Chapter 16: This Stretch Of The Longest River
Before the game started, outsiders expected it to be a fierce battle, and most of the first half indeed was, but when Xu Ling restricted Asi Law, the momentum completely shifted to Texas Tech University.
Because Texas A&M’s other players relied too much on Asi Law’s performance, once Law’s level dropped, the whole team would falter.
At the end of the first half, TTU led by 12 points.
ESPN commentator Dick Vitale made a judgment: “Unless Asi Law finds a way to shake off Eli’s defense in the second half, the Red Raiders will secure a championship-opening win for the 2006-07 season!”
But the result was that Xu Ling’s defense performed even better in the second half.
Texas A&M was choked, unable to mount any effective counterattack.
The full game ended 87 to 66, with Texas Tech University winning by a 21-point margin.
If the Pete Newell Invitational Tournament a while ago could still be dismissed as a preseason warm-up game not worth taking too seriously, then Xu Ling’s dominant performance tonight against a senior with lottery pick prospects made it impossible to ignore him any longer.
“18 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists, 4 steals, 1 block,” ESPN’s Dan Shulman said. “Eli, who is touted as the college Jordan, performed tonight like a 6’5″ Gary Payton; he completely erased Asi Law on defense!”
Xu Ling high-fived his teammates, then saw several media outlets already waiting on the sidelines for his interview.
He walked over.
“Eli, congratulations on winning your first league championship game. How do you feel?”
“I don’t feel much; this is just the beginning.”
“Asi Law ranks at the top in many authoritative draft prediction media; he’s considered a guaranteed lottery pick, but you clearly dominated him tonight. How did you do it?”
“I’m taller than him, faster than him, and have more athletic talent than him,” Xu Ling said astonishingly. “It’s not hard.”
So the ESPN reporter asked the final question: “We’ve noticed you seem indifferent to the fans’ cheers. What do you think of the audience’s feedback?”
Interaction between athletes and spectators is an important part of sports games.
Xu Ling has thus received quite a bit of criticism; some think he’s too arrogant and harsh on fans because he never responds to the crowd’s cheers on the court.
“I might be a bit dense,” Xu Ling said sincerely. “If I care too much about things off the court, I can’t focus on the game.”
So, is that his reason?
The on-site sports reporters didn’t fully believe Xu Ling’s words, but at least that’s how he’s been performing so far.
However, Xu Ling’s indifference to the audience far exceeds Tim Duncan’s level of keeping a low profile in life but high in action; his is too obvious, making it seem deliberate.
But that’s not a big deal, because most sports fans are masochists; as long as the player is good enough, their tolerance is beyond imagination.
After finishing the interview, Xu Ling ditched the media wanting a one-on-one exclusive and headed straight to the player tunnel.
On both sides of the tunnel, TTU students were shouting loudly.
“Eli~~~~!!!”
“XU!!!!”
“We love you!!!”
Some held jerseys and pens, hoping for Xu Ling’s favor.
For such scenes, Xu Ling had experienced them too many times in his previous life; now he was used to it and eager to leave, so he ignored them.
The post-game effects began to stack up.
First was the media hype heating up.
“We never thought a Chinese freshman could guard the best point guard in the country. But last night, Eli Xu showed us it’s possible.”
The famous NBA draft site《DraftExpress》 wrote this at the beginning of its post-game column.
The next day, ESPN’s homepage headline featured a photo of Asi Law looking up under the basket, Xu Ling airborne with his hand swatting the ball away, the blurred crowd in the background as if making way for his stage, paired with draft expert Jay Bilas（Jay Bilas）’s comment: “Texas Tech’s defensive efficiency ranked only 72nd nationally last season, but after this game, they might rush into the top 30—and all this change is because of Eli Xu. He can not only destroy opponents with offense but also knows how to make the opponent’s ace player disappear from the court.”
Then ESPN’s popular writer Bill Simmons, whose beloved Celtics were in a rare historical low, made him particularly focused on the 2007 draft class touted as a super draft year.
After watching the Texas Tech University vs. Texas A&M game video, he quickly wrote a column hyping Xu Ling: “Do you know the essential difference between Eli and Yao Ming? Yao Ming is a 7’6″ interior giant tower, while he—Eli Xu—is someone who can apply pressure from beyond the three-point line, cut off driving lanes with textbook shuffle steps, block shots with amazing bounce, even complete tomahawk dunks in transition, and has elite shooting ability. Let me put it bluntly: he reminds me of my Celts’ team legend ‘Hondo’ John Havlicek. You know what’s the funniest part? Hondo’s college teammate was a guy named Bob Knight—yes, the one you’re thinking of—and he’s Eli’s current coach. I believe this is all the best arrangement.”
Finally, Simmons predicted that if Xu Ling kept playing like this, it wouldn’t be long before he entered the lottery position in draft prediction rankings.
Next, the slow-to-catch-on domestic media also discovered a promising talent in the NCAA who was likely to become China’s next NBA player.
Hype from across the ocean began as well.
Fans’ reactions were the most enthusiastic; under the headline on the thickbo sports website, the comments were extremely excited.
“Holy shit, he’s a guard! A guard! Not like Yao the big dummy, that mass-produced tall dumbass from China!”
“The upstairs Luoyang flower bloom⑴ fanboy, stop joking! Ming Wang is a once-in-decades talent!”
“Isn’t this a taller Dwyane Wade? Rotten shoes, move fast!”
Comments like this—stirring debates, hype, and exclamations—swept the Chinese basketball community. In one day, Xu Ling’s name crossed two worlds to become the hottest topic in the basketball scene.
The only change Xu Ling himself could feel was the posters in the school training hall.
Previously, it was the post-game poster from the team’s last Sweet Sixteen run, but today it had quickly been replaced with Xu Ling’s tomahawk dunk on Asi Law.
