More threatening than Aomine?
Those words caught Kozo Shirogane’s attention.
Despite being a first-year, Aomine had already proven his talent.
That free and unrestricted basketball, combined with his unparalleled speed and instantaneous explosiveness, allowed Aomine to thrive on offense.
If they considered offense alone and compared only offensive ability, Kozo Shirogane believed Aomine was even stronger than Shuzo Nijimura.
He was a natural scorer.
Yet that first-year named Hibari apparently possessed that kind of ability…
“Is this generation about to experience an explosion of talent?” First came Shuzo Nijimura, Eikichi Nebuya, Reo Mibuchi, Kotaro Hayama, Yukio Kasamatsu, and others.
Now young talents like Akashi, Aomine, Midorima, Murasakibara, Haizaki, and Hibari had also appeared.
Kozo Shirogane could envision Teiko’s powerful future, but they wouldn’t be truly invincible.
Eikichi Nebuya paired with a Hibari whose scoring ability wasn’t inferior to Aomine’s—such a combination was already quite threatening.
However…
“Our current goal is to secure the first seed in the Tokyo region.
We can consider everything else once we reach the national tournament finals.” “Momoi, focus on teams from the Tokyo region from now on.
Set teams from other regions aside for the time being.” Kozo Shirogane quickly made his decision.
As long as Teiko Middle School played its own brand of basketball well, they would be the strongest team.
These geniuses gave him that confidence, and they would only grow stronger.
Perhaps they might even create an unimaginable history.
“Yes!” …
Elsewhere.
Chiba Prefecture.
Over the weekend, Hibari continued lifting weights at the gym with Eikichi Nebuya.
Under No.
2’s supervision, his training intensity was tremendous, always pushing toward his body’s limits.
Don’t ask Hibari how he knew.
Many times, he felt as though he were about to die.
Making a living as an athlete wasn’t as easy as people imagined.
The sweat those glamorous NBA players shed away from the court was difficult to imagine.
Of course, naturally gifted people like my man Harden were a different matter.
“After training this hard, my Strength attribute only increased by one point.” Hibari looked at his status panel.
His Strength attribute had risen by only one point.
“Your body’s potential is limited.
Increasing it by even one point is already quite good.” Every person’s physical talent was limited.
How strong you were and how fast you could run were, to a great extent, already determined at birth.
These things were simple.
Either you had them or you didn’t.
They couldn’t be forced.
“I want to know the limit of my Strength attribute.” Hibari wanted to train his body to its limit, then use attribute points from the lottery to break through that limit.
“At the middle school level, your Strength attribute has an upper limit of 85 points, your Speed has an upper limit of 83, and your Stamina has an upper limit of 85.” “That looks pretty good.” “It is fairly good.
You have national-level potential.” No.
2 didn’t discourage him and simply told the truth.
From middle school to high school and then university, athletes were still physically developing.
During that period, a player’s body could experience explosive growth.
For example, Big Kawata from Slam Dunk had moved from the perimeter to the interior and switched to center because of a sudden growth spurt.
There were real-world examples as well.
Anthony Davis had originally stood only 1.91 meters tall at the beginning of his junior year in high school and played guard.
Then, during that very year, his body grew an astonishing 17 centimeters, taking him from 1.91 meters to 2.08 meters.
It left many people stunned.
The system had scanned Hibari’s body, and there was no possibility of that kind of explosive growth.
This was the limit of his physical talent during middle school, and it wouldn’t improve much in high school either.
However.
If he continued working hard according to his training plan, his maximum attributes could all break past 90 points by the time he reached high school.
Anything beyond that could only be improved through the lottery.
“Then what about those people from the Generation of Miracles?
What are the limits of their talent?” “Using Daiki Aomine as an example, his Strength attribute is 90 points, while his Speed exceeds 100.” “His middle school limits?” “His middle school limits.” The gap truly wasn’t small.
Hibari knew the Generation of Miracles possessed astonishing talent.
After all, they were geniuses capable of defeating Jabberwock in the movie.
He simply hadn’t expected the difference to be this great.
“Forget Speed.
In the original story, no one could outrun that speed demon Aomine.” “But even my Strength is below Aomine’s.
Honestly, that’s a little discouraging.” Hibari felt somewhat troubled as he thought about it.
And that was only Aomine.
Every other member of the Generation of Miracles possessed unique skills of their own.
“I hope we get lucky with the draw over the next few years.
Ideally, we won’t meet Teiko before the final.” It wasn’t that Hibari lacked ambition.
That was simply how they were written.
Within the story, the Generation of Miracles represented the ceiling of talent for their generation in Japan.
Especially after their second year, when every member had awakened, the Generation of Miracles were almost unbeatable.
Every one of the five positions was occupied by a version-T0 player, and they also had a top-tier support player in Tetsuya Kuroko.
How the hell was anyone supposed to play against that?
…
Monday.
As usual, Hibari arrived at the basketball club and trained relentlessly.
Hayato Takahashi called Yukino aside because he had something to assign her.
“Yukinoshita, contact several teams over the next few days.
Starting next month, we’ll gradually play a few warm-up games.” “Understood, Coach Takahashi.
Do you have any requirements for the teams we invite?” Yukino either didn’t do something at all, or once she decided to do it, she worked hard to do it as well as possible.
In this regard, she was very similar to Hibari.
“The requirement is that they can test the strength of our new starting lineup.
Contact teams with a strong interior, teams with a strong perimeter, and teams with strong overall ability.” Yukino quickly understood.
He intended to test the team from every angle.
There was something else.
From the coach’s words, it sounded as though he intended to promote Hibari into the starting lineup.
Because the coach had said “new starting lineup.” …
Some time had passed since Hibari joined the basketball club.
During those days, his daily life was extremely monotonous.
He spent most of his time on the basketball court.
He had once received confessions from many girls, but now no one paid attention to him.
It wasn’t that he had become less popular.
Rather, after Yukino also joined the basketball club, the two were seen together every day, and the school assumed they were already dating.
Hibari himself didn’t mind his romantic prospects declining.
After all, none of the other girls at school were as beautiful as Yukino.
Besides, No.
2 trained him into a dead dog every day.
Where would he find the time to play some romance game?
Romance?
With what energy?
Some guys in the basketball club, on the other hand, hadn’t even made the roster, yet acted as though they were personally going to win the championship.
Hibari once happened to see something at school.
A second-year senior from the basketball club stood before a girl and said apologetically: “Sorry.
Right now, the national tournament is the only thing on my mind.
Before I graduate, I must win a national championship for the team!” The 170-pound girl was immediately moved by his lofty ambition, hearts practically appearing in her eyes.
Hibari could pat his chest and guarantee one thing: If that girl hadn’t weighed 170 pounds, that bastard from the basketball club would have agreed on the spot.
…
Please add this book to your library!