I fell in love with Toutiao and became the GOAT.

Lin Bei's Twitter account was a temporary account he registered some time ago in order to get on the front page of the news.

In 2011, Twitter had over 1 million monthly active users, making it one of the largest social media platforms in North America in terms of traffic.

After Lin Bei's tweet about dunking on LeBron James went viral, his follower count soared, eventually settling at 114514.

By all accounts, he's already a fairly well-known Twitter blogger.

The latest tweet, "Don't underestimate a young person's potential," went viral shortly after it was posted.

"I was right, but that's reality. You've offended LeBron, and you expect to get away with it?"

"This guy actually dared to yell that he'd make the Heat and LeBron regret it, and it cracked me up. Those are the Heat and LeBron, for crying out loud!"

"This Asian monkey will most likely have to slink back home with its tail between its legs..."

"..."

The comments below weren't friendly, and some even involved racial discrimination, but Lin Bei didn't care.

He only cares how many authoritative North American media outlets will reprint his tweets, putting him on the front page again.

That same afternoon in Miami, Lin Bei received a call back from Dan Fegan.

"The tryouts are all arranged. Oakland, just book your own flight and fly over."

Dan Fagan's attitude was terrible, but Lin Bei didn't care. He put down his phone and started to think.

"Auckland... Warriors?"

He used his computer to look up the Warriors' detailed information for this season.

Former television commentator Mark Jackson has just taken over the Warriors team and declared before the season that he would lead the Warriors, who had been all offense and no defense in the past few seasons, to build a solid defensive foundation.

Monta Ellis is still with the Warriors and remains the team's nominal leader.

Klay Thompson, the 11th overall pick in this season's draft, has already joined the team.

This reminded Lin Bei of the following: "This season should be Curry's low point. He was plagued by ankle injuries and only played less than half of the regular season games. He was almost traded to the Hornets midway through the season."

In other words, he wanted to try out Yu Zhouyong, who was still in a slump.

There are many opportunities for weaker teams, especially for this Warriors team which is currently in a period of turmoil.

Lin Bei booked a flight to Auckland using his mobile phone, turned around and went out, finding an open-air sports field.

He dribbled the basketball twice beyond the three-point line, then slowly raised his hand to shoot.

Swish-!

As the system states, Steve Novak's three-point shooting has the drawback of being slightly slow to release and only able to shoot from fixed spots, lacking the ability to adjust after being closely guarded.

But its accuracy is excellent, and Lin Bei, who can't do anything except run and jump, is very satisfied with that alone.

"I wonder if my three-pointer can win over this Warriors team..."

On the open-air sports field, Lin Bei exhausted all his energy.

Back in his rented apartment, he took a shower and went straight to sleep.

The next morning, Lin Bei was not woken up by his biological clock, but by a system notification.

"+1 valid headline?"

Within the system space, the number of lottery draws has increased by one.

Lin Bei opened his laptop, and sure enough, the front pages of ESPN, Yahoo Sports, Bleacher Report, and other online media outlets were all about him.

Yahoo Sports: "Rookie dunks over LeBron James gets waived; he boasts on social media that he'll make the Heat regret it!"

ESPN: "Unveiling the rookie who dunked on LeBron James, 58th overall pick in the second round of the 2011 NBA draft, averaging 7.8 points per game in the Chinese league..."

Bleacher Report: "The inside story of LeBron's rookie being laid off after a dunk; LeBron's pressure: If he doesn't leave, I will."

To be fair, the headlines from these different media outlets are somewhat different.

Yahoo Sports is purely neutral, or perhaps just watching the show.

ESPN is clearly biased towards LeBron James; they want to use the fact that Lin Bei is not good enough to prove that the Heat made the right decision to cut Lin Bei.

Bleacher Report, on the other hand, is purely about digging inside stories.

Lin Bei memorized the styles of these media outlets, thinking that he could use them to create custom headlines in the future.

He re-entered the system and started drawing cards immediately.

The screen shook again, and three options appeared.

Option 1: Shaun Livingston's mid-range shot.

Option 2, Talent: Rebounding Identity.

[Option 3: Ability Attachment Pack. After use, the host can attach an enhancement attribute to an existing ability, thereby increasing the strength of the corresponding ability.]

"The new ability is mid-range shooting. Since we already have three-pointers, mid-range shooting isn't really necessary for now. The talent has been changed to rebounding instinct, so let's keep that as an option. Finally, the ability bonus pack..."

Lin Bei studied it for a while and understood its function.

This is somewhat similar to equipment enchanting in some games, which can provide additional attributes or abilities.

After thinking about it, Lin Bei felt that this thing was not suitable for him at this stage.

"Let's test the strength of our rebounding instincts and see how good our talent-based options are."

When Lin Bei chose option two, the system shone brightly, but he didn't feel anything.

However, he didn't feel anything when he chose Novak's three-pointer yesterday either.

When he got to the open-air court and actually took a three-pointer, he realized how smooth Novak's three-pointer was.

"I can't test my 'backboard instinct' alone. I'd better pack my bags and get ready to go!"

In the afternoon, at Miami International Airport, Lin Bei boarded the plane and plopped down in a window seat.

Then he took out his phone and took a picture of the porthole.

Then, open Twitter, edit the text, attach the photo, and click send.

"You wait, I'll be back!"

It was a rather pretentious tweet, but Lin Bei felt that he just wanted to put on a show.

How can you stir up trouble if you don't act up? How can you get on the front page if you don't stir up trouble?

His tweet was designed to generate buzz.

