Back from injury, Zack led the Warriors with unstoppable force, carving out a monuntal legacy for himself and the team in the regular season.
As the widely recognized "God of Stats," Zack played all 82 gas in the 2009-10 season, averaging a jaw-dropping 33.2 points, 14.6 rebounds, 10.8 assists, 4.4 blocks, and 1.6 steals per ga. Oh, and he casually set a one-of-a-kind record: becoming the player to reach 10,000 points, 4,500 rebounds, 3,000 assists, 1,000 blocks, and 450 steals in the fewest gas in NBA history.
But even the unparalleled, chiseled Zack showed up to the team’s celebration banquet the day after the regular season ended, looking like he needed to hold his lower back.
"You okay, man?" Kwa Brown asked, genuinely concerned as he eyed the visibly drained Zack. "Want to hook you up with so of my kidney supplents?"
Thinking back to last night’s intense off-court battle, Zack gave a faint smile. "I’m good. Just a few training sessions—what’s the big deal?"
Brown knew Zack’s stamina was on another level.
But he couldn’t help wondering: was last night a four-on-one gauntlet, or did Zack take on four separate battles back-to-back? Either way, in Brown’s eyes, Zack’s physical prowess was straight-up beastly.
"This season, our only goal is the championship!"
At the banquet, Warriors head coach Mike Malone threw a bucket of cold water on the team to keep them grounded. "You don’t want to be the guys who won 75 gas in the regular season but couldn’t hoist the trophy, do you?"
"Exactly!" Zack, starting to regain his energy, chid in for Malone. "If we don’t win the title, all the records and glory we’ve built will just be nails in our own coffin of sha!"
The Warriors players, who’d been riding high, instantly sobered up.
"This is our season!" Brown, stepping up as the ultimate second-in-command, declared. "We can’t let anyone steal it from us!"
The regular season wrapped up perfectly.
With a 75-7 record, the Warriors sat atop the league. The rest of the NBA? It was one superpower and a bunch of contenders.
The Supersonics grabbed second in the West with 60 wins.
The Lakers took third with 59.
The Mavericks settled for fourth with 58.
As the West’s top four, they’d face the Hornets, Jazz, Grizzlies, and Nuggets in the first round of the playoffs.
The Hornets’ regular season was a wild ride. After Byron Scott clashed with Rajon Rondo and quit as head coach, betting Rondo couldn’t lead the team to the playoffs, Rondo proved him wrong. Alongside David West, Brook Lopez, and veteran Peja Stojaković, the Hornets snagged the eighth seed.
Sure, their playoff berth ca partly because the Spurs’ Al Jefferson was plagued by injuries, forcing an early tank, and because Steve Kerr’s dismantling of the Suns left Amar’e Stoudemire unable to carry them alone. But for a league-owned team, the Hornets—led by West’s locker-room leadership and Rondo’s tactical genius—were the West’s biggest surprise.
"We’re united," Rondo said before the playoffs. "We may not match the West’s heavyweights, but we’re not a team that’ll roll over."
Their rollercoaster season was full of grit and drama, and Zack knew the Warriors couldn’t sleep on them.
Over in the East, LeBron Jas—feeling invincible as long as he wasn’t compared to Zack—led the Cavaliers to a 59-win season, topping the conference.
Jas averaged 30 points, 8 rebounds, and 9 assists per ga. Even the Arican dia, increasingly critical of him since the Beijing Olympics, admitted he was a cut above everyone but you-know-who.
In the East’s first round, the top four—Cavaliers, Celtics, Magic, and Hawks—would face the Bobcats, Bulls, Heat, and Knicks.
Thanks to the Dallas Incident, the Bobcats beca the league’s most disappointing team by season’s end. If the Raptors, with LaMarcus Aldridge, Chris Bosh, and DeMar DeRozan, had pushed a little harder, they might’ve snagged the final playoff spot.
On April 18, the Western Conference first-round playoffs tipped off.
But before the gas could even start, a bombshell from Examiner stole the spotlight from the Warriors.
The site claid Cavaliers point guard Delonte West had been romantically involved with LeBron Jas’ mother, Gloria, for a while.
Minutes later, Wcwpsports dropped an even juicier story.
