013:58之人，注定不凡

In '66, the NCAA finals, the Kentucky Wildcats never imagined they'd lose to Texas Western College.

An all-black starting lineup? A joke, were they even worthy of being opponents?

Kentucky had Pat Riley, the strongest shooting guard in all of the NCAA, and the "Baron of Bluegrass Country" as a great coach.

And the opponent? Just a bunch of rebellious, undisciplined street clowns.

Then, one of the greatest finals in NCAA history was born.

The Kentucky Wildcats lost by seven points, shocking the entire nation, and Pat Riley was locked down to a mere 36% shooting.

Riley, who later became a master strategist, would smile helplessly when he recalls the game: "At that time, what they held in their hands wasn't just a basketball, it was their dignity. In the end, they won everyone's respect."

Tonight, it's the same for Block High School.

A small-town school with an Asian core criticized by the media... they don't look like champions at all.

But now, they're crushing the all-star team of Isidore Newman School, silencing the entire crowd.

And now, they are about to win the respect of the whole country!

Simmons being fouled out marked the beginning of Newman's collapse.

At this point, the entire Newman team's spirit was affected, including Randy Livingston, who began to doubt himself because they had never seen an opponent like Roger who couldn't be stopped even with fouls.

Faced with traps, he could keep scoring. Faced with fouls, he could keep converting 2+1s.

Playing against Roger is harder than taking the graduate school entrance exam!

The most troubling part was, after Simmons was fouled out, Randy Livingston had to be pushed up to face Roger.

Initially, Newman didn't use Livingston to defend Roger, not because they were afraid Livingston couldn't hold him, but they hoped Livingston could devote more energy to the offensive end.

Basketball isn't played on emotion; it's rare for coaches to pit their core player against the opponent's from the start.

The sharpest sword is naturally aimed at the opponent's softest spot.

But now, Newman had no retreat.

They had no choice but to choose fencing!

Then everyone discovered a fact—even Randy Livingston, the nation's number one, couldn't stop Roger!

In terms of defensive skills, Livingston was indeed much stronger than Simmons.

He had extremely fast lateral movement, great physicality, and a knack for reading the opponent's offense. His small tricks and details were flawlessly executed.

In most defensive possessions, he honestly troubled Roger, truly the nation's number one high school player.

But... it was all useless!

Because Roger's shooting touch was completely on fire by now; he was so hot it seemed he would score as long as he shot.

Even with Livingston right up in his face, Roger still made his shots!

That's what superstar scorers are like. Once you let them go wild, you can't hold them down anymore.

Scoring, scoring, and more scoring.

Jon Barry had already stood up: "Let me tell all of you in front of the TV what's happening here, the entire scene is like the Banknorth Garden in Boston on April 17, 1986! That's right, people believe Roger can score 60 points just like Michael Jordan could!"

In front of Roger, Livingston didn't have the demeanor of the nation's number one at all.

Affected by their mentality, Newman's offense also began to stagnate.

Livingston still commanded like a leader, desperately finding his teammates.

But the players from Newman began to miss open shots frequently and made inexplicable mistakes.

Their spirit had been crushed by Roger's freakish scoring.

The rest of Block High School knew they couldn't help Roger much on the offensive end, so they played defense seriously, fighting for every loose ball and rebound. As a result, Newman found fewer and fewer open opportunities.

Finally, Livingston had to take the offense into his own hands.

But that was just tearing off his last shred of dignity, because people realized that Livingston didn't have that unstoppable scoring ability like Roger.

His scoring was strong, but not that unanswerable.

Faced with interference, he would still miss shots.

Faced with blocks, he would still get his shots blocked.

Compared to Roger, his scoring ability seemed weaker.

Initially, Newman's fans had this fantasy: "As long as Livingston starts taking shots, we can still turn the game around!"

But now, that fantasy has burst like a bubble, completely shattered.

Livingston might win those rule-abiding games, but when it comes to killing the game with unconventional defense, it's still all about the truth!

With only 57 seconds left in the game, Roger made a strong push towards Livingston, suddenly came to a halt near the basket, and followed up with a step-back.

