The Best Point Guard

The million-dollar bet.

A home-court rout.

And most importantly, whether Goat Su Xi, after winning a personal three-peat, would have a ticket to challenge Jordan.

Su Xi also answered a similar question after the game.

"Our goal has always been to win the championship, you guys just didn’t believe in us," Su Xi told the ESPN sideline reporter. "You’d rather believe all the analyses and discussions than listen to the account of the person actually involved."

"I have no interest in surpassing Jordan, and I don’t like the word ’surpass.’ What is there to surpass? It’s good enough for everyone to just be themselves and perform to their absolute best."

"What is my absolute best? You’ll see. The number of championships will tell you everything."

"We never intentionally aim for a sweep. But we chase victory in every single game. We give it our all. Every one of us is at our historical peak, and I believe a team like that will keep on winning."

"Of course, Dallas is a great team. The competition they face in the West is far more intense than what we face in the East. That’s an indisputable fact."

"Nowitzki is an amazing player. If I had the chance, I’d really look forward to playing with him. In the words of Mark Cuban, if you added me to Nowitzki, we would definitely sweep every championship."

This wasn’t an exaggeration at all.

With Su Xi’s immense destructive ability on the court, giving him an all-weather offensive forward would mean the NBA could really just call it a day—provided no other teams assembled some kind of super-galactic fleet.

After the brief interview, Su Xi returned to the locker room, showered, and went home.

He turned on the TV, and it was all news about the Knicks.

For New York City, the Knicks’ rapid rise this season had become a source of civic pride.

This also drove up the number of Su Xi’s commercials on local television. More and more local companies were seeking him for endorsements or collaborations, and his income was exploding. No wonder so many stars wanted to play for the Knicks.

Su Xi saw an interesting scene on TV. Eddie Curry was actually doing a Chinese dance in front of the camera.

It was in response to a reporter asking how he felt about being able to play in the next game.

He said he was very happy.

The reporter asked him how happy he was.

So he started dancing.

When a black bear starts wiggling in front of you without a care for his image, you can intuitively feel just how happy he is.

His joy was contagious, and Su Xi found himself feeling happy too.

The audience watching at home felt the same way.

In contrast to the joy and happiness of the Knicks fans, Dallas wasn’t smiling. They had lost two away games, which completely derailed their plans. Although losing away games in the Finals was common, the Knicks were missing two of their starters.

They had originally planned to snatch at least one victory in New York, which would have put the Mavericks within arm’s reach of their first championship trophy in franchise history.

But now, not only had they lost two away games, their morale had also taken a significant hit.

Because what these two games revealed was this: the Dallas Mavericks had absolutely no way to stop the Knicks. The Mavericks’ only chance to win was if the Knicks made mistakes themselves or if their entire team went ice-cold from the field.

When Mark Cuban saw the result of the second game, his hands went cold.

He wasn’t even sad, just dazed, blank, and helpless... ’Why? We worked so hard for so long, so why can’t we beat the Knicks in the end? How do they make it look so effortless?’

He ran through scenario after scenario in his head, but ultimately, there was only one answer: Goat Su Xi.

Or rather, the dominance of Goat Su Xi.

He was now completely certain that Su Xi was the most dominant player in the league today. He was also fully convinced that Su Xi could defeat any superstar. Furthermore, he felt that Su Xi’s current strength was no less than that of a peak Jordan.

He had even achieved things that Jordan never did.

To be fair, if Jordan were leading this Knicks team against the Mavericks in the Finals, Mark Cuban wouldn’t be worried at all. He might even feel relaxed.

Jordan was fierce, but not in the same way as Su Xi. Su Xi’s fierceness came from seeing through everything, seizing your weakness, and launching a targeted assault that forced you to surrender unconditionally.

Jordan’s assistant responded to the controversy.

"We have already prepared the one million USD and will complete the donation in the shortest possible time."

Obviously, Jordan wasn’t short on money.

What he lacked was face.

Trying to act cool only to get owned made Jordan furious. He even snapped his favorite golf club.

He really didn’t like Su Xi, and he disliked Isaiah Thomas even more.

But now, these two had joined forces, attacking him one after another. ’They’re even trying to steal my title as the God of Basketball! Their intentions are sinister, their evil knows no bounds!’

However, just as Isaiah Thomas said, what could Jordan do? He couldn’t go back to being 25, even if he firmly believed that at 25, he could still easily dominate the league and repeatedly crush Su Xi, who was six centimeters shorter than him.

Now, Jordan could only focus on managing his team and making the Bobcats great.

He had already begun scouting rookies on a large scale, contacting various teams, and increasing the club’s budget. He hoped to give the Bobcats a complete, transformative overhaul before the new season arrived.

At this moment, his good friend Charles Barkley made a statement that put him in an extremely awkward position.

"If Little Sheep Su Xi wins the championship this year, then he will completely and officially become Goat Su Xi. We have to admit, he’s already dominating the current league. He ended the era of centers and, like Jordan, established the dominance of perimeter players over the league. And, I’ll make a bold prediction."

"This year is the beginning of Goat Su Xi’s reign over the NBA. The Knicks, in their current state, are undoubtedly at their worst. If he can lead the team to victory even when the Knicks are at their lowest, then... what will happen when the Knicks gradually mature?"

"And don’t forget, Goat Su Xi is also still growing. He’s far from reaching his peak."

"Even though he himself says he doesn’t want to surpass Jordan and has no interest in that sort of thing, what if he wins a six-peat? A seven-peat? What will people say then? In fact, I think as long as he completes a personal four-peat, he can already be compared to Michael’s two three-peats. If it’s a five-peat, he will have completely surpassed Jordan."

"I know these words might be unfair to Michael. He’s being surpassed without ever having a direct showdown with Jack on the court. But don’t forget, back when Michael surpassed Chamberlain, there was no direct showdown either."

Charles Barkley’s lengthy speech garnered a lot of agreement, especially among the fans.

Some basketball experts also said that he had a point.

Only Larry Brown was still putting up a futile resistance. He wasn’t just Su Xi’s enemy; he was also Jordan’s friend. Like Jordan, he was a pride of the North Carolina System.

But now, Jordan’s pride was under threat, and his own pride had long since been shattered by Su Xi.

So, he said: "How many records does Jack Su have? What earth-shattering feats has he accomplished? Let’s talk about surpassing Jordan when he dominates the record books like Jordan did, when his records are unbreakable. Everyone saying these things now are just people who were once beaten by Jordan, so they’re hoping someone can beat him, even going so far as to deliberately manufacture such a person. They do it to lessen the pain of their own past defeats."

Larry Brown had long since planted his ass firmly on the opposite side.

Even Reggie Miller couldn’t be bothered to debate him anymore.

After the second game, he only asked Larry Brown one thing: "What was it you said before the game? Do you remember?"

Larry Brown pretended he didn’t remember anything.

Seeing him stoop to the level of shamelessly going back on his word, Miller lost the urge to mock him any further. After all, it had come to this.

Meanwhile, the Knicks boarded a plane to Dallas, where they would play the next games of the Finals.

All the Knicks supporters were hoping they would just go ahead and win the championship in Dallas.

’Let’s complete an unprecedented, invincible, sweeping championship victory!’