Chapter 39

On the morning of November 8, 1993, today was the day of the game between the Jazz and the SuperSonics. This day was not only a test for Lin Han but also for the other players on the Jazz, and for the team's head coach, Jerry Sloan, as well. Lin Han didn't know if the other players on the team had also had a restless night like him.

In any case, he had insomnia last night and still had slight dark circles under his eyes when he got up. As a young player who had been a professional for less than a year, Lin Han had many bad habits that other professional players didn't have, and these bad habits couldn't be changed much in the short term.

"Ally, I've made up my mind. I want to upgrade the level of Kobe's fadeaway jump shot."

In the special space inside Lin Han's body, Lin Han looked seriously at the unscrupulous girl and said this, which was the result of his thinking all night. He couldn't wait any longer. The importance of this game in Jerry Sloan's mind became clearer to Lin Han during yesterday's training. If the players performed poorly in this game, those who performed poorly would definitely be rated much lower in Sloan's eyes. This would make Lin Han's previous efforts to establish his position on the team seem worthless.

"Alright, I understand. If there are less than 100 points left, then it's less than 100 points. I won't go to the amusement park, shopping, or strolling for a few days."

Seeing the girl's aggrieved look, Lin Han was speechless. No wonder the points dropped significantly every few days. It turned out that the girl went shopping every few days. What Lin Han found very confusing was whether there were also entertainment parks and shopping streets in this space. Lin Han was a bit confused but didn't think too much about it. The most important thing now was to invite Kobe.

Although the time flow in the training room in the system was not linked to the outside world, 10 hours was still 10 real hours, not an instant. When inviting players to train, these players would really train with him move by move. For example, today Lin Han invited Kobe to teach him the fadeaway jump shot. In this case, Lin Han was the offensive player, and Kobe was the defensive player.

In this situation, Lin Han and Kobe trained for 10 hours, and Lin Han was also tormented by Kobe for 10 hours. This player in the Lakers' No. 24 jersey knew that Lin Han's ball handling wasn't very good. At the start of the training, Kobe told Lin Han that he wouldn't closely defend him, so Lin Han could be at ease. In the end, the Lakers' No. 24 didn't stick to Lin Han but jumped up when Lin Han was about to shoot, and extended his right hand to cover Lin Han's eyes.

Kobe was so familiar with this move that he knew exactly when Lin Han would turn, jump, and shoot just by the way Lin Han moved his hips. Moreover, Lin Han had never been covered while jumping to shoot, so in the 10 hours of one-on-one training with Kobe, Lin Han lost almost every time without even touching Kobe. The gap between the two was too large, and Lin Han was utterly defeated.

However, even though the loss was惨不忍睹, after 10 hours, Lin Han's proficiency finally reached 100%, and he could finally upgrade.

"Ally, what's going on? To upgrade, not only does the proficiency need to reach 100%, but the agility attribute needs to reach 15, ball handling needs to reach 15, judgment needs to reach 10, and the previous attributes of jumping, balance, and shooting all need to be 15. Why does one skill require so many attributes?"

At this moment, when Lin Han saw that his upgrade conditions were insufficient, he was almost in tears. Was a skill really so complicated?

"Isn't this very normal? The reason I said that attributes without skills are useless is exactly this."

"Take your fadeaway jump shot at level 1 as an example. If a player has a 15 in shooting, when they jump to their maximum height, can they maintain their balance in the air and shoot? So, most players, without the skill, cannot jump to their maximum height when shooting. Therefore, even if their jumping attribute is strong, it won't be fully utilized. How can they have strong hang time? Even if they can jump to their maximum height and maintain balance, if they can't time their shot well, meaning their shooting ability is not good enough, the ball will still miss. Even if their shooting is good, if they don't have enough stamina, how many times can they shoot like this in a game? If they can find a way to manage their stamina, then they will have learned the level 1 Kobe-style fadeaway jump shot."

"Now you understand why I said that attributes without skills are basically useless. So, when you see that learning a skill requires a lot of related attributes, you should be happy because the more attributes a skill requires, the stronger it is, of course, except for some special skills."

