Slam Dunk: My Study Abroad Career in Northern Hunan

It is not easy to advise a star player who is in high spirits and thinks he is strong.

Even a player of Michael Jordan's status could not have the final say in the Bulls. Many times, players like Pippen had their own ideas, which would occasionally be beyond Michael Jordan's control on the basketball court.

Even Michael Jordan couldn't do it, let alone martial arts.

Although Marbury highly recognizes Wu Dao's strength and acknowledges his status as the team leader, he also has his own pursuits.

Those who are able to gain a foothold in the NBA league and have the potential to grow into top players all have one thing in common, that is, their demands on themselves will become higher and higher.

Marbury is such a person. Even when playing next to a strong man like Wudao, he is still not satisfied with his own worth and status.

In today's game, Marbury could feel that his physical condition was excellent. He also wanted to show his abilities in front of the national audience and let the team and the entire NBA league recognize his value.

Million-dollar annual salary?!

Marbury's pursuit is not just this. He has always had a high opinion of himself and feels that he deserves a higher salary.

Marbury dribbled the ball quickly into the Bulls' half. After crossing the center line, he did not listen to Wu Dao's advice, nor did he intend to suppress the team's offensive speed.

Although the rhythm seemed a bit inconsistent when running, the Timberwolves players still kept up with Marbury's movements.

Their team is good at fast breaks, and the players can naturally cooperate with Marbury's intention to speed up the team's tempo.

After entering the frontcourt, Marbury did not pass the ball to Wu Dao on the wing. Facing Kerr's defense, Marbury held the ball at the top of the arc, carefully observing Kerr's defensive movements, looking for the time and opportunity to break through.

"Snapped!"

Suddenly, Marbury changed his rhythm of holding the ball. While he was dribbling the ball with his right hand, his body quickly leaned against Kerr.

At the No. 1 position, Marbury is actually very good at physical confrontation. All players with a similar body shape to him are a little bit worse than him in confrontation.

And as the No. 1 player, Marbury's desire to attack is also extremely strong.

Cole's physique is not that of a heavy guard. Facing Macri's charge, Cole was forced to take a step back and was forced to make way. Marbury also took advantage of the gap to quickly accelerate his charge.

As Kerr was chasing after him, the fast-moving Marbury also changed direction in front of his body, shook off Kerr's defense, and went straight to the Bulls' inside line.

Marbury, who broke into the inside, had no intention of stopping. He was not afraid of Luke Longley's help defense and jumped directly.

The two bodies collided violently in mid-air, and Marbury, who was slightly unbalanced, was pushed away by Luke Langli. However, Marbury was still able to maintain a relatively good posture in mid-air. In Luke Langli's sight, Marbury changed hands in the air, and with a big hook shot with his left hand, he directly hit the ball towards the backboard.

The moment the high-speed spinning basketball touched the backboard, it quickly turned towards the basket. Under the expectant gaze of the fans, the basketball rolled twice on the inner edge of the basket and quickly fell into the net.

As the basketball went into the net, the Timberwolves fans in the stands immediately burst into warm cheers.

“ohhhh!!!”

Marbury, who is not tall, is like a little kid in front of Luc Longley. He attacks the inside and scores toughly. Marbury's goal also makes the Timberwolves fans excited.

Why can Iverson gain so many fans around the world?

Outstanding personal ability is only one reason. More importantly, the vast majority of fans can see their own shadows in Iverson.

Although the only thing that ordinary fans have in common with Iverson is his height, fans don't delve into Iverson's other talents when watching his game.

All they knew was that a player of similar height to themselves was standing on the NBA court and was killing everyone.

The encouragement that such a player brings to the fans is unimaginable. To put it bluntly, if Kawamura Yuki was not a Japanese citizen, but our own local player, then his voice in the media would probably be three levels higher.

His influence is definitely much greater than that of Jeremy Lin back then.

Even though Kazumura Nagaki is a Japanese player, it does not prevent young people in the country from striving to become such players.