Livingston was sent flying forward; he attempted to break forcefully but ended up outsmarting himself, slipping and falling to the ground.

The Livingston who was deemed flawless in defense by the media was shaken off, completely becoming Roger's plaything.

Admit it, the best high school student in the entire country couldn't guard him!

Shaking off Livingston, a relaxed Roger scored from mid-range, extending Block High School's lead to 16 points.

The game entered garbage time!

Tony Riley called a timeout, and at the sound of the whistle, the funeral march for Isidore Newman School began prematurely.

The substitutes from Block High School rushed onto the court, they could now unabashedly celebrate their championship victory.

However, what amazed the fans wasn't the championship won by Block High School.

It was Roger's individual score!

In the end, he might not have scored 63 points against the Celtics like '86 Jordan did, after all, high school games are limited in time.

But 58 points was still terrifying enough!

Everyone thought his 25 points in the first half were already magical, but in the second half, Roger ramped it up with an additional 33 points.

Simmons suddenly felt very fortunate, at least he wasn't the one who got beaten up the worst today.

58 is an unusual number in basketball.

Those related to this number are often no ordinary people.

The first-generation master of 58, Chris Paul, would never disappoint when it came to not disappointing; no one could break this law throughout his professional career.

The 23rd draft pick Scott Henderson set a new NBA record with a +/- value of -58 in his first year in the league, becoming the undisputed strongest tanking tool of that version, prompting fans to exclaim that the creator of Henderson was truly talented.

What's the concept of a +/- value of -58? Even on the GOAT's strongest Finals night with 8 points, the +/- value was only -6.

Round it off, and 1 Henderson equals 10 James; Henderson is simply the chosen one of the new generation.

And now, Roger has also become associated with the number 58.

He is destined for greatness!

Surrounded by his teammates, Roger walked off the court; in that moment, the more than ten thousand fans in the arena no longer dared to overlook or mock him.

The players from Isidore Newman School no longer looked at Roger with disdainful smiles; only disbelief and fear were left on their faces.

Indeed, dignity is in your own hands as long as you don't let them succeed, no one can take anything away from you.

The last few seconds of the game were meaningless; even the Isidore Newman School players wanted to leave the court right away.

Even the referees seemed to have clocked out early; one of the Isidore Newman School players stepped out of bounds right under the referee's nose while saving the ball, but the referee didn't even blow the whistle. Who knows about the rest, but this referee must be from Oakland.

At the moment the game ended, everyone in the Jonesville auto repair shop was tightly hugging Lu An.

"Hahaha, your nephew is really something! Did you see that? Those Newman graduates have nothing to say now!"

"He is now the undisputed number one in the whole country!"

And the one who was previously repairing the car hugged Lu An's leg: "Godfather, I think my younger brother can make it to the NBA!"

That last sentence touched Lu An's heart.

NBA? Is it possible?

It sounds like a distant dream, but who could have imagined a few months ago that Roger would score 58 points in the state finals?

In fact, at this moment, not just the car repair client thought Roger could make it to the NBA.

Bulls scout Ivica Dukan, at the end of the game, found his palms soaked with sweat. And without even realizing, he had already filled several pages with scouting reports for Roger.

Having seen countless European talents play, he never imagined that one day he'd be so astounded by a high school player.

Now, he had to summarize his thoughts on this boy who made him sweat profusely.

Lastly, he wrote:

"Roger's scoring ability is of a dominant level; he didn't manage to average 40 or 50 points a game only because high school games are too short.

The state championship means nothing to him, and being the number one in the country is not even a stumbling block; his stage is definitely in the NBA.

And if I were the decision-maker, even if he wanted to try out for the Bulls right away as a high school student, I'd give him that opportunity.

Oh, and he has another advantage. Since he is Chinese, he probably doesn't use solitary substances, doesn't like gambling, has no gang affiliations, and might not even have a hot temper.

I'm not joking, you all know these are huge advantages, haha!"

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Thank you to family head Xia and other bosses for the rewards, thank you, everyone! Please favorite, get a monthly pass, and reward, shamelessly acting cute!