One Year Left to Play

Chapter 618: Chapter 190: All the Ways to Steal the Headlines (Part 3)

He really liked the phrase Zhang Hao said, "Jordan has a first-team teammate," and now, Sir Ba has one too!

But...

After being invited into the living room, Barkley felt a bit uneasy...

This rookie in front of him was just too calm!

"Mr. Barkley, it’s truly a pleasure to have the opportunity to be your teammate."

The word "mister" made Barkley feel very uncomfortable.

Although Barkley appreciated Zhang Hao’s politeness, they were going to be teammates, yet still so formal...

After entering the living room and exchanging pleasantries with Zhang Hao’s family, Barkley heard Zhang Hao ask, "Mr. Barkley, would you like some black tea?" and finally couldn’t hold back.

Barkley forcibly interrupted Zhang Hao’s overly polite manner of speaking, "Aix, just call me Charles or you can call me Sir. I like that nickname."

"Okay, Sir."

Sir... anyway, it sounded more comfortable than Mr. Barkley, so Barkley accepted it. He did like Zhang Hao’s politeness, after all, he couldn’t teach a 19-year-old to be rude, right?

Ignoring this issue for now, and deciding to have Zhang Hao change the address later if there’s a chance, Barkley said, "I don’t like black tea, do you have any juice? If there’s milk tea, that would be even better. I want double sugar."

Double sugar... Zhang Hao quickly glanced at Barkley’s figure... well, there’s no need to worry about Barkley getting too fat and affecting his performance. With a physique like this, he could still run across the court like a small forward and make dunks, no big deal.

"There’s a milk tea shop nearby. Paul, could you please get a milk tea with double sugar?"

Zhang Hao said to Pierce, and Pierce immediately hustled off to buy the milk tea.

The Lakers’ most powerful power forward in history is here! As a spiritual shareholder, Pierce was even more excited than Zhang Hao, he could hardly speak clearly.

After sending Pierce off to buy milk tea, Zhang Hao said to Barkley, "By the way, Sir, Paul’s nickname in high school was Inglewood Barkley. He’s just like you, possessing all the skills a forward should have."

This subtle flattery pleased Barkley, and he nodded in response, "He certainly is like me. I have watched the University of Kansas and Georgetown University games before, and he looks a lot like me on the court!"

"..."

Zhang Hao was just being polite, trying to find a topic, but he hadn’t expected Barkley to shamelessly admit it!

Before losing weight, Pierce was indeed called Inglewood Flying Pig, but now he’s two meters tall and weighs 105 kilos. You’re not even 198 cm and weigh 120 kilos. How is that the same?

The conversation topics were getting fewer and fewer, to the point that Barkley seemed restless as if a needle was poking him in his seat.

Waiting for Pierce to quickly return with the milk tea and after being shown around the large villa by a little girl, Barkley couldn’t resist taking his leave...

After leaving the villa, sitting in the car driven by the little girl’s butler back home, Barkley looked at the heap of gifts he brought back and the half-drunk milk tea in his hand...

"Today, I went to enjoy the joy of upcoming cooperation with that rookie... no, my first-team teammate, right? What did I end up doing today... Wait, what did he ask me to do when I left? Train!

NO! I think I agreed?

God, such a self-disciplined teammate is a bit hard to deal with! Will he drag me to train every day?

However, having such a self-disciplined teammate on the team, I’m not afraid we won’t win games, right?

Does that mean I can slack off often during the regular season?

Train then train, it’s no big deal to teach him and that college student..."

On the other side, after sending Barkley off, Zhang Hao finally started to show his excitement, feeling like he could walk with the wind...

Introducing Barkley was much smoother than Zhang Hao anticipated, by far.

"However, with this, our inside combination is settled, we have a real star joining, plus me and Jason, the Magician might also renew his contract. Although the center position is a bit weak, we can mainly focus on a dual power forward combination, but what about the outside... Logo Man sent Nick away, he must have his reasons, really strange, I thought he would use Doug as a bargaining chip, didn’t he really like Nick? Ever since the All-Star Weekend, he has been getting the old fox to give Nick more attention."

With the core inside combination settled, Zhang Hao had great confidence in Logo Man’s operation. At least he secured a top three power forward in the league, so he wasn’t as concerned about the upcoming moves for the outer positions.

He was relaxed here, but the trade heat between the Phoenix Suns and Los Angeles Lakers that was exposed last night had just reached a boiling point.

The Suns hadn’t come out to refute, and neither had the Lakers, Lakers fans were wild with joy! Just like Pierce, they also regarded Barkley as the strongest power forward acquisition in their team’s history!

This time, it really stole the spotlight even away from the Finals!

...

After the trade terms from the Lakers were exposed, the Suns were looking everywhere for trade partners, trying to exchange Anthony Peeler, Donyell Marshall, and Van Exel for this year’s and next year’s draft picks news constantly, occupying the trending news.

Finally, after the SuperSonics narrowly defeated the Bulls 91 to 85 at their home court and the Finals reached the pivotal Game 5, did the Finals finally reclaim the spotlight from the Lakers acquiring Barkley.

On June 11th, the Bulls and SuperSonics battled fiercely on the Bulls’ home court.

In the final moments, the two teams were tied at 86. Jordan had 10 of 26 shooting, plus 5 of 7 from the free-throw line, scoring 25 points. Payton’s defense was pretty good, however, Payton himself was limited to 7 of 17 shooting for 19 points. The SuperSonics, relying on Kemp’s 7 of 9 shooting for 20 points, managed to tie the game with the Bulls.

In the last 7 seconds, Jordan received the ball for a one-on-one play against Payton, and hit the turnaround fade-away jumper, Bulls triumphed 88 to 86 over the SuperSonics, taking Game 5!

This time, Jordan thought he finally deserved the headlines!

During the post-game interviews, no one asked about Zhang Hao or Barkley’s trade, which finally put him at ease. The Finals game-winning shot deserved the headlines!

However...

After the game, an entertainment news piece dominated the sports section’s headlines...

Tsuburaya Productions officially announced—Los Angeles Lakers young star Zhang Hao will join the Ultraman series as a lead, birthing the all-new Ultraman X Ultraman!