Chapter 130: Chapter 47: The Handsome Prince Defeats the Demon to Protect the Princess

After two of the Lakers’ big men left the game with injuries, the Cavaliers, led by Su Xi, defeated the Lakers.

108–102.

Su Xi put up another eye-catching stat line in this game with 18 points, 11 assists, 6 rebounds, 4 steals, and 1 block.

Most importantly, he led the team to a three-game winning streak.

This game fully showcased Su Xi’s advantages. He possessed a unique strength advantage at the point guard position; neither Payton nor Fisher could effectively stop him when he found an opportunity for a powerful drive to the basket. Even when they managed to contain his initial burst, Su Xi’s masterful ball-handling kept him in control, allowing him to use his teammates’ screens to continue putting pressure on the paint.

Furthermore, Su Xi’s strength advantage didn’t vanish once he got into the paint. The two stretch bigs the Lakers subbed in were sent stumbling and reeling by his force...

Carlos Boozer and Ilgauskas were fed so many easy baskets tonight they could have puked.

The post-game scouting report cited this as the main reason the Cavaliers took down the Lakers tonight. A secondary reason was the mid-range scoring from Boozer and Ricky Davis.

"I don’t know what happened to him. I have no comment."

After the game, when a Los Angeles reporter asked Su Xi why Carl Malone got injured, he put on a look of disdain.

Before that, Carl Malone had given an interview from the hospital. The tip of his elbow was shattered, requiring seven or eight steel pins.

He blamed it all on Su Xi, saying menacingly to the camera, "That despicable rookie will be getting a warning from the Mailman. This story isn’t over. We’ll see."

When reporters asked for more details, Malone refused to elaborate.

When a reporter asked Su Xi why Malone was so angry with him.

Su Xi replied with a sneer, "Some guys are just used to throwing their weight around. They think bullying rookies is their right. When they fail to bully a rookie and get themselves hurt instead, they decide the rookie is the one at fault."

"He’s right that the story between us isn’t over. Just like how he’ll never win a championship even by riding someone else’s coattails... *that’s* the ending to his story."

Su Xi didn’t respect authority. He came to the NBA to take down everyone. In the eyes of others, Carl Malone might be a superstar, a dirty enforcer. But to Su Xi, he was just a slightly larger stone on his path, one to simply kick aside.

Su Xi’s words shocked the media, who now eagerly awaited the next Chapter of this story.

The enforcer Malone versus Little Sheep Su Xi—who would have the last laugh?

Su Xi didn’t leave the Staples Center after the game. Once the arena was empty, he stayed behind to shoot a Pepsi commercial.

Mike O’Connor and Huang Xiaoman were both on set.

The shoot was smooth and simple. All Su Xi had to do was perform some basic basketball moves, throw down a few dunks, and then, holding a can of Pepsi, say in Chinese: "I’m Little Sheep Su Xi, and I only drink Pepsi."

"This tagline is a little dumb."

Su Xi couldn’t help but complain to Huang Xiaoman.

"Just give the sponsor what they want," Huang Xiaoman said.

She was unusually serious today, not even initiating any of their usual cuddles.

But on the way back to the hotel after the shoot, Su Xi was the one to get close to her.

Huang Xiaoman never brought up the matter of ’studying the triangle offense at the hotel’, and neither did Su Xi. They had a pleasant night. Su Xi held nothing back, releasing all of his energy.

Drained!

The next day, Su Xi returned to Cleveland with the team.

On the plane to Cleveland, Su Xi’s phone buzzed with a text message from Huang Xiaoman: "I’m the head wife!"

?

The text was in Chinese.

Su Xi knew every word, but strung together, he couldn’t grasp the meaning. Still, he was a smooth talker. "Okay, okay, you’re the head wife! The head-est of head wives!"

Before the plane even landed in Ohio, the NBA had officially announced that Su Xi was the Eastern Conference Player of the Week for the first week of the 2003-2004 season.

The three games in California had made Su Xi’s case; the result was indisputable. With three wins and a monster quadruple-double, no one could compete with him. It was a well-deserved honor.

According to his Nike contract, Su Xi needed to win Player of the Week three or more times within his first three seasons. He had just finished the first week of his rookie season, and he already had one under his belt.

A fantastic start!

James, who had returned to Cleveland a day early, was miserable. He even complained to Frank and his other childhood friends, "If I hadn’t gotten hurt, Player of the Week would’ve been mine for sure. Jack stole my playbook, that’s the only reason he’s playing so well. He should be thanking me."

After he said this, he noticed Frank giving him a strange look.

Then, James asked, "What’s with the look? Frank, you disagree?"

"No, I was just wondering... if I should write that down in the little notebook," Frank said with a naive air.

James rolled his eyes. "Of course you don’t write down what I say. Jack is the Vice-King, and I’m the King. Does the King need to log it every time he criticizes his second-in-command?"

"Keep an eye out for anyone talking trash about me lately," James instructed.

"Nope. Lately, most of the trash talk is about Jack. I’ve already filled up a whole new Death Note," Frank said. "Jack’s really popular right now. A lot of celebrities are talking about him."

