Madison Square Garden was known as the Mecca of Basketball.
And tonight, even the logo at center court seemed to carry a little extra energy.
Maybe it was the atmosphere.
Maybe it was the legendary Knicks emblem beneath his feet.
Or maybe Stephen Curry simply saw a challenge and couldn't resist.
The third quarter had just begun.
Klay Thompson continued his mission from the first half, using his length, discipline, and incredible defensive instincts to cut off Curry's driving lanes.
Curry had been patient all night.
Too patient.
But eventually, patience ran out.
The calm, smiling point guard from the first half suddenly transformed.
The switch flipped.
The Chef had entered his dangerous mode. After receiving the ball near half court, Curry crossed over, took a few dribbles, and looked up.
Then he pulled.
From near the Knicks logo.
The entire Garden froze.
For most players, this was a terrible shot.
A shot that coaches would immediately complain about.
A shot teammates would question.
But Stephen Curry wasn't like most players.
Many fans loved Curry because his game felt fun to watch.
Unlike Kobe Bryant's impossible footwork or LeBron James' overwhelming athleticism, Curry's shooting form looked like something anyone could copy in their driveway.
Millions of kids had imitated that quick release.
The difference was...
When Curry did it, the ball actually went in.
And this one was perfect.
The arc was beautiful.
The distance was ridiculous.
The result was devastating.
Swish.
The Garden went silent.
Mike Breen's voice dropped.
"Wow..."
A second later, he recovered.
"Stephen Curry from the logo!"
Walt Frazier shook his head.
"That's not a shot, that's a declaration. When Curry lets it fly, you need faith and patience, because that shot can create heartbreak."
On the Warriors bench, Mark Jackson covered his face.
He loved Curry.
He believed in Curry.
But coaching Curry sometimes tested his soul.
Because what exactly were you supposed to tell him?
"Don't shoot that"?
That would be wasting one of the most unique talents in basketball.
"Keep shooting those"?
That would make every traditional coach in the world uncomfortable.
But basketball had one simple rule.
If it goes in, nobody complains.
A ridiculous shot becomes a great shot.
A bad decision becomes confidence.
Only Curry and Lin Yi had reached the point where their teams could actually encourage those kinds of attempts.
The scoreboard changed.
67-68.
The Warriors had scored first in the third quarter.
Lin Yi watched the ball bounce away after Curry's shot.
He had prepared to fight for a rebound.
There was no rebound.
There was only Curry walking back on defense with that innocent smile. For some reason, Lin Yi suddenly felt sympathy for LeBron James of his past life.
Having someone hit shots like that against you was genuinely annoying.
Klay walked over, still looking annoyed.
"He's behind us, and he just pulls up from there?"
He pointed toward the spot near the logo.
"Who even takes that shot?"
Lin Yi nodded with a completely serious expression.
"Exactly."
"That's not a shot you should take casually."
Klay immediately agreed.
"Right? There's a time and place for everything."
Lin Yi folded his arms.
"If someone on our team started doing that, I'd definitely have a talk with him."
Klay looked at Lin Yi with admiration.
As expected of Lin.
A true professional.
Always focused on winning.
Meanwhile, Lin Yi looked back at Klay.
As expected of someone I taught.
Calm.
Disciplined.
A model teammate.
The rest of the Knicks players quietly turned away.
Nobody wanted to interrupt them.
Because everyone on the team understood one simple fact.
These two had absolutely no right to criticize anyone for taking ridiculous shots.
On the next possession, Lin Yi decided to respond.
If Curry wanted to use the logo, then fine.
This was Madison Square Garden.
His court.
His stage.
If someone was going to own the center-court logo, it was going to be him.
Logo Man, Lin Yi thought.
"That title belongs to me."
Livingston didn't hesitate.
After watching Nash control the game in the first half, he had already accepted one reality.
Tonight, the safest decision was simple.
Give Lin Yi the ball.
Let greatness handle the rest.
Livingston brought the ball up.
Lin Yi stepped toward the logo.
The pass came.
But before the ball reached him...
A familiar figure appeared.
Klay Thompson.
Again.
The steal was clean.
Lin Yi froze.
He didn't even have time to complain.
Klay immediately turned and attacked.
Middleton reacted quickly.
He knew exactly what was coming.
Everyone around the league knew.
Lin Yi and Klay had unlimited range.
