The Way of Basketball: Never Talk Shit to Him!

Su Wan set out on his journey to Greece, and he was not alone. Accompanying him was Jose Calderon, a member of this year's Spanish men's basketball team.

After their game against the Magic Team, the two had formed a good relationship. Thanks to Calderon, Su Wan maintained at least seven assists in the following three matches. Of course, it was also Su Wan's breakthrough passes that allowed Calderon to display his steady shooting. Yesterday, before leaving, he had secured a promise from the Cavaliers management—if he was willing, they would sign a three-year contract worth eight million with him.

Playing in the NBA had always been Calderon's dream; he wanted to prove himself here.

Happy with the promise, he chatted nonstop with Su Wan all the way. By the time they were nearing Greece, he had talked himself to sleep. When the stewardess reminded them to put away their tray tables, Su Wan nudged him awake, his drool glistening at the corner of his mouth.

After so much talking, how could he not be tired?

Exiting the airport, they continued their journey together until they arrived and parted ways at the Olympic Village.

Following the address, Su Wan found the rooms where the Huaxia Men's Basketball Team was staying and bumped into Captain Zhang. Seeing Su Wan, the last bit of unease disappeared from Captain Zhang's face, which beamed with a smile. He personally led Su Wan to the room prepared for him.

Every year, the "Olympic Village" was generally built temporarily. Therefore, except for the 2008 Olympic Games, the conditions of other "Olympic Villages" were quite basic. For instance, at the small-scale Olympic Village, the athletes' dormitories had cardboard beds and foam mattresses.

Having read these news reports, Su Wan did not hold much expectation for the "terror-stricken" Olympic Village in Greece; as long as it was inhabitable, it was fine.

"You rest first, Little Su. If you need anything, just let me know." Captain Zhang could tell that Su Wan did not want to chat with him. Understandable, really—after so many days of being guarded against him like a thief, he must have felt resentful. But that was okay; a couple of drinks at the dinner table would dissolve any hard feelings.

The room returned to silence, and Su Wan opened the system panel and scrolled down to the very bottom. After the last three summer league games, his zone value had long broken 100,000 points, reaching as high as 199,000 points. Having contained his excitement for so many days, he could finally indulge. He kept clicking "Physical fitness," and in his mind, the prompt "Physical Potential Points +1" kept popping up. By the time the system alerted him that his zone points were insufficient, Su Wan's physical potential had gone from an initial 76 points to 85 points.

His physical potential had reached the standard between All-Star and Superstar.

Beginning from 85 points, each improvement required 30,000 zone points. That was almost the entire earnings from a single summer league game for Su Wan, and regular season games were nowhere near as easy to play!

Left with only 19,000 points, Su Wan didn't hold back, pouring all of it into "Dribbling," which had a mere potential of 60 points. Due to the low potential value, Su Wan clicked four times.

Almost 200,000 zone points accumulated during the summer league had diminished to a mere 1,000 points. But instead of feeling the pinch, Su Wan felt a sense of fulfillment: all were the fruits of his laborious and consecutive games of mockery.

With the increase in potential value and looking at the yet-to-be-realized numbers, Su Wan became restless. After unpacking, he headed straight for the gym. First, he would train his physical fitness, then his dribbling, followed by various fundamental drills.

He had arrived at the Olympic Village at 1 p.m., and with the day's training, the sun was setting, and it was almost dark.

Su Wan felt pretty good. If the National Team's training wasn't too intensive, he planned to continue the afternoon's training volume until the start of the Olympics. In one month's time, his physical fitness should see a considerable increase.

The Olympic Games would undoubtedly be more intense than the summer league. He was doing this to ensure that the time he could maintain "The zone" mode wouldn't fall too short of the summer league.

Having finally made a name for himself during the summer league, he couldn't afford to stumble on the international stage.

That evening, he met the first of his National Team teammates, Zhu Fangyu.

