LeBron Jas monopolized the ball. He played like he was back in a high school league, directing his teammates where to go.
The title "The Chosen One" and the halo the dia had placed on him made him feel a cut above the rest.
But in reality, as the ga progressed, he was drawing complaints from his teammates.
His efficiency was low, his shot was ice-cold, and his success rate when driving to the basket was poor. On top of that, he wouldn’t pass the ball even when his teammates got open.
This gave Su Xi an opportunity.
Su Xi first grabbed two offensive rebounds, assisting Wade on a follow-up layup and Chris Bosh on a jumper from the free-throw line.
With 2:27 left in the ga.
Ginobili hit a three-pointer, and the Sophomore team, whose offense had been incredibly efficient, pulled ahead by 2 points.
Just then, Su Xi ran to the baseline to receive the inbound pass, with LeBron Jas standing to his left. Jas looked at Su Xi strangely. ’Why is he running over here just to get embarrassed? There’s no way the Freshman team will pass you the ball. Stop trying to steal the spotlight.’
But the next second, sothing unbelievable happened.
Bosh, who was inbounding the ball under the basket, turned to the side and, as if he hadn’t even seen Jas, passed the ball directly to Su Xi.
Su Xi caught the ball and pushed it up the court.
Jas’s surprise quickly turned to anger. On the way back up the court, he asked Bosh, "What are you doing? Why didn’t you pass the ball?"
Bosh scratched the back of his head, his long, intelligent neck swiveling. "I didn’t see you..." he said.
Hmm?
Jas thought, ’You couldn’t see with that long neck of yours?’
But he couldn’t say that out loud. Instead, he lowered his voice and said to Bosh, "You don’t want this guy stealing all the glory, do you?"
Bosh nodded.
But really, he was thinking: ’But I want to win even more.’
Su Xi brought the ball to the top of the arc. For a mont, the Sophomore team couldn’t find anyone to defend him.
Su Xi seized the opportunity, quickly driving to the basket. The Sophomores scrambled to collapse on him. Nene ca over to help, but Su Xi pushed him aside. Nene quickly closed in again, but Su Xi used the montum to pass the ball to a trailing Bosh.
Bosh jumped and slamd the ball into the hoop with both hands.
This was a crucial basket, tying the score for the Freshman team.
On the other end, Jas was defending Ginobili.
Ginobili executed a beautiful crossover. Jas tried to go for a gamble steal and was blown by. He quickly turned to chase, but Ginobili pulled back, stepped back behind the three-point line, and shot... Jas’s massive fra made it hard for him to turn back, and he could only watch helplessly as Ginobili released the three-pointer.
SWISH!
It went in.
138-135.
The Sophomores were back up by 3.
Wade was inbounding the ball. Su Xi ran over again, and Jas went for the ball too.
Jas shouted, "Dwyane!"
But no sooner had the words left his mouth than the ball was in Su Xi’s hands.
As Su Xi pushed the ball forward, Jas, furious, ran over to Wade and asked, "Why didn’t you pass the ball?"
Wade hesitated for a second before replying, "I thought you were telling to pass it to Jack."
"He just got the ball on the last possession!"
Hmm?
Jas frowned. ’What’s going on? How can everyone’s comprehension be so poor?’
"From now on, don’t pass it to him. Give the ball to the most reliable person," Jas ordered Wade.
Su Xi brought the ball past half-court, and Carlo Anthony ran over to set a screen for him—a classic opening play from their Syracuse University days.
Except now, Su Xi was countless tis stronger than he had been at Syracuse University.
With a single burst of speed, he left his defender behind, even taking Anthony’s defender, Prince, with him.
After driving in two steps, he made a slick pass back to Anthony. Anthony caught the ball as Jaric quickly rotated over to defend. Without a mont’s hesitation, Anthony dished the ball out.
Wade received the pass, playing the role of their old Syracuse teammate McNamara, and shot from beyond the arc... SWISH!
The three-pointer was good.
138-138.
Tie ga!
BEEP!
The Sophomore team called a tiout. 1:03 left on the clock.
It was ti for the final showdown.
Jas was the first one back to the bench. He said to Doug Collins, "Coach, it’s crunch ti. We need to increase our height in the paint."
Jas’s aning was obvious: he wanted Su Xi subbed out.
Doug Collins glanced at Jas. Just then, Su Xi and the others walked over, discussing the previous play with Anthony and Wade.
Once the players were gathered, Collins asked Su Xi, "You still want to play?"
Su Xi nodded.
Then, Collins began to lay out the strategy: "Kaman, Bosh, you two lock down both sides of the paint. Don’t let Ginobili drive in easily again. Jack, you’ll go back to the 1-spot and partner with Wade. Carlo, you need to use your size advantage to set so off-ball screens. Here, and here, these are your firing zones..."
Collins laid out the plays on his clipboard.
Everyone nodded in agreent.
No one seed to think anything was wrong.
It was as if this was how it was supposed to be.
At first, Jas didn’t notice anything either. After all, he was The Chosen One. But as Collins went deeper into the strategy, he felt sothing was off. ’How co he hasn’t said my na yet? What am I supposed to do?’
’Sothing’s not right!’
’I’m not in!’
’A team can’t have six players on the court.’
’Doug Collins, what’s the aning of this? Benching at a crucial mont? Weren’t you supposed to be assisting ? Why are you assisting Jack now?’
’Have you made a mistake? I’m The Chosen One!!’
Jas stared at Doug Collins with a confused and slightly angry look. The whole world said Collins was the best at dealing with a ’young God of Basketball.’ ’What? Am I not the young God of Basketball in your eyes?’
Collins didn’t make eye contact with him.
TWEET!
The whistle blew, and the five players from the Freshman team whose nas had been called started walking onto the court.
Jas lowered his voice and asked Collins, "What’s going on, Coach!"
Collins just smiled. He was a stubborn man. He had accepted travel expenses from Jas Dolan, so naturally, he had to do Dolan a favor. Plus, Su Xi was his favorite player. So... if he had to offend Jas, so be it.
"Thanks for the suggestion, LeBron. You’ll definitely beco an excellent player-coach one day." Doug Collins was a master at playing dumb.
"What I an is, why am I not on the court? This is a critical mont! The freshn can’t be without their leader," Jas said in a low voice, but the pressure behind his words made it almost a roar.
"Well, Jack’s out there. Isn’t he doing a great job?" Collins lifted his chin, gesturing toward Su Xi on the court.
Su Xi was discussing tactics with Wade, Anthony, and Bosh. They looked more like a cohesive unit.
’Who am I? Why am I not over there? Look how happy they are, smiling together.’
’Am I being isolated?’
’I’m the one being isolated?’
Jas’s head was buzzing.
...
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