But knowing wasn't the same as stopping it.
Klay crossed half-court.
Nine and a half meters.
Pull-up.
Three.
The shot looked almost identical to the kind of impossible attempts Curry would take.
The ball left his fingertips.
Middleton could only watch.
Swish.
68-71.
Klay turned around calmly and mouthed
"Easy money."
Curry smiled while chewing his mouthguard.
And Lin Yi stood there in silence.
"..."
He looked at Klay.
Then at Curry.
Then back at Klay.
Lin Yi looked at Klay with a complicated expression.
He had personally watched this kid develop from a quiet shooter into someone who occasionally behaved like Nick Young with unlimited confidence.
Of course, Lin Yi knew the truth.
On a basketball court, there was only one rule.
If the shot went in, it was a great shot.
Livingston, who had just made the pass, excitedly pumped his fist toward Klay.
"That's it, Klay! I knew you were going there!"
Shaun celebrated like he had just delivered a perfect assist.
Unfortunately, his innocent praise only made Lin Yi feel worse.
Because now it sounded like everyone had already accepted Klay stealing his shots as part of the offense. At this moment, Lin Yi suddenly missed Paul.
At least with Chris Paul...
The man couldn't jump high enough to steal those kinds of passes.
Probably.
Meanwhile, Klay's three-pointer completely brought Madison Square Garden back to life.
The crowd erupted.
At the TNT desk, Charles Barkley stared at the court with disbelief.
"Why?"
He paused.
"Why?"
Another pause.
"Why?"
Kenny Smith laughed.
"Charles, I think you're running out of words."
Barkley shook his head.
"No, Kenny. I'm just trying to understand what I'm watching."
"These guys are supposed to be competing, right? This is a playoff-level matchup."
"And they're out here shooting like they're playing at a neighborhood park."
The Knicks and Warriors were not normal teams.
They were two teams that had completely embraced the most unreasonable weapon in basketball.
The three-pointer.
Especially the ones that made coaches everywhere lose sleep.
While Barkley was still trying to figure out this conundrum, Curry brought the ball across half-court.
Cousins stepped up for the screen.
One crossover.
One step back.
Then...
Another ridiculous shot.
Curry had found his rhythm.
The scary thing about him was that these shots were not desperation attempts. They were part of his attack.
This season, Curry was averaging 5.4 three-pointers per game, and because defenders respected his shooting so much, he rarely even received truly open looks.
70-71.
The Warriors had cut the lead again.
Then...
Klay stole the ball from Lin Yi.
Again.
The entire Madison Square Garden crowd went silent for a second.
What exactly was happening?
Had the basketball gods decided to make Lin Yi suffer tonight?
The New York fans could only watch as Klay immediately pulled up.
Swish!
Lin Yi stared at the scoreboard.
"..."
Alright.
Klay was simply locked in tonight.
When he entered this kind of zone, even Middleton's extra wingspan might not have mattered.
The third quarter had become a shooting war.
Curry and Klay were trading long-range missiles, forcing the fans at Madison Square Garden to watch a basketball game that felt closer to a three-point contest.
Klay hit two straight threes and turned toward Curry, pounding his chest.
Curry only smiled.
Then he bit down on his mouthguard.
A screen came.
Curry slipped behind it.
The moment he found even the smallest amount of space, he fired.
He was off balance.
His body was drifting.
The shot looked impossible.
Swish.
74-73.
The Warriors had the lead.
In the stands, Dell Curry was already leaning forward in disbelief.
What kind of son did I raise?
What kind of shooting monster did I create?
The Knicks did not call a timeout.
Lin Yi adjusted immediately.
This time, he wasn't going to demand the ball.
He moved to the high post and set a screen for Klay.
Klay looked back at him with satisfaction.
Finally.
Lin understood.
Using the elevator screen, Klay received the ball and fired instantly.
A perfect shooting motion.
Swish!
Reality had become ridiculous.
At the TNT desk, even Barkley and Kenny Smith were struggling to explain what they were seeing.
Kenny shook his head.
"Charles, I don't think defenses are prepared for this."
Barkley looked back at the court.
"What kind of basketball is this?"
"At this point, just remove the three-point line."
"Apparently, it isn't helping anyone anyway."
After the Logo Splash Battle between Curry and Klay finally came to an end, the Knicks and Warriors entered a brutal stalemate.
