Hello everyone, I'm A-Du.

Chapter 6 The Impact of the First Battle

Du Xiaoshuai's statistics were continuously displayed on the big screen, and everyone in the audience stood up and cheered excitedly.

The media personnel were even more excited than the fans and spectators, frantically writing press releases throughout the fourth quarter.

The scouts couldn't sit still either. Their superficial friendship, which had been sitting together chatting and joking, instantly crumbled. They all rushed to the corner to call the team's management, their words filled with emotion.

Du Xiaoshuai returned to the rest area, where he sat sprawled out with his long legs spread wide, surrounded by cameras and stares, which he found very enjoyable.

On the sidelines after the game, Seattle media outlet FSN was the first to be interviewed: "Kevin, please forgive my surprise and excitement, your performance tonight was simply divine. I still feel like your performance is a hallucination from a dream. What would you like to say to the Seattle fans watching on TV about your performance tonight?"

"That's how I play," Du Xiaoshuai said seriously and calmly, looking at the camera pointed at him. "It's easy."

Oh ho—

The white guy being interviewed suddenly perked up. Our seemingly well-behaved second overall pick seems to have gotten a little cocky after putting on such a high-scoring show. If any material about the word "easy" comes out, it'll definitely be on the front page tomorrow.

Seeing Du Xiaoshuai suddenly wink his left eye at him, then turn to deal with the next media interview, the reporter, squeezed out of the crowd, turned back to his own camera and said, "We see incredible confidence in the rookie's words..."

After making bold statements to his own media, Du Xiaoshuai reverted to his more conventional manner, dismissing other reporters in a dismissive tone: "You know, this was just an ordinary summer league match; the victory was inseparable from the teamwork of my teammates..."

As someone who has witnessed Trump's handling of arrogant media figures, Du Xiaoshuai understands one thing well: in the United States, you can't treat all media outlets the same; you have to distinguish between camps and goodwill, otherwise you can easily be fooled.

"But your score in two and a half quarters was 2 points higher than the entire opposing team's total for the whole game. Do you have anything to say about that?"

"As everyone knows, basketball is a team sport..."

"Kevin, we certainly know you deserve the second pick, but before that, like in college, your performance wasn't as perfect as it was tonight. What made you transform so much? Are you trying to prove you're no worse than the number one pick?"

"I can't control the scouts' evaluations. I just want to play well in every game. I'm happy with Seattle and I really like the SuperSonics. They've given me a lot of respect..."

......

Since it was just the Summer League, there weren't many reporters present today. A significant portion of those around me were new fans who had stayed behind. After about ten minutes of formulaic Q&A, Du Xiaoshuai began the fan interaction session.

Still not satisfied, the media began interviewing other SuperSonics players and coaches.

His teammates were also very excited, and the entire interview consisted of taking turns praising and extolling Durant. After all, apart from Jeff and Durant, the other players participating in the Summer League were either fringe players or trialists still trying out for short-term contracts. Their television appearances were all thanks to Durant's good performance, so how could they not sing his praises at this point?

Before 2007, the highest single-game score in the entire Summer League was 46 points and 25 rebounds by Lorenzen Wright, the 7th overall pick in the 1996 draft. He wasn't very famous, but he was still active in the league and was considered a ten-year veteran. He was later shot and killed in July 2010.

Du Xiaoshuai's 61 points directly raised the Summer League scoring record by 15 points, which is an absurd leap, directly surpassing two ten-point levels, and has already shown a qualitative change.

While there aren't many rookies scoring in the 40s in the league, there are still a few. But only one team scores 50s or higher, and this is only Du Xiaoshuai's first game, making it unprecedented.

"Mr. Casey Blair, did you foresee Kevin's performance today?" Seattle media quickly pointed their cameras at the interim head coach.

"To be honest, I never doubted Kevin's ability, but I really didn't expect him to play so well. I'm honored that he has achieved such outstanding results under my coaching."

Casey Blair spoke eloquently, but the Dallas media weren't about to let him steal the show, so they nitpicked, asking, "We noticed Kevin Durant's assist stat is 0. Does this mean there's a weakness in his passing and teamwork? Or is there a problem with your coaching approach?"

"Of course not. First of all, this is only the first game of the Summer League. Secondly, as you know, the purpose of the league is to test the quality of rookies and their adaptability to the intensity of competition. This summer, I won't stop Kevin from having any shot attempts. Of course, we still have room for improvement..."

