Y13 [EN]: Chapter 81

Y13-81 2010-11 All-Star Weekend
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February 18, 2011. The All-Star Eve was truly just that, a night of festivities. The Rookie Challenge was the main event, with various audience participation events and performances prepared before, after, and during halftime.

As the final performance by HOOBASTANK ended before the game, the players finally began to warm up. The audience watched the players practice their shooting and check their condition, becoming increasingly excited as the game approached.

“Emily, look over there. Yoon is over there.”

Steve spotted Youngjae shooting in his sky-blue Mavericks jersey and watched him intently.

“Oh, his shooting looks good today?”

“Yeah! Oh, Meli. Yoon’s ankle brace looks really worn out, so I’m saving up my allowance! Can you help me pick another one?”

Meli nodded at David’s pure fan admiration, looking fondly at the ankle brace Youngjae was wearing. She genuinely wanted the child she cared for like a younger brother to succeed.

“……”

However, Emily seemed to have slightly different feelings than Meli. Though she didn’t show it, she couldn’t help but be drawn to Youngjae’s quick shooting form, the clean shots, and his polite demeanor during their first meeting. She was constantly drawn to Youngjae, who had a simple, appealing aura.

“Oh my, Emily. Is that your type? A younger man who’s like a child?”

“No, it’s just, I don’t know much about the NBA…”

“Why not? Yoon is tall, has a good build, and looks young for his age. He seems polite, and there’s something about him… he doesn’t feel like a young man. Okay! I’ll give you my blessing!”

As the two actresses played sisters Meggie and Beth in the show, they were naturally close. In reality, Lauren was born in 1982, and Emily in 1985, so Emily adored Lauren like a younger sister.

“It wouldn’t be strange if someone snatched a guy like that up. He doesn’t seem like a Casanova like Steve.”

“Hey, no~ I’m just trying to create a harmonious filming atmosphere…”

“Yeah, sure. So, how’s it going with Norman?”

“Ugh! Why are you bringing up Norman?”

While Steve and Lauren bickered, Emily couldn’t help but keep glancing at Youngjae.

Regardless, Youngjae, unaware of all this, was focused on the game. He would enjoy the game as an exhibition, but he had no intention of taking it lightly. He would satisfy the audience and himself with flair unseen in the league, and he would enjoy this game to the fullest.

After finishing their light warm-ups, the players returned to their respective teams. Following the instructions of the coaches, the players selected as starters slowly took off their jerseys and began to prepare for the game.

“It would be perfect to bring victory along with a fun festival and a great, flashy performance. Everyone, show those second-year players a thing or two.”

The players let out short, powerful shouts in response to Coach Mike Budenholzer’s words.

“Everyone, go out there and do what you want! Show us a lot of new things!”

Amare Stoudemire, encouraging the players as a coach rather than a player today. The rookie team players almost burst out laughing at Amare’s awkward suit, but they held back and high-fived him.

[Hello! I’m Mike Breen, and I’ll be the announcer for the first day of the 2010-2011 NBA All-Star Weekend, exclusively broadcast on ESPN.]

[And I’m Chris Webber on commentary. Mike? Nice to see you.]

[Haha! Nice to see you too. The atmosphere of the All-Star Game, the biggest festival of the NBA regular season, always feels incredibly exciting every year. Today, the Rookie Challenge is held as the All-Star Eve, right?]

[That’s right. It’s the very first event among the many events of the three-day All-Star Weekend. The T-Mobile Rookie Challenge marks the spectacular start of the 60th All-Star Game. As the name suggests, it’s a showdown between rookies who have just debuted in the NBA and sophomore players who have gone through a tough rookie season. The one-year gap is quite significant for these players, so the sophomore team usually tends to win! The rookie team has only won twice in the 21st century’s first decade. Moreover, today’s sophomore team consists of the second-year players who defeated the sophomore team when they were rookies last year. That shows how formidable this sophomore team is. I wonder which side will win today?]

[However, this season, experts and fans alike overwhelmingly predict the rookie team’s victory. This season’s rookies are just too amazing. All five players expected to start are showing better records than the sophomore players in the same positions.]

Webber nodded as if it were obvious to Mike Breen’s opinion and began to comment fluently.

[The rookie team’s starting lineup is John Wall, Youngjae Yoon, Landry Fields, Blake Griffin, and DeMarcus Cousins. Facing them, the sophomore team’s starting lineup is Brandon Jennings, Stephen Curry, DeMar DeRozan, Taj Gibson, and DeJuan Blair! As you said, looking at this season’s records alone, it’s true that all five rookie team players are showing superiority. I don’t think there’s ever been a season like this!]

[In particular, Blake Griffin, who is leading the Rookie of the Year race, has become the 45th player in history to be selected for the All-Star Game in his rookie season. And John Wall and Youngjae Yoon, who are competing with Griffin for Rookie of the Year, are also showing records that wouldn’t be surprising if they were selected for the All-Star Game. I’m really curious to see what kind of synergy the Rookie of the Year trio will create!]

[Cousins and Fields are also having great seasons, but the sophomore team doesn’t have many players who can compare to their records. Last year’s Rookie Challenge was expected to be dominated by the sophomore team, but the rookie team won. I wonder what the result of this Rookie Challenge will be!! The game is about to start!!]

No sooner had Mike Breen and Chris Webber finished talking than the referee’s hand released the ball, sending it soaring into the sky.