By the end of the third quarter, the scoreboard read:
96-98.
The Knicks held a two-point advantage heading into the final period.
At Madison Square Garden, the atmosphere was electric.
Both teams had played like they were trying to prove something. The Warriors wanted to show they belonged among the league's elite, while the Knicks wanted to remind everyone why they were the defending champions.
However, experience mattered.
In the fourth quarter, D'Antoni refused to let Lin Yi continue fighting.
"Sit down," Coach D said firmly.
Lin Yi raised an eyebrow.
"Coach, I'm fine."
D'Antoni shook his head.
"No. You're playing the whole season, not just tonight."
The Grim Reaper had no choice but to take a seat. For four minutes, the Knicks had to survive without their superstar. Fortunately, Steve Nash was having one of those nights.
The veteran point guard looked years younger, controlling the pace while leading a lineup featuring Kyle Korver, Vince Carter, and the Knicks' second unit.
The old maestro still had some magic left.
A pull-up jumper here.
A perfect assist there.
A transition three.
The Knicks exploded.
An 11-2 run.
The Warriors were forced to call a timeout.
Even Mark Jackson had to admit it.
This Knicks team was terrifying because even when Lin Yi sat down, they still had another way to hurt you. After the timeout, the Warriors tried to fight back.
Then came the inevitable.
The Cousins Time Bomb exploded.
Boogie received the ball in the paint, but Gobert stayed vertical and forced him into a difficult attempt.
The shot missed.
Cousins immediately turned toward the referee.
"That was a foul!"
The referee ignored him.
Cousins continued arguing.
A technical foul.
Most players would have stopped there.
Cousins was not most players.
He kept talking.
The referee looked at him.
He then crosses both arms above their head with clenched fists. Following this, pointed towards Cousins to leave the court.
Ejection.
Cousins stood there in disbelief.
"You've got to be kidding me!"
But the decision was final.
The Warriors' biggest weakness had always been their emotions.
And tonight, that weakness cost them.
When Lin Yi returned in the second half of the fourth quarter, he immediately changed the atmosphere.
The Showtime took over.
A post move.
A mid-range jumper.
A powerful drive.
Ten straight points.
The Knicks stretched the lead to 15.
The Warriors refused to quit. Curry hit two more ridiculous three-pointers, including one that made the entire Garden shake its head.
But this time, New York had an answer for everything. Every time Golden State threatened to make a run, the Knicks responded.
Final score:
119-131.
The Knicks defeated the Warriors in a breathtaking offensive battle.
Golden State suffered its first loss of the season.
Meanwhile, because Indiana lost in Miami on the same night, New York returned to the top of the Eastern Conference standings.
. . .
At NBA headquarters, David Stern watched the game with satisfaction.
This was exactly the kind of basketball he wanted to see.
The Eastern Conference leader was an offensive powerhouse.
The Western Conference leader was an offensive powerhouse.
At the same time, teams like the Pacers and Grizzlies still represented physical, defensive basketball.
Different styles.
Different identities.
A league full of stars.
The NBA's new slogan, "Legends Are Born Here," suddenly felt more fitting than ever.
From Stern's perspective, the league was thriving. Of course, he had no idea that his successor, Adam Silver, would later mess things up.
Even if someone handed you a royal flush and four twos...
There were still ways to mess things up.
...
Although Curry failed to become the next player from the 2009 draft class to defeat Lin Yi, the game gave him something even more important.
Confidence.
Before tonight, Curry believed the Warriors were still far away from the Knicks.
After competing against them for four quarters, he changed his mind.
They were close.
Very close.
After eating a late-night meal at Lin Yi's house, Curry and his teammates finally departed for Golden State.
A new chapter awaited them.
The Knicks had no games remaining in November.
Their next challenge would come on December 1st.
A road battle against the Indiana Pacers.
But before that, Lin Yi received some unexpected news.
The game project he had invested in, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, had officially entered internal testing.
The early testers were already convinced.
This game had the potential to become something huge.
. . .
Then, on November 30th, while Lin Yi was spending time with his daughter, another invitation arrived.
Comedy Central wanted him.
More specifically...
They wanted him to be the main guest on their annual Roast special.
Lin Yi looked confused.
"Why me?"
"I don't think I have anything worth roasting."
Zhong Muchen hesitated.
Because the truth was simple.
