The longest river

Chapter 56 Season Opening Match

"You did a fantastic job!" Fraser praised Yang Shuai after the press conference.

Especially when asked about the championship at the end, Yang Shuai did not directly say that he would bring a championship to the Pacers, but said that he would help the team achieve the goal of winning the championship.

The two may seem similar, but if Yang Shuai becomes a star in the future and fails to win a championship with the Pacers, then the meaning will be completely different.

The latter is only natural, after all, Yang Shuai is still a long way from becoming a star player, while the former could easily become a handle for others to smear Yang Shuai.

However, it's not that Yang Shuai has learned how to deal with media questions, but rather that LeBron James's negative example in this regard in his past life is too memorable.

The Pacers' fourth preseason game was against the Bullets, and Yang Shuai once again got playing time in the second half.

He continued to deliver an outstanding performance, contributing 13 points and 5 rebounds in 14 minutes of playing time.

His continued outstanding performance has brought him back into the media spotlight, even though he was already attracting a lot of attention.

Previously, they just wanted to know how Yang Shuai, a high school student with all his buffs stacked, would perform in his debut. But now, they expect Yang Shuai to create a "yellow whirlwind" in the league.

In that case, they would have a lot more news material, and the alliance could even truly open up a new market.

The Pacers will play seven preseason games this year, and their fifth game will be against the Raptors.

Compared to their previous opponents, the Raptors, who had just joined the league, were significantly weaker.

Brown further expanded his rotation in this game, with Yang Shuai getting a chance to play in the first half.

Brown's words back then would have been standard official pleasantries from any other coach, but it seems that's exactly what he planned.

Yang Shuai was just as excited as in previous games, and immediately drew cheers from the crowd with a powerful tomahawk dunk during a fast break.

He was fully displaying the talent and energy that belong to a high school student.

However, an accident occurred when he attempted to dunk on Vin Baker again. He was unable to dodge Baker's massive body, and the two collided in mid-air, the huge impact slamming him hard onto the floor.

The moment Yang Shuai made contact with the floor, his mind went blank, and then he felt a sharp pain in the front of his hip joint.

He panicked for a moment, and many names flashed through his mind: Kawhi Leonard, Derrick Rose, Tracy McGrady, Brandon Roy...

The team doctor then spoke with him for a while, and he was helped back to the locker room by his teammates before being taken to a local hospital.

The examination results came back quickly: he had a strained hip flexor and was expected to need about one to two weeks of rest.

Upon hearing the result, Yang Shuai breathed a sigh of relief. Compared to the people he had initially thought of, this result was quite fortunate.

However, this means he might miss the team's opening game.

Since it wasn't a serious injury, Yang Shuai was sent back to his hotel after the check-up.

Shortly after he returned, Scott came to visit him in his room.

"How's your injury?" Scott was still wearing his game jersey, it seemed he had rushed over right after the game.

Yang Shuai was moved by this.

Theoretically, he and Scott are the biggest rivals, but now Scott is the person he gets along best with on the team.

"It's just a muscle strain. The doctor said the recovery time is one to two weeks." A week later, it will be the opening game of the regular season.

"You're really lucky, kid." Scott breathed a sigh of relief after hearing this.

“But don’t always think about dunking; you won’t be that lucky every time,” Scott added.

"Byron, do you have any dunking techniques to avoid injury?" Yang Shuai asked at this moment.

He'd been holding back for so long that he was always trying to dunk every ball, and he definitely needs to tone it down a bit.

But it's impossible to get him to give up dunking. You can't stop eating just because you're choking on food, can you?

The normal idea is to figure out how to avoid choking next time.

Scott shook his head with a wry smile.

Yang Shuai's reaction seems illogical at first glance, but considering how he handled the conflict with Johnson before, it seems quite reasonable.

Scott stroked his chin and pondered for a while.

"You can try using your supporting hand to make physical contact with the defender in the air to support your body and maintain your balance," he concluded with a suggestion.

Although he's not a dunker, he's played in the league for so many years that even if he hasn't done it himself, he's seen it all. Experience can be gained through observation.

Yang Shuai seemed to be thinking. Falling is essentially a loss of balance. Having a point of leverage can minimize the chances of this happening. What Scott said is indeed a method.

