The Way of Basketball: Never Talk Shit to Him!

In Su Wan's memory, Bartel had done many absurd things.

Previously, during his time in the NBA, due to his lack of English, he needed an interpreter and chose to hire a beautiful translator to follow him around all day.

In fact, he barely had any playing time with the Spurs; during the 02-03 championship season, he averaged only 3.8 minutes of playing time in a total of 12 regular-season games. He was essentially a time-eating player, entering the game during "garbage time" after the Spurs' starters had secured the win. Come the playoffs, he didn't get even a second of playing time.

Who would talk tactics with such a team player? Which reporter would bother interviewing him?

But he hadn't expected Bartel to commit such folly:

During the National Team's training camp, he didn't wear the Huaxia Men's Basketball Team's uniform; instead, he wore his Spurs jersey.

If he had the abilities of Wang Zhizhi, he might really have "defected," eh?

Yet Bartel's capricious behavior didn't stop there.

The "Silver Fox" later gathered everyone to lay out today's training tasks, but he, Bartel, stood to one side, stubbornly working on his strength alone. When Captain Zhang went to call him over, Bartel retorted, "This is how I trained with the Spurs!"

The interpreter relayed this to Harris, who simply shook his head slightly and let it be.

It was bad enough that he didn't fit in during training, but with more than an hour left in the afternoon session, Bartel walked straight out the main gate and never returned.

Is that even allowed?

Su Wan was dumbfounded.

Zhu Fangyu noticed his expression and huffed, "Su Wan, you won't become like this in the future, will you?"

"Just shut up, will you?" Su Wan finally lost his patience and retorted.

Good for nothing else but snide comments, number one!

Yesterday, when he heard about Del Harris's heavy training load, Su Wan worried he wouldn't be able to keep up. After experiencing it today, he realized that every player in the Cavaliers' summer league team trains multiple times harder daily!

Sometimes, it's really not about lack of ability, but about a lack of training!

Zhu Fangyu's ability is definitely top-notch among domestic small forwards, but this training attitude... it figures, what kind of training attitude could someone who hangs out with Sun Yue have?

Su Wan stayed to practice more, and Del Harris watched his departing back with the day's only smile.

Approximately two days later, Yao arrived at the Olympic Village, and Huaxia Men's Basketball Team's "strongest force in history" was in place. However, on his very first day, he had a fierce argument with Bartel.

Yao was seriously annoyed by Bartel's self-centered behavior and laid down the law, "If you dare to walk out that door, don't ever come back to the National Team!"

A hint of astonishment crossed Bartel's face. He first joined the National Team during the 1993 Asian Championship in Indonesia, he started playing in the CBA in 1995, and he played his first NBA game in the September 2001 playoffs with the Nuggets.

In every respect, he was Yao's senior.

What right did this junior have to talk to him like this?

Just because Yao made a splash in the NBA that year?

But what was the use of a good performance if he didn't win the championship?

He sneered at the thought, but he did not actually leave the stadium.

No more conflicts erupted after that. With Yao leading by setting an example in hard training, the others' attitudes toward training improved as well, at least managing to bluff their way through the daily training volume.

Su Wan was the hardest worker in the training camp.

He would stay behind every day to do extra practice.

Besides him, the only other two people in the National Team who did extra training were Yao and Yi Jianlian.

Among the domestic players, Yi Jianlian was a model of "diligence."

If he really did change his age, then by the time of the 2019 "Men's Basketball World Cup" held at his doorstep, he should have been 35 years old. The fact that he could still maintain such a performance was enough to prove his self-discipline.

His personality was indeed quite somber.

He hardly ever initiated conversations with anyone, including Su Wan.

Yet the "Silver Fox" liked his low-key nature.

Later, Yi Jianlian was peddled by the Bucks, and it was Del Harris who persuaded the Brooklyn Nets to trade for him. That should have been Yi Jianlian's best stint in the NBA, but it was marred by injuries. After the Nets failed to secure Wall, they purged the coaching staff, including Del Harris who was swept out the door, and Yi went to the Wizards and never got another chance to be a starter.

