The longest river

Chapter 81 Yellow People Can Fly Too
After Yang Shuai personally saw Richmond off, the emotions of the fans at the stadium reached their peak.

The final match maintained that feeling.

Although playing three consecutive rounds inevitably led to a decline in the players' physical condition, Legler, who was the first to take the court, scored 20 points again.

From 23 points in the first round to 22 points in the second round, and then to 20 points in the final, Legler is simply a genius at exploiting weaknesses.

Yang Shuai, who came on next, continued to demonstrate his consistency, and at this point, the performance from the two bottom corners became the key to the victory or defeat.

Although he scored one less point than Legler in the three middle spots combined, he scored one more goal than Legler in both corners.

Yang Shuai's final score was 21 points, defeating Legler to win the 1996 Three-Point Contest.

When the game ended, all the fans in the stadium stood up and applauded and cheered for the match.

The Three-Point Contest, the most monotonous competition, was transformed into a thrilling and exciting event by Yang Shuai, Richmond, and Legler.

It's no exaggeration to say that they've taken the three-point contest to a whole new level and generated a huge buzz.

If the internet weren't so underdeveloped in this era, this difference would have already become a trending topic.

After the game, an award ceremony was held to present the champion of the three-point shooting contest.

Yang Shuai lived up to his pre-game boast, standing on the podium wearing his Pacers-themed sneakers.

Bird was the one who presented the award.

When Bird handed the trophy to Yang Shuai, the moment that cemented Yang Shuai's status as "the next Bird" was destined to become a classic.

After the awards ceremony, Bird chatted with Yang Shuai for quite a while.

He was the one who strongly recommended Yang Shuai to the Pacers, and now that he sees Yang Shuai playing better and better for the Pacers and shining in the All-Star game, he is naturally happy.

Watching Yang Shuai's performance in the three-point contest even reminded him of his own youth, and he felt an urge to go to the coaching bench and coach Yang Shuai.

While fans were still caught up in the excitement of the Three-Point Contest, the Slam Dunk Contest contestants were already warming up.

Like the Three-Point Contest, it has gradually become less of a competition, and established stars no longer participate. The scene of Wilkins, Jordan, and "Spud" Webber staging a peak showdown is no longer seen. Now, the participants are mainly young players.

There are a total of 6 participants this year, 4 of whom are rookies.

The camera then focused on Yang Shuai again.

Yang Shuai, who was the hardest working player at this year's All-Star Weekend, is about to play his last match of the All-Star Game.

Whether he can surprise people like he did in the previous three-point contest is also something fans are looking forward to.

Moreover, Yang Shuai has already faced off against players like Jerry Stackhouse and John Starks in this year's Slam Dunk Contest, with whom he has had conflicts both on and off the court.

This is also a matter of grudges and resentments.

The rules of the dunk contest were also different from what Yang Shuai knew.

Although it also has preliminary and final rounds, the preliminary round requires players to complete at least 3 dunks within 90 seconds, and the sum of the scores of the top two players is the final score. The top three players then advance to the final round.

In the final, players need to complete two dunks within 90 seconds, and the dunk with the higher score will be the final score to determine the ultimate champion.

Of course, the judges were still five people, including "Iceman" George Gervin and "Dr. J" Irving, making the panel of judges very prestigious.

Yang Shuai was the first to appear.

His appearance was met with cheers from the audience.

Although there were a host of All-Stars present, Yang Shuai was the most talked-about person on the court at that moment.

Yang Shuai chose relatively easy dunking moves for his first two dunks: a 180° spin dunk and a windmill dunk.

This is also an experience he summarized after watching the dunk contest videos of the past few years, which lays a foundation for his score.

After all, if you go for high difficulty right from the start, you might end up with no points at all, completely losing any hope of advancing to the finals.

Yang Shuai is saving her trump card for the finals.

Ernie Johnson and Mave Abbott were in charge of broadcasting the game from the sidelines.

After watching Yang Shuai's first two dunks, a look of joy appeared on Albert's face.

After being thoroughly humiliated by Yang Shuai at Madison Square Garden, this commentator has been waiting for an opportunity to get his revenge.

Now he has finally gotten what he's been waiting for.

"Hansen's jumping ability as an Asian player is amazing, but his chances of winning the dunk contest are slim."

Johnson nodded in agreement after hearing Albert's assessment.

As seen in the previous "NBA Insider" program, Johnson was actually quite optimistic about Yang Shuai.

However, judging from Yang Shuai's current dunking moves, it would be difficult for him to even reach the finals, let alone compete for the championship.

"So what kind of dunking moves do you think he needs to make to have a chance?" Johnson is also very good at creating a good show.

"A dunk from the free-throw line, although I know that's a bit unrealistic."

So far, the most visually striking part of the Slam Dunk Contest has been the free throw line. Jordan defeated Wilkins and Webber with that dunk and earned the title of "Air Jordan".

But so far, not only Asian players, but even white players have not achieved this.

"He seems genuinely prepared to do that."

Before Albert could finish speaking, Johnson had already opened his mouth with a slightly surprised expression.