Because this player brought them hope that even though he was only 170cm tall, he could still shine in the international arena.

His appearance also inspired many basketball boys of average height. This kind of inspiration is something that players like Yao Ming and Yi Jianlian cannot bring.

Marbury is actually not very conspicuous in the Timberwolves, and his dazzling martial arts overshadow his existence.

But today, he made the fans cheer for him. Marbury did what Iverson once did, although it is currently limited to the Target Center in Minnesota.
But this is also a huge improvement for Marbury.

Last year, the Timberwolves did not receive so much attention. Even though Marbury performed well on the court, no one paid much attention to him.

But today's game is different.

This is the most exposed finals stage, and Marbury, under the dazzling light of Wu Dao and Michael Jordan, shines with his own brilliant light.

"Good fight!"

Although Marbury's offensive choices were not very good, since he was able to score the ball, Wu Dao also praised Marbury generously.

With his current position in the Timberwolves, he no longer needs to rely on absolute possession of the ball to maintain his presence. Learning to get along with his teammates and sharing his shooting rights will be beneficial to the unity of the team.

Wu Dao has already established a firm foothold in the NBA, and all the decisions he makes next will be only for the purpose of achieving the ultimate victory.

Marbury, who was returning to defense, was also full of excitement. After he got into position, he glanced complacently at Luke Longley who was moving quickly towards the Timberwolves' half.

Big and tall? No use!

It is probably difficult for others to understand the pride that a small player feels when he defeats a tall player.

Between offense and defense, the Bulls quickly launched a counterattack.

The basketball was passed several times and finally came into Michael's hands. When Michael Jordan received the ball, he was two steps inside the three-point line with his back to the basket. Facing the defense of Wu Dao, Michael Jordan often needed to rely on his footwork and excellent jump shot to finish.

There is no way to break through the martial arts by relying solely on speed and physical fitness.

For Michael, Bu Dao chose to defend him closely. He would rather let Michael Jordan break through than let Michael Jordan shoot without any worries. If Michael Jordan chose to break through them, the Timberwolves still had Garnett to help defend, but if Michael Jordan was allowed to shoot, once the god got the feel of the shot, no one could stop him, not even Bu Dao.

Michael Jordan slightly turned his head to glance at Wu Dao behind him, leaned his back towards Wu Dao's body, felt the power distribution of Wu Dao's defense, then turned his back and shook his shoulder, and was about to turn around and jump shot, but suddenly found a dark shadow rushing towards him from the side.

"Um?!"

Marbury actually chose to let Kerr go to double-team Michael Jordan.

His timing for the double-team was pretty good. This was when Michael Jordan was concentrating on dealing with Martial Arts and didn't notice Marbury's movements at first.

But
Michael Jordan is Michael Jordan after all. He has excellent vision and quick reaction. Even if he didn't notice Marbury approaching at the first time, his body subconsciously reacted the moment Marbury's figure appeared in his peripheral vision.

Michael Jordan jumped quickly and passed the basketball in his hand quickly to Kerr at the top of the arc.

After all, Marbury was limited by his height and had no way to interfere with Michael Jordan's jump pass.

The basketball flew directly over Marbury's head and quickly fell into Kerr's hands. Michael Jordan's passing accuracy was very good. Kerr, who received the ball, didn't need to adjust the position of the basketball at all. He just raised his hand and shot the ball out.

three-pointer.

The basketball drew a beautiful arc in the air and fell steadily into the basket with a crisp sound amid the expectations of the Bulls fans.

There was warm applause from the stands. Just a few rounds after the opening, Kerr had already made a three-pointer, which also indicated that his touch today was somewhat different from previous games.

Born in 65, Kerr is actually a veteran. In previous games, he has shown the potential of a standard role player.

During the Bulls' three consecutive championships, he was actually a rotation-level player, with his average playing time basically controlled at around 20 minutes per game.

Judging from his game statistics, his average points per game in the playoffs did not exceed ten points, which more or less showed some potential of a nervous knife.