The reason Comedy Central wanted Lin Yi was not that they thought he would be easy to attack.
It was because everyone wanted a chance to attack him.
Shaquille O'Neal.
Kobe Bryant.
LeBron James.
Kevin Durant.
James Harden.
A ridiculous number of NBA superstars had already agreed to participate.
Even Comedy Central was shocked.
"Wait... all these people are coming?"
One staff member asked the obvious question.
"Is Lin Yi really that easy to roast?"
Meanwhile, Shaq, still somewhere on his wilderness adventure with Bear Grylls and suffering from terrible phone reception, laughed loudly.
"Easy?"
"I can roast Lin for a day."
"Actually, three days."
The Big Aristotle had been waiting for this opportunity.
This was going to be personal.
The American version of Roast was famous for its ruthless humor. The guests were not there to praise the person being roasted.
They were there to embarrass them.
And for Lin Yi...
The problem was that he genuinely believed he was too clean.
From Lin Yi's perspective...
What exactly was there to roast?
Lin Yi looked at the guest list again.
"Interesting..."
He looked at the names.
"These people really want to roast me?"
A smile slowly appeared on his face.
"Do they not worry about being roasted back?"
Among the guests, Kobe alone was enough material."
And that was before even mentioning LeBron James and Kevin Durant.
Those two were walking collections of comedy material.
Lin Yi suddenly became interested.
"When is the recording?"
"The night before Christmas Eve," Zhong Muchen answered. "Most teams have a break around then, so everyone can make it."
Lin Yi continued teasing Olivia, a confident smile appearing on his face.
"Perfect."
"They want to roast me?"
"Fine."
"I want to see who can actually win."
Unfortunately, he did not yet understand one important truth.
On the basketball court, he was used to defeating everyone.
But comedy was different.
The power of a group of people working together was terrifying.
This time...
Lin Yi was walking into a battlefield where individual talent might not be enough.
. . .
On December 1st, before the Knicks faced the Pacers, the NBA officially announced the November awards for the 2013-14 season.
The Western Conference Player of the Month award went to Stephen Curry.
The Baby-Faced Assassin had been unstoppable during November.
The Warriors' young superstar averaged 30.4 points per game while maintaining incredible efficiency, helping Golden State jump to the top of the Western Conference standings.
With numbers like that, Curry winning the award was almost expected.
In the East, there was no surprise either.
The Player of the Month award belonged to Lin Yi.
Although he missed the Knicks' first two games of the season, once he returned, he immediately went on a ridiculous run.
30 points.
10 rebounds.
10 assists.
Night after night.
Lin Yi wasn't just chasing wins.
He looked like he was chasing a season-long 30-point triple-double average.
The Showtime was living up to his reputation.
More importantly, this was the second time in the careers of the Shooting Stars that players from the same school had won the Player of the Month awards in both conferences.
People could only sigh.
What kind of basketball factory was Davidson College?
First Lin Yi and Curry
Then Giannis.
And now even the future stars were following.
Legendary coach McKillop was reportedly smiling every day during recruiting season.
With Lin Yi, Curry, and Giannis Antetokounmpo as advertisements, young players everywhere suddenly became interested in Davidson.
Meanwhile, the Eastern Conference Rookie of the Month went to Giannis.
The Western Conference Rookie of the Month belonged to Steven Adams of the Thunder.
Adams' strong start had already changed Oklahoma City's plans.
Some people even believed his development could eventually push the Thunder toward moving on from Kendrick Perkins.
This season, Adams averaged 6.1 points and 7.9 rebounds, already far beyond what many expected from a rookie big man.
The reason was simple.
An injury to Nick Collison during the preseason opened more opportunities for Adams.
And playing alongside Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook meant Adams did not need to force offense.
His job was simple.
Set screens.
Protect the paint.
Grab rebounds.
Do the dirty work.
Westbrook quickly became one of Adams' biggest supporters. The Thunder guard had publicly praised him multiple times, calling Adams one of the best rebounders in the league.
Adams returned the favor.
According to statistics, Westbrook averaged 2.1 more defensive rebounds per game when Adams was on the floor.
Sometimes basketball chemistry was difficult to explain.
Sometimes, the right teammate simply made everything easier.
Looking at the league standings, Lin Yi couldn't help smiling.
"This season..."
"It's going to be interesting."
. . .
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