figure was always a hot topic for women.
Uh...
"Wow, your palms are actually this big. Is it like this for all basketball players?"
Suddenly, a girl reached out and grabbed his hand to compare sizes... she just wanted to experience what it felt like to tightly grip hands with a player like Bruce.
This quickly sparked a trend among the girls to do the same.
Li Zhen was incredibly embarrassed.
He quickly devoured the food on the table like a wolf, then hurriedly ran to the training gym.
At this moment, he had no idea that a photo of him devouring 22 steaks had been posted in the Stanford campus Facebook group. This slender big eater quickly became the topic of discussion and was trending towards the entire online world: after all, it was quite rare to see someone eat so much and still stay so thin. And his palms were so big.
All of this aligned with the characteristics of viral internet content.
"Are my hands really that big?"
Arriving at the training gym, Li Zhen finally paid serious attention to his own hands. It turned out his palms were slightly larger and longer than those of people of similar height. Upon careful observation, they had indeed grown significantly compared to before.
He instinctively grabbed a basketball with one hand, and then he realized... he could easily grip the basketball, and it didn't even budge when he shook it up and down.
Wow!
He exclaimed in surprise. Suddenly, he remembered what the talent baby had said that day... so, the increased appetite and the growth of his palms weren't just casual remarks.
He was suddenly filled with joy.
For a ball handler, having large hands was extremely helpful. It allowed him to have better control over the basketball, whether it was dribbling, holding the ball, or finishing at the rim.
He specifically measured it and found that when his palm was spread out, the width spanned 24.2 centimeters, while the length from wrist to fingertip was 22.3 centimeters. (T/N: Damn, almost as wide as Kawhi's)
This already far exceeded the established standards.
It's worth noting that the average hand length for an American man (with an average height of 178 centimeters) is 18.9 centimeters, so this was more than three centimeters longer... and this was talking about palm size. One centimeter here was not equivalent to one centimeter in height.
"It looks like you're a trustworthy man."
The German trainer, Kreutzmann, who helped him measure his palm, smiled and said, "Americans have a saying: you can't trust a man with small hands."
As soon as he finished saying this, Scott's teasing voice came from behind, "Hey, you annoying German. Are you mocking my idol, Kobe Bryant?"
Kreutzmann shrugged, laughing. "If you bring up this person as an example, it actually perfectly proves the reliability of this saying."
Fuck you!
Scott muttered, then went off to hit the weights. He knew this matter couldn't be scrutinized. If they really delved into it, it wouldn't be good for his idol.
Li Zhen chuckled a few times, then began some stretching exercises, followed by strength training.
Soon, Li Zhen surprised Kreutzmann because he found out that Bruce, who could originally do a maximum of 2 repetitions of bench pressing 60 kilograms, could now grit his teeth and persist for 5 repetitions.
This was an incredible improvement.
Though compared to Scott, who could easily lift 90 kilograms in bench press, this might seem trivial. However, considering Li Zhen's physique, this was already a very commendable achievement.
"Your progress recently is truly remarkable," Kreutzmann sincerely exclaimed. "This is why you were able to become the savior in the last game. Always remember, the sweat in the gym will never betray your body. The essence of sports is to make yourself stronger and more agile..."
Kreutzmann went on to extol the benefits of fitness.
Li Zhen even began to suspect if he was really of German descent. Moreover, if the school hadn't paid him a hefty sum, he genuinely feared that Kreutzmann might suddenly propose him to buy a "personal training course" any second.
But no matter what, Kreutzmann was a good guy.
...
While Li Zhen was actively training for the game tomorrow afternoon, a forward from the University of Oregon named Tinsley caused trouble on the Stanford campus.
This young African-American guy, who thought he was quite handsome despite his crooked teeth, suddenly became inexplicably self-confident in the restaurant on campus. He actually went to chat up a female student majoring in architecture and even said what he thought were funny crude pick-up lines... like how "his thing" was quite large and he could take her to the most beautiful paradise for water activities.
This made the high-achieving student from Stanford feel inexplicably insulted, and they angrily reprimanded the basketball player for disrespecting women.
But this player from the streets didn't seem to care and continued to pester her.
Then, the girl's boyfriend appeared, and the verbal dispute quickly escalated into a physical altercation. In the conflict, this guy named Spiegel was knocked down.
Then, security personnel intervened.
Although the school promptly dealt with the matter and the University of Oregon quickly offered compensation and an apology, this incident still spread rapidly across the campus. This made all Stanford students feel angry: an out-of-town player actually did such an overbearing thing on their own campus, and no one could tolerate it.
Soon, this anger shifted onto the Oregon Ducks team.
Everyone hoped to see the Cardinals team give these ill-mannered country bumpkins a profound lesson in their own gym.
When this emotion reached the basketball team, Scott and others also became particularly angry, and they were eager to get on the court and teach the Oregon players a lesson.
But... Jamie Lin was worried about this.
The campus's angry mood tied the team to the point where they had to win to vent their frustration. Once they lost, this anger would rebound onto the team: everyone would feel that this team didn't deserve their support, and didn't deserve to be called Stanford's pride.
But the current situation was: the Stanford head coach was absent, two core players were missing, and the team's strength simply couldn't compare to Oregon's. The probability of winning was really quite low.
Jamie Lin's face was almost contorted with worry.
And at this moment, an incendiary incident occurred.
Oregon's core point guard, Brooks, during an interview with Time Warner Television, assertively stated, "There's no doubt, I'm the fastest player in the Pacific Division. I watched the footage of Stanford's last game, and he does seem a bit fast. Magic even gave him exaggerated praise that doesn't quite match. I know... many people hope to see fresh blood rise. But in the next game, I will prove: some people are just flashes in the pan, while the name Brooks will forever be in basketball history."
When the reporter asked about how he viewed the Stanford team, Brooks surprisingly spoke sincerely, "I'm not trying to kick someone when they're down. But the fact is: both their core players are injured, and the coach even publicly announced giving up on this season to go scout high schoolers. What kind of resistance can you expect from them? We'll aim to end the suspense in the first half!"
Brooks' words were surprisingly sincere.
But in the eyes of Stanford students, this sincerity appeared incredibly arrogant.
How incredibly condescending.
Therefore, the Stanford Cardinal team must defeat these arrogant country bumpkins!
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