The CCTV Sports Channel broadcast went into an unprecedented frenzy just before the end of the ga!
CCTV’s comntary was typically known for being conservative and, frankly, full of nonsense. Conservative, because as a national dia outlet, they couldn’t be too flamboyant or overly excited. The nonsense stemd from the early days when many comntators were general broadcasters with little actual knowledge of the sports, which led to international laughingstocks like the claim that one team had "five Jordans."
But this morning, Beijing ti, the CCTV comntators let loose like never before. They were still a bit restrained in the first half, but as Su Xi drew closer and closer to a quadruple-double, their shouts grew louder and louder.
When Su Xi sank a three-pointer in the final monts of the ga.
"Perfect! What a magnificent debut! The greatest debut in history! Su Xi is not fighting alone! He is not fighting alone! He has hundreds of millions of us fans behind him! We are with him! That three-pointer was the dagger! It sealed the ga..."
"...There’s not much ti left for the Kings... OH YEAH! A STEAL! A STEAL! AN INCREDIBLE STEAL! AN INCREDIBLE QUADRUPLE-DOUBLE!!"
"Su Xi ripped the ball from Weber with one hand! He’s done it! The first-ever quadruple-double in a debut! A historic night! A historic performance!"
"King Webber, face justice! You’ve been summarily dismissed!"
"Who says a Chinese guard can’t make it in the NBA?! Who says a Chinese guard can’t work miracles?!"
"This is the brightest day in the history of Chinese basketball!!"
The CCTV comntators were beyond excited, completely ecstatic.
Their passion swept up the hundreds of millions of fans across the Divine Land.
Su Xi’s debut exceeded all expectations. After all, Yao Ming’s first NBA ga had been a complete disaster: 0 points, 2 rebounds, 3 fouls, and 2 turnovers.
Su Xi, on the other hand, had just pulled off the only debut quadruple-double in NBA history. As far as debuts go, his performance was truly unprecedented—an achievent unlikely to ever be repeated.
More importantly, he had shattered all doubt in this ga, grinding Weber’s disdain under his heel. He completely dominated those who had looked down on him. At the start of the ga, the Kings fans had been laughing and jeering in unison, treating it like a party. But by the ti the final nail was in the coffin, they were all trudging out of the arena with their heads hung low and sour expressions on their faces.
SO. DAMN. SATISFYING.
Every single Chinese fan watching this on TV felt the exact sa way.
Afterward, Su Xi’s interview with TNT was broadcast live to the audience back ho.
As the host translated Su Xi’s words: "...We Chinese people don’t like to boast, but you shouldn’t ignore our warnings. We have a saying in China: Don’t say we didn’t warn you..."
The entire nation erupted.
It was pure fire!
Now *that’s* how you show our nation’s might!
*That’s* what national pride feels like!
This was it.
The host declared on television with absolute conviction, "Those people who are still saying Su Xi is just a player who grew up in the United States need to wake up and take a good look at themselves. Su Xi is genuinely embodying the Chinese spirit! We truly don’t like to boast, but if you insist on offending us, we will make you regret it!"
anwhile, on the online forums, the servers crashed.
A massive influx of fans flooded the boards, all leaving emotional comnts.
"This is the greatest day in Chinese basketball history."
"To all those people who said Su Xi should just bow his head and apologize to his foreign masters—get out here and take a look! *This* is what ’Don’t say we didn’t warn you’ looks like!!"
"Isn’t Chris Webber supposed to be a superstar? How co he hasn’t punished Su Xi yet? What’s he waiting for, a written invitation?"
"A historic, record-breaking quadruple-double. Based on tonight’s stats alone, you can tell Su Xi is no bust! What kind of bust plays this ferociously?"
"..."
...
It was a hectic night for Su Xi. He gave one interview after another, moving from cara to cara and answering the sa questions over and over again.
Stephen Silas told him, "Get used to it, my Little Sheep Su Xi. This is what it feels like to beco a star overnight."
"You’ve done sothing that Shaquille O’Neal, Tim Duncan, Tracy McGrady, and even Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan never accomplished. And trust , the dia frenzy has barely even begun. From now on, you’ll be surrounded by reporters every single day..."
Selas was about ten years older than Su Xi, and they were close. He was happy to share his knowledge about things beyond basketball with him.
’Too much trouble,’ Su Xi thought.
"You can have your agent handle all this," Selas suggested.
Su Xi agreed, but he was exhausted from the ga and needed to rest.
The ga had taken a huge physical toll on Su Xi; for the first ti, he felt completely spent. So, after the bus got them to the hotel, he didn’t do a thing. He just fell onto the bed and was out like a light. Then, early the next morning, the team manager woke him up to get on the bus heading to Los Angeles.
LeBron Jas stayed behind in Sacranto. He needed a minor procedure to fix his broken nose and would be sidelined for one to two weeks.
Jas’s debut stats had actually been record-breaking as well, but... he’d gotten injured, missing the most critical monts of the coback. And with his teammate Su Xi pulling off a monster quadruple-double, the "Chosen One" was inevitably overshadowed.
