The longest river

Chapter 19 Cleveland Glider

Pierce didn't know Garnett before, but after Thaddeus introduced him, he excitedly got out of the car and hugged Garnett.

Black people like to address each other as brothers, and the two hit it off immediately.

After getting into the car, Garnett noticed Yang Shuai.

Pierce enthusiastically introduced Yang Shuai to Garnett: "This is Hansen from Ohio, he's a future NBA player."

Upon hearing this, Garnett smiled and extended his hand to Yang Shuai, appearing very polite.

However, because he was too tall, he could only sit sideways in the car, which looked a bit comical.

The three boys quickly started chatting excitedly inside the car.

Garnett spoke very quickly, and his gaze kept drifting out the car window, much like Yang Shuai yesterday.

The topic they talked about most along the way was basketball.

Pierce called himself "the Inglewood Magician," while Garnett called himself Chris Webber from Greenville.

Yang Shuai doesn't have a specific basketball idol. After thinking for a moment, he said he is the "Cleveland Glider"①.

Of course, they also talked about the recently concluded NBA season, in which Hakeem Olajuwon finally won his first championship.

Then there's the much-discussed regret that Jordan and Olajuwon never got to face off in the Finals.

They chatted non-stop the whole way, only quieting down after boarding the plane.

Looking at the two people sitting to his left, Yang Shuai suddenly realized that he was going to play in the AAU tournament with Pierce and Garnett.

Now they're really going to sweep through Las Vegas.

They checked into a circus hotel in Las Vegas.

As soon as they entered, they saw a woman performing a tightrope walk in the lobby.

This immediately drew the attention of the three boys.

Yang Shuai had only heard of this kind of performance in his mother's childhood memories in his previous life.

They rested at the hotel for an afternoon, and in the evening, Thaddeus took them to the casino.

Las Vegas is nicknamed "Gambling City" because it is full of casinos.

However, they didn't have much money. Most of the time, they could only run around in the aisle with a bag of 25-cent coins, and then go and spin a few slot machines when they saw one that was empty.

After winning only once every 20 attempts, they had a small taste of the treacherous nature of casinos.

However, they enjoyed it immensely.

For them, who were still high school students, all of this was new and exciting.

The next day, they held their first team practice session at the training ground, which was also the only practice session before the game.

AAU's schedule is very tight, with basically two matches a day, leaving virtually no time for training once the matches begin.

However, this training session was different from any of Yang Shuai's previous ones.

They were all wearing matching Klass shoes and Adidas jerseys, and there were quite a few reporters present with cameras.

They received so much attention because of Garnett and Pierce, but primarily Garnett.

Garnett was named South Carolina's Mr. Basketball in his eleventh grade and was ranked among the top five high school players of the class of 1995 by various media outlets.

Moreover, the intensity of the training was far greater than what Yang Shuai had experienced.

Everyone wants to stand out and attract the attention of reporters.

Yang Shuai quickly stood out from the crowd, or rather, apart from Garnett and Pierce, the other players on the team were relatively weaker in comparison.

According to regulations, reporters were not allowed to conduct interviews at this time, but they all began to inquire about the name of the suddenly appearing Asian player.

Of course, more important than that for Yang Shuai is that he secured his starting position through this training session, which will greatly help his performance going forward.

The first match for the Geely team was against the Miracles, a team sponsored by Nike.

Because Nike sponsors more than one team, none of them are named after Nike.

Pierce shared a room with Yang Shuai. After returning to the room, he started talking about tomorrow's opponents. In the past two years, the Ge Siwei team had lost to them in the knockout stage.

“They have Jerani McCoy, and the brothers Jason Collins and Jalen Collins.”

Listening to Pierce mention names he'd never heard before, Yang Shuai seemed unconvinced: "We will get our revenge."

Yang Shuai has no history of playing here, so those defeats will not affect him.

Moreover, he probably guessed why Thaddeus had gone to such lengths to bring him and Garnett to this team—perhaps for a game like this.

The competition took place at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Yang Shuai was stunned when he entered the venue.

The competition venues inside the convention center stretch as far as the eye can see, numbering at least twenty or thirty.

Moreover, each field was already filled with players, and with the addition of scouts, reporters, and university coaches, it was as noisy as a market.

Thousands of people are competing in the same arena, which is a completely different kind of competition from the state AAU competitions he participated in before.

He turned to look; Pierce was eager to try, but Garnett looked just as shocked as he did.

From yesterday until now, it's clear that Garnett and Pierce have more in common than Pierce, who lives in a big city.

Garnett turned around and met Yang Shuai's gaze; they both nodded.

The situation they were facing was beyond their expectations, but it also served as a reminder: with so many players, they had to go far enough in the tournament to get any attention.

They arrived at their designated match venue, but the Miracles had arrived earlier and had already begun warming up.

Pierce then pulled Garnett and Yang Shuai aside and pointed to who was who on the other side.

