Chapter 20: Annoying Ttu Jordan
To say that Kevin Durant took Xu Ling’s challenge seriously before the game would be pure nonsense.
Looking across the entire college basketball scene, the opponents he truly cares about can be counted on one hand.
Although the season is only halfway through, Kevin Durant has already been hailed as the strongest freshman in terms of immediate combat power in history, which of course includes Carmelo Anthony who led Syracuse University to the championship in 2003.
Moreover, every media outlet that has reached this conclusion has ample data to prove they are right.
Under the average of 28 points and 11 rebounds per game, if only Big 12 league games are counted, Kevin Durant’s averages rise to 33 points and 13 rebounds, and he led the team to a perfect record in the league championship, which is undisputed dominance.
His goal is to pry away Greg Oden’s number 1 draft pick spot, as for a player like Xu Ling who was obscure at the start of the season and surged into lottery predictions with a half-season explosion—though a genius, in the public eye, geniuses are also divided into grades.
So before the game started, even after the first few possessions, he didn’t take Xu Ling seriously at all.
Until—Xu Ling scored over him, trash talk coming one after another, and on defense he directly forced him into a turnover.
In front of everyone, Kevin Durant realized for the first time: this TTU Jordan might really be tough to deal with.
If he didn’t bring 100% strength to counter, he might get eaten by Xu Ling.
So, in the next possession advancing to the frontcourt, Kevin Durant ran to his favorite right side 45-degree angle to receive the ball.
Xu Ling, as planned, had already applied massive pressure before Kevin Durant received the ball, and soon he realized Kevin Durant was very skilled at playing under pressure.
Kevin Durant lightly shook him off; with a height of 208 cm and wingspan of 226 cm, it could be said his static talent was a full level above Xu Ling.
Xu Ling reached out to contest but found the opponent’s height was already too high to affect the shot with just his arm.
Kevin Durant shot unhindered, swishing it cleanly.
Then, as Kevin Durant started to walk away, he remembered Xu Ling’s earlier mockery, got upset, turned back and dropped: “Your defense isn’t that great either.”
That sentence hung in the air.
Doesn’t someone need to remind Kevin Durant that it’s not my defense that’s bad, it’s your talent that’s ridiculously good, okay? How can you give that evaluation after using your talent to crush my defense?
“Don’t mind it.” Julius Jackson said, “Just defend him next possession.”
Xu Ling grinned, showing teeth: “I don’t mind.”
But this person who kept saying he didn’t mind added: “Give me the ball.”
Xu Ling’s teammates hadn’t even crossed half court, but they were already out of the play.
Martin Zeno passed the ball out; those who could shoot pulled out wide, those who couldn’t also stayed away from Xu Ling’s half, the entire offensive system instantly cleared, setting up a one-on-one stage for him.
Kevin Durant took a deep breath, wanting to defend full throttle. He lowered his center of gravity, spread those incredible long arms. But rookies like him all have one issue: they’ve played too much talent ball since childhood, so their physical defensive instincts far outstrip their defensive technique and awareness.
This is especially common in talent freaks, and when it gets extreme, it even produces gods like Ben Simmons who think they can dominate games without shooting.
Xu Ling lowered his center of gravity, suddenly stepping forward; in that instant, Kevin Durant’s defensive stance was massively disrupted, but because his static talent was so outstanding, he could still contest the offense.
However, Xu Ling’s footwork began to change; before Kevin Durant could recover his balance, he had already dribbled to pull to the right side, a lateral step-back—in this era where isolation players love long mid-range shots and attacking the basket, step-back shots are seen as flashy and impractical techniques, and rare lateral step-backs are even less favored by professionals.
But Kevin Durant’s defense was completely shaken off; Xu Ling pulled up for a jump shot from the right side of the free throw line, banking it in.
“Kevin Durant wants to prove he’s the best freshman in the Big 12 league, but Eli gave him a head-on blow right out the gate, like saying, no, buddy, you’re not the best, I am!”
After this shot, their duel heated up.
Kevin Durant believed his isolation play was unbeatable; Xu Ling thought otherwise.
Next, Kevin Durant didn’t hold the ball for isolation like Xu Ling, but ran off-ball movement to create an opportunity, immediately showing his most terrifying side: once he got open, teammates would definitely pass him the ball, and in that situation, unless someone rushed in front of him to contest immediately, his catch-and-shoot accuracy was scary high.
Kevin Durant fired back.
Ten seconds later, Xu Ling seemed to prove he mastered every offensive move Kevin Durant excelled at, starting to run off-ball movement as well.
Moreover, Texas Tech University had more off-ball movement tactics than University of Texas.
Bob Knight was originally a grandmaster of dynamic offense; what he hated most was a ton of isolation plays, but only because today’s occasion was different did he allow Xu Ling and Kevin Durant to go head-to-head.
Now entering the tactical phase, Xu Ling and the team entered their comfort zone.
