The deafening cheers suddenly woke Wang Feng.
Confusedly looking around, what Wang Feng saw was a basketball court!
Ten players were fiercely competing on the court! The stands around were packed with people!
"What is this place?"
After his brain froze for two or three seconds, Wang Feng started to feel something was wrong.
He should be sleeping at home—why was he suddenly in a place like this? Is this a dream?
Wang Feng pinched his thigh secretly, and the obvious pain told him that he wasn't dreaming.
"Huh?"
Wang Feng's gaze suddenly froze because he discovered that he was actually wearing a basketball jersey!
As a veteran soccer fan, he recognized with a single glance that he was wearing the jersey of his favorite NBA team, the Golden State Warriors!
No! It seemed that those guys on the court were also wearing this jersey!
Wang Feng looked up in shock, and sure enough! He wasn't mistaken now! Looking around, he saw several players sitting next to him who were also wearing Warriors jerseys, just like him.
What's going on? Could it be that I traveled through time?
As a young man who keeps up with the times, Wang Feng had read countless time-travel novels. He had also fantasized about traveling through time and using the abilities of a time traveler to foresee the future and become rich! But that was just a fantasy!
At that moment, Wang Feng's head suddenly hurt, as if he had been struck by a hammer! At the same time, many memories that didn't belong to him flooded his mind!
"Is this... the memory of this body?"
The pain in his brain gradually decreased, and Wang Feng stood in a daze for a moment as he read the memories that suddenly flooded his mind.
He had traveled through time! And he had traveled to another version of himself in a parallel universe! In this time and space, Wang Feng was no longer a poor worker, but had shown outstanding basketball talent in high school. After graduating from high school, he went to the United States to attend college, participated in the NCAA, and entered the 2014 draft. Although he wasn't selected, he managed to get a low-paying contract with the Golden State Warriors of the NBA!
Just like the ten players who were currently playing on the court! Wang Feng, who loved watching basketball games, recognized almost all the players on the court!
Klay Thompson! Draymond Green! Andre Iguodala!
Wang Feng even recognized players on the other side wearing Indiana Pacers jerseys, such as George Hill, Roy Hibbert, and other players!
Incredible! As a die-hard basketball fan, Wang Feng could actually be on an NBA court!
It's real! These guys are a bunch of billionaires, millionaires, and multi-millionaires playing ball!
The annual salary of top NBA stars exceeds 20 million U.S. dollars. In two years, when the new NBA TV broadcast deal comes into effect, player salaries will soar, with the maximum salary starting at 30 million U.S. dollars! It's even crazier than robbing a bank!
Even Wang Feng in this time and space hadn't played more than 10 games for the Warriors since joining the team, and had signed a low-salary contract with an amount of $470,000! After taxes and expenses, the converted RMB amount would still be around a million!
A one-million-dollar annual salary! If it were the old Wang Feng, he wouldn't even dare to think about it!
But the question is... can I survive in the NBA?
Although he inherited the strong body of another person and the basketball skills he had trained for many years, Wang Feng didn't have any mindset of being lucky.
It's so hard for Chinese people to make a name in the NBA!
Throughout history, apart from Yao Ming, the mobile Great Wall with historical-level talent, no Chinese player has ever really made a name for themselves in the NBA, not even Yi Jianlian.
Before traveling through time, the other Wang Feng had been working hard in the United States for many years since college, enduring unimaginable hardships and sweat, but his personal data wasn't much better than predecessors like Wang Zhizhi, Battelle, and Sun Yue.
Although he didn't understand why the team hadn't cut him yet, Wang Feng knew that day would come sooner or later.
"Hey! What are you doing just standing there? The coach asked you to get ready to play!"
Suddenly, a voice interrupted Wang Feng's thoughts.
He jumped in surprise and turned his head confusedly, only to see a completely dark face.
It was a black player wearing a Warriors jersey.
"Let me prepare to play?"
Wang Feng stared at the other person for a long time before suddenly reacting.
"!! Let me play!!"
As the manager of the Warriors' water dispenser, Wang Feng had only played in a handful of games! Essentially, his only chance of getting any playing time was during garbage time!
Wang Feng turned his head to look at the head coach beside him, and what he saw was the expressionless face of Steve Kerr.
…
Looking at Wang Feng, who turned his head to look at him like a fool, Kerr was speechless and even had the urge to push him back to the bench.
Is this the kind of quality a professional player should have? Sitting there dazed on the sidelines?
If the team management hadn't decided to give Wang Feng as much playing time as possible before cutting him to see if he had any merit worth keeping, Kerr would have preferred to keep him on the bench until the day they cut him!
Kerr knew the team was still unwilling to give up on the huge Chinese market, but could a marginal backup player really attract the attention of the Chinese market? There really is only one Yao Ming... Maybe the management just didn't want to miss out on the second Jeremy Lin.
Whistle—!
The whistle blew, and Warriors player Barnes committed a defensive foul.
Seizing this opportunity, Kerr signaled to the referee for a substitution, and Wang Feng came in to replace Harrison Barnes.
Wang Feng quickly took off his practice jersey and walked rapidly to the court. As he passed by Barnes, he instinctively raised his hand for a high five.
Who would've guessed that Barnes just looked at him and walked past, with no intention of offering his hand, his eyes filled with contempt and disdain?
Wang Feng stood stunned for a moment, then furrowed his brow slightly as his anger rose in his heart.
What's wrong with this guy?
Time was short, and although Wang Feng had inherited his memories of this time and space, he hadn't read them in detail and only knew the general past. However, the attitude of this guy was definitely deliberate!
Damn it! You little bastard, I'll settle this score with you sooner or later!
He thought angrily in his heart, but he had to get onto the court to compete, so there was no time to turn around and scold the guy.
