Champions Creed

Chapter 17: The Truth is Undoubted

At today's McDonald's All-Star Game, Bulls scout Ivanka Dukan was present again.

The last time he handed the scouting report on Roger to Krause, Krause laughed and said, "Don't be ridiculous. If we let a high school student come to the tryout, the other 26 teams will laugh at us. Besides, Michael won't agree to this."

But two days ago, Krause handed Dukan a plane ticket to Memphis and said, "Write me another scouting report on Roger."

Men are all like this, their mouth and body are always two different things.

So Dukan showed up at the Central South Gymnasium, but just a few minutes ago, he felt like he had come here for nothing.

A nervous Rasheed Wallace ruined the game.

When there were only four players left on the West All-Stars team, Dukan felt that he might not be able to get any interesting information today. Unfortunately, Roger did not even play to his strength today, and the game was forced to end.

But then, he heard the organizer announce a crazy decision: the Western All-Stars Team with 4 players will face the Eastern All-Stars Team with 5 players!
Then, something even crazier happened.

Roger actually led this team that didn't even have 5 players and reversed the score!
The gliding layup from just one step inside the three-point line also made Dukan's eyes light up.

He opened his notebook again. With Roger's game, it would not end in boredom at all!

Stackhouse angrily punched the basketball hoop. He was clearly prepared for defense, but he didn't expect Roger to jump and attack the basket in one step inside the three-point line, and he succeeded!
As a top high school scorer, Stackhouse knows very well how difficult it is to make a long-range layup.

Not every scorer has that trick, just like you can't expect every center to be able to use a sky hook from any position.

Roger not only overtook the team's score, but his personal score also reached 20 points, suppressing Stackhouse.

But Stackhouse is not in a hurry. With 5 players against 4, I have the advantage no matter how you look at it.

As long as the tempo is slowed down and the game is dragged into a battlefield, there is no way four people can win.

Everyone on the Eastern team knew what to do next. When outnumbered, the best way was to use quick passes to find open opportunities.

But the players of the Eastern Conference All-Stars team passed the ball several times, but found that there was no open space at all!

Roger, Jacques Vaughn, O'Bannon and Andre used quick rotation at all costs to fill in the gaps and plug all the loopholes!
Dukan only wrote about Roger's offense in his last scouting report. This time he wanted to write about his defense: "Although his defensive skills are not good enough and his body is not strong enough at the NBA level. But I can't find any fault with his defensive attitude!"

Because it was 5 against 4, the players of the Eastern Conference All-Stars team all hoped to pass the ball to an absolutely wide-open space before shooting, but this instead caused them to hesitate.

So when there were only 5 seconds left in the attack time, they still didn't find the bigger opportunity they had expected!

In the last 5 seconds, Stackhouse received the ball, and Roger and O'Bannon directly pressed and double-teamed Stackhouse who was holding the ball.

Because there was little time left for the offense and the pressure from the double-team, Stackhouse had to pass the ball hastily.

However, Stackhouse's passing ability is not much better than Roger's. After entering the NBA, he has a ratio of assists to turnovers close to 1:1, and he has almost as many turnovers as he averages assists per game.

His pass was so slow and floating that it was eventually caught by Andre who rushed out!
This is the second time today that Andre has defended this top five high school student in the United States!

All the fans stood up and cheered. The Western All-Stars team, which only had 4 players, used their unparalleled enthusiasm and terrifying willpower to force the Eastern All-Stars team, which had one more player, to make a mistake!
After completing the steal, Andre made a long pass and launched a counterattack, never letting the Eastern team gain a stable position.

But Andre's passing level is about half that of Ronaldo.

The basketball flew directly to the baseline. Although Roger caught up with it at an amazing speed, he was already outside the baseline when he jumped up to catch the basketball.

Following closely behind, Stackhouse raised his arms high, trying to intercept Roger's pass back.

But after Roger turned in the air, he didn't throw the ball back into the court, but threw it directly into the basket!

Ivanka Dukan has been dealing with basketball players all her life, and it's not like she hasn't seen people who play basketball alone.

but.
This is the first time Dukan has seen someone who doesn't pass the ball in such a situation!

In China, how many years is the sentence for passing the ball in basketball?
Roger threw the basketball directly to the basket from outside the baseline. His five fingers seemed to have magic power, always making the ball draw a perfect arc.

This time was no exception. The basketball went over the backboard from behind and then fell immediately.

With a lob shot from behind the backboard, Roger further widened the gap between himself and Stackhouse!
After scoring the goal, Roger clenched his left fist, pursed his lips and looked at the sky.

Even when it was 4 vs. 5, it did not dampen his desire to win at all!

Dukan continued to improve his scouting report: "Roger is still a long way from Michael, but he is similar to Michael in one respect. Both of them are absolutely crazy about winning. Roger is definitely a fighter!"

Andre rushed over and hugged Roger. He didn't expect that his pass that was destined to be a mistake would turn out to be an assist.

Roger also patted Andre on the back: "Good pass, buddy. Don't pass it again next time."

After saying that, Roger passed by Stackhouse and continued to defend.

He didn't even look at Stackhouse, as if he never considered him as an opponent.

Stackhouse's mentality began to change and he began to become impatient.

He began to feel that patient teaching was a complete waste of time.

That bunch of rubbish can't even beat 5 against 4!

So the next round, Stackhouse decided to take matters into his own hands.

He held the ball and played directly without sharing the ball with anyone.

Old man John Wooden on the sidelines shook his head. He had heard that UCLA also liked this kid, but he would call the school immediately after the game and ask them to give up recruiting.

