Chapter 66 The biggest hero

Not long after, He Zhongqiu arrived at the restaurant.

"Hey there."

"Hello, Wolverine."

"Hey."

He didn't pay much attention to the Spurs team, didn't know them, and didn't speak fluent English. He just nodded at them, greeted them, and walked straight to the bus table.

"NBA God of War, with destructive fighting power, I finally see the real person!" Stephen Jackson looked at He Zhongqiu with admiration and murmured.

"Don't stare at him, be careful or he might sense it and tear you apart with his bare hands." Tim Duncan warned seriously.

"Really, Tim, I really believe he could rip a closet apart with his bare hands," Stephen Jackson said.

"NO, I don't believe it. Even if he can KO twelve people, I don't believe he can tear apart the closet with his bare hands, unless the Knicks' closet is made of paper," Ginobili said.

"Hello, bus."

"Hello, Mid-Autumn Festival."

"Daba, Brother Xia will be here in a few days, let's find a chance to get together then."

"Okay."

"This restaurant is OK, let's eat here. Let's go over there. I've already booked a table."

This was the first time He Zhongqiu and Daba met. They had talked on the phone once before and were not very familiar with each other. They exchanged a few simple greetings and then changed tables to order food without changing restaurants.

Jamie Zhang felt a little regretful because neither He Zhongqiu nor Bart invited her to have dinner with them, so she didn't even have the chance to ask for an autograph.

"Daba, how rare do you like your steak?"

"About 70%."

"Hey mate, one medium-rare and one well-done, large portion, black pepper, and sauce." He Zhongqiu said to the waiter in simple English.

"Wolverine, are you sure it's well-done?" the waiter asked in surprise.

"Yes."

He Zhongqiu was too lazy to explain and continued to order food.

He just didn't speak English well, otherwise he would definitely ask the chef to cut the steak into small pieces and serve it to him with chopsticks.

Bart envied He Zhongqiu's courage to speak English. He could speak a little English now, but he was too embarrassed to speak it out in public.

"Daba, do you have a chance to play tonight?" He Zhongqiu asked after ordering the food.

Daba said helplessly: "I am David Robinson's second substitute, and Kevin Willis is in front of me. Popovich just asked me to prepare to play. I guess I will play as Duncan's substitute and face you."

The meal took nearly an hour. At 6:30, He Zhongqiu separated from the bus and slowly walked to the locker room.

As soon as I arrived at the locker room, my teammates were already there, even Alan Houston and Madman, who lived in the city and commuted.

Passing the locker room door, he was the sixth one to grab Harrington's closet. The five in front of him were Alan Houston, Antonio Davis, Sprewell, Charlie Ward, and Kurt Thomas. To his left was veteran Shandon Anderson.

Antonio Davis is an All-Star center acquired from the Nuggets. He is out for the season and has not played a single game for the Knicks. His closet has been empty as he has been recovering at home.

Speaking of which, New York is also a big victim. This season's salary is the second highest in the league, close to 100 million US dollars. Among them, there are three players who receive salary without playing. The other two are Larry Johnson and Luke Longley, both of whom have retired for two seasons.

The annual salaries of these three players are US$1260 million, US$961 million, and US$690 million respectively, taking up more than % of the space and also occupying three player spots, making it difficult for New York to strengthen its lineup.

Except for Larry Johnson, the other two were all created by Layden, which is why he is looked down upon by New Yorkers.

The competition was to start at 8:30. He Zhongqiu took a break from his busy schedule and went to the weight room to practice Xingyi Five Elements Boxing for half an hour, gaining some proficiency.

Kuang Ren and a group of teammates wanted to learn from him, so they followed his moves for a long time and had a lot of fun.

After He Zhongqiu gained proficiency, he stopped practicing. He sat down with his horse and sword, smiled and waved at the madman and others and shouted:
"Kamen, kamen, kneel down and become my disciple. I will give you a 10% discount today. The apprenticeship fee is 900,000 US dollars. It's a bargain for you."