"I know. It’s fine. Things will go back to normal soon. I’m playing in the next game." LeBron James took a deep breath, calming himself.

Then he said, "Call Jack. Tell him I want to go one-on-one."

James had been bottling this up for a while and was looking for an outlet.

He sat down on the sofa, where the TV was replaying the dramatic saga of Malone and Su Xi.

"...Last night, a reporter’s camera captured the entire incident between Carl Malone and Little Sheep Su Xi. The camera was positioned right behind the scorer’s table. It clearly recorded... Carl Malone running his mouth at Su Xi, spewing a stream of filth that was vile to hear. And then, we see Little Sheep Su Xi slap him across the face..."

The footage was crystal clear.

The sound of the slap was sharp and crisp.

"Hell yeah, Jack!" Frank and his buddies cheered for Su Xi. "Malone was asking for it!"

James frowned too. "It was a good hit," he said, "but Jack is still too impulsive. Malone is a dirty player. What if he decides to go after the Cavaliers in the future? Someone could get seriously hurt."

"LeBron, if Carl Malone dares to start something in Cleveland, we’ll all jump him. The guys and me, plus Jack? No way we can’t take him," Frank said.

"No way. That would destroy a player’s image," James said. "A player with high commercial value can’t be associated with dirty plays and brawls. The league is trying to appeal to a middle-class audience now. If you want to be a franchise player, you have to watch what you say and do."

"Huh?" another one of his friends said in surprise. "Then shouldn’t we warn Jack?"

"Yeah, Jack seems really impulsive. He actually dared to slap Carl Malone," Frank added, now worried himself. "What if he gets into another fight? What if it stops him from becoming a superstar and hurts his commercial value?"

"He won’t have to worry about that. Jack is a Scottie Pippen, a Dennis Rodman. He doesn’t need to be the face of the franchise. He’s with me. I’ll cover for him," James said.

Everyone looked at him with a mixture of understanding and confusion, feeling like they’d just heard a paradox.

...

The Los Angeles media broke the story of the confrontation between Su Xi and Malone, and national outlets quickly followed suit.

What James hadn’t expected was that public opinion was overwhelmingly on Su Xi’s side.

Everyone was praising Su Xi.

Everyone was blasting Carl Malone.

"All I can say is, good hit. If it were me, I’d have decked him too. I give Jack a big thumbs-up for his courage. This isn’t the first time Carl Malone has said something so shameless." Rockets assistant coach Olajuwon rarely commented on league drama, but when it involved Carl Malone, he always showed up to throw his support in.

Another superstar center from the ’90s, David Robinson, also chimed in: "Carl Malone got what he deserved; he brought it on himself. If he hadn’t tried to hurt Little Sheep Su Xi, he wouldn’t have gotten injured. It’s a classic case of ’he who harms others harms himself.’ I applaud Jack. He’s a good kid, and I love his courage and bravery. Not every rookie would dare to slap that foul mouth of his, and not every rookie would dare to challenge his authority, meeting his force with power and overcoming him with skill."

Patrick Ewing also said, "The league should give Little Sheep Su Xi a sportsmanship award. Punishing evil is an act of good!"

Three of the four legendary centers of the ’90s came out in support of Su Xi, which just goes to show how universally despised Carl Malone’s past actions were.

While the general public had no personal beef with Malone, looking at the incident itself, it was clear that Malone had started the trash talk and then intended to cause malicious injury.

Su Xi simply refused to be bullied, and Malone flew into a rage out of shame and frustration.

What was this if not a veteran using his status to bully a rookie?

The court of public opinion sided overwhelmingly with Su Xi. No one had any sympathy for Malone and his seven or eight steel pins; everyone said he got what he deserved and had brought it on himself.

Moreover, that slap from Su Xi was perfect, it was brilliant, it was the mark of a man standing up for himself.

The story was spreading like wildfire, especially among gossip-mongers in the entertainment world.

A handsome Prince Charming bravely stood up to an ugly, evil demon who was humiliating a beautiful princess, and slapped the demon across the face. The demon, enraged and humiliated, then plotted against the prince, only to be defeated by the prince’s skill in turning the demon’s own power against him. The demon was wounded by his own weapon.

It was the stuff of romantic fantasies for countless young women.

In an instant, Su Xi’s popularity skyrocketed.

A rising tide lifts all boats, and even Jessica Alba’s fame grew along with his.

Initially, Alba’s agency had been strongly against her public relationship with Su Xi. But after this game, they saw the immense media traffic from the "Prince Defeats Demon to Protect Princess" narrative and quickly pushed for Jessica Alba and Su Xi to make more public appearances together.

As the story spread like wildfire among their teenage fanbase, the commercial value of both stars soared.

Other female stars started to take notice of Su Xi... ’Why can’t the leading lady be me?’

’Why can’t I have what Jessica Alba has?’

Just then, as Su Xi’s plane landed at the Ohio airport, he got a call from Frank. When he heard that James wanted to challenge him to a one-on-one, he was overjoyed.

He was desperate to improve.

...