A huge commotion erupted at this moment.

Because Yang Shuai had the ball at midcourt, this was the standard starting position for a dunk from the free-throw line.

Yang Shuai took the ball and started sprinting. When he was almost at the three-point line, he slowed down slightly, and then took off when he was a step inside the free-throw line. He then pulled the ball up with his right hand and glided through the air toward the basket.

He had performed a similar dunk during his trial with executives, and now he is even more confident.

"Oh!"

The moment the ball slammed into the basket, the arena fell silent for a moment, but then erupted in a deafening roar of cheers.

Ernie Johnson, at this moment, also shouted in shock:
"People of Asian descent can fly too!"

The on-site photographers were also very skilled at using camera language, cutting the lens to Jordan sitting on the sidelines.

Jordan was also clapping for Yang Shuai at that moment.

He had a long-standing impression of this Asian player who dared to criticize him, and after Yang Shuai dunked on Rodman, he became the target of "teaching a lesson" within the Bulls.

But at this moment, Yang Shuai's performance deserves applause.

Because this is a historic moment.

Yang Shuai's dunk earned him a high score of 48 points. The reason it didn't get a perfect score is that Yang Shuai's dunk wasn't strictly speaking a standard free throw line dunk.

Yang Shuai didn't care too much about the score.

He prioritized improving his defense over his jumping ability, and since he was never going to be able to complete a true free-throw line dunk anyway, this score is already enough.

Because his previous dunks went very smoothly, Yang Shuai had about 40 seconds left, enough time for him to dunk two or three more times.

However, having already laid the groundwork, what he now seeks is naturally higher difficulty.

He was about to dunk again, and the move was from the McDonald's Slam Dunk Contest he had participated in before.

When Yang Shuai started his sprint to dunk again, the fans in the arena watched intently.

Then, a gasp of amazement quickly rose from the crowd.

The move Yang Shuai is going to try is the same one that Carter did in the McDonald's Slam Dunk Contest, but no one has ever tried the 360° one-armed windmill in the NBA Slam Dunk Contest before!
Yang Shuai's first attempt ended in failure.

Even if he were to improve his flexibility, it would still be difficult for him to complete this dunking move with his current skill level.

However, the reason he dared to try this was because he had done it before during training, although the chances of success were not that high.

Yang Shuai's second attempt also failed.

The cheers of the fans began to rise from the stands.

Yang Shuai had already won their approval by simply finishing at the free-throw line, not to mention that he dared to attempt such a difficult dunk on the spot.

With little time left, Yang Shuai also adjusted his breathing.

This kind of game mechanism, which involves continuous sprints and dunks in a short period of time, is extremely physically demanding.

However, he had no intention of changing his tactics. After taking a short rest, he took a deep breath and then launched his final charge.

Jump, turn, swing the ball.

"Oh!"

On his last attempt, Yang Shuai finally managed to smash the ball into the goal!

Cheers echoed throughout the stadium.

Although he was the first to appear, Yang Shuai surprised everyone, just like in a three-point shooting contest.

He also received a perfect score of 50 points for that dunk.

The move itself isn't actually that difficult. Many NBA players or amateur dunkers could do it in the era before Yang Shuai's time travel. In China, Xu Yong also completed it in a dunk contest.

Its significance lies more in its pioneering nature.

So despite the difference in aesthetics compared to Carter, Yang Shuai, as the first person to attempt this move in the NBA, still received full recognition from the judges.

With two penalties totaling 98 points, Yang Shuai secured a spot in the finals.

He even went to the sidelines after finishing his dunk to high-five Barkley and Kemp, which drew another round of cheers from the crowd.

After Yang Shuai, other players also completed their preliminary dunks.

One interesting thing is that Brent Barry also completed a free throw line dunk in the preliminary round.

It's said that you might run into someone wearing the same clothes when you go out, but it's really rare to run into someone doing the same dunk contest move.

Moreover, Barry's free throw line was more standard than Yang Shuai's. He not only earned Albert's nickname "Whites can fly," but also scored 49 points, one more than Yang Shuai.

After the preliminary rounds, Yang Shuai ranked first with 98 points, Barry ranked second with 96 points, and Finley ranked third with 92 points. All three advanced to the finals.

Stackhouse and Starks were eliminated in the preliminary rounds.

In the final, Barry once again unleashed a free-throw line dunk in his second attempt. The only difference from the preliminary round was that he was wearing a jacket, making him look even more pretentious.

This dunk earned him another 49 points.

If Yang Shuai hadn't given us so many surprises in the preliminary round, the judges would have given him full marks for deducting this one point. They're keeping one point to see if Yang Shuai has anything else to offer.

"The game is over. No one can do a more difficult dunk than that," Albert concluded again from the commentary booth.

Yang Shuai's performance did exceed expectations, but Barry's performance was even more amazing, so Yang Shuai will not win this championship.

At that moment, an exaggerated commotion erupted at the scene.

Because of its location at the entrance, a Ford Mustang was slowly driving into the venue!

(End of this chapter)