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Chapter 913 - 385. Top Scholars: Thank You, Bad Kids!_3

Chapter 913: 385. Top Scholars: Thank You, Bad Kids!_3

Mayo: Damn! I should have stuck with my original plan and challenged Jordan one-on-one!

...

A few minutes later, Mayo couldn’t stand the cheers, jeers, and various looks from other tryout players. When the score reached 0 to 7, after missing his 8th shot, he pushed away Zhang Yang, who was closely guarding him, and ran towards the player tunnel.

Hearing the other tryout players hooting, Mayo ran even faster.

Having watched the show for a while, Jordan walked onto the court with a grin, gave Zhang Yang a playful punch in the chest, and said: "You were just playing around, and yet you took it so seriously. If you crush the confidence of a talented rookie, the team that picks him will definitely hate you."

Zhang Yang spread his hands: "I didn’t mean to. I heard his nickname was Super Jordan, so I wanted to steer clear of his strengths. But he insisted on challenging me one-on-one, so I had to give it my all. I didn’t expect him to crumble so quickly, getting all disorganized... Your expression doesn’t look like you’re sympathizing with him."

Jordan laughed so hard his molars were visible: "Is it that obvious? No, I’m really sympathizing with him, and blaming you too! Look at the mess you made, now I have to send someone to bring Mayo back and calm him down. If he quits the camp, we’ll lose a top-pick talent!"

Zhang Yang: "Is that important?"

Jordan: "Not really, but you must keep up appearances."

Zhang Yang: "..."

Jordan himself didn’t like Mayo, which didn’t surprise Zhang Yang. If someone newly entered the NBA with a name like ’Super Zhang Yang’ or ’Super Jack’, he’d be annoyed too. However, if it were ’Jack the Great’, he’d be okay with it.

But pulling off a 7 to 0 score, making Mayo miss 10 shots before fleeing in defeat, even Zhang Yang was surprised. He indeed wanted to finish the game quickly after a couple of rounds, but he thought it would end at most 10 to 5, 10 to 4, something like that. Without a center behind his back, there are many ways to score one-on-one, it’s impossible to completely shut someone down.

As a result, after two rounds, Mayo started playing erratically, just constantly driving to the basket. In Mayo’s last 6 offensive attempts, Zhang San blocked 3 of them, and interfered with the other 3.

On defense, Mayo actually had some fundamental defensive awareness, but in the later rounds, he was defending haphazardly, just impulsively charging...

Zhang Yang was very curious, was his trash talk that effective? Or was Mayo afraid of bugs? It shouldn’t be!

On the other side, watching Mayo’s figure vanish at the player tunnel entrance, Harden mused, "What was Mayo thinking, why did he choose to challenge Jack one-on-one? I can’t figure it out!"

Rose agreed: "I can’t figure it out either."

DeRozan: "The media hyped him up as the next Jordan. He probably believed it, thought he could enter the NBA averaging 28 points per game like Jordan, and that he could challenge Jack one-on-one."

Rose was speechless.

Comparing a draft prospect to a known league star, or to a legend, is a basic media tactic. Draft prospects can get cocky and inflated because of it.

However, because of such media praise, to really go and challenge a major senior player, especially one who got the scoring king title, and in a public arena before the draft.

What kind of IQ does it take to come up with such an operation?

Harden: "I thought I was dumb enough, but there’s actually someone even dumber than me? Can he really believe that?"

Hearing this, DeRozan turned his head, and the already speechless Rose was even more speechless.

Let’s change the topic, Rose said: "James, I think I understand what you meant by saying Jack becomes a different person on the court."

Harden: "In a game, it’s not so bad, but one-on-one, he’s like a demon. Not only does he defeat you, but he also strikes at your confidence and crushes your dreams."

Rose asked out of curiosity: "Is he like that when challenging you guys privately too?"

Harden: "Yeah, why?"

Rose sighed: "No wonder in the finals, even after I got past you so many times, you kept resolutely guarding me afterward. It turns out Jack trained you that way."

Harden appeared enlightened: "So that’s it, my mom also said my personality became tougher after playing with Jack, all thanks to Jack’s help!"

Rose, DeRozan, Love: "..."

Feeling tired, Rose thought it best to change the topic again and asked: "I heard Jack started playing basketball very late, is that true?"

Harden nodded: "Yes, he’s been playing basketball for about five years now."

Rose: "Five years? No way? It’s even shorter than the rumored time?"

Harden recalled: "When I met Jack 5 years ago, he couldn’t even dribble. Six months later, he was better than me, and another six months after that, he was better than DeMar. Another year later, he became the king of California high school basketball. From when he began playing basketball to becoming California’s Mr. Basketball, it only took him two years. When the Bobcats picked him in the lottery, he had just turned 17, and even then, he was far beyond me. Now, another three years have passed..."

With his mouth agape, Rose held his breath for a few seconds before exhaling a burst of air to speak: "Is it really that exaggerated?"

Rose considered himself better than Harden, and in fact, he was. Although the University of Memphis lost to North Carolina, his personal performance still overshadowed Harden’s, but not to the point of being far superior. Moreover, Harden was almost a year younger than him, and he thought Harden’s talent wasn’t inferior to his.

After March Madness ended, he started working hard and training more, worried that Harden would surpass him in the NBA in one or two years.

But it turns out Harden said his talent was nothing compared to Zhang Yang’s...

At this moment, Rose also felt a bit disheartened. Over the past two days of interacting with Harden, he knew that this dimwit wouldn’t lie or exaggerate about such things.