The gasps from the crowd seemed to give Tetsuya Takao a shot in the arm, inflating his confidence further. He felt he had found his form again.
But in Ryota Kudo's eyes, all that flashy dribbling without going anywhere was meaningless, nothing but wasted movement, stamina, and time on the shot clock.
On a basketball court, the ultimate purpose of every technique was to score, not to show off.
Finally, Tetsuya Takao seemed to decide he had done enough preliminaries. He made an extremely wide crossover, intending to blow past Kudo in one step with a change of speed and rhythm!
But the instant his weight shifted and he bounced the ball to the other side, Ryota Kudo moved!
His lateral movement was astonishingly fast. As though he could see the future, he cut off Tetsuya Takao's driving lane with perfect precision and planted both feet firmly!
"What?!" Tetsuya Takao had never expected his opponent to read him so accurately.
He had charged too hard to stop, and his whole body slammed squarely into Ryota Kudo's rock-solid frame!
Thud! A muffled impact rang out.
The referee immediately put his whistle between his lips, watching the point of contact closely-if Kudo fell with the impact, it would unquestionably be an offensive foul.
But drawing a foul had never even crossed Ryota Kudo's mind!
His core strength erupted as he took the collision head-on. His body swayed only slightly, his feet rooted to the floor without budging!
Instead, Takao, who had been sprinting at full speed, felt as though he had hit a wall. The tremendous recoil sent him flying backward, crashing clumsily to the floor as the basketball flew out of his hands!
Expressionless, Ryota Kudo bent down and easily scooped up the loose ball. Without so much as glancing at