The longest river

Chapter 72 The Beginning of Destiny

The day after Christmas, Yang Shuai and his group drove their Hummer back to Indianapolis.

This time, with Johnson around, Yang Shuai doesn't need to drive.

Upon returning home, the first thing Yang Shuai did was rent a villa in the suburbs.

Dufrancsico and Johnson will be living with him from now on.

This villa is located on a hilltop and features its own swimming pool and outdoor basketball court.

In addition to moving the existing training equipment, Yang Shuai also purchased some new equipment.

He plans to conduct his morning physical training at the villa.

As for the extra half-hour commute time, Johnson can make up for it by getting up early and resting in his car, since he can drive.

Overall, this adjustment will not have much impact on his training, but it will greatly improve his living environment.

Moreover, living with DiFrancisco and Johnson gave Yang Shuai a feeling of returning to his school days, which improved his mood a lot every day.

Two days after Christmas, the Pacers will host the Mavericks.

On the same day as the game, the Pacers organized a gratitude event in the arena, with three rookies, Yang Shuai, Best, and Hoiberg, participating as team representatives.

A similar event was held during Thanksgiving, but that time it was represented by veteran players.

These kinds of events mainly involve distributing food and gifts to fans as a way of thanking them for their support of the team.

Yang Shuai was in the food area, wearing a uniform and distributing turkeys with the restaurant staff.

His appearance has been met with a huge following of fans.

Among these fans, there was one person whose appearance he never expected.

He didn't recognize the person immediately because the other person was too young at the time.

He didn't realize it until the other person squeezed in front of him and introduced himself as LeBron James from Akron.

"You're my idol, could you sign your autograph for me?"

James took a plastic pencil case out of his pocket and carefully took out a Yang Shuai trading card from it.

Yang Shuai was stunned when he heard this.

I wonder what his deskmate in his past life would have looked like if he had seen this.

He is now the idol of his deskmate's idol, so his deskmate has to call him "Grandpa Idol".
No, no, he still prefers his deskmate to call him "Dad".

"Your experience has inspired me, and I want to achieve success like you."

Seeing that Yang Shuai didn't make a move, James assumed that Yang Shuai was unwilling, so he quickly added some words while handing the player card forward.

Yang Shuai took it.

James's way of speaking at this point already sounded a bit like an adult.

That's exactly what my deskmate said; James matured very early because of his turbulent early life.

From this perspective, it's understandable that James would like him.

After all, given the original owner's background and his current achievements, his story will inspire every poor child in Ohio.

"Are you going to play tonight?" James asked, his eyes full of anticipation.

"What? You bought tickets?" Yang Shuai handed the signed player card back to James.

"I can't afford that yet, but I'll watch the game on time at the hotel," James assured, patting his chest.

"hotel?"

Yang Shuai looked around and suddenly realized something: James was all alone.

"Yes, I came here with my team to play in an invitational tournament. I heard that the Pacers were holding an event, so I came to try my luck. I didn't expect to actually meet you!"

James carefully placed the trading card away, his face beaming with excitement.

"Basketball team?"

Yang Shuai has only played in the NSAA and doesn't know much about American junior high basketball leagues. The AAU does have a junior high division, but it hasn't started yet.

“No, the football team, I play football now,” James explained quickly.

Upon hearing this, Yang Shuai suddenly realized that he knew even less about rugby.

However, he couldn't help but take a few more glances at James. Unlike when he first transmigrated, James was now very strong despite his young age.

It's clear that despite his turbulent life, his mother and stepfather treated him quite well.

Thinking of this, Yang Shuai asked James to wait for him there for a while, and then went to the locker room.

When he returned, he had three more tickets in his hand.

"You're giving all of these to me?!"

When Yang Shuai handed over all three tickets, James' eyes were filled with disbelief.

"You can invite your friends from the team to come along," Yang Shuai nodded.

"Great!" James jumped up excitedly.

When everyone around him looked at him with curiosity, he lowered his head in embarrassment.

"Go back early, don't let the coach find out you snuck out," Yang Shuai reminded him.

"Oh no! I told Maverick I had to be back before midnight!" James slapped his thigh and turned to run out. But he'd only gone a few steps before remembering he'd forgotten the turkey, so he ran back to get it, then patted his chest again and assured Yang Shuai, "I'll definitely be watching the game tonight!"

After saying that, he quickly disappeared from Yang Shuai's sight.

Yang Shuai shook his head as he watched James's retreating figure.

