Champion, please stay!

Chapter 104, Section 102: Du's Schoolbag is Very Special
Carlesimo watched the fans celebrating and saw Yi Shui enjoying the cheers, and exclaimed "Oh my god!" several times.

He has always felt that Durant is the most talented player.

Standing at seven feet tall with shoes on, his mobility surpasses the average guard; while not exceptionally fast on the start, his long legs and long strides give him a similar first three steps to Tracy McGrady; he possesses an outstanding wingspan, combining shooting talent with shot contesting awareness…

He genuinely believed that Durant would become a player on par with Kobe, Wade, and James, or even better.

But there is actually a player who has similar physical attributes to Durant, and also has the strength of James!

Even better than 'perfect', 'perfect plus'?
A terrible thought popped into his head—his protégé's career might be forever shrouded in shadow...

TNT commentator Barkley is jokingly suggesting that Carlesimo called a timeout for the opposing team, giving them a chance to celebrate Yi Shui breaking Chamberlain's record.

In reality, he had no choice but to call out!
Leading by more than 20 points after three quarters, Yi Shui came back on, and Carlesimo didn't realize anything was wrong at the time.

Last season, when trailing by more than 20 points, he would also let Durant continue to miss shots.

In other words, Durant is now in his second year, the team has moved to a new city, and the team urgently needs to establish a star player and also develop Westbrook so that Durant won't be playing garbage time.

But when he saw Yi Shui unable to create opportunities and failing to shake off Damien Wilkins after coming on, he hit a series of tough shots but missed. Carlesimo finally realized something was wrong.

He suddenly remembered that Chamberlain scored 43 points in his debut! During the break, the assistant coach handed him the opposite statistics: Yi Shui had scored 40 points in three quarters!
Then, he saw Yi Shui rush towards the basket. Even though his stamina was waning and he couldn't run as fast, he used his height and wingspan advantage to hit high over Jeff Green... He was not only stronger than Durant, but he also made better use of his body.

Carlesimo had to call a timeout at this point. If he called it too early, the opponent wouldn't leave until they broke the record; if he called it too late, the opponent's style of play meant they would have opportunities to score even when they were exhausted. If he continued playing, he would break more than just the debut record.

This led to the tactic of 'initiating a timeout to let the opposing team celebrate'...

Carlesimo breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Yi Shui return to her chair after the timeout ended.

For the remainder of the time, Carlesimo let Westbrook take the shot, while D'Antoni let Curry and Chalmers shoot.

In the professional arena, without zone defense and with both sides' defenses extremely poor, Westbrook's performance was clearly better than Curry and Chalmers, narrowing the gap somewhat, but it had little impact on the outcome...

...

The Knicks defeated the Thunder 117-103, securing a winning start at home!

After the game, the entire basketball world was in an uproar!

All eyes were on New York's basketball mecca.

Post-game news from the first day of the new season dominated the headlines, featuring Yishui, the Knicks, and New York!

It's not surprising that the Thunder are no match for the Knicks.

Pre-game predictions and analyses from commentators on various television stations during the live broadcast all indicated that the Knicks had a better chance of winning.

During the preseason, the Knicks already had a run-and-gun lineup that they were playing better and better, while the Thunder relied on Durant, Jeff Green, and Westbrook taking turns playing in the preseason.

When the Thunder's starting lineup of three forwards was posted tonight, one commentator complained that they weren't even aiming to win.

The Thunder's subsequent tactics clearly indicated their plan to continue tanking and hoping for draft picks—their only objectives were to create shooting opportunities for Durant, create space for Westbrook, and allow Jeff Green to practice playmaking, without considering anyone else.

The highlight of tonight's game isn't the outcome; the only thing people are interested in is Yi Shui vs. Durant.

But the result of their duel was completely unexpected!
In fact, although some media outlets were making a lot of noise and hyping up Durant, most media outlets still felt that Yi Shui would have the advantage in the matchup.

Most fans also believe that Yishui will have the upper hand.

It's true that Durant entered the NBA a year earlier, but his performance at the Yishui Stadium after playing three years in college was clearly more mature, and he showed great improvement in the Olympics and preseason games compared to before.

Even those who were optimistic about Yishui didn't expect this outcome.

Yi Shui not only held Durant to just 17 points, but also scored 45 points, breaking Chamberlain's rookie debut record!

Tonight, New York will be sleepless!
...

Yi Shui finished his post-match work and returned to his apartment in the early hours of the morning.

He lay on the sofa, physically exhausted but mentally excited.

He opened the system, looked at the rewards for tonight's mission, and his expression turned strange.

After the match, he felt a system notification and couldn't wait to open the system to claim his reward, wanting to know if he had completed the hidden objective.

He jumped for joy when he saw the notification 'You have broken Wilt Chamberlain's record and completed the hidden objective'.

But after receiving the reward, he uttered the words "Fuck you!"

Looking at it now, it's still holy crap.

