Men Can't Be Hard All The Time!

Zhou Ze was matched up against Kenyon Martin.

The 2000 first overall pick was a beastly interior player with outstanding athleticism and elite defensive instincts, though he was slightly undersized for his position.

"Hey, rookie, don't even think about scoring a single point in front of me." Kenyon Martin flexed his biceps at Zhou Ze as he took the court.

This was a common tactic among NBA veterans—fiercely intimidating inexperienced rookies to disrupt their state of mind.

"Bro, looks like your head's even harder than Kobe's." Zhou Ze said with a faint smile.

Kenyon Martin glanced at Kobe, who still had a bandage at the corner of his eye, and involuntarily shuddered.

"WTF!"

"I forgot. This rookie even dares to throw dirty elbows at his own team's leader."

Of course, Kenyon Martin didn't let that change show on his face. Instead, he continued shouting at Zhou Ze, "I'll swat away every single one of your shots!"

Zhou Ze ignored Kenyon Martin's bluster and focused fully on the game.

As a soft interior player, Zhou Ze's offensive position was beyond the three-point line.

In the 2005–06 season, there were very few big men who stood that far out.

Several possessions went by. Zhou Ze ran back and forth with the team, but not only did he fail to get a shot attempt, he hadn't even touched the ball once.

"Rookie, Kobe won't pass the ball to you." Kenyon Martin started talking trash to Zhou Ze again.

Failing to earn his teammates' trust would undoubtedly damage a player's confidence.

But Zhou Ze merely gave Kenyon Martin a disdainful look.

On the court, Kobe cut without the ball to the right wing mid-post area. After receiving a pass from Lakers point guard Parker, he used a face-up pump fake to draw the defender into moving, shook him off cleanly, and drove toward the basket.

Kenyon Martin, who had been defending Zhou Ze in the right corner, quickly rotated over.

Zhou Ze, now wide open, held out his hands to receive the pass. Twisting his body amid the double-team from Kenyon Martin and Marcus Camby, Kobe got the ball to Zhou Ze.

Zhou Ze caught it and fired without hesitation. Swish! The three-pointer went in.

"Nice pass!" Zhou Ze pointed at Kobe after scoring.

Kobe smiled faintly, then immediately told Zhou Ze to get back on defense.

Despite his reputation as a ball hog, Kobe's passing ability was actually quite good—especially when the recipient was that wide open.

Less than two minutes after Zhou Ze made his first three-pointer, he hit his second.

This one wasn't assisted by Kobe directly, but Kobe's off-ball cut drew Kenyon Martin away from Zhou Ze. Smush Parker spotted the opportunity and assisted Zhou Ze for another three.

The Lakers bench erupted in celebration, but Sasha Vujacic, the team's shooting guard, remained unmoved.

For the rest of the first quarter, Zhou Ze took three more three-pointers, but all of them clanged off the rim.

"Shit, rookie, you wasted two of my beautiful passes." Even Kobe on the bench couldn't help complaining.

"Man, has it ever occurred to you that your passes were just too bad?" Zhou Ze stubbornly refused to admit that he'd gone cold.

The teammates nearby were all dumbfounded.

But Kobe merely frowned, then said seriously, "That's true. The passes I gave you should've been closer to your chest."

Uh...

For a moment, even Zhou Ze felt a little embarrassed.

He had only said it casually, but Kobe had actually taken it seriously.

For most interior players, the ideal spot to receive the ball was in front of the chest. That way, they didn't have to bend down to catch it and waste time adjusting their shooting form.

The first quarter ended with the score at 27–25, the Lakers leading by two.

Not long after the second quarter began, Zhou Ze checked back in. He was once again paired with Kobe against the opposing starting lineup.

"Rookie, you may look muscular, but you're a genuine softie. You only dare to float around outside the three-point line." Kenyon Martin mocked him.

Zhou Ze smiled indifferently. "Yeah, I'm a softie. But this softie already has six points, while you only have a pathetic four."

Kenyon Martin froze slightly.

This rookie sure had a tough mouth. And even if he had two more points than him, he was still two-for-three from the field.

Kobe used a screen while handling the ball and drove from the right wing. Kenyon Martin, who had been guarding Zhou Ze near the corner, took two steps toward the basket and successfully rotated over, forcing Kobe to pass to Odom cutting in from the left.

This left-handed magician, Kardashian's mount, caught the ball and tried to force his way past Carmelo Anthony. But it wasn't going smoothly. Just as he was about to be forced into a difficult shot, the left-handed magician saw a burly figure rise into the air.

Odom flicked his wrist and tossed up an alley-oop pass to Zhou Ze in midair.

Kenyon Martin was horrified. He couldn't understand when Zhou Ze had slipped away from behind him!!!

Boom! Zhou Ze caught the ball in midair and viciously slammed it through the hoop with both hands.

After completing the alley-oop slam, Zhou Ze landed and said to Kenyon Martin with a solemn expression, "Buddy, as a man, you're soft most of the time. If you stay hard all the time, you should go to the hospital and get yourself checked out."

With that, Zhou Ze turned and headed back on defense without looking back.

"Zhou, that dunk was beautiful."

"That play we just made was definitely a Top Ten highlight today."

As Lamar Odom ran back on defense, he did not forget to shower Zhou Ze with praise.

Matched up against Zhou Ze, Kenyon Martin felt utterly stifled, as if his punches were landing on cotton.

Most of the time, Zhou Ze played like a coward, drifting around beyond the three-point line and looking for chances to shoot.

But whenever Martin let his guard down, that damned rookie would suddenly cut hard to the basket. Though Zhou Ze's explosiveness and leaping speed were average, his off-ball speed rivaled that of a guard, and he had the weight and build to match.

Once he got to the rim, if there was no interior defender guarding him head-on, he would unleash a monstrous, explosive dunk.

Zhou Ze's alternating soft-and-hard style was undoubtedly torture for a conventional blue-collar big man.

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