"Crazy June"

After the game, the two teams exchanged postgame handshakes.

When Sun Hao shook hands with Gasol, he wanted to pat the latter on the head. Realizing he could not reach it, he patted his arm instead, just like before the opening tip.

Gasol put up 13 points and 5 rebounds in this game, making him Barcelona Team's best performer.

Gasol gave a bitter smile.

No matter how well he played, a loss was still a loss. No one could be happy about that.

"See you in the playoffs."

Gasol added.

Under the La Liga schedule, the two teams only faced each other twice in a season.

After those two games, they would have to wait until the playoffs to meet again.

However, Real Madrid Team and Barcelona Team were both strong. If they met again, it would be no earlier than the Semifinals.

Gasol's words were not merely a statement. They were also a challenge.

Sun Hao smiled and nodded.

Honestly, Gasol's nickname sounded kind of soft, but sometimes he could be pretty tough.

After Sun Hao broke the record, reports about him flooded Spain the next day.

The most authoritative Spanish Sports Newspaper used a photo of Sun Hao shooting that Ultra-long Three-pointer as its game image.

More interesting than the photo was the headline.

"Napoleon of China Breaks ACB League Under-18 Scoring Record as Real Madrid Completes Season Sweep of Barcelona."

With that headline, Sun Hao received his first nickname in Spain—a very interesting one.

Among Madrid's many attractions, there was one place every visitor had to see.

It was also the first place Fernandez had taken Sun Hao to visit: Puerta del Sol.

It was a landmark of Madrid and the site of many major events in Spanish history.

When Napoleon conquered Europe, he had once fought a bloody battle against the Spanish there, ultimately setting off Spain's struggle for independence.

That was why Napoleon was so well known in Spain.

The media used that nickname partly because they loved sensational gimmicks, and partly because of Sun Hao's height.

Napoleon was famously short, and he happened to be about as tall as Sun Hao was now.

So the nickname fit perfectly.

And compared to Sun Hao's name, a nickname like that was clearly easier to spread.

Before long, the nickname reached China as well.

After the previous Misunderstanding Incident, the nickname Napoleon of China raised Sun Hao's profile in China by another level.

And this time, newspapers did not need to piggyback on football's popularity.

Scoring 17 points in Spain's top league and breaking the under-18 scoring record was more than newsworthy on its own.

Sun Hao had delivered a signature performance and successfully earned head coach Laso's trust.

After that, Laso confidently began using the Dual Point Guard Tactic.

There was another benefit to using the Dual Point Guard Tactic with Real Madrid Team: it allowed Lopez to reenter the rotation.

In terms of individual ability, whether talent or immediate impact, Lopez deserved a rotation spot.

As Sun Hao received more playing time and took more Three-pointers in games, it also began to affect his style of play.

The most obvious change was the rapid increase in his Long-Range Sharpshooter proficiency.

Shots taken in games were affected by stamina, mental pressure, and all kinds of other factors, so they naturally improved shooting more than practice did.

At the same time, Sun Hao began expanding his arsenal.

The effects of improved Basketball IQ were not limited to the court. They also extended off it.

Having benefited from practicing Ultra-long Three-pointers early, he began placing even greater importance on that aspect.

Of course, he could not just add weapons to his arsenal at random.

If all you knew how to use was a pistol, then even if someone handed you a missile, you would not be able to fire it.

This time, Sun Hao worked on his breakthrough, focusing on the First Step when driving.

His current abilities and style leaned toward being a shooter, but he did not intend to be nothing more than one.

In other words, he could not completely lose his offensive ability whenever he caught the ball without an immediate shooting opportunity.

That was why he needed ball-handling offense, and the First Step was the key to a breakthrough.

Many NBA players were great at driving because of their First Step. Rose and Tracy McGrady were both like that.

Sun Hao could not train to that level yet, but he needed to have it.

As a guard, he was short and had a low center of gravity, so this was relatively easier for him to develop.

Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, Sun Hao had spent the remaining half of the season with Real Madrid Team.

Over that half-season, he successfully secured a starting position.

