Basketball miracles

Chapter 104 [High-Tech Rewards]

Xiao Tu stole the spotlight from all the Western stars at the press conference, including Magic Johnson.

Johnson's stats are far inferior; whether in the Slam Dunk Contest or the All-Star Game, he's always the one passing the ball to Xiao Tu. Xiao Tu, on the other hand, seems quite content with this, stating that he enjoys assisting.

Unfortunately, Johnson's dunking ability is average; he can only rely on fancy passes to watch Xiao Tu perform. He doesn't dunk many times each season; he's known for his fancy passes.

A reporter interviewed Alex English with rather pointed questions. The Nuggets' leading scorer had a poor game today, playing 14 minutes without scoring a single point, only managing 2 rebounds and 1 assist.

Even a star player who plays exceptionally poorly will make the news. English needs the ball to attack to perform; on an All-Star team, he can only be a substitute and doesn't get the ball.

English is like the Michael Jordan of the West; no matter how strong a star player's individual ability is, he won't have a good outcome if his teammates are unwilling to pass the ball.

At the Eastern Conference All-Star press conference, the focus was on the Celtics' two star players.

A reporter interviewed Robert Parish and asked him why he committed such a vicious foul on Xiao Tu.

A normal person would simply need to apologize to Xiao Tu, stating that it wasn't intentional or that they were a bit impulsive at the time, and the negative impact of the incident would be largely mitigated. Parish's actions will likely attract more reporters to interview Xiao Tu; if the person involved expresses forgiveness, then the matter will be resolved peacefully.

Parish is not a normal person; he is a "leader" whose "leader doesn't speak" mode has been activated.

Facing the camera, Parrish's expression resembled that of a Native American chief whose land had been taken from him, his face etched with bitterness and resentment. He seemed poised to summon all the warriors of his tribe at any moment, ready to fight the American white pigs to the death with bows and spears.

His first priority is to kill Xiao Tu, unless Xiao Tu dances with wolves and becomes a wild man, in which case he might not gain his approval.

The white Los Angeles reporter who asked the question felt an urge to just kill him and scalp him after seeing Parrish's expression.

Bird remained silent during the interview, just like Parish, offering no trash talk, no comment, and unwilling to comment on Xiao Tu.

The "King of Trash Talk" refused to speak, and the reporters found it boring. Today, the Celtics players lost both the game and their composure.

Bird had no reaction, but the major media outlets still published news, as long as they praised Xiao Tu. Having silenced Bird, Xiao Tu had already won; no amount of praise was too much.

Michael Jordan is competing with Xiao Tu for Rookie of the Year this season, and reporters interviewed him to get his thoughts.

Jordan looked very upset, and said in a low voice with his head down, "I feel so worthless. I really want to dig a hole and hide inside and never come out."

Jordan didn't know what to do when he was on the court, and he didn't know what to say at press conferences. His words made him seem weak, but they were his most honest thoughts.

Jordan was extremely frustrated, feeling that he had little chance of winning the Rookie of the Year award; Xiao Tu's performance in this game was leagues ahead of his. How could he possibly compete for Rookie of the Year against Xiao Tu, who had already won the All-Star MVP?
Jordan wasn't confident he could lead the Bulls to victory against the Lakers; that was a matter for further consideration. Before that, his primary targets were Isaiah Thomas and the Pistons.

Xiao Tu returned to his hotel room and happily opened the golden treasure chest. He didn't want to save the chest for another world to open just yet; he planned to improve the strength of this "main" character first.

Only by improving his skills can he perform better in the playoffs and have a better chance of winning the Finals MVP. He's unsure about the size of the rewards for other individual honors, but the Finals MVP is definitely a big prize, and he's already eyeing it.

Xiao Tu, lacking the experience to win the regular season MVP, is therefore supporting Magic Johnson. He won't hold back in the Finals; experience doesn't matter, it's all about skill.

Xiao Tu's confidence soared after facing Bird today. His biggest advantage will be against the Celtics in the Finals, where his physical attributes will overwhelm his opponent.

Xiao Tu was blessed with good luck this weekend, as the rewards from the golden treasure chest were related to improving his basketball skills.

A God Descends to Earth: "Superstars all have classic games where they're on fire and unstoppable. Accumulate 100 missed shots in a regular game, and your shooting touch will be greatly improved, entering 'God Descends to Earth' mode in the next game. (Cannot be used with bodies from other worlds)"

After receiving the message, Xiao Tu felt that it wasn't talent, but rather a cheat code for shooting.