"But, this so-called teacher for a day, father for life..."

"Puchi!" Philip, who was watching the fun, burst into laughter and translated it directly. He Zhongqiu's words immediately aroused public anger.

"You want to be my dad again? Fuck you!"

"cut!"

"Screw you."

"If you want to be my dad, Wolverine, my mom will blow your head off with a shotgun and then ask you for alimony."

Everyone gave He Zhongqiu the middle finger.

Philip was very happy to see He Zhongqiu getting along well with Kuang Ren and the others, which was extremely beneficial to his development in the Knicks.

He Zhongqiu has little education and comes from the bottom of society, while Kuang Ren and the others, although they have all attended college, basically all come from poor families. This is one of the reasons why He Zhongqiu and them were able to get along so quickly, as they had the same experience of living at the bottom of society and had a similar atmosphere.

Alan Houston felt a little helpless. It had only been half a month, but Wolverine had become more familiar with the others than he was. With his talent, he would sooner or later take his place.

He was very clear that although he had a better background and education than many of his teammates, he had nothing in common with them and had no hobbies, so they could not play well together.

For example, he likes piano, elegant music, suits and ties, and golf, while his teammates don't like any of these things and only like hip-hop, heavy metal music, and street culture.

At eight o'clock, both sides announced their starting lineups and the substitutes came on to warm up.

Spurs: Duncan, David Robinson, Stephen Jackson, Bruce Bowen, Tony Parker
Knicks: He Zhongqiu, Kurt Thomas, Sprewell, Alan Houston, Howard Ellis
Yanjing, CCTV's NBA live studio, this time only Zhang Heli and Sun Zhenping were providing commentary.

The live broadcast began, with the first shot showing live footage from Madison Square Garden, as well as live commentator Zhou Biao.

"Hello, audience friends. Hello, Teacher Sun, Hello, Teacher Zhang."

"Hello Zhou Biao."

"Zhou Biao, let me introduce the situation at the scene to everyone."

After greeting each other, Zhou Biao said, "The substitutes have already started warming up, and the bus is warming up..."

The camera was focused on Bart who was shooting on the three-point line. Bart tiptoed and shot, basically without jumping, and made a three-pointer.

The camera turned back to Zhou Biao, who said, "Daba actually has the ability to play in the NBA, but unfortunately the Spurs don't have a place for him. I hope he can get a chance to play today and have a good performance."

"Zhou Biao, tell us more about He Zhongqiu's situation." Sun Zhenping said.

"Yes, tell us about his last game." Zhang Heli said.

"Haha, okay, okay."

Zhou Biao laughed and said, "In the game against the Mavericks, Zhongqiu played very well. His attack under the basket was unstoppable. He scored 9 points on 8 of 19 shots, just one point away from 20+, setting his personal single-game scoring record."

"awesome!"

"Pretty!"

Zhang Heli and Sun Zhenping said.

Zhou Biao added: "Currently, Zhongqiu has only played five games. Everyone knows the reason for the game against the Pacers, so he only scored two points. The other four games were 19 points, 17 points, and two 14 points, averaging 13.2 points and 5 rebounds per game.

This data is almost the same as that of the best rookies in 02, Yao Ming, Stoudemire, Caron Butler and Drew Gooden.

The best performing rookie at the moment is the No. 10 pick in the first round, Caron Butler, who was last month's Rookie of the Month and his statistics are similar to those of Zhongqiu.

That means Zhongqiu also has a chance to compete for the Rookie of the Month award in December."

"What a pity, it's all the fault of those Pacers guys, otherwise Zhongqiu's average stats would definitely reach 15+, and he would have a greater competitive advantage." Zhang Heli sighed.

"The Pacers are not feeling well now, right?" said Sun Zhenping.

Zhang Heli nodded and said, "The Pacers are definitely finished. The management is probably planning a rebuild."

"Zhongqiu can be considered the biggest contributor to the Pacers' reconstruction," said Sun Zhenping.

"Puchi, haha..." Everyone laughed together.

(End of this chapter)