Chapter 122: City Of Arrogance
If you ask Americans: “Which city is the easiest to troll?”
Many would answer Los Angeles, because it’s flashy; some would say New York, because it’s narcissistic; but the real answer for the most satisfying trolling is actually Boston.
This is a very peculiar place—it’s one of America’s oldest and most historically rich cities, yet also one of the easiest to make you roll your eyes. Because Bostonians always make you feel like their city isn’t part of Earth, but the capital of a parallel universe empire.
When the Grizzlies’ bus pulled up to the hotel, a small group of “well-prepared” Celtics fans gathered at the entrance. They wore green jerseys and held up crude slogan boards.
“Go back to Memphis, headline boy!”
The jeers filtered through the soundproof glass, muffled into the bus.
An excited young fan even tried to rush past the security line, throwing a green hat scrawled with insulting words toward the bus, but was quickly restrained by security.
Xu Ling leaned against the window, expressionless as he watched the distorted faces outside from excitement. He wasn’t unfamiliar with scenes like this.
“Don’t mind them, Eli.” Jason Kidd, sitting in the front row, said without turning his head. “The fans here just love their team too much. Treat it like a ‘welcome’ ceremony.”
When they entered the hotel, the server’s accent made Xu Ling’s expression light up even more.
That strange accent reminded Xu Ling of a punny joke from before his time travel about his cousin “Guangxi hitting four chickens.”
And it’s with that peculiar accent that they can instantly spot who’s from out of town, and then that deep-seated arrogance comes out.
Bostonians have a sense of superiority; they think this is the cradle of America, the birthplace of ideas, and the origin of sports dynasties.
This makes them feel superior to Americans from other regions, and someone like Xu Ling, an Easterner, is naturally at the bottom of their disdain chain.
But considering the Celtics haven’t won a championship in over 20 years, it’s hard to say how much glory is left for them. They desperately need a championship from this new era to continue their past history.
The Eastern Conference and Western Conference public opinion war is still ongoing.
Shortly after the Grizzlies arrived in Boston, Glen Taylor, the owner of the Minnesota Timberwolves—Garnett’s steadfast supporter and friend from 12 seasons together in Minnesota—made rare criticism of the former star, implying Garnett’s injury absence in the last five games of last season was “intentionally tanking.”
Taylor said it like this: “No matter what, I didn’t want to tank, but when KG doesn’t want to play, the team loses its spirit.”
Kevin Garnett’s agent, Andy Miller, immediately blasted Taylor, calling such remarks utterly ridiculous.
This undoubtedly added fuel to tonight’s game.
In the evening, the Grizzlies headed to TD Garden for adaptive training.
The training wasn’t intense, mainly focusing on off-ball movement, spot-up shooting, and stretching.
Kidd stood on the sideline, like an old captain inspecting his territory.
When Kidd saw Kyle Lowry hesitate slightly on a pass after a pick and roll, he bluntly pointed it out.
“Kyle!” Kidd shouted. “Rhythm! Watch your rhythm! Too fast—are you rushing to hit a wall? Slow down, see clearly!”
Lowry shrank his neck and nodded silently.
Kidd walked over, picked up a ball, and demonstrated personally.
“Look here: pick and roll happens, you dribble here, pause, observe,” Kidd explained with body language while dribbling. “Not every opportunity is fleeting. Sometimes, what you need to create is time, not speed. Whether passing to the outside shooter or cutting teammate, that extra fraction of a second for judgment makes all the difference.”
Though Xu Ling was the acknowledged team core, Kidd had quickly established his own status within the team.
He was a veteran, a lock for the Hall of Fame, and one of the NBA’s greatest point guards ever—his experience and basketball IQ were crucial to the team, and even Xu Ling was willing to follow his lead.
And Kidd had fully embraced his role.
He started doing things he would do in New Jersey, like coaching the young players.
Iavaroni was naturally a bit uncomfortable with Kidd overstepping, but he also knew that both Kidd and Xu Ling were his guarantees in the coaching position.
