Volume 1: A rookie who breaks into the basketball world Chapter 35: A future worth looking forward to!
At around 4 p.m. on August 4, the Trail Blazers were the first to advance to the finals of this year's Rocky Mountain Summer League.
At 7:36 p.m., after an overtime game, the Jazz and the Knicks were still tied.
The competition system of the summer league is significantly different from that of the official NBA games, and the overtime rules are very different. The first overtime is no different from the NBA, but if the first overtime does not determine the winner, then the second overtime will be simple - whoever scores first wins!
These include free throws for fouled shots, technical fouls and personal fouls.
In the end, thanks to the bounce of college center Todd Biyombo and the lightning layup of Mo Williams, the Jazz defeated the Knicks 95-93 and met the Trail Blazers in the finals!
Liu Xiu and some of his teammates returned to the scene to watch the game after dinner.
There was no need to ask for tickets or anything. Most of the seats were empty. There were even fewer fans than in the afternoon game between the Trail Blazers and the Spurs.
After watching the game and returning to the hotel, Travis Outlaw said to Liu Xiu, "Jace, that guy, I remember he's from the University of Alabama, right? He runs really fast! You'll have to deal with him in the next game, are you afraid?"
"hehe."
Looking at Liu Xiu's smile, what does this "hehe" mean?
At this time, Liu Xiu could show a sarcastic smile, a disdainful smile, or a warm smile...it's all OK, they are all normal reactions.
But Travis Outlaw felt that Liu Xiu's smile seemed to be directed at him!
But it seems that not all...
Travis Outlaw didn't know why he wanted to give Liu Xiu a smiling expression.
Let’s change the subject.
"Jace, Matt, can we win the day after tomorrow?"
Matt Carroll responded, "Except for the Bulls, no team is our opponent in this game. It looks like the Jazz defeated the Knicks in this game, but although the Knicks are third in the preliminary round, they actually have the same record of 2 wins and 2 losses as the Jazz. There is not a particularly big gap between third and eighth place...right, Jayce."
Although Travis Outlaw was asking, his tone was not worried, and Matt Carroll was even more confident.
Liu Xiu was very satisfied with the confidence of his two strongest teammates and encouraged them decisively: "If you two don't hold us back, there will be no problem."
Travis Outlaw couldn't help it again and said angrily: "Can't you be the one holding us back?"
Liu Xiu looked at Travis Outlaw when he heard this.
Travis Outlaw felt that Liu Xiu was looking at a fool, and was about to retort that he was not a fool...but suddenly he remembered that they had worked together in many games, and he had never seen Liu Xiu perform poorly!
Thinking back carefully, it is true! Never! Not since the first game of the Orlando Summer League! Always stable!
Seeing Liu Xiu whistling and walking away, Travis Outlaw quickly chased after him, feeling grief-stricken and angry.
"It's not fair! I work so hard, but there are times when my performance isn't my best. This guy is so lazy, yet he performs so well every time!"
…
There are many summer leagues held in every draft year. This year, there are a total of 6 summer leagues, and 25 teams participated in two summer leagues.
All other summer leagues have ended. On August 6, the Rocky Mountain Summer League, which has the most participating teams, also came to an end and the last game day arrived.
After this day, the NBA will enter a long hiatus, and there will be no official NBA-related games for two months. Fans' attention to this last summer league has increased a lot.
The game was scheduled for 7pm. In the afternoon, something that had little to do with the game… or not so much to do with it either, became a small hit and drew more attention.
All 19,772 tickets for sale were sold out by noon today!
Nearly a month ago, on July 7, in the Orlando Summer League, 15,761 tickets were sold out for the game between the Magic and the Cavaliers, setting a record in the history of the NBA Summer League in decades. It was the first time that a stadium with more than 10,000 people sold out. The more than 15,000 people also set a record for the number of spectators in the NBA Summer League.
This record is not that impressive, but it is really hard to break.
The number of was not large, but this was the summer league. When Grant Hill played in the summer league, the number of spectators did not even exceed 10,000.
Who would have thought that in less than a month, this record would be broken!
On the one hand, it was because this was the finals in which the host Jazz participated. Although it was just a summer league, it still aroused the enthusiasm of fans in Salt Lake City and even Utah.
Win a championship… Jazz fans want it badly.
With Stockton retiring and Malone leaving, it's unclear when the Jazz will be able to complete their reconstruction. For a small-market team, it's good enough to have a championship period every 20 to 30 years. Who knows when the next championship will be.
It’s nice to have fun in the summer league.
But more are foreign fans.
Some of them are female fans who came for Liu Xiu, and some are Liu Xiu’s “technical fans”. The number is not large, but he has also become a “niche star” in the eyes of some people, but these are not the main force who came to the scene to support him.
Even more are Chinese, Chinese Americans, Asians and Asian Americans from all over the United States.
The Chinese market and the Chinese market have shown a little bit of their strength today.
