This Kid Is Quite Honest

"Jeremy! Jeremy!"

As soon as he entered the locker room, his teammates couldn't help but shout at Lamb.

Lamb was the main reason the team ended their losing streak, and he deserved this cheer.

Lamb was a bit shy, but he still mingled with his teammates.

"Tang, you've become the hero behind the scenes," Walker said, pulling Tang Tian aside.

"Feels good," Tang Tian said with a smile.

Walker glanced at Tang Tian and chuckled along.

Tang Tian wasn't one to seek credit, and his charisma was truly immense.

At the post-game press conference, Cahoon attended with Tang Tian and Lamb, his face beaming.

It was clear that this victory tonight had made him exceptionally satisfied.

"This is a perfect night. We won the game, Jeremy found his form, and Tang was still deadly from outside. If you ask me how I feel right now, I can't wait to see how the team performs once Kemba returns." Facing the reporters' usual questions, Cahoon's answers were as refreshing as a spring breeze.

"Jeremy, you played better than you have in recent games. What happened?" a reporter then turned to Lamb.

"Um... I know my previous performances weren't good, and I blamed myself for the team's losses. I actually knew Kemba was injured and I had to step up, but I always felt like something was missing during the games. I didn't know what it was before, but now I do. I lacked a bit of courage. It was Tang. He motivated me intensely, giving me the courage to carry this team on my shoulders."

Lamb spoke slowly, pausing between words, but you could feel the sincerity in his speech. These were his heartfelt words.

After Lamb finished speaking, the audience erupted in flashing camera lights, not just for Lamb, but also for Tang Tian.

Tang Tian was stunned when he heard Lamb's words. He had originally intended to be the hero behind the scenes, just as Walker had said, but he didn't expect Lamb to reveal it to the reporters.

However, this also made him think highly of Lamb.

This kid is quite honest.

"Tang, what happened?" A reporter then turned their attention to Tang Tian.

"It's nothing, really. We just sat down and talked. Jeremy has great talent, and I encouraged him to try boldly, which he did," Tang Tian said calmly.

After he spoke, Lamb was taken aback, and Cahoon couldn't help but laugh.

This was the best way to handle it; a trash-talking one-on-one clearly wasn't suitable for public exposure.

"Really?" The reporter clearly didn't quite believe it and looked towards Lamb.

"Yes, really." Lamb was a bit slow to react, but he caught on.

"I'm sorry, Tang." After the press conference, Lamb approached Tang Tian to apologize.

After his persistent poor performance, his sudden explosion in this game meant that, unless they were foolish, even the person involved knew the reason for the change.

Tang Tian's method was rather rough, but it had indeed worked, which was why he had said what he did at the press conference.

"It's nothing. Just don't blame me for how badly I defended you that day," Tang Tian said with a smile.

Hearing Tang Tian joking, Lamb knew he didn't mind and nodded with a smile.

With their past grievances resolved and Lamb back in form, it was an incredibly wonderful night for UConn.

There were a full five days of rest before the next game. Cahoon gave the players a day off. Taking advantage of the holiday, Tang Tian took a bus back to New Haven.

Unlike last time, he wasn't here to play basketball games this time. He went directly to a local streetball court.

American streetball culture was very strong, with Rucker Park being world-famous. Streetball stars were sometimes even more well-known in certain areas than NBA superstars, like the most famous Goat, and Rafer Alston, who had played for the Rockets.

Tang Tian wasn't here to play streetball today; he was here for the one-on-one matches he had researched earlier.

He walked around the streetball court and quickly found what he was looking for.

There were people playing in a high-stakes game, a hundred dollars per game.

Tang Tian went over and stood to the side to watch.

"Bang!"

A Black player, nearly two meters tall, drove past his opponent and finished with a tomahawk dunk.

After the dunk, he kept puckering his lips and shaking his head.

"Killer! Killer!"

The spectators on the sidelines also joined in the cheering.

"Killer" was clearly the nickname of this streetball player.

"Who is he?" Tang Tian asked a Black spectator next to him.

The Black spectator hadn't noticed someone approach and, hearing Tang Tian's question, glanced at him and said, "Is this your first time here?"

"Yes," Tang Tian nodded.

"Then you need to get to know him. He's Killer, Sean Foster by full name. He's the best streetball player in New Haven," the Black man said proudly.

"Swish!"

Just then, Foster on the court used a series of post moves to shake off his opponent, executed a beautiful turnaround jumper, and made the shot.

After scoring, he made a throat-slitting gesture towards his opponent, drawing even louder cheers from the sidelines.

Streetball, compared to college or professional basketball, has one major difference: freedom. Moves that would absolutely get you ejected from a professional game are the best tools here to ignite the crowd.

The one-on-one game on the court continued. Foster's opponent had good ball-handling skills, but his physical play was nowhere near Foster's level. His attempted floater was directly swatted away by Foster with a volleyball-style block.

The crowd on the sidelines erupted again.

The atmosphere of streetball in America is truly something else.

After the block, Foster jogged around the perimeter of the court, reaching out to the crowd as he went, mimicking Allen Iverson's gesture of listening for cheers.

The scene became even more explosive.

It's said that a bigger audience breeds a better performance, but even the best performance needs an audience. Streetball players and streetball fans in America are truly indispensable to each other.

After observing for a while, Tang Tian quickly deduced from the physicality that Foster was either a current or former professional player.

While streetball emphasizes flashy freedom, one-on-one games still rely on physical play. Without it, no matter how dazzling your dribbling, you'll inevitably end up getting blocked.

"Who else?" Foster, having won this round, yelled out to the people on the sidelines.

"I'll go," another white player stepped onto the court. He was taller than Foster and also more muscular.

"Tank! Tank!" the surrounding crowd chanted the white player's name.

Tank lived up to his name, but his physique looked a bit soft, clearly indicating a higher body fat percentage, which was noticeably different from Foster's.

Tang Tian knew that this Tank definitely wouldn't be able to beat Foster, so he decided to pull out his phone and search for Foster's background.

His search yielded results: a player drafted 51st overall by the Toronto Raptors in 2008, but he didn't sign with the Raptors and went to play in European leagues. He later tried out for the Mavericks but unfortunately didn't stick around either.

That explained it. For fringe NBA players like him, coming to a streetball court for a one-on-one game made them practically invincible.

Thank you to Mengxiang Xuanxuan for the generous reward, congratulations on becoming the first 'Du Zhu' (leader/patron) of this book!

And thank you to Yan Yan Qi Lin for the reward!

Qiezi thanks every single reward!