Lin Xiao transmigrates to America in 2010, becoming an obscure Chinese ball boy in the University of Connecticut’s basketball gym.
No money, no scholarship, no eligibility to play. Everyone thinks he’s just an underling who retrieves balls for Kemba Walker.
Then the team’s big men get injured, leaving Jim Calhoun with no one to play. He has no choice but to put Lin in for a practice game.
The result? Lin steals the ball from Jeremy Lamb again and again, forces Kemba Walker into tough shots, and defends Jimmy Butler so relentlessly in an official game that Butler starts questioning his whole life.
But Lin Xiao’s real trump card is a Professional Earnings System.
Any money he earns legally through basketball can be exchanged for the skills of legendary players from the past.
His scholarship comes through, unlocking the open three-pointer. His rookie contract arrives, filling out his ball-handling and driving game. An endorsement deal upgrades his superhuman stamina. A max contract unlocks a superstar template.
From UConn’s surprise weapon to a championship piece for the Spurs; from a defensive ace under Popovich to the best player in the NBA; from China’s basketball hope after Yao Ming and Yi Jianlian to the face of a new era, leading the Chinese national team against the American Dream Team.
Everyone thinks he’s just a role player.
In the end, the whole world learns the truth: he is the one who changed the era of basketball.