A lot of reporters also came. As for the basketball strength, the reporters were more concerned about the high school rookie Travis Outlaw and the scoring champion of the Rocky Mountain Summer League, Mo Williams .
Since the start of the Rocky Mountain Summer League, Liu Xiu has been in the hot news the most times, even on the headlines, and has also moved from the basketball circle to the entertainment circle.
But what caught people's attention for the Trail Blazers' playing performance was Travis Outlaw, a high school rookie who was selected 23rd in the first round.
He ranked second in the scoring list, averaging 24.5 points per game, and ninth in the rebounding list, averaging 8.3 rebounds per game, which was an outstanding performance.
It's the final of a tournament. Even if the media don't like the Trail Blazers, there are still many media interviews today. After the pre-match training, the Trail Blazers opened up for interviews.
As for Liu Xiu, after accepting an interview with domestic reporters, he started skipping work.
He was interviewed during training yesterday, but no one asked him about basketball. Even the local reporters in Portland didn't care about how he played.
It's not like he really wants to be in the entertainment industry. He can use those reporters when needed, but he doesn't need to pay any attention to them when not needed.
…
Although it is just a summer league, Liu Xiu and his teammates take it very seriously.
Except for the interview session, Liu Xiu skipped work. The rest of the time, as long as it did not affect his rest, he was thinking about how to play today, discussing how to play with his two NBA teammates, and coaching the college students in the team with his two NBA teammates.
When these college students first got the opportunity to participate in the summer league, they felt that this might be their lucky break, because there were precedents of not being taken seriously in their freshman and sophomore years, showing their strength in the Rocky Mountain Summer League in their 20s, returning to college to become the core, and finally entering the professional arena.
Although they know that the top college athletes will not be released to participate in such competitions, the participating college students still hold out hope.
Maybe he thought that he was just unlucky and would soar to the top when he became a real professional player; maybe he thought that his talent was just buried and the coaching staff and training staff of the NBA team could help him discover his talent; or more directly, he thought that he could defeat these selected future NBA players and become famous in one battle...
Generally speaking, NBA rookies are quite friendly to college students in the Rocky Mountain Summer League. Even a tough guy like Matt Barnes treats college students well.
But the reality is cruel. After participating in a summer league, college players realized that the gap between geniuses is no smaller than the gap between geniuses and ordinary people.
These college students who have been regarded as basketball geniuses since childhood still have basketball dreams and genius basketball values... collapsed!
No one cares what their future will be like unless they make a breakthrough.
Maybe some people will give up on themselves, maybe some people will be unwilling to work harder, maybe some people will accept reality, maybe some people will adjust their expectations and find a more suitable path based on accepting reality...
However, most college students are slowly accepting all of this, but there is one team that is very special - the Trail Blazers!
These players were hit from the start.
Unlike other teams' rookies who always took care of the college students, Liu Xiu beat up the best fighter in the college team at the beginning, and then directed Travis Outlaw and Matt Carroll to beat up these college students in the training game, making them feel the cruelty of society from the beginning.
However, this made these college students appear extra tough when they encountered the destruction of NBA players from other teams later. They always adjusted faster and cheered up earlier than the college students from other teams.
At this time, the college students found that their psychological quality had improved a lot compared with the college students in other teams, and the later the game went, the more Liu Xiu was willing to teach them something... Although Liu Xiu himself didn't like training and loved to nag, and always said some unpleasant and irritating things that were true, Liu Xiu's words did help them.
Liu Xiu didn’t think so much at first, but as the game went on, he found that the operation that was originally intended to make the college students more obedient actually had such an effect, which was quite surprising.
But it doesn’t seem to be worth promoting, and it is not easy to succeed in this operation.
First of all, the person who does this needs to have noble character.
Martial virtue is also virtue...
Soon, the time came to 6:40 in the evening. After sufficient pre-match preparations, Liu Xiu and his teammates stepped onto the stage of the Rocky Mountain Summer League finals.
When they stepped onto the field, players from both teams felt their blood boiling.
Liu Xiu completely ignored external things and entered the game state.
At 7 pm, the Rocky Mountain Summer League finals between the Trail Blazers and the Jazz began!
Players from both teams fought hard from the beginning.
Mo Williams and Travis Outlaw are the two most watched rookies in tonight's game.
Jazz fans are expecting their rookie to create another miracle and win the championship with seventh place in the preliminary round!
However, the game was a little different from what they expected.
The competition wasn't even that intense... the difference in strength was quite obvious!
Liu Xiu organized the offense steadily, Travis Outlaw was in great shape tonight; Matt Carroll's shooting was just average tonight, but at least he did not fall behind, he was able to make one of three three-pointers, and his hit rates on mid-range shots and layups were over 40%.
When the Trail Blazers played normally, Mo Williams and Alexander Pavlovic really had trouble competing with the Trail Blazers.
Alexander Pavlovic, a 20-year-old small forward from the former Yugoslavia, is very good at defending technical players, but his defense against players with excellent physical fitness is average.