According to their source, this wasn’t Gloria’s first fling with soone close to LeBron. His forr agent Aaron Goodwin’s twin brother, Eric, had also been involved with her.
"It’s common knowledge," the source said. "Delonte’s just one of many. Before him, Gloria hooked up with Eric to cure her loneliness, and that’s why LeBron fired Aaron."
Despite LeBron and his legal team quickly denying the "Mom-Gate" rumors, Hall of Far and forr Rockets star Calvin Murphy doubled down in an interview, insisting it was true.
"How does Calvin Murphy know this stuff?" Brown, glued to his phone eating up the gossip, asked curiously that night. "What, did he hook up with Gloria too?"
Zack found it odd too.
After all, as a Rockets legend, Murphy had no real ties to LeBron.
Yet after "Mom-Gate" broke, Murphy was adamant Gloria and West were a thing. The way he talked, Zack half-wondered if the league’s unofficial "emperor" had a whole squad of suitors.
On a night when Delonte West was crowned the new "emperor," not even the Warriors’ ga could compete with Arica’s gossip obsession.
Gloria Jas single-handedly turned every fan into a private detective, digging through her past headlines to figure out who else might’ve held the "emperor" title.
Zack couldn’t know LeBron’s true feelings.
But as soone from the future, he knew "Mom-Gate," which historically broke a month later, had tanked LeBron’s play at the ti.
Gossip aside, Zack and the Warriors had a ga to win.
That night against Rondo’s Hornets, the Warriors carried their late-season form into the playoffs.
It was a ga they didn’t even need Zack to dominate to blow out their opponent.
Zack posted a modest 22 points, 10 rebounds, 9 assists, 2 blocks, and 1 steal.
For anyone else, that stat line would be an explosion. For Zack? It was like he played on an empty stomach.
His lackluster playoff debut even caught the eye of The Sun across the pond.
The next day, The Sun speculated, "Clearly, the new GOAT’s recent struggles aren’t about what’s happening on the court."
Maria Sharapova, training in Oakland for the U.S. Open, was their pri suspect. Scarlett Johansson, in town filming a movie, was another. As for Brooklyn Decker and Irina Shayk (who, in Zack’s mory, was Cristiano Ronaldo’s future girlfriend)? Well, The Sun wasn’t ruling them out either.
"Proof that even the league’s best can get locked down," The Sun’s reporter concluded.
"Rumors! Total nonsense!" Zack fud before Ga 2 against the Hornets. "The Sun is just making stuff up!"
Brown, waiting for Zack to cool off, said, "Honestly, it’s not totally made up. The Sun’s got so cred on this stuff."
Zack: "..."
"I an, yeah, I did spend so great nights with them," Zack admitted. "But The Sun can’t say they shut down."
Brown grinned. "So you’re saying you don’t buy The Sun’s NBA All-Defensive Team picks?"
Zack, brimming with confidence, declared, "Nobody in the world can shut down."
In Ga 2, determined to prove himself, Zack turned into a one-man wrecking crew.
Without his say-so, anyone grabbing a rebound risked losing their lunch card and getting the Jaden Sancho treatnt. Brown managed just 4 boards all ga.
Every slick pass from Steve Nash got turned into a scoring chance for Zack, leaving Nash so fed up he just gave in.
The real winner? Backup point guard Stephen Curry.
Feasting on Zack’s force-fed passes, Curry went off, hitting 9 of 15 threes and carrying the Warriors’ outside shooting.
In the stands, Hornets legend Dell Curry bead with pride. "You see that? That’s my boy!"
Passing the torch is always a hot NBA topic.
Dell, a legendary shooter, was lucky. Not only did he raise two sons who followed in his footsteps, but his eldest, Stephen, was the future three-point god in Zack’s mory.
Also at the ga was Ayesha Alexander, Curry’s girlfriend, who was in the thick of their romance.
After every bucket, Curry’s eyes darted to Ayesha. Postga, he told reporters, "Her being here gave endless motivation."
As soone with one-quarter heritage, Ayesha’s favorite player was Zack. But knowing the new GOAT’s wild off-court life, she laid down the law to Curry that night: "Stephen, if you ever ss around with him, the bathroom’s your new ho."
Soft-spoken Curry nodded frantically. "Don’t worry, babe. He’s just a coworker. I’d never roll with him like that."