The effect of his talent is very clear: it's a buff that increases his accuracy after he misses a lot of shots. He doesn't need to deliberately count his misses; once he accumulates 100 misses, it's a burst of accuracy in the next game, not a burst of accuracy in the current match.

If Xiao Tu's three-point shooting percentage is already above 50% in his regular training, what would happen if he improved it further? In his godlike performances, his shooting touch would be comparable to peak Curry, making even random shots. Xiao Tu is a pull-up jumper, and his height and jumping ability give him more space to create shots, making him face much less defensive pressure than Curry.

Furthermore, his shooting ability still has a lot of room for improvement; he hasn't mastered many positions yet. In a few years, he'll likely become one of the best shooters in the NBA.

Some star players are indeed unstoppable when they're on fire, but it's impossible for them to have such frequent outbursts as Xiao Tu.

In the future, when Kobe had a breakout season, he had phenomenal performances such as scoring 60+ points in three quarters and 81 points in a single game. However, Kobe's average field goal percentage was not high, consistently around 45%.

When he's right, he's like a god descending to earth; when he's wrong, he's right 17 out of 47.

The key players on each team took a lot of shots, with some even averaging more than 10 missed shots per game.

At his peak, Allen Iverson averaged around 15 missed shots per game across multiple seasons, accumulating 100 missed shots every 7 games. If he possessed superhuman talent, he could have had more than 10 such outbursts in a single regular season.

Xiao Tu felt that with this talent, he should go all out and not worry about accuracy. If he were the core player on a weak team, he would have a very enjoyable time playing.

He knows when he can explode, and that's when he can take more shots in that game.

Now that Xiao Tu has joined the Lakers, Riley won't give him unlimited shot attempts; he can only slowly accumulate missed shots. Furthermore, this talent isn't applicable to bodies from other worlds, so he can only be a power forward who takes more shots.

Xiao Tu's scoring desire intensified. He was confident that if he took enough shots, he could rival Jordan for the scoring title. The thought that he might win the scoring title more times than Jordan made him tremble with excitement.

Xiao Tu was already getting impatient, eager to see what it felt like to score such a high number of points. Kobe Bryant scored 81 points in a single game and gained countless fans; perhaps he could achieve that too.

Xiao Tu contemplated the future for a while before opening the second golden treasure chest.

This reward has nothing to do with basketball; it's a piece of cutting-edge technology.

Essence of Life: "Pure life energy, when added to a bath or swimming pool, can nourish and strengthen the body, consolidate the foundation, beautify the skin, and maintain youthful vitality."

After receiving the item information, Xiao Tu swallowed hard.

The product claims to maintain youthful vitality, not slow down aging. Does this mean that if I use this product in the future, I can maintain my youthful appearance long-term?
If a top athlete is still young at 40 and in peak condition, that's truly extraordinary.

Or perhaps, I'll never age and will always be a handsome guy if I use this.

How big is the swimming pool? Even the smallest one can hold many people playing in the water together. Clearly, the Essence of Life isn't just for me; others can use it too.

As long as Xiao Tu is willing to bring his relatives and friends to enjoy the water, these people will reap enormous benefits. If this product were mass-produced, he could open a beauty salon and absolutely crush all competitors; even if it sold for a hundred million, women would still be willing to buy it.

Of course, Xiao Tu was just thinking about it; he would never sell it. As a star athlete, he wouldn't lack money, and the fewer people who knew about the advanced technology, the better—they had to be trustworthy and able to keep it a secret.

He won't be using his life essence anytime soon. He's young, and the people around him are young too; there's no need for it.

Xiao Tu found that the rewards from the golden treasure chests were all excellent; the only problem was that he didn't receive a reward that could significantly improve his physical attributes. For a star player, physical attributes are fundamental, even more important than technique.

His physique as a small forward in 2003 couldn't be improved overnight, making playing basketball more challenging than in the 80s.

Once the regular season starts, Xiao Tu plans to rack up 40+10 stats to see if he can earn the Silver Treasure Chest. He doesn't need to improve his physical attributes anymore; practicing more ball-handling and offensive techniques will better enhance his overall strength.

Xiao Tu also plans to focus on improving his passing skills, so as not to waste his excellent passing awareness. The more assists he draws double teams when attacking the basket and helps out on defense, the higher his evaluation will be.

After resting at the hotel for a while, Xiao Tu packed his things, checked out, and went to the airport with Riley, Johnson, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. They were returning to Los Angeles tonight to get some rest and prepare for the regular season.

(End of this chapter)