On October 22, 2007, at Mo Ostin Court on the UCLA campus, the bright basketball court was empty of spectators, and the players weren't playing. Looking closely, a group of players were gathered beyond the three-point line, arms around each other's shoulders, counting in unison,
"45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50!!!"
After reaching fifty, all the players surged towards the player who had been shooting inside the three-point line, bumping chests and high-fiving him like crazy.
The most excited black young man in the team, after being the first to high-five and chest-bump, waited for everyone else to celebrate, then the lean, small, yet explosively powerful young man with a buzz cut stepped forward again.
The two faced each other, roaring again, then extended their right hands, ring and pinky fingers retracted, middle and index fingers splayed, thumbs up, gripping each other with two fingers and shaking them up and down.
After completing this set of moves, Zhao Xiu bumped shoulders with Russell Westbrook again, feeling a surge of emotion.
Two months ago, he was still watching the Los Angeles Clippers and Denver Nuggets Game 7 on TV, feeling both angry at Harden's lack of fight after the Los Angeles Clippers lost Game 7, and admiring the Denver Nuggets' fighting spirit.
As a long-time fan of Westbrook and James Harden, he was happy to see his favorite players find their place again in the twilight of their careers, find a comfortable team, and strive for a championship.
Then he woke up to find himself as the young Westbrook's roommate, having traveled back to 2007. He read the original owner's memories and learned that the original owner was a top-tier physical talent from the East, born into an ordinary family, and was already a substitute on the NCAA 2007 varsity team.
This decision was made after countless discussions among the family of three, and they gritted their teeth and spent a great deal of effort to send him out. He also lived up to expectations, being successfully scouted by coach Ben Howland during a practice game, making the UCLA Bruins' roster for the new season, and receiving a basketball scholarship.
Looking at his face in the mirror, which was even more handsome than in his previous life, Zhao Xiu often felt like he was dreaming two months ago.
With a height of 2.03 meters, a wingspan of 2.21 meters, and a hand length of 11 inches (27.94 cm), in his previous life, he had seen countless memes of O'Neal and mineral water, and watched the Toronto Raptors' interview with Xiao Ka, where Xiao Ka complained that his hands couldn't fit into his pockets.
In this life, Zhao Xiu truly realized that his hands genuinely couldn't fit into his pockets.
As a seasoned basketball enthusiast in his previous life, Zhao Xiu understood all too well what this body, gifted to him by the heavens, represented. After completing a detailed measurement of his physical data, a fire seemed to ignite within Zhao Xiu.
At that time, the university was still on holiday. He had only seen that the bed next to him belonged to Wei Shao Ye, whom he had admired for many years, but he wasn't at school. The school was currently on vacation.
But at this moment, Zhao Xiu could no longer contain the burning fire in his heart.
He woke up early in the morning, grabbed a basketball, and went straight to the school's training court.
Even more perfectly, the moment Zhao Xiu stepped onto the basketball court, a black, floating text appeared in the air before his eyes.
It read, and at the same time, a system voice sounded in Zhao Xiu's mind, "Basketball Superstar System activated, selecting a novice gift package for the host.
The following are three Diamond-tier Badges. The host has only one chance to acquire a Diamond-tier Badge in his career. Please choose carefully."
"System, System, how do I acquire badges later?"
Not long after, he received the system's answer, "Further development is up to the host. Currently, this system only provides the host's ability value viewing."
As Zhao Xiu, who was pursuing a Ph.D. in science and was a basketball theory and practical enthusiast before transmigrating, he did not immediately make a choice but inquired in his mind.
He hadn't received a very powerful system, unlike the novels he had read before, which often granted a large number of badges or some experience cards, but Zhao Xiu was still very excited.
Because Zhao Xiu knew that the ability to view his own ability values was a huge bug in itself.
Because often, the fundamental reason people tire of exercising is the lack of immediate feedback. If he thought back, he'd remember how many times a burst of enthusiasm propelled him to train, but his discipline only lasted a few weeks.
But if, during two or three weeks of continuous training, you suddenly saw your three-point rating go +1, +1, +1, the benefit of this continuous, highly effective positive feedback would be an unimaginable help.
At that moment, many thoughts flashed through Zhao Xiu's mind, and finally, he said to the system,
"System, I want to see my current ability values."
"Host, please complete the novice gift package selection first."
Before Zhao Xiu could make his next move, the system's voice came again, "The host can obtain the following three Diamond Badges through a draw. Please choose one of them.
The badges include: 1. Injury Immunity. 2. Air Jordan. 3. Rapid Recovery."
Each badge had its specific description below.
Injury Immunity was the simplest: the body would not suffer any injuries, the simplest and most practical skill, but necessary fatigue and pain were unavoidable.
The description of Air Jordan was also not complicated; it roughly meant a significant enhancement of jumping ability, jump speed, and hang time, including increasing the upper limit of the entire body's jumping ability, jump speed, and hang time.
The description of Rapid Recovery, which seemed completely like a lower-tier badge to Injury Immunity, was much more complex. After spending some time reading through it, Zhao Xiu roughly understood the meaning of this badge.
Unlike Injury Immunity, Injury Immunity simply meant that no injuries would occur.