"OK, 61 points, that's certainly an impressive individual score," the Dallas FSN reporter said, his eyes darting around before asking, "So let's talk about the 5th pick, um—Jeff Green, we noticed he only scored 9 points this afternoon, not breaking double figures. Are you disappointed about that?"

"I also noticed his 5 rebounds and 6 assists," Casey shook his head and said, "You can't expect every player on the court to score over 50 points. In fact, Jeff is great. His versatility and assists are exactly what the team needs, and that's why we drafted him back from the Celtics..."

......

After the media interviews with the SuperSonics team, they discovered that the Mavericks had already left.

The Summer League schedule is very tight, sometimes with two games scheduled in one home game day. Since the games are not that important, the league does not have strict rules for post-game interviews.

The Mavericks, having just lost another player who scored over 60 points in three quarters, are no longer going to stay put and endure media scrutiny!

Back in the locker room packing his luggage, Du Xiaoshuai glanced at the panel showing over 10,000 haters and nearly 10,000 red fans, which were rapidly increasing. He thought to himself that he could start drawing rewards that night.

According to the panel settings, 10,000 fan points can be exchanged for one lottery draw with a 100% winning probability. The rewards are varied, but regardless of whether they are black fans or red fans, they are divided into four levels: white, pink, purple, and black, which increase in order. The higher the reward level, the better the effect.

With each increase in reward level, the probability of winning decreases by 99%, but you are guaranteed a pink reward after 10 draws, a purple reward after 100 draws, and a black reward after 1000 draws.

Du Xiaoshuai's hater value had already exceeded 10,000, but he was afraid that the reward he would draw would be detrimental to him, so he waited until his red fan value exceeded 10,000 before drawing.

Around 9 PM, Du Xiaoshuai returned to the hotel.

After talking to my mom on the phone, taking a shower and changing clothes, I watched as my fan value kept jumping and broke through 10,000, and was still rising rapidly. I immediately started the fan value lottery.

"Draw a black hat card."

He was a little dizzy from the spinning of the dark red card pool, and finally stopped on a bright pink card.

[Pink-grade De-enchanting Card *1]

Wow! I'm so lucky! I got a pink-level card on my first draw. Is this some kind of newbie perk?

[Pink-level Demystification Card, Function: Removes the inner aura of the target's face, reduces their aura by 2. After being demystified, the target will experience slight negative emotions such as inferiority, helplessness, and dependency. The longer the time, the stronger the negative emotions become. This card's effect lasts for 7 days.]

Du Xiaoshuai stared at the card for a few seconds, thought for a moment, and then understood the purpose of the demystification card. This thing was meaningless to ordinary people and might even cause tragedy, but it could sometimes have unexpected effects on celebrities, athletes, or even politicians who had an image to maintain.

As expected of a hater, they're bound to have bad character!

"Draw another pink card."

The white card pool spun rapidly and blurry again before finally stopping and displaying a white card.

Huh? Is my pink powder not as good quality as my black powder?

Why did they give me the lowest-level white card on my first try?

What about the newbie protection period? Has it ended?!

[White-grade odor-eliminating cards *1]

[White-grade odor-eliminating card. Function: Eliminates body odor for the target user and lasts for 24 hours.]

Du Xiaoshuai grinned foolishly.

This card is both practical and timely.

It can be used on yourself, your teammates, or your opponents.

Get yourself one before going on a date; it keeps you fresh and odor-free for 24 hours. If a teammate or opponent has body odor while playing sports and you can't stand it, give them one and give your nose a break!

The entire league is full of rough guys, and both Black and White players naturally have strong body odor. Playing basketball is a sport that makes you sweat a lot, and Durant's nose hasn't gotten used to the smell yet.

Look at Xiao Ming from Houston in the south, he's even developed a meme-worthy expression from the fumes, he's furious but dares not say a word!

Leaving aside the fact that Durant fell peacefully asleep in bed after the lottery, the afternoon's results spread like wildfire across the North American sports world, especially Durant's scoring stats, after being broadcast on Seattle and Dallas cable television stations and by the NBA's official director.

The more shocking the data, the faster and wider it spreads.

After a night of fermentation, when Du Xiaoshuai woke up at nine o'clock the next morning, full of energy, his phone was bombarded with call requests and text messages like an alarm clock.

