Time flies, and it is November in a blink of an eye.
Ever since Maxon decided to open a column in the Philadelphia Evening Post to report on the new season of the Pennsylvania High School Basketball League, he has almost become the team reporter for Lower Merion...
Every now and then, Maxson would take his camera to Lower Merion.
In addition to filming the players' usual training scenes, Maxon also planned to collect some materials about the story between Kobe and Su Feng.
In Su Feng's previous life, many biographies of NBA stars came from reporters like Maxson.
For example, when Kobe was in his senior year of high school, many reporters came to Lower Merion.
Because Kobe was already very famous at that time, everyone was optimistic about his ability to enter the NBA and become a star.
However, it is quite rare for someone like Su Feng to have reporters come to help him do these things even though he is not famous yet.
There are many journalists like Maxon abroad.
Of course, they don’t just interview athletes, some of them also go “undercover” in certain companies to uncover industry secrets.
In Su Feng's previous life, many of the reports that won international news awards were written through this kind of long-term investigation and interview.
As a person with journalistic ideals, Maxon felt that writing a story about a talented American high school student making it to the NBA was not new.
But what if it was a story about a Chinese student making it to the NBA?
Maxon thought this would be fun.
Greg Donner and the school are very supportive of Maxon on this matter.
Because from the perspective of the school and Greg, this is helping them get free publicity.
For a moment, if it weren't for the huge difference in skin color between Su Feng and Maxon, even Kobe would have doubted the relationship between Su Feng and Maxon.
…
The 15th is the eve of the Pennsylvania High School Basketball League game.
After finishing the extra training with Kobe, Su Feng returned to the apartment and took a bath to relax.
Then while taking a bath, Su Feng opened the system interface.
Under Su Feng's almost insanely strict standards, Su Feng felt that he was not far from being an excellent blacksmith, or, worse, an excellent basketball player.
"Host: Su Feng, nationality: China, age: 16 years old, height: 190 cm, weight: 76 kg..."
"Host's current ability value (NBA second-round pick level): close-range shooting: 44 [64], mid-range shooting: 75 [79], three-point shooting: 77 [80].
Passing: 20 [45], Vision: 25 [50], Ball Control: 49 [55].
Lateral movement: 78 [88], one-on-one defense: 77 [91] , steals: 46 [81].
Bounce: 54 [71], Strength: 36 [45], Backcourt rebounds: 24 [30].
The host is currently equipped with the shooting action: Grade A Stephen Curry University shooting package.
The host is currently equipped with the special skill: Kobe's turnaround (golden epic), current level: college elite level.
Host's Stunt Library has no stunts equipped: Sam Gold (original).
The host currently has equipped badge: None. "
In terms of changes in ability values, Su Feng's abilities can be said to be growing at a speed visible to the naked eye.
However, after improving some attributes through daily training, Su Feng also discovered that the higher the ability value, the slower its growth rate.
For example, before, Su Feng’s shooting ability value would often increase by several points a day, but recently, his mid-range and three-point shooting values ​​have basically not increased.
In addition, because Su Feng constantly pursues difficulty, the hidden stunt "Kobe's turnaround fadeaway" has now been upgraded to the university elite level.
The biggest change that the elite-level "Kobe's turnaround" brought to Su Feng was that his turnaround speed was not only faster than before, but also more stable.
So...it's still that damn paradox.
The system eliminated any possibility of Su Feng cheating.
"Oh, no matter how good your defense is, could you have expected that I would encounter Kobe, a human-shaped plug-in?" Su Feng thought to himself after reviewing his ability values.
“The next goal is to unlock the 7.0 system.
Although I have saved up a lot of iron points recently and can participate in the lottery, it is not necessary.
After these friendly matches, my current ability is definitely enough to play in the high school league.
Although I really want to know what the badges actually do, it’s not very reliable to rely on luck, and it may even slow down my progress in upgrading the system.
Now upgrading the system and unlocking more abilities is the key to my continued improvement!"
After making a plan, Su Feng fell asleep.
After all, if you want to train hard every day, even Iron Man needs to go to bed early and get up early.
…
The next day, because today was the opening day of the Pennsylvania High School Basketball League, Su Feng and Kobe had already made an appointment.
From now on, all special training programs at 4 a.m. on competition days will be cancelled.
Of course, the training was cancelled, but Kobe still had to eat sandwiches.
"You just transferred here. It would be bad if you were late because you got lost. I will wait for you at your house on game days next time."
At the end of yesterday's training, Kobe said to Su Feng.
Su Feng did not expose Kobe's flawed excuse. After all, you have friends to go to school with, so why not?
And even though Su Feng's actual age is much older than Kobe, friendship between men sometimes has nothing to do with age.
It is worth mentioning that although the competition system of the American high school basketball league is very different from that of the NCAA, they also have similarities in many places.
Generally, like in Pennsylvania, the tournaments held in November and December are called sectional qualifiers.
