The last one is Shareef Abdur-Rahim, who has the face of a bandit but is surprisingly quiet. He was the third overall pick of the golden generation in 1996, an explosive small forward with excellent physicality and talent. In his rookie year, he averaged 18+6 per game; in his second year, he averaged 22+7+3+1+1; last season, he averaged 23+10+3+2+1. He was strong on both offense and defense, and purely in terms of ability, he was definitely a superstar. However, his personality was too gentle and quiet—putting it nicely. To put it bluntly, he lacked fighting spirit. After playing five years with the Vancouver Grizzlies, he was sent to the Hawks.

For some reason, with all this jumbled information in his head, Ethan Brooks, who was nervously waiting on the court for the referee to blow the whistle to end the timeout, suddenly realized something—something quite strange. When he previously heard the name "Jason," the thought that popped into his head was, "I have to team up with this annoying short guy again, what bad luck."

But... Ethan Brooks actually knew quite a bit about some famous players. Jason Terry, although he became a big talker at the end of his career—and only a big talker—was actually very impressive when he was young. At 1.88 meters, he was considered short for an NBA shooting guard, but compared to ordinary people, he was definitely tall!

Ethan Brooks wasn't particularly short, but at only 1.75 meters, he was of average height for a regular person, and even compared to Jason Terry, he was much shorter. So why did he have the "illusion" that Jason Terry was a short guy?

The referee blew the whistle and handed the ball to Rahim on the sideline. Rahim inbounded the ball to Ethan Brooks, and Ethan Brooks noticed—was this a children's basketball? Why was it so small?

While Ethan Brooks was still puzzled, a voice he instinctively disliked came over...

"Give me the ball!" Jason Terry said, nostrils flaring.

That feeling of dislike naturally arose in his heart upon hearing that voice, and his hands just as naturally passed the ball away.

At this moment, Ethan Brooks finally realized what was wrong—this world seemed to have shrunk! The basketball was smaller, the court seemed smaller, the hoop was lower, and even the 1.88-meter-tall Jason Terry was no longer tall in front of him... In other words, he had grown taller! He realized he seemed to have shot up by quite a bit!

Ethan Brooks was inwardly shocked, dazedly running back and forth with the team.

The worry Ethan Brooks had earlier about not knowing what to do after getting the ball turned out to be completely unnecessary. Jason Terry was a total ball hog—once the ball was in his hands, not even Rahim, the team's only superstar, could get it back. In the two-plus minutes he was subbed in, he just ran up and down the court, and until halftime, there was no such thing as catching the ball and shooting it as the big-forehead coach had said, because he simply never got the ball...

Chapter 2: Career Crisis

In the bathroom of the home team's locker room at the Hawks' Philips Arena.

Recalling the gradually merging and clarifying memories in his mind, Ethan Brooks stared blankly at the mirror...

There was no doubt that the person in the mirror was himself. Ethan Brooks knew his own face in the mirror better than anyone after looking at it for over 20 years. He even pulled down his pants to check that the mole in the middle of his little brother's hair was still there. As for why he had grown 20 centimeters taller—he was now 1.93 meters.

Ethan Brooks, English name Ace Brooks, a name given by his college coach, meaning his shot pierced opponents like an ice blade. The newly merged memories told him he was born on August 26, 1982, now 19 years old, a Chinese student studying in the US. After finishing his sophomore year at Georgia Tech, he entered the NBA draft and, in a surprise move, was selected by the Hawks' owner—who wanted to follow President David Stern's lead in developing the Chinese market—with the 24th pick of the second round, 53rd overall. His strengths in basketball were ball-handling and three-point shooting, but in this era, that was considered a non-mainstream style, making it hard to even get drafted in a weak draft year...

The current date was November 1, 2001. Ethan Brooks's identity was that of a second-round rookie for the Hawks, and the half he had just played was the Hawks' home opener against the Rockets.

Ethan Brooks had once wondered what it would be like to travel back in time, but when it actually happened, he found he was completely unprepared. He might not even be able to survive in this era without the internet or convenient transportation.

He now realized that, aside from a two-year, partially guaranteed contract with the Hawks, he had no other means to survive in this era.

In 2001, the internet was not yet widespread, broadband was only one or two megabits, cell phones had just replaced the old brick phones, and in the US, the only online game was the first web-based version of "The Sims." In Asia, there was only "Legend of Mir." Friends still had to line up to sing karaoke...

He was now in despair—he didn't know a single lottery number, so getting rich by buying lottery tickets was out of the question.

As for investing, that was just nonsense. Even if he did remember a few periods before economic bubbles when the stock market would soar for no reason, he had no money! Plus, the bubble crisis of the '90s had just ended, and it would be at least five or six years before the next one!

As for ways to make money... the first thing that came to Ethan Brooks's mind was his team salary. But he was just a second-round pick—how much could he possibly make?