The Warriors obliterated the Hornets by 38 points in Ga 2.
Zack bounced back with a monster 41 points, 21 rebounds, 14 assists, 4 blocks, and 1 steal.
But the Hornets, refusing to quit, gave the Warriors so trouble in Ga 3 when the series shifted to New Orleans.
David West, whose contract was up that sumr, was a rock, hitting clutch shots to keep the Hornets in it. Brook Lopez, underrated all season, also dominated Zack’s sidekick in the paint.
Before his athleticism faded, Lopez’s post ga was legit, once earning him the nickna "White Duncan" from the U.S. dia.
Knowing they had to outscore the Warriors, Rondo sped up the pace, creating tons of fast-break chances for his teammates.
Too bad his limited offensive bag ant the Hornets couldn’t exploit the Warriors’ weakest defensive spot at point guard.
Final score: 125-114.
The Warriors took a 3-0 series lead with no real scares.
Zack cruised to 30 points, 14 rebounds, 11 assists, 3 blocks, and 2 steals, once again proving The Sun’s "Zack’s ladies" rumors wrong.
Per the schedule, Ga 4 would go down the next day in New Orleans.
Since Brown, the West’s supposed second-best center, had been frustrated all series, he pulled Zack aside before the ga.
"As the GOAT, you don’t want your sidekick getting owned by so no-na white center, right?" Brown argued. "That guy’s been flexing on for three gas!"
Zack replied, "Brook’s no scrub. By real skill, he’s probably the West’s third-best center behind Yao and Marc."
"But ESPN ranked as the West’s second-best center!" Brown snapped. "And you agreed with that!"
Knowing he had to throw Brown a bone now and then, Zack didn’t hit him with more hard truths.
Instead, he fibbed, "What I ant was, you’re so good, the West can’t even contain you."
Pausing, he added, "You know, Kwa, to , you’re the NBA’s all-ti greatest center."
Brown bead. "All-ti greatest? Nah, that’s you at center. I’ll settle for second-best."
In Ga 4, to help Brown blow off steam, Zack unleashed his elite playmaking.
Like a future Jas Harden turning Clint Capela into Hakeem Olajuwon or Ivica Zubac into Dave Cowens, Zack fed Brown one perfect pass after another.
Brown? With Zack drawing all the attention, he looked like a god descending.
After four seasons together, Zack knew Brown’s ga inside out. He could find him with no-look passes off pick-and-rolls. Brown, in sync, didn’t even need to think to know when Zack’s pass was coming.
The dynamic duo—one handling the symptoms, the other the root cause—needed just three quarters to turn Brook Lopez into a museum exhibit.
Lopez, who’d averaged 19 points and 9 rebounds the first three gas, got torched on both ends, finishing with 10 points and 7 rebounds before fouling out.
Brown, anwhile, went 11-for-12 from the field, 6-for-8 from the line, and dropped a gorgeous 28 points and 16 rebounds.
"The first three gas, I was just giving my teammates a chance to shine," Brown said postga, cool as a cucumber. "Ga 4? That’s the real ."
But no matter how gaudy Brown’s numbers were, the truth remained: Zack was Lopez’s true nightmare.
"He’s just too tough to guard," Lopez said. "He tears through our defense so easily, we can’t even focus on his teammates."
David West agreed in his interview: "If he wants, he can make any teammate look like an All-Star."
The Warriors swept the Hornets 4-0, becoming the West’s first team to advance past the first round.
anwhile, unlike Zack, who shut down rumors with three dominant gas, LeBron, still reeling from "Mom-Gate," indirectly fueled Delonte West’s "emperor" status.
According to Stephen A. Smith, who’d been having a rough go lately, LeBron noticeably cut back on passes to West since the scandal broke. As the Bobcats fought back to tie their series with the Cavaliers 2-2, LeBron had to clarify: "I’m not avoiding passing to anyone."
"I’m a guy who averages over 9 assists," he said. "I pass based on who’s open, period."
...
PS: 10,000-word update today, begging for subscriptions and monthly tickets!
①: Ayesha’s one-quarter heritage is why so fans jokingly call her and Curry’s son, Canon Curry, "the future hope of basketball," as he could theoretically be naturalized through bloodline. Of course, that’s if Canon chooses to play basketball.
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