Black Basketball: A false start

Chapter 17 Practice Match (Part )
"What Teiko Junior High School? They're just a bunch of losers who can't even hold the ball." After a successful fast break, Hanamiya Makoto said arrogantly.

"What did you say, you bastard!" The second-team point guard looked at Hanamiya Makoto with an annoyed look on his face. He could no longer suppress the anger on his face. He stepped forward, grabbed Hanamiya Makoto's collar and was about to punch him.

"Stop it." Naoto Sanada stopped the second-team point guard from the sidelines and turned to look at Kenaki Sanenobu, "Coach Sanenobu, please take care of your players."

Kenmei Sanenobu was in a dilemma. He was just an ordinary middle school coach, and his job was just to do his job until he met Makoto Hanamiya. He thought this talented player was the foundation of his rise, but he didn't expect that in just one year, he united a bunch of main players and isolated him. Now he is just a puppet in Wuqi First Affiliated Middle School to deal with the school leaders.

"Um... Hanamiya-san, please be careful with your actions and don't be too aggressive." Kenaki Sanenobu advised with some embarrassment.

"Huh? Who do you think you are, bah-ga~" Hanamiya Shin blew bubbles while walking nonchalantly towards the backcourt, "I have always played like this. Without the results I brought you, do you think you could have kept your position as head coach last year? Idiot!"

"I'm... I'm sorry..." The courage that Kenaki Sanenobu had just mustered was shattered by Hanamiya Shin's words.

"?" Murasakibara Atsushi was a little confused when he saw the situation in front of him. "No way, Yanzi, why is the coach of this middle school so afraid of his own players, and why is that old guy Shirogane so scary?"

"Remember, Murasakibara. Bad guys are not scary... What's scary is smart bad guys." Kaneki Ken said with some emotion, "This is just the beginning of Hanamiya Shin's game. I'm afraid those guys in the second team will be difficult to beat."

The situation on the court also confirmed what Kaneki Ken said. As the game progressed, Hanamiya Makoto's physical contact with the second team's point guard became more and more frequent, which also forced the second team's point guard to devote more attention to protecting the ball.

"Pass it." Hanamiya looked at the second-tier point guard in front of him with a sickly smile, "You can't hold the ball, and you can't make the shot, so why not pass it."

"It's none of your business how I play! You're just a shady guy!" The second-team point guard was so infuriated by Hanamiya that he decided to break through and take a shot against him to save his face.

But just as the second-team point guard passed by Hanamiya Makoto, Hanamiya Makoto stretched out his leg casually, and the second-team point guard let out a scream, fell to the ground, and rolled over, covering his leg.

"Ah! My knee! My knee!" The second-team point guard on the ground looked pale and in pain. The referee immediately stopped the game. Sanada Naoto also hurried onto the court to check the injury. As an assistant coach of the basketball team, he also knew a little bit about how to check injuries.

"It's not good. It might be a torn anterior cruciate ligament." After doing a simple push and pull test, Naoto Sanada made a serious judgment.

"Huh? Teiko Junior High School? Is it such a fragile piece of porcelain? Hahaha, hahahahahahahaha..." Hanamiya Makoto, who was standing by, not only didn't think he had done anything wrong, but instead laughed sarcastically.

"Hey, you bastard!" Kaneki Ken couldn't stand it anymore, so he walked up to Hanamiya Makoto, grabbed his collar with both hands, and lifted him up in the air. He stared at him and said word by word, "Listen to me, the coach doesn't allow us to fight, so I won't do anything to you for now. But if any of my teammates have any accidents later, such as getting injured, slipping, or even having a scratch on his body, I will blame it on you, and then I will blow your head off myself."

"Hey, Teiko, what do you want to do?"

"Put the captain down quickly!" Seeing Kaneki Ken's extraordinary strength and the fact that he seemed to be rude to Hanamiya Makoto, Hanamiya Makoto's lackeys also came up at this time, trying to oppress Kaneki Ken with the advantage of numbers.

"Yanzi is right." Murasakibara Atsushi squeezed into the crowd with his tall and strong body, and said with a bad face, "I advise you to stay away from Yanzi. Don't you see he is talking to your captain? Be careful or I will crush you to pieces!"

Looking at the two burly men who were obviously taller than him, staring at him with unfriendly expressions, the lackeys who came to cause trouble now retreated with fear on their faces.

"Put him down, Kaneki-san." Sanada Naoto ordered with an unhappy look on his face, "I'll treat this as an accident, but if it happens again, I'll call the police directly.

"Huh? What did you say..." Just when Hanamiya Makoto wanted to continue to talk bad, Kaneki Ken gave him an obviously cold look, making him shut up tactfully.

Naoto Sanada arranged for his classmates to send the second team's point guard to the hospital, and then replaced him with the second team's backup point guard. The farce ended and the game continued.

It must be said that Hanamiya Shin is a good player. In the following games, the backup point guard of the second team may be afraid of the miserable situation of the second team point guard. He was a little timid in offense and defense, and made mistakes under the pressure of Hanamiya Shin. Although Sugitani Taro scored some points in offensive rebounds and second offense, it was still a drop in the bucket compared to the overall defeat.

Seeing that the situation was developing in an unfavorable direction, Naoto Sanada decisively called a timeout and prepared to adjust his tactics.

"Damn it!" Sugitani Taro threw his towel in anger and shouted, "These guys are playing too dirty! How can they play basketball like this!"

"Okay, stop talking, Sugitani." Naoto Sanada interrupted his complaints, "For the next game, let's adjust our tactics. Play more pick-and-rolls, pass the ball more, and try to mobilize their formation..."

"If you ask me, you'd better pass the ball less." Kaneki Ken's lazy voice sounded from the side.

"What did you say, Kaneki-san?" asked Naoto Sanada in disbelief.

"Haven't you noticed yet? Hanamiya Makoto really stopped doing any dirty moves under my threat, but even though he was full of momentum when he went up to defend, the one who really caused the damage was the squinty-eyed guy with glasses. These two are tough guys with brains. One of them acts as a thug to establish his authority and disrupt the offensive players' thoughts, while the other seizes the opportunity to steal the ball. In other words, playing dirty is just their cover, and what they actually want to do is to cut off the offense inside and outside the court." Kaneki Ken explained with a smile.

"In that case, if we pass the ball less, wouldn't that be what they want?" Naoto Sanada said with some confusion.

"Pass the ball less, it's not like we won't pass the ball, Coach Sanada." Kaneki Ken said nonchalantly, holding a lollipop in his mouth. "So far, hasn't Sugitani-senpai done a good job? I would say that you shouldn't pass the ball more than three times in one attack. Sugitani-senpai actually has an advantage under the basket, so we should take advantage of it. Since that squinty-eyed guy is playing two-on-one, our shooting guard is not helpless. The others can move away, screen each other on the outside, and then pass the ball directly to the basket. He's dreaming if he wants to block the ball on the outside."

(End of this chapter)