"That means as long as you put on an impressive performance in a game, you could gain both fame and fortune and attract advertisers."
"And don't forget, Wang Yi, the biggest draw in the NBA today, is playing in this game. That means it'll draw ten times as much attention as an ordinary game, maybe even more."
"If you score 15 points in this game, you'll gain more than you would from scoring 30 in an ordinary one."
"So, boys, go all out. In past games, I've held you back and told you not to pad your stats, encouraging you to play as a team as much as possible. But today, show everyone what you can do. Points, rebounds, assists, steals, blocks—pad whatever stats you want."
"The more you put up, the more you'll get out of it."
As it turned out, head coach Jenkins's speech had some effect.
Fire lit up the eyes of the young players.
When the third quarter began, every one of them played with far more energy and initiative.
On defense, they switched as aggressively as they could. When it came to rebounding, all five players crashed toward the basket to fight for the ball.
Unfortunately, ideals were like a sexy, curvy woman in her twenties or thirties, while reality was often a frail, emaciated old woman in her seventies or eighties.
They came out swinging on defense at the start of the third quarter.
But as soon as Wang Yi saw how fiercely they were defending, he knew he'd have to hit them with something brutal, or the rest of the game wouldn't be so easy.
So after coming out, he curled around an off-ball screen in the paint, then moved up near midcourt to receive the ball.
Zhang Jiacheng passed it to him,