Y13 [EN]: Chapter 98

Y13-98 (98/296)

00098 2010-11 Regular Season =========================================================================

Brewer was now at the center of this story, expressing his thoughts.

“I know I’m not qualified to say this. If I had done well, I wouldn’t have moved teams like this. But now I’m here, and I’ll do my best. This team gave me playing opportunities and a long-term contract, and I’m happy with that. This team aims to win, and I like the team members. Among them, the player who impressed me the most was the youngest but showed the best play, and that was you. When I matched up against you, I played my worst. You might not remember, though, since you’ve defeated so many players.”

Brewer paused, a bitter smile on his face as if recalling the past.

“But, coming to this team, I thought you could be a teammate I could model myself after. I thought I could improve my skills playing with you. I came from Dallas with the goal of contributing my part to a team that’s aiming for a championship.”

Everyone listened to Brewer with serious expressions, moved by his sincerity.

“But the guy I was most looking forward to has become a coward. Of course, I don’t know what happened. But I’m not calling you a coward just to pick a fight. I just want you to go back to how you were before. Tyson Chandler, Dirk Nowitzki, Kidd, Terry, Marion, and the rest of the players here have all experienced the nightmare of injuries. You’re not alone. Regardless of the severity, injuries are scary and frightening. But… injuries are inseparable from athletes. Besides, Yoon, you weren’t even hurt, right? Don’t be afraid of something that hasn’t even happened. Right?”

Being scared and consistently passive like this wasn’t like me. But I couldn’t say that just this one conversation had dispelled all my fear. I had to calmly assess my current state and overcome the trauma.

‘Injuries are like friends to athletes… that’s right. No player goes through a career without injuries.’

The threat of injury always followed athletes. Only players who overcame those injuries could have long careers. Many players lived with minor injuries throughout the season. Besides, there was even a teammate on our team who was out for the season and undergoing rehabilitation. Chandler’s injury scene overlapped with my own injury scene, but Chandler’s injury wasn’t serious, and I wasn’t even injured.

Youngjae had been trapped in his memories and hadn’t looked around him. Besides Chandler, there were several players in Dallas who had experienced severe injuries. Nevertheless, the players continued to survive and perform in the NBA even in their 30s.

‘I still have a lot to learn.’

Youngjae nodded and approached Brewer.

“Brewer, thank you. Really. The other teammates were too careful with me, but you shot straight.”

Puck!

“Be more aggressive! You haven’t succeeded properly yet! Stop hesitating!”

Brewer shouted at the top of his lungs and threw the ball back to Youngjae. Youngjae’s whole body was drenched in cold sweat, but he steadied his ragged breathing as much as possible and faced Brewer again.

“If you can’t beat a player like me, there’s no hope. You know that, right?”

Brewer’s words made sense. Brewer, who could be seen as having a typically lean physique, was 6-8 to 6-9 (206cm) tall but weighed only 211 lb (96kg). In terms of weight alone, he was similar to Youngjae, so Youngjae, who had shown excellent slashing ability before the game against Philadelphia, should have been able to finish around the basket against him.

However, unlike big men, Brewer was a forward with excellent agility. As if proving that he was not just a swingman defender or a defensive specialist, Brewer was thoroughly cornering Youngjae. In a way, he could be seen as the defender with the worst matchup for himself.

“Damn…”

Youngjae, who hadn’t expected to become so helpless, wanted to throw the basketball away but continued to face Brewer. Whether it was a layup or a floater, Youngjae was doing special training to compete with Brewer in the air and attempt a basket shot.

At the end of the conversation, Brewer suggested this special training to Youngjae, and Youngjae agreed because there was no reason to refuse. Brewer was slightly late for training, saying he had somewhere to go for a while, but that wasn’t a big problem for them.

‘Heh—he’s not the type to get along well with everyone. Would it kill him to say it nicely? You brat!’

Chandler was embarrassed that he had been angry with Brewer, so he deliberately put Brewer in a headlock and grumbled, and Brewer tried to push Chandler away, saying why was he being so disgusting. But there was nothing Brewer could do about Chandler’s tremendous strength, so he had no choice but to be in a sleepy state for a while.

The two had been doing 1:1 customized training for over an hour.

“Stop shooting to avoid me! Try to make contact with me aggressively and get an and-one [a play where a player is fouled while scoring, and gets a free throw]! You bastard!”

Brewer clapped his hands hard and provoked Youngjae, and Youngjae started grinding his teeth as he looked at Brewer. Youngjae’s poisonous personality began to emerge from the subtly irritating insults.

