NBA: Goat is actually me

Chapter 100: Intercepting Jordan, a Marketing Genius
The fans at the scene were excited at first, and then the whole stadium broke into deafening boos.

The judges only gave Meng Jin 49 points, but in the eyes of fans, this is definitely a full score move!
"Not a perfect score? Not a perfect score?" TBS commentator Bob Neal looked surprised, and then he said: "The one who scored 9 points is Gail Sayers, a member of the Chicago Bears Hall of Fame. I think he needs the National Guard to go home tonight!"

Meng Jin glanced at the scoreboard and didn't care. The score in the first round was not important. He would use his ultimate move only after entering the finals.

The next person to come on stage was Jordan. He ran up, jumped, and ended the battle with a one-handed windmill amid the cheers of the fans.

The fans gave 10 points one after another. Of course, the score cards in their hands did not count. The judges had the final say on how many points Jordan got.

The judges scored it 47 points. Jordan's shot was powerful but not difficult, which was a bit ordinary for him.

Drex came on next and also did a one-handed windmill move, but the beauty of his dunk was much worse than Jordan's, and he only scored 43 points.

Dominique Wilkins was the last to appear. He ran up from the baseline, then jumped with all his strength and completed a huge pull-up dunk!

Wilkins' dunk was very powerful. Power has always been his personal characteristic. After some discussion, the referee gave it 49 points.

After the first round of dunking, no one got full marks. The referee was intentionally suppressing the scores. These people must have gotten better and better as the dunking went on. If they were given full marks at the beginning, they would have to give full marks as the difficulty increased later. This competition would be unbeatable.

At the beginning of the second round, Smith scored 47 points with his second dunk and Cosey scored 38 points. After seeing the dunks of Meng Jin and Wilkins, he began to play badly. After jumping, he made a left-handed pull-up dunk with a amplitude so small that it required a microscope to see it.

However, "Little Potato" Webber was even worse than him. He gave up the dunk after two perfunctory attempts. He only scored 18 points in this round and was eliminated early.

Meng Jin was the next to appear on the court. He did not make any preparations. He just ran a short distance and then jumped under the basket.

Meng Jin did not jump with all his strength in this dunk, not every dunk requires jumping as high as possible.

Meng Jin put the ball in front of his chest. When his head was level with the frame, he did not rush to make any moves. He just waited quietly in the air.

The moment Meng Jin felt his body falling, he dunked the ball into the basket with both hands.

"What just happened? Time stopped!"

Commentator Dick Stock spoke for everyone!
The moment Meng Jin stayed in the air, everyone felt that time had stopped!

The referees were also surprised and raised their 10-point signs. The first perfect dunk of the night was born!
This dunk is not difficult, but the difficulty lies in the creativity. No one has dunked like this in this era.

TBS commentator Bob Neal shook his head and exclaimed: "He has superpowers. He can control time!"

Bob Neal didn't know at the time that his casual joke would later become one of the most classic NBA commentary lines. The media also gave Meng Jin a new nickname: Lord of Time and Space!
Of course, this is all a story for later. The dunk contest continued, and Jordan, Wilkins, and Drexler scored 47 points, 44 points, and 47 points respectively in the second dunk.

The players who entered the semifinals were Meng Jin, Jordan, Wilkins and Drexler, which was what the fans expected before the game.

Jordan used his ultimate move at the beginning of the semi-finals, dunking from the free throw line to get full marks!
Meng Jin on the sidelines was shocked when he saw this scene. What surprised him was not the distance Jordan jumped, but the process before he jumped. Jordan first dribbled the ball with his right hand and then calculated the step point to receive the ball. After taking two steps, he jumped and completed the dunk.

Meng Jin sighed that this man was really perverted. Even in the dunk contest, he only slam dunked in the standard three steps and was unwilling to take one more step.

Drexler also wanted to dunk from the free throw line, but he obviously fell short and stepped one step inside the free throw line. This could not escape the judges' keen eyes, and he only got 42 points for this dunk.

Meng Jin was the third to appear and made another 360-degree dunk!
The only difference from the first dunk was that this time he dunked with the ball, paused for a moment under the basket, and then jumped on the spot to complete the dunk.

Meng Jin's spinning figure in the air was extremely beautiful, and his dunk was full of explosive power and very shocking.

Another perfect dunk!
The camera turned to the audience, and the "magician" opened his mouth into an O shape and exclaimed: "Let's -go- home!"