Plus, since entering the NBA, Kidd had clashed with almost every coach he’d had, and Iavaroni didn’t want to be the next one fired by Kidd.
So he completely let Kidd’s oversteps slide and turned to another key player—Josh Howard.
Beneath Howard’s beast-like face was buried an anxiety hard to share with others.
His injury had clearly healed, but he always felt his physique was fragile, and he couldn’t find the feeling he had in Dallas, leading to a serious identity crisis.
Because he’d heard how his predecessor Rudy Gay was kicked out by Xu Ling.
He didn’t want to be next, so his attitude was very positive, 100% serious in training, but the basketball gods don’t reward endurance to those who persist with deep squats like the god of XXOO does.
“What bullshit!”
After another missed shot, Howard irritably cursed and slammed the rebounding basketball to the ground.
“Relax, Josh.” Iavaroni had walked over at some point. “Your legs haven’t fully regained the feel yet; it takes time, no rushing.”
Howard wiped the sweat from his face, his tone dejected: “Time? Coach, how much time do we have? Every game is critical; I feel like an outsider.”
At this, Howard glanced at Xu Ling, who was steadily hitting threes on the other side.
In Dallas, he was a reliable second or third scoring option with a clear tactical role. But here, under Xu Ling’s dazzling light and Kidd’s absolute control, he felt like a redundant luxury item, unsure where to place himself.
“Josh, no need to rush—you and Jason are the only two on our team with Finals experience.” Iavaroni said calmly. “For us, experience is the most important thing. You know Eli has everything except experience.”
So Howard glanced at number 1 again.
Howard doubted their number 1 lacked everything—at least public records showed he lacked patience.
Xu Ling was doing his catch-and-shoot drills.
The ball flew from his hands, tracing beautiful arcs, most swishing through.
But his brows furrowed slightly, as if sensing something.
“How’s it feel?” Assistant coach Dave Joerger asked.
“Power… a bit too smooth.” Xu Ling said something that sounded like boasting.
Joerger didn’t get it: “Isn’t smooth power good?”
Xu Ling shook his head, not explaining further.
He was still savoring Dr. Ross’s words: “Think with your ass.”
In the past, his shooting relied more on arm, wrist, and finger coordination, plus muscle memory from millions of shots.
But now, he deliberately tried to feel the stable, thick power support from his glute core muscles at the moment of jump and release.
It felt awkward, like there was an extra switch in his body that needed deliberate activation.
That was the “too smooth” feeling—a strange, needing-to-readapt fluency.
Everyone on the training court seemed to have their own issues, except Trevor Ariza, who found a rare fluidity here.
Ariza found his shooting extremely smooth today.
The one passing to him was Jarrius Jackson, who, seeing Ariza getting hotter, couldn’t help saying: “Man, you’re looking more accurate than Eli today!”
So Ariza cautiously glanced at Xu Ling, who was wrestling with his own ass.
“I only compete with myself.” Ariza shot again—and it went in.
Jackson boldly predicted that Trevor Ariza, tormented by Larry Brown and the New York madhouse to the point of fearing shots, might play well tonight.
Yeah, against the league’s number one defense, the Celtics.
Half an hour later, training ended in a relatively relaxed atmosphere.
After a short rest, Xu Ling and Ariza felt hungry and wanted to grab food outside, but their extra calorie plan was stopped by Dr. Ross. Dr. Ross provided custom jam sandwiches, which surprisingly suited Ariza’s taste; Xu Ling only felt it was the sweetest thing he’d ever eaten.
Then, the Grizzlies took the bus to the game venue.
Xu Ling’s daytime “amnesia” comments had already spread among fans.
Bostonians put Xu Ling’s face on an Alzheimer’s ad, or photoshopped him into the movie Memento poster.
On the way to the arena with teammates via bus, Xu Ling often saw slogans on the streets like “George Washington once drank a hot coffee here”—Bostonians had an urgent desire to shove their city’s heritage in others’ faces.
