My Name Is Link, Not Some Unknown Nobody

Luke Ba Weiyuan didn't plan to stay with the Skyforce for long. His goal was the NBA, to return to the Trail Blazers.

There were only two ways back to the NBA. One was to wait for a starter on the Trail Blazers to get injured. If a player at his position happened to be sidelined, he'd likely get called up.

Of course, that method had too much randomness. And once the injured player returned, the called-up player would probably be sent back down again.

The other method, and the safest one, was to put up a dominant performance in the G League. As long as he showed something eye-catching, NBA teams would naturally regain interest in a demoted player.

After all, rookies like Ba Weiyuan had signed guaranteed contracts with their teams. The Trail Blazers wouldn't let their million dollars go to waste.

So for Ba Weiyuan, the path back to the NBA was really just one thing—play every game well and crush every matchup!

In the first few minutes of the game, that big idiot Jon Brockman had clearly been crushed. But Ba Weiyuan hadn't expected that this Number 5, whose name he couldn't even remember, would hit a three-pointer right over him.

And before the shot, he'd flashed a chilling smile.

Ba Weiyuan knew that undrafted players were different from first-round picks like him. Undrafted guys would fight tooth and nail every game for a ten-day NBA contract.

But most undrafted players couldn't beat first-round picks even when they went all out. Ba Weiyuan had seen it plenty of times. This time, he wouldn't let any surprises happen either!

"Luke, what are you doing!? Get serious. I won't let you let him score again!"

At the same time, the Skyforce head coach yelled at Ba Weiyuan. Clearly, the coach was very unhappy with his recent lapse.

Ba Weiyuan waved at the bench, signaling he wouldn't mess up again. Luke Ba Weiyuan had played two years in college but had never heard of that Number 5's name. He believed a bottom-tier NCAA player couldn't threaten someone who was already an NBA player!

"Link, be careful. That guy's tough!"

Seeing Luke Ba Weiyuan approach aggressively, Zeke Upshaw shouted at Link.

"Yeah, don't worry. Watch your own man!" Link pointed at Upshaw's matchup, signaling him not to leave his assignment.

Conner watched Upshaw and Link's exchange and found it a bit strange. Sure, teammates communicating on the court was normal. But the G League was special—teammates were also competitors.

Yet Link and Upshaw didn't act like rivals at all.

As he thought, Ba Weiyuan caught a pass from his point guard, ready to isolate against Link. Conner focused up. He wanted to see just how good that Asian guy really was. He'd stopped Brockman in practice. Could he turn the tables on Ba Weiyuan in a real game?

"That idiot. Watch, Ba Weiyuan will tear him apart."

Sitting on the bench, Jon Brockman sneered. Hearing that, Conner wasn't surprised. That was more like the normal G League atmosphere.

Luke Ba Weiyuan did want to tear apart the Number 5 in front of him, but Link looked very confident, calm and collected.

Link remembered the 2010 Western Conference Finals, when the Suns faced the Lakers. Even though Grant Hill was already 37 years old, he was still the Suns' most effective defender against Kobe.

Now that he had Grant Hill's abilities, defending a demoted rookie shouldn't be a problem!

"Dammit!" Luke Ba Weiyuan was actually a little nervous. Link was too calm, too composed for a rookie.

Link stared straight at the ball in Ba Weiyuan's hands, as if he might reach in and steal it at any moment.

"You'll be off the court soon, nobody!" To ease his own nerves and to rattle Link, Luke Ba Weiyuan started trash-talking.

But clearly, the guy hadn't studied trash talk. His words had zero effect on Link.

Ba Weiyuan made a triple-threat move. Link's center of gravity didn't budge. His emotions weren't affected by the trash talk at all.

Seeing this, Ba Weiyuan drove straight, planning to use his strong body to force his way through.

"He's done." Brockman smirked. Even he couldn't hold up against Ba Weiyuan earlier, let alone that softie Link.

"Thud!"

A dull sound of muscle colliding with muscle echoed across the court. But Link wasn't knocked back. Instead, Luke Ba Weiyuan was bounced back to the three-point line.

He'd been completely overpowered in the physical battle!