For the full season, he averaged 5.6 points per game, shooting 51% from the field and 42% from Three-point range.

Looking only at the second half of the season, he averaged 7.3 points per game, already ranking fourth on the team.

For a young player who was only seventeen, that performance was more than impressive.

He had also helped Real Madrid Team finish first in the La Liga Regular Season.

Starting in the La Liga playoffs for Real Madrid at seventeen, Sun Hao had set a modest record of his own.

But what made him even happier was that, before the season ended, his Long-Range Sharpshooter had successfully reached Silver!

Long-Range Sharpshooter (Silver): Effectively increases the shooting percentage of long-range shots.

The three-pointer was Sun Hao's primary offensive weapon now, and this Badge upgrade would help him no less than his previous Basketball IQ boost had.

It also filled him with anticipation for his first La Liga playoffs run.

At the time, the UEFA Champions League had not yet been established. Basketball leagues around Europe were also in conflict with the European Basketball Association, and the European Basketball League had been suspended.

The La Liga playoffs were Real Madrid's most important competition that year.

After finishing first in the Regular Season, winning the championship was their only goal.

This was where La Liga's unique format had to be mentioned.

It was neither like the NBA, which played series after series until a final champion was decided, nor like the NCAA, where one game determined everything in March Madness.

Its format was a hybrid somewhere between the two.

La Liga had only seventeen teams, and only the top eight could enter the playoffs.

Among the eight playoff teams, the first round used a best-of-five series to determine the four semifinalists.

Once the Semifinals began, it switched to Single Elimination like the NCAA for both the semifinals and the final.

No format was absolutely good or bad, but this one had one especially prominent trait: excitement.

The first round used series to select the four better teams.

Then the Semifinals used Single Elimination, adding more unpredictability to the championship and naturally making things more thrilling.

The facts proved that this format was quite popular in Europe.

Every year, when the La Liga playoffs reached the Semifinals, a wave of basketball fever swept through the country.

In the first round of the playoffs, Real Madrid Team faced eighth-ranked Radar Team.

Against an opponent clearly weaker than themselves, Real Madrid Team did not give them many chances.

After four games, they had won every game except one road loss where the entire team shot poorly.

The 3-1 scoreline also reflected the gap in strength between the two teams.

Sun Hao was even better in the first round than he had been during the Regular Season.

He averaged two Three-pointers and 9.5 points per game, making him the team's second-leading scorer behind Gabajosa.

That performance was already more than enough to amaze people.

After the first round ended, the four teams in the La Liga playoffs Semifinals emerged: Real Madrid, Manresa, Barcelona, and Alicante.

Under the first-versus-fourth rule, Real Madrid's Semifinals opponent was Alicante, which had narrowly eliminated Zaragoza 3-2 in the first round to advance.

There was a gap between the two teams' season performances. Under normal circumstances, Real Madrid would defeat Alicante, then meet either Barcelona or Manresa in the final.

But this game allowed Sun Hao to relive countless March Madness moments from his previous life in the NCAA.

Single Elimination meant that one game decided victory or defeat.

Besides being thrilling, this kind of game had another characteristic: upsets were easy to produce.

In a single game, factors like shooting touch and form were magnified without limit.

NCAA March Madness was beloved by fans precisely because it was famous for upsets.

In fact, even in the NBA, no team won forever in the Regular Season, and upsets happened from time to time.

There were simply too many uncertainties in a single game.

Real Madrid encountered exactly that kind of situation against Alicante.

Real Madrid Team's shooting and form were both fairly ordinary, while Alicante Team flourished under the leadership of young Jose Calderon.

This reserve guard, only one year older than Sun Hao, displayed the potential of an elite point guard.

In controlling the tempo and organizing the team's tactical offense, Calderon completely outclassed Prigioni.

Coupled with Alicante Team's excellent shooting, Real Madrid Team could not turn the game around even after fighting until the end.

The final score on the court was 58-66.

Although Sun Hao still scored the team's second-highest 11 points, he was ultimately killed off by the plot and could not help the team complete the comeback.

Today's Cheesy Love Lines

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