Black Basketball: A false start

Chapter 298: Success
"What? Is this level of defense really worthy of the name of Miracle Generation?" Yoshiki Anton, who had rushed into the inside, looked at Hanamichi Sakuragi beside him with some disappointment and muttered to himself, "Sure enough, I shouldn't have agreed to join this public Shonan High School with grandpa..."

"Are you done talking? Then it's my turn!" Sakuragi Hanamichi's eyes narrowed, and an invisible pressure was immediately released from behind him, shocking Anton Yoshiki so much that his breathing stagnated.

"How could this be..." Anton Yoshiki muttered to himself in shock as he looked at Sakuragi Hanamichi who raised his arms high. "Although this guy is indeed very tall and has very quick reactions... but as long as I use a big swing layup, with a whole body width between us, no matter how strong his defense is, he shouldn't be able to interfere with me..."

As his thoughts progressed, Anton Yoshihira's hands slowly drew an arc in the air as planned, and his right hand, like a crescent-shaped scimitar, hooked the ball towards the basket.

"Haha... So it's that black-skinned kid's trick again?" Sakuragi Hanamichi, who had been standing there motionless, suddenly laughed and said with disdain, "But compared to that black-skinned kid, your speed is much slower!"

"boom!"

As the sound of a basketball colliding with a palm was heard, Anton Yoshihiro's breathing rhythm couldn't help but stagnate. A huge force came from between his palms, making Anton Yoshihiro feel his hands numb.

"How is this possible..." Anton Yoshiki slowly lowered his head to look at his empty hands and muttered to himself, "This guy's steal... I didn't even react!"

"Although it's only winter, if any opponent still thinks Sakuragi is a top-notch blue-collar player who needs to hide behind Kaneki Ken to be effective, he will definitely suffer on the court..." Miyagi Ryouta crossed his arms in front of his chest and said with emotion, "Now Sakuragi has completely grown into a highly mobile striker who is extremely threatening on both offense and defense!"

"Hahaha, you little brat, have you learned to respect your seniors?" Looking at the basketball that he had hit hard, Sakuragi Hanamichi's footsteps suddenly changed. He stopped on the spot, turned around, and chased after the basketball that was constantly jumping on the floor.

"This guy... is so fast!" Anton Yoshiki looked at Sakuragi Hanamichi's back with a shocked face and said softly, "Could it be that he just... was deliberately luring me into a trap?"

"Yoshi!" Sakuragi Hanamichi rushed to the basketball and stretched out his long arms. His two big hands closed like iron clamps, clamping the basketball tightly in his hands.

"It's not over yet!" After landing, Yoshiki Anton gritted his teeth angrily and rushed towards Sakuragi Hanamichi involuntarily. His arm, full of traces of training, stabbed at the basketball in Sakuragi Hanamichi's hand like a knight's spear.

"Alas, this idiot... his intention to steal the ball is too obvious..." Miyagi Ryouta shook his head helplessly and said, "Now even if it's me, if I want to steal the ball from Sakuragi, I have to take advantage of double-teaming, and Sakuragi's attention is not on me, so I can only succeed occasionally... This guy's spirit is not bad... but his mentality is a little too naive..."

"Hey, do you still want to steal the ball from me?" Sakuragi Hanamichi smiled and lifted the ball to avoid Anton Yoshiki's interception. He lowered his head and glanced at Anton Yoshiki who kept pushing him from behind and said, "The speed is good, but it's a pity that the target is too obvious and the technique is too stiff..."

"Stop talking nonsense, you haven't beaten me yet!" Anton Yoshiharu roared in dissatisfaction.

"Well, if that's the case..." Sakuragi Hanamichi raised his eyebrows and looked at Anton Yoshiki and said, "Then don't blame me for being merciless~"

"What..." Before Anton Yoshiki, who was trying hard to keep his position behind Sakuragi Hanamichi, could react, he saw Sakuragi Hanamichi's heart sank suddenly and his back hit his chest heavily.

"Puff!" Anton Yoshiki, who was hit by Sakuragi Hanamichi's brute force, suddenly felt stars in his eyes. He couldn't help but retreat repeatedly until he reached out to grab the basketball hoop and barely stabilized his body.

