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Chapter 501 - 217. Tie-breaker battle!

Chapter 501: 217. Tie-breaker battle!

The final whistle blew, and Zhang Yang’s taut nerves finally relaxed. After playing 40 minutes, with a successful shot count of 30, a sense of fatigue rushed into his body. He felt like he was floating.

Up until tonight, he had also uncovered Bickerstaff’s true intentions.

His own coach was so bold! He actually relied on him, an 18-year-old sophomore, to carry the offensive flag and engage in a war of attrition with the opponents, and it wasn’t just for one game, it was for the entire Eastern Conference Finals.

If he had faltered in any game, unable to consistently outplay Hamilton or keep up the scoring pressure, tonight’s game might not have happened!

But one had to say, playing under Bickerstaff was really exhilarating.

In this situation, they were actually able to make a comeback!

Although exhausted, Zhang Yang caught his breath, resolutely straightened up, and stood tall. He keenly noticed that cameras were pointing at him. The post-game interview must be coming up. He quickly prepared his remarks...

The CCTV reporter greeted Zhang Yang with the cameraman, first excitedly described tonight’s game to the camera, and then said to Zhang Yang, "Jack, congratulations on scoring 44 points on your birthday night, leading the team to even the series. Do you have confidence for the upcoming Game 7?"

Zhang Yang had his remarks ready and hearing ’Game 7’ and ’confidence’, he replied, "The Pistons are a very strong team, they have a wealth of playoff experience and some of the top team cooperation in the league. This Eastern Conference Finals has been tough for us, but starting tonight, the tables turned... Eh? Birthday night?"

After rambling on, he suddenly realized the reporter seemed to have mentioned ’birthday night’; wasn’t his birthday tomorrow? Had the game gone past midnight to the next day? Wait! Today is June 6, 2007—it’s his Gregorian calendar birthday!

In his family, they usually celebrated the lunar calendar birthday. Before leaving Charlotte yesterday, his mom had encouraged him with, "Come back with a victory for your birthday," and he had completely forgotten that June 6 was his Gregorian birthday!

He forgot, but his teammates hadn’t.

Just as Zhang Yang realized today was his Gregorian birthday, he heard the uncoordinated singing of the Happy Birthday song from his teammates.

Zhang Yang turned to look and saw Felton pushing a large cake from the player’s tunnel.

He had been a bit puzzled, wondering why, after scoring 44 points to help the team even the series, there were hardly any teammates celebrating with him post-game—it wasn’t like this before. It turned out they had been planning a birthday celebration for him.

But having just won an away game, celebrating on-site might be seen as a bit too showy, right?

The fans at the venue who were starting to leave now stopped in their tracks to boo them!

...

Zhang Yang had a unique birthday.

Cutting the birthday cake under the boos of thousands, he seriously suspected his teammates wanted to steal his spotlight. They could have waited until after his interview to celebrate in the locker room.

Moreover, before heading back to Charlotte the next morning, he heard they were complained about by the Pistons staff for dirtying the court and locker room. The league ordered them to pay for the cleaning, thankfully it wasn’t out of Zhang San’s pocket—Joe the owner would foot the bill.

Of course, he was quite happy the entire birthday night. A victory away on June 6th, his birthday for Game 6—it was a coincidence that would be hard to come by again.

And the teammates had pre-ordered the cake and secretly stored it in the visitor’s locker room, which was a little touching.

After returning to Charlotte, in the afternoon, his parents helped him host a birthday party for his teammates at the farm. Initially, his birthday was supposed to be a low-key affair with family, after all, it was just his 19th birthday, not a grand 91st celebration. But with the atmosphere, it felt right to have a make-up celebration.

However, with the Game 7 coming up the next day, his parents and the coaching staff decided to only provide food, beverages, and a place for cards. There were no alcoholic drinks provided.

Jordan set a rare example, attending the party without drinking, just playing cards.

Zhang Yang also joined for a couple of hands but lost $80 and promptly stopped playing.

When it comes to card games, he couldn’t outplay that old gambler Jordan.

He went to his father’s office, intending to borrow his brother for a walk, when he saw his mother passionately arguing with netizens on the keyboard.

Zhang Yang: "Mom, who are you arguing with? You’re all red in the face."

Yang Jing: "It’s those ridi... I mean, those die-hard Pistons fans from 50 years ago, saying you were disrespectful for celebrating your birthday and victory at Auburn Palace. What kind of reasoning is that! Shouldn’t people be allowed to celebrate a win?"

Zhang Yang looked at the IP address and said, "Pistons fans really are loyal, having moved to Ohio and still caring so much about their hometown team... Mom, you should look at some light-hearted news, fretting over this stuff every day is bad for your health."

Yang Jing: "I won’t fret, I’ll hit back immediately; they can’t out-argue me!"

Watching his mother’s proud expression, Zhang Yang honestly hadn’t anticipated that this would be his mother’s disposition once the pressures of livelihood were lifted and they no longer worried about money... It was actually nice, much better than working hard from dawn to dusk as she had before.

After a brief moment of pride, Yang Jing opened another website and said, "There are joyous news stories too, Yangyang, look."

Zhang Yang glanced over: "Uh... that is quite interesting."

It also had to do with his birthday celebration the night before.

Their Game 6 victory to level the series and turn the tide was assuredly the hottest topic in North American sports at that moment.

They received a lot of praise, except from Pistons fans and those die-hard Pistons fans from 50 years ago. Most fans hoped they would make it to the finals.

The statement he made in the interview the night before about ’turning the tide’ was also widely lauded.