area51novel Chapter 16 The Impact of the First Battle
Chapter 16 The Impact of the First Battle
As the final whistle blew, the starting teammates, substitutes waving towels on the sidelines, and water bottle players took turns excitedly rushing onto the field, surrounding Du Xiaoshuai in a black-style shoulder bump and chest-bumping celebration, while the cameraman next to him carried his bulky camera and circled around Du Xiaoshuai.
The commentator announced the result with a regretful tone, while the large screen above replayed the highlights of the match.
The crowd erupted in cheers and shouts, shook their heads in regret, and even clutched their heads in despair, but most of the fans left the stadium with satisfied expressions.
After a long offseason break, the first preseason game was so intense, and someone even made history. This ticket was worth it!
I'll still watch Durant's games from now on!
63分9篮板11助攻10盖帽2抢断3犯规，34投23中，三分15投10中，罚球7中7，另类60+三双！！
In NBA history, the highest single-game scoring record in the preseason was set by Fred Brown in 73, who scored 75 points on 30-of-44 shooting, including many mid-range and long-range shots. He almost forcibly sealed all subsequent preseason scoring records, as there were no three-pointers back then!
Du Xiaoshuai's 63 points today were a huge gap compared to the other team, so he could only come in second, which was very frustrating.
It's worth mentioning that this legendary figure, nicknamed "Downtown," set the record as a supersonic pioneer.
The preseason record for most blocks is jointly held by Manute Bol and Shawn Bradley. Looking at the data separately, Durant's 10 blocks today are second again. Of course, the top two are both inside players. Durant's position on the court is outside. If we don't mind using too many qualifiers, we can add an extra layer and say that he is the best outside player in terms of blocks in the preseason, which sounds even more impressive.
Men have pride!
Putting all the data together, it's incredible—it's practically a 60+ quadruple double!
It's even more explosive than just a scoring or block record!
In the latter half of the fourth quarter, the statistics that Du Xiaoshuai created in this game had already been relayed to various media outlets by on-site reporters.
Today is not the opening day of the preseason. The opening day games are overseas, in Shanghai and Turkey. The big media figures have not yet returned to China, so the attention at the National Air and Space Center is not very high. There is more than one game in the league today, the SuperSonics and the Suns.
When Durant's stats were broadcast live on various social media platforms, fans who were following basketball news were instantly drawn to them.
With one minute left, the game actually lasted nearly five minutes due to free throws and timeouts, causing a surge in viewership for the Phoenix local television station broadcasting the game!
The media present were extremely excited after the match.
There are more than 200 days of NBA games a year, but this kind of explosive data is seen only once every 60 years!
Moreover, this is not even the youngest record for LeBron James's custom-made layered armor.
Durant has only played three games since entering the league, but he has broken records in almost every game, averaging nearly 60 points per game!
The media had already sensed Du Xiaoshuai's unparalleled news potential and were eagerly waiting to conduct post-match interviews.
After a quick rinse, Du Xiaoshuai, wearing a large T-shirt, arrived at the press conference room with Chauncey and head coach P.J. Carlesimo.
The away team was interviewed first, and casually hid the Gatorade on the table, accepting the barrage of cameras and flashing lights from the audience.
"You want to monetize my data without paying me? Get lost!" Du Xiaoshuai said with a look of disgust.
Gatorade, the beverage company, has never had a good reputation among players. The drinks are generally not very good, and the company likes to take shortcuts. GG's endorsement deals are with the league, and they don't sign many big-name players.
Although Gatorade signed an endorsement contract with Du Xiaoshuai two years later in the original timeline, they haven't signed one yet!
"Hi Kevin, this is Tony from ESPN. Thank you for the great game. What are your thoughts on your stats?"
After becoming a major sponsor of the league's broadcasting revenue at the beginning of the century, ABC/ESPN media has always treated them well during interviews. However, the new reporter today is still young and asked conventional questions.
"You know," Du Xiaoshuai immediately changed his tune when facing his sponsor, starting with zero frames: "I'm a team player. I rarely focus on stats during games. I only care about winning. Of course, winning a game and getting good stats is important. The Suns were a strong opponent today, and I had a lot of fun."
Okay, you win the game, so if you say it's teamwork, then it's teamwork!
"So your high score is related to the Suns' defense?" Script supervisor Tony clumsily dug a hole.