Whether it's the amount of buzz surrounding him or the prospect of his return to Miami.

……

In Auckland, Lin Bei waited at the airport for almost two hours before Dan Fagan, who looked utterly unwilling, finally appeared.

"This is a complete waste of my time."

Lin Bei understood that Dan Fegan didn't think he could pass the Warriors' tryout.

The original owner was able to be selected by the Heat in the 2011 NBA draft entirely thanks to Dan Fegan's efforts.

In my memory, when the original owner participated in the Heat's tryouts, he only did one physical test, and his demonstration of ball control involved playing against a chair.

The Heat ultimately decided to draft the original team because the 58th overall pick in the second round only cost $50.

Spending $50 to bet on a 19-year-old Chinese forward/guard with excellent physical attributes is not a big cost, but if the bet is right, it will be a huge profit.

Unfortunately, it's like playing Texas Hold'em.

The Heat had just dealt Lin Bei their hand, and before they could even reveal their first card, they were forced to fold due to Le Bang's overwhelming power.

This time, Dan Fegan won't interfere with the Warriors' tryouts, and Lin Bei can't avoid the ball-handling aspect of the tryouts.

Dan Fegan knew that Lin Bei's ball skills were very poor; besides being able to run and jump, he was nothing else.

He's somewhat like James White, nicknamed "The Ultimate Slam Dunk King." But in terms of physical attributes alone, Lin Bei might not be as good as James White.

If James White can't even make it to the NBA, Lin Bei is even less likely to succeed.

Lin Bei noticed Dan Fagan's disdain but didn't care or offer any explanation.

Lin Bei was a little apprehensive about Dan Fagan's driving.

This guy died in a car accident in his previous life.

When the car arrived at the Warriors' training facility and came to a smooth stop, Lin Bei breathed a sigh of relief.

Dan Fagan walked in front, with Lin Bei close behind.

Upon arriving at the training ground, Lin Bei met Mark Jackson, who was famous for his large buttocks during his playing career, became a commentator after retiring, and only returned to coaching this season.

Mark Jackson greeted Dan Fegan warmly, then gave Lin Bei a brief, indifferent look.

Without much small talk, he had his teaching assistant take Lin Bei to do a physical fitness test.

Assistant coach Lin Bei knew Mike Malone, who would later become the Nuggets' championship coach.

Lin Bei greeted him, "Hello, Coach Ma Long."

Malone paused for a moment, then asked, "You know me?"

Lin Bei smiled: "I also know that your father is Brendan Malone."

Ma Long's gaze towards Lin Bei immediately lost some of its contempt; he felt that Lin Bei had come prepared.

"Come on, let's measure your height, weight, and wingspan first..."

Body weight and wingspan are considered static talents, and Lin Bei is very strong in this aspect.

「身高裸足2米02，体重106公斤，臂展2米20……」

Ma Long looked at Lin Bei with a hint of surprise in his eyes.

"Your static talent is impressive."

Lin Bei smiled and waved his hand: "So-so."

His static talent is certainly not bad; his various stats may not be historically great, but they are definitely top-tier.

"Next up is the baseline shuttle run."

After a baseline shuttle run, Lin Bei and Ma Long returned to the training field.

Malone cleared out an entire court and even sent someone to find a ruler to measure jumping ability. His large movements attracted a crowd of onlookers.

Lin Bei saw Curry, Klay Thompson, and Nate Robinson.

"Hi, Stephen, hi, Clay, hi, Nate..."

Lin Bei's enthusiasm was unexpected by the onlookers.

Stunned, they could only mechanically respond to Lin Bei. Their first impression of Lin Bei was that this trainee, who might not be able to stay, was very outgoing.

Then, Malone, with his stopwatch in hand, gave the order—

Lin Bei started from one baseline and sped to the other baseline like lightning.

"Wow, that seems a bit fast?"

The onlookers gasped in surprise, and Ma Long immediately stopped the watch.

"11.01 seconds!"

Little Potato turned to Curry: "Faster than you, Stephen."

Curry's rookie combine time was 11.7 seconds for the baseline shuttle run, which is indeed slower than Lin Bei's current time.

Curry shrugged in response: "He has long legs, so it's normal for him to be faster than me."

That's what Curry said, but he still sounded a little unconvinced.

While the onlookers were discussing, Lin Bei was already testing his jumping ability.

He jumped up from the spot, leaping towards the ruler, and then announced the measurement: "76.1cm!"

Little Potato: "Very bad, but still better than you, Stephen."

Curry: "A little bit better than me, just a little bit."

Lin Bei pulled away again, took a running start, and jumped.

Ma Long: "88.8cm!"

Curry finally smiled: "This one isn't as good as me."

Curry's running vertical jump in his rookie combine was 90.2cm, which is indeed better than Lin Bei's.

However, considering static data such as height and wingspan, Curry, the king of dunks, is actually not as good as Lin Bei.

Malone's expression said it all; he looked at the physical test data sheet and said, "Only the bench press is left."

For the bench press test, the two moved to the weight room.

Lin Bei pushed the standard 84 kg bench press for a while, finally reaching exhaustion on his 11th attempt.

Ma Long: "Your bench press stats are average, but that might be due to your excessively long wingspan. Overall, your physical attributes are outstanding."

This time, Lin Bei didn't mince words. His physical fitness was certainly not bad. He had won over Pat Riley back then by relying on this physical test data.

Malone led Lin Bei back, handing the physical test data sheet to Mark Jackson.

The latter glanced at it and clearly raised an eyebrow.

Mark Jackson turned his gaze to Lin Bei again, and became serious.