There were his high school coach, classmates, former teammates, close relatives from his grandmother's side of the family (out of over 200 people), and some friends from local basketball courts. Du Xiaoshuai sent a mass "Thank you" message based on the contact information on his phone and went to wash up.

The original owner, a poor but hardworking individual, had almost all his contacts in his phone related to basketball, except for relatives; his social circle was remarkably simple. The only girl he had saved as "sweetheart" was named Monica Wright, who was also this year's WNBA second overall pick. They had met at a college basketball reunion. She looked a lot like the later, beardless Harden, was over 1.8 meters tall, had a good figure, and wasn't ugly among Black women, but she was clearly not Durant's type. The original owner might have had some feelings for her before, but Durant certainly didn't intend to rekindle the relationship.

After dealing with the social niceties on his phone, Du Xiaoshuai opened his newly arrived laptop, connected to the hotel network, and began surfing the internet happily.

In 07, the United States had advanced internet infrastructure and widespread adoption, with a wide variety of online forums, blogs, and campus networks.

It must be said that one of the benefits of time travel is that Du Xiaoshuai's English reading, writing and speaking skills automatically improved to the level of his predecessor, Durant.

Skilled at using old-fashioned web pages and websites, Du Xiaoshuai's fingers flew across the keyboard as he typed, registered a new account, and quickly searched for news about himself.

Open Reddit - r/nba, which is touted as the world's largest NBA forum, and the top post on the homepage is about himself with the title "61 points, shocking! Kevin Durant, the greatest scoring monster in history has arrived in the NBA".

The original poster provided a detailed explanation of the lineups, scores, and statistics of the two teams yesterday, and gave a comprehensive analysis of Du Xiaoshuai's performance, summarizing it in one word: dominance.

Previously, this term was most often used to describe Shaquille O'Neal, which is why Oden, whose design is a combination of O'Neal and Duncan, was the pre-selected number one draft pick this year.

It has to be said that these kinds of sensational headlines are still very attractive these days. The post, which was published in the early hours of last night, has already garnered 3,000 replies this morning, and its popularity has reached its peak.

Du Xiaoshuai looked through the comments and found that most of them were praise and admiration for the high score, but there were also quite a few haters. Many people felt that the argument was somewhat exaggerated.

Du Xiaoshuai glanced at his fan value on his panel. Sure enough, both haters and fans were flying around, both approaching 2. It seemed he could do another draw soon.

The headline on the Yahoo Sports forum was even more eye-catching—"A Groundbreaking Player Emerges," which was also pinned to the top.

The article discusses the templates that NBA scouts defined for Durant during the draft, which were initially based on McGrady. Now, all of these have been overturned, and it is believed that Durant has surpassed his ceiling and become a groundbreaking new answer to basketball.

The comments below were mixed, but most fans thought it was exaggerated.

This viewpoint seems perfectly reasonable to Durant, who has traveled back in time, but it's almost impossible for most fans to accept at this point. Since the emergence of online media in recent years, almost all reports have been geared towards gaining attention and traffic, consistently favoring the positive over the negative; everyone is already used to it.

61 points, 25 of 29 field goals, 7 of 8 three-pointers, 4 of 4 free throws, 9 rebounds, 4 blocks, 5 steals, and 22 minutes of playing time—these are truly superhuman stats. His all-around performance on both offense and defense has made Durant almost a legend in one game. However, it was only a Summer League game, which only shows that as the second overall pick in a strong draft year, he is not a bust at all, and even exceeded expectations. But more potential remains to be seen.

The 96 draft class was also a great year for the draft, and Lorenzen Wright, the 7th pick with 46 points, attracted a lot of media attention. Now he is struggling to be a backup in the rotation.

After browsing the forum for a while, Du Xiaoshuai noticed that there wasn't much material, and the comments and likes were limited. He silently liked everything he saw, but soon got bored and quietly logged off.

I turned on the hotel's pay TV, and ESPN's "First Take" was replaying last night's post-game interview. His two phrases, "That's how I play" and "It's easy," were being repeatedly shown, accompanied by close-ups of Durant's expressionless face, which looked rather infuriating. Renowned commentator Steven Smith was fanning the flames: "This year's second overall pick has gained tremendous confidence from playing playoff softie Josh Howard. Hopefully, he'll still be saying that tonight against the Trail Blazers. By the way, the Trail Blazers gave up their number one pick; let's wait and see!"