Chapter 31: Coach Knight Greets You
In the first round of March Madness, Texas Tech University defeated Niagara University 84-52 at the United Center Arena, advancing smoothly to the second round.
Red Raiders head coach Bob Knight gave extremely high praise when talking about Xu Ling’s performance tonight.
This was icing on the cake for Xu Ling, who completed his March Madness debut with 25 points, 11 rebounds, and 5 assists.
Bulls general manager John Paxson, who came to the scene to watch the game, said bluntly: “Eli is undoubtedly a player on another level. His game reminds me of the days playing with Michael. You know, he’s just that outstanding.”
As the game’s best player, Xu Ling had to get used to being surrounded by people holding microphones and cameras wherever he went.
This was the attention he had once dreamed of, but now that he had locked in a lottery pick position, these endless external disturbances made him feel a trace of annoyance.
But if he wanted to become a professional player, this was a hurdle he had to overcome.
Xu Ling noticed that besides American reporters, there were many reporters from China.
By now, the college basketball world could no longer ignore his existence.
Because Xu Ling was very likely to enter the NBA as a lottery pick like Guangdong Hongyuan’s Yi this year, which would be a major event for China’s sports world.
The only issue was that Xu Ling’s hometown was Hong Kong, China. In theory, even if he were to represent an association, it should be the Special Administrative Region, but given the level of the Special Administrative Region team, they might not even qualify for the domestic National Games.
What use would it be to put an NBA lottery pick on such a team?
Would there be a joke in the future where Xu Ling leads the Hong Kong team and can’t even get out of the group stage in the Asian Championship?
If Xu Ling were just a top Asian player, domestic fans would only feel it was a bit of a waste for him to represent the Hong Kong team, but with the current situation and the backdrop of the home Olympics, the Chinese Men’s National Basketball Team should supplement every strong player possible. Besides naturalized foreign players, any reinforcement that could help the men’s basketball team make history should be considered.
Therefore, in recent days, there were actually a lot of Chinese media interviewing Xu Ling.
They first probed Xu Ling’s intentions, then deliberately spoke in Mandarin, and found that not only was Xu Ling fluent in Mandarin, but he also had a slight southern accent. When reporters asked if he was willing to represent the Mainland in competition, he smiled and said: “Why not? Representing the national team is my dream.”
On the same day, Duke and Villanova University in the same half of the bracket battled until the final second, winning with a buzzer-beater to defeat their opponent and meet TTU in the second round of the NCAA Championship.
This touched a nerve in the media.
Bob Knight and Mike Krzyzewski had a clear mentor-disciple relationship. Coach K was also the most outstanding among all of Knight’s students, even surpassing him.
But how would an extremely proud person accept being surpassed by his student? Especially a sensitive and unforgiving person—any hint could trigger his outburst.
The media had long noticed that Coach Knight and Coach K had not had any public intimate interactions in a long time.
In the 1980s, whenever they met in games, they would praise each other, and Coach K even said: “My games with Coach will ultimately turn into 40 ways of saying I love you.”
Such intimate interactions had not happened in a long time.
At some point, Knight stopped talking about that disciple he was proud of, and old K also cautiously discussed his relationship with Knight.
When old K was asked how he felt about facing Knight again in March Madness after many years, he said flatly: “I hope we can bring a great game. That’s all I can ask for.”
Knight’s reaction to this was somewhat cold.
“There won’t be anything different.” Knight asked the reporter back, “What do you expect from two men who add up to over a hundred years old?”
Something must have happened between them—this was the consensus.
And within the team, the assistant coaches also reminded the players one after another to bring the determination of a finals game to the matchup against Duke in two days.
“Duke is the only team Coach doesn’t want to lose to!”
This is what Chris Beard said.
“Why?” Martin Zeno asked. “Isn’t Coach the mentor of Coach K? Aren’t they friends?”
Beard joined the coaching staff after Knight came to TTU, so he didn’t know what happened in the past, saying only: “Precisely because they are friends, Coach doesn’t want to lose this game even more.”
Besides Xu Ling, no one else thought much about it.
But in Xu Ling’s view, if they were really friends—or from their resumes, they should even be good friends—then Duke shouldn’t be the only team Knight could accept being defeated by in March Madness?
Two days later,
Tonight’s United Center Arena looked even more lively than in the first round, because two popular teams were facing off today.
TTU with Xu Ling and Duke with multiple players who had NBA prospects.
