Chapter 30: What A Beautiful Picture!
On March 16, 2007, the first game day of the NCAA Championship, known as March Madness.
Texas Tech University, the number one seed in the Big 12 Conference, will face Niagara University’s Purple Eagles today.
The Purple Eagles can be considered rare guests in the NCAA Championship, because the school’s strong sports program is ice hockey, and the basketball team has only made the NCAA Championship twice in over a hundred years of school history.
So, even if they are eliminated in the first round of March Madness this year, it would be a breakthrough achievement for the school on the level of restoring ancestral glory.
Texas Tech University, aiming for the national championship, naturally won’t see such an opponent as a formidable rival.
The coaching staff has already figured out the Purple Eagles’ roster structure before the game and made corresponding deployments.
TTU’s Jordan Xu, who is capable and should do more, is unsurprisingly assigned an important task: to guard the Purple Eagles’ scoring king Charron Fisher（ SG）.
In the history of the Purple Eagles, Fisher is a tough role player that comes along once every decade or so. In college level games, his offense has no weaknesses, excelling in driving and shooting, and he is the kind of player who can have a major impact on the offensive end by himself.
In terms of ability, it’s really hard to say how much better TTU’s Julius Jackson is than him. After all, both of their ceilings for leading a team are taking a team with average talent to the March Madness level.
The opponent is unremarkable, but the game venue is luxurious enough.
This is Chicago’s United Center.
Michael Jordan’s holy land.
Outside the arena, Xu Ling saw that famous statue of the flyer, “unprecedented and unmatched.”
Since it’s the Bulls’ home court, the Bulls’ management is all present.
Team general manager John Paxson is sitting in the most prominent front row seat.
Since Xu Ling is the only player from tonight’s two competing teams with clear lottery pick prospects, Paxson’s observation target for this trip is self-evident.
Since Jordan’s second retirement in 1998, the Bulls have been trapped in a repeated cycle of tanking hell.
Jerry Krause, trying to prove that the Bulls could win a championship without Jordan, failed in his big bet on Eddie Curry and Tyson Chandler. The decision to trade Elton Brand for that turned out to be a failure in the end, which seems to be the fate of most general managers considered to have clever intelligence.
When Jordan failed miserably in Charlotte, even if he didn’t admit it verbally, he knew deep down that without Krause’s maneuvers, the Bulls dynasty wouldn’t have emerged. He chose Pippen, spotted Kukoc, and bought low on Rodman when his value was at its historical lowest—these decisions laid the foundation for the dynasty, and also made him think he was a key figure on the team. But when he was detached from all the premises of success—Michael Jordan himself—he could never recapture the feeling from the past. Believe me, this isn’t unique; look at how Dumas turned the Pistons into champions in a few years, and then how he gradually messed up everything after the Pistons won the championship.
The Bulls are still paying the price for Krause’s failed rebuild to this day. Paxson has long heard of TTU Jordan’s fame, and the team’s scouts have extremely high evaluations of Xu Ling, which makes him want to come to the site to see this super rookie star who came out of nowhere with his own eyes.
As soon as the game started, TTU gave the opponent a shocker.
Julius Jackson hit a catch-and-shoot three-pointer;
Martin Zeno received Xu Ling’s long pass after grabbing the rebound and scored on the fast break;
Then, the Purple Eagles’ soul figure got the ball, facing Xu Ling—this was the focus of the entire arena.
“I don’t see anything impressive about you, future NBA lottery pick!”
Charron Fisher was like many upperclassmen Xu Ling had seen; they always hypocritically trash talked, trying to disrupt the freshman’s mentality.
Unfortunately, this trick doesn’t work on me, a fifth-year senior.
Fisher’s dominance is built on the dual maturity of physique and technique, but his absolute talent isn’t high—speed not fast, explosiveness not strong. If he enters a higher level competition platform, he would turn from a college all-around offensive player into an all-around iron-making expert.
Xu Ling simply let him experience in advance the effect produced by NBA-level talent under full pressure.
Fisher was completely unable to use personal techniques to create ideal shooting space.
He dribbled the ball for over ten seconds, then forced a step-back jump shot.
“Bang!”
Xu Ling turned around and grabbed the long rebound.
Fisher hurriedly retreated on defense.
However, the fast break he feared didn’t happen in the way he imagined, but the outcome was even worse than he anticipated.
Xu Ling brought the ball up himself, from over two meters beyond the three-point line—longer than the NBA standard three-point line—before his teammates were set, his shot was already rising.
Fisher inwardly cried out in alarm as Xu Ling’s pull-up three-pointer flew over his head.
“8 to 0.”
The Purple Eagles called a timeout urgently.
Xu Ling glanced at Fisher, said nothing, just shrugged, as if asking “Is that all you’ve got?”, then walked off the court.
