"Sendoh! It's all yours!"
Uekusa shouted, then did something that made the jaws of the thousands of spectators in the arena hit the floor.
He ran straight to the corner.
And gave up the point guard position entirely!
For a brief moment, the entire arena fell silent.
Then it exploded.
"Huh?!"
"What the hell?!"
"Isn't he a forward?!"
Sendoh caught the ball securely.
Standing in the backcourt, he didn't rush forward.
Instead, he straightened up, held the ball in his right hand, and raised a single finger with his left.
It was the iconic gesture of a floor general directing the entire court.
The posture of an absolute commander.
"Alright, everyone."
The lazy smile faded from Sendoh's lips, his eyes instantly sharpening like drawn blades.
"Let's score this first possession."
As soon as the words fell—
He began dribbling up the court.
His movements were smooth as ice skating, his rhythm impossible to predict.
At 190 centimeters tall, he handled the ball with the agility of a 170-centimeter guard.
"This is…"
On Kainan's bench, Riki Takato's folding fan froze in midair.
His fox-like eyes, usually narrowed into slits, widened abruptly.
"Don't tell me…"
The crowd erupted.
"No way!"
"They're actually doing it?!"
"Sendoh at point guard?!"
"Has Ryonan gone crazy?! Letting their 190-centimeter ace play guard?"
"What kind of bizarre strategy is this?!"
Shock.
Confusion.
Disbelief.
In high school basketball during the 1990s, a player standing 190 centimeters tall was practically center material.
And now they were sending someone that size to run the offense?
Against Shinichi Maki, a monster blessed with both overwhelming power and elite speed?
It sounded like suicide.
In the Shohoku section.
Mitsui's brows knitted together.
"What are they thinking?"
Ryota Miyagi looked equally stunned.
"That hedgehog-head is playing point guard?"
"With his dribble that high? Isn't Maki going to strip him alive?"
Only Makino Juro remained relaxed.
Leaning lazily against his seat, the smile on his face grew wider and wider, like someone watching a movie whose ending he already knew.
"So it's finally here."
His voice wasn't loud, but every teammate nearby heard it clearly.
"With Ryonan's current guards, whether it's Uekusa or Koshino, they're basically ATM machines in front of Maki."
"Physically, athletically, and experience-wise, they're being crushed from an entirely different dimension."
"They can't stop Maki."
"They probably can't even bring the ball past half court consistently."
Makino Juro pointed toward the tall figure advancing calmly on the floor.
"But…"
"Sendoh is different."
"Matching size. Superior vision. Complete skill set."
"This is probably the only ultimate trump card that old man Taoka could come up with."
At courtside.
Kainan's bench.
Takato stared at the court, his expression dark enough to drip water.
As Taoka's longtime rival, he immediately smelled a scheme.
"So this is your secret weapon, Taoka-senpai…"
Takato gritted his teeth as the folding fan creaked in his grip.
Using the team's strongest player at point guard.
Taking advantage of his overwhelming height to orchestrate the offense while also limiting Maki's penetration on defense.
It was a risky move.
And a brilliant one.
"But…"
Takato sneered and reopened his fan, regaining his usual mysterious composure.
"Interesting idea. Very creative."
"Unfortunately, point guard isn't a position just anyone can fill."
"Especially…"
"When your opponent is the former number one player in Kanagawa."
"A special tactic?"
Takato tapped his palm with his fan.
His gaze seemed intent on piercing straight through Sendoh.
"Moving your ace forward to point guard sounds impressive."
"Using height to create vision advantages is, theoretically, the perfect answer."
He pushed up his glasses and snorted.
"But Taoka…"
"Did you forget to patch the biggest flaw?"
"Point guard is the position that draws the most pressure on the floor."
"Having a 190-centimeter Sendoh defend Maki…"
On the court.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
The basketball pounded against the hardwood like a heartbeat.
Sendoh shielded the ball with his body.
Despite standing taller than his defender, he felt as though a mountain were crushing down on him.
Maki Shinichi wasn't human.
He was a black panther that hadn't eaten in three days.
His center of gravity was impossibly low.
Those powerful arms swept around the ball like radar, every probing motion cutting through the air with frightening force.
"This pressure…"
A thin layer of sweat appeared on Sendoh's forehead.
Even his trademark relaxed smile was beginning to falter.
A lapse of concentration for even a tenth of a second—
And possession would be gone.
Snap!
The moment Sendoh prepared to switch hands, Maki moved.
Absurdly fast.
His hand seemed capable of seeing the future, cutting directly into the dribble path.
Sendoh's scalp tingled.
At the absolute limit, he flicked his wrist and yanked the ball behind his back.
At the same time, he leaned backward, using his body to block the steal.
"That was close!"
In the stands, Miyagi suddenly leaned forward, cold sweat forming on his brow.
"That's exactly what it feels like…"
As a point guard himself, he knew this suffocating sensation all too well.
"Dribbling against Maki is like dancing on the edge of a knife."
"Show even the slightest opening, and he'll make you question your entire life."
"Sendoh's dribble is too high."
"To Maki, that's nothing but openings."
"By the time you realize it, he'll already be dunking at the other end."
On the sidelines, Takato suddenly snapped his folding fan shut.
Clap!
"Taoka."
"Your brilliant strategy is destroying your own ace."
At that moment.
Cornered and under immense pressure, Sendoh suddenly passed.
Instead of challenging Maki's iron-wall defense head-on,
he gently flicked his wrist upward through an impossibly narrow gap.
Whoosh!
The ball soared into the sky in a ridiculous high arc.
Higher.
Higher.
Far above the paint.
Inside, Uozumi was being boxed out by Takasago.
He looked up once.
The pass was so high it practically seemed ready to leave Earth's atmosphere.
He reached for it—
And couldn't even come close.
"It's over!"
"That's a turnover!"
The crowd erupted.
"What kind of pass is that?"
"Was he trying to pass it to God?"
"Maki must've pressured him into throwing it away!"
Takato's mocking smile hadn't even fully formed yet.
The next second...
A shadow exploded from the baseline without warning.
A complete blind spot in Kainan's defensive vision.
"What?!"
Maki spun around violently.
For the first time, his expression changed.
The figure launched upward in a single step.
The leap was completely unreasonable.
His body stretched through the air like a fully drawn bow.
Fukuda Kicchou!
The fierce-looking man whose eyes were always as hungry as a wolf's.
The basketball reached its apex—
Then plunged downward.
Fukuda caught it securely with both hands in midair.
At that height, his eyes were practically level with the rim.
No one was stopping this.
"RAAAAH!!"
With a thunderous roar, he unleashed every ounce of power from his core and slammed the ball downward with both hands.
BOOOOOOM!!!
The arena exploded.
END OF CHAPTER
The King Of Slacking Off - MrBehringer's Secret
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