"If you follow my games regularly, you'll know that's how I play." Du Xiaoshuai didn't give a direct answer, but instead repeated his answer from a summer interview, shrugging and tilting his head, looking very pretentious.
"Hmm—" The dozen or so media personnel in the audience were collectively surprised.
This rookie doesn't seem nervous at all!
Because the number of interviews was small, the media's impression of Du Xiaoshuai was still that of the green second overall pick in the draft who was overshadowed by Oden, with at most a few pictures of him being squeezed out of shape during an interview with Aunt Duo.
In fact, the second overall pick in a strong draft year has a very high starting point. Durant's two unprecedented performances in the Summer League were considered by many to be ordinary but extraordinary performances, partly due to the low intensity of the league, and not a true reflection of his ability. Moreover, he stopped playing after only two games, which seemed a bit like showing weakness.
Unlike later years when self-media became mainstream and social attention was ubiquitous.
The reports from mainstream newspapers and television media were quickly overshadowed by other news within two or three days. People's understanding of Du Xiaoshuai after his time travel was just the tip of the iceberg.
"We noticed that you said 'thank you' to Shane and Amar'e several times on the court today. Was that trash talk?" A local Phoenix media figure was much more shrewd: "Were you trying to disrupt their mentality?"
"Of course not. I heard them praising me for scoring, and I thought they were welcoming me into the NBA. As a rookie, I had to maintain proper politeness," Durant said in a serious tone, spouting nonsense.
"But you repeated it many times."
"Yes, I'm worried they didn't hear me."
The media got a little carried away. The rookie in front of them seemed like a veteran who had played in the league for over a decade, and he had mastered the art of dealing with the media, mainly by being shameless.
Coach P.J. was worried that Durant might be at a loss and be challenged at his first post-match press conference, so he specifically asked Billups to take care of him. But Durant entered the press room as naturally as if he were in his own room.
Is this some kind of star player trait?
The press conference lasted for more than an hour. Du Xiaoshuai went from being curious at the beginning to getting a little impatient with the questions, and didn't leave the stadium until the early hours of the morning.
The thought of having to face these tricky and boring questions from the media after every competition is quite annoying.
After the SuperSonics left, Suns head coach Mike D'Antoni, along with Stoudemire and Nash, attended the post-game Q&A session.
Losing doesn't matter, but Xiao Bawang was somewhat broken by Du Xiaoshuai's dunk today, and suddenly I felt that he was despicable.
When TNT's script supervisor asked for his opinion on Kevin Durant, Durant bluntly stated, "I don't like this second overall pick. If it weren't for the fact that he's a rookie, I would have shut him down on the court. Who can he beat with that toxic playing style? Does he treat his teammates like three-year-olds?"
"But he won tonight," a TNT reporter immediately retorted, not wanting to miss an opportunity to stir things up.
"This is just a preseason game. How can you care about winning or losing in a preseason game?" Little Tyrant retorted stubbornly.
......
After a quick night's rest at the hotel, Du Xiaoshuai flew back to Seattle with the team the next day at noon.
After returning home and having dinner with his mother and brother, Du Xiaoshuai went back to his room, opened the control panel, and prepared to continue the lottery draw.
The first preseason game brought Durant a huge amount of attention, with both haters and fans surging.
As of tonight, the number of positive fans has exceeded 60, while the number of negative fans has also exceeded 40, and the fan value is still rising rapidly.
The fan value displayed on the system panel represents the total number of all Durant fans worldwide, which is much higher than that of a single platform.
Du Xiaoshuai's blog currently only has a following of a few hundred thousand. In an era when zombie fans aren't so prevalent, these are all real people.
"22 consecutive draws by haters".
[White-level Gun Skill Mistake Card *2]
[Pink-level Pet Card *1]
[Pink-level Pet Card, Function: Select a target (applicable to any animal), the cardholder can continuously sense the target's emotions, desires, feelings, and status, and communication can increase affinity and understanding, lasting 24 hours]
[White-level Emotional Allergy Card *1]
......
[White-tier Taunt Card *2]
[White-tier Taunt Card, Function: Select a target, and the target's emotional defense will be broken by an additional 30% for 1 hour.]
......
[White-level Brain Damage Card *1]
[White-level Brain Damage Card, Function: Reduces the target's IQ by half for one hour.]
