193 Hypothesis & Development

Shun unloaded his luggage in his room and let himself fall on his bed, and the second he hit the bed top, he smiled, feeling the familiar feeling of his bed. He breathed out a sigh of comfort as he spoke to himself.

Shun: "Ah~. Nothing better than my own bed."

Shun stretched his legs and got comfortable on the bed and thought about the summer camp and how it had helped him.

Shun: 'Going back this year was a good decision. I end up finding the missing link, and I was even able to work on it while I was there.'

The summer camp this time was not abundant with what you would call talent. The first-string didn't have a single Generation Of Miracle level talent, and that made Shun realize that that level of genius was indeed rare and a case like Japan's Generation Of Miracles was in itself a Miracle. Even Ivan and Gilbert, in the same year, was a rare scenario.

Shun had a hypothesis that for a country to produce the so-called Generation Of Miracle level talent in basketball, they would need an active basketball culture.

The more the country liked basketball, the more they would be able to give rise to that level of talent. America, which had peak basketball culture, plus the infrastructure to support the sport, they could give the world two or three guys every ten years. And, any other country where basketball was popular but didn't have the level of infrastructure, they would be able to produce one guy of that level every ten years.

The camp this year was held in Spain, where sports like tennis, soccer, and basketball were popular. And, from Shun's knowledge, Spain housed the soccer giant Real Madrid, making soccer have an edge at the sport that youth preferred, which meant potential athletic talent would have to be divided among the different sports.

Even America had to share its athletics talents between sports like basketball, baseball, American football, and a few others, despite that they were able to produce more top-level talent more than any other country. It was proof of the level of their sports culture and the infrastructure that supported the youth to play the sport.

If one were to see the case of Japan's Generation Of Miracles, it would be an anomaly beyond anything seen before. In Japan, baseball trumped basketball in popularity, so Japan's potential youth would have a larger chance to go to baseball than basketball, so seeing five, six players, if including Shun in the mix, was a super rare coincidence.

Of course, Shun didn't have any actual proof to prove this theory, but he had a strong feeling that this hunch was correct.

Seeing the first-string of this year, he saw that only half the guys were at Roger's talent level (A/N: I am calling the level one below GoM level, Haizaki/Himuro Level, or H/H level), and the rest of them were at Uncrowned King level. Shun was able to breeze through the later half with ease, and only the older H/H level guys were able to pose a challenge, which Shun enjoyed as he got in essential practice.

Shun all-in-all very satisfied with the profit he was able to gain from making the travel to Spain and added advantage, Spain was a beautiful country, and he was able to do a lot of sightseeing.

Shun stared at the ceiling and thought about the upcoming Nationals.

Shun: 'My last year in middle school. Has time really passed so quickly? It was like yesterday when I was playing mini-basketball. Good grief, I am starting to sound like an old man.'

Those were his last thoughts before he drifted off to sleep.

-*-*-*-*-*-*-

Kaitani watched Shun as he played in a minigame. He noticed that there was something off with Shun. It took him a whole day before he could pinpoint the reason he was feeling off about Shun. He plopped his fist over his other open palm and exclaimed.

Kaitani: "You are moving slower than before."

Shun turned towards Kaitani, and it took him a moment to realize that the small forward was talking about him. He softly smiled as he spoke in agreement.

Shun: "Oh, you noticed, huh. You are correct. I have decreased my default speed a little to make somethings more manageable."

Kaitani frowned, hearing that, to him, speed was his greatest weapon. He had once taken Shun's advice to slow his pace to make it gain more control over his movements, and he had benefited from that advice, but he knew that Shun had been using that practice from before him, and to see that he had decreased his default speed more baffled him.

Shun noticed the frown that marred Kaitani's face and decided to explain his decision to his teammate.

Shun: "If you are thinking that this would affect me negatively, don't worry about it. My style isn't as dependent on speed as yours. I won't be affected by reducing my speed a little, and it is not like I am permanently losing my max speed. I can increase it whenever I need it."

Kaitani nodded doubtfully but let it go as he knew that if Shun made a mistake, the coach would be there to fix it, and Shun didn't make major mistakes often.

The reason Shun had switched to a more sedated pace for his offense was that the speed was moving was a tad bit fast for him to maintain the handle on the ball. He needed to slow down to keep the ball in control so that he could solve the problem with the flow of his playstyle. Shun decreased his speed without any suggestion as he had seen Carlos play at a much more sedate pace than him and was still able to score effortlessly, so he knew that if he paid attention and played smart, he would be fine.

Another benefit was that this allowed him to preserve stamina in the game. There was one thing that Shun couldn't deny was that his playstyle was developed to be effective against Teiko's Generation Of Miracles. There were parts of his playstyle that were crafted to allow him to efficiently play against them.

Let's take an example, Shun admired Roger's post skills and how he used the backboard and bank shots to score at the rim, and at the start of his training to integrate the styles, he had practiced how to use the backboard to his advantage. But somewhere along the line, Shun became worried that Murasakibara would reach the ball and swat it away, so he decided to switch his rim-finishing skills to high arcing floaters, push shots, reverse layups.

When Shun used the formless shooting to score from awkward positions, he would almost every time make sure that the ball made its way above the defender's hands.

Similarly, Shun preferred to stay close his mark and would rather give them a chance to drive and then chase them than letting them shoot, as he knew that if he was a single step late, Midorima would get into his shooting position and fire the ball, and Shun wouldn't be able to get a hand on it.

He knew that Aomine and Kise liked to cut the lane and go straight to the basket, so Shun was always keeping an extra eye out on gaps in their offense and preferred to be inside the three-point arc while defending cause Teiko's forwards preferred scoring from inside.

In small ways, Shun's playstyle was the direct result of his history with Generation Of Miracles, subconsciously tweaked here and there so that he would be effective against them. The main reason that Shun opted for a positionless playstyle was that Teiko had a team that dominated every area of the court. If the five prodigies were in different schools from the start, Shun would've focused on one section of the game, and his development would've been distinct from his current one.

A person is a result of his surroundings and circumstance, and Shun was the perfect example of it.

The scene was heating up as Shun got ready for the Nationals, and he wasn't the only one. The other juggernaut in Tokyo, Teiko Middle School, had also buffed up their training regiment, and the five starters were giving their all to get ready for the Nationals.