No.1 in basketball scoring-Chapter 171 - 103. They are all high school students, why is the gap so big?_2

Paul and Felton were also interested in seeing the Griffin brothers, potential future NBA players, but were disappointed not to see them. ƒreewebηoveℓ.com

Seeing a group of people playing baseball, Paul said, "Jack, I heard you used to play baseball. Shall we give it a try?"

Zhang Yang said, "You guys play baseball too? I have no problem with that."

Felton said, "I’ve played before, just for fun is fine."

Anderson, however, stated that he did not play baseball.

The three approached the playground, expressing their desire to join in.

When the students saw the three NBA rookies, they removed their gloves if they were wearing gloves, took off their hats if they had hats, and handed over their bats, allowing them to choose whichever positions they wanted.

Zhang Yang warmed up, knowing that playing one-on-one basketball now would be somewhat difficult to win against these two, but baseball—ha, he had five years of experience in baseball!

After 15 minutes, one inning was over...

Zhang Yang said, "No way, you guys are this good at baseball?"

Felton said, "Jack, weren’t you a baseball player before? Why are you so weak?"

Zhang Yang was silent for two seconds before responding, "I switched to basketball in the 10th grade because I was too bad at baseball..."

Paul said, "Didn’t Raymond tell you he was a baseball team’s key player in high school? Right, we mentioned earlier that we both won the Carolina region baseball championship, and both Raymond and I received college baseball scholarship offers when we graduated from high school."

Zhang Yang said, "Who knew you meant baseball when you talked about the championship!"

He thought bitterly to himself: Give me the ball; I want to go home!

...

The three rookies had a joyful afternoon, with the only one injured being the basketball youth who had five years of baseball experience.

The time reached 7:40 PM the next night at the Ford Center in Oklahoma City, with the Bobcats and Hornets entering the arena in succession.

Zhang Yang looked at the 20,000 fully seated fans, each fan brimming with excitement... The sports passion in Oklahoma City is indeed high!

It’s not surprising, though, as Oklahoma is a state well-known for its sports atmosphere, and just the city of Oklahoma City itself hosts hundreds of professional sports clubs. However, among all these clubs, there isn’t a team from any of the major leagues.

After New Orleans was hit by a hurricane, it was the Oklahoma state legislature that proactively contacted the NBA and the Hornets, turning the Ford Center built in 2002 into a basketball venue rented out to the Hornets. They also took care of accommodations, transportation, and other issues for the Hornets players, even offering tax incentives to the team.

The Hornets originally planned to move to another city in Louisiana, Baton Rouge, home to the main venue of the university where O’Neal studied. However, the negotiations failed as that side did not think of ’state fellowship’ to help each other but rather tried to exploit the situation by demanding an exorbitant price. Fortunately, Oklahoma state lawmakers gave a good counteroffer, so they temporarily moved here.

This clearly shows the people of Oklahoma City’s craving for top-tier leagues.

Another reason for the high enthusiasm of Oklahoma City fans is that the Hornets owner set very low ticket prices.

Apart from front-row tickets, the prices for other seats never exceeded 50 US dollars, and season tickets were as low as 999 US dollars, allowing the enjoyment of 41 home games.

There were also thousands of 1 US dollar tickets available each game for low-income fans.

This season, the Hornets’ average ticket price was only half that of the Toronto Raptors, who had the second lowest average ticket price in the NBA.

The Hornets owner explained that he didn’t want to see large empty spots like when the team was in Charlotte, even if it meant losing money on player salaries.

All these factors combined made the Hornets one of the two teams this season with a 100 percent attendance rate at every home game—the other team being the Detroit Pistons.

However, Zhang Yang still felt that all the nice talk was just the Hornets owner laying the groundwork for a future move back to New Orleans—I don’t owe you guys anything; I’ve given all the benefits back to the fans.

Even if New Orleans was destroyed by a hurricane, it is still a southern coastal city that can set much higher prices than in Oklahoma City, with far greater supplementary earnings. There is a reason the major leagues do not want to settle in Oklahoma.

At 8 PM, the Bobcats and the Hornets game started.

Hornets starting lineup: Paul, Rasual Butler, Desmond Mason, David West, PJ Brown.

Bobcats starting lineup: Felton, Karim Rush, Gerald Wallace, Eli, Brezec.

With Okafor missing from the Bobcats’ lineup, the Hornets had a clear advantage in the paint, and though PJ Brown was 36 years old, he was still robust, averaging 9 points and 7 rebounds with good defense; David West, after Magloire was traded, had been promoted to starting power forward, jumping from an average of 6 points as a reserve to an all-star level averaging 17 points.

But Felton and Gerald Wallace were formidable, not only offsetting the inside disadvantage but also leading their team to take the upper hand!

Felton, with his 185 cm and 93 kg tank-like build, was actually holding his own against Paul, but the real focus was on Gerald Wallace—he nearly skinned Desmond Mason alive!

Gerald Wallace scored 7 points with 2 rebounds, 1 block in just half a quarter, shooting 2 for 3 and 4 for 3 from the free throw line, leading the Bobcats to a 4-point lead, 15-11 over the Hornets.

PJ Brown was substituted early with two fouls in half a quarter; he was infuriated by Desmond Mason’s defense.

Desmond Mason couldn’t stop Gerald Wallace’s cuts or drives at all.

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