......
[Pink Hair Removal Card *2]
[Pink-level hair removal card, function: quick hair removal (including scalp hair) on the targeted area, and prevents hair from growing back for 10 days]
[White-level Emotional Allergy Card *3]
......
[White-level Reasoning Card *1]
[White-level Reasoning Card, Function: Select a target, and the cardholder can briefly persuade them with any reason for up to 1 hour.]
......
[White-grade Sincerity Card *1]
[White-level Sincerity Card, Function: Uses the target's language and body language to express complete sincerity, without concealment, for one hour.]
[White-level Smiling Card *1]
[White-level Laughter Card, Function: Significantly reduces the target's threshold for laughter and induces continuous laughter for one hour.]
......
[Pink-level coming-out card *1]
[Pink-level coming-out card, function: target interest transfer, lasts for 7 days.]
Du Xiaoshuai looked at the newly drawn black-pink cards and made all sorts of sarcastic remarks. Many of the new cards did have interesting functions. For example, the last pink-level cheating card, he wondered if using it on his teammate Jason Collins would restore him to heterosexuality. Two negatives make a positive, right?
There are also taunt cards; using them on the field might trick the opponent into committing a malicious foul...
"31 consecutive draws for pink."
[White-grade small balloon card *3]
......
[White-grade anti-freezing card *1]
[White-grade cold-resistant card, function: provides immunity to temperatures as low as -20 degrees Celsius for 1 hour.]
[White-grade heat-resistant card *2]
[White-grade heat-resistant card, function: grants the target immunity to damage up to 80 degrees Celsius for 1 hour]
......
[Pink-grade antibody card *1]
[Pink-level antibody card, function: provides targeted immunity against any viral infection, lasting for 3 days]
[White-grade odor-eliminating cards *3]
......
[White-grade fishing card *1]
[White-tier fishing card, function: increases the success rate of fishing with the target by an additional 30%]
......
[Pink Odor Elimination Card *2]
[Pink-grade deodorizing card, function: removes body odor for the target user and lasts for 10 days.]
......
[White-grade fragrance card *1]
[White-grade fragrance card, function: leaves a pleasant scent on the user for 24 hours, and the scent will not be removed by the deodorizing card.]
[Purple-grade underwear card *1]
[Purple-tier underwear card, function: Use on the target to obtain an invisible sexy underwear equipment card, which doubles the attack and defense of the equipped part and continuously strengthens that part. Valid for 1 year.]
......
[White-level Praise Card *1]
[White-tier praise card, function: Select a target, and the cardholder's praise will easily gain the target's favor and positive feedback for 1 hour.]
Wow—my first time drawing a purple-tier pink card! And it's an equipment card!
It combines offense and defense, and there's definitely a reason for that!
Du Xiaoshuai feels incredibly strong right now!
Wearing the newly drawn invisible protective underwear, he fell asleep peacefully. After a day and a night of brewing and fermentation, the discussion among sports media about Durant's performance in the first preseason game reached a fever pitch.
On the evening of the 10th, ESPN invited veteran basketball commentator Duo Yi, who had just returned from abroad, and veteran basketball commentator Zaklo to team up with Steven for a column discussion.
Given the controversy surrounding the interviews with Aunt Duo and Du Xiaoshuai in the summer, Doris, adhering to the principle of seeking truth from facts, simply listed data and historical records without expressing any subjective opinions.
Steven had previously held a pessimistic view of Durant. As a long-time host of ESPN's flagship program, his stance inevitably influenced the opinions of fans and some media outlets.
This is one of the reasons why Durant hasn't been hailed as a superstar in the North American league despite his impressive summer league performance.
However, the stance of journalists is as fickle as the love of a scumbag and the mood of a woman. Yesterday they might praise you to the skies and call you a god, but tomorrow they might denigrate you to nothing.
Steven Smith immediately sided with Durant right from the start of the game.
First, he readily admitted to misjudging Xia Tian, and then solemnly pulled up the preseason data and the performance in the game to analyze it, clearly showing that he would follow whoever was right.
His analysis also cited advanced data algorithms that ESPN has been promoting for the past two years, calculating Durant's efficiency rating to be over 50 in this game...
Holy crap, efficiency!
