372: 150: Not a Good Person (Requesting Monthly Tickets!) 372: 150: Not a Good Person (Requesting Monthly Tickets!) As this summer’s tour of Asia came to an end, Roger had to start preparing for the new season.
First and foremost, naturally, he was to participate in Joe Abunassar’s special training.
The primary task for this summer remained the same: to continue gaining weight, with Roger aiming to reach 98 kilograms.
Ever since he started playing basketball, Roger had been transforming his originally slender body.
He was very patient, so the changes in his weight had never affected his health, speed, or shooting touch.
For Roger, 98 kilograms was a relatively balanced weight that would not affect his agility and physical fitness, while further enhancing his ability to withstand physical confrontations.
Besides, Roger specifically strengthened his core power, which could increase the stability of his fadeaway and jump shots among other moves.
Indeed, Roger already had plenty of scoring methods; he already became the league’s scoring champion last season.
But on the basketball court, having numerous skills under one’s belt never hurt.
If possible, Roger even wanted to spend money to learn some moves from Dream.
Unfortunately, Dream had not started selling lessons yet, and another stronger footwork had not yet made its way into the NBA, leaving Roger with nowhere to learn.
Thus, Roger could only focus on developing other aspects than footwork for now.
Today, after training ended, Roger and his high school buddy, Andrae Patterson, who had one more year to make his NBA bid, prepared for the upcoming Reebok high school training camp.
Andrae Patterson would serve as one of the camp coaches, interacting with and supervising the kids’ training.
It was quite commonplace for stars to run training camps; these events could earn money and also boost the visibility of the sports brands behind the athletes.
Nike Basketball Summit and Adidas’s ABCD camp both gained a lot of attention, so Reebok also wanted to leverage Roger’s influence to host a similar event and get a slice of the pie.
Roger was quite excited about this camp; he wanted to see if he would recognize any familiar faces among the crowd.
And indeed, the next day, he did see someone like that.
A kid who always seemed drowsy but could instantly exude a fragrance of talent once he hit the court appeared at Roger’s training camp.
This being Reebok’s first camp, it wasn’t very large-scale, and they had only invited local high-school players from Florida.
Unexpectedly, they had recruited a future NBA scoring champion.
In Roger’s camp, the boy with a girl’s name demolished all his competitors, causing Andrae Patterson to lament, “If you gave him a Warriors’ jersey, I’d definitely think he’s Penny Hardaway!
The same grace, the same charm!”
Andrae Patterson forgot; in Roger’s eyes, Penny was an eternally stinking name.
Even though Roger and Penny’s statuses were worlds apart, even though Roger had thoroughly crushed Penny, it did nothing to lessen Roger’s desire to beat Penny every time he saw him or his dislike for the guy.
Andrae Patterson laughed, huh, who said Roger was a nice guy?
No one really believed that, right?
At the end of the match, T-Mac, having dazzled the court with a triple-double of 35 points, 13 rebounds, and 11 assists, was personally presented the MVP trophy by Roger, along with a pair of T-Mac-sized sneakers.
After the award ceremony, he patted T-Mac’s head, “Believe me, kid, you can already start considering your next phase of opponents.
Maybe, challenging some college players one on one or something.
I believe you have the talent to head straight to the NBA.”
Afterwards, facing the reporters’ interviews, Roger used all words of praise on T-Mac.
Without a doubt, Roger had made T-Mac famous ahead of time.
The original T-Mac would only become known at the ABCD camp; before that, his record was almost blank.
Yet even then, he was still picked ninth.
Now, Roger had elevated the influence of a high school basketball player to an unprecedented level.
And he had made T-Mac famous ahead of time.
So, what would T-Mac’s draft pick number become?
Roger was truly excited.
He did this because he wanted to see how much influence he could truly bring to this world.
He liked testing his influence, liked watching the world change because of him.
After the Reebok camp ended, Roger had to officially start preparing for the new season.
The preseason camp would start in a week, and before that, the NBA and major media outlets were already warming up for the new season.
“Sports Illustrated” had put together a power ranking for the upcoming season.
On it, the reigning champions, Orlando Magic, were undoubtedly ranked first, with New York Knicks second.
“What both teams have in common are their superstar duos.
The difference is, both members of the Knicks had lost to the Magic.
You could say, Michael and Patrick have formed a Losers’ Alliance.
But if a loser + a loser can achieve success, then Sir Charles ought to find Karl Malone, not Dream.”
This article marked Michael Jordan’s complete transition to mortality; once upon a time, when would the media use the word “loser” to describe Jordan?
Even in 1994, when Jordan had just returned from playing baseball, people still believed he was a winner.
But now, he was being called a “loser.”
Jordan really thought “Sports Illustrated” was the world’s stupidest magazine.