I am the Warden Chapter 27: Budding Ambition
During the preseason, after lunch on game days, Liu Xiu would always say to Travis Outlaw, "I'll sleep for an hour, wake me up when the time comes," and then take a nap in the locker room.
Travis Outlaw never refused since the first time. Every time he would play Zelda with Nintendo's first-generation handheld game console, sitting by the sofa, waiting to wake Liu Xiu up after an hour.
It is clear that Travis Outlaw was Liu Xiu's bodyguard when he fell asleep.
But today, after lunch, Liu Xiu just wandered around the gym.
It can be seen that he is overly excited because he is about to play his first game in his professional career!
It’s really annoying to see people you don’t have a good relationship with.
When Liu Xiu was strolling back to the training ground, Randolph found Liu Xiu and said, "Jace, stop walking around. Don't you like studying your opponent's information? I have a video of our game against the Pistons last season!"
"I 've seen it all, and I don't think it has much effect. Their coach has changed, and the players have also changed..."
“…”
Well, Randolph doesn't care anymore, he has done what he should do.
Moreover, it is normal to be a little excited about the first performance in his career. It will be difficult to see such a Liu Xiu in the future.
However, there was something that made Liu Xiu stop walking on the street - an interview from a domestic TV station came.
Finally, the competition was about to begin in a few hours, and Liu Xiu became the protagonist that the court paid attention to.
Liu Xiu learned from Bill Duffy that at 10 o'clock this morning, the filming crew of the Imperial Court TV was still in Houston. They are now running from Houston to Portland without any rest. They just set up the camera and started shooting.
During the interview, there was nothing wrong with the questions asked by the reporter, and Liu Xiu was naturally gentle and polite.
After the interview, Bill Duffy saw that Liu Xiu had a rare expression without a smile, so he comforted her, "Jace, don't let this matter affect your mood. The TV station only has so many reporters sent to the United States, and they have already rushed here at the first opportunity..."
Liu Xiu finally stopped looking cold and smiled, "I understand. They all worked very hard. I didn't vent my unhappiness on the reporters who came to interview me, did I? As long as the questions they asked were normal, my answers would be normal. I know that the interview was arranged by their leaders, so I can't blame them. I can understand why their leaders made such an arrangement , as it was determined by attention and influence. However, although I look at all this calmly, I still have negative emotions... Maybe I should thank those who make this kind of distinction. I didn't think I cared about these things before, but now I know that I care a lot, and I am more eager to succeed than before!"
In just a few dozen seconds, Bill Duffy saw a Liu Xiu he had never seen before.
Although he immediately changed back to his casual self with a gentle smile, that moment of sharpness left a deep impression on Bill Duffy!
…
…
After a few days of impatience, a few days of anticipation, and more than a year of preparation... Liu Xiu's first battle in his professional career is finally here!
At 5:40 p.m. on October 31, 2003, at the Rose Garden Arena in Portland, Liu Xiu stood in the home team's player tunnel, extremely excited.
Everything off the court doesn't matter when you're on the court.
Looking at the familiar Pistons Five Tigers——
After years of wandering, Chauncey Billups, the third overall pick in 1997, finally found a place to settle down and gain a foothold last season.
Richard Hamilton was the second most talented high school student in Pennsylvania in the 1990s. He came from a sports family and became a top scorer in his second year in the NBA. He also had Jordan as a teammate.
The most stable star in the history of the University of Kentucky, he became the team MVP three times in four years in college and led the team to the top 16 of the NCAA National Basketball Championship every year - Tayshaun Prince.
He may be the strongest undrafted player. He got a fully guaranteed contract for the first time in his fourth year of his career. After that, he became unstoppable and won the best defensive player for two consecutive years - Ben Wallace.
The fifth tiger...
Oh, the fifth tiger is in the deepest part of the home team’s player tunnel, and the strongest player of their Trail Blazers team, Tianzun, has not gone to the opposite side yet.
Looking at those familiar faces, he felt as if the blood in his body was boiling!
His NBA career will begin soon, immediately, right now!
Every time he stepped onto the field, Liu Xiu was very motivated, but it was far from what it is now.
It was at this moment that he truly realized how much he loved this sport and how much he wanted to succeed now that it was possible!
The only pity is that the fans in the Rose Garden were not so enthusiastic.
But it doesn't matter, Liu Xiu now has a goal - to make the fans cheer for them and go crazy for them!
Of course, we are not going to do this right now, but we are just setting such a goal.