As Xu Ling and teammates prepared to run through the tunnel to warm up on the court, an old man on the sideline wearing a Red Sox hat yelled at him: “Larry Bird won three championships for this city before you were born—you’re nothing here!”
Unanswerable, but if given the chance, Xu Ling would gladly discuss why the Celtics hadn’t won a title since his birth.
The Grizzlies began warming up.
Celtics fans critiqued the visitors.
The Celtics did the same on the other side of the court.
Kevin Garnett glanced at Xu Ling from afar, not planning to greet him, and said to Pierce nearby: “That kid really has no manners, huh?”
Pierce snorted lightly: “Just teach him a lesson.”
Garnett grinned, flashing big white teeth, walked to the sideline where ESPN had pre-game interview set up for him—specifically to respond to Glen Taylor’s alleged tanking comments from last season with the Timberwolves.
This had annoyed Garnett greatly, feeling like a betrayal.
“I’m in Boston now,” Garnett said on the sideline. “I don’t care what Glen Taylor thinks of Kevin Garnett. Right now, the most important thing for us is tonight’s game. The rest is nonsense. I don’t even know why he’d bring it up, but you know, it shows a man’s character.”
The ESPN reporter followed up: “Do you think Glen Taylor has character issues?”
“I didn’t say that.” Garnett continued. “Glen Taylor was good to me when I was a Timberwolves player. But I’m a Boston Celtics now. I won’t go back and forth with classless talk. That’s not my style. If he wants to say it, let him.”
Finally, Garnett concluded: “I have no relationship with the Minnesota Timberwolves anymore. That’s the past; I’m starting a new chapter in my life. I thank him for the opportunity, letting me not just chase dreams in my youth but achieve what I have today. That’s all I’ll say on this.”
That’s all he said, but the issue was far from over—this was a start, deciding how Garnett would seal off his past, present, and future, and refuse to let Glen Taylor’s team retire his jersey; he had that right.
These off-court annoyances put Garnett in a bad mood; he needed to vent on the court.
The game was about to start.
The Celtics started with Rajon Rondo, Ray Allen, Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Kendrick Perkins.
The Grizzlies started with Jason Kidd, Xu Ling, Josh Howard, Hakim Warrick, and Darko Milicic.
Xu Ling walked up to Garnett with a smile, preparing a belated greeting, but the Garnett before him had a strangely unfamiliar aura.
This clearly wasn’t the Garnett he’d met privately, nor the sunny big man from the news—this Garnett was grim-faced and full of malice, responding to the smile with one sentence: “It’s too late to say ‘hello’ now.”
The scene suddenly reminded Xu Ling of a story about Garnett from this season.
Joakim Noah, same class as Xu Ling, idolized Garnett, so during a game against the Celtics, while someone was shooting free throws, he expressed his admiration to his idol—something like, KG, I’ve been your fan since childhood; it’s an honor to share the court with you.
Many in the future would recount this story.
Garnett, full of ferocity, told him: “Don’t fucking bother me!”
“Is that so?” Xu Ling asked. “What should I say then?”
At that moment, an untimely voice rang out.
“Rookie,” Pierce called, “shut your stinking mouth—KG will teach you the manners lesson your life’s missing!”
Some people fear the air suddenly going quiet—that’s usually the start of awkwardness.
Xu Ling believed there were people in the world with two personalities—maybe Garnett was one in a million, switching seamlessly on and off court, so he could somewhat understand the sudden attitude shift. But Pierce—what did this have to do with him?
“If I don’t shut up,” Xu Ling’s devil persona woke up right on time when needed, just like Kevin Garnett. “Will you stab me 11 times for KG?”
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Game time: March 24, 2008, 20:00 EDT
Game location: TD Garden
Teams: Boston Celtics vs. Memphis Grizzlies（Regular Season）
Attendance: 19,156, sellout
Broadcast: ABC
Commentary team: Mike Breen（Play-by-play）, Jeff Van Gundy, Mark Jackson（Analysts）
Officials: Bill Kennedy, Michael Smith, Sean Wright
