Chapter 105: Turns Out The Biggest Villain Is Me
There are more words tonight, more comments, more statements.
Because this is an important game that transcends the regular season.
“This is a tough loss,” Big Z said disappointedly. “We made a huge comeback in the final moments. Big Z and Delonte hit those unbelievable shots. We almost created a miracle. But in the end, we couldn’t complete the comeback. Memphis played great. They deserve this victory.”
When asked about Xu Ling’s “shaking finger” move at the final moment and shaking down LeBron James, Big Z’s face became extremely grim. He carefully chose his words: “That’s part of the game. Players get emotional on the court and make some… um… moves we wouldn’t encourage after the game. The referee has made the call. As for that play… LeBron is one of the best defenders in the world. Anyone can be fooled by a great fake move. This won’t define who he is.”
However, LeBron James’s top supporter in the team, Daniel Gibson, was much more direct in his emotions.
Gibson was still unable to calm down in the media interview room: “We fought to the last moment! We never gave up! That move? He lacks the most basic respect for the game and the opponent. This is Cleveland! You can’t do that here and expect to get away with it. It’s despicable.”
When a reporter followed up asking if this would create a feud between the two teams, Gibson said coldly: “What do you think? This is no longer basketball.”
Meanwhile, after the Grizzlies’ other players and big shots in the team had commented, they also had to give their own opinions.
Kyle Lowry said excitedly: “This is a great team victory! We withstood the pressure and executed the strategy in the final moments. Eli hit a key shot. That’s what great players do!”
New additions like Josh Howard and Trevor Ariza expressed more excitement about integrating into the team and the joy of winning, cautiously avoiding direct questions about personal grudges.
Marc Iavaroni gave Xu Ling full support and hoped to ease the atmosphere at the press conference, making it a happy ending like sharing a pizza.
But he also knew that from the moment Xu Ling shook that damn finger at James, there could be no happy ending.
On the streets, bars, and sports radio of Cleveland, the angry aftermath was still lingering.
“Disgrace!”
“Utter disgrace!”
“That Chinese guy should be deported!”
Similar roars filled every corner of the city.
The hotline of Cleveland’s famous local sports talk radio was almost overwhelmed, with fans venting their anger in various heated words, calling on the league to impose additional penalties on Xu Ling.
Beneath the noisy world, Xu Ling and Roderick Craig arrived outside the visiting locker room.
Craig said nothing because Xu Ling didn’t speak first.
A lot of unimaginable things really happened tonight.
As you know, the final outcome of that tweet was that classic moment called the “Judgment Dunk.”
Its direct consequence was that the Lakers eventually traded Kobe, officially ending the post-OK era. And the resentful Lakers fans thus became the largest “Xu hater” group on a global scale. As the NBA’s second-largest market, Lakers fans are all over the world. This also means that Xu Ling’s haters are similarly all over the world.
But Craig never expected that Xu Ling, when he made a move, created an earth-shattering spectacle.
Shaking down LeBron James and hitting the key three-pointer—this alone was enough to explode public opinion. But he actually shook his finger at LeBron James who was on the ground.
What kind of backlash this would provoke, Craig didn’t dare to imagine. At least in the NBA, there hadn’t been such a public and unmasked hostile moment in a long time.
At that moment, Xu Ling pushed open the locker room door. Instantly, all eyes turned to him—there was no doubt, only pure admiration.
Xu Ling walked in, still silent.
The one who finally broke this silence was Darko Milicic. He looked solemn and said slowly: “From now on, I not only have to pray for you, but also for your opponents.”
Xu Ling almost couldn’t hold back his laughter. Should he say thank you?
And another humorous big man, Radmanovic, joked from the side: “Damn, is it possible that everything tonight was brought by your prayer?”
Instantly, the visiting locker room at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse erupted in heated laughter.
Considering the mood of Cleveland and the Cavaliers fans who hated Xu Ling to the bone likely to cause trouble outside the Grizzlies’ hotel, the Grizzlies temporarily decided to fly back to Memphis overnight.
Facts proved this decision was absolutely correct.
Thousands of Cavaliers fans surrounded the hotel that night, as if to make Xu Ling atone with his life. When informed by the hotel that the Grizzlies had checked out early, they became even more furious and spat vulgarities.
After returning to Memphis, Xu Ling went home, slept for a few hours, and was already awake.
He could actually sleep more, because the team had given everyone the day off.
Last night’s game against the Cavaliers was the last one before All-Star Weekend. They won, and now the entire league was entering a break to prepare for the upcoming trade deadline and All-Star events.