Yang Shuai suddenly realized that the three people Pierce mentioned yesterday were all tall and had very strong physiques.

Garnett is under a lot of pressure in this game. "That guy should be Shia Cotton, he's Arizona's Rookie of the Year, we need to keep an eye on him too," Pierce said, mentioning a name he hadn't brought up yesterday.

Yang Shuai followed his gaze and saw a big guy who was about 2 meters tall and weighed about 120 kilograms. His exposed arms were as thick as his calves.

With his physique and build, it's hard not to think of LeBron James.

The games at various venues began one after another. Yang Shuai started as the shooting guard for the Geely team, Pierce started as the small forward, and Garnett started as the center.

For the Miracles, Cotton started at small forward, while McCoy and Jason Collins, the older of the Collins brothers, partnered in the frontcourt.

Garnett won the jump shot against Collins, and the first basket for the Geely team was also given to Garnett in the low post.

However, as soon as Garnett received the ball, Collins pushed him out of the paint.

Garnett is tall with an excellent wingspan, but he is also very thin, which puts him at a disadvantage against a physical center like Collins.

Pierce tried to break through, but Cotton held him tightly.

Garnett chose to turn around and face the basket for the attack.

After a crossover, he squeezed past Collins from the baseline and scored with a reverse layup.

Although he was not as strong in physical confrontations, Garnett completely outclassed Collins in terms of speed, explosiveness, and flexibility.

The Geely team took the lead, and on the turn, Cotton grabbed the ball and drove hard against Pierce to score a layup with his left hand.

Pierce was pushed off the line.

Having dominated Yang Shuai, he met his match against a big guy like Cotton.

"You fucking can't defend me at all!" Cotton then started trash-talking Pierce right after scoring.

Pierce's face instantly darkened; it was quite embarrassing to be yelled at like that by a newcomer.

He turned around and asked for a one-on-one.

Although Cotton is big, he is not good at defense. Pierce used a sudden stop and spin shot after the breakthrough to create space.

Unfortunately, his shot missed.

Collins blocked Garnett, and McCoy secured the rebound.

After advancing to the frontcourt, the Miracles fed the ball to McCoy and started a low-post isolation play inside.

Although Jordan emerged in this era, it was still an era where the inside game reigned supreme.

McCoy's hook shot after a low-post turn looked incredibly refined.

However, just as he released the shot, Garnett shrunk into the paint and successfully disrupted his shot.

Collins rushed in from the other side and grabbed the offensive rebound.

The biggest advantage of having two big men on the court at the same time is their control of the rebounds.

However, Collins' shot was immediately blocked by Garnett!
Facing two opponents alone, Garnett perfectly demonstrated his terrifying defensive prowess in this possession.

The ball was blocked and sent to the free-throw line, where it landed right in Cotton's hands. He immediately accelerated into the paint and slammed it home for a dunk.

Garnett was still trying to block the shot, but Cotton's excellent physical attributes, coupled with his left-handedness, prevented him from succeeding.

"I'm going to fuck your ass!" Cotton trash-talked Garnett again after scoring, this time with profanity.

Garnett wasn't Pierce; he headbutted Cotton, and the referee had to come and separate them.

The atmosphere on the field instantly became tense.

Yang Shuai was also surprised by Cotton's actions, considering that AAU is more of a stage to showcase individual abilities.

However, this may be the difference between the AAU Championship and the state AAU competition. Just as he had felt before, everyone wants to go further on this stage and get more attention.

Garnett continues to demand his position, but at a higher level.

He dribbled past Collins this time.

If the previous play in the low post wasn't clear enough, then this play more clearly demonstrated his guard-like ball control skills.

He wasn't exaggerating when he said he was Chris Webber from Greenville; he seemed capable of anything.

However, McCoy's help defense came at just the right time. He first gave Garnett a chance to contest the shot and then disrupted Garnett's attempt.

Garnett is still too thin.

Fortunately, Garnett was quick enough to jump twice and grab the offensive rebound.

Collins had already retreated to the basket, where two big men were blocking him from both sides, making it impossible for him to move.

Just then, he spotted a figure rapidly cutting in from the weak side.

He demonstrated his passing ability, passing the ball through the gaps in the crowd.

The figure caught the ball, took a step, and jumped up...

"Oh!"

A gliding tomahawk dunk slammed the ball into the basket!

It wasn't until the ball went in that everyone was surprised to discover that the person was actually Yang Shuai.

This immediately ignited the crowd at the sidelines.

A yellow-skinned dunker?
Unheard of!

Before Yang Shuai could even start celebrating after landing, he saw someone even more excited than him, roaring as he came over to bump chests with him.

Who else could it be but Garnett?

Now he knows why Yang Shuai calls himself the Cleveland Glider!
-Dividing line-

①: "The Glider" refers to Clyde Drexler, the current star player of the Portland Trail Blazers, who can easily glide a long distance towards the basket after jumping, just like he is actually gliding in the air like a glider.

(End of this chapter)