Woahhh!!!

[Jump ball!! DeMarcus Cousins gets the ball.]

[As expected, the rookie team is bound to have an advantage in the jump ball because DeJuan Blair is an undersized center. Cousins passes the ball to John Wall.]

Due to the nature of the All-Star Game, defensive marking wasn’t severe, but the plays naturally became flashy as the players didn’t want to be outdone in the performance showdown. Therefore, as soon as John Wall received the ball, he passed it to Blake Griffin. Coach Budenholzer and Coach Amare recommended that the players take turns attacking in each position, and the players chuckled, saying it would be fun.

Griffin dribbled the ball past the half-court line, looking around at the players. Griffin, positioned at the top, started dribbling low, wondering if he should dribble for a while. Youngjae, intrigued by Griffin’s actions, quickly set a screen in front of him.

Griffin seemed to brush past Youngjae’s screen, but as soon as he shook off his marker, he immediately shot a three-pointer. The clumsy-looking three-pointer hit the rim and bounced out!

[Griffin’s three-pointer misses, and the ball is falling!]

“Whoa!!”

DeMarcus Cousins, checking the falling ball and shaking off DeJuan Blair with a box-out [blocking out an opponent near the basket to secure a rebound], jumped towards the falling ball, grabbed it with both hands, and slammed it straight into the rim.

[DeMarcus Cousins’s incredible put-back dunk!!!]

[DeJuan Blair, overwhelmed by the height and missed the positioning!]

[Wow, an amazing dunk right from the start! This is the thrill of the All-Star Game! The players in the Rookie Challenge are proving that they are by no means lacking in skill!]

Unlike usual, Cousins firmly gripped the rim with both hands, giving tremendous strength to his biceps as if doing a chin-up. As a result, his legs naturally seemed to be pulled up, and the power was so great that the sturdy goal swayed.

DeMarcus Cousins was living up to the Sacramento Kings’ expectations. So far, he was averaging 13.2 points, 7.8 rebounds, and 2.1 assists in 25 minutes per game, fully demonstrating his offensive center skills. However, doubts about his defensive abilities still remained. He didn’t even average one block per game, showed clumsiness in guarding the paint, and averaged a whopping 3.7 turnovers per game due to reckless attacks.

In particular, his mental aspect was a concern within the team. He was easily caught up in psychological warfare, and if he judged that the game was tilting, he would show signs of giving up. Of course, since it was impossible to know Cousins’s inner thoughts, it was impossible to know what worries he had, but at least today’s Cousins was enjoying the game itself, leaving out those worries and bad habits.

The sophomore team didn’t stand still either. Brandon Jennings and Stephen Curry pressured the rookie team with their dazzling dribbling. Of course, they didn’t play very tight defense, but they could play high-risk, high-reward defense instead of stability. Even if they didn’t stick as closely or play as rough as in a regular season game, they could kill the opponent’s momentum and provide the audience with great scenes with eye-catching defense like steals and blocks.

“Let’s take it easy. Huh?”

“Yeah, let’s take it easy.”

Jennings smiled slyly and spoke to Youngjae, and Youngjae nodded in response, pretending to defend casually, lowering his arm to show that he had no intention of defending.

Thwack!

[Ahhh! Youngjae Yoon, who pretended to lower his arm in front of Jennings and stepped back slightly! He steals the ball from Jennings, who was trying to make a flashy drive-in by swinging his arm like a whip!]

[Defense can definitely be flashy too?! Among them, the defensive action that happens in an instant is the steal! As expected, Youngjae Yoon, who boasts the most outstanding steals among the rookies!]

The audience was surprised by Youngjae’s steal and cheered loudly. The Aztecs members felt like they had returned to last year and cheered for Youngjae, and the Meli and David family went without saying. Steve and Lauren were also immersed in the game, clapping and chanting Youngjae’s name.

John Wall ran alongside Youngjae, who was running forward after the steal. Youngjae laughed out loud and ran straight to the rim. Youngjae jumped up as if to slam a one-handed dunk, bounced the ball off the backboard, and came straight down, and John Wall, as if he already knew Youngjae’s intention, soared up as soon as Youngjae landed without a moment’s hesitation.

[BANG!!!]

[Wow, wow! The two players pulled off an amazing dunk as if they had played together on the same team for a long time!]

The audience all stood up and shouted John Wall’s name. John Wall grabbed the ball from Youngjae’s amazing backboard alley-oop pass, turned it around, and slammed it straight down, so the audience couldn’t help but be delighted.

Budenholzer and Amare Stoudemire also forgot that they were wearing suits and applauded and cheered for Youngjae and John Wall’s play. John Wall high-fived Youngjae and celebrated with a bicep dance, and Youngjae also raised the atmosphere by dancing the bicep dance with John Wall like a group dance next to him.

Sensibly, as soon as John Wall danced, the music of Bbabam- Bbabam- rang briefly in the stadium, and the audience was excited and shouted John Wall’s name while dancing the bicep dance.

[Youngjae Yoon to John Wall’s fantastic teamwork! Wow, wouldn’t it be great if these two players played on the same team?!]

============================ Author’s Afterword ============================

★Thank you to those who gave advance reservations, recommendations, comments, and coupons!!

＠At this time, the coaches of both teams were Amare Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony, who were the best stars in the active duty at the time.

＠See you in the new episode at midnight. Re-comments there~~