Knight, as usual, criticized Xu Ling’s shot selection: “Listen, I’ve had enough of your Chris Jackson-style shooting—it’s total crap! But since you made it, what more is there to say!”
“No, you’ve already said my shooting is crap.”
Xu Ling looked at Knight dissatisfied.
Knight turned to the others and continued emphasizing the importance of defense.
After the timeout, the Purple Eagles finally scored.
But breaking the scoring drought only addressed the team’s immediate crisis; their real losing point was being unable to defend anyone from TTU.
Xu Ling went to the low post, posted up, spun, maneuvering Fisher’s defense, who couldn’t help but step forward.
In that instant, a flash of inspiration hit Xu Ling’s mind—certain scenes from Jordan’s game videos drove his body, almost instinctively stepping through forward, using his body to separate Fisher, then a lean-in layup, bang swish!
“What beautiful post footwork!” Pat Knight said in surprise. “When did Eli learn that?”
Knight, however, said nothing. Ever since he learned that Xu Ling had played full-time center in high school in Hong Kong but showed a complete mature guard skill set after coming to the United States, nothing that happened with this guy would surprise him anymore.
Meanwhile, Paxson was frequently reviewing Xu Ling’s past stat lines.
When NBA scouts lock onto a young player for deep tracking, they record everything about the player.
The most basic is every offensive skill he uses in games and its hit rate, to judge skill proficiency.
“Post-up isn’t Eli’s regular offensive move. At least in the first half of the season, his low post scoring was 0. Then he started testing his post techniques in games.”
The more Paxson looked, the more puzzled he got. Can someone who doesn’t post up master it in just half a season?
Moreover, that post footwork just now was pure MJ style—whether in step usage or technique linkage, it gave an indescribable silky smoothness.
At this point, Xu Ling blocked Charron Fisher straight on, then flew to chase down a ball that had flown halfway across the court, racing to the frontcourt, putting on a Jordan-style double-handed cradle slam dunk right in front of the live audience.
“Oh my god! Look at Eli! TTU’s number 1!” The United Center’s DJ shouted excitedly. “He’s practically Michael’s second coming!”
That play evoked beautiful memories of the Jordan era among the live audience.
For a moment, the United Center, which should have been a neutral site, showed signs of turning into TTU’s home court.
As long as the ball was passed to Xu Ling’s hands
“Eli!!!”
The cheers from the arena came rolling in like thunder, resounding from all sides.
However, TTU Jordan never gave the audience a single response from start to finish.
He grabbed the ball with one hand, just like Jordan.
He took a step, shaking Fisher’s balance, then accelerated to the left, completing the drive.
Except for not sticking out his tongue in the process, every move Xu Ling made overlapped with Chicago’s number 23.
Xu Ling dribbled into the paint, took off from the left side, glided, pulled a circle in the air with one hand to avoid the block, then flipped the ball up from the other side of the rim.
The more games he played, the more confident Xu Ling became in his talent.
All the moves he could do in his previous life but didn’t dare use in games, all the techniques that couldn’t threaten because of insufficient talent before, could now be used in games.
He landed on the ground, looked back at the ball, and saw it spinning fast, falling into the net without suspense.
Xu Ling reached out his hand and high-fived Daryl Dora, who was hyped watching.
“You kid, at least acknowledge the crowd!” Dora shouted excitedly. “This is a third-party court—you’ve conquered the neutral site fans and still acting cool?”
There wasn’t even a smile on Xu Ling’s face. A usually friendly person seemed to awaken another personality on the court, showing indifference to everything outside the game.
“Really? Why do I just think they’re noisy?”
“Keep pretending—I know you’re thrilled inside!”
With most of the first half played, Texas Tech University had already built a 24-point lead.
It looked like they weren’t just going to win—they were about to create a massacre.
The Bulls’ management on site, as well as scouts from other teams, were all stunned by this game.
Without Xu Ling, TTU would be just an ordinary strong team, and the game against Niagara University should have been a 50-50 situation.
But with Xu Ling added, they could slaughter opponents in games and become potential contenders for the national championship.
“A few days ago, didn’t Isiah say on the phone that he wanted to trade back the Knicks’ draft pick?”
John Paxson looked at his assistant.
The assistant nodded and replied: “He’s willing to send out anyone on the main roster, plus two or even more unprotected future first-round picks as return!”
“Tell him!” Paxson said decisively. “The Knicks’ 2007 first-round draft pick is our non-tradable chip—tell him to drop that idea!”
With that, Paxson looked back at the court, where Xu Ling had already been subbed out to rest.
TTU Jordan sat on the bench, looking extremely calm, while in Paxson’s mind, he had already envisioned this picture: they use the Knicks’ 2007 first-round draft pick to select Xu Ling at the draft, and he will wear the Bulls’ jersey next season—that red is so fitting for him; this Eli is meant to fight for the blood drop on the horns!
What a beautiful picture!