“However, you’re likely to get called for an offensive foul if you do that, so you need to be careful with the calls,” Scott added.

Yang Shuai nodded. Being called for an offensive foul is better than getting injured, and he doesn't have to make contact with someone in the air every time he dunks.

November arrived in the blink of an eye, and the Pacers had their season opener on the 1st, facing the Bulls on the road.

The good news is that, perhaps because he's a high school student, Yang Shuai's injury is recovering quickly and he's basically fully recovered, allowing him to travel to Chicago with the team. This isn't his first time here; the last time he was here, a practice game against Jordan and Pippen gave him and Garnett the confidence to skip college and enter the NBA draft.

On the night of the match, the United Center was packed to capacity.

Yang Shuai saw excited faces in the audience.

For fans of this era, being able to buy a ticket to the Bulls and see Jordan play was an incredibly happy thing.

Not to mention this was the Bulls' season opener.

During the pre-match opening ceremony, Yang Shuai heard the most classic opening theme song in 2K, "Sirius," as well as Jordan's introduction.

The entire United Center erupted the moment Jordan stepped onto the court.

Jordan's expression in the shot is very serious.

Although he only played half a season last year, a failure is a failure, and any reason is just an excuse. This season, he needs to prove that he is still the ruler of the league.

After the warm-up, the starting players from both sides took to the field one after another.

Yang Shuai was sitting near the end of the bench at this time.

His week-long absence due to injury not only caused him to miss the remaining two preseason games but also a significant amount of team practice, leaving him outside the regular rotation.

However, having experienced sitting on the bench during the preseason, his mentality is much better than before.

Since he was able to earn a spot in the rotation based on his performance before, he can certainly do it again, it just takes a little more time.

The Bulls' starting lineup is: Ron Harper, Jordan, Pippen, Rodman, and Luke Longley.

Jordan retired 17 months later, which is about a year and a half, but the Bulls underwent a lot of changes during that year and a half.

The core teammates who were with Jordan during his first three-peat have either retired or left the team. Apart from Pippen, everyone around him has been replaced.

So, what ceiling this brand-new Bulls team can reach is something that fans and the outside world are very curious about.

As soon as the game started, Jordan's offensive desire was at its peak.

He opened the scoring with a signature pull-up jumper over McGee.

Immediately afterwards, he used off-ball movement to receive a pass from Harper, faked a shot and then drove past Davis, who was helping on defense, to score a layup.

Then, on the defensive end, he stole the pass from Workman and passed it to Pippen. He then followed up on the fast break on the weak side, received the pass from Pippen, and stuck out his tongue to perform his signature gliding dunk.

Jordan scored 6 points in a row after the start of the game.

The fans at the United Center went wild.

In less than three minutes, they knew that the familiar "God of Basketball" was back!

Yang Shuai was also engrossed in watching from the sidelines.

This is not the same Jordan he had faced in practice games.

Jordan was a completely different entity on the court.

Brown reacted quickly, replacing Walkman with Scott after seeing that McGee couldn't contain Jordan.

During his early years with the Lakers, Scott was primarily responsible for guarding Jordan, and he had extensive experience in this area.

Upon seeing Scott, an old acquaintance, Jordan's strategy was to establish high position and then post up after receiving the ball.

During his last three-peat, Jordan primarily scored by driving to the basket, because no one could stop him from doing so.

But after this comeback and the subsequent failure, he learned to adapt to different situations.

Facing McGee, who was taller than him, he continued to drive to the basket, while against Scott, who was shorter than him, he used a back-to-the-basket attack.

The Pacers tried to double-team, but Jordan positioned himself in the triangle offense, passed the ball back to Pippen for a transition, and then turned and shot after receiving the ball again.

"Shh!"

The basketball landed with pinpoint accuracy, as if it were equipped with a tracking device.

Jordan's technique is not complicated. Yang Shuai saw it on Pierce, and even used it to make a game-winning shot at a Nike training camp.

But Jordan's turnaround speed was too fast, and Scott couldn't keep up at all.

It's hard to imagine how terrifying his core power is.

However, Scott's reaction after Jordan made the shot completely shocked Yang Shuai.

"Good shot, Michael."

Scott is praising Jordan!

(End of this chapter)