However, it offered no help with muscle soreness, physical fatigue, or stamina. Rapid Recovery, however, was different. It was like Kobe's 'sweat-absorbing stamina recovery' during games, or Wei Shao Ye's 'returning to the court upgraded' after every injury.
The effect of the Rapid Recovery badge was to make the body more active, greatly accelerating recovery, whether it was stamina recovery or rehabilitation after an injury, for both short-term and long-term recovery. Moreover, the longer the accumulated time, the faster the recovery speed.
Roughly speaking, for example, during a game, if Zhao Xiu chose the Rapid Recovery badge, the basic situation would be double speed. On the court, Zhao Xiu's stamina would recover twice as fast as others, and the same applied to muscle soreness or overall physical recovery.
For instance, in the dreaded back-to-back games for NBA players, with double the recovery speed of others, Zhao Xiu could completely play every game at full health.
And for major injuries, it became even more abnormal. For example, for major injuries like ligament tears, which would normally require two full years of rehabilitation, the effect of Rapid Recovery would gradually accumulate from one-time to six-time. This means that what would originally take two years would only require four or five months to fully recover, and shorter injuries of one or two weeks would only require three or four days to fully recover.
All three badges were extremely overpowered. Zhao Xiu carefully weighed the three badges and found that all three were worthy of being Diamond Badges, with only one chance to choose.
For example, the Air Jordan badge, who doesn't dream of playing like Jordan? The so-called "I'll shoot after you land," the mid-air walking layups and dunks.
Playing like Jordan is the highest praise for someone playing basketball.
In other words, when someone describes you as playing like James... How dare you, don't randomly diss the GOAT, are you having a bad life?
After much deliberation, Zhao Xiu still chose the simplest, most basic, but most practical "Injury Immunity" badge. After careful consideration, Zhao Xiu believed that no matter what, ensuring a body free of injuries was still the most crucial thing.
As for Air Jordan and Rapid Recovery, he could only... reject them with tears, silently cursing the system a hundred times for why he could only draw one badge, just like only being able to bring one hero skill. Ultimately, Zhao Xiu chose the "Injury Immunity Badge" with the system.
"Host has chosen the Injury Immunity Badge."
With the successful selection, Zhao Xiu began to explore his new system. The system was very simple and clear, or rather, it was essentially empty.
At a glance, there were two selection interfaces: "Badges" and "Abilities."
Upon entering the Badges interface, he could see that he only possessed one badge: "Injury Immunity." Returning to the selection interface, and then the Abilities interface, clicking into it revealed his current ability ratings.
He looked closely at an ability interface similar to 2K but much simpler:
Zhao Xiu, Overall Ability 77 (NCAA League Standard)
Offensive Overall Ability: 80
Driving: 55; Finishing: 63; Passing: 60; Mid-Range: 70; Three-Point: 85; Free Throw: 72;
Defensive Overall Ability: 73
Rebounding: 55; Perimeter Defense: 77; Interior Defense: 53; Steal: 66; Block: 57;
Upon seeing his overall ability rating, Zhao Xiu was initially shocked by his three-point level.
The first thing Zhao Xiu did when he started training was to pick up a basketball and walk to the three-point line at the top of the arc.
He flexed his hips and knees, brought the ball up, set his elbow, flicked his wrist, and released.
When the ball swished through the net with a whoosh, Zhao Xiu froze in place.
In his previous life, he didn't know how many hours he had spent training alone on the court, countless theoretical knowledge of shooting found online, countless three-point shooting drills.
None of those seemed to have the same fluid, smooth, simple, and natural shooting motion as this one, as if it were a memory etched into his bones.
At this moment, Zhao Xiu seemed to feel that this life was truly going to be different... After a brief moment of daze, he returned to the scene before him, looking at the still roaring, raw Westbrook and his excited teammates rushing forward to celebrate.
Although he was assigned to the same student dormitory as Wei Shao Ye, Zhao Xiu had been training alone for the first month and a half because school hadn't started yet.
Having been a Ph.D. student in his previous life, Zhao Xiu, in this new life, possessed strong planning skills.
He set his main training goals for his year in the NCAA based on his physical template and technical characteristics.
With his incredibly strong static physical talent and not-so-bad dynamic physical talent, his furthest ideal for the future was definitely to directly emulate Xiao Ka's technical characteristics.
However, his unexpectedly high three-point shooting level and talent led Zhao Xiu to plan his most needed and simplest foundation for the early part of his career without much thought: 3D.
Defense and catch-and-shoot three-pointers. Therefore, during the next month and a half of vacation, Zhao Xiu continuously trained his defensive fundamentals and catch-and-shoot three-pointers.
A full month and a half of training caused Zhao Xiu's three-point rating to rise again to 88, and his overall defensive rating also increased by 3 points, reaching 76. His perimeter defense, steals, and blocks all showed some improvement.
In the final two weeks, with the UCLA Bruins players gradually returning, combined with Zhao Xiu's outgoing personality and Wei Shao Ye's enthusiasm,
Zhao Xiu gradually integrated into the UCLA Bruins. Coupled with Zhao Xiu's excellent three-point shooting, this scene occurred after today's team practice.