"Haha, kid, you want to challenge me. Logically, I should give you this opportunity."
"But you are still too weak right now. It's really boring to be able to win easily."
"How about this, when you officially come to Xiangbei, I will come and accept your challenge!"
"After all, it's a case of the underdog defeating the powerful. It would be too boring if there were no audience."
Budo could see Kiyota Nobunaga's plan at a glance, but he didn't want to let Kiyota Nobunaga get his wish now. If the blow was too harsh, the boy might be disappointed with basketball. When the opponent came to Xiangbei, there would be plenty of time to train him.
"Emm..."
Kiyota Nobunaga was obviously a little unconvinced by Budo's answer. He pondered for a long time and said:
"Okay then! After I enter Shohoku, I will challenge you in front of all the team members!"
He felt that Jinguji Budou's rejection of his challenge was false. Although Qingtian knew that Jinguji Budou was very capable, he was confident that he would not lose to anyone in the slam dunk event, including Jinguji Budou.
Kiyota Nobunaga was extremely happy at this moment. He didn't care about what Budou said about "you can win easily". In his mind, he imagined the scene of defeating Jinguji Budou in front of all the players of Shohoku High School in the future. A bright smile appeared on his face.
"but... ."
Just when Qingtian was secretly delighted, Jinguji Budou's words attracted his attention.
When Wudao saw Qingtian looking at him strangely, he laughed in his heart.
The personality of Kiyota Nobunaga and Sakuragi Hanamichi seem to be carved from the same mold, except that compared to Sakuragi Hanamichi, Kiyota Nobunaga has some brains, but not much.
Looking at Kiyota Nobunaga's expression, Wudao knew that Kiyota Nobunaga was getting too proud. Although he put the so-called "competition" in the future, he couldn't let Kiyota become proud and complacent because of this small achievement. He had to give him motivation, but this so-called "motivation" couldn't be too excessive, which would dampen Kiyota's enthusiasm.
"When you come to Xiangbei, if you want to challenge me, you must do one thing first."
"If not, you have no right to challenge me."
As Wudao was talking, he grabbed the basketball from Sakuragi Hanamichi's hand. The two of them were just near the three-point line. Jinguji Wudao smiled and glanced at Kiyota Nobunaga, turned his head to look at the basket, and threw the ball towards the backboard. At the same time, he also started quickly and ran towards the basket.
“Bang!”
With a crisp sound, the basketball hit the upper center of the backboard and bounced back quickly.
Jinguji Budo jumped up into the air when he was more than one meter past the free throw line. He turned 360 degrees in the air, and while facing the basket again in the air, he caught the rebounding basketball with one hand, glided close to the basket, and then dunked the ball into the basket with one hand.
“Bang!”
With a loud bang, the entire basketball hoop fell down due to the force of Jinguji Budo's slam dunk, and then bounced back.
"Uh..." Kiyota Nobunaga watched Jinguji Budou's slam dunk the whole time. It was the first time he saw such a smooth 360-degree turn and alley-oop slam dunk. At this moment, he was completely shocked by the scene in front of him, with his mouth slightly open and a look of disbelief on his face.
Sakuragi Hanamichi on the side was also shocked by Jinguji Budou's slam dunk, but he quickly came to his senses, turned his head to look at Kiyota Nobunaga, and suddenly laughed:
"Hahahaha! Wild monkey, did you see that?"
"With your ability, are you qualified to challenge Brother Budo? Dream on!"
"Now you see how powerful I am, right? Hahahahaha!"
The laughter of Sakuragi Hanamichi echoed in the stadium. On the sidelines, Kiyota Nobunaga's players were staring blankly at Jinguji Budou who had completed the slam dunk, their mouths wide open and unable to speak. Even Kiyota Ryumasa on the sidelines was stunned for a long time before he asked Coach Anzai beside him:
"Hey, Anxi, where did you find such a monster?"
"How could such a player go to Xiangbei?! Xiangbei was not a strong team before!"
Coach Anzai's eyes were on Jinguji Budou at this time. Hearing the doubts of his long-time friend, he pushed his glasses up and laughed, with no intention of answering at all.
On the court, Jinguji Budou turned around and slowly walked in front of Kiyota Nobunaga.
Standing in front of Jinguji Budo once again, Kiyota Nobunaga felt as if he was at the foot of a towering mountain. The mountain was so high that it reached into the clouds, and he could not see it clearly from the foot of the mountain.
