Chapter 894 - 274: As Long as Courage and Passion Remain

After glancing at Raheem, Zhang Hao withdrew his gaze.

"Special contract player Zhang Hao will face Sheriff Raheem, task: Rookie’s Nightmare Trigger.

Rookie’s Nightmare:

Task target: Sheriff Raheem, December 1996 Rookie of the Month.

Objective: Zhang Hao needs to help the Lakers win against the Grizzlies by at least 29 points (Lakers’ cumulative losing margin from two consecutive defeats).

Reward: 1 Bronze Lottery Draw Opportunity.

Failure penalty: When Zhang Hao faces a task target and fails the task, the next time a task target can be triggered, the target will enter a hyper-excited mode, ignoring fear of the host and finding shooting rhythm more easily."

This triggered task wasn’t intended to bully Raheem specifically; it was just because they played against the Grizzlies and encountered Raheem, thus triggering the task, hence the glance at Raheem.

Little did he know, this scared Raheem quite a bit!

However, the task wasn’t easy to complete. Winning shouldn’t be a problem. The Grizzlies have currently played 58 games, with a record of 8 wins and 50 losses. This performance couldn’t be explained by lack of strength alone. In terms of roster, the Raptors aren’t significantly better than the Grizzlies, yet they have 22 wins. In this season where many teams are tanking, if a team truly wants to win, even with poor strength, they can’t possibly have won only 8 games after 58 matches.

Winning is certainly no problem, Zhang Hao concluded. Even if the Lakers are in their worst form tonight, the Grizzlies would deliberately play even worse, but deciding on a goal of beating them by 30 points isn’t an easy task!

While Zhang Hao was contemplating how to motivate his teammates to energize and beat up the Grizzlies, Barkley sidled up to him, asking slyly, "Aix, how do we play Raheem this time?"

Looking at Barkley’s inexplicable sly expression... what does he mean by playing Raheem? Is he, Mr. Zhang, that kind of person?

At these things, Zhang Hao firmly objected: "Mr. Barkley, how can you bully a rookie? We lost by 29 points in the last two games, winning them by 30 points should suffice."

Upon hearing the first part, Barkley seemed ready to retort—How dare you say that?

But the latter part indeed revealed his familiar gentlemanly style.

Even calculating how many points they need to make up for the loss!

Barkley smoothed his ponytail Mohican, gathered teammates who were already eager, and discussed how to trample Raheem.

Zhang Hao hadn’t mentioned how to beat Raheem, but Raheem was the strongest player on the Grizzlies, averaging 19.2 points, 6.5 rebounds, 1.8 assists, 1.1 steals, and 1 block per game so far this season. To thrash the Grizzlies, Raheem was naturally unavoidable.

Zhang Hao needed to complete the task, and teammates needed a target to vent their energy on... Raheem truly came at the right time!

Listening to the new teammates discussing how to hammer the opposing talented rookie, and additionally how to build around hammering the opposing rookie to slaughter the opponent, Wilkins couldn’t help but exclaim their professionalism!

However, despite hearing rumors that Zhang Hao liked to bully newcomers and contemporaneous stars, this was a bit too much...

Wilkins had a good impression of Zhang Hao and didn’t develop any resentment towards him because of this.

In some respect, Wilkins saw the new team’s cohesion... Initially, when he arrived at the Lakers, he was prepared to see within the team 14 players splitting into 28 cliques, superstars forming factions, and players scheming against each other... But just on the first day of joining the Lakers, he realized his judgment might have been terribly wrong.

Barkley seemed only interested in playing him; the hairstyle was simply eye-piercing. He was accompanied by Byron Scott and Brian Shaw, his little brothers. Byron Scott wore a dreadlock wig, and Brian Shaw had a fake buzzcut... Does this look like playing basketball?

Kenny Anderson was very chatty in the afternoon, but when game time came, he frowned as if constipated.

The Magician retreated to a secondary role, often talking to teammates about his glory before the age of 31.

Zhang Hao was silent, yet what did the fans around court mean? When Zhang Hao went to the technical table to dust magnesia powder, the atmosphere seemed like a rock concert, and there were fans holding neon signs!

"What am I even worrying about? Wait... I should worry, am I picking the wrong team, is this really a championship contender... No wait, is this even a basketball team?"

...

Soon, at 7:30 p.m., the Lakers’ second home game of the back-to-back, against the Grizzlies, began.

The Lakers started with Kenny Anderson, Doug Christie, George Lynch, Barkley, and Zhang Hao.

The Grizzlies started with Greg Anthony, Anthony Peeler, Raheem, Roy Rogers, and Bryant Reeves.

Zhang Hao easily won the jump ball facing Bryant Reeves, and Barkley actively completed an opening fast-break layup.

Zhang Hao sensed something unusual—the opponent was concentrating their defense on him!

Zhang Hao was always the one bullying teams with weaker contemporaneous talented players, but they would also resist!

Although some Grizzlies players were quite unwilling for the team to tank, longing for victory, most gradually accepted everything after two consecutive years of tanking. They focused on padding their stats, and of course, had to cooperate with the team’s plan to nurture Raheem and Bryant Reeves for guaranteed playing time.