Life as NBA Rookie (SlamDunk System)-Chapter 189: The Last Textbook, The Era’s Lament!

Chapter 189: Chapter 189: The Last Textbook, The Era’s Lament!

As the first quarter unfolded, Zack noticed Kobe was clearly pacing himself.

The league’s premier perimeter scorer wasn’t just deferring to his teammates early on—he was blatantly coasting on defense, tasked only with guarding Raja Bell.

This struck Zack, who had to stay on high alert against Pau Gasol, as wildly unfair.

So, during the first official timeout, Zack pitched an idea to Coach Mike Malone: "We need to get Steph out there."

Malone assumed Zack meant subbing Curry for Nash.

Nope. Zack wanted Curry to replace Bell.

A Nash-Curry backcourt? Malone could barely picture it without wincing.

But Zack won him over. "Gerald’s a First-Team All-Defender. He can handle Kobe."

Zack knew that, despite Derek Fisher’s decline, as a point guard in Phil Jackson’s triangle offense, Fisher’s role was limited to spotting up for threes and bringing the ball up. No way Jackson was building plays around him.

As for Lamar Odom, who’d guard him with Wallace on Kobe?

"Steph, you’re taking Odom," Zack said, patting Curry’s shoulder. "Stick to him tight. Don’t worry about his drives—just let him come inside if he tries."

Curry nodded. "And on offense? What do you need from me?"

"Just keep moving off the ball like you always do," Zack said with a grin. "Remember what Monta Ellis said to you before the game?"

At that, Curry’s eyes lit up with fire.

As someone from the future, Zack knew Curry’s competitive spirit inside out. No way a guy without a killer instinct could later declare, "Nobody wants to face us next season," and lead his team to the mountaintop.

Back on the court after the timeout, the Warriors, with Curry in, gave Kobe a familiar feeling in their first possession.

From Rip Hamilton to Ray Allen to Curry—Kobe couldn’t wrap his head around it. Why do these tireless freaks choose basketball over marathons?

The Warriors’ blatant plan to wear Kobe down with Curry’s relentless movement left the Lakers helpless.

With Odom guarding Zack, and the Gasol brothers anchoring the paint, the Lakers had no spare defenders to switch onto Curry. The only option was Fisher, but that would force Kobe to chase Nash—a relentless pest—while getting drained by Zack’s endless pick-and-rolls.

The Lakers’ brain trust knew that putting someone else on Curry meant pulling an interior player and going small with Shane Battier.

"That’s suicide," Phil Jackson told assistant Brian Shaw, who’d suggested the switch. "We need height to counter the Warriors’ interior attack."

In Jackson’s mind, Kobe’s stamina wasn’t the issue. The Lakers needed to punish the Warriors’ cocky backcourt duo instead.

At Oracle Arena, it was the Lakers’ turn to attack.

Odom easily bullied past Curry’s defense and charged toward the Warriors’ rim.

Then, three-time Defensive Player of the Year Zack, with his soul-crushing defensive rotations, shattered Odom’s hoop dreams.

Kwame Brown swooped in for the rebound.

As Odom jogged back, he witnessed a gut-punch moment.

Khloe Kardashian, courtside, didn’t bat an eye at Odom’s blocked shot. Instead, she was all-in as Zack, after swatting Odom, thundered downcourt for a fast-break slam.

Privately, Odom had griped about Khloe’s distracting antics. But her response? "Honey, I just love how he plays. If you can’t handle my passions, how can you say you love me?"

On the court, Zack’s dunk sparked another courtside display from Khloe, completely ignoring her fiancé’s feelings.

Odom was crushed.

But that’s what you get for being a simp.

If Odom didn’t play the doormat, would Khloe have him so whipped?

Lakers’ ball again. The Black Mamba, silent for too long, finally struck.

Calling Odom for a pick, Kobe set up to torch the Warriors’ defensive weak links.

But the second the screen was set, Curry and Wallace trapped Kobe in a double-team.