Barkley couldn't help but hold his head: "Damn it! Control yourself! This is only the second round!"

Wilkins was the last to come on stage. He did a one-arm windmill after a run-up, as violent as ever, and the referee gave him a high score of 49.

In the second dunk of the semi-finals, Jordan stretched his whole body and completed a windmill dunk on the left side, scoring 48 points.

Dunks these days are all pretty much the same, with just a few moves coming and going, and the judges' scores are mainly based on who completes the moves more accurately.

Drexler threw the ball into the basket and slammed it down with both hands. This slam dunk was ordinary, with nothing to watch except that the last one was a little more powerful. The referee gave it 42 points.

Drexler can basically be announced as out early.

Meng Jin's next dunk brought a helper - the Bulls mascot.

While leaping over the mascot, Meng Jin changed hands under his crotch to complete the dunk.

No doubt, another 50 points.

This slam dunk was both creative and difficult. In this era, almost no one used props in slam dunk contests. The moment the mascot came out, all the spectators were visibly excited.

Before the dunk contest started, most of the audience were looking forward to the matchup between Jordan and Wilkins. When they saw the second round, their attention had all shifted to Meng Jin.

What will be his next move?
What new tricks does he have?

The fans are looking forward to it.

Meng Jin took another short run-up, then pushed off the ground and jumped up!
This time Meng Jin jumped with all his strength, and after looking down at the basket, he violently hit the rim!
The biggest highlight of this dunk was the final finishing move, when Meng Jin inserted his entire right arm into the basket!

The whole audience was in an uproar, and he once again refreshed the audience's three views.

In the end, Meng Jin advanced to the finals without any suspense with a score of 150 points through three deductions.

Jordan and Wilkins fought to the last dunk. In the end, Jordan scored 145 points with three dunks and Wilkins scored 143 points with three dunks. Jordan narrowly entered the finals!

Wilkins shook his head, he felt that he had encountered a shady deal, his dunks were no worse than Jordan's in terms of beauty and completion, but it was the Chicago player who made it to the finals. Wilkins didn't say much, nor did he complain to reporters, that was not his style.

Wilkins smiled gracefully and ended his journey in the All-Star Slam Dunk Contest.

Chicago fans cheered because what followed was a Bulls civil war, and no matter what the outcome, this year's dunk contest champion would stay in Chicago.

Jordan dunks first, then runs up and does a big pull-up dunk!

The scene was boiling with excitement, and the judges gave a full score of 50!
People around were cheering, but Meng Jin felt that the ball was unremarkable, just a pull-up dunk with a larger amplitude.

As for why the fans were so excited, Meng Jin was not quite sure. He thought it was probably because the fans of this era had not had anything good to eat.

Meng Jin felt that since he was participating in the dunk contest, he had an obligation to shock the fans. Meng Jin took the ball and walked behind the backboard.

"What!? What is he going to do? Jump from behind the backboard?"

"No way, absolutely impossible."

"The basket is in the other direction!"

The fans raised their questioning voices with expectation. They said it was impossible, but in their hearts they were eager to see Meng Jin complete a dunk from behind the backboard.

Meng Jin didn't rush to dunk. He said a few words to the staff next to him, and then the staff ran off the court and brought up a shoe box.

Under the gaze of millions of fans, Meng Jin slowly opened the shoe box, revealing a pair of hot pink sneakers!

This is Meng Jin’s signature sneaker—the MJ All-Star special edition.

Nautica founder David Zhu was very excited when Meng Jin changed his shoes on the spot: "There is no better advertisement than this. This guy is definitely a marketing genius, no, a genius!"

After changing shoes, Meng Jin's performance began. He threw the ball from behind the backboard, and the moment the basketball landed and bounced, Meng Jin jumped!
After a crotch dive in the air, Meng Jin looked back at the moon and dunked the ball into the basket with both hands!
The whole place exploded.

It really exploded!
When Jordan just dunked, the fans were all smiling and holding up the 10-point scoreboard. But when Meng Jin dunked, everyone held their heads in amazement and even forgot to hold up the scoreboard.

The commentator took a long time to utter one sentence: "I think what he changed was not shoes, but rocket thrusters..."

In his second dunk, Jordan made a front-facing pull-up slam dunk, the visual impact of which far exceeded Jordan's first dunk, but the judges only gave him 44 points.

Meng Jin's dunk just now raised the judges' scoring standards.

After dunking this ball, the outcome of the game was clear.

