Black Basketball: A false start

Chapter 301 The Strongest High School Students’ Showdown

[Basketball genius: "Golden Sparkle, we won the national championship! Even though it was a close win by one point~"]

[White-haired devil Sasaki: "I watched your game, Sakuragi, you performed very well."]

[Basketball genius: "Haha, really? It's just so-so. It can't be compared to when Gilgamesh was here~"]

[Sasaki, the white-haired devil: "Don't always compete with me, Sakuragi, you have to play your own basketball."]

[Basketball genius: "Yeah! By the way, Gilgamesh, I heard you also have a game today, right?"]

[White-haired devil Sasaki: "Yes, he is a very strong opponent."]

[Basketball genius: "Keep up your spirits, Jin Shanshan, although I don't think there is anyone stronger than you!" (_)]

"What are you looking at, Ken-kun? Why are you laughing like that~" In the locker room of the Lower Merion High School gym, Momoi Satsuki asked Kaneki Ken with a curious look on her face.

"Nothing, I was just chatting with Sakuragi." Kaneki Ken handed the phone to Momoi Satsuki and said.

"Sakuragi-san..." When Taoi Satsuki heard Kaneki Ken mention Sakuragi Hanamichi, she couldn't help but think of the IH finals a few days ago. With a look of emotion on her face, she said, "Sakuragi-san has now... also grown into a player who can stand on his own!"

"Yeah, so I, as the eldest brother, can't lose face." Kaneki Ken, who was standing by, had already changed into his sports equipment. He stood up and stomped his feet. After making sure that there was no problem with his sneakers, he turned his head and looked at his teammates and said, "The importance of today's game, I don't think I need to say more. Whether you want to enter the NCAA to get a scholarship, or want to skip the NCAA and play in the NBA, this game is a great opportunity for you to prove yourselves."

"But the guy across from us...seems like he's already applied for an NBA tryout..." Amar'e Bailey's mind flashed with the scene of Kobe Bryant wreaking havoc on the court, and he spoke with a trembling tone of nervousness.

"It's just a tryout application, it's no big deal. I can get a lot of this kind of thing anytime I want it." Kaneki Ken's expression didn't change at all. He turned his head and looked at Amar Bailey and said, "You just need to do what you are good at on the court. I'll take care of the steak. In short, remember... there is no player stronger than me!"

"Yes!" The players of Oak Hill High School looked at Kaneki Ken who looked calm and composed, and the tension in their hearts dissipated a lot unconsciously.

"Choosing to recruit this guy was one of the best decisions I made in my life..." Coach Stevenson looked at Kaneki Ken with a gratified look on his face and murmured to himself, "Maybe in the future I will enter the NBA... or even become one of the greatest coaches? Who knows..."

……

"Fuck, is today an important day? Why are there so many reporters on the sidelines?"

As soon as the players from Lower Merion High School came out on the court, they were dazzled by the flash lights on the sidelines.

"Shut up, Chris." Kobe Bryant glanced at the player who was talking, pointed to the sidelines and said, "Don't you see who's sitting there?"

"Who..." Chris Wayne looked in the direction of Kobe Bryant's finger and opened his mouth in shock. "OMG! Michael? Charles? Larry? Oh my God! What day is this? Is this a preview of the NBA 50 conference?"

"Today is not a day..." Kobe Bryant rolled his shoulders and muttered to himself while staring at Kaneki Ken in the Oak Hill High School rest area, "It's just a day for me to compete with that guy."

"Fuck, Charles, can you please stop eating your damn hamburgers?" Michael Jordan, who was sitting in the audience, covered his face speechlessly and turned to look at Charles Barkley and said, "I really shouldn't have asked you to attend this event... You've made me lose face."

"Fuck you, Michael..." Charles Barkley said after taking a bite of his hamburger, "Don't act like I wouldn't have come to watch this game without you...How could I miss the game between these two little guys today? That blond kid has learned all my skills under the basket!"

"You have no skills at all! You have nothing but your ass!" Michael Jordan complained speechlessly.

