บท 8: Hardworking Su Feng
บรรณาธิการ: Atlas Studios
Despite having already known the outcome of the game, Su Feng was having a fantastic time watching the 1994 NBA finals at Kobe's place.
He was amazed by the "brawling" of the 90s, which sent his adrenaline flowing. He had gotten sick of watching fast-break scenarios in future basketball matches, so a change of taste was always welcome.
Imagine the muscle man Olajuwon charging into the New York Knicks defense line and getting immediately surrounded by a defensive barrier of brawny bodies. Just when the audience thought the Dream's unassisted offensive attempt would fail, he braved his opponents and pushed forward despite great difficulties. Then, in the next second, he launched himself into the air, swinging the ball at the hoop. The ball went in, inviting a wave of cheers and applause…
"Su, you need to lower your body more when defending. You need to learn to predict Kobe's moves too."
In the past few days, Kobe's father, Joe, had been coaching Kobe and Su Feng during their practice.
Su Feng had a feeling that…
Besides mastering brick shots, he would also become an expert in defense in the future.
That was especially so for one-on-one defending.
"You can't always play one on one. It's good that summer vacation is coming. I'll train you by the NBA standard. Be prepared."
As a former NBA player, Joe was fairly confident about his professionalism in basketball coaching.
But…
"Don't listen to him, Su. His training style is outdated. I don't even sweat at that level of intensity…"
Kobe seemed far from satisfied with his father's proposal.
"Is he really your father?" Su Feng wondered.
But he didn't put the thought into words. Honestly speaking, Su Feng felt that Joe's coaching wasn't that bad.
In fact, Joe's systematic training regime was exactly what Su Feng needed at the moment.
That's because he had only been able to gain Brick Shot Points by practicing with Kobe one on one. A systematic training regime would be more beneficial for him to improve his basketball skills.
Moreover, from Su Feng's perspective, Kobe's dissatisfaction with Joe's coaching stemmed from his own insanely high expectations of himself.
"Well, you have to agree that you'll still train with me after my dad is done coaching you. Otherwise, you'll never improve," Kobe said grudgingly after Su Feng had accepted Joe's suggestion.
Su Feng grinned. "Worry not. I'll practice three times under your dad's training intensity and then come back to you to learn other skills."
Apologies. Our Su Feng had discovered his secret obsession with Kobe's insanely high standard of oneself ever since he got used to the brick shot system.
You ask how the steel was tempered?
There's no big secret. Practice makes perfect.
….
In the next few days, Su Feng indeed lived up to his words.
After three rounds of drills with Joe, he would play against Kobe one on one and put in extra effort in the shooting. He had been doing this every single day.
"No wonder Kobe likes him," Joe exclaimed. This time, it was his turn to be surprised.
In the beginning, Joe had simply been treating Su Feng as his son's friend.
But after he had gotten to know Su Feng better, Joe was certain that Su Feng was the second most hard-working basketball player in all of Philadelphia, second only to Kobe.
Moreover, to Joe's astonishment, Kobe and Joe had been increasing the intensity of their training as if they had been wound up. Their daily life could be summarized as: eat, sleep, basketball, repeat…
Finally, Joe stopped their competition, fearing that the intense training would hurt their bodies.
"How I wish I had had their enthusiasm…" Joe fell into deep thought as he watched Su Feng and Kobe training.
He needed some time to reflect on his life.
….
Su Feng and Kobe's training didn't stop until July 22nd.
It was the day of game seven of the NBA finals. Hence, the two iron men agreed that their practice could wait till after the final match.
The game went exactly the same as Su Feng remembered. Due to the failed last-minute shot at the end of game six, the second strongest player of the New York Knicks, John Starks, had completely gone off form. He had shot 18 times, and only two had gone in. His 11 attempts at three-pointers had all failed. Now he was more like a feeder, feeding points to his opponents and helping the Houston Rockets win the championship.
The New York Knicks fan Kobe was on the verge of a breakdown watching Starks' atrocious performance. "What is he doing? Can't he pass the ball to his teammates if he knows he can't score? Why so persistent?
"Poor Patrick. Only if his teammates were better shooters…"
Su Feng didn't dare to comment. He squeezed into his seat like a poor, weak, helpless pigeon.
"Chill, man…
"Another man called Shaquille will have the same privilege as Ewing today sometime in the future."
Ahem…
Su Feng swallowed those words that would risk exposing his true identity. To comfort Kobe, he said, "We should never be like John."
Kobe nodded in agreement. "Yes! We should never be like him!"
Perhaps John Starks, busy vying for the runner-up position, could never have imagined that he had become a negative example for two Philadelphian high schoolers…
The next day, Kobe and Su Feng decided that they would increase their training intensity by adding 1,000 more shots each day, partly due to the influence of Starks.
That was good news for Joe. He had wanted to take his son on a summer vacation, but now he could have some private time with his wife…
….
Time flew. It was August in the blink of an eye.