Tung! Tung!

To confuse Brewer’s gaze, he bounced the ball between his legs a few times, then shifted his weight to his right ankle and sprang to the opposite side like a spring, using a crossover dribble [a basketball maneuver where the player rapidly switches the ball between hands to change direction].

“Yeah! Why the hell haven’t you been doing that all this time when you’re so good at it! What are you going to do here now!”

Brewer was slightly embarrassed by the crossover, but he immediately followed Youngjae and shouted. Youngjae jumped off the ground with the determination to give the talkative Brewer a taste of his own medicine. But Brewer stuck to Youngjae again and shouted.

“You hesitated again, you coward!”

Whoosh!!

Brewer seemed to have caught the timing perfectly, swinging his right arm concisely and trying to knock the ball out of Youngjae’s hand. For a moment, Youngjae’s body shrank in fear. In his head, he was already easily avoiding Brewer’s block and putting the ball in the basket, but his body was stiff.

“You son of a bitch!!!”

For the first time in an hour, Youngjae screamed to shake off his fear. He was sick of being so timid and cowering in the corner like a shriveled squid. Youngjae didn’t want to do that anymore.

Puck!

Finally, after another long time, after a full two hours, Youngjae aggressively pushed his shoulder into Brewer’s chest. Instead of shrinking to protect his body in the air, he pushed Brewer hard and aggressively. Knowing that a fake layup like a double clutch was impossible given the jumping timing, Youngjae slightly pulled the ball down with his right hand and then raised it again.

“?!!”

As a result, Brewer had no choice but to make a big swing. Nevertheless, as soon as Brewer realized that he had made a futile swing, he tried to block Youngjae’s attack by sticking his upper body as close as possible to Youngjae’s direction of travel in order to prevent Youngjae from making at least an easy shot.

“Get out of here!”

Youngjae slightly lowered his raised right hand so that it was parallel to his shoulder line, and then extended his hand to the side of Brewer. As if he had avoided Brewer’s upper body by going around it, Youngjae’s right hand was in a situation where it was barely passing Brewer’s side and was about to touch the basket.

Kwaaang!!!!

Youngjae, who had persistently pushed Brewer, finally slammed the ball in his right hand into the basket with all his might. Brewer was pushed back by the reaction and landed, and Youngjae was also hanging from the basket with his right hand, and the reaction was so severe that his whole body was swaying greatly towards the baseline.

All of these plays happened within about 1 second of competing in the air.

“Huff, huff…”

Tak-

Youngjae took his hand off the rim and reached out to the fallen Brewer.

“Are you okay?”

“Heh, it feels weird to hear someone who was cursing at me to eat me alive just now asking if I’m okay?”

Brewer grabbed Youngjae’s hand and got up, laughing and tapping the back of Youngjae’s head lightly. Brewer, who hit with a force that was just enough to make him feel bad, smiled pleasantly.

“See! You can do it if you try! Aww, I finally feel relieved. Are you the type who gets angry when you get cursed at? What are you, a masochist… I’m sure the doctors, coaches, and captains have given you advice, but…”

Looking at Brewer, who was still making annoying noises, Youngjae wondered if he had helped him up for nothing, but when he received a document that he was rummaging through in his bag, those thoughts melted away.

“This is the test result of your ankle that you couldn’t believe even after checking it. There’s nothing wrong with it, it’s perfectly clean. The doctor said it’s the cleanest ankle he’s ever seen and the risk of injury is extremely low. Well, I guess being scared helped. He said that the overall flexibility and balance of your ankle has improved recently, but I don’t know what that means.”

“Brewer…”

Brewer shook his head from side to side and fanned his hand.

“Wow, it’s been a long time since I’ve sweated so much like crazy. You disgusting guy. Hey, can you see me? I’ve sweated this much, don’t you realize something?”

Youngjae looked puzzled, wondering what the hell he was talking about, and Brewer scratched his head and pointed his finger at Youngjae’s ankle as if he was frustrated.

“The regular game is 48 minutes, but you’ve been running around for over 120 minutes without resting, competing in the air, and just now, aww… you even took a humiliating in-your-face dunk, but you’re fine! Your ankle!”

“…… Huh?!”

That was true. Rather, he had been feeling the cleanest since the Philadelphia game, so he had been feeling strange, but it wasn’t just a feeling. Brewer was telling him that the ankle that had been running around with him for over 120 minutes, the ankle that had been so scared and trembling that it was about to get hurt, was actually fine.

