Chapter 243: Chapter 50: The Playoffs Arrive

D’Antoni knew fast breaks.

He hypothesized a pairing of Su Xi and Stadumier, which was indeed very plausible. In fact, the most suitable power forward for Su Xi’s current playstyle was a face-up, attacking player like Stadumier. Little O’Neal was a bit too technical.

But how could Su Xi possibly go to Phoenix?

Let alone team up with Stadumier.

D’Antoni had spoken a bunch of pointless truths.

The media didn’t take his words seriously either. The Indiana newspapers just cherry-picked a couple of lines praising Su Xi’s fast-break ability and published those.

No one cared what D’Antoni said.

Everyone was looking forward to the epic showdown between the Pistons and the Pacers.

...

"I have to fuck him up."

Rashid Wallace was shouting at Larry Brown before they left for Indiana. He was known in China as the ’Roaring Celestial Venerable’. ’Celestial Venerable’ was a bit of an exaggeration of his status, but ’Roaring’ was literal.

Larry Brown held up a hand, signaling for him to calm down, and also told Ben Wallace to stop looking so ferocious.

"Do you want to take them out now, or do you want to take them out in the playoffs?" Larry Brown asked the Wallace Brothers.

"I want both!" Rashid said, clenching his hand into a forceful fist.

But Larry Brown shook his head. "You need to learn patience, Rashid," he said. "Of course we can beat them now, but what’s the point? To expose our new tactics? To let them prepare in advance?"

"But we can’t stomach this. And if they beat us, they’ll get a historic 71 wins," Ben Wallace retorted, his neck stiff with defiance.

"They already have 70 wins. There’s no difference between 71 and 70, Ben," Larry Brown said, reasoning patiently. "I’ve decided to have you all stay in Detroit to rest and build up your strength. Our goal is the championship! Patience, young men. Patience will make you stronger."

"This time, I’m sending Taixiong and Chauncey to scout out Little Sheep Su Xi. For us, this is a reconnaissance mission."

"In a dark room, the quieter you are, the more patient you are, the longer you’ll survive."

"..."

Larry Brown had to serve up a lot of motivational fluff and dangle the promise of a championship before the Wallace Brothers finally accepted his arrangement.

Larry Brown had no intention of firing all his bullets and unleashing all his anger in this meaningless game.

Even though the media was hyping up the special significance of the final game, an experienced old coach like Larry Brown wasn’t taking it seriously.

Besides, the Pistons had already been overtaken by the Brooklyn Nets in the standings, and he had no intention of going for the second seed in the East.

’Why not use this game to thoroughly figure out Little Sheep Su Xi?’

...

Su Xi was in Indiana shooting a new commercial for Apple computers. As one of Apple Inc.’s major individual shareholders, Su Xi had officially become a spokesman for Apple computers this year. This was in contrast to the bizarre commercial Yao Ming had shot for Apple last year.

Su Xi’s commercial had a trendy, youthful style. Su Xi was showing off his cool, and the set was filled with sports cars and beautiful women.

Mike O’Connor stood on the set, feeling quite emotional. Since becoming Su Xi’s agent, he had rarely seen so many beautiful women on a set. The difference was, these beauties were more or less wearing clothes.

But to O’Connor, whether they were clothed or not didn’t mean much. The Nevada Giant Cannon had long since possessed the dissecting insight of a master butcher.

It’s just that he had no interest in women anymore. Neither psychologically nor physiologically.

He was more observant of his vows than the most devout priest.

Now, he had found something more joyful, more pleasurable, and more stimulating to his dopamine than those few seconds of cerebral cortex tremors: posturing.

This endorsement deal with Apple was a total thrill for him. He had personally gone to Apple Headquarters, taken the three-year, 4 million USD global endorsement contract, and thrown it on the general manager’s desk. "Are you trying to humiliate me? Or are you trying to humiliate one of your company’s shareholders?"

O’Connor arrogantly dominated the negotiation. In the end, he got Su Xi 6 million USD worth of stock.

He thoroughly enjoyed the pleasure of being Su Xi’s agent. He didn’t care about the commission at all. What he cared about was this feeling of nose-in-the-air arrogance.

’If Jack didn’t immediately turn around and invest the money he makes into those internet companies, he’d be a multi-millionaire by now.’ O’Connor couldn’t help but sigh. ’God really is fair. He gave him an agent who’s great at making money, and also gave him the spending habits of someone who doesn’t think before he spends.’

Just then, Su Xi finished the commercial shoot.

He was about to leave the set when the director suddenly ran over, asking him to shoot one more take and telling him there was a surprise guest.

Then, from the ultra-luxurious RV parked outside the set, a beautiful and sexy figure descended: Scarlett Johansson.

She had been waiting to give Su Xi a surprise.

This was the first time she had seen Su Xi since the All-Star Game in Los Angeles. Every inch of her skin was radiating joyful energy.

For the past while, her momentum had been ’suppressed’ by Jessica. This was because Jessica Alba had shown off the two MVP trophies Su Xi won in Los Angeles at an awards ceremony, declaring her sovereignty.

This caused the value of Time Warner’s exposé on Su Xi and Scarlett’s backstage rendezvous to plummet.

So, she had been waiting for an opportunity.

’I have to win this round.’

This time, her agent had secured her an endorsement deal with Apple Inc.

She had secretly arrived in Indiana, eager to surprise Su Xi.