One Year Left to Play

Chapter 400 - 119: The Rookie with Explosive Grit

The two men’s four legs were entangled, creating a picture full of passion... if it weren’t for their arms jabbing at each other’s chin...

Teammates and referees pulled the entangled pair apart, surprisingly sharing the same thought in their minds—our (rookie) actually dared to go elbow to elbow with Malone!

Zhang Hao was clearly at a disadvantage, but he wasn’t intimidated at all!

With his chin being jabbed, he couldn’t speak, but once pulled apart, Malone was flailing his arms, looking like he wanted to charge again, held back by teammates, while yelling: "Let me go, I want to smash this brat to pieces..."

Once separated, Zhang Hao quickly returned to a calm demeanor. He just noticed a detail—while entangled, Malone was rough, but only rough. It was after being pulled apart that he started flailing, looking as if he wanted to hit someone.

Glancing at Malone, Zhang Hao said, "Sofort, wanna try me?"

The players on the court, the ones coming off the bench, the referees, even Malone himself were stunned!

This guy, with a student’s face, and not a very educated one at that, pulling a cool, expressionless high school rookie act, was really something!

In an instant, Malone made up his mind, flailing even more, shouting: "Don’t pull me! I’ll kill him..."

Then he was pulled away by Stockton and David Benoit, leaving the circle formed around them.

Stockton really wanted to tell his old friend—I didn’t use any force!

But since he had to play along, he was doing his best to act...

Back at the bench, Malone threw a "furious" punch... landing on the empty chair next to him.

On the other side, Zhang Hao was also surrounded by teammates back to the bench. During this, he felt the surprise and heat in his teammates’ eyes...

The teammates thought Zhang Hao was really tough!

He wasn’t just pretending to be cool; he was genuinely cool!

Now, in his teammates’ eyes, Zhang Hao was not only handsome, but his actions were even cooler!

For a moment, the teammates didn’t quite dare to go up and say anything to Zhang Hao, thinking even discussing the earlier conflict might be offensive.

They couldn’t dare to be as hard as Zhang Hao! Not even Campbell, this 127-kilogram center!

Jason Williams, being more familiar and bolder, came up and said, "Aix, you’re awesome! Aren’t you afraid Malone would really hit you?"

Zhang Hao shrugged and said expressionlessly, "If he dares to touch me again, I’ll drop to the floor, and if he gets ejected, it’ll definitely impact the Utah Jazz more than it would impact us if I got ejected, right?"

Saying this, Zhang Hao paused for a moment, thought a bit, and continued, "If he dares to touch me again, I’ll dare to fall kind of thing."

The Magician, returning to the bench after discussing with the referees, happened to hear the latter part of Zhang Hao’s words, patted Zhang Hao’s back and laughed: "Aix, that guy thought the same, he realized you wouldn’t be affected by violent actions, so he intentionally tried to provoke you, he’s thick-skinned, hitting him might just feel like a massage to him. He didn’t expect you to be so tough; this time he’s lost face big time..."

The referee went to the technical table to watch the replay, although it was clear Malone started it first... but they needed to think about how to rule it, so they began by watching the replay.

The live audience was a bit quiet at that moment; Zhang Hao’s performance in the conflict really surprised the audience...

A lot of stars were watching the live broadcast of this game.

In Chicago, the player who had lost the Player of the Month award to young players for two consecutive months, the strongest player this season who wished to remain anonymous as No. 23, was watching the live broadcast.

"This kid, he’s actually so courageous... what did he just call Malone? Chicken? Hahahaha..."

Originally, Jordan was upset for not getting the Player of the Month again today, but seeing Zhang Hao, who took his award, acting tough on national TV made him feel a bit better.

Being outdone by a rookie like this, it didn’t seem so shameful after all.

In San Antonio, last season’s regular-season MVP David Robinson was watching the close-up shot of Zhang Hao on TV...

"How does this rookie have the guts? How does he dare to confront that bully head-on?"

With no one around, David Robinson felt his face turning red!

Two years ago, in the first round of the 1994 playoffs, his Spurs faced the Utah Jazz, and the Spurs were pounded 3 to 1 by the Jazz.

Personally, he was reduced to only a 41% shooting percentage by Malone, even having a game with 2 out of 14 shots, whereas Malone averaged 29.3 points and a 48% shooting rate.

In that series, Malone’s ferocity left a psychological shadow on David Robinson, he chickened out in that series...

David Robinson, at that moment, was in a daze: "How does he dare... how does he dare..."

Besides these two, a lot of stars who were very interested in Zhang Hao, this rookie who could win the Player of the Month award in his debut season, were also watching the game, having similar feelings—this rookie is hard as nails!

And calm!

Malone’s flailing after being pulled apart contrasted sharply with Zhang Hao’s calm demeanor.

Moreover, Zhang Hao wasn’t scared to make moves, the live broadcast already gave viewers the image of the two entangled, the fans in front of the TV saw the scene on the floor even earlier than the players on the court.

Truly tough!

On the court, after watching the replay, the referee made the call.

The Lakers symbolically protested a bit, even Sloan ran over to complain a bit...

Imagine, in such a situation, neither was given a technical foul?

Yes, the referee gave both a personal foul, no one was ejected, not even a technical foul.

Noticing a flash of disappointment on Zhang Hao’s face, Campbell said: "There’s not been a real fight, the ref’s worried about calling a technical now and something happening again later without a fight breaking out."