Think you can force a switch with a pick? Not a chance.

Odom, rolling free, was wide open, and even Kobe couldn’t ignore him. Odom drew a foul from Brown, earning two free throws.

But as Odom stepped to the line, Brown cast a spell: "That chick behind the Lakers’ bench? Man, she’s stacked."

"That’s my fiancée!" Odom roared.

"My bad, my bad," Brown said, backpedaling with a grin. "Lamar, your fiancée is fire." 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

Odom, fuming, couldn’t shake the feeling Brown was mocking him, but what could he do?

After all, despite his countless off-court conquests since entering the NBA, Odom saw Khloe as his one true love.

In Zack’s previous life, even after their breakup, Odom couldn’t let her go. He even beefed with Tristan Thompson over her.

When Khloe split with Thompson after his cheating scandal post-baby, Odom saw his chance. On social media, he poured his heart out: "I’ve always seen Khloe as my treasure. I don’t care what happened with her and Tristan—it wasn’t real love."

The Odom-Khloe-Thompson soap opera was a worldview-shattering mess.

Zack didn’t know if Thompson and Khloe were true love, but Odom’s devotion? That was the real deal—obsessive, all-in, pathetic real.

Clank, clank.

Odom bricked both free throws.

On the other end, Nash drained a chase-down three.

With Nash, Curry, and Zack running the break, the Lakers’ defense—caught between a rock and a hard place—got punished instantly.

"Lamar, don’t let their trash talk get to you!" Kobe yelled. "This is the damn Western Conference Finals!"

Odom, swallowing his frustration, nodded.

On the Warriors’ side, Brown turned to Zack. "You were right—women are just baggage when you’re trying to play great basketball."

Unlike Zack, Brown didn’t know the depths of Odom’s devotion. His "your fiancée is fire" jab was meant to rattle Odom, not strike a nerve that deep.

If Odom could channel his hatred for Zack into focus earlier, Brown’s quip turned him into a distracted mess—a covert Warrior on the court.

Despite Kobe’s constant prodding, Odom couldn’t shake Brown’s taunt.

By the end of the first quarter, Odom was 0-for-3, 0-for-4 from the line, with zero points beyond two early assists.

This forced Kobe, who’d planned to save his energy for the second half, to flip the switch early.

Zack was thrilled with how Curry’s offense drained Kobe. But to answer Ellis’s pre-game trash talk, Curry needed to prove himself in the second-quarter rotations.

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At Zack’s urging, Malone rolled out a five-out lineup for the second quarter: Troy Murphy, Harrison Barnes, Mike Dunleavy, Curry, and Jarrett Jack.

Before hitting the court, Curry shot Zack a grateful look.

Compared to last year’s rebellious rookie who resisted playing for the Warriors, a full season with Zack had built trust and belonging. Curry had found his home in this championship squad.

With the same do-or-die mentality as his teammates, Curry stepped onto the court.

In the Warriors’ first possession of the second quarter, he buried a pinpoint three, piercing the Lakers’ net.

Monta Ellis, determined to buy Kobe rest, answered back, shaking Jack for a floater.

It was a shootout between the league’s top sixth men.

Curry and Ellis went toe-to-toe, dropping 12 and 11 points, respectively, in the first half of the second quarter.

"Good work," Zack said, patting Curry’s shoulder as he prepared to check back in. "But next time someone talks smack, you’ve gotta step up bigger."

Curry looked puzzled.

Brown clarified: "Messiah’s saying, if someone comes at you again, you gotta clap back."

"I don’t know what to say," Curry admitted, scratching his head. "I’m not good at trash talk."

Brown grinned. "No worries. I’ll give you my Bible later."

"Bible?"

"Or, you know, Messiah’s Trash-Talk Encyclopedia."

...

At Oracle Arena, the Curry-Ellis duel had just wrapped.

Then Zack, with a "You wanna go head-to-head on scoring?" taunt, got Kobe to ditch his passing game.

The shootout continued—this time starring Zack and Kobe.