“You must have already felt it while playing a few games. That’s why I think your performance has improved little by little. But even so, you haven’t been able to shake off the last bit of fear and have continued to play passively. Well, I’m not an expert, so I don’t know, but I thought if I pushed you hard like this, your play would come out someday. I’m glad it exploded properly when I thought I should give up… but I can’t believe I was so humiliated.”

Looking at Brewer, who was grumbling without being able to say good things until the end, Youngjae finally smiled brightly. Youngjae’s mood was at its peak, so much so that he couldn’t remember how long it had been since he had felt this clean. Still, Youngjae knew that he shouldn’t let his guard down. If he played recklessly in a giddy mood, there might be some risk factors.

“Hey, Brewer. Don’t be so narrow-minded. We’re all teammates, right? Huh? It can happen sometimes.”

A sly joke. A relaxed tone. The cursed Y13 that Brewer had faced was finally back.

“Brewer, do you have a lot of time today?”

“If you’re asking me out on a date, get lost. I have a girlfriend?”

“…… I’m not into guys either? I’m just saying thank you, so I’ll buy you a meal.”

Brewer changed his expression and asked, ‘Then can I eat something expensive?’ and Youngjae smiled.

“If you rest for about 20 minutes and help me with 1:1 training for another hour… I’ll think about Burger Max and Starbucks in front of you.”

“You son of a bitch… are you kidding me? Okay, I’ll eat the most luxurious meal at Burger Max with a Double Quarter Pounder Max set and a Green Tea Frappuccino at Starbucks. You make a lot of money, but you’re stingy!”

“Brewer makes twice as much as me? Of course Brewer is richer than me.”

Youngjae finished training with Brewer without giving up a single word until the end. Brewer really ate a Double Quarter Pounder Max set and a Green Tea Frappuccino, emptying Youngjae’s wallet.

============================ Author’s Notes ============================

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

＠Congratulations to the Golden State Warriors on their first championship in 40 years.

＠Thanks to you for telling me to do well on the exam, I did well on the exam today. Good luck to those who still have exams left!! Thank you~~

Kines/// Thank you for the first comment!!

misscherry/// He’s originally a player with that kind of personality, so I’m exaggerating it a bit ㅋㅋ

ㅎ0ㅎ/// Sports harem is no no…ㅠ.ㅠ It doesn’t suit me too well;;;

머머겅/// Sometimes you need a nuclear fastball depending on the situation. It’s a kind of shock therapy. Well, the trap is that it often goes worse if you do it wrong ㅋㅋ

Bluejacket/// We are not psychiatrists or psychology experts, so we may be wrong. If you are an expert in this field, please let us know more by 쪽지. However, Youngjae has never overcome an injury. He was just frustrated by the injury and died. So, if it’s a scene where the injury from his previous life overlaps, I thought it could cause trauma.

And originally, if a player with Brewer’s status came out to Youngjae like that, Brewer would be traded again if he didn’t like it. From the club’s point of view, who would they throw away if there was a conflict between a useful backup prospect and the team’s second scorer and a prospect they were raising for the future? And in the first place, Brewer and Youngjae have different uses and positions, so even if Youngjae is sluggish, Brewer won’t have any playing time. Terry, Barea, and Boboa’s time will increase. And the players have quite a bit of camaraderie during the season. Team chemistry is the most necessary thing for a championship team. You can see it if you look at the Golden State Warriors or Cleveland Cavaliers this season. It’s only business when it comes to contract issues. Besides, this team is doing well, so all the players can wear the championship ring that all the players dream of if there are no injured players. If Brewer isn’t stupid, he’ll know that if the team’s second option is out due to injury, he won’t be able to win the championship even if his playing time increases.

얏홍이다, 混旽/// The other players have already given soft advice, but it didn’t work, so Brewer’s nuclear fastball…

강자일/// It’s a bit difficult to have a harem as you said;; In modern things, especially in sports

쿤다라, 오마리온/// Thank you for your comments as always!!

라피르and진트/// I added a little more to the original personality ㅋㅋ. There was no player in Dallas who could play that kind of character.

야베스/// In the end, it’s the Warriors’ championship. Cleveland’s almost half of their salary is injured players.

야랑검/// Yes. He kept provoking that coward and recovered a little ㅎㅎ

달의물방울º天/// It’s too big that both Irving and Love are out. There’s no ball handler and no scorer. LeBron has no choice but to run out of energy.

-DarkANGEL-/// The next game is coming soon~~

KAMA/// ㅎㅎ We also play basketball sometimes. The problem is that we’re terribly bad ㅠ.ㅠ