Meng Jin has almost touched the championship trophy with one hand. The audience’s focus next is not on the outcome of the match, but what other tricks this kid has up his sleeve.

Meng Jin then had two simple and rough dunks: one from the free throw line, one windmill from the free throw line, and one dunk between the legs one step inside the free throw line.

For Meng Jin, these two moves are even simpler than the dunk after a rebound. When jumping from the free throw line, he just needs to fully utilize his talent. There are many variables that need to be controlled in the dunk after a rebound. The first is the strength and position of the throw, and then the sliding distance after jumping, which cannot be too close or too far.

But from the fans' perspective, the two dunks from the free throw line will undoubtedly bombard their visual nerves more!
The audience was no longer surprised, but in uproar, shock, stunned, and finally in worship.

Several judges looked at each other in bewilderment. Is there any point in continuing the competition?
Having said that, they still routinely raised the 10-point sign.

CBS Radio's James Brown interviewed Mike Tyson directly on the sidelines.

Tyson shook his head: "After watching this guy's dunk, I felt like I was punched in the face!"

Sitting next to him was the famous host Oprah, who also expressed her opinion: "He can really dance freely in the air, not straight up or down. That's not really jumping, it's flying!"

Oprah was right. Meng Jin's two dunks planted a seed in the hearts of countless children in front of the TV. The children pointed at the TV and turned back to shout to their parents: "Look! This guy really flew!"

The moment when Meng Jin dunked from the free throw line and the windmill dunk from the free throw line, the photos taken by Walter Us Jr. of Sports Illustrated from under the basket, and the photos taken by Bulls photographer Bill Smith from the sidelines.

For a long time to come, these two photos were used as posters and pasted on the walls of the bedrooms of countless children born in the 80s and 90s, including some NBA players.

Twenty years later, Bulls photographer Smith admitted that the person he was most grateful to in his life was Meng Jin, no one else.

As Meng Jin's fame grew over the years, his photo was licensed thousands of times and used to make T-shirts, business cards and countless other souvenirs, making Smith a fortune.

It all started with Bill Smith pressing the shutter at that moment.

Jordan's final dunk was a jump dunk from the free throw line, the same move as in the second round.

Jordan felt that his dunk from the free throw line in the second round was not very complete and planned to try it again in the final.

This dunk was very smooth, effortless and almost perfect.

Logically speaking, this was definitely a full-score move, but the referee only gave it 49 points.

The referee's reason was that Meng Jin scored 50 points with a windmill shot from the free throw line. If Jordan also scored 50 points with just a dunk from the free throw line, it would be too unfair.

Thus, one of the most classic moves in the previous life's NBA dunk contest became a foil for Meng Jin.

When Meng Jin lifted the slam dunk contest trophy, the commentator joked: "I am now worried about the players who will participate in the slam dunk contest later. Meng has already spoiled the fans, and the pressure on the contestants who will participate in the contest will be great."

After losing the dunk contest, Jordan vented his anger on the next day's competition.

Although no one treats the All-Star Game as a show these days and both sides fight with real swords and guns, Jordan's anger brought the intensity of the game to another level.

At halftime, the score was 55-51.

The Eastern Conference All-Stars temporarily led by 4 points, which was definitely a low score in the All-Star Game. Both sides entered into a melee from the first minute. Malone even committed a flagrant foul on Jordan in the second quarter. When Jordan broke into the inside, Malone directly pulled him down from the air.

Jordan has an indestructible physique. He rolled on the ground three times before standing up again. He then put on a personal performance and scored 9 points in a row.

During the halftime break, Jordan specifically found Collins and said, "Hey! Doug! Only use the players who really want to play in the second half!"

Doug Collins had no choice but to obey when he saw Jordan in such a dead state. He originally planned to limit Jordan and Meng Jin's playing time in the All-Star Game to conserve their energy for the second half of the season.

Jordan played the entire second half, scored 43 points alone, and finally led the Eastern Conference All-Stars to a 118-113 victory over the Western Conference All-Stars.

Meng Jin was slacking off the whole time tonight, scoring 9 points and 4 rebounds.

The moment he held up the AMVP trophy, Jordan's face was filled with joy again.

Meng Jin was used to Jordan's mood swings. He had never been a moral role model.

The day after the All-Star Game, Meng Jin received a call from David Zhu early in the morning.

The first thing he said was: "Our sneakers are selling like crazy!"

(End of this chapter)