When Wang Qing saw Shogo Haizaki going up for the layup, he finally understood.
It wasn't that Shogo Haizaki had failed to defend him. He had known Wang Qing's shot would be blocked, so he had already sprinted up the court.
Just how much trust did he have in that purple-haired center to be so certain his shot would get blocked?
As Wang Qing and Shogo Haizaki passed each other, a single remark from Shogo Haizaki made him freeze.
"You're cocky, but I'm even cockier!"
His pronunciation was still awkward, but that arrogant, defiant attitude remained firmly etched in Wang Qing's mind.
As the game continued, Wang Qing finally understood exactly why Shogo Haizaki could afford to be so arrogant.
Because he was strong.
Kirisaki Daiichi relied on Shogo Haizaki's offense alone to force Jingchuan High School into calling three timeouts in the first quarter!
Even after using all three, Jingchuan High School still couldn't find a way to stop him.
Absurd, right?
But there was something even more absurd.
Atsushi Murasakibara.
Every player on Kirisaki Daiichi defended the same way. They gave up the drive, but never the shot.
Whenever a Jingchuan High School player tried to break through, Kirisaki Daiichi simply let him enter the paint.
There was only one reason for that.
Atsushi Murasakibara's defense was absolutely ridiculous.
He practically guarded the entire area inside the three-point line by himself!
For an entire quarter, Jingchuan High School scored only four points!
And all four came from free throws!
They didn't make a single field goal!
Just what kind of defense could accomplish something like that?!
After the first quarter ended, the Jingchuan High School players sat on the bench, panting heavily in stunned silence.
The score was 33 to 4.
Such a ridiculous score left the entire Jingchuan High School team speechless.
The spectators were equally stunned.
No one had expected Jingchuan High School, last year's runner-up, to be beaten this badly by Kirisaki Daiichi!
They had been completely powerless to fight back.
And the most ridiculous part was that Kirisaki Daiichi had only really shown one weapon on offense and one on defense so far.
Shogo Haizaki on offense.
Atsushi Murasakibara on defense.
Everyone else, including their captain, hadn't even started trying yet. They were practically strolling and lightly jogging around the court.
It looked more like a casual workout than a basketball game.
And yet, with that alone, they had completely crushed last year's runner-up.
Everyone was already shocked, but an even bigger surprise was still waiting for them.
...
Starting in the second quarter, Kirisaki Daiichi opened fire on all fronts.
Miyamoto Tokima unleashed his own barrage of three-pointers.
He never went into the paint and never drove to the basket. As soon as he received the ball, he would simply sidestep or step back and shoot.
With his lightning-fast release, he completely tore Liu Yu's defense apart.
Having grown accustomed to the country's prevailing basketball philosophy, Liu Yu and the others always placed teamwork above everything else.
They had never seen someone like Miyamoto Tokima, someone who took shots with absolutely no regard for whether they were considered reasonable.
If they took shots like that twice, their coach would immediately send them to the bench.
Because those were bad shots.
And yet, those same unreasonable shots became perfectly reasonable in Miyamoto Tokima's hands.
Because he was just too damn accurate!
And Miyamoto Tokima wasn't the only one.
Shogo Haizaki also began using his [Pillage].
Whenever a Jingchuan High School player used a move but failed to score, Shogo Haizaki would immediately use the exact same move and make the shot.
That completely crushed Jingchuan High School's confidence.
They couldn't score with their own moves, yet Shogo Haizaki could use those same moves and score whenever he wanted.
Wasn't that basically telling them they were weak?
Shuzo Nijimura was having a great time as well. His masterful changes of rhythm left Jingchuan High School's defenders completely lost.
He didn't rely on speed to blow past anyone. Instead, he attacked slowly, manipulating the tempo with constant changes of rhythm.
Yet those movements, which weren't fast at all and could even be called slow, were precisely what Jingchuan High School couldn't defend against.
Makoto Hanamiya, on the other hand, played completely differently.
His entire approach was built around being as irritating as possible.
Jingchuan's point guard could never tell whether Makoto Hanamiya intended to attack or pass.
Whenever he thought Makoto Hanamiya was about to pass, Makoto Hanamiya shot instead.
Whenever he thought Makoto Hanamiya was about to attack, Makoto Hanamiya passed.
It drove Jingchuan's point guard completely insane.
The only Kirisaki Daiichi player who wasn't going wild on offense was Atsushi Murasakibara.
But damn it, even if Atsushi Murasakibara wasn't attacking like crazy, he was defending like crazy!
Everything inside Kirisaki Daiichi's three-point line had practically become forbidden territory for Jingchuan High School. They didn't even dare go inside anymore.
And just like that, all four quarters came to an end.
The final score was an outrageous 143 to 12.
When the game ended, the entire arena fell silent, as though someone had pressed pause.
Jingchuan High School had been last year's runner-up.
Yet that same runner-up had been completely demolished in their first game of the National Tournament by Kirisaki Daiichi, a team from Japan.
No one could believe what they had just witnessed.
"Jingchuan High School... lost just like that?"
"When I saw Kirisaki Daiichi's lineup, I already thought Jingchuan High School was going to have a hard time. But I never imagined the game would turn out like this..."
"How is this any different from an adult playing against a child?"
The spectators talked among themselves, all stunned by the strength Kirisaki Daiichi had displayed.
Kirisaki Daiichi's players paid no attention to them. They simply began packing up their belongings and preparing to leave.
"So," Shogo Haizaki said while packing his things, "they were last year's runners-up?"
"Looks like it," Reo Mibuchi replied with a smile.
Shogo Haizaki pursed his lips. "Then I guess Teikō Middle School is our only real opponent."
After Miyamoto Tokima finished packing, he said without expression, "Let's go."
The others didn't know what was bothering him, but they packed up and followed him out.
The reason Miyamoto Tokima was acting this way was because of something his father had told him before.
His father had said that basketball in the country had already begun to decline and was continuing downhill.
The national basketball system had stopped emphasizing individual ability and started focusing instead on teamwork.
There was nothing wrong with teamwork itself, but the domestic basketball system had taken the idea to an extreme by suppressing individuality.
If you played individual basketball or made what they considered an unreasonable play, then sorry, you were going straight to the bench.
Over time, that approach would erase a player's personality and individual style, turning them into role players who knew only how to fit into the system.
Teamwork was important, but individual ability mattered just as much.
Put simply, the domestic basketball system cared about the team or school winning, not about preserving a player's individuality.
No matter how talented or distinctive a player was, they would eventually graduate and leave after a few years.
Then the school or team would have to develop someone new all over again.
So why not create a fixed system instead?
No matter who joined, they could simply be trained according to that same system.
It ensured there would always be usable players and gave the team a reliable way to keep winning. From their perspective, there was no reason not to do it.
And it was precisely that philosophy that had caused the country's basketball scene in this timeline to decline so drastically.
(P.S.: This is an anime-inspired alternate world, so please don't take it too seriously! [Dog head emoji for protection])
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