"Fuck you Michael, are you looking for trouble?" Charles Barkley said to Michael Jordan with an unhappy look on his face.

"Great, gentlemen. If you keep swearing like this, the security will probably ask us to leave." Larry Bird stretched out a bit bored and looked at the reporters on the sidelines and said, "In public, it's best to behave decently, right?"

"Not only reporters..." Charles Barkley, who had taken advantage of Larry Bird's step to get off the ground, also became serious. He turned his head to look at a group of staff members wearing various NBA team uniforms in the audience behind him and said, "Even NBA scouts came today. That one is Sean from the Suns, and that one is Vlad from the Trail Blazers..."

"Okay, shut up, Charles." Michael Jordan looked at the two teams' players striding onto the court and interrupted Charles Barkley. "You better watch the game later...these two kids will become superstars in the future."

"Long time no see, Kaneki Ken." After entering the court, Kobe Bryant ignored the other players from Oak Hill High School, walked straight up to Kaneki Ken, looked directly into his golden eyes and said, "You know I'm going to beat you in this game, right?"

"Eat less spoiled steak. Don't you realize you're hallucinating?" Kaneki Ken said to Kobe Bryant with a smile, "You'll lose to me again today... just like you lost to me before."

"Then just wait and see." Kobe Bryant stared at Kaneki Ken. After a moment of silence, he turned around and came to the preparation position before the jump ball and said in a deep voice.

"Beep~" With a whistle, the referee came to the center line and threw the basketball high up. The centers of both teams jumped up almost at the same time, and finally Lower Merion High School got the first offensive ball.

Just as his teammate passed the ball to the backcourt, Kobe Bryant jumped up, flew forward to grab the basketball, and rushed straight towards Kaneki Ken with the ball.

"Move away, move away! I'll take this ball one-on-one!" After Kobe Bryant dribbled the ball across half court, he looked at Kaneki Ken who was walking towards him and instructed his teammates with a serious expression.

"It seems that your growth over the years has made you very confident..." Kaneki Ken stood in front of Kobe Bryant with his arms open, chuckled, looked into Bryant's eyes and said, "In the training camp before, you would not choose to play one-on-one with me without a pick-and-roll~" "The past was the past, and this is now." Kobe Bryant frowned somewhat unhappily, and the basketball began to jump lightly in his hands.

"This guy's ball control is so skillful..." Tao Jing Satsuki said in surprise, looking at Kobe Bryant's back, "This quick dribbling alone may be faster than Ah Da! But the entire Lower Merion High School clearly looks like the most orthodox academic basketball style... Why would they use such a simple and direct trick to deal with Yanjun?"

"It's simple. The reason why Lower Merion High School used to play traditional basketball was because Kobe had never faced an opponent that required him to give his all..." Coach Stevenson explained as a matter of course, "But Kaneki Ken is different from the opponents he had faced before... Maybe if he didn't score in just one round of offense, the game would completely fall apart in that round."

"boom!"

Just as Coach Stevenson was teaching Momoi Satsuki some court knowledge on the sidelines, the sound of Kaneki Ken's explosive ball being activated in the center of the court also reached the ears of the two.

After Kaneki Ken started to blast the ball, he turned into a golden stream of light and rushed straight to the left side of Kobe Bryant.

"You are still as fast as you were five years ago..." Kobe Bryant narrowed his eyes and looked at Kaneki Ken's profile, and said with a hint of nostalgia in his tone, "But now I... always feel that I will never lose!"

As he spoke, Kobe Bryant's right hand suddenly stretched out from behind Kaneki Ken and went straight towards the basketball in Kaneki Ken's hand.

"Do you think you're the only one who's improved over the past few years?" Kaneki Ken shrugged nonchalantly, "I remember I told you when we first played against each other... I'm evolving faster than light!"

As Kaneki Ken finished his words, the basketball made a sound of breaking wind and flew out from under Kobe Bryant's crotch.

"Goodbye, Kobe." After completing a crotch-pass, Kaneki Ken leaned on Kobe Bryant's chest and spun lightly. His left hand caught the basketball that bounced in the air, and he jumped up with his foot on the free throw line and glided straight towards the basket.

