My Opening Move with Kobe, Your Player Data is Out! (Gift Bonus Chapter)

The arena DJ was introducing the fourth-to-last player to take the court.

"The next! Our point guard, from Fordham University in New York, number one, Grim Reaper Parker!"

Cheers immediately erupted from the Los Angeles Lakers home crowd.

Sharapova was quite surprised. Wasn't Zhou Ze a rookie on the team?

Why had he not come out yet?

Did he hold such a high position on the team?

At the same time, Sharapova heard Lakers fans in the stands discussing Zhou Ze's entrance order tonight.

"Haha, Zhou has finally received the 'respect' he deserved!"

"That's right. Our team's second-leading scorer and top shooter—how could he possibly come out too early?"

"I think Zhou might very well be third from last tonight..."

"Third from last? Maybe second from last..."

"Second from last? That's unlikely. How could he possibly be behind Lamar Odom?"

It seemed Sasha had been wrong. Zhou Ze had not merely relied on the Chinese market behind him to get ample playing time and pad his stats with a great deal of fluff.

Sharapova's beautiful eyes remained fixed on the Lakers' players' tunnel.

After Grim Reaper Parker...

It was Zhou Ze's turn.

He was the third-to-last Los Angeles Lakers player to enter.

The moment he appeared, Staples Center erupted in jubilation.

"Zhou!"

"Zhou!"

"Zhou!"

Quite a few fanatical fans wearing Lakers number 0 jerseys rose to their feet and shouted Zhou Ze's name.

Sharapova noticed that about one-fifth of the Lakers home fans wore number 0 jerseys, while the overwhelming majority of the rest wore number 8 jerseys.

"This guy who always bullies Sasha is actually this popular. What exactly is going on?" Sharapova grew increasingly puzzled, and increasingly curious about Zhou Ze.

At the same time, a seed of "suspicion" began to take root in her heart toward Vujacic.

The Lakers player who entered last was, without question, the 6-foot-6 Kobe, straight out of high school.

Kobe received the loudest cheers in the entire arena.

After running out of the tunnel, he first high-fived the fans lining both sides of the players' tunnel and his teammates on the court. Then, he and Zhou Ze went through a pregame routine.

This was also part of NBA culture.

Zhou Ze himself was not particularly interested in such "weird" routines, but his teammates said that all NBA superstars did them.

So Zhou Ze had designed a routine with Kobe as well.

Unlike most players' "you clap one, I clap one."

Zhou Ze and Kobe's pregame routine was "you elbow once, I elbow once," the two of them trading carefully controlled elbow bumps.

The dazzling and complex routine sent the Lakers home crowd into cheers once more.

At the same time, the two elbowing each other were having a conversation the fans could not hear.

"Rookie, our Los Angeles fans are liking you more and more," Kobe said with a smile.

"Not bad," Zhou Ze said, curling his lip.

"Stop pretending, you little bastard. So many fans stood up and shouted your name, and you're still not satisfied?" Kobe laughed as he scolded him.

"So what? They only shouted my name. They didn't call me MVP!" Zhou Ze sounded somewhat regretful, even a little dissatisfied.

Creak, creak...

Kobe could not help gritting his teeth as he looked at this rookie who wanted to overturn the natural order. He really wanted to give him an elbow.

But soon, Kobe smiled again and thought, Zhou, you little bastard. I'm not giving up the throne. If you want it, take it with your own strength.

Tonight, the Milwaukee Bucks deployed twin towers: Bogut, who stood 213 centimeters tall and weighed 118 kilograms, and Jamal Magloire, who was 211 centimeters tall and weighed 117 kilograms.

To the Lakers fans' surprise, the Bucks did not put the ball in the hands of their star player, Michael Redd, after the opening tip.

On the Bucks' first five possessions, Andrew Bogut and Jamal Magloire each attacked Zhou Ze in the low post.

Whoever faced Zhou Ze, attacked decisively with the ball.

Standing 206 cm tall and weighing 115 kg, Zhou Ze was not known for his defense, but his strength and bulk made it far from difficult for him to hold them off.

In the first four one-on-one defensive possessions, he had only allowed Bogut to score once.

Now, the Milwaukee Bucks once again fed the ball to Bogut in the low post. Bogut had established deep position this time, putting Zhou Ze under considerable defensive pressure.

After receiving the ball, Bogut backed him down hard. Though he did not manage to move him much, he immediately followed with a right shoulder turn and a baseline step, intending to use his physical advantage to overpower Zhou Ze directly.

Zhou Ze, whose interior defensive awareness and positioning were poor, had not expected Bogut to turn so suddenly and was caught off guard. With half a foot on the edge of the restricted area, Bogut took his baseline step and immediately went up with the ball, trying to finish high over him. A half-beat slow, Zhou Ze was pinned by Bogut's body and could not fully elevate. He could only rely on his wingspan and limited lift to contest the shot.

With a clang, Bogut missed a close-range bank shot under Zhou Ze's contest.

After getting the stop, Zhou Ze immediately bent his legs and loaded up. With a whoosh, he rose for a second jump through contact with Bogut and successfully secured the defensive rebound.

"Fuck!"

"What the hell is going on?"

Milwaukee Bucks head coach Jason Terry Stotts angrily threw the player report in his hand onto the floor.

At that moment, Zhou Ze's player report lay face-up on the floor.

Height: 206 cm. Weight: 113 kg. Wingspan: 211 cm. Standing reach: 265 cm. With physical measurements like that, how could he stop Bogut and Magloire one after another???

And that damn rookie Zhou Ze—his standing reach did not seem nearly as bad as the media had claimed. It had to be over 270 cm by the look of it.

"Could there be something wrong with this player report?" The Bucks head coach was utterly baffled.

He took the report the assistant coach had picked up from the floor and examined it carefully again.

But how could he know that a 211 cm wingspan had long become a thing of the past? Zhou Ze's wingspan was now 217 cm, and his standing reach was a full 271 cm. Against big centers standing 6'11" or even seven feet tall, he was at a disadvantage, but not by much. Besides, his strength and bulk were right there.

Bogut and his teammate simply could not overpower Zhou Ze through brute force and height alone!!!

"Fuck!" Before long, the Bucks head coach flung Zhou Ze's player report away again. This time, however, it landed on the bench rather than the floor.

Just then, Zhou Ze had used his second jump to capitalize on a mismatched post-up against Michael Redd.

Zhou Ze's current post game, to put it bluntly, was "pathetically weak."

To put it nicely, he was an "expert at punishing mismatches." (That is not a typo.)

The Bucks' star player, sharpshooter Michael Redd, stood 198 cm tall and weighed 100 kg. Zhou Ze had actually failed to score when posting him up deep in the paint, but thanks to the second jump provided by [Jump Master], he grabbed the offensive rebound, gave a pump fake, created separation, and dunked the ball home while also drawing a foul from Michael Redd.

"Wasn't this rookie's second jump supposed to be terrible? But it looks pretty quick now... It's quite different from what the report says." The Bucks head coach scratched his head, unable to figure it out.

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