"When you enter Shohoku, if you can do this, I will accept your challenge."
"Not only that, I will also ask the coach to give you playing time, even if you are only a freshman at that time."
Jinguji Budo said to Kiyota Nobunaga with a smile, which made Kiyota, who was in a daze, quickly come back to his senses and his eyes became clear again.
"I will definitely do it!"
"I will definitely show you how to do it!"
Kiyota Nobunaga felt unprecedented pressure, but at the same time, such pressure did not defeat him. Instead, it gave him a strong fighting spirit.
Of course he knows that Jinguji Budo's slam dunk is difficult, but it is precisely because he knows that Jinguji Budo's slam dunk is difficult that it is more worth challenging!
Although Kiyota Nobunaga is now playing basketball for an unknown small team, he always feels that he is the strongest player in junior high school. The team's poor performance is only because his teammates are not good enough, not because he loses to others because of his personal ability.
Growing up in this kind of environment also made Kiyota Nobunaga somewhat arrogant. If it weren't for his grandfather constantly urging him on, he would even think that training or not was no big deal.
He even felt that he was strong enough!
But Jinguji Budou opened a door to his relatively closed world. It turned out that Jinguji Budou of Xiangbei High School was not just a scorer who could only shoot.
Kiyota Nobunaga's words were roared out, and his words echoed in the cold mountains.
"Very good, I'll wait for you in Xiangbei!"
Wudao patted Kiyota Nobunaga, who was looking at him with a determined face, on the shoulder and encouraged him.
Then he turned and looked at Coach Anxi.
“Hohohoho!”
"Long Zheng, I've also seen your grandson. He is indeed quite outstanding and meets the qualifications for special recruitment by Xiangbei."
"He comes to our Xiangbei and all tuition and miscellaneous fees are waived."
"In a few days, I will bring someone from the admissions office to your house to sign the contract."
"That's all for today. I have to go somewhere else next."
Seeing that the matter was settled, Coach Anxi turned around and said to Ryumasa Kiyota beside him with a smile on his face.
"Okay, I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing for this kid to go to your Xiangbei, but it seems to be a good thing at the moment!"
"Only excellent seniors can bring up excellent juniors. I can see that boy will be an excellent senior. Nobunaga will definitely become stronger in Xiangbei!"
"Come to my place for tea when you have time. If you have something else to do, I won't keep you here today."
Qingtian Longzheng looked at his grandson and said with a smile.
Students and schools actually choose each other, especially for excellent students, who often have more choices. Kiyota Ryumasa and Kiyota Nobunaga are different. Kiyota Nobunaga wanted to join Shohoku at the beginning simply because Shohoku was strong and had weak substitutes, so there was a place for him. That's all.
But Qingtian Ryuzheng would consider more. The performance of Xiangbei High School is only one aspect of his concern. He is more concerned about whether Xiangbei High School can make his grandson stronger. This is more important than the performance.
The growth of players ultimately depends on the players themselves, their efforts, and their talents. However, excellent coaches and excellent predecessors can accelerate the growth of players.
Ryumasa Kiyota feels that Shohoku High School can help his grandson grow up quickly!
After finalizing the special recruitment of Kiyota Nobunaga, Coach Anzai led Jinguji Budo and others down the mountain. It took more than an hour to get here, but the actual time spent on recruiting players was only 20 to 30 minutes.
Coach Anxi is very efficient. Only half of the morning has passed, and he has already given out 4 of the 5 special recruitment spots. There is only one special recruitment spot left.
"Brother, how did you do that slam dunk just now? Is there any trick?!"
"I want to learn too, tell me!"
On the mountain trail, Sakuragi Hanamichi followed closely beside Jinguji Takeshi and asked excitedly. He was very interested in Jinguji Takeshi's slam dunk just now and wanted to learn it.
He felt that if he performed a slam dunk like this in front of Haruko, Haruko would definitely be impressed!
"Oh? You want to learn?"
"I'll teach you when I get back. It's actually not that difficult. As long as you bounce enough and grasp the timing, you can do it. You have enough bounce now."
"When the time comes, just go back and practice more."
Wudao thought that Sakuragi Hanamichi was so enthusiastic about this slam dunk because he had just lost to Kiyota and wanted to get back at him with such a slam dunk. He never expected that Sakuragi had already forgotten about the recent failure and his mind was only filled with Haruko.