Travis Outlaw is still in a state of getting whatever he wants.
Mo Williams scored 17 points in the first half. Just as the Trail Blazers predicted, they couldn't defend Mo Williams. As long as Mo Williams was in good form, there was not much possibility of defending him.
But at the end of the first half, the Trail Blazers led the Jazz by 16 points, 53 to 37!
Mo Williams performed slightly better than Travis Outlaw, who scored 14 points in the first half, but the overall strength gap between the two teams was too big.
Even Mo Williams could feel that the other side was a team.
This feeling of college basketball made Mo Williams, who had just graduated from college and thought he had nothing to do with college basketball and had a strange sense of nostalgia, feel very excited!
Mo Williams did not give up and continued to lead the team in the second half!
On the Trail Blazers side, it was quite surprising to see Mo Williams playing harder after the start of the second half.
Surprisingly, Liu Xiu actually predicted this situation!
With Liu Xiu's reminder, the Trail Blazers were prepared and did not take it lightly. After being beaten 14 to 9 in the first half of the third quarter, they responded with a 13 to 7 wave in the last 4 minutes!
After three quarters, the Trail Blazers led the Jazz by 17 points, 75 to 58, and secured the victory!
There were no surprises in the final quarter, with Travis Outlaw's main attack, Matt Carroll's assist, and Liu Xiu's back-to-back play against the opposing defender when necessary...
At 8:31 pm, after 1 hour and 31 minutes of game, the Trail Blazers defeated the Jazz 104-80!
…
The moment the final whistle sounded, Liu Xiu received a system prompt.
"The game between the Trail Blazers and the Jazz has ended, and the relationship between the competing teams has been resolved."
"The 2003 Rocky Mountain NBA Summer League has ended, and the host's team relationship with the Trail Blazers summer league team teammates has been terminated."
“Match Rating:
Minutes: 33.
Data: 5 of 11 shots, including 1 of 1 three-pointers, plus 3 of 3 free throws, a total of 14 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 steals, 1 turnover, and 4 fouls.
Analysis: S.
Influence: A+.
Overall rating: S-…
Basic reward +70%, congratulations to the host, healing value +136."
"Rocky Mountain Summer League Tournament Clearance:
Appearance record: 7 games, averaging 31 minutes per game.
Statistics: 15.7 points, 5.4 rebounds, 5.3 assists, 1.7 steals, 0.1 blocks per game…
Record: 4 wins and 0 losses in preliminaries, 3 wins and 0 losses in finals, champion.
Congratulations to the host for receiving the highest reward: healing value +1000.
The host has received S-level rating twice in this summer league, and the additional reward is: healing value +200. "
"Available healing value: 10622..."
After the game was over, Liu Xiu came out of that state of concentration, looked at the system prompts, and looked at his teammates huddled together to celebrate, feeling a little dazed.
Then, he chose to ignore everything else, and when Travis Outlaw pulled him to celebrate, he did not refuse and celebrated with his teammates.
At this moment, everyone was immersed in the joy of victory.
Initially, no one thought the results of a summer league were that important. Everyone had their own thoughts, goals, and worries.
They didn't even think they could win a few games at the beginning, they just did what they wanted to do.
But from some day on, their goals became unified.
They began to play with confidence.
As they played, their goal was simple - to go to the end and win the championship!
Now, they have done it!
At this moment, Liu Xiu and his teammates were enjoying the purest joy of basketball and the purest joy of victory!
After celebrating for a while, the organizers held an award ceremony.
Compared to the Orlando Summer League, this is much more formal.
The championship trophy has a very nice design.
In terms of individual awards, Mo Williams of the Jazz won the MVP of this Rocky Mountain Summer League, and Travis Outlaw of the Trail Blazers won the MVP of this Rocky Mountain Summer League finals with 26 points, 10 rebounds, 1 assist and 2 blocks in the finals.
Although he may not have become famous, Travis Outlaw did gain some fame in this summer league, letting some basketball fans know that there was a high school rookie with a very criminal name.
Travis Outlaw, holding the championship trophy and the final trophy, was undoubtedly the most dazzling player in this game.
But the Trail Blazers head coach and chief assistant coach focused their attention on Liu Xiu.
"Kevin, do you think this kid can bring something different to our team?"
"Jayce is great, but it's difficult. His style of play is very leadership, but he's just a rookie and... not like a leader. The NBA and the summer league are completely different. There's no comparison."
Maurice Cheeks rubbed his beard and said, "Why is this guy performing so well? Why does he have to show such a good talent? He adds so much to my expectations!"
Kevin Pritchard smiled and shook his head.
Indeed, he and the head coach beside him have been unconsciously raising their expectations for Liu Xiu.
The reason is simple - the players you choose and the talents you discover will always have extra favor and extra expectations.
Now, looking at the rookie who can draw the loudest cheers and screams from the audience just by his face, Maurice Cheeks and Kevin Pritecha have regained the enthusiasm they had when they first became coaches, the worry and expectation about the unknown!
