In the moment of life and death, the backward sun desperately pursues. This is the stage of heroes, this is the feat of superstars.
I never dreamed that I would blurt out the words: Now look at Payne!
Wang Meng repeated: Wow, we couldn't have dreamed that we could say this sentence.
But that's what that moment really is. The sun, which is absolutely inferior to the inner line, struggles to survive. But their core leader Paul had a significant injury to his right shoulder and couldn't even finish a normal dribble. The Lakers have adjusted their strategy, pinching the Suns' only offensive core at this time, Booker, making it impossible for him to attack smoothly. The Suns came forward with substitute came in. In an instant, he became omnipotent.
He can break through the inside score with amazing speed and amplitude; he can burst halfway, suddenly stop in the air, look at Paul in the bottom corner, hover a beat, like the magician Luca, knock Ayton under the basket to score easily; he can also stand up to Caruso, shoot three points with his hand, and then roll over and roar.
He was always the first to retreat. Just now, he also broke into the Lakers' inner line, and in an instant, he had changed his shape and flew back to his basket, and committed the thick eyebrows that were about to be basketed. When the Lakers started pinching him — the Lakers were going to pinch a substitute guard, forcing him to go to the sideline, letting the left hand penn dribble with his right hand, he flew into the basket from the right like an ice knife, and then made another layup. From the time Paul played 4 minutes in the third quarter, replaced Payne, and played until he was sent off at the last moment, Payne's physical strength seemed endless. This reminds me of Hu Mingxuan in the final game of the CBA Finals.
In the 33 minutes on the court, Payne scored 6-of-15 and 3-of-7 from three-point range, scoring 19 points and a team-high seven assists, and at one point in the fourth quarter, he single-handedly helped the Suns rally the score.
The Lakers eventually won the game with thick eyebrows and James's absolute talent, pulling the series to a 1-1 draw. Against the backdrop of Paul's shoulder injury, the sun's future is unpredictable. But none of this matters in the context of a substitute defender Payne's career.
That's the last thing I said in the studio, the famous quote in the hands of the dunk master: My glory, it's now.
Payne can play this level in the playoffs, even if he only has one game to this level, it is enough to surprise people. Probably a lot of less hardcore fans aren't familiar with Payne, and I've seen his ball for a long time. At that time, he was playing as a substitute for Young Master Wei in the Thunder, and the advantage was that he was high, and the second was that he was a teenager and an old man, and he rarely made mistakes. The weakness is that there is no characteristic, and you can't see what role he can play on the field. As a result, Payne is not very old, and he has no ball to play in the NBA.
In the 2019-20 CBA season, I saw him in the Shanxi team's roster. The Shanxi men's basketball team came to Beijing for two away games, and I watched them on the spot. I still remember how I felt at the time —and this Penn was too much. You can't do anything, you can't do it, you have to speed without speed, you can't shoot. He was not okay, and as soon as he went to Shanxi, he was beaten. At that time, the head coach of the Shanxi team was still wang Fei's guide, and he was also stunned. Payne's performance and level in the CBA are incomparable to the top gods here, Marzanne Brooks and Dominic Jones. Even veterans like Hudson and Mayo are too far behind. Soon, the Shanxi team cut him. Obviously, Payne won't have another chance to be a CBA foreign aid. Don't think that being a foreign aid in the CBA is simple, you have to be able to be the core of the card.
This year I said that the sun's balls are quite a lot, because they play late and can always catch up. Sometimes with Ke Fan, as soon as Payne came on the court, he joked: CBA foreign aid came, and there was a bit of banter in his words. Let me add: No, no, no, this is a foreign aid that has been proven to be unable to play the CBA. In my mind, for a long time, Payne was really an incompetent athlete.
It wasn't until about half a month ago that I saw an article written by ESPN's Zach Lowe with a penn story. When Payne came to China, he and his girlfriend flew to Hong Kong first and crossed customs in Hong Kong. The two of them pushed 6 huge suitcases and walked half a mile around the airport, almost exhausted. Then I went into the room of the Hong Kong Hotel and found that the room was small and I couldn't even put my luggage down. Everything in front of him left Payne at a loss. He played two CBA games and called his agent: I'd rather go back and play the development league.
Before coming to China, Payne was initially cut off by bulls. His agent called him to inform him that he was sleeping and then didn't get up for a day. He then signed a 10-day contract with the Cavaliers and didn't stay. In the summer of 2019, Payne played the Summer League for the Thunder, and the Thunder still did not keep him. He went to the Raptors at preseason training camp, and the Raptors didn't ask him. So he embarked on the road to China. Speaking of the Chinese experience, Payne put it this way: That's why in the NBA, you can't take anything for granted, you have to be grateful for everything.
Look at this story. This story is not about us stirring up national pride and saying, "You're not happy to come to us, we're not happy to want you yet." For many young people who have not traveled far, it is difficult to adapt to an environment with a completely different language and culture. Jeremy Lin, who has black hair and yellow skin, would rather go back to the development league than stay in China and sign a big contract with dozens of times his salary, which is a personal choice for athletes. What I want to say is that such a story allows you to see one thing, two sides of a person. One side of the story is: this person is not good, the CBA can't play. The flip side is that he tried to come to China, but he found it to be the wrong choice, and he just wanted to get back on the stage where he thought he belonged. I think back, when we said in the commentary that he really couldn't play the CBA, I was confident. I've seen him play the CBA with my own eyes, and I don't think he can play. We tend to think that the side we see, that angle is the truth. Because seeing is believing. We believe in our own eyes.
Until you see the other side of the story—the other side isn't that the side you saw earlier is wrong, but it makes you more aware of the full world of the story. Can Payne play the CBA? Maybe he really can't fight. So what kind of athlete is Payne?
An NBA season averaged 8.4 points and 3.6 assists per game, shooting 44 percent from three-point range, and nearly saved the Suns' bench guard in a playoff game with the Lakers.
His glory is now, and we have seen it with our own eyes.