The movement of personnel and ball rotation successfully created a corner three-point opportunity for Xu Ling.
Kevin Durant was a beat slow; Xu Ling launched the three.
“Swish!!!”
“Look at that!!!” Commentator Dan Shulman said in surprise, “Eli and KD have turned the game into their solo show; they’ve accounted for all the scoring since tip-off!”
His partner Dick Vitale picked up: “Kevin Durant is still Kevin Durant, but tonight’s Eli is far more aggressive than we’ve seen before! He’s not just proving he’s not worse than KD, and at least so far, he’s even outperforming KD!”
However, no matter how strong the freshman, he couldn’t keep scorching from start to finish; suddenly, Longhorns’ D.J. Augustin drove for a layup, ending the scoring duel between Xu Ling and Kevin Durant.
The two cooled off for a few minutes, and Xu Ling finally had a chance during this brief calm to study Kevin Durant’s off-ball movement habits on the fly.
Setting aside other factors, Xu Ling noticed Kevin Durant’s body rhythm and footwork frequency were a perfect match.
Xu Ling narcissistically thought, hmm, this is basically me.
The wonder of it was far from simple balance; it required extraordinary talent, superior coordination, innate ball feel and long-accumulated ball sense, and fusing everything learned with one’s own playing rhythm perfectly. Generally, the taller the person, the clumsier, the harder to control body balance, so no need to consider ball sense—using height to play good basketball is more important than anything.
Xu Ling’s ball sense and ball feel were developed before time travel, talent came after; someone like him might be one in hundreds of thousands. Kevin Durant was 10 cm taller, yet their coordination, ball sense, and ball feel were basically the same, showing his talent crushed him.
Basketball is just such a ruthless sport.
You can really feel the “beauty of stats” in one possession from those overflowing with talent.
But Xu Ling wouldn’t belittle himself; even Jordan’s raw talent wasn’t much stronger than his, so why is he the GOAT? This shows talent is just the entry ticket; many factors decide the ultimate height.
A strong intuition told Xu Ling not to keep pressing with his body. That was like hacking a mountain with an ordinary sword—limited effect. He needed to find the mountain’s cracks.
His gaze unconsciously fell to Kevin Durant’s legs. “All his moves—power, spin move, jump—start from here.” Xu Ling thought, “If I can anticipate early, or… disrupt his lower body?”
This idea was bold and risky, but he decided to try it.
Half the first half was gone, score tight; the duel between Xu Ling and Kevin Durant wasn’t as intense as the start, but always tit-for-tat.
After TTU’s bench scorer Allen Voskuhl checked in and hit consecutive threes, expanding Red Raiders’ lead to 6 points.
At this point, Kevin Durant decided to do something.
He backed down on Xu Ling, calling for the ball.
Teammate passed it right over.
Xu Ling changed his previous top defense strategy; at the instant he caught it, instead of chest-bumping, he quietly hooked his forearm into Kevin Durant’s waist, while slipping one leg cleverly between Kevin Durant’s legs to disrupt his power base.
In the moment Kevin Durant lost rhythm, he was forced into an off-rhythm spin move, trying to rise up for a shot. His choice was too predictable; Xu Ling’s hand chop fell straight down at the spin instant, like an executioner’s blade, stripping the ball away.
“Eli stripped KD’s ball face-up!!!!!”
Xu Ling with the ball, full speed coasting to the frontcourt, finishing the fast break with a thunderous dunk.
“He fouled!” Kevin Durant was still protesting to the referee, “He poked my waist with his hand and hooked my spot with his foot; that absolutely violated my cylinder!”
From afar came Xu Ling’s casual: “You might as well say I destroyed the whole world.”
Kevin Durant glared hard at Xu Ling. Friction nonstop since tip-off, after a dozen minutes, those bad impressions had turned into strong negative emotions.
This emotion was crystal clear: I hate this guy!
Xu Ling still wore a smile. He didn’t expect Kevin Durant to lose composure so easily; after all, he was just a big one freshman, far behind this “big five” senior.
Controlling Kevin Durant’s core, squeezing his legs to disrupt rhythm—this was Xu Ling’s defensive strategy. Actually, he wasn’t great at this kind of defense; succeeding on the first try was pure bonus.
He decided to keep this defensive intensity.
Under Kevin Durant’s repeated complaints, the referee got vigilant on Xu Ling’s actions. Finally, Xu, whose handwork wasn’t so clean, showed a flaw.
Referee whistled decisively.
“Yes! That’s it!” Kevin Durant clapped excitedly, “You fouled!”
Xu Ling just smiled faintly: “Hope the refs show up every time you hit trouble.”
With that, Xu Ling stretched his joints while secretly calculating in his mind, hmm, looks like the details of these “little moves” need more refinement.
Seek follow to read, seek collections. Seek votes, thanks everyone for the support.