After Ally explained, Lin Han thought he understood. Simply put, a skill combines multiple attributes to maximize their effectiveness, which is the result of the joint action of many attributes. This explained why Lin Han's ordinary jump shot, even though he learned it the same way as Kobe, had a very low accuracy and high stamina consumption. This was because he hadn't found the 'trick' to combine his attributes. If Lin Han found this trick, he would have learned Kobe's jump shot skill. However, it was clear that Lin Han didn't have such strong basketball IQ. Perhaps decades later, thousands of players would learn Kobe's form, but among these thousands, only a few would truly master Kobe's skills.

"Of course, it's impossible to say that attributes are completely useless. Without jumping, shooting, without speed, steals, and without strength, blocks, etc., these individual attributes are not very useful. However, in the NBA, most players' attributes are useful because almost all NBA players have skills that combine multiple attributes, and most of them have more than one or two skills. For example, your current teammate, Stockton, has 25 skills of various sizes. So, the NBA is truly a gathering place for geniuses."

After Ally explained so much, if Lin Han still didn't understand what to do, he would be really stupid. Although he only had 19 attribute points left, it was enough. Lin Han quickly added 3 points to his agility, which was originally 12, making it 15. He then added 5 points to his judgment, which was originally 5. Now, Lin Han's ball handling was 9, and he needed 6 points to make it 15. Just these three attributes meeting the upgrade requirements reduced his 19 attribute points to 5. Now, Lin Han only had 5 free attribute points left.

However, this time, Lin Han didn't encounter the issue of being unable to upgrade. Soon, his Kobe-style fadeaway jump shot skill became level 2, and the skill's additional attributes changed. The accuracy of the second shot after making the first one increased from 60% to 70%, a 10% increase. Of course, if the first shot missed, the accuracy of the next shot also increased to 70%, a 10% increase. In other words, Lin Han was becoming more and more of a "toxic" player.

"Idiot, the biggest benefit of upgrading a skill isn't just increasing accuracy. Go try the new skill."

Just as Lin Han felt a bit melancholic about becoming more toxic, Ally, who was sitting on the ground, lightly tapped Lin Han's head and said.

"Does upgrading a skill have other changes?"

Lin Han stood up uncertainly and picked up a basketball from the training room to try. He didn't realize how scary it was until he tried it.

Shaking his shoulders, skillfully faking with the ball, and using a one-handed dribble in a cross-screen, when Lin Han performed these moves that he found hard to believe, he finally understood why Ally said it was a completely new skill.

Damn, I can actually use fakes, and I can protect and control the ball in place!

Finally, I don't have to force a shot without adjusting after receiving the ball.

After trying the new level 2 fadeaway jump shot several times, Lin Han was almost in tears. He really didn't like standing still on the court to attack because it was too boring and too easy to defend. Fortunately, the opponents he had faced before weren't strong defenders; otherwise, even if Lin Han had good luck, he wouldn't have found a chance to shoot, no matter how good his luck was.

After playing with the level 2 skill for a few hours, Lin Han was very excited about what the level 3 form of this skill would be like. Adding fakes and in-place ball control made Kobe's fadeaway jump shot several times more powerful.

Moreover, as a bonus, after inviting Kobe to train for 10 hours, Lin Han had also learned the skill of "Kobe's Eye-Covering Defense," which Kobe used extensively during the 10 hours. At first, Lin Han wasn't very satisfied with this skill because he didn't use it much, but now, after the joy of the upgraded offensive skill, Lin Han was also very satisfied with this defensive skill.

However, "Kobe's Eye-Covering Defense" was only a bronze-level skill, and it only required Lin Han's jumping and one-on-one defense to reach 10. Now, Lin Han's jumping had reached 15, but his one-on-one defense was only 5. In the end, Lin Han added the remaining 5 free attribute points to his one-on-one defense, meeting the requirements to learn this skill.

This bronze-level defensive skill wasn't very strong; it only had a certain chance to reduce the opponent's accuracy, not a guaranteed reduction. This was a significant difference. In other words, this defensive skill depended on how the opponent attacked, not how well Lin Han defended. However, this skill was only bronze-level, and besides the main attribute, the skill's description made Lin Han feel a bit uneasy.

"What the hell, there's also a certain chance to injure the opponent's key parts. What does that mean?"

Although he didn't understand the description of this defensive skill, at this moment, Lin Han was already a "god" with three skills. Although he couldn't compare to Stockton's terrifying 25 skills, he was still quite strong, at least much stronger than before.

"Peyton, come on!"

At this moment, Lin Han was filled with fighting spirit!