Nike threw all of its dia resources behind Su Xi. A massive quadruple-double was simply more impactful than a 35-8-6 stat line. Moreover, Su Xi had also hit the ga-winning three-pointer, completing the coback and utterly humiliating King Webber.
The next day, Su Xi’s incredible quadruple-double was all over every basketball dia outlet.
Even though so outlets had been trashing Su Xi just the day before, faced with such undeniable stats, they had no choice but to run sensational headlines praising him.
This ga truly made Su Xi a household na in NBA circles. Even soone as low-key as Hakeem Olajuwon ca out to comnt: "Damn! Is this kid really a rookie? It felt like getting a quadruple-double was as easy as breathing for him. He’s so strong, with such long arms and huge, powerful hands, and his body is so flexible he can just wrap guys up... That final steal absolutely shocked . I’ve never seen anyone reach their upper body around a screen like that and just rip the ball away!"
Olajuwon might have been exaggerating slightly, but the technical difficulty of Su Xi’s final steal was indeed extrely high—it was essentially a ’blind steal.’ He was screened off by Divac, but he grabbed Divac’s jersey with his left hand, leaned his body out, and viciously swiped the ball with his right.
"From a professional scout’s perspective, Little Sheep Su Xi has a laundry list of weaknesses. But when he’s on the court, you realize he’s always doing the right thing. And doing the right thing, that’s the greatest talent of all."
Isaiah Thomas also ca out to kick Weber while he was down: "It’s no surprise Chris Webber got destroyed. His physical gifts have been severely diminished since his knee injury. On top of that, he clearly didn’t train properly in the offseason; his reaction ti is slow. I have no idea why he’d run his mouth at Su Xi under those circumstances. Did he really think the Knicks’ number eight pick was that pathetic? He got taught a lesson, and he deserved every bit of it."
Isaiah Thomas was now the general manager for the Knicks, and he was working hard to complete the number one task his boss had given him: reclaim Little Sheep Su Xi.
"Su Xi will beco the greatest Pippen to a Jas!"
Thomas added this last sentence, which was actually a bit of a dig.
But hey, he was the Smiling Assassin. His motives were always hard to figure out.
anwhile, Shaquille O’Neal, center for the Lakers—the Cavaliers’ opponent after next—also comnted on the matter. "I’m not gonna say anything about Little Sheep Su Xi, and I’m definitely not gonna trash-talk him. I’m not Chris Webber. I don’t want him dropping a quadruple-double on my head."
O’Neal continued, "Actually, I’ve known him for a while. I went to New York to watch him play, and I said back then that he was a genius. I’m not surprised he got a monster quadruple-double. He got one in the NCAA championship ga. For him, this is just business as usual."
Arenas was even more ecstatic in front of the dia: "See? See?! What did I tell you? Everyone who disrespects him gets punished. Does Chris Webber think it’s still 2000 or 2001? He’s still living in a fantasy where he can dominate people. But our Little Sheep Su Xi isn’t just anybody—he’s the terrifying GOAT, destined to tear it all down!"
And it wasn’t just the big-na legends and active superstars of the basketball world; the pundits and comntators were praising Su Xi to the heavens.
Such is public opinion—it changes with the wind.
When you’re down, everyone wants to kick you; when you’re on top, everyone wants to praise you.
Now, Chris Webber was getting a taste of that dia backlash. The sa outlets that had been backing him up were now turning on him, kicking him while he was down and tearing him to shreds.
The dia even started saying his 7-year, 110 million USD contract with the Kings from ’01 was going to go down as the worst contract in NBA history.
Chris Webber was frantic. He was experiencing what it felt like to be crucified by the court of public opinion.
And he had no one to bla but himself.
If he hadn’t deliberately provoked Su Xi, it would have just been another regular-season ga.
Su Xi might not even have gotten his quadruple-double, and Jas might not have gotten injured. The star of the show would have been the Chosen One, LeBron Jas.
But now, Chris Webber was lying in bed, sulking.
LeBron Jas was lying in a hospital bed, sulking.
Adelman was in the room right next to him.
Because, after the ga that night, Adelman had crashed his car into a lamppost on the way ho. The official explanation was that the lighting was too dim, but that hardly held up to scrutiny. Too dark... under a streetlight? Is it darkest under the lamp, as they say?
Or was it perhaps a taphor for how Chris Webber was so cleanly stripped by Su Xi in the simplest of situations at the end of the ga?
...
When Su Xi arrived in Los Angeles, he finally got in touch with Jessica Alba.
Jessica Alba told Su Xi, "The paparazzi took pictures of us. They’re in an entertainnt weekly."
Oh.
At the ti, Su Xi just nodded, not reacting much.
He was a public figure now. ’Getting reported on by the dia is just part of the deal,’ he thought.
But when Mike O’Connor showed up in front of him holding that sa magazine, he realized it wasn’t nearly that simple.
...
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