002: Talent

Lu An drove his sister's old, fifteenth-hand car to drop Roger off at the school gate, then gave him a thumbs up, "Go for it at the selection today!"

During dinner last night, Lu An was still worried that with Roger's level of play, he would end up getting hurt again on the basketball team.

But this morning, he was convinced that Roger would definitely make the team!

If an adult's certain mindset changes drastically in a short amount of time, it means they've been educated.

Yesterday, Lu An was thoroughly schooled by Roger.

He had intended to play basketball with his nephew to make him face reality, but instead, he was shamefully defeated by Roger with a score of 24-0!

The reason the score was 24-0 was that after playing 24 balls, a physically drained Lu An simply surrendered.

While driving, Lu An kept reflecting on yesterday's face-off.

Youth is incredible, just got a wet crotch and still played so fiercely.

Okay, that's not the point. The point is, Roger's shooting was so accurate I simply couldn't defend against it, and his dribbling was as smooth as flowing water.

Besides that, he also ran fast, jumped high, and I could not make a single shot against him.

Lu An knew that Roger had some athletic talent, and aside from playing tennis, he trained for basketball daily, trying to overcome the psychological shadow that kept him from the court.

But he never imagined that Roger could grow to such a level.

With Roger's current skill set, joining the school team should be a breeze!

Of course, Lu An wasn't delusional enough to think Roger could play professional basketball.

His excitement stemmed from believing that Roger might even use basketball to get a college offer—any sport that could get Roger into college was a good sport.

But as for Roger himself, he had even greater ambitions.

What's a college offer? He had obtained none other than George Gervin's basketball talent!

After playing basketball with his uncle and going home yesterday, Roger took a good look at the benefits of his transmigration.

He found that aside from granting him George Gervin's basketball talent and his high-level abilities as a senior, it had no other functions.

No skill point interface, no action packs or badges, or anything like that.

But having George Gervin's talent was already enough!

When talking about George Gervin, the first superstar in Spurs history, many people might only recognize the name but don't know much about him.

After all, Gervin had already retired before Jordan with his incredible dynasties propelled the NBA to global prominence and cemented himself as the GOAT.

Compared to Jordan's fame, Gervin's pales, even less so than Drexler's.

But to Roger, who, besides NTR ethical dramas, loved studying historical players, George Gervin was familiar territory.

George Gervin was an underrated scoring machine. It's a simple statistic: in NBA history, only two gods, Chamberlain and Jordan, have won more scoring titles than he has.

Kobe and T-Mac are two well-known scoring giants, and together, they only just match Gervin's tally of scoring titles.

But don't get the impression Gervin was an inefficient stat-padder. As a shooting guard, he never had a single season in his career with a shooting percentage below 45%. After the ABA merged into the NBA, in his ten NBA seasons, he shot over 50% in six of them!

In the list of players with a career average of 25 points per game and shooting 50% from the field, George Gervin stands alone as a guard.

On the list of players with over 30 playoff appearances and averaging 25 points per game with a 50% field goal rate, it's just him and Olajuwon.

He was an offensive player who could grasp efficiency and volume in both hands!

Bill Simmons, a well-known sports columnist, provided a telling assessment of George Gervin in "The Book of Basketball":

"From the perspective of 'I'm going to score 30-35 points tonight, and you can't stop me,' Gervin is the second-best scoring guard in history, wedged between MJ and Kobe."

When George Gervin caught fire, probably only full-force Jenna could temper his edge. And don't get it wrong, it's Jenna being referred to here, not LeBron.

Of course, the Iceman wasn't a perfect player.

His defense might be the worst among the top 50 stars, the frequency of dodging training was exasperatingly high, and he was lighter than any of the girls in "Charlie's Angels".

But most of these flaws were not due to Gervin's talent, but rather his attitude.

So with Gervin's talent, who needs a bicycle?

Although Roger's current actual combat power didn't yet reach NBA level, as long as the talent was there, improving actual combat power was just a matter of hard work.

In competitive sports, the rarest thing is talent.

Roger, now endowed with Iceman's talent, just has to train hard and convert that talent into strength, and being a professional player will no longer be a dream!

This further solidified Roger's resolve to make the school team because even the worst school teams have systematic training.

Roger needed that kind of training to help him grow and then to aim for the NBA!

Although he only had one year left in high school, let's not forget that most of George Gervin's talent was in scoring. And on the basketball court, what impresses most are the players who score a lot.

All the 5X5s Olajuwon might rack up won't be as heart-stopping as a single game with 81 points.

If Roger could put on an outstanding scoring performance, even just for one year, that would be enough to make a name for himself!