"Zhu Ba" greeted him with the words, "Not bad, kid, I didn't expect you to play even better in the United States. If I had known, I would have accepted the Celtics' contract!"

In this year's CBA finals, the Sharks were the ultimate champions, and GD was what Kobe referred to as "the biggest loser." However, Zhu Fangyu's average score of 23.4 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 1.6 assists per game in the finals wasn't much different from Su Wan's average of 25.4 points, 6.8 rebounds, and 3 assists.

After the finals, Su Wan announced his entry into the NBA Draft, and Zhu Fangyu received a ten-day short contract from Boston. But after considering from all angles, he chose to reject, telling the media that such a contract from the Celtics was an insult to him.

Su Wan knew that Zhu Fangyu couldn't let go of everything he had with GD; if he failed in the NBA and lost his core position at GD upon his return, it would be a huge loss.

Not daring to try was his biggest problem.

Seeing him now saying such words, dripping with envy, really proved Lu Xun's famous saying: You fear your brothers suffer, yet envy them driving a Land Rover.

He was not exactly brothers with Zhu Fangyu, and Zhu Fangyu was simply afraid he would start showing off in his Land Rover.

So Su Wan vaguely agreed and quickly changed the subject, asking about the state of the National Team. Zhu Fangyu and the others had arrived half a month before and couldn't even schedule a game with another team, undergoing team training every day.

"You don't know, those foreign coaches are really tough. They start practice at 10 a.m., rest for only two hours at noon, and don't finish until after 4 p.m. They have strength training every day. This isn't training, it's animal abuse, man. Su Wan, you did the right thing going to play in the summer league — you get to play actual games and even make a name for yourself!"

And just like that, the conversation came back full circle.

Su Wan couldn't listen anymore and responded in a flat tone, "Why don't you contact the Celtics again? Maybe they'll still want to sign you. Then we could face each other in the NBA."

"Hey, I'm more accustomed to playing in Huaxia. What's so good about the NBA? Look at Bartel, he got an NBA championship but still came back to play in the CBA, what's the point of that!"

"..."

Unable to communicate, Su Wan simply turned off his mic.

But speaking of oddballs, Zhu Fangyu was not the most bizarre.

The next day early in the morning, Su Wan arrived early at the training gym. Soon after, Del Harris, the head coach leading the Huaxia Men's Basketball Team in the Olympic Games in Greece, who had benched Kobe and then been fired by the Lakers, also arrived. Seeing Su Wan rejoining the team, he smiled.

Among the younger generation of the Huaxia Men's Basketball Team, his two favorite players were Yi Jianlian and Su Wan.

"I watched your summer league matches; you've matured a lot. Playing high-level games really benefits young players like you!" he remarked, bringing up the summer league.

Yet it was clear from his tone that he was speaking from the perspective of a head coach and was genuinely happy about Su Wan's improvement.

Su Wan felt guilty hearing that.

Without activating "The Zone" mode, how could he possibly perform as Harris said?

The other players from the National Team gradually arrived at the gym. Their reactions to Su Wan's return varied:

Those who were familiar greeted him warmly, while those who were not just glanced at him and then summoned a staff member, going off to practice on their own.

Liu Wei, Su Wan's teammate from the Sharks, was the most enthusiastic.

The two had a good relationship back in the Sharks and seeing each other after so long, Liu Wei, without any strangeness, came over and grabbed Su Wan's arm, making small talk.

As the two of them talked, Bartel also arrived at the gym.

Su Wan was momentarily taken aback when he saw him, his expression freezing.

Don't get it wrong, he was not a fan of Bartel.

But...

If he remembered correctly, this was the National Team's training period, right?

Then why was Bartel wearing...

A Spurs training uniform!

Liu Wei wasn't surprised at all and informed Su Wan that since the first day of training, Bartel had never worn the National Team's training gear and wore Spurs jerseys all the time. Moreover, he often left training early, and Harris didn't know what to do with him.