It's a simple truth. When you lose patience and start playing one-on-one, your advantage of 5 vs. 4 will completely disappear. If someone with such a low basketball IQ enters UCLA, he will definitely be a big cancer on the court. Look at Roger, his basketball IQ is so high, he knows how to put the ball into the basket. Stackhouse finally missed the mid-range shot under the double interference of Roger and Andre. In fact, his playing style in this round is not much different from Roger.

The only difference is that Roger can make the shot with two defenders, but Stackhouse can't.

This difference caused Roger's offense to look reasonable, while Stackhouse's offense looked stupid to John Wooden.

After missing the shot, Andre jumped up and slapped the ball toward the front court.

Jacques Vaughn got the basketball and ran in front, but facing three people chasing him from behind, he was not very confident that he could attack the basket.

So he threw the ball to O'Bannon who was following up from the side and behind, hoping to make an alley-oop with him.

But O'Bannon was not prepared, he thought Vaughn was going to do it himself.

He jumped in a hurry and failed to hold the basketball steadily, and in panic he pushed the ball towards the backboard.

The players on the Eastern Conference All-Stars team breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, the score gap did not widen any further.

But a figure flying into the penalty area made the Eastern Conference All-Stars team, which had just put their minds at ease, hang in the balance again.

The basketball that was pushed toward the backboard due to a mistake in receiving the ball was caught by the shadow. Roger held the rebounding basketball firmly with both hands and smashed it in. O'Bannon's mistake turned into a rebound assist!
Roger doesn’t understand what assists are, but he can make his teammates understand!

"OHHHHH!!! Beautiful dunk! Roger can not only turn a missed pass into a score, but also a missed alley-oop into a score! God, I feel like as long as the ball appears in the opponent's half, Roger will find a way to get it in!"

This time, Roger showed off his athletic ability. This beautiful dunk after hitting the backboard also pushed the atmosphere to a climax.

The fans realized that a great miracle was taking place at the Central South Gymnasium.

If Jacques Vaughn and O'Bannon had doubts about winning with 4 vs. 5 at the beginning, now they have no doubts in their hearts.

Follow the footsteps of No. 14 and they will surely create magic!
In the subsequent games, the Four Warriors of the West were like they were injected with chicken blood, maintaining high speed operation on the defensive end and never slowing down.

The other three knew very well that they only needed to slow down the Eastern Conference's scoring pace, and Roger would solve the offensive problems.

Therefore, they can put all their physical energy into the defensive end.

Thus, such a spectacle emerged: the high school geniuses of the Western Conference team were willing to be blue-collar workers. They defended and fought hard, and gave all the shooting opportunities to No. 14.

No. 14 lived up to expectations. He weaved through the crowd, carried two people and threw the ball in even though he lost his balance.

He set a screen and passed two people, then faced two more people who were shrinking under the basket and scored a layup with a European step.

He used a quick change of direction to dodge two people, then faced the other two opponents who came to defend and made a long shot to score.

Roger's scoring pace never stopped, and the number of defenders in front of him was really just a meaningless number.

High school level defense has no practical meaning in front of him.

At the same time, Stackhouse made mistakes, missed shots, and angrily scolded his teammates.

The Western team became more and more courageous under Roger's repeated raids, while the Eastern team fell apart due to Stackhouse's repeated complaints.

John Wooden and Bob George sat motionless in their seats. They had hosted 15 McDonald's All-Star Games before. They had witnessed geniuses like Magic Johnson, Markelle, Jordan and Shaq crush their opponents on the court.

But no player's performance before was more outrageous than Roger's!

With 23 seconds left in the game, Roger grabbed the rebound and made a mad dash.

At that moment, all the members of the Eastern Team rushed towards Roger to surround him.

But after running across the midfield line, the only ones who could keep up with Roger were the Oak Hill backcourt pair of Stackhouse and McKinney.

They were on both sides of Roger, one on the left and one on the right. Roger attacked the basket while being double-teamed, and his two big hands immediately slapped the basketball.

Roger in the air just changed his hands elegantly, turned 180 degrees with his back to the basket, and avoided the two people.

Then he gracefully kicked the ball back with his left hand and scored a goal easily!

A 180-degree turn and a layup allowed Roger to score his 40th point of the night!
比赛最后10分钟，在4对5的情况下，罗杰狂砍25分0助攻，率队取得了12分的领先！

CBS commentator Tom McCarthy had goose bumps all over his body: "At the Mid-South Arena in Memphis, a miracle is happening! The greatest night in the history of the McDonald's All-Star Game is today!"

After scoring, Roger pounded his chest and walked towards the camera at the baseline: "Even if it's 4 vs 5, the truth is unquestionable!"

All the fans in the stadium were conquered by Roger. In contrast, Stackhouse only scored 27 points.

27 points in the whole game is not a low number. Even a strong player like Jordan only scored 3 points more than him.

But compared to Roger leading the team to victory with 4 against 5, 27 points is nothing.

Stackhouse was right. After this game, no one would compare Roger with him anymore.

At this time, John Wooden, who had not moved for a long time, adjusted his glasses and patted Bob Jorgan, who was also petrified, and said, "This kid may become one of the greatest players."

"Yes, yes, there is no doubt that he will be one of the greatest players in the history of McDonald's All-Star Game!" Bob Jorgen nodded.

“One of the greatest McDonald’s All-Star Game players?” Wooden laughed. “I’m talking about the NBA, man.”

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Thanks to the big guys who gave me tips for boiling water for tea, thank you all! I beg for follow-up reading, monthly tickets, and tips during the new book period, thank you all!
(End of this chapter)