It is worth noting that Kerr's three-point shooting percentage is pretty good, and his mid-range shots are also above average.

And it is precisely because of this that there is the legendary scene on the court where Michael Jordan passes the ball to Kerr and assists him in making the buzzer-beater.

This is a player whose offensive threat is not that great, but he definitely cannot be left alone.

At this time, Kerr's three-pointer obviously made the Timberwolves players realize this.

Of course, it is unknown whether Marbury will learn his lesson from this.

Between offense and defense, Marbury dribbled the ball quickly into the Bulls' half. Marbury, who had the ball, still did not choose to pass the ball. After calling for a block, he rushed forward.

The Bulls did not take Marbury's consecutive one-on-one shots seriously. On the contrary, they thought that after Marbury scored two goals in a row, he should choose a different style of play for the third goal.

Rodman admitted that there was actually a certain element of gambling involved.

Therefore, when Garnett used the pick-and-roll, Rodman did not immediately choose to switch defense with Kerr, but let Kerr continue to chase Marbury who was advancing with the pick-and-roll. As for himself, he still kept his eyes on Garnett.

Garnett has excellent mid-range shooting ability, and Rodman felt that he could not switch defense easily, giving Garnett the opportunity to play against Kerr in a mismatch.

And it was precisely because of this decision that Marbury found an opening.

Marbury, who was advancing quickly, didn't even look back to see if Garnett was in an open position, nor did he look to see who was chasing him.

Marbury broke into the basket and shot directly after only one step after passing the ball. The strange timing of the shot gave Luc Longley a time difference. By the time Luc Longley wanted to jump to block the shot, the basketball had reached its highest point and it was too late.

Relying on the rhythm, Marbury once again tried to train Luke Long.

But this time, the goddess of luck was not on Marbury's side. The basketball was stuck on the backboard, and when it bounced back, it hit the side of the basket and bounced out.

Fortunately, Luke Ronnie, who had gone out to help defend, had no time to return to the basket. At this time, Wu Dao, who had rushed into the basket, had already jumped into the air, grabbed the falling basketball with one hand, and scored a tip-in dunk.

When Garnett was setting a screen for Marbury, Wu Dao was already waiting for an opportunity. He was not the kind of man who would just stand stupidly in my zone waiting for his teammates to pass the ball. Since his teammates didn't pass the ball to him, he had to find scoring opportunities himself.

He is a number three!
Wu Dao successfully made a tip-in and scored, and Marbury's tense face couldn't help but relax. However, he didn't show much happiness on his face.

At this time, Marbury was feeling frustrated about his inaccurate shooting.

He was not satisfied with his performance in this ball, and secretly made up his mind that he must play in his own style in the next ball.

Training Cole and Luke Longley is the goal that Marbury set for himself in this game.

If he can defeat Kerr and Luc Longley, he will be able to prove his value. Marbury is not a pure No. 1 player. He has an extremely strong desire to score. Many times he secretly compares himself with Iverson.

In fact, deep down in Marbury's heart, he hopes to have the same team status as Iverson.

He doesn't think he is worse than Iverson. He believes that as long as he is given enough opportunities, he can also perform as amazingly as Iverson.

There is no way. Fans often compare Marbury and Iverson, and Marbury himself is naturally often troubled by such remarks. Unknowingly, he has already been deeply trapped in such a whirlpool of public opinion.

Marbury's playing style today was somewhat different from previous games, and the Bulls players were keenly aware of this.

Michael Jordan quickly caught up with Wu Dao as he headed to the front court, and smiled and said in Wu Dao's ear:

"Young man, don't you feel the crisis?"

"Someone wants to take the top position!"

Michael Jordan's trash talk came late but it came late. The old rogue is still the same old rogue. No matter what kind of disadvantage the team is in, his mentality remains the same as before.

Today was a life-or-death game for the Bulls, but Jordan was still able to talk to Wu Dao easily, mock him without showing any face, and was very skilled in sowing discord.

(End of this chapter)