Three weeks passed quickly, and there was about one week left before the opening of the Olympics.

The Huaxia Men's Basketball Team attended a press conference, seated in a row, with Bartel still wearing his Spurs training uniform, standing out conspicuously among the group.

Suddenly, Su Wan thought of someone:

Kong Yiji.

This Spurs jersey might as well be Bartel's "long gown" that he could not take off!

He was using this jersey to remind everyone that he was the first domestic player to win an NBA championship ring.

The roster for this expedition of the Huaxia Men's Basketball Team included:

Yao Ming, Bartel, Su Wan, Mo Ke, Du Feng, Yi Jianlian, Zhu Fangyu, Chen Ke, Li Nan, Zhang Jingsong, Guo Shiqiang, and Liu Wei.

Apart from the absent Wang Zhizhi, this was nearly the strongest lineup the Huaxia Men's Basketball Team could field.

Yao set the goal for this Olympic campaign:

Secure the top 8, aim for the top 4!

The quarterfinals were the best result the Huaxia Men's Basketball Team had ever achieved at the Olympics. The semifinals were a height the team had never reached. Yao Ming had spent his entire career striving for this goal. Unfortunately, the original Yao had never managed to accomplish this in his lifetime.

But this time, the result might be different.

All this hinged on what kind of impact Su Wan, a person who originally didn't exist, could make.

On August 12th, the men's basketball team was set to face Spain in the opening game.

Su Wan opened his system panel to check his growth over the past month:

"Upper Body Strength: 65→68 (75); Lower Body Strength: 64→69 (78); Core Strength: 70→73 (85); Coordination: 65→70 (80); Speed: 70→72 (78); Cross Movement: 68→72 (80); Explosive Power: 78→80 (85); Jumping: 84 (85); Physical Fitness: 60→72 (85); Injury Resistance: 75 (75);"

There was a significant increase in his physical attributes.

The average value was around 75, which was already at an All-Star level of physical fitness.

Part of this was due to Su Wan's diligent training, as well as the fact that he was only 19 years old and his body was still growing.

Naturally, the greatest increase was in his physical fitness, with a potential value reaching 85 points, marking a meteoric rise in just one month, ultimately gaining 12 points.

This completely exceeded Su Wan's expectations and gave him more confidence than if he had used "Pert."

"Offensive Attributes:

Field of View: 50→52 (70); Dribbling: 55→57 (64); Passing: 53→55 (60); Breakthrough: 57→61 (68); Layup: 58→61 (66); Dunk: 59→61 (70); Close Shot Finish: 50→52 (67); Mid-range Shot: 54→57 (68); Three-point: 52→55 (62); Free Throw: 70→72 (80); Post-up: 45 (65); Off-ball Movement: 52→54 (70);"

"Defensive Attributes:

Defensive Rebound: 55→58 (65); Offensive Rebound: 50→51 (63); Off-ball Single Defense: 64→69 (73); On-ball Defense: 65→69 (78); Help Defense: 70→71 (79); Steal: 55→61 (74); Block: 45→50 (60); Pick and Roll Defense Awareness: 70→78 (78);"

The increase in both offensive and defensive attributes wasn't as significant as in the physical aspect, and most of the improvement in ability values was due to the enhancement of Su Wan's physical fitness.

But more important than the increase in abilities was the fact that Su Wan was no longer a useless player outside of "The zone" mode. Now he could play to about 80% of his abilities as shown on the panel, but his decision-making on the court was nowhere near as good as when "The zone" mode was active. There was no helping it, he had only played six summer league games, so his game experience was severely lacking.

In "The zone" state, he was like a machine that couldn't make mistakes—not only could he not be matched, but neither could anyone else. If he were a character in a Xuanhuan novel, in that state, he would be "unbeatable at the same level, and could even take down higher-leveled opponents with unstable cultivations."