The NBA's Absolute Dominance

Chapter 29: Shaquille O'Neal's foul mouth
At this time, in the NBA headquarters in New York, in the commissioner's office, David Stern learned about some of the events that occurred at the rookie camp that morning.

For example, there were reports of Laettner's injury, Tang Bei's smashing of the backboard, and O'Neal falling twice at Tang Bei's feet.

He ignored the other news and only gave one instruction: immediately contact the NBA's basket rack suppliers and have them provide more robust basket racks so that the replacement of all basket racks in the league could be completed before the start of the next season.

Because having the backboard blown apart and the basket frame collapsed during an official game can disrupt the game and cause a series of problems with significant negative impact.

In the afternoon, Tang Bei arrived at the Chicago Stadium again by bus.

His treatment was different from the previous two days; he became a hot new star, and from the moment he got out of the car, many reporters followed him.

A reporter interviewed O'Neal and asked, "Shaq, you fell to Tang's feet twice in the game this morning. Can you talk about Tang's performance this morning?"

O'Neal was already annoyed with Tang Bei, and hearing this question made him even angrier. He said unhappily, "There's nothing to talk about. I don't want to talk about a ching chong."

(Note: According to online information, O'Neal used this term to refer to Yao Ming in an interview in 2002, which drew criticism from the media.)
"Ching chong?"

Reporters who heard this word were taken aback, but then became excited.

Tang Bei was only three meters away. He didn't understand the meaning of the word, but John Liu and Eric Fleischer did.

Before Eric Fleischer could speak, John Liu said with a grim expression, "Don, O'Neil used racist language on you that was ten times stronger than it was against Chinamen."

"what?"

Tang Bei couldn't believe it. This was a public place. How dare that guy O'Neal? Was he just carried away by his pride, or was he simply reckless?
"Your ancestors for eight generations!"

He cursed and pushed through the crowd towards O'Neal.

"Tang, calm down. If you fight now, you're finished. You absolutely mustn't lay a hand on him..."

Eric Fleischer panicked and quickly grabbed Tang Bei from behind, hugging him tightly around the waist and pleading with him.

"Tang, you can't fight now. Fighting will affect your audition. It's not worth it to let him affect you..."

John Liu also realized what was happening and quickly stepped forward to block Tang Bei from the front.

O'Neal realized he had said the wrong thing, and with his agent's protection, he lowered his head, pushed past the reporters, and left first, heading out of the stadium.

Blocked by the crowd, Tang Bei couldn't catch up. He roared at O'Neal, "You bastard, don't run! You just wait, we'll settle this score sooner or later!"

"God, O'Neal is so reckless!"

"There are some things you can do, but some things you can't say. Young people are still too young, and O'Neal lacks self-control."

O'Neal's words and the commotion on Tang Bei's side had already alarmed everyone present, and a murmur of discussion immediately broke out.

The basketball hoops have been replaced, and the game will be played in the stadium's courts.

Tang Bei went inside and looked around, but couldn't find O'Neal.

Eric Fleischer said, "Don't bother looking, Don. O'Neal just left with his agent and didn't come in at all."

After he finished speaking, he advised, "You've been in the United States for a while now. Racial discrimination is very common here, as common as breathing, so you should have a good attitude and not let those guys affect your career."

Regarding what just happened, we can use the media to criticize O'Neal and force him to apologize, but we cannot publicly physically assault him; doing so would turn a justifiable argument into an unreasonable one.

"We can't attack him publicly? Okay, I understand." Listening to John Liu's translation, Tang Bei understood and nodded repeatedly.

O'Neal didn't see her; he saw Christine Laettner, who had a large band-aid on her left eyebrow and was staring at him intently.

The official decision was to immediately assign Tang Bei to play center for the Red Team, with Lafonso Ellis as his inside partner, and his opponents being Mourning and Laettner.

This suited him perfectly, because both Alonzo Mourning and Leitner were his most desired opponents.

