"Sun, can we come in?"
The shorter one looked a little shy and green.
The taller one, on the other hand, had not even entered yet and was already looking around everywhere, seeming much more at ease.
Sun Hao nodded and let them in.
Only he and Prigioni were left in the locker room anyway, and they were about to leave. Both were fully dressed.
"You know them?"
Prigioni thought for a moment and realized he had never seen either of them before. He turned to Sun Hao with a puzzled look.
Sun Hao shook his head.
Prigioni was even more confused. You let them in even though you did not know them?
"Are you fans?"
Prigioni turned to ask the two of them.
"Yes, but we're players too. We both play in the French league."
The taller one explained, then gave the shorter one a push.
The way Prigioni looked at them changed a little.
They both looked seventeen or eighteen, yet they were already playing in the French league.
Although the French league was not considered especially strong in Europe, it was still a top-tier league. The two of them were clearly brimming with talent.
"My name is Tony Parker. This is Boris Diaw. I want to ask Sun how to train my three-point shot."
Parker looked at Sun Hao, his eyes full of expectation.
Tony Parker and Boris Diaw.
Sun Hao had spotted them at the start of the game.
This was France, and it was the EuroLeague semifinals. Running into them was not really strange.
But after Parker asked that question, Sun Hao froze.
What?
Parker wanted to learn three-pointers from him?
Was this some kind of mistake?
In his memory, Parker was the French Pocket Rocket! His offense mostly relied on drives and fast breaks.
He did have a decent mid-range shot, but his three-point shooting was terrible!
Of the players he had encountered in Europe, Gasol was much like he remembered: overflowing with offensive talent but ordinary on defense. Ginobili specialized in driving, and his shooting had not been developed yet.
But what was this about Parker coming to ask him how to shoot threes?
Butterfly Effect?
That was a reasonable explanation.
Now that he had made a name for himself, Fernandez could not possibly be his only young fan forever.
Still, imagining Parker standing outside with the ball like him and clanging away at three-pointers felt incredibly wrong.
"Have you practiced three-pointers before?"
Sun Hao did not rush into an answer. Instead, he asked Parker a question.
"I have, but not much."
Parker was quite honest.
"Have you ever tested your 100m speed? What's your fastest time?"
Sun Hao continued.
"10.43 seconds."
"How much?"
"10.43 seconds. That was my result from the physical test when I entered the French league."
Parker explained again.
Good grief.
Sun Hao coughed for a while when he heard that.
How could the gap between people be so huge?
10.43 seconds—where would that rank in the NBA?
He remembered Allen Iverson only ran around 10.30 seconds.
Even on a track, that was the level of a first-class professional athlete.
"A player's career direction needs to be planned from a young age. For example, I started practicing three-pointers early on, and only after all these years did I become what I am now."
Sun Hao instantly switched into Last Season's Assistant Coach mode.
And what he said was not wrong. System Time Double was twice the time outside, so if he had started at nine, it would add up to roughly this much by now.
"Your 100m speed is so fast. I believe you have probably practiced driving the most, so that should also be the direction you need to keep training in."
Sun Hao had become an NCAA assistant coach at a young age in his previous life, so he still had a good eye for talent.
Of course, more importantly, he had excellent Persuasion Skill.
But Parker was already this old. Sun Hao could not change his style of play. If Young Parker had come looking for him, though, he would not have minded training him the same way he had trained himself.
After all, having another Future NBA Superstar as a disciple would not be bad.
"Allen Iverson could be someone you study."
Sun Hao even responsibly found him a model to follow.
"Thank you. Thank you so much."
Parker had wanted to learn from Sun Hao because Sun Hao looked cool when he played. But the deeper reason was that he was lost.
Now that Sun Hao had pointed out a clear path for him, of course he had to thank him.
"Boris, aren't you going to ask anything?"
Seeing Diaw remain silent, Parker turned to ask him.
"I don't need to. I have an idol: Magic Johnson."
Diaw seemed quite uninhibited, and he said it without any embarrassment.
His words earned him a round of eye rolls from Parker.
Sun Hao nodded after hearing that.
Diaw, Magic Johnson, and Bodiroga were all the same type of player.
"Then you have to watch the EuroLeague Final. Watch the White Magician's Game."
Sun Hao continued.
"I will. I already bought a ticket. Thank you."
This time Diaw thanked him, and the way he looked at Sun Hao was somewhat different from before.
Sun Hao had not teased him. In fact, he seemed to understand him a little.
Not long after the two EuroLeague semifinals ended, EuroLeague Officials selected the final venue from the pre-selected venues.
Aleksandar Nikolić Hall, located in Belgrade, the Capital of Yugoslavia Union.
Yugoslavia represented the Highest Level of European Basketball. Last year, Yugoslavia Union had even defeated Team USA to win the World Championship Title.
The EuroLeague Organizing Committee chose to hold the game there not only because of its location, but also because of its basketball atmosphere.
Yugoslavia had dissolved in 1992, but Montenegro and Serbia remained and formed Yugoslavia Union.
Sun Hao had met Saša Dončić while watching the World Cup Final in France. He was from Yugoslavia Union.
Or, more precisely, he was Serbian.
But two years had passed, and they had already lost contact.