"What a weak force..." Sakuragi Hanamichi shook his head with some disdain and said, "It can only be regarded as a good seedling, but the combat effectiveness is still too weak..."

As the words fell, Sakuragi Hanamichi made a deep shot and retreated in front of Anton Yoshiki's unwilling expression, then slowly put the ball together with both hands, slightly bent his knees to accumulate strength, then jumped up and gently pushed the ball towards the basket with his palm.

"This guy... isn't he an inside player?" Anton Yoshiki muttered to himself in shock as he looked at Sakuragi Hanamichi shooting from outside the three-point line. "But such a standard shooting hand shape... is simply not what an inside player should have!"

"Is this strange?" Inoue Ayako, who was standing not far from Anton Yoshiki, said proudly, "Sakuragi received the most orthodox basketball education from Kaneki Ken from the beginning. After Kaneki Ken left Neon, Mitsui Hisashi and Izawa Shuji kept polishing Sakuragi's shooting... It can be said that now Sakuragi is not afraid even if he competes with Kamiso Ichiro in shooting!"

"Swish!" As the sound of a basketball hitting the net was heard, the net was splashed with the spinning basketball, and a crisp sound like water splashing also rang in Anton Yoshiki's ears.

"How's it going? New guy, do you want to score a few more goals?" After scoring a goal, Sakuragi Hanamichi looked at Anton Yoshiki with a smug look on his face and said, "You talked so big, but now it seems that your ability is just like this~"

“Tsk…” Anton Yoshiki wiped the sweat from his chin in dissatisfaction and said in a deep voice, “Come again if you want. Do you think I’m afraid of you?”

"Very good, very energetic!" Sakuragi Hanamichi looked at Anton Yoshiki with joy, walked slowly to the basket, picked up the basketball and stuffed it into Anton Yoshiki's arms, saying, "As a senior, I won't bully you. In the next ten balls, as long as you can score one goal, you win, and I have to score ten goals to win. How about it?"

"I won, what's the benefit?" Anton Yoshiki pouted a little unhappy, raised his head and looked at Sakuragi Hanamichi and asked, "Can I be in the starting lineup?"

"The starting lineup is still not good enough..." Sakuragi Hanamichi calmly folded his hands in front of his chest, looked at Anton Yoshiki happily and said, "But I still have the right to let you be the sixth man~"

"Hey, hey, hey, this Sakuragi brat is a little too arrogant..." Miyagi Ryouta looked at Sakuragi Hanamichi with some dissatisfaction and muttered, "I am the captain of Shonan High School!"

"What's the big deal?" Inoue Saito smiled and approached Miyagi Ryouta and said, "And don't you think the current Sakuragi looks very similar to the previous Kaneki and Akagi-senpai?"

"Yes..." Miyagi Ryouta nodded with a complicated expression and said, "Now Sakuragi has grown into the pillar of Shonan High School going south!"

"Bang!" Just as Miyagi Ryouta was chatting with Inoue Ayako, the sound of a palm colliding with a basketball was heard again on the court. Looking up, they saw that Yoshiki Anton, who had forced his way into the inside again, was slapped out of the court by Hanamichi Sakuragi.

"How about it? Are you coming again?" Sakuragi Hanamichi asked Anton Yoshiki with a playful look. "Come again!" Anton Yoshiki stood up with an unconvinced look on his face, went to the sidelines to pick up the basketball, and came to the top of the three-point arc again, posing a triple threat posture.

"boom!"

"Come again!"

"boom!"

"Come again!"

In the next ten minutes, Sakuragi Hanamichi gave everyone a feast for the eyes with his fancy block show, while Anton Yoshiki no longer had the arrogance he had at the beginning, and his eyes were filled with resentment and dissatisfaction.

"boom!"

With Anton Yoshiki's last-ditch three-pointer from mid-court bouncing out of the basket, this frivolous duel came to an end.

"Haha, I won!" Sakuragi Hanamichi pointed at Anton Yoshiki with an excited look on his face and said, "As punishment for losing, from today on you will be responsible for cleaning our stadium!"

"I don't want to..." Anton Yoshiki said with a pout.

"Ah? You, a newcomer, dare to play tricks on me?" Sakuragi Hanamichi walked in front of Anton Yoshiki with some dissatisfaction, lowered his head to look at Anton Yoshiki's stubborn expression, pressed his forehead against Anton Yoshiki's forehead and said in a deep voice, "Do you believe that I will beat you to death now?"