After close to two months of strenuous training, Su Feng's basketball skills had improved to a whole new level.
Two months ago, Su Feng was merely an ordinary basketball head to Kobe.
But now, Kobe believed that Su Feng was good enough to be a substitute player for Lower Merion High School.
And that was a relatively strict comment.
As for Su Feng himself, he was taking great pleasure in his daily brick shot routines…
Clang!
A wise man once said that there was no sound of heaven in this world, but when one had thrown too many bricks…
The birth of the sound of heaven.
Looking at his statistics, Su Feng almost couldn't believe it himself.
It appeared that he had misunderstood Slam Dunk.
Geniuses do exist.
"Well, it seems like I won't be able to level up any time soon."
That day, Su Feng upgraded the system to version 6.0 in one go. After using up all of his remaining Brick Shot Points on potential, Su Feng fell silent as he stared at the points needed for the next upgrade.
"I'm lucky to have met Kobe. If not… Tsk.
"Since I won't be able to level up, I should focus on accumulating Brick Shot Points for now. In the meantime, I should turn my potential into real performance.
"When necessary, I can afford to spend some Brick Shot Points on the lucky wheel to test my appearance score…
"Certainly, though, I need to have a few trump cards up my sleeve. If I were to play a basketball game now, I couldn't do much aside from defending and shooting…"
After some deliberation, Su Feng prepared sandwiches of eight different flavors and appeared at the same old basketball court at 4 AM the next morning.
He had noticed Kobe's mother's horrendous cooking when he was a guest at Kobe's place.
To be fair, he shouldn't have compared any food to Chinese food. Nevertheless, Su Feng was rather confident in his own cooking skills, thanks to his rich experience in cooking in his previous life.
"Tell me! How did you make these sandwiches?"
Kobe was wolfing down the sandwiches, two mouthfuls per sandwich. Without a doubt, he liked them.
"You won't know how to make them even if I tell you…" Su Feng said frankly.
Kobe nodded. He didn't want to argue with Su Feng on this matter.
In Kobe's opinion, life was short and precious. Hence, one should dedicate the limited life they have to the noble cause of basketball…
Unfortunately, Su Feng couldn't read his mind. If he could, he would have laughed.
"Tell me that after you meet Vanessa!
"Hmph, men are unsophisticated creatures."
In the past, Su Feng had secretly added nutrient fluid in the sandwiches so that Kobe could maintain his level of performance during their one-on-one competitions.
He had obtained the nutrient fluid from the lucky wheel. Besides filling one's stomach, the fluid could also replenish the person's energy.
There were no side effects, other than strengthening Kobe's waist muscles.
After all, one had to feed Kobe "korrectly".
Hence, even Kobe himself might not have realized that he had also made huge progress in the past few months by training alongside Su Feng…
"Kobe, could you teach me some post-up tricks and the correct way to do a jump shot in your opponent's face?" Su Feng asked after Kobe had finished all the sandwiches.
Kobe instantly switched to his "senpai" mode and said smilingly, "Sure. I'll teach you anything you want to learn."
Actually, post-ups and jump shots were not that hard. Like crossover dribbles, they were commonly used basketball skills.
Many basketball heads even knew a few ways of doing crossover dribbles.
But professionals were different from amateurs.
In Su Feng's former life, few NBA perimeter players were competent at posting up.
Same for jump shots.
Why were sports fans able to tell superstars from normal players with a simple glance?
That's because it was not easy for one to perform outstandingly on a platform filled with walking legends like the NBA.
That was especially true in the atrocious 1990s. If you couldn't grasp the knack of it, you wouldn't even dare to receive the ball anywhere near your aggressive opponents.
That was why many players had quit the NBA to join the CBA, where they were able to shine much more brightly.
They hadn't been able to showcase their true skills in the highly competitive NBA, but now they could in the CBA.
This was often quipped as "lowering their levels to fight
Su Feng had decided when he was watching the finals.
He would try to avoid those unproductive scoring methods so long as hand-checking was still allowed.
He should learn from old Joe, master fadeaway shots and jump shots. Then he would be content with being the Norse God of Basketball…
No, he meant that he would be a great perimeter player.
With the initial plan in mind, the quickest way to learn those skills was to ask Kobe for help.
After all, Kobe was probably the top basketball player across all American high schools at that time.
"Look, your opponents will place their hands on your waist when you post up. That's pretty disgusting, I know. They may even hinder your movement with their legs so that you can neither turn nor carry the ball sometimes…"
Kobe-sensei had started teaching, and Student Su was busy writing down the important points.
"So we have to be quick and fierce when we turn. Break free from your opponents' defense using all the strength you've got.
"But this means that you may exert too much force when you shoot.
"Hence, we must practice it separately. You need to turn fast, but at the same time, control your strength when you shoot.
"If you want to master post-ups, you've got to buck up on training your legs and core."
By the way…
Kobe would definitely make a perfect physical education teacher.
"Seems like I need to increase the intensity of my training," Su Feng mumbled after one day of learning.
….
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