บท 14: Elbows, Elbows, and More Elbows
บรรณาธิการ: Atlas Studios
Su Feng felt some pain in his chest.
Kobe really did not go easy on him at all.
He turned around and smashed his elbow into Su Feng.
In the 90s, players on the outer line all loved to put their elbows up when attempting to break through or dribbling so as to deal with the hand-check rule.
Taking the final, known as the "Elbow Fiesta", of the 98/99 season as an example, the defending team made use of the hand-check rule to brace their elbows while the attacking team also put their elbows up in response. Pairing that with the trash talk of both teams, one could describe the scene as "elbows which knew how to trash talk".
Of course, during their usual one-on-ones, Kobe and Su Feng made far bigger movements. Moreover, Su Feng had plenty of experience in "stacking armor and taking hits", so Kobe's "elbow of love" was nothing to him now.
7-10, Nefaria in possession.
"Those two lads are really interesting." On the bleachers, Duke University's scout, Wesley, got increasingly excited as he watched the match.
To Wesley, Kobe was already a rare talent. Meanwhile, Su Feng was an awesome defending expert.
That was especially so for one-on-one defending!
On the court, after Doner was reminded by his teammate Schwartz to focus, he finally successfully defended against Su Feng once.
When going back to defend just now, Schwartz, who had suffered Kobe's "death stare" before, ran beside Doner to remind him, "Bro, let me remind you, if you carry on playing like this, you're gonna receive the…"
After thinking about Kobe's stubborn gaze, Doner shuddered subconsciously…
"No way!
"I have to successfully defend against this Chinese basketball player named Su Feng even if it means risking my life!"
Doner went all out.
Meanwhile, Su Feng could not guarantee that every shot he took would be accurate.
For this shot, Su Feng's jump shot was heavily disrupted. Although he managed to throw the ball out, Su Feng used too much strength as he wanted to avoid being blocked, and the basketball crashed onto the supporting arm of the hoop.
Clang!
Kobe turned around, leapt, and caught the rebound with one hand.
He was known as the "Peter Pan" who had played in every single position in his high school days after all!
Awesome!
After catching the rebound, Kobe quickly dribbled and started his counterattack. However, Su Feng fell back to defend very quickly as well. When Kobe dribbled the ball near Nefaria's three-point line, Su Feng's body also almost completely stacked onto Kobe's…
Bang!
"Owww—!"
Su Feng predicted Kobe's position beforehand, got into position, acted like he fell down, and let out a cry of pain…
One must say, even future player Scola would clap in approval if he saw how Su Feng defended this time.
Beep—!
The referee seemed to be very satisfied with Su Feng's performance. While he presented an Oscar to Su Feng, he blew the whistle at Kobe for charging…
Kobe, who got whistled at for charging, was not angry. Instead, he was a little shocked.
"You had this trick up your sleeve?" Kobe asked curiously while pulling Su Feng up from the floor.
Su Feng nodded. Actually, making a player commit an offensive foul was not difficult. The difficult part was finding the courage to do so for the defending player.
That was because once a professional player starts charging at full speed, the impact would be pretty great.
In Su Feng's previous life, although Scola always dove and acted, the number of broken brow ridges and ribs he suffered as a result of doing so were enough to form a mini figurine.
A big reason as to why Su Feng could successfully make Kobe commit an offensive foul was his understanding of Kobe.
Of course, Kobe understood Su Feng very well too.
But because he had promised Su Feng not to deliberately match up with him, Su Feng had a slight advantage.
After all, after over three months of deep interaction, both of them were very clear about each other's abilities.
As Nefaria attacked on the court, on the substitute bench at the side of the court, Tony Johnson and Antony could no longer understand what was going on in the match…
They were actually evenly-matched with Lower Merion!
Meanwhile, on Lower Merion's substitute bench, the Downer father-and-son duo started panicking.
Because of Su Feng's performance, the Downer father-and-son duo could already picture Kobe's gaze later.
At that moment, the two Downers looked at each other. If one had to use five words to describe how they felt, they would be "what do we do now?"
Su Feng, who noticed all that, almost laughed out loud.
But he did not sympathise with the Downer father-and-son duo at all.
When Gregg Downer just started coaching Lower Merion's basketball team, he once tried to suppress Kobe's stubborn personality.
Thus, Gregg had a one-on-one with Kobe.
Of course, to Gregg, Kobe was just a kid after all. So after their one-on-one started, Gregg originally decided to go a little easy on Kobe…
But what Gregg did not expect was how badly he would get thrashed in that one-on-one.
So, an exasperated Gregg told Kobe in spite, "Although you beat me, to me, you're still no match for Carter!"
This sentence that Gregg said in spite impacted Kobe greatly.
In Su Feng's previous life, Kobe embarked on a path of no return because of that sentence…
Emm, a path of no return that meant being harsh to himself as well as others.
Although Kobe mentioned in the future that he would not have worked so hard if not for that sentence, Su Feng did not feel that Downer, as Kobe's high school coach, was a good mentor for Kobe in his life.
Swoosh!
After Su Feng scored a handsome fadeaway shot, the first period of the match ended.
13-18. For high school matches, in which a period was only eight minutes long, this score was not low at all.
Su Feng had scored 11 points for Nefaria, while the captain, Towns, had scored two points. As for Lower Merion, Kobe had contributed all 18 of the points scored during the first period.
Doner, who was in charge of defending against Su Feng, was very depressed.
That was because after understanding how Su Feng attacked, he realised that Su Feng only had two tricks up his sleeve.
Jump shots and fadeaway shots.
But there seemed to be no way to counter those two tricks.
To put it simply, Doner was similar in height to Su Feng but was slightly worse at jumping. Su Feng's jump shots were unpredictable, while his fadeaway shots were so standard, they made him feel despair…
As Lower Merion's defending expert, even if he was having a one-on-one with Kobe, Doner could…
Um, matching up with Su Feng still felt slightly more comfortable.
Frustrating!
Way too frustrating!
Listening to the discussion of the students on the bleachers nearby, Doner felt like he was a clown.
Luckily, at a crucial moment, Kobe saved Doner.
"Robbie, go defend against Su in the second period!" Kobe told his teammate Robbie Schwartz while looking at him.
Schwartz, who was humming a little tune, immediately got confused.
"Huh?"
"Hmm?" Kobe glared at Schwartz.
"Understood, Boss!" Schwartz dared not reject. Otherwise…
After recalling that one hour and 27 minutes, Schwartz shuddered uncontrollably.
Do you know how Schwartz survived that ordeal?
That feeling was like being targeted by a cobra, such that you could not move at all!
He almost asphyxiated!
Actually, Kobe had not made Schwartz go defend against Su Feng because he still held that grudge.
It was only because he had previously told the Downer father-and-son duo that Su Feng was better than Doner and Schwartz.
To Kobe, since Su Feng had already proved that he was better than Doner, it was time for him to prove that he was better than Schwartz.
Alright…
What a simple thought!
But this made things difficult for Schwartz.
That was because Schwartz was only 180cm tall.
Moreover, his wingspan was only 181cm…
….
-- ได้รับของขวัญแล้ว