"Coach, where are we going next?" As they got closer to the platform at the foot of the mountain, Mitsui Shou couldn't help but ask Coach Anzai beside him out of curiosity.
Xiangbei has a total of 5 special recruitment quotas, and Coach Anzai has used 4 of them so quickly. In addition, according to Mitsui Shou's vision, each of the 4 players recruited so far is a very promising new star. In the future, as long as these people come to Xiangbei, their Xiangbei bench will leap to the top in the county.
By then, even if they meet a veteran powerhouse with a deep bench on the national stage, Xiangbei High School will definitely be able to fight.
At the same time, Mitsui Shou was also looking forward to Coach Anzai's next appearance. He couldn't wait to see what kind of player their last special recruit from Xiangbei would be!
"Hohohoho." Facing Mitsui's question, Coach Anzai just smiled and did not answer the other party's question. Seeing that Coach Anzai did not answer, Mitsui scratched his hair and did not continue to ask. Anyway, he followed Coach Anzai and would see him soon.
Mitsui Shou thought so, but the next few stops of the group made Mitsui Shou's thoughts come to nothing.
Under the leadership of Coach Anxi, the group visited junior high schools in five counties in the morning. The basketball teams of these junior high schools were strong and weak, but these teams all had one thing in common, that is, the team coaches, or team leaders, all had some relationship with Coach Anxi to some extent.
After visiting five junior high school teams and looking at dozens of players, Coach Anxi still hadn't been able to give out the last special recruitment spot in his hands.
"The No. 4 player who just showed up is pretty good. Although his ball skills are a little bit worse, his physical condition is very good. It's rare to see a junior high school student who is 185cm tall."
"Hey! No, no, how can someone of that level become a special recruit like me? No, no, no!"
"The previous players of Minghai were all pretty good, and they were considered pretty good players in the junior high school circle."
"No, no, it's too weak, too weak!"
"... ..Asshole! Sakuragi, you are really going against me, right?!"
"No, no, none of those players can do it."
On the streets in the city center, Mitsui recalled the players he had met before and tried to give some advice to Coach Anzai, but when he mentioned a player, Sakuragi Hanamichi immediately waved his hand in objection, which made Mitsui angry.
In the morning, except for the 4 players recruited at the beginning, the next few hours were fruitless. There were many players, but none of them met the standards of Coach Anxi. In terms of combat power and talent, there were dozens of players, but none of them caught the eye of Coach Anxi.
Everyone was hungry after a morning of work, so Coach Anxi took everyone back to the city and prepared to have lunch with them.
"Today.....let's stop here for now."
"After dinner, you can go back to yourselves. I can go on my own for the afternoon trip."
"Mitsui, after you go back, you should monitor the team's afternoon training."
"Budou, and Sakuragi-san, gather at the Shohoku gym at 8 a.m. next Friday."
"Mitsui, notify all team members that they must be in place by then."
"I plan to have the five specially recruited players go to Xiangbei for training in advance so that they can adapt to the rhythm of high school basketball."
Coach Anxi said to the people around him as he led everyone to look for a hotel.
"Coach, isn't there one player missing from the special recruitment?"
"Besides....Will it affect the practice of their original teams if we let the junior high school students train with us?"
Mitsui Shou was a little surprised when he heard this and asked in confusion.
"I will go find the remaining team member, and you will know then."
"As for joint training, there's no problem. After the summer season, few junior high school players will stay on the team, and the junior high school coaches won't consider these third-year players as part of the team's combat power."
"And joint training can help these future new players develop a sense of belonging. Of course, the most important thing is that they can quickly adapt to high school basketball!"
Coach Anzai gave a brief explanation and led everyone into a ramen restaurant when they passed by it.
During the meal, Coach Anzai arranged the training schedule for the next week for Mitsui. The general idea was to let Mitsui reduce the intensity. After all, it was a holiday, and the players should have enough rest time. After the national competition, these players of Xiangbei were too tense.
After lunch, Coach Anzai said goodbye to a few people and left alone, while Takeshi and Mitsui took Sakuragi to Shohoku.
Now Sakuragi is already a part of Xiangbei, so let Sakuragi get familiar with Xiangbei's environment in advance, and Wudou also plans to take this opportunity to see with his own eyes Sakuragi's growth over time.
As for what method to use to watch, bullfighting is naturally the most intuitive method!
And Sakuragi has officially unlocked the "military training moment".
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