Buzzing—!
The moment he stepped onto the court, his head suddenly buzzed! A mysterious feeling surged in his heart!
At the same time, a cold voice with no emotion sounded in his mind!
The Basketball God System is activated! A gift package is delivered as a reward for new players! Open the package to receive the reward.
Basketball God System? A rookie gift package? What the hell?
Wang Feng stood stunned. He had just accepted his identity as a time traveler, and now suddenly this system appeared! Could it be the legendary golden finger needed for time travel?
He looked around in shock and realized that time seemed to have stopped. Everyone had frozen. He could even see a spectator nearby who had accidentally spilled Coca-Cola from his cup. The brown liquid of Coca-Cola hung in the air, just like the bullet-time scenes from many movies!
At the same time, a virtual holographic interface appeared in front of him.
"Isn't this the 2K game interface bar?"
Wang Feng loved the NBA2K series, especially the badge concept that appeared in later next-gen versions, which gives people the feeling of leveling up and perfecting skills in an RPG, making it more playable.
At that moment, the virtual holographic interface that appeared in front of Wang Feng was like a 2K game screen, with Wang Feng's attribute panel detailed on it.
Name: Wang Feng.
Age: 22 years.
Height: 2.01 meters.
Wingspan: 2.10 meters.
Weight: 98 kg.
Below were many skill values, and the method of display was very similar to 2K games, but…
"It's awful!"
Looking at his own panel, Wang Feng was speechless.
From offense, shooting, dribbling, and passing to defense, rebounding, and physicality, the total score was 99 points, with most of them below 50! Only occasionally did some attributes exceed 50!
Wang Feng paid particular attention to some of his relatively high skills, including mid-range shooting at 79, three-point shooting at 81, and free throws at 85, all of which were skills leaning towards mid and long-range shooting.
It seemed that another skill he could rely on to survive in the NBA was his mediocre mid and long-range shooting. That's right, in the NBA, where muscular guys dominate, Wang Feng, who didn't have any physical advantage, could only rely on his shooting.
Still, with an overall rating of only 51, it wasn't enough to survive in the NBA, where there are so many strong players!
What does a rating of 51 mean?
When playing in career mode in 2K games, even for newly created characters, the initial attributes are at least 60! As for players who can secure steady playing time on the court, except for a few functional players with distinctive characteristics, basically no one has a rating lower than 70!
Even Zhou Qi, the big devil from CBA who was cut after playing a dozen games in the NBA, has an overall rating of around 60 in 2K!
"With such low skill ratings, I'm afraid I don't even have a badge…"
Wang Feng continued to look down at the virtual holographic interface, and indeed, the column showing badges was empty, except for a solitary bronze badge.
"For a corner three-point shooter, the effect is that three-pointers launched from the baseline will receive a bonus to the success rate."
The 2K badge system is similar to passive or active abilities in RPG games. Having badges with different functions makes you more powerful on the court!
Ah, that's right! Didn't it just say there would be a gift package for rookies? What's in that gift package?
As Wang Feng's thoughts moved, the image on the virtual interface changed, a dazzling light illuminated, and five colorful badges appeared before him.
Wang Feng's eyes suddenly lit up! Although he hadn't had time to look closely at the badges, he could tell they were of extraordinary quality just by their color!
There were five badges, four of which gleamed with dazzling gold, and the last one radiated a beautiful glow. It was actually a purple Hall of Fame badge!
Anyone who has played 2K knows that badges are divided into bronze, silver, gold, and the highest purple Hall of Fame badge, from lowest to highest! They correspond to the four difficulty levels of the game: Rookie, Professional, All-Star, and Hall of Fame!
Can the rookie gift package really reveal a Hall of Fame purple badge? Are you that meticulous?
As the highest level badge, even the best players in the game, including James, Durant, Curry, and others, don't have more than five purple Hall of Fame badges each! Most players don't even have a single purple badge!
Ding! Successfully opened the rookie gift package and received the 3D Player Package, which includes the Death Spiral, Interceptor, gold badge for Double Team Master, gold badge for Corner Three-Point Shooter, and the purple badge for Defensive Stun!
Ding! It has been detected that the host's skill value is insufficient to activate the badge. The rookie protection mode is activated. The host will be forced to activate the badge. The corresponding skill value required for the badge will automatically increase to the minimum level.
Ding! It has been detected that the host already possesses the bronze Corner Three-Point Shooter badge. The badge is being integrated and upgraded. The level of the Corner Three-Point Shooter badge has been upgraded to purple!
The system sounds came one after another, and surprises hit Wang Feng one after another!
At the same time, many values in Wang Feng's skill column started to rise rapidly!
Speed 87! Agility 89! Strength 55! Rebound 60! Physical strength 81!
Intercept 88! Ball defense 85! Off-ball defense 82! Defensive awareness 90! Dribbling 86!
Thanks to the improvement of these skills, Wang Feng's total score jumped from 51 to 70!
The overall rating of 70 isn't high! But the problem is, this overall rating of 70 comes almost entirely from defensive support! That's a bit scary!
Moreover, the evaluation of ability is only a numerical representation! Players will be even stronger with the bonus of badges on the court! Wang Feng had never seen a player with an overall rating higher than 70 who had two purple badges and three golden badges! Even many players in the 80+ or even 90+ range don't have a single purple Hall of Fame badge!
Once the five badges were attached, the virtual interface disappeared, the noise started again, and the frozen people resumed their movements.
Wang Feng's appearance didn't attract anyone's attention, and no one would care about an unknown water cooler player.
However, Wang Feng's blood was already boiling!
With the system in hand! The world belongs to me! These five badges will be the beginning of his impressive debut in the NBA!
End of this chapter
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