Chapter 62 Those Girls on Twitter!

Jeremy Lin's clutch performance during his "Linsanity" era seemed just as explosive as this.

Game after game of clutch shots forged his legend!

However, that was the peak of his craziness, and he became mediocre afterward.

Although the Cavaliers hit a three-pointer after the timeout, they failed to create the miracle of scoring 13 points in 35 seconds.

Next came the foul tactic, and the Lakers steadily maintained their lead until the very end.

"Beep, beep!!"

"Buzz!!"

The final whistle blew.

The final score was locked at 114 to 107, with the Lakers narrowly defeating the Cavaliers on the road to secure a six-game winning streak.

Tonight, Li Rui posted an all-around stat line of 22 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals, 1 block, and 2 turnovers.

Although such stats were not as brutal as Kobe's massive double-double of 42 points, 12 rebounds, and 6 assists, it was Li Rui who stepped up in the clutch to dominate the game once again for the Lakers.

Tonight, Kobe looked like the Lakers' vanguard enforcer, while Li Rui played the role of the master tactician delivering the final blow!

Inside the locker room.

The Zen Master smiled as he watched the players celebrating exuberantly around Li Rui.

Half a month ago, the locker room of this team was not like this. The post-game atmosphere was often icy, and a smile was rarely seen on Kobe's face.

And now, with the consecutive victories, the so-called internal conflicts and Kobe's dissatisfaction with others instantly became trivial matters.

Constantly winning continuously boosted the team's cohesion.

Gradually, the Zen Master shifted his attention to Li Rui.

During this period, he had already factored Li Rui into the blueprint of building the future championship roster.

Although Farmar and Smush Parker had decent fundamental skills as point guards, they were quite mediocre on the court and lacked Li Rui's formidable scoring prowess.

He needed to urge the management to reinforce the team with an All-Star interior player; then, the Lakers would truly elevate to championship-level contention.

The Zen Master constantly desired to return to the championship ranks. As for the six-game winning streak?

The sensation across the world?

The Zen Master didn't truly take them to heart.

It was just the regular season, and his vision was set much further ahead.

Li Rui was unaware of the Zen Master's observations of him; he only knew that his status within the team was becoming increasingly secure.

Even if he knew, he wouldn't overthink it. Right now, he was suited for any system, as long as he showcased his strength on the court.

He already possessed the ability to survive in the league.

...........

At the post-game press conference.

It was still the trio of Li Rui, Kobe, and the Zen Master sitting on the stage. Li Rui and Kobe sat on either side of the Zen Master, both looking relaxed. Li Rui had completely adapted to this situation.

Nearly 50 reporters and media members were crammed into the news interview hall.

"Click, click, click!!"

"Congratulations on winning the game once again and securing a six-game winning streak. This is no easy feat. As the team's head coach, Mr. Phil, how do you view tonight's game?"

The Zen Master adjusted his glasses, then reached out to touch the microphone and said, "Although we won, I feel the game was quite ugly."

The Zen Master's words left the reporters somewhat bewildered.

What?

You won and yet you are complaining that it wasn't good-looking enough?

"Are you saying you are dissatisfied with the entertainment value of the game?"

The Zen Master nodded and said, "Yes. If those traveling violations by LeBron had been called by the referees, the game would have been much more pleasant to watch. Tonight, I lost count of how many traveling violations he committed—traveling on the catch, traveling on the fast break. I often watched Michael and Kobe play, and it's really hard for me to accept that these actions go uncalled."

The Zen Master also had a temper. Missing one or two traveling calls was normal, but they should never go completely unpunished.

Watching skilled guards like Jordan and Kobe, and then seeing irregular moves allowed, was truly sickening.

Whoa!!

The reporters present never expected a legendary coach to so sharply criticize another superstar in the league.

However, what the Zen Master said was grounded in reality, not spoken blindly.

Alright, there was a news story to write now.

Kobe and Li Rui also expressed their support for the Zen Master, overtly and covertly mocking the referees' biased officiating to the reporters.

The head coach had already stepped up; they couldn't afford to lag behind.

Following the interview, this game came to an end.

The entire Lakers team promptly set off for the final stop of their consecutive road trips—Detroit!

They would face the Pistons two days later.

This was destined to be a grueling match.

.......

It was already late at night when they arrived in Detroit. Li Rui checked into the hotel and lay down on the spacious bed.