This was the only change, and it made Knight very unhappy.
“Who the hell did this! It’s just one Big 12 league game, is this necessary?!” Knight grumbled. “Acting like that bastard has already won the John Wooden Award or something!”
Unfortunately, Xu Ling was right there at the time.
Knight had no shame about badmouthing people behind their backs; caught by the person involved, he just said nonchalantly: “Don’t you think this is too high-profile?”
“No, I kinda like it.”
“What?”
“Compared to the John Wooden Award,” Xu Ling said, “I do prefer the tomahawk dunk on the nation’s top point guard award. Don’t you like it, Coach?”
Knight sneered: “Looks like the outside hype has gone to your head!”
“Not quite there yet, but close,” Xu Ling replied.
“Then get ready to be taught a lesson by this world!” Knight seemed to have a disease of hating to see Xu Ling smug. “You think Asi Law is the whole world? He’s just a JB! No matter how good he is, he’s just one of the top players nationally, and not even the very top!”
“Is that so?”
“Nonsense!” Knight’s fiery temper flared up. “Not to mention others, just your fellow freshman Mike Conley—he’s way better than Asi Law!”
Xu Ling said calmly: “If we meet Ohio University in March Madness, my attention will only be on Greg Oden.”
“Oden?” Knight was pissed. “You’re already thinking about Oden? We just won one championship game, and you’re thinking about Oden?”
Xu Ling had to remind his coach: “You brought up Ohio University first.”
“I was talking about Mike Conley!”
“Who cares about Mike Conley?” Xu Ling said. “I only care about Oden.”
“Enough! I’m sick of your bullshit! You arrogant bastard will get schooled hard by this world! And my final reminder: you’re not even the top freshman in the Big 12!” Knight shouted. “That title belongs to Kevin Durant. Want to meet Oden? Beat Durant first!”
To be honest, these two things weren’t simply sequential.
But Knight’s sudden remark did pique Xu Ling’s interest; he looked at assistant coach Chris Beard: “Coach, when is our game against Kevin Durant?”
Beard, who knew the schedule inside out, said: “Next Saturday, and we play them twice this season, but before that, there’s Kansas University, that tough nut to crack.”
Knight snorted and turned to leave.
Suddenly
“Wait!! No!!!”
Xu Ling shouted out.
Knight turned back to look at him; he didn’t ask, but his expression clearly said: What are you ‘no’ about?
“The most important thing before that is that our dear head coach, Bob Knight, is about to reach a career milestone,” Xu Ling said with a smile. “Just two more wins, and you’ll surpass Dean Smith to become the winningest head coach in college basketball history. I think nothing is more important than that.”
“You’ve said too much bullshit today!”
College basketball’s highest mountain（that he himself）believes is undisputed, and also the longest river（currently）, Coach Knight said to Xu Ling: “Looks like that waste Asi Law really didn’t put much pressure on you; your energy is overflowing. How about this: add 30 more minutes to your defensive footwork training on top of the usual. No finishing, no going home. I won’t accept any objections!”
Knight really left.
Xu Ling looked at the assistants: “Can any of you talk sense into him?”
“Do you think the General will listen, Eli?”
Privately they call him “General”; how cheesy must it be to his face is unimaginable.
A long time later, most people had left, but Xu Ling was still practicing defensive footwork in Wembley Gymnasium.
Ever since he called himself the college Jordan, Knight increased his training load; compared to others, he has half an hour more defensive footwork training every day.
Xu Ling knew this was good for improving defense, so he didn’t resist, but today it was another half hour on top of the increased load—pure torture.
Xu Ling endured while cursing the old man.
When he got near the court, he saw Julius Jackson still practicing shooting and asked: “Captain, you haven’t gone back yet?”
Jackson took a shot. The basketball rimmed out. He didn’t pick it up right away but turned around, looking at Xu Ling with a complex expression.
“I’m thinking about some things.”
“Good things? Bad things? …Or just boring stuff?” Xu Ling asked casually.
Unexpectedly, Captain Jackson said something Xu Ling completely didn’t expect: “Do you believe in God?”
The question came suddenly, and Xu Ling was momentarily stunned.
As a transmigrator, he really couldn’t answer simply.
“I’m not too sure,” he replied thoughtfully. “I tend to believe in things I can see and do.”
In life, he’s not a believer in any religion, so his answer was especially pragmatic.
“But I do,” Jackson said, bending to pick up the ball, his tone very firm. “God gave me my talent and led me to basketball. So whether in good times or bad, I’m willing to follow His arrangements.”
Jackson paused briefly, looking deeply at Xu Ling: “And now, you make me feel more and more that us being together must be part of God’s plan—He wants us to accomplish something truly great together.”
“Like winning the national championship?” Xu Ling asked with a smile.
“Oh no!” Jackson looked at Xu Ling incredulously, as if he’d said something outrageous. “Unless you can beat Kevin Durant, don’t talk about national championship. What I mean is, we can try to contend for the Big 12 championship.”
Xu Ling immediately lost interest: “I’m more interested in beating Durant.”
“Since you say that, I’m upping your training difficulty!” Jackson walked up to Xu Ling, passed him the ball hard, and showed the slightly “ferocious” smile only a captain and senior could have: “From now on, I’ll dribble and attack, you defend me! If you can’t stop my offense, you practice another half hour!”
Xu Ling caught the ball, felt the force from it, and smiled too.
“Captain,” he lowered his center of gravity into a defensive stance, “you’d better pray your performance today is as strong as when God blesses you.”
⑴If Yang Hansen stands firm in the NBA, we’ll soon see the modern Luoyang flower bloom seizing the era’s opportunity to step into the spotlight. I’m even wondering if “Yang Hansen jokes” have appeared yet.
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