Just like now... After the visiting team's players finished their appearances, the DJ's deep voice became high-pitched, trying to guide the enthusiasm of the fans at the scene, which did have some effect. When the DJ called the players to enter the field, the spotlight was on the entrance of the home team's player tunnel. When the two rookies Liu Xiu and Travis Outlaw appeared under the spotlight, cheers rang out at the scene... but there were more boos! Especially when the big screen gave a close-up of Liu Xiu, the boos clearly overwhelmed the cheers!
Although he is now in high spirits and has a strong desire, he can still calmly judge the current situation. It is still a long way to go for him to make the fans crazy.
He had expected the boos. He had received so many boos from home fans in the preseason. In the regular season, when all 20,630 seats in the Rose Garden were full, he would definitely receive even more boos.
Apart from anything else, after the preseason, the topics that were hyped up after the draft were hyped up again, which is bound to arouse fans' nostalgia for Bonzi Wells.
Although this talented star only works hard during his contract year, he is really strong when he works hard.
In the eyes of Trail Blazers fans, Liu Xiu is nothing but a pretty face.
In the opening game, Liu Xiu's fans who love his looks and that small group of fans who love his back-to-the-basket skills had no presence at all.
It’s not that he doesn’t care about this, but he has prepared himself mentally. When the boos came, he actually felt a little proud, thinking “See, I guessed it right, didn’t I?”
As human beings, there are always so many things that we cannot control, most of which we don’t like, so we can only have fun with them.
Rookies Liu Xiu and Travis Outlaw were the first to run out, and the other seven non-starting players followed behind them and lined up in two rows.
After entering the stadium, Liu Xiu felt that the stadium was a little different from the previous preseason game.
It’s not because there are more fans at the scene, the difference is that Liu Xiu feels it comes from himself…
In the opening game, DJ introduced each substitute player one by one, not just reading out the names as during the regular season, but introducing them.
When Liu Xiu was introduced, there was another wave of boos from the audience.
Over and over again... Liu Xiu has now quickly gotten used to the booing.
Xiu didn't know that while the lights and big screens at the opening game were giving a lot of shots to the substitutes, back home, in the live broadcast of the court TV station, the commentator was passionately introducing his college resume, summer league and preseason highlights.
Indeed, Liu Xiu is not very popular in China, but domestic basketball players are full of expectations for him!
Before Liu Xiu, there were three Chinese players who had played in NBA games, Wang Zhizhi, Battelle and Yao Ming, all of whom were inside players. Now there is finally an outside player!
Although the leaders did not pay much attention to Liu Xiu's bad reputation, the commentators who traveled around the United States all year round did not care about the "reputation" that the domestic leadership team cared about so much for some reason. They knew very well that if Liu Xiu did not have such a bad reputation, it would be very difficult for him to survive in the American basketball world.
The leadership team did not give Liu Xiu any resources, so they used their limited resources to support him!
Liu Xiu didn't know all this. At the scene, when the spotlight moved away from the non-starting players and the big screen was aimed at the home team's player tunnel, Liu Xiu squatted down in the dark and touched the floor beneath his feet.
"It turns out that as a player, there is real loyalty... not to the team, not to the fans, not to the jersey... but to the stadium!"
After touching it, Liu Xiu stood up, still with a smile on his face, waiting for the entrance ceremony of the five starting players to end.
Xiu didn't know that the scene of him squatting just now was photographed. Although the light diffused from the player's channel was dim, his handsome face was clearly captured by a female fan... He collected the photo album and even thought of the label - 2003 first round 13th pick rookie Jace Liu touching the floor on his first appearance on the court.
…
After the players of both teams entered the stadium and the lights came on, both teams actively engaged in the final preparations before the game without much communication.
Neither side looked like the good guys. The commentator of ESPN Sports, which broadcast the game live, joked that the opening match between the two teams was like a gang fight.
At 5:58, the starting lineups of both teams came onto the court.
The Pistons starting lineup: Billups, Hamilton, Prince, Ben Wallace, Okur.
Trail Blazers starting lineup: Damon Stoudemire, Reuben Patterson, Travis Outlaw, Randolph, Rasheed Wallace.
Ben Wallace and Rasheed Wallace came to the center circle.
The players of both teams had no goodwill towards each other, and when they faced each other on the court, a tense atmosphere immediately emerged.
Facing Ben Wallace, who was much shorter than him, Tianzun did not dare to be careless. He actively used the last time to adjust his body, wanting to do his best to win the jump ball and get off to a good start.
Tianzun is serious about winning!
At 6 o'clock in the evening, the unpopular regular season opener between the Trail Blazers and the Pistons, broadcast live in the United States by ESPN Sports and in China by Chaoting Sports Channel, began!
The referee blew the whistle to start the game and threw the ball into the air. Rasheed Wallace jumped up with all his might and narrowly defeated Ben Wallace to win the jump ball. The Trail Blazers attacked first!