"It's not over yet..." Kobe Bryant looked at Kaneki Ken's back as he broke through. Just as he was about to catch up, he found himself blocked outside the three-point line by the center of Oak Hill.

"Chris?" Kobe Bryant looked at the old acquaintance in front of him with a surprised face, muttering to himself, "The moment Kaneki Ken received the ball, he was already prepared for the pick-and-roll... Is this guy's tactical quality... so good?"

"Come on, Asian boy!" Jack Thurman, the white center of Lower Merion High School, opened his arms, stared at the aggressive Kaneki Ken and shouted loudly.

"Do you think I'm the iron-headed guy like Kobe? There are so many people in the inside but I still rush in..." Kaneki Ken, who was dribbling and breaking through, suddenly made an emergency stop and passed the ball. He jumped up near the free throw line, raised the ball high with his right hand, and aimed at the basket.

"I guessed that you would play like this!" After getting rid of Chris Wayne's entanglement, Kobe Bryant came behind Kaneki Ken, jumped up, stretched out his arms and fanned the basketball in Kaneki Ken's hand.

"Really? You're going to block me?" Kaneki Ken looked at Kobe Bryant who was attacking from behind, his lips curled up slightly, and he teased in a playful tone, "Have you lost your sensitivity to the game because you've played too many games against weak opponents? Remember, Kobe... if you don't defend me the moment I start... you won't have the chance to defend me again!"

As he spoke, Kaneki Ken, who was floating in the air, paused for a moment with his excellent waist and abdominal strength, dodged Kobe Bryant's block with a deft pull-up shot, and then flicked the ball out with a soft touch.

"Shh!"

As the sound of a basketball hitting the net was heard, the home fans of Lower Merion High School also fell silent.

"Excellent ball-handling skills...high tactical literacy..." After watching Kaneki Ken's offensive choices, the Lakers scout on the sidelines lowered his head and wrote in his notebook, "From the current perspective, he has excellent mid-range shooting ability. I suggest selecting this player in the first round..."

"Well done, Boss." Amar Bailey cheered and came to Kaneki Ken and said with a smile, "That pull-up shot just now looked so cool!"

"If you want to learn, I'll teach you~" Kaneki Ken smiled and patted Amar Bailey's butt and said, "After we win this game."

"Don't worry, Boss." With Kaneki Ken's encouragement, Amar Bailey's expression also became serious, "I will complete the task you assigned to me."

"This guy is just as tough as you said, Kobe..." Jack Thurman frowned as he walked up to Kobe Bryant and said in a serious tone, "It looks like this game is going to be difficult..."

"Pass the ball to me later." Kobe Bryant wiped the sweat from his palms with his jersey expressionlessly, lowered his eyes and looked at the ground and said in a deep voice, "Remember to defend your opponents, okay?"

……

"Hanamichi, what are you watching?" In a small apartment in Tokyo, Sakuragi's father, who had just got off work, asked curiously as he looked at Sakuragi Hanamichi who was sitting on the sofa watching TV.

"Watching the game." Sakuragi Hanamichi watched the game broadcast on TV intently and casually responded to Sakuragi's father.

"Watch the game..." Sakuragi Dad patted the dust on his sleeves, took out two bottles of soda from the refrigerator, came to Sakuragi Hanamichi and sat down, looking at the familiar figure on TV and said in surprise, "Hey? Is that Kaneki-san?"

"Yeah." Sakuragi Hanamichi's eyes revealed a hint of desire, and his tone was filled with envy and admiration as he said, "Golden Gilgamesh's current opponents... are already the group of five-star high school students on the other side of the ocean."

"Haha, you don't have to be too envious of Kaneki-san, Hanamichi." Father Sakuragi smiled and ruffled Sakuragi Hanamichi's hair and said, "After all, after leaving Kaneki-san, you also led the team to win the national championship, didn't you?"

"It's different, Dad." Sakuragi Hanamichi said in a complicated tone, "Neon is still a little too small for me."

(End of this chapter)