Chapter 41: A Repulsive Character

On the 3rd, the Hornets assembled, preparing to depart for Miami.

Last night, Tang Bei took the 99th East King Heart-Supplement Pill.

He had no idea if he could still pull this kind of stuff out of the treasure chest, so he saved the last one, intending to return to his home country and have a traditional Chinese medicine practitioner analyze its ingredients.

After consuming 99 of these pills, he felt his heart rate slow down a bit, and his pulse became stronger and more sustained.

Previously, when resting, his resting heart rate was around fifty beats per minute, but now it was only about forty-five, a ten percent reduction in beats.

According to his rudimentary understanding, his cardiac function should have increased by ten percent, correspondingly slowing his rate of aging by ten percent.

However, how long this effect would last remained unknown.

They were scheduled to gather at ten o'clock. Just past nine, Tang Bei and John Liu left their apartment and got into a newly purchased second-hand pickup truck.

Earning in US dollars and spending in US dollars, this beat-up pickup cost three thousand dollars—with a little more added to that, one could build a two-story Western-style house back in his hometown.

Of the six thousand dollars he had on him, only eleven hundred remained. If he was frugal, it should tide him over until payday.

In early August, he had already gotten his driver's license, and now he drove quite smoothly.

The first thing John Liu did after getting into the car was to fasten his seatbelt, then grab tightly onto the overhead handle.

"Vroom!"

"Chug-chug-chug..."

Tang Bei stepped hard on the gas pedal, and as the engine raced, the car body shook violently.

"Whoosh!"

The next moment, he released the handbrake, and the car instantly surged forward. The strong G-force pushing him back into his seat felt exhilarating.

Excitedly, he turned his head and shouted to John Liu, "When I have money, I'm going to custom-build a spacious supercar and properly experience what a real push-back feeling tastes like."

"Watch the road!"

John Liu screamed in panic.

"I'm watching it," Tang Bei said.

"Tang, you should cherish the car. Driving like this causes way too much damage to it."

John Liu intended to reason with him using both logic and emotion.

"Vroom!"

What answered him was the roar of the engine.

"Screech!"

Five minutes later, the pickup stopped in the headquarters' parking lot.

There was a bus in the parking lot with the Hornets' logo on it, but it was still early, so there was nobody on board, and the driver was nowhere in sight.

Tang Bei waited by the bus, conversing with John Liu in English.

Under John Liu's dedicated one-on-one tutoring, immersed in an English-speaking environment, blessed with good learning capability along with a study card and a decent memory, he had already mastered several thousand English words. General English conversation was fine, and basketball terminology, in particular, presented no problems anymore.

"Hey, Mr. Tworkowski, Coach Bristow."

"Hello, Tang."

After a dozen minutes, at nine-thirty, several members of the management and staff arrived, among whom were General Manager Dave Tworkowski and Head Coach Allan Bristow.

Bristow had only returned to work a few days ago, and Tang Bei had met this head coach the day before yesterday.

Normally, a head coach didn't need to go to preseason games—assistant coaches could handle it—but Bristow had only become head coach last season and lacked experience, so he wanted to personally direct the preseason to build up experience.

Cars successively drove into the parking lot then, and player after player dragged their luggage up to the bus.

This was also Tang Bei's first time meeting his teammates, and Tworkowski made the introductions personally.

He already knew the Hornets' roster, as Coach Bristow had told him, and since the Hornets lacked a usable center, he would be playing as a starter right from the start.

Aside from him, the other four members of the starting lineup were power forward Larry Johnson, small forward David Wingate, shooting guard Kendall Gill, and point guard Muggsy Bogues.

Among these four, last season's scoring leader Gill averaged 20.5 points per game, the second scoring option Larry Johnson averaged 19.2 points, Bogues mainly orchestrated the offense, and Wingate had just been traded in this season with ordinary abilities.

The bench lineup featured Mike Gminski (5), Lorenzo Williams (5, 4), Kenny Gattison (5, 4, 3), Tom Hammond (4), J.R. Reid (4, 3), John Newman (3, 2), Kevin Lynch (3, 2), Dell Curry (2), and Tony Bennett (1).

Among them, Curry and Newman were the strongest players on the bench, serving as the third and fourth scoring options last season respectively, but the rest of the reserves were average.

He had three backups, with his primary backup being last season's starting center Kenny Gattison, who could play three positions.

The second backup was Gminski, a 33-year-old veteran riddled with injuries, who had little ability left outside of experience.

The third backup, Lorenzo Williams, was merely an end-of-the-bench filler who hadn't signed a contract yet and might not make the final cut.

Compared to last season, many marginal players and role players had departed, but the core rotation remained largely untouched.

The Hornets' operations were modest, and this roster remained under the salary cap.

At present, the league had not introduced the luxury tax rule, nor was there any mention of fines.

However, after utilizing numerous exceptions such as the Larry Bird exception, if a team still exceeded the salary cap and wished to sign a certain player, they had to make trades to clear salary cap space.

When greeting these teammates, everything went normally until it was Kendall Gill's turn, who said:

"Hey, rookie, I heard you pulled off a KO in a CBA game? Have you practiced boxing? I've practiced it too. My wish is to transition into a professional boxer after retiring from the NBA."

"Pulled off a KO in a basketball game?"

"Good grief, what hasn't this rookie done?"

A group of players immediately grew interested and began chattering among themselves.

Tang Bei lowered his head to size up this teammate. He could tell that the other's gaze was full of fighting spirit—very sharp and full of vitality.

He could mostly understand, but still needed John Liu's help. He replied, "I heard boxers make a lot of money, is that true?"

Kendall Gill shook his head and said, "Only famous boxers make money. Regular boxers do well just to support themselves and their families. Most fighters at the very bottom struggle to get by and have to work second jobs."

"Famous?"

Tang Bei nodded.

"Hey, rookie, I heard you signed a contract worth over ten million?" A short Black player squeezed through the crowd right in front of Tang Bei.

"Yes."

Tang Bei shook hands with Bogues, the shortest player in league history.

Dell Curry remarked with unconcealed jealousy, "The rookie's starting salary is 2.5 million dollars. Larry Johnson is only making 2.52 million this season, and he's the Hornets' second-highest earner."

At that moment, a red Ferrari sports car drove in, and someone remarked, "Grandmama is here."

"Grandmama?"

Tang Bei was taken aback.

"That's Larry Johnson's nickname. He played the role of a grandmother in a commercial," John Liu explained.

"Disgusting role," Dell Curry said coldly.

Tang Bei glanced at Dell Curry. It was clear there was bad blood between him and Larry Johnson!