NBA players basically stayed in single rooms during road trips, and rooms were shared only under special circumstances.

As soon as he lay down, unable to sleep, Li Rui habitually prepared to play on his phone before dozing off.

He first opened Google, and at this moment, the internet was flooded with news about "Linsanity."

However, after reading too much news about himself, his interest wasn't as high anymore.

Moreover, he found that most of the news content did not match reality.

Some news reports claimed that Li Rui had grown up in an impoverished family and had to work street stalls to make a living...

Li Rui thought this was utter nonsense.

In his memory, before the car accident, his parents were dual-income state employees. While the family conditions weren't fantastic, he at least never had to worry about food and clothing.

It was only after the accident that claimed his parents' lives in his senior year of high school that his circumstances began to take a sharp downward turn. The driver at fault was uninsured and lacked any assets...

Other news reported that Li Rui had two-timed during high school, falling in love with two campus belles simultaneously, acting as a scumbag at school, and even featured an anonymous classmate recounting Li Rui's past campus romance story.

Li Rui was even more speechless. Were they acting out a cliché melodramatic TV show, and anonymous at that?

Who was it?

Step forward, and he guaranteed he wouldn't beat them to death.

Damn it, ruining his reputation.

In his memory, the original owner seemed to have only been in one relationship, and the reason for the breakup wasn't two-timing, but rather a minor issue that, combined with the subsequent family tragedy, caused the romance to fizzle out.

....

....

Reading the content of these news articles was far less exciting than reading the comments.

Netizens were truly talented.

After reading for a while, Li Rui stopped and opened Twitter.

During this period, his Twitter followers had already surpassed 500,000. More and more fans were following him, and direct messages were flooding in.

Quite a few girls sent private photos of their personal body parts to him, hoping to catch his attention.

Among them were black chicks!

White chicks!

Yellow chicks!

....

And looking at nationalities.

Colombia, Spain, Britain, Russia, South Korea, Brazil, Cameroon....

And several tags even indicated beauty pageant winners.

Li Rui wasn't stingy with his follows; whenever he saw someone with a great figure and high颜值 (attractiveness), he casually clicked follow, while blocking the rest.

During this time, Li Rui finally understood what Lamar Odom had said.

NBA players never lacked women.

Most active NBA players lived very carefree lives, let alone someone like him right now, who was a global traffic superstar...

Those girls looking for fame could achieve it just by clinging to him; who wouldn't be dazed by that?

After browsing Twitter for a while and chatting briefly, Li Rui grew somewhat weary. He didn't have many common topics with these chicks.

Chatting for barely two sentences inevitably led to the topic of "hooking up or not."

Most of these chicks were scattered all over the world; how could they hook up?

Take that beauty pageant winner from Cameroon, for instance—did he really expect to fly over specifically to see her?

Or have them express-deliver themselves to him?

That was all too absurd.

Boring.

Waiting for Odom's party was much more reliable.

Afterward, Li Rui logged into QQ on his phone, wanting to check some domestic information.

Just like the Twitter notifications, QQ was also filled with 99+ messages.

There were private messages, group chats tagging him, densely packed and impossible to get through.

After a quick glance, Li Rui slowly recalled the tidbits of the original owner's domestic life.

The original owner had gone through the nine-year compulsory education curriculum step-by-step since childhood, smoothly entering high school afterward.

If not for his parents' accidental deaths, he might have attended a university domestically or entered the professional CBA youth teams....

From childhood to adulthood, apart from being exceptionally talented in basketball, the original owner's life was no different from an ordinary person's, generally carefree.

He had his close friends, the girl he liked, girls who had secret crushes on him, and stories of passionate youth revolving around basketball.

This peaceful life only came to an abrupt halt when he went to the United States to study abroad in pursuit of his basketball dream.

His parents' accident brought a drastic upheaval to the original owner's life. He poured all his energy into chasing his dreams, spent his savings to study in the U.S. and participate in the NCAA, and was ultimately selected by the Lakers with the final draft pick...

Thinking of the original owner's life experiences, Li Rui couldn't help but feel a bit moved and empathetic.

He himself was actually quite pitiful too.

Both parents deceased, leaving only a cold one million US dollars in his bank account....

However, since he had now accepted all of this, he would face it calmly and strive to fulfill their shared dream!