"What!?" Brockman shot to his feet. Anyone watching might have thought he was celebrating for his teammate.

Luke Ba Weiyuan's strength was only good for the NCAA. Link's strength right now was NBA-level!

"Amazing! He stopped Luke Ba Weiyuan's drive. Where did this guy come from? Why didn't anyone mention him during the draft?"

Just as the commentators were marveling, Luke Ba Weiyuan suddenly pulled up for a jump shot from beyond the arc. Like most white forwards, Ba Weiyuan had solid shooting fundamentals and a very consistent percentage. He planned to sneak in a three while Link wasn't pressing him tight.

Plus, Luke Ba Weiyuan was left-handed, making his offense even harder to contest.

Ba Weiyuan rose to his peak and prepared to release the ball smoothly. But the moment he pushed it out, the world suddenly went dark in front of him.

"What the—!" The commentator got goosebumps, waiting for the moment to come.

"Bam!" Another loud sound, but this time it was the slap of a palm hitting the ball!

Link had ruthlessly swatted Luke Ba Weiyuan's shot with a volleyball-style block from beyond the three-point line!

"What a beautiful block! My god, the whole arena is going crazy!"

The commentator's scalp tingled. Blocks like that were rare in the G League. When they did happen, they were usually inside the paint.

A volleyball block from beyond the three-point line? That was impossible unless the defender had overwhelming superiority.

And with that kind of overwhelming gap, whether the offensive player shot with his left or right hand didn't matter at all.

The ball was swatted away, and Zeke Upshaw immediately took off. He'd been watching Link's side, so the moment the block happened, he sprinted out.

Upshaw grabbed the ball. There was no one in front of him. The black guard threw down a one-handed dunk. It wasn't as flashy as an NBA player's, but it was enough to boost morale.

Luke Ba Weiyuan watched Upshaw finish the dunk, then immediately turned his head to look at Link.

Link kept his mocking grin and pointed at the name on his own back. "Remember what I'm called, you nobody."

Then, without paying Ba Weiyuan any further mind, Link lightly clapped hands with Upshaw.

Crushing the enemy together—Link found himself falling in love with this feeling.

"Holy shit." Down on the sidelines, Jon Brockman shouted at the top of his lungs. Of course, he wasn't yelling for Upshaw's dunk—he was roaring over Link's volleyball spike block.

Awkwardly enough, the media once again mistook Brockman's outburst as cheering for Link...

"Looks like the Blue Team has excellent chemistry. Even after being replaced by Link, Brockman still cheers for his brilliant plays. That kind of player deserves recognition, truly deserves recognition."

If Brockman could hear the commentator's words, he'd probably be furious—so now he was just the clown on the bench?

The game continued for a few more minutes. At first, people thought Link's block on Ba Weiyuan was just luck. But unexpectedly, from the moment Link stepped onto the court in the first quarter, Ba Weiyuan was completely shut out.

That's right—shut out!

Whether with the ball or off it, shooting or driving, Ba Weiyuan couldn't score a single point in front of Link.

It was as if Link could always predict Ba Weiyuan's next move and prepare in advance.

After one quarter, Luke Ba Weiyuan had gone from brimming with confidence to hollow-eyed. Being crushed by an unknown undrafted player—anyone would break down.

Meanwhile, Link feasted over Ba Weiyuan's head. Though Link rarely attacked with the ball, his catch-and-shoot off-ball movement made Ba Weiyuan want to cry for his mom.

Basically, as long as the defense was half a beat late, Link would score. A player who averaged over ten points per game in the NBA being unstoppable in the G League was only natural—after all, the defensive intensity wasn't even on the same level.

Link kept scoring, and Upshaw kept passing. He willingly played the role of the supporting leaf.

So by the end of the first quarter, Link had knocked down two three-pointers. In total, he put up 12 points in a single quarter!

If not for Whiteside anchoring the paint and giving Link some psychological pressure, he might have scored even more!

"I only have one question: why did Link go undrafted in the first place!? He's clearly better than most of the players out here!"

The on-site commentator summed up the first quarter with that one sentence—and that sentence was bound to reach the ears of many NBA general managers.