This time, I must seize this opportunity and say goodbye to that damned 996 life once and for all!

As soon as lunch break arrived, Roger couldn't wait to drag his good friend Andy Li to the gym to participate in the basketball team tryouts.

Andy Li and Roger were both Chinese and shared a love for basketball, as well as a fondness for those magazines filled with older sisters, which made them get along well.

In addition to rewarding themselves, the two always did everything together.

Although it was recruitment day, the turnout at the gym wasn't very large—after all, the Block High School basketball team wasn't a particularly attractive prospect.

Among the few candidates, head coach Elvin Hawk spotted Roger right away.

Hawk had taken note of Roger years earlier because among the lesser-talented players of a small school like Block High School, his physical attributes were quite impressive.

Unfortunately, after being bloodied by the junior varsity center Andrae, he hadn't faced the challenge head-on but rather turned to tennis.

Such a waste of talent.

Seeing "well-known softy" Roger walk in, some of the basketball players also revealed mocking smiles, "Give it up, scrawny Roger. Andrae might actually kill you this time. You'd be better off going back and practicing your swings against a wall, that kind of non-contact women's sport suits you more."

Everyone still remembered Roger's "glorious deeds" and laughed at him.

At that moment, a tall and sturdy black guy entered the gym.

It was none other than Andrae Patterson, who had knocked Roger around in his sophomore year and had since become the team's leading center.

He was also the only player on the team with NCAA Division I prospects.

Andrae quickly spotted Roger, and he definitely didn't feel apologetic for the incident that had injured Roger in the past.

On the contrary, that vicious block that made Roger bleed had always filled him with pride, like the symbol of strength that was Pippen's '92 dunk over Ewing.

So, not surprisingly, he joined in the taunting, "Yo, what's up trash? Back for more? Where are your ballet shoes? I thought you came here to dance Swan Lake for us."

"Hahahahaha!" As soon as Andrae finished, the place erupted in laughter again.

Everyone treated Roger, who stood out on the basketball court for his lighter skin, as a source of amusement.

People mocked Roger so openly not only because he was actually weak at basketball but also because he used to have a timid personality, the kind who wouldn't talk back when insulted or fight back when hit.

This was precisely the personality that made him fear confrontation.

Andy Li couldn't stand listening anymore and tugged at Roger's sleeve, "Forget it Roger, let's just leave. Why humiliate yourself?"

But, far from leaving, Roger unexpectedly retorted:

"The one who should be dancing Swan Lake is you, Andrae. Under your leadership, the team only won three games last season. Quite the achievement.

I'm here to tell you that even I could easily defeat a trash player like you. The only reason you've become the face of Block High School is because I was playing tennis."

The entire place was stunned for a moment.

Something was off, very off!

Silent and bullied thin Roger, when did he become so tough?

Did he realize whom he was speaking to?

Andrae was fuming with anger, Roger had touched a sore spot.

With Ervin Johnson Jr., the only player in Block High School's history to make it to NCAA Division I, graduating last season, the team had started to rely on Andrae as the core player.

The result was that the team's performance plummeted and they couldn't even make it out of their division.

The gap between the two generations of core players was larger than that between the primary GOAT and the secondary GOAT, which made Andrae very embarrassed.

And here was Roger, bringing up this embarrassing issue in public, causing him to lose face.

Andrae clenched his fists. How dare this bastard!

Then, Roger deliberately looked over at Coach Hawk, "Coach, Andrae will be playing in the tryouts later, right?"

Hawk always believed that only real combat could test a player's strength. As a result, Block High School's recruitment did not have random tests but instead had the aspirants play directly against the junior varsity team.

As a varsity player, Andrae wasn't supposed to participate in such a game by rule.

But provoked by Roger, Andrae volunteered himself, "You'll see me on the court, you damn idiot! Coach, don't worry, I won't dirty your floor this time!"

Hearing that Andrae was going to play, Andy Li trembled, "Roger, I had it all figured out. With your height and my years of directorial talent, we could have made a name for ourselves in the San Fernando Valley! But now, it looks like we're both going to die here today!"

Roger: ???

When did you start luring people into that kind of business?

To Andy Li's surprise, there was no look of panic on Roger's face, only confidence as he patted his own shoulder, "Forget the San Fernando Valley. I promise you're about to experience the most exhilarating victory of your life."

"Victory? The junior varsity team is tough enough to handle, and now we've got the monster Andrae joining them, how are we going to win?"

Without any hesitation, Roger replied, "Winning is simple, you and the others just pass the ball to me later."

"What?" Andy Li stared at the confident Roger for a few seconds.

If his ears hadn't failed him, then something was definitely wrong with Roger's brain!