But Xu Ling’s schedule was very disciplined—bedtime on time, wake up on time. Even if he didn’t sleep well last night, he was full of energy.
Today, as soon as he walked into the living room, he saw Craig eating pizza while watching ESPN’s morning show.
“Without a doubt, this will be the most controversial and iconic image of the season, even the past decade in the NBA!”
On the screen, host Stuart Scott spoke rapidly. Behind him was a huge split-screen: one side showing the slow-motion replay of Xu Ling shaking down LeBron James and hitting the three-pointer, the other side the moment he shook his finger at LeBron James.
“Is this the ultimate competitive spirit, or humiliation beyond sportsmanship? We’ve seen Michael Jordan’s The Shrug（ shrug）, we’ve seen Vince Carter’s The Dunk（ dunk of the century）, but those were ultimately just on-court battles. But last night, we slid from wonderful competitive spirit into pure hatred. We were caught off guard by Eli Xu’s ‘The Finger Wag’. In my view, this is no different from Cantona’s ‘kung fu kick’⑴.”
⑴Footnote for fellow soccer noobs like me: Cantona kung fu kicked a Crystal Palace fan in 1995.
Then, Craig noticed Xu Ling and greeted him: “Eli, you’re awake?”
“Change the channel. I’ve seen enough of this.” Xu Ling said.
So Craig changed the channel, and it happened to be Fox Sports, where the guests were arguing red-faced over the “shaking finger.”
“Why can’t Eli celebrate?!” one guest almost roared. “LeBron spent the whole night trying to teach him a lesson, and he won! In the manliest way! On the opponent’s turf, beating the opponent at his own game! This is one of the greatest individual heroic performances in sports history!”
“This has completely crossed the line!” another elderly guest retorted. “This is a stain on the sport! Mutombo’s shaking finger was the NBA’s reward for his charity work. Dikembe never did this to opponents. What is Eli doing? This is naked, malicious humiliation! The NBA should suspend him!”
Craig kept changing channels, but no matter what, as long as it was sports news, someone was talking about last night’s game.
Xu Ling’s finger, the humiliated King James, arrogance and paranoia, respect and desecration, yellow and black, the sports world was going crazy over it.
Xu Ling felt bored and walked to the dining room. The Filipino nanny in charge of their daily life had already prepared breakfast.
While eating, Xu Ling asked Craig about the progress of recruiting a nutritionist.
Craig looked troubled. With Xu Ling’s current status, they definitely couldn’t recruit some unknown trainer, but big-name trainers generally wouldn’t accept being a personal trainer for a single player.
So this matter had not been settled.
Xu Ling also knew it was inconvenient to do this during the season. Most trainers’ off periods were in the offseason.
Then, Xu Ling’s agent Leon Rose called.
Rose was probably the most devastated person last night.
His biggest star client and most promising rookie didn’t see eye to eye, and in one game, they turned that discord into irreconcilable hatred.
Rose tried calling LeBron James last night, but he never picked up.
Then Rose called Xu Ling, who of course answered, but what could be done? The deed was done, so he could only comfort him nicely.
Maybe there was some new development? Xu Ling picked up the phone.
Rose’s voice sounded a bit tired on the other end, but his tone was direct: “Eli, Adidas just called. Their marketing department… is very enthusiastic. They’ve decided to activate an emergency plan to integrate last night’s play—the ‘Judgment Dunk’ and the aftermath—into your first flagship ad, to be launched during All-Star Weekend.”
Xu Ling held the phone and could imagine the low pressure at Nike headquarters right now. Their meticulously crafted, flawless Chosen One was defeated in the spotlight game by a rookie they once tried to sign on the cheap and indirectly shaped into a “villain,” in the most dramatic and humiliating way.
What impact this would have on LeBron James’s brand image was hard to estimate, but one thing was clear: he, Xu Ling, was in Adidas’s eyes no longer just a player, but their sharpest spear aimed at the Nike camp.
Xu Ling responded casually a few times and hung up.
After breakfast, Xu Ling opened his computer and checked his Twitter account. His latest tweet already had tens of thousands of replies. Keep in mind, Twitter currently had only about a million registered users, with daily active users not exceeding 100,000. Yet his recent tweets each had over 10,000 replies, mostly blatant racial discrimination and hate curses.
For some reason, Xu felt an unusual pleasure in this hate, so he quickly typed a line and posted a new tweet.
“Took the whole game seriously in the end but accidentally hurt millions of people. Who would have thought the outcome would be like this?”
This shocking tweet once again ignited the fury of the haters.