Moreover, there were far more NBA executives in attendance than the day before.
John Paxson came to the scene again.
Then there was Hawks’ Billy Knight.
As well as SuperSonics general manager Sam Presti, and Timberwolves general manager Kevin McHale.
The main characteristic of these teams was that they would all appear at the Lottery Draft in a few months.
They all had the possibility of selecting Xu Ling in the draft.
It could be said that every move Xu Ling made on the court could stir the hearts of these NBA executives.
On the sidelines, Bob Knight looked grim, his gaze like a falcon locking onto Duke’s bench in the distance—where his “disciple” stood. The gates of memory burst open, and sealed past events surged like a tide.
It was the spring of 1992, when Indiana University and Duke University were about to face off in the national semifinals at the Minneapolis Gymnasium. At that time, Krzyzewski had led his team to the Final Four for five consecutive years, his sixth time on this stage in seven years.
The last time in the championship that old K’s progress had been blocked was by his West Point military academy mentor Knight.
In the 1987 Sweet Sixteen, Knight personally eliminated his beloved disciple’s team. At that time, the mentor-disciple relationship was still pure—during the 1986 Final Four, Knight had proudly worn a “Duke Go!” badge and cheered for his disciple’s team in Dallas.
By April 1992, Duke University had surpassed Indiana University to become the top powerhouse in college basketball, and Krzyzewski’s Final Four appearances had exceeded Knight’s. Coach K was widely regarded as a model in college sports, while Knight was increasingly seen as a negative example.
Just before the Indiana University vs. Duke University Final Four game, Knight saw a Final Four preview article written by Corey Kirkpatrick of 《Sports Illustrated》, which included this passage: “In 1987, Indiana University defeated Duke University in the Midwest Regional Semifinal, a game described by one of Krzyzewski’s friends as a ‘divorce’ between the two coaches, because Krzyzewski was very eager to dispel the notion that he couldn’t leave Knight’s protection. Since then, Coach K has seized every opportunity to emphasize their many differences while still trying to maintain a cordial relationship with Knight—this is undoubtedly a more challenging task than teaching dozens of trophy makers how to spell his name.”
Knight’s eyes bulged, and endless anger made him decide. He clipped out this passage, along with a note he wrote by hand, and gave it to a mutual friend with old K, asking him to deliver it after the game.
In the end, Duke defeated Indiana University to advance to the national finals, but this time, Knight offered no congratulations, no hug, and even refused to make eye contact with his disciple. What Krzyzewski eventually received was that clipping, along with a message that pierced through the paper: “Getting rid of your relationship with me is easy, but don’t forget who put you in this position.”
This was the end of Knight and Krzyzewski’s relationship.
After that, Krzyzewski won two more national championships, while everything Knight had built in the past collapsed. He was ousted from Indiana University, performed mediocrely at TTU, and the disciple who betrayed him was widely considered the greatest coach in modern NCAA history, while he was just a moldy old thing at a mediocre institution.
Now, they were facing off again on the March Madness stage.
Texas Tech University was the more favored team.
A player like Xu Ling, who was ranked high in NBA draft predictions, would usually be recruited by a school like Duke, but now he was a member of the Red Raiders.
Before the game started, Knight patted Xu Ling on the back.
“Slaughter them all tonight, don’t let any of them off!”
Xu Ling asked: “Including Coach K?”
“If he gets on the court.”
Xu Ling couldn’t help laughing. What kind of relationship was this? No matter how you looked at it, there wasn’t a shred of love between these two.
Mentor? Disciple?
“Snap!”
With the referee’s whistle, the ball was tossed into the air, and Duke’s white center Josh McRoberts grabbed possession.
Duke’s starting guard Greg Paulus got the ball and was about to push forward when Xu Ling’s face flashed in front of him. Before he could react, the ball was poked away from his hands.
Xu Ling rushed forward, secured the ball, dribbled it alone to the frontcourt, shook off the defense with consecutive changes of direction, drove to the basket, and leaped for a powerful one-handed slam dunk.
“BOOM！！！！！!”
Facing the cheers of the crowd, Xu Ling turned to face Duke’s bench. Just as people thought he was finally compromising toward the fans and responding to these enthusiastic spectators, he said to Coach K: “Your mentor, Coach Knight, asked me to say hello to you.”
Thanks to guanzhuii’s pledge, and also thanks to reader 20190708052839317’s tip. Seeking follow to read, seeking collection, seeking votes.
