A Pro Player Different From My Imagination

Inside the arena, the stands were nearly empty, not even a quarter of the seats filled.

But even so, the cheers from the fans who were present were loud enough to make Link nervously lick his lips.

"Link, don't zone out today! Stay put on the bench and be ready at all times. I don't want you to come in and make consecutive turnovers like last time!"

Just as Link was spacing out, a bald man in a suit yelled at him. The man was the team's coach.

"Oh... oh..." Link mechanically nodded his head.

Link couldn't help but look around, at the jersey on his body and the sturdy black guys around him, and swallowed hard.

He had really come, really stepped onto the stage of professional basketball! Even if it was just an NBA Development League game, it was still professional basketball!

Link wasn't playing his first NBDL game, but Link was indeed playing his first NBDL game. Because right now, Link's body no longer belonged to its original owner.

While everyone else on the team gathered together to cheer each other on, Link stood off to the side, as if zoning out again.

But in reality, his mind was racing. Link was recalling the incredible things that had happened to him over the past few days.

※※※

Three days ago...

Link groggily opened his eyes and saw only a white ceiling. The air was filled with the smell of medical alcohol. Without a doubt, he was in a hospital room.

"How are you feeling?" The nurse making rounds noticed Link had woken up and offered him a warm, sunny smile.

"I feel fine, I..."

Link started to speak, but the words suddenly caught in his throat. Because he realized that what came out of his mouth wasn't Chinese. The nurse by his bed wasn't Chinese either, but a blue-eyed, blonde-haired foreign woman!

"What's going on!?" Link was startled, asking himself inwardly, and immediately began searching his mind for memories.

Before he accidentally passed out, he was a loser college graduate from a third-rate university living in 2019. No house, no car, no savings. His mother had divorced and remarried in another city when he was very young, and he had never seen her again.

His father was a deadbeat with no sense of responsibility, never really taking care of him growing up. The two hadn't been in touch for a long time.

Last night, as a basketball fan, Link was watching game footage on a secondhand computer he'd bought in his rented room when thunder suddenly struck outside, cutting the power. He decided to open the computer case to check it out, but the moment he opened it, he felt like he'd been electrocuted and passed out.

When he opened his eyes again, he was in this illogical hospital room.

"Sir, are you okay?" The blonde nurse noticed Link's strange expression and asked with concern. Of course, she spoke in English.

Although Link had been pretty good at English in school, he'd forgotten it all after four years of college. But he understood every word the nurse said!

"I... where am I? Can you speak Chinese? Why is there a foreign nurse here?"

"Huh?" The nurse was clearly baffled by Link's nonsensical questions.

"Uh... never mind... thank you. I'm a bit tired. I want to rest alone for a while." Link quickly waved his hand, signaling the nurse to leave.

The questions he'd just wanted to ask, Link now had answers to. Because another memory, one that didn't originally belong to him, had already merged into Link's mind.

The nurse gave Link a startled look and quickly left the room. After all, Link's reactions just now really did seem like those of a madman.

But it was good that the nurse left. Now Link finally had a chance to figure out his current identity and situation based on that foreign memory.

The owner of this body was also named Link. He was a Chinese-American, with the full English name Tom Lin. Since the name Tom was utterly unremarkable, and Link's Chinese name sounded similar to the English word "Link," everyone just called him Link.

In the US, he had a complete family. His father and mother were both Chinese-American. His father was a gardener, and his mother was a stay-at-home mom.

Without a doubt, this guy's life in the US wasn't easy either. Although his parents had loved him since childhood, the family had always lived on a tight budget.

Thinking of this, Link stopped reminiscing and started pondering a key question—what year was it now?

Finally, the numbers 2010 appeared in Link's mind. He had gone back nine years, and he'd ended up in America! As someone who often read web novels, Link knew he had probably time-traveled!

He quickly got up from the hospital bed and ran to the bathroom in the room to splash water on his face. For some reason, Link felt like everything in the room seemed smaller than usual.

Unfortunately, after splashing water on his face, Link didn't "wake up." He was still in America, in a body that wasn't his.

After washing his face, Link looked at "himself" in the mirror and saw that this black-haired guy had sharp features and a pretty good-looking face. Unfortunately, just like himself before the time travel, he was completely broke.

Leaning on the edge of the sink, Link stared at the familiar yet unfamiliar face in the mirror and thought carefully.

It turned out that the current Link had passed out yesterday during practice when he was accidentally knocked over while defending and hit the back of his head. When he woke up, his body had been "taken over" by him.

"Wait!? Basketball court!?" Thinking of this, Link looked at his body in surprise. That was when he finally figured out why everything around him seemed smaller.

It wasn't that things had gotten smaller, but that Link's body had "grown bigger"!

The current Link was 2.03 meters tall and weighed 94 kilograms! And this guy was a professional basketball player!

"Hahaha!" Suddenly having a body fit for a professional athlete, Link couldn't help but laugh joyfully. Luckily, most hospital rooms in the US were private, so no one heard him laugh. Otherwise, he'd definitely be transferred to the neurology department.

In his past life, as a basketball fan, Link had fantasized about one day entering the NBA and competing with the greatest stars in the world. Even if he wasn't a star, just being a rotation player making a minimum salary of over a million dollars a year was more wealth than he could ever earn in his previous life!

Now, his dream had come true!

Although he had time-traveled from nine years ago, Link didn't remember any lottery numbers, nor did he know how to do business. And being unfamiliar with America, it would be hard just to support himself. Since he had a second chance, Link didn't want to live as miserably as he had before.

So the only thing he wanted to do now was become a professional player. Sign a big contract, buy a luxury car, live in a mansion, have women, and reach the peak of life...

Just as Link was about to drool, he realized a serious problem.

Although he was now a professional player, he had nothing to do with those glamorous stars.

In college, Link played for Fresno State University. But this school could only compete in NCAA Division II, meaning he didn't even qualify to play in March Madness. Add to that his mediocre skills, and naturally, no NBA team had shown any interest in him.

This summer, Link's college teammate and good friend Paul George was picked 10th overall, but Link waited all the way to the 60th pick without hearing his own name.

Later, as an undrafted free agent, Link was signed by the NBDL team Oklahoma City Blue.

To make matters worse, Link now seemed barely able to hold his own even in the NBDL. The NBDL was, after all, a professional league—nothing like the NCAA Division II games he was used to. In recent days, the coach had openly expressed dissatisfaction with Link, and he was in constant danger of being cut.

His parents had spent nearly all their savings to put him through college for the sake of his basketball dream. If he couldn't stay in the NBDL, Link would have no choice but to pack away his dream of becoming a professional player and go work as a gardener with his dad. After all, his college major was sociology—finding a job with that degree was no easy task.

Thinking about all this, Link ran his fingers through his jet-black hair. He had just arrived, and already he was facing a huge problem.