On June 12, 2002, the New Jersey Nets were swept 4-0 by the Lakers at home.
Kitels, who had clashed with Su Xi, got mercilessly torched by Kobe Bryant in the game, with Kobe easily dropping 24 points, 8 assists, and 6 rebounds on his head.
Shaquille O'Neal won his third career Finals MVP, becoming the most dominant player since Jordan.
With the NBA Finals over, the basketball world began debating whether Jay Williams or Yao Ming would be the first overall pick in the 2002 draft.
Every time Su Xi read the sports pages, he felt a pang of sorrow. 'If Reggie hadn't died unexpectedly, there would be no question about the number one pick. Reggie was the real Jordan; Jay Williams wouldn't even be a concern.'
Su Xi had been training relentlessly during this time.
The supreme talent from Scott had brought him strength. He was improving his bench press numbers every day, and his progress astonished the assistant strength and conditioning coach for the Syracuse University basketball team.
An even bigger change came from the supreme talent he inherited from Reggie, which gave Su Xi outstanding explosive power. Reggie had always been known for his explosiveness; many said his first step was faster than Iverson's, and his second step was quicker than Tracy McGrady's.
This was largely due to that explosive power.
Su Xi's explosiveness increased daily, bringing the most direct change of all: his drives to the basket became much more aggressive.
Su Xi had exceptional ball-handling skills and could execute all sorts of complex moves. However, in a real game, flashy crossovers and changes of direction were useless without explosive power to back them up—it was just spinning in place.
This was why Su Xi couldn't get any playing time; his talent was just too mediocre. As a sophomore in high school, he'd managed to hold down a starting spot. But as his Black friends began to awaken their own talents one by one, he was forced to the bench. In college, if Reggie Williams hadn't strong-armed him onto the team, he wouldn't have even been qualified to enter the gym.
Even though he made the team thanks to his connection with Williams, the coaching staff never even bothered to tell him about away games. There was no need. It would just be a waste of a bus ticket.
Before, Su Xi had been perfectly content with this arrangement. He was just a 'salted fish,' after all.
But now, he was determined to change.
In fact, it wasn't just Su Xi who was determined to change. Syracuse University was too. They had made it to the Final Four of the tournament last season, setting a new school record.
This season, they went on a mad recruiting spree. The coaching staff flew all over the country to recruit talented players.
After some deliberation, the superstar Five-Star Player from Oak Hill High School, Carmelo Anthony, announced he was bringing his talents to Syracuse University.
In addition, the coaching staff learned its lesson from last season's weakness at the point guard position.
They put in a great deal of effort to bring Pennsylvania's Mr. Basketball, Gray McNamara, to the team.
McNamara was Pennsylvania's Mr. Basketball in both 2001 and 2002. Over his four years in high school, he became the seventh-leading scorer in Pennsylvania state history with a total of 2,917 points. The last guard from Pennsylvania to be that dominant was Kobe Bryant.
Given Syracuse University's massive recruiting success,
the board of trustees unhesitatingly declared their new slogan: they would break past the Final Four, make it to the championship game, and win the title.
For Su Xi, this was both an opportunity and a crisis.
The opportunity was that with two talented players arriving, he might be able to accelerate his talent fusion by training against them. The danger was... with the team gunning for the championship, who would want to keep a burden who only got in through the back door?
So, Su Xi spent the entire summer break at the school, training hard every day. 'I have to get stronger, stronger, and even stronger.'
In the midst of this insane training, his physical build also grew.
Assistant strength coach Smart was a bachelor who also lived at the school, mooching free food and lodging. He was the person Su Xi saw most often that summer. In August, he did a simple static measurement for Su Xi.
Height: 6-foot-3, Wingspan: 6-foot-9, Weight: 190 pounds.
The growth of his physique was visible to the naked eye.
The improvement in his basketball skills was even more obvious.
Of course, the most, most, *most* obvious change was in Su Xi's appearance. He had always been handsome, but now, with the boost from his activated talents, he was strikingly heroic and dashing.
He gave off an intense, masculine vibe.
On more than one occasion, Smart had said, practically drooling, "If I were a woman, I'd sleep with you seven times a day. Even when we were sleeping, I'd be sitting on top of you and grinding."
Su Xi, horrified by this description, emphatically demanded that he stay far away from him.
By the time August arrived, Su Xi had fused 60% of Reggie Williams's explosive power and 60% of Dennis Scott's strength.
This allowed him to dominate every pickup game on the courts near Syracuse University.
By mid-August, Su Xi's fusion progress had stalled.
He awakened the slumbering Little Elf, who said, "You need higher-intensity competitive training, or you need to improve through high-level, real-game situations."
"Jack Su, are you training so hard because you were inspired by your countryman, Yao? He became the NBA's number one pick, so now you want to be the next one?" Smart often teased Su Xi like this.
"No, to be honest, I just like the feeling of training," Su Xi replied truthfully.
"You're a real monster. I heard you rejected a confession from a beautiful international student yesterday. Why?" Smart was a huge gossip.
The handsome Su Xi spread his hands. "Getting into a relationship would only slow down my progress. I don't have time to waste."
'I have to win an NBA championship within five years and reach my absolute peak. I can't waste such a great opportunity.'
'There's no way I'm going to enter a mountain of treasure and come back empty-handed,' Su Xi told himself.
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