Although James speaks like an adult, he is still just an eleven or twelve-year-old child in his actions.

While Yang Shuai was participating in the event with the staff, the Mavericks had already arrived at the City Plaza Arena and started their daily training session in the training hall.

The Mavericks are currently in the process of rebuilding, and they are not receiving much attention from the outside world.

However, a considerable number of reporters came to the training hall that day.

This is naturally because of Jim Jackson.

With previous media reports and Reebok advertisements, almost the entire league now knows that "Yang Shuai once beat Jim Jackson".

Now that Jackson is about to face Yang Shuai on the court, it's hard not to attract attention.

No sooner had the training session ended than Jackson was he surrounded by reporters.

At first, the reporters only asked questions about training and internal matters of the Mavericks.

The Mavericks' core trio consists of Jason Kidd, Jim Jackson, and Jamal Mashburn, also known as the "3J trio" that rose to prominence last season.

The three of them combined for 61.5 points, 14.6 rebounds, 15.1 assists, and 3.4 steals per game last season.

Kidd plays a supporting role, while Mashburn and Jackson are the offensive force. Moreover, Mashburn and Jackson, who are responsible for the offensive output, are both all-around types who can drive, shoot, and pass. Their offensive firepower ranks among the top ten in the league.

As a rebuilding team, they improved their winning streak by a whopping 23 games last season and nearly made the playoffs, showing great promise.

However, their performance in the new season has been disappointing. Not only has the scoring efficiency of the three players declined significantly, but the team's record has also plummeted.

Reporters naturally wanted to know what was happening inside the team.

Of course, those were just appetizers.

What are your thoughts on your upcoming matchup against Yang Shuai on the court?

When a reporter raised this question, all the other reporters turned to look at Jackson.

They were eager to see what Jackson would say.

However, to their utter surprise, Jackson's face suddenly darkened as he had been exchanging pleasantries. He then pushed aside the reporter beside him and left the training facility without looking back, leaving behind a group of reporters who stood there dumbfounded.

……

After distributing the gifts, Yang Shuai went to the locker room to change into his training clothes, and then went to the training hall with the team to train.

There is only one passageway from the locker room to the training hall.

As they were walking forward, they saw a man with a gloomy face come out of the training facility. Who else could it be but Jackson?
When Yang Shuai saw Jackson, his feelings were actually a bit complicated.

In essence, there was no conflict of interest between him and Jackson. At most, he was somewhat disdainful of Jackson because Jackson had run away from that one-on-one match, but that was far from being a feud.

This is why he never admitted to dominating Jackson, whether in front of his high school teammates or in the media.

However, Vaccaro chose Jackson, and in order to promote Yang Shuai, Jackson inevitably became the background figure.

This is not something Yang Shuai can decide. After all, he can't just tell Vaccaro, "What we're doing is wrong. We should tell the truth."

Navakkaro would just think he's crazy.

If we had to make a hypothetical scenario, it would be that if Jackson had completely outplayed Yang in that one-on-one match, then Vaccaro would naturally have chosen a more suitable candidate.

So when Yang Shuai saw Jackson, he instinctively turned his head and started talking to Scott.

"Yang Shuai!"

However, there's a saying that things often happen the more you try to avoid them.

Jackson stopped in his tracks and called out to Yang Shuai when he saw him.

Listen up, I'm going to crush you in tonight's match!

Jackson's eyes were bloodshot; he looked extremely angry.

Since the beginning of last season, he has been questioned about whether he was outplayed by Yang Shuai, and his repeated denials have been to no avail.

He thought that as time went by, the matter would be gradually forgotten, but he did not expect that it would now be known to everyone in the league.

His mother shouldn't have agreed to Fratello's request, and shouldn't have gone to that damn training facility!

But regret is useless now. The only way for him to silence the doubters is to crush Yang Shuai in the game.

Yang Shuai's Pacers teammates all turned to look at him.

Speaking of Yang Shuai, this high school student really has a built-in hatred buff. Whether it's his fellow rookies or his seniors from the same state, they all rush to shout that they want to beat him up.

Moreover, unlike Stackhouse's boastful remarks in front of reporters, Jackson did this in front of Yang Shuai.

Yang Shuai sighed inwardly; some things couldn't be avoided.

Under the watchful eyes of his teammates, Yang Shuai slowly turned around, calmly looking directly at Jackson, and spoke softly:
"So, will you run away again like last time?"

-

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(End of this chapter)