Liu Xiu sat on the sidelines, staring at the Pistons' retreat formation.
Kevin Pritchard's first look after the game was not at the court, but at Liu Xiu...
Liu Xiu's face was still smiling and nonchalant, but his eyes changed with the changes in the situation on the field, sometimes opening wider, sometimes squinting.
Get into the observation game!
Even if he is not a starter, even if he does not get much playing time, this rookie will be prepared to do everything he can... He is so outstanding!
Kevin Prietch was very satisfied with Liu Xiu, but the situation on the court was so serious that Kevin Prietch took his eyes off Liu Xiu and returned to the court. After a while, he had a headache just like head coach Maurice Cheeks.
"The mouse can no longer fly, but it won't listen!"
In the past few days, at the instruction of Maurice Cheeks, Kevin Pritchard gave the Flying Squirrel one last chance and has been communicating with him these days.
But it seems that this guy has no intention of changing his mind at all. Yes, he is even more independent than the last preseason game.
You can even see that the mouse that can't fly has a desperate feeling.
The brain is really a good thing! Without it, it will be a headache.
It's okay to be casual when playing against a weak team, but the opening game! The opponent is the Pistons!
The sharp breakthrough of the flying squirrel was strangled by the defense of Ben Wallace and Hamilton. At 3 minutes and 51 seconds into the game, the Blazers scored zero points in the running game! They only relied on Rasheed Wallace to receive Randolph's offensive rebound and pass the ball to the opponent, causing the opponent to foul and get two points.
The Pistons only scored 6 points in nearly 4 minutes, which is a very low score. If converted to 48 minutes , the total score would be less than 80 points.
But even with this, the Trail Blazers were still trailing by 4 points at 2 to 6, and Maurice Cheeks called a timeout!
Liu Xiu was so annoyed by the game that he chose to change his angle - to appreciate the Pistons' defense... which was just as ugly.
He couldn't think of any adjective to describe the nearly four-minute game except ugly.
Liu Xiu thought back to the team that Jim Carrey truly built successfully - the Pacers. Although it collapsed without any results, it was well built, with both offense and defense, which was pretty good. In the Mavericks, Jim Carrey was fully mature, with gorgeous offense and top-notch defense, which was perfect.
But the team that Jim Carrey had almost completed as a head coach for the first time fell into the hands of Larry Brown, and the style of the picture...
Don't mention it, Liu Xiu thinks the Pistons are really strong! Even if there is no Tianzun, this Pistons team is also very strong!
Liu Xiu closed his eyes and took advantage of the timeout to review the Pistons' defense. He then continued to study it and prepare for the game.
At this time, a man sat next to him and asked, "Jace, do you want to play?"
"think."
After answering like this, Liu Xiu did not open his eyes.
Maurice Cheeks did this a few times in the preseason, but it was just to tease him, and he would wait until the end of the first quarter or even the second quarter or the second half of the second quarter before letting him play...
"I miss you and you still haven't stood up yet, do you want me to help you onto the stage?"
Hearing this unfriendly tone, Liu Xiu quickly stood up, as if he was really asked to go on stage!
Giving a player full of uncertainties a chance is likely to lead to unexpected events, and that’s what the Trail Blazers encountered this time—the Flying Squirrel is even more malignant than in the preseason!
He was not so anxious at first, but he was too afraid of Liu Xiu.
From a certain perspective, Little Flying Squirrel's recognition of Liu Xiu's talent is no less than that of the team's two major coaches.
This was also an unexpected situation for Liu Xiu, but after the initial confusion, he immediately calmed down, stood next to the coach, and waited for arrangements.
Maurice Cheeks was very satisfied, so satisfied that he was surprised. He decided to give it a try on a whim. He originally planned to play it safe by sending in Derek Anderson... but now that he had said it, he decided to send in the rookie!
After listening to the tactical adjustments made by head coach Maurice Cheeks based on the rotation lineup, Liu Xiu came to the sidelines. The boos came again...but he was now clear-headed.
The moment I stepped onto the court, the system prompt came...
"Great Magician: Game Status: Copy Target: Teammate: Zach Randolph, Technical Specialty Conversion Talent: Low Post Single Play...Opponent: To be selected..."
I had planned to study it carefully, observe the opposing players’ strengths with my own eyes, and try to guess what I might be able to copy… This is also a kind of fun.
Now, multiple choice questions are easy.
"System Boss, copy Hamilton!"
"...The host has successfully copied Richard Hamilton's characteristic transformation talent: Pursuit. Pursuit: In a single round of attack, the negative impact of the host's physical consumption on shooting is greatly weakened..."