“Don, be careful of Lightner’s footwork. He stepped on you this morning; he must be trying to cripple you,” Eric Fleischer warned.

"I see."

In the jump ball, Tang Bei won against Mourning, and the Red Team attacked.

Guard Jim Jackson attempted a pull-up jumper on the right wing, but missed, adding 1 point.

Mourning accurately predicted the landing point and moved ahead of the basket, one step to the right front of it.

"Go away."

But Tang Bei, half a step behind, used his strength to forcefully shift Mourning's center of gravity and seized the offensive rebound. "Shit!"

After losing the defensive rebound, Mourning was so angry he wanted to hit someone.

After Tang Bei got the rebound, he was immediately double-teamed by Mourning and Laettner.

Leitner's elbow was already on his body, and his knee was pressing against the back of his knee.

"here."

Ellis shouted loudly from his left waist.

Tang Bei ignored his teammates' shouts and instead used his right foot as a pivot to suddenly perform a Tai Chi turn.

During the morning's game, he successfully used a Tai Chi turn while attacking with the ball, which made him bolder in applying martial arts techniques.

With the force of the turn, the power of the whole body flowed through the body, instantly forming a combined force like a volcanic eruption.

Mo Ning intentionally entangled his right arm with Tang Bei's left arm, but such a fierce confrontation failed to stop Tang Bei from turning around.

Moreover, as Tang Bei turned around, the force of his movement caused him, who weighed only 109 kilograms, to stumble and lose his balance, falling headfirst onto the floor.

Similar to Mourning, Leitner, who used his elbow to push Tang Bei, weighed only 107 kilograms and was not as strong as Mourning in terms of physical strength, so he was knocked over.

"boom!"

The moment Tang Bei forcefully broke through the double team, he slammed the ball into the basket with a powerful two-handed dunk, causing the basket frame to shake violently.

"here you go!"

Eric Fleischer raised his fist heavily.

"Clap clap clap..."

This shot, like a powerful blow, invigorated the general manager, scouts, and reporters present, who all burst into applause.

"Fake!"

"Shet!"

Mourning and Leitner scrambled to their feet in a disheveled state, realizing they had embarrassed themselves and that this would affect their draft prospects. They both glared at Tang Bei with considerable hostility.

David Falk looked somewhat helpless as he watched Tang Bei knock down both Mourning and Laettner under the basket.

This kind of head-on collision between competitors is the most direct manifestation of strength, and there is an inevitability to it: the winner takes all.

But he couldn't change the situation, because the rookie camp's practical training was meant to test the rookies' abilities, and avoiding practical training would also affect the rookies' evaluation.

After several rounds, Tang Bei got another chance to perform under the basket.

It's not that the perimeter players pass the ball to him. In this kind of game, apart from pure point guards, the perimeter players rarely pass the ball to the inside players unless there's no other way.

Unfortunately, there are very few outstanding, pure traditional point guards among this year's rookies, and the only traditional point guard predicted to be in the top 20, Randy Woods, is not on the court.

"Bang!"

The Rockets' other shooting guard, Todd Daye, missed a three-pointer; the ball bounced off the rim and backboard, landing right under the basket.

"boom!"

Tang Bei jumped with all his might, grabbed the basketball over Mourning's head at almost the same time, and then slammed the ball into the basket.

Mo Ning's fighting ability was much worse. He was knocked away in the air and stumbled when he landed, falling to Tang Bei's feet again.

"Damn it!"

Although he wasn't injured, he was still embarrassed. Mourning cursed and looked at Tang Bei with the same hostility as Leitner.

Heat general manager Shaffer excitedly said, "Tang's skills and fundamentals are not as good as O'Neal's, but his strength and physicality are better than O'Neal's. His jumping ability, explosiveness, and coordination are also comparable to O'Neal's."

Timberwolves general manager Jim Brewer said, "Once he masters the fundamentals and develops his skills, Tang's dominance under the basket will likely be no less than that of O'Neal."

(End of this chapter)