The standard reward for his 'debut' is +1 to his long-range shooting talent. His long-range shooting talent is already +4, so this should further improve his long-range shooting training efficiency. Of course, the most important thing is to raise his skill ceiling, which is nothing special.

But there's a hidden reward... "Golden Gun: As a professional player in New York, you'll inevitably encounter women. This will significantly enhance your abilities and recovery afterward, minimizing the impact of your private life on your matches and training."

He really wanted to ask, is this a legitimate system?
But he had to admit, the reward was indeed quite good. Although he was already very powerful, who wouldn't want to be even more powerful... and that 'post-coital recovery ability'...

Feeling inexplicably ashamed, Yi Shui got up from the sofa. Unable to sleep, she checked the news.

He turned on his computer and was delighted to see the overwhelming praise on the screen.

With 45 points, he not only broke Chamberlain's record for most points in a rookie debut.

He scored 40 points in three quarters, breaking the record for the youngest person to score 40+ points in three quarters. The previous record was held by Kobe Bryant at 21 years and 216 days old.

Actually, nobody cared about this in the early years. After all, it was common for people to enter the NBA at the age of 22 or 23 in the 80s and 90s. At most, it was just a matter of who could last longer.

Until a few years ago, ESPN started hyping up the youngest player to score 20+ or ​​30+ points in a single game, the youngest player to score 1000 or 2000 points... Now, major portal websites and even the NBA's official website have added the label "youngest".

Yi Shui never expected that as an 'older rookie' he could also get a wave of traffic in this area. Thanks to ESPN!

He saw a video clip from his post-game press conference go viral, which was also related to ESPN.

"Mike's playmaking was excellent, and my teammates passed the ball very well. I just had the chance and made the shot..."

"Was it a deliberate attempt to pad his stats in the final quarter? Isn't that obvious? We were leading by more than 20 points; of course he was playing in the final quarter to break the record."

He actually intended to be humble at the time, since he considered himself a low-key person.

The main reason was that the questions from the media were all very harmonious, after all, he had broken Chamberlain's record and it was on his home turf.

But reporters always manage to find a tricky angle to ask him if he was padding his score in the final quarter.

He admitted it without hesitation, and then couldn't help but laugh when he thought of the ESPN reporter's astonished expression.

As for why this video went viral, we certainly didn't expect it at the time.

Seeing someone viciously cursing him in the comments section for boosting his score, Yi Shui immediately logged into his alternate account, opened the reply page, and prepared to demonstrate his writing skills... but he saw that someone had already retaliated with even more vicious insults than he had intended to say...

If a veteran star player pads their stats, they'll definitely be ridiculed, and no amount of explanation will help.

But he was a rookie, playing his first game.

After closing the webpage, Yi Shui saw that Durant also had an interview video link on the front page, and clicked on it out of curiosity.

The video is a locker room interview with the Thunder, where a reporter asked Durant for his thoughts on Yi Shui breaking Chamberlain's record.

Yi Shui speculates whether Durant will avoid the topic or launch a tirade.
During the game, he could clearly sense that Durant was getting increasingly agitated and impatient.

But Durant's answer surprised him...

"Seeing this with my own eyes made me feel like I was going crazy, but I have to admit, Brooke is amazing."

He taught me a lesson, and I was severely punished.

His performance made me start to think about whether entering the NBA too early was the right choice.

In the past year, I have hardly developed any new technologies. My playing style is exactly the same as when I graduated from college. If I had played two more years of college games, I could have a stronger physique and a wider range of scoring methods, just like Brook.

But I won't regret the decision I've made. I'll remember tonight's game, train hard, and improve my skills.

So calm, so rational, so strong-willed? He's so different from the Durant I remember!
However, aside from his understanding of Durant's playing style, he doesn't really know much about Durant himself.

When Durant is mentioned, two labels immediately come to mind—bathwater and the toughest road.

Thinking about it carefully, if Durant were a person who was not calm, rational, or competitive enough, he would have quit long ago if he had been treated like that by Green and the Warriors during the era of the super team. He wouldn't have had to play with an injury in the Finals for the sake of the dynasty, even to the point of rupturing his Achilles tendon.

Before the video ended, the reporter asked Durant for his opinion on Yi Shui himself.

Yi Shui was prepared to be talked about behind her back, but...

"Brook is a good person. He has a strong competitive spirit and confidence. When we were matched up, he pointed out my wrong offensive choices and expressed his dissatisfaction, wanting me to use my best techniques to deal with him..."

"Am I crazy?! When did I ever do that? Wait... could it be..."

Yi Shui recalled how he had trash-talked Durant after stealing the ball and dunking on the fast break, but Durant remained unfazed. At the time, he was amazed at how calm Durant was.

So Durant's decision to abandon ball-handling and play entirely off-ball was caused by his trash talk? Did he create defensive difficulties for himself and make himself so tired?

Durant, that player with the backpack, is really something else...

(End of this chapter)