"2-0!" Kobe, shrugging off All-Defensive First Teamer Wallace with an elbow, hit a silky fadeaway to strike first.

"3-2!" Zack answered, pulling off a crossover, step-back three in one fluid motion. Swish!

On TNT, Charles Barkley chuckled, "This is what we came for! Let’s see who wins this scoring battle—Messiah or Kobe!"

Zack relished the showdown. So did Kobe.

But for the defenders tasked with stopping them, it was like a stampede of a million wildebeests.

On a Lakers possession, Wallace thought he had Kobe cornered, only for Kobe to hit him with a textbook up-and-under, shaking his balance.

Starting next season, Zack felt, moves like Kobe’s pristine up-and-under would fade into history.

Under new traveling and gather-step rules, why bother mastering body control to avoid violations when raw athleticism could get the job done?

As a time-traveler, Zack knew how unstoppable Giannis Antetokounmpo would become under those rules.

Fancy post moves? Elegant footwork? Rhythm-based finishes? Not needed.

When Giannis bulldozed to the low post, his brute strength let him plow through defenses without finesse.

Many blamed the decline of artistic offensive moves on utilitarian basketball, but Zack knew the real culprit: the NBA’s relaxed traveling and gather-step rules.

Why grind to perfect high-skill techniques when the rules let you coast on athleticism?

On the court, Zack, the self-styled modern big man, spun past a helping Marc Gasol with a dreamy footwork sequence.

In that moment, he was both honoring the old-school greats who honed their craft to etch their names in NBA lore and defending the basketball he loved.

Yes, new rules would shrink the skill gap between players, handing athletic freaks a shortcut to stardom.

But in the coming era, Zack was ready to crush any young gun trying to take the easy road to the top.

"14-13!" Zack, hitting a quick step-back before halftime, taunted Kobe. "You’re done, Kobe. I’m winning this shootout!"

Kobe fired back, "We’ll keep going in the second half!"

"Keep going?" Zack rolled his eyes. "You think I’m just a scorer like you, the ’Jordan heir’? I’m Yellow Oscar, man!"

Kobe was speechless. Being called Jordan’s heir was usually praise, but from Zack’s mouth, it felt like a slap.

After halftime, Zack shifted gears in the third quarter, focusing on playmaking and setting up teammates.

Wallace and Nash became the Warriors’ primary weapons.

On the Lakers’ bench, Phil Jackson, a diehard Jordan believer, couldn’t help but waver. He knew Jordan could match anyone in scoring.

But Zack’s true terror? As long as his teammates didn’t choke, he kept the Warriors’ offense humming at an elite level.

No team stopped Golden State’s attack in the regular season. Even with the Lakers bringing their "Dark Finals" defensive intensity from last year’s championship, they couldn’t slow the Warriors.

To Jackson, Zack’s Warriors had backed every opponent into a corner: outscore them, or get buried.

The Lakers, fueled by Ellis and Kobe’s first-half explosions, kept pace in the second quarter.

But as the game wore on, the Lakers’ reliance on Kobe’s heroics stood in stark contrast to the Warriors, who churned out easy buckets under Zack and Nash’s orchestration.

The scoreboard after three quarters told the story: 88-104.

An 88-point game through three quarters wasn’t good enough? For the Lakers, it wasn’t.

Because the Warriors dropped 104.

In the fourth, desperate to close the gap, Jackson gave Kobe just two minutes of rest.

But Zack, who’d coasted on offense in the third, returned with a full tank.

"Messiah’s 12 points in five minutes sealed this game!" Barkley declared on TNT as the Lakers pulled their starters with two minutes left. "The Warriors’ relentless offense took down the defending champs in Game 1!"

Final score: 112-129.

The Warriors took a 1-0 lead in the Western Conference Finals!

"I’ve always respected Kobe, even copied his post moves," Zack said post-game. "But let’s be real—if I hadn’t gotten hurt last year, the Lakers wouldn’t have won the title."

...