NBA's King of Talking

The first game of the Finals will be held on June 13 at the Thunder's home court, giving the Thunder ample time to prepare for the Finals.

Jia Fei has been receiving a constant stream of congratulatory text messages and phone calls these past two days, mainly from his teammates and classmates at UConn. As an NBA player who graduated from UConn, reaching the NBA Finals with his team in his rookie season is quite a record.

But Jia Fei wasn't interested in any of that! He was pretty self-aware. Did he make it to the finals because he contributed a lot to the team? Did he lead the team to the finals? No, he just happened to hitch a ride, that's all!

Before we knew it, it was the 13th, Game 1 of the finals.

The Ford Center was already packed to capacity, with tickets for Games 1 and 2 of the Finals sold out long ago, demonstrating the fans' immense enthusiasm.

During pre-game practice, Jia Fei met the Heat's Big Three.

When James came to practice, he would jog around, his toes pointing outwards, just like a crab on the beach.

Jia Fei sighed inwardly, "They really are like the Running Man cast, even during pre-match practice they run so fast."

James started practicing shooting, and his shooting form was quite ugly. His elbows were turned outwards, and his turnaround jump shot was nothing like the beautiful shot of a certain Los Angeles snake. He had already hit several pieces of iron while practicing.

What left Jia Fei speechless was that during practice, he took more than three steps before dunking. He suspected that this guy was the one who started the current trend of stealing steps when driving to the basket in the league.

This guy has set so many bad precedents! Superteaming at the peak, traveling on layups, brotherhood basketball—he's really polluting the league's atmosphere.

The Running Man member was laughing and talking with his so-called brothers, looking very relaxed, as if the championship was already in their grasp. One of his brothers had chubby cheeks, like Gamabunta, while the other had an exceptionally long neck, like a giraffe.

Jia Fei certainly recognized them: one was Dwyane Wade, who was known as "Jordan who was 5 centimeters shorter," and the other was Chris Bosh, who was known as "the former Dragon King."

The match started quickly, and Jia Fei sat down on the bench.

In this game, the Heat used almost a seven-man rotation, while the Thunder used roughly an eight-man rotation. As the playoffs progress, the rotations tend to decrease.

That's normal; most coaches would love for their star players to play for 48 minutes straight.

The Thunder ultimately won Game 1 thanks to outstanding performances from Durant and Westbrook!

After the game, the argument that Durant would surpass James to become the league's best small forward continued to grow, while Jia Fei knew that if things went according to the script from his previous life, they would face a four-game losing streak.

He certainly has time to try and change the course of history, but the question is how? It's well known that Harden has performed terribly in this series. Is he going to go to the head coach and offer himself up to replace Harden?

It's all completely meaningless...

Jia Fei knew that there was nothing he could do at the moment.

Two days later, in Game 2 of the Finals, the Thunder were defeated by the Heat, bringing the series to 1-1!

But that wasn't the end of it. Three days later in Miami, the Thunder lost again, and their lead was overtaken by their opponents.

On June 20, the Thunder lost another game on the road, and are now down 1-3 in the series.

This loss essentially sealed the Thunder's fate for the season, as no team in NBA Finals history has ever come back from a 1-3 deficit to win the series.

The miracle did not happen. On June 22, at the Thunder's home arena, the Ford Center, they suffered a crushing defeat and lost the Finals.

It's very upsetting to let your opponent celebrate their victory on your home turf; the home team's locker room was completely silent after the game.

Harden is gone. He was completely out of form in the Finals, which was one of the main reasons for the Thunder's loss.

Jia Fei didn't say anything in the locker room, and neither did anyone else. As a rookie, was he supposed to spout motivational platitudes to everyone?

Regardless, the season is over. It's certainly fortunate to have games to play in June, but it's painful not to get to play.

Back home, Jia Fei had mixed feelings. He hadn't completed the mission, and he couldn't be happy about the team's loss. He really wanted to go on the field and fight for the team, but unfortunately, he hadn't had the chance.

While Jia Fei was lost in thought, his phone rang...

Jia Fei picked up his phone and saw that the caller was his former teammate Kemba Walker.

“Hello, Ja, it’s Kemba!” Kemba Walker said.

“I know, you’re not Kemba, are you Simba?” Jia Fei joked.

"You can still joke around, which means you're in a good mood and not too frustrated. I watched all your games, and it's not your fault that you didn't win the championship. There's nothing to regret!" Kemba Walker comforted him.

"I know they're stronger than us, so there's really nothing to regret," Jia Fei said frankly. To him, the Heat were simply stronger than the Thunder; that was obvious.

"As long as there are no regrets, Ja, come to New York, I'm so bored at home!" Kemba Walker extended the invitation.

"Sure, it's been a long time since we last met," Jia Fei readily agreed.

“That’s more like it! If you come, we can go to the draft together and cheer on Jeremy and the others,” Kemba Walker said excitedly.

Jia Fei immediately understood; Lamb was also going to participate in the draft, and he wondered if Oriak would participate as well. He felt a pang of emotion, his thoughts quickly drifting back to the draft, the scene of his own draft last year flashing through his mind.

Time flies! It's almost been a year!

The next day, Jia Fei went to the team to report for duty again, and then announced the team's disbandment.

“Jia, do you have any specific plans for this summer?” Reggie asked.

"Not yet. I'm going to New York tomorrow. My teammates from UConn are going to participate in the draft, and I'm going to join in the fun," Jia Fei said.

“I’m going home for a visit too. We’ve been teammates for a whole season, and it feels a bit strange to be apart all of a sudden!” Reggie said with a smile.

"Me too!" Jia Fei smiled back, and the two shook hands and bumped shoulders in a friendly manner.

The following morning, Jia Fei boarded a plane in Oklahoma City bound for New York.

Upon arriving at the New York airport, Kemba Walker personally drove him to the hotel.

At the hotel, Jia Fei saw many familiar faces, including Kemba Walker, Oriak, Art Mayork, and Jeremy Lamb.

He smiled happily at the sight of so many familiar faces.

“Jia, we’ve been waiting for you for days!” Art Mayork said.

Jia Fei bumped shoulders and gave each of them a bear hug. In this world, these people were truly his closest confidants.

While everyone was having lunch together, Jia Fei learned that Lamb and Oriak both planned to participate in the draft a few days later.