In January and February, there is a regional competition.
The one held in March is called the state championship game.
In a state like Pennsylvania, if so many high schools were to play against each other, a high school team would probably have to play hundreds of games a year.
Therefore, the organizing committee of the general competition will first divide it into a zone based on the area where the high schools are located. This zone usually has 30 to 40 high schools.
These high schools will compete against each other in a single round-robin format, and the top four in each division will advance to the final regional competition.
Once the competition enters the regional competition stage, a round-robin system will be used to determine the top eight at the state level, followed by a final single-elimination championship battle.
Therefore, this is why Su Feng wanted to recommend Kobe to the sewer before.
Because under this kind of competition system, even an iron chariot has a certain chance of overturning.
Of course, Su Feng felt that it was too early to recommend Sewer to Kobe now. He planned to slowly instill Sewer's corporate culture and philosophy into Kobe after the league started.
Having said that, Lower Merion's luck this year wasn't very good either, as they were assigned to a division that included a team like Reedley High School that had won six consecutive championships.
But……
Kobe, Su Feng and Raul Meilien's tools did not think that their divisions were bad.
Because they had beaten Reedley High School in a friendly match before, for a moment, the players of Lower Merion lost their awe of the defending champions.
On the contrary...
On the other hand, at Reedley High School, head coach Fernandez wanted to hire someone to assassinate Greg Donner after seeing Reedley's division.
Fernandez has been really depressed since the disastrous defeat to Raul Merion in the last friendly match.
…
…
In the opening game, Lower Merion's first opponent is Shipley, a school with an average SAT score of 1,300.
Um……
Usually in the United States, this kind of school is considered a weak school in the basketball circle...
As it turns out, Shipley may have insulted the word "underdog".
"Why do I feel like the game is over before we even get to warm up?"
As the first official game of his high school basketball career, Su Feng, who had wanted to kill everyone, said a little depressed after looking at the scoreboard on the sidelines.
"That's normal. They played pretty well this year. You know, we beat them by 70 points last year." Kobe patted Su Feng on the shoulder and said.
Su Feng: ORZ.
I thought Nefaria was already a piece of tofu dregs, but I didn't expect that there was something worse than tofu dregs.
26 to 87, on the court, if Lower Merion's substitutes hadn't played conservatively, Shipley's score might not have exceeded 20 today.
There is no way. The gap between American high school basketball is just too big.
Therefore, Su Feng and Kobe were both replaced by head coach Greg after the first half.
In the entire game, Su Feng, who only played for 2 quarters, made 8 of 11 shots, including 4 of 5 three-pointers, without any free throws, and scored 20 points.
Kobe made all 10 shots, including 3 of 3 three-pointers and 4 of 4 free throws, and scored 27 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists, 4 steals and 4 blocks.
Facing an opponent like Shipley, Su Feng really couldn't even hit the target.
Fortunately, Lower Merion's next opponent, Malvern Preparatory School, is said to be quite strong and has the ability to qualify from the division...
…
On the 19th, at the Malvern Preparatory School basketball hall.
After three quarters of the game, the students in this basketball hall began to doubt whether they were watching the NBA.
Kobe performed a slam dunk show in this game, completing a total of 5 slam dunks in the game.
Su Feng put on a three-point show, making a total of 7 three-pointers in the game.
Even... there are 3 super long three-pointers that are not common in this era.
In the game, Su Feng not only showed off his shooting range , but his catch-and-shoot and fadeaway three-pointer also astounded the students at Malvern Preparatory School.
Su Feng was desperate.
Because today...his touch feels just amazing.
I originally wanted to increase the difficulty and increase the number of missed shots after taking a big lead, but my touch didn't allow it.
And there is one thing...
Malvern Preparatory School is said to be a strong basketball school.
Look!
It’s only three quarters, how come the score has become 70 to 44!
"Well, the idea of ​​increasing the difficulty of the shot to gain iron value when you are sure to win is correct. After all, no matter how small a grasshopper is, it is still meat.
Today I was just too accurate and my opponent was too weak."
After the game, Su Feng comforted himself by looking at his technical statistics.
In the end, Lower Merion won the game 86-57. Su Feng made 12 of 21 shots, including 7 of 14 three-pointers, with no free throws, and scored a game-high 31 points, in addition to 5 rebounds and 0 assists.
As for Kobe, he made 11 of 23 shots, including 0 of 6 three-pointers and 5 of 8 free throws, and scored 27 points , 15 rebounds, 7 assists, 5 steals and 4 blocks.
Although Kobe was not accurate from the outside in this game, his five dunks were all spectacular.
Moreover, Su Feng always felt that Kobe was deliberately stealing rebounds for him, because Kobe missed several three-pointers and finally picked up the rebounds himself.
"I hope the next opponent will be stronger!" After the game, Su Feng silently cheered for his opponent in the next game in his heart.
…