"Tsk, boring guy..." Anton Yihui curled his lips in dissatisfaction, pushed away Ying Mo Hanamichi's hand that was grabbing his collar and said, "Besides, I didn't promise you. If I lose, what should I do...

"That's true..." Sakuragi Hanamichi's face turned pale for a long while before he forced out a reluctant smile and said, "Boy, I'll remember you. Your name is Anton Yoshiki, right? When you join the basketball club, I'll show you how I'll deal with you!"

What happened was that Sakuragi Hanamichi came to the sidelines angrily without looking back, and started shooting training on an empty basketball court.

"Sakuragi is just a guy who looks cold but is actually warm-hearted. You don't need to take some of what he says seriously." Miyagi Ryouta said with a smile as he came to Anton Yoshiki. "Since Kaneki Ken went to the United States, Sakuragi has been concentrating on basketball training... So he doesn't appreciate those players who take shortcuts and disobey orders..."

"Really?" Anton Yoshiki nodded thoughtfully, then turned to look at Miyagi Ryouta and asked, "By the way, Captain, I heard that our previous ace player was called Kaneki Ken, right? What kind of player is that guy?"

"That's a good question..." Miyagi Ryouta tried hard to recall every detail of Kaneki Ken's time at Shonan High School. After a moment of silence, he replied, "This guy... is a groundbreaking player. I believe that even in the United States... he is still the strongest one!"

……

"This guy, even if he goes straight to college now, he will definitely be one of the strongest players!" Coincidentally, during the warm-up training before the game between Oak Hill High School and Sierra Canyon Middle School, Amare Bailey looked at Kaneki Ken who kept shooting three-pointers from midfield with an astonished look on his face and muttered to himself, "Anyway, I don't think those so-called talented players in high schools nowadays can shoot such a goal..."

"But those two guys on the opposite side aren't any good characters either..." Stephen Jackson said solemnly as he looked at the two tall figures warming up on the half court of Sierra Canyon Middle School, "Jermaine O'Neal... and Tracy McGrady... these two guys might really be able to lead Sierra Canyon Middle School to play a different game..."

"So you are scared, Stephen?" Kaneki Ken, who was doing shooting practice, stopped what he was doing and looked at Stephen Jackson with burning eyes and asked, "If you are really scared, just ask the coach to leave the court. Just replace him with someone who is not scared. Anyway, those two guys are just insignificant characters in my opinion."

"What should I be afraid of?" Stephen Jackson shrugged nonchalantly, chuckled and said jokingly, "Anyway, I'm not the boss of the team anymore. If we lose, you'll be the one to take the blame."

"Is the coach of Oak Hill crazy..." Tracy McGrady, who was warming up, muttered angrily while looking at the Oak Hill High School half court, "I don't know where they dug up a so-called genius player and dared to aim for the league championship..."

"Stop complaining, Mac." Jermaine O'Neal kept recalling the time when he and Kaneki Ken attended the training camp together. He said with a hint of worry in his tone, "The next game may be the toughest battle ever for both of us..."

"Tsk, I hope so." Tracy McGrady snorted and curled his lips.

"Beep~" With the referee's whistle on the sidelines, players from both teams finished their pre-match warm-ups and strode onto the court with their heads held high.

"The game begins! Both teams jump the ball!"

Just as the players from Oak Hill High School and Sierra Canyon High School lined up on both sides of the center line, the referee walked onto the court holding a basketball.

"Hmm..." Just as Clark Jackson was about to jump the ball at the midline as usual, Kaneki Ken suddenly stepped forward, held Clark Jackson's face, looked at Jermaine O'Neal with a playful look and said, "You can't jump over this guy... Why don't you let me have a try?"

"Of course I can..." Clark Jackson looked at Coach Stevenson on the sidelines with some hesitation, only to see Coach Stevenson nodded silently, indicating that Clark should follow Kaneki Ken's instructions. Clark Jackson shrugged indifferently and took the initiative to give up the position for the jump ball.

"Long time no see, Jermaine." Kaneki Ken came to the center line and looked at Jermaine O'Neal with a smile and said, "I heard that you have made great progress recently? You have even become a five-star high school student~"

(End of this chapter)