Rebirth In Kurokonobasket - Chapter 143

Shun sat on his study table in his room. A laptop in front of him, and a stack of practice footage beside it.

Shun had gone through almost everyone in Division-One, and only the two best players were left.

Shun sighed as he looked at his laptop’s screen.

Shun: “These two are tough.”

Shun fell into his memories of the playstyle of the only third time visitors of the camp.

Shun: ‘Gilbert Knight, what do I know about him?

Let’s see.

Eighteen years old, power forward, defensive playstyle.

Specialties?

Rebounds, Blocks, Ground-Defense, and Post-Plays.

Hmm, no one in the Division-One can beat him in Rebounds and Blocks. Reason? His massive vertical reach.

From what I can see, his jump has both air time and explosiveness. I can’t copy that, at my current physical level, I can’t reach his maximum reach.

I lack in both height and jumping prowess.

Aspects that I can copy? Maybe his jump posture to get an explosive jump style.

What about ground defense? No, that won’t help, he is good, but he isn’t as good as Rafael. I have Rafael’s data, no need to take input from Gilbert in that region.

Next? Ah, post-plays. How should I classify that? Hmm, his style is somewhere between Roger and Douglas.

A mix of power and skill; his strength is less than Douglas, and he is less skilled than Roger. He is somewhere in between both of them.

What can I gain from that? Yes, I can take him as a reference for when I mix their styles back home.

Is there something that I can take from his offensive abilities?

He has a good jumping ability, and that gives him a lot of opportunity from rim-finishing, but his rim-finishing skills rely more on force than skill.

Antony is a better choice for double-clutches and layups, but Gilbert is a better choice than Bruno for mid-air posture, I can take that from him.’

-*-*-*-

Shun loaded up another CD and watched the player that he was having problems.

On the screen, Shun saw Ivan Petrovic playing. And once again, Shun went into his thoughts for the information about Ivan.

Shun: ‘Ivan Petrovic, Serbian’s top youth player. He led his team to victory in this year’s U-19 championship.

Eighteen years old, and the other third timer of this camp.

Gained the title of the Scoring Machine because of his overwhelming ability to score anywhere on the court.’

Shun leaned back in his chair and thought.

Shun: ‘In this camp, his style of play is the most similar to mine.’

Shun and Ivan could play from all parts of the court, but there were differences between them.

Shun: ‘His style is much more complete and rounded than mine.

Unlike me, he plays in the paint.

I didn’t play in the paint because of Murasakibara. It would’ve taken a lot of time to get past him in a post-play, and by that time, one of the others would’ve come to double-team me.

But that is not all.’

It had taken Shun a while to understand, but he found why Ivan was such a good player without diverting from the orthodox style of play.

Shun: ‘It’s his basketball IQ and tempo with which he plays, what was that Coach Sarah said?

Ah yes, he has one talent; the talent for basketball.’

Shun had come to understand what made Ivan special.

Shun remembered a line that Leonal had said.

Leonal: *For people with normal reflexes, thinking forward midst of playing is tough, we who can react faster have more time to think and plan.*

Shun: ‘Even with normal reflexes, he can think forward, and that makes his play so smooth and seamless that it becomes difficult to outsmart him. His basketball IQ is off the charts.

When you combine it with his ability to play on any part of the court, and the orthodox style polished to the limit makes him almost unstoppable.’

Shun thought of himself and Aomine.

Shun: ‘My balanced yet formless ball-handling, Aomine’s streetball influenced formless ball-handling are difficult to defend against because of their unpredictability.’

He then turned his chain of thoughts to the players that he had seen in the series.

Shun: ‘Tatsuya Himuro and Nash Gold Jr. used the orthodox style of basketball and polished them to the best of their ability.

Tatsuya Himuro’s style of orthodox play was for a shooting guard, and Nash Gold Jr.’s style of orthodox play was for a rim finishing guard.

But, Ivan’s orthodox style of play covers the shooting guard position, a rim-finishing guard or forward, and post-playing forward. It is a complete style that enables him to play anywhere.

And, he has polished his style much more than the other two.

When you can play like that, your choice of plays becomes close to the same effect provided by a formless style of play.’

Shun combed his fingers through his hair, and his chain of thought took a slight turn.

Shun: ‘Let’s think of what I can take from him.

First is obvious, I can use his style as a reference for when I integrate all the styles that I saw here into my style.

He can plan his plays to make them seamless, with all the plays I have seen of him and Leonal, I can use that as a reference.

But, there is a thing that I can take from him, and I think that would be a huge step-up for my playstyle.’

Shun turned his eyes to the screen and played the video, and saw Ivan shooting the ball.

He smiled and said to himself.

Shun: “Ivan Petrovic’s Quick Draw.”

Ivan officially played as a shooting guard, and that was because he had a ridiculously fast shooting motion.

The time between he got into his shooting motion to the time he shot the ball was extremely short, and that gained Ivan’s shooting form the moniker of Quick Draw.

Shun was excited to see what would happen when he combined Mibuchi’s diversity, Midorima’s stability, and Ivan’s quickness to create his own shooting style.

Shun: “That is going to be fun to master.”

Just like that, the last day of the camp arrived, and on the last day, the coaches decided to hold a full-on forty-eight minute game between the Division-One members.

And Shun was going to play for both the teams, and he was going to play the full game without a break.