That was perfectly normal. Without overlap in their lives, friends eventually became strangers, let alone a chance encounter.
Unless the other person was a woman.
Belgrade, also known as the Key to the Balkans, was the fourth-largest city on the Balkan Peninsula and the largest city in former Yugoslavia.
It was an ancient city with a history of being occupied over and over again.
The Huns of Early Century, the Sarmatians, the Ostrogoths, and the Avars; the Ottoman of Last Century and Hungary; modern Turkey and Austria.
It did not regain independence until the nineteenth century.
But it was precisely that history that filled the city with diverse influences.
Its architectural styles alone—Austro-Hungarian Empire, Moravia, Baroque, Neo-Renaissance—were enough to dazzle the eye.
When Sun Hao left the airport, his first impression was that everyone here was so tall. The average height was close to 1.9 meters.
And these were ordinary people.
They said the Balkan Peninsula produced giants, and the reputation was well deserved.
After the team arrived at the hotel and dropped their luggage, Laso took everyone to the room to watch video.
It was footage from yesterday's game between Panathinaikos Team and Barcelona Team.
Hearing was one thing; seeing was another.
Yesterday, when Prigioni introduced Bodiroga to Sun Hao, calling him the Most Versatile Player in Europe, the White Magician, and El Latigo, anyone would have felt he was exaggerating a little.
But after actually watching the footage, Sun Hao felt Prigioni had been conservative.
His only feeling after watching was that he had witnessed a legend.
It was hard to imagine a 2.05-meter big man playing with such agility and grace.
When Prigioni had left the locker room with him yesterday, he had also said Bodiroga had been named the "Most Charming Bachelor."
??
Should that not have been his title?
But after seeing the footage, Sun Hao felt the evaluation was quite objective, especially regarding his style of play.
More importantly, no one on Real Madrid Team could match up with him. Whoever defended him would look mismatched.
It seemed tomorrow night's final was destined to be an offensive shootout. Whoever broke the other side first would claim the ultimate victory.
That night, Sun Hao set the training robot to Hell Mode in the system.
Even though he had just obtained a Gold Grade Badge, his shooting percentage was still not very high in Hell Mode.
But that was also his warm-up for tomorrow's game. Only by adapting to difficulty in advance could he remain unshaken in a crisis.
The next evening, the EuroLeague Final officially tipped off at Aleksandar Nikolić Hall.
This basketball arena, named after Aleksandar Nikolić, was the home court of KK Crvena zvezda and could hold sixteen thousand spectators.
The arena was already packed to capacity.
Just like Stade de France before, the fans inside were divided into two large sections.
On one side were Real Madrid fans, on the other were Panathinaikos Team fans, mixed with some local fans from the Balkan Peninsula.
And it was then that Sun Hao saw the most fanatical supporters he had encountered since coming to Europe: Greek fans.
Russia's reputation as a fighting nation was known worldwide, but when it came to madness, Greek fans would say they were second and no one would dare claim first.
Flares and National Flags were standard at football matches. According to real accounts, when Greek home grounds had enough flares, people could mistake them for battlefields. Fans threw firecrackers onto football fields, and the blasts sounded like grenades.
Even worse, some visiting teams that won in Greece found it extremely difficult just to get out safely.
Tonight, he saw it for himself.
Bodiroga's portrait had been made into an enormous cloth banner. When its four corners were pulled open, it took up nearly one-fifth of one side of the court.
But what he had not expected was that this would turn out to be the calmest scene he saw all night.
Real Madrid Team entered the court first to begin warming up.
Having reached the final, the Spanish fans were just as excited. They had already begun singing their battle song in unison during warm-ups.
The fans raised their hands and jumped together voluntarily, creating a magnificent sight.
The Real Madrid players on the court quickly felt their warm-up energy surge.
It was then that Sun Hao noticed several familiar faces seated in the front row.
Fernandez had actually gotten front-row tickets!
This guy had really spent a fortune.
The moment Sun Hao saw him, he went over to greet him before he had even warmed up.
Fist bumps, hugs, head pats, and chatting.
Then Sun Hao saw Raul.
The leading star of Real Madrid Team, the "Golden Boy," Raúl González Blanco.
Because Raul's parents were fans of Sun Hao, Raul and Sun Hao had occasionally kept in touch and met over the past few years.
Sun Hao had not expected him to come specifically to watch his EuroLeague Final.
And he had even brought someone with him.
Zidane.
The star player of the France team.
Sun Hao shook Zidane's hand and hugged him.
"Raul said your game was not to be missed."
"I didn't miss your game either. I went to Stade de France. I witnessed France team win the championship."
"Really?"
Because of the football World Cup, the two men who had never met did not lack topics to discuss, and they quickly began chatting enthusiastically.
Not long after, the warm-ups ended and the opening ceremony began.
It was then that Sun Hao saw a scene he would never forget for the rest of his life.
PS: I recommend a book, My Lord, I Don't Want to Work Overtime. There are countless pretty faces, but interesting books are one in a hundred. It is very interesting.
Continuing from the previous chapter's comments, write about how you say you like me in your various dialects.
Mm, I like you too.
Remember to vote with recommendation tickets~
Before you continue