Su Xi seemed a little exasperated. He told Nike it was a complete bolt from the blue, that he had no idea why she kissed him, and that it was, in fact, only their second time meeting.

Su Xi’s words put Nike at ease.

On one hand, they felt Su Xi’s image could attract female fans and get women and young people who didn’t care about basketball to spend money on him. On the other hand, they didn’t want Su Xi getting too close to Hollywood. That place was treacherous; no player in their prime had ever emerged from it unscathed.

They didn’t want Su Xi to flame out quickly due to a debauched personal life, like super-talents Kemp and Coleman.

Su Xi found it baffling as well. ’I just saved her,’ he thought. ’How could she fall in love so easily? Has she been reading too many romance novels?’

’It must have just been a spur-of-the-moment thing.’

Su Xi mumbled to himself.

He felt a faint sense of disappointment. The truth was, on the night he saved Scarlett, he’d had a strange dream about sleeping with her.

He didn’t know why.

What was interesting was that in Scarlett’s dream, they had also slept together—not once, not twice, not three, four, or five times, but for whole nights on end.

Su Xi quickly turned his full attention to the game. Tonight, they were playing the second game of a back-to-back against the Detroit Pistons.

The Pistons were Indiana’s most important rival in the East. Each team saw the other as a thorn in its side. They had a long and complicated history.

On the flight from New York to Detroit, every veteran player was intensely focused on their tactical materials.

Carlisle was sitting right beside Su Xi, constantly explaining... what he needed Su Xi to do from a tactical standpoint.

He had high hopes for Su Xi.

Su Xi was his most important weapon for cracking the Pistons. Before Su Xi’s arrival, they had already played their Central Division rivals twice, and the Pistons had beaten them both at home and on the road.

"We need you to relentlessly attack the paint, to be aggressive against their interior. Make their defense collapse inward. That way, we can break their entire defensive line," Carlisle said.

The Pistons’ system was one he had built with his own hands, and now he had to figure out a way to defeat it.

No one had more mixed feelings about it than he did.

Su Xi nodded seriously.

He was fired up to face the Pistons too.

Most importantly, he couldn’t wait to go head-to-head with Ben Wallace. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

Ben Wallace was at the absolute peak of his career this season. Although the media liked to call the Pistons a blue-collar team without a superstar, Wallace himself had become a massive draw. With his unique combination of being undersized for his position, elite defense, immense strength, and unparalleled ferocity, he was generating a ton of buzz.

He was currently second only to Vince Carter in All-Star voting. With nearly a month to go before the January 30 deadline, his vote total had already surpassed 1.1 million. He was just 80,000 votes behind the top vote-getter, Vince Carter, and was far ahead of the other centers on the ballot, including Yao Ming and O’Neal. Even perimeter superstars and massive fan draws like Iverson and Kobe couldn’t keep up with his vote count.

So far this season, Ben Wallace was averaging 9.6 points, 13.1 rebounds, 3.1 blocks, 1.8 steals, and 1.6 assists.

He was second in the league in rebounds, behind only Garnett.

Second in blocks, behind only Ratliff.

Ninth in steals.

This was an era teeming with superstars, but Wallace’s impact went far beyond the stat sheet. He had firmly established himself as the league’s number one defender, a cut above all other challengers.

In fact, he had already won Defensive Player of the Year for two consecutive years. Given his current form and the Pistons’ overall strategy, he was on track to win it again. (Historically, Wallace won DPOY in ’01-02 and ’02-03. The ’03-04 award was snatched by Artest. While Artest was indeed a monster that year and the Pacers had the best record, it’s hard to deny that some of the league’s unwritten rules might have played a part, as they tend to prevent three-peats. Howard’s three-peat in 2011 was an exception, largely because he had no real competition. No disrespect to Artest, but his DPOY award was a bit like Embiid’s regular season MVP. After all, Ben Wallace went on to win two more consecutive DPOY awards after the ’03-04 season.)

That was how dominant Ben Wallace was.

But Su Xi saw him as a sworn enemy.

In the "Death Note" Frank had compiled for Su Xi, Ben Wallace was the player with the harshest comments, and he had targeted Su Xi more than anyone else. There were three separate entries for him.

The first time was when Su Xi won the NCAA championship and was crowned MOP. In an interview with the Michigan Forum, Ben Wallace said, "He and I are not the same type of player. His style of play is like a circus act. I don’t understand why his draft stock is so high. He’s just a watered-down version of me in every way, and I went undrafted back in the day."

The second time was after Su Xi’s debut quadruple-double. In an interview with Fox Detroit Sports Network, Wallace emphasized, "I haven’t changed my assessment. If he played the Pistons, he wouldn’t get a quadruple-double. I’m not picking on the kid, I’m just saying that trying to do everything will only hurt you. He should be honing his skills at the Point Guard position, not trying to make a living in the paint. If he runs up against the Pistons, he’s a dead man walking."

The third was when Su Xi, then with Cleveland, led his team to a victory over the Pistons. Wallace said in an interview with official NBA media, "Su Xi is just a role player, but he’s trying to do a star player’s job. The Knight’s victory was because we didn’t expect him to be so audacious. But if I hadn’t been resting for that game, things would have been completely different."