In 06, ESPN had a brilliant strategist named John Hollinger who introduced the so-called PER advanced data algorithm formula. After a series of lengthy and inexplicable calculations, a number summarizing all of a player's performance on the court could be obtained, and this value could be used for comparison and evaluation.
These complex, advanced statistics have left many fans confused and bewildered. However, subsequent revisions to the formulas and rules have demonstrated that using such a distorted, one-size-fits-all calculation method to evaluate a player's performance is simply inaccurate.
This is definitely a case of shooting the arrow first and then drawing the target.
In particular, Westbrook's triple-double seasons in 17 and 18 were historically high efficiency ratings, but the team's record was mediocre and they almost missed the playoffs, which directly shook the foundation of advanced data systems.
Later, these so-called experts introduced many armor-stacking builds, such as positive and negative values, and were unwilling to disclose the formulas so that they could be patched later. It was simply self-entertainment.
In Du Xiaoshuai's view, basketball is basketball, which is inherently a subjective and human game, so why must it be involved with mathematics?
However, at this time, such calculation data was still considered unfathomable by many online fans, and thus had considerable credibility.
Because when this formula was applied to Jordan in the playoffs, he also scored 30+ points, far exceeding the league average efficiency rating of 15.
In the past two years, LeBron James's ball-handling and carry-the-core style of play has been highly efficient, and his solo run to the Finals in early summer has made this formula a standard for many fans and experts.
Durant's stats and efficiency ratings were off the charts, and the team won again, which is why Steven changed his tune.
However, Zakhar is an old-school commentator. Although he agrees with Durant's efficiency, he is indifferent to advanced statistics and pointed out the shortcomings of the SuperSonics' lineup and tactics in his column, as well as many details of Durant's coaching that need improvement.
According to Zakhar, the SuperSonics' coaching staff's use of Durant is still too rough and unsustainable.
Can you believe that Durant's usage rate exceeded 50% in a single game? This means that the Suns' run-and-gun system's defense has consistently been in the lower half of the league. If it were the Spurs or even the Rockets, Durant's isolation plays would be easily limited.
The team needs to give him more support.
In addition, Du Xiaoshuai is not without his own weaknesses, although compared to ordinary players, he is already considered excellent to have reached his level.
For example, his ability to lead the team. As the core of the team, he put up such exaggerated statistics and drew away most of the opponent's defensive strength, but he failed to lead his teammates to perform well. This shows a lack of leadership qualities.
For example, being obsessed with one-on-one plays, while having a high success rate, can also negatively impact the participation and coordination of teammates.
They lack physicality, prefer to float and shoot threes, have too few free throws, and are unable to draw fouls...
In short, it's rather nitpicky.
On the other hand, the style of TNT's "Inside The NBA" column is completely different.
Sir Charles Barkley and the author of "Whether You're Dead or Not" don't care about any advanced data. They only use it when it's to their advantage in making excuses; otherwise, it's just a pile of worthless paper.
Besides discussing Du Xiaoshuai's statistics, he also likes to take things out of context, reminisce about the highlights of the game, and his focus is very down-to-earth.
For example, when Durant had the upper hand in the aerial duel with Stoudemire, Sir Charles did not praise Durant's physical qualities. Instead, he said that Durant was a fake tough guy and that if Durant had touched his big butt in the air, he would have been bounced away. He even had the director add an animation to the broadcast.
Regarding Du Xiaoshuai's large hands that can hold a basketball with one hand, he started arguing about the relationship between hand length and penis length after only a few words.
Then, when commenting on Durant's crucial driving move, Barkley, who considers himself a superstar, demonstrated it three times in the studio, falling down four times.
The main focus is on fun basketball...
Fan forums are even more active, and posts about Durant's summer sensation have been dug up and discussed again.
The data for this match was pinned to the top of the forum with a title, accompanied by a bunch of pictures of Du Xiaoshuai's highlights from the game.
The most popular moment was when Durant blocked Nash's three-pointer at the last second, which was hailed by fans as a masterpiece of the century.
From the photographer's perspective, Nash's body was almost parallel to the floor when he released the shot. Kevin Durant, wearing a grey-black No. 35 jersey, loomed over Nash like a dark cloud, seemingly foreshadowing the end of the run-and-gun era and the arrival of a new basketball storm.
The image was also featured on the front page of Fox Sports the following day with the headline "A New Basketball Monster Has Arrived," igniting a frenzy throughout the American sports world.