Slam Dunk: My Study Abroad Career in Northern Hunan

Chapter 518: It’s just Garnett!

On the court, players from both sides took their positions in the center circle, preparing for the upcoming game.Garnett walked to Wu Dao's side, leaned down slightly, put his hands on his knees, and introduced himself to Wu Dao beside him.

Although the two of them had a few rounds of fighting yesterday, they didn't say much.Garnett is not the talkative type. In fact, he is more taciturn than Kobe in front of strangers.

However, regarding martial arts, Garnett still forced himself to speak and took the initiative to strike up a conversation.

They are all high school students. Although Garnett has become a member of the Timberwolves, he does not feel good when getting along with his teammates.

His teammates don't seem to be very satisfied with his status as a high school player, or they don't trust him at all, and rarely give him a chance to perform on the court.

In today's practice match, Garnett also took the initiative to defend Wu Dao, because yesterday's performance in Wu Dao had already left a deep impression on everyone.

The Timberwolves players all recognized the power of martial arts on the offensive end.

If he, Garnett, can shut down martial arts performance in one fell swoop, his status in the team will be stabilized in an instant.

Garnett is a more versatile power forward, and defense is what he is better at.

Whether players at the power forward position can perform well on the court depends to a large extent on whether their teammates give them a chance.

If his teammates don't pass the ball to him, he really has nothing to do.

What a power forward can do on the court is rebounding, scoring, defense, and support.

The support cannot be directly reflected in the data, and the scoring teammates are not given a chance. How many times can they rely on themselves to grab opportunities?
Grab a rebound?Of course he can do this kind of thing, but his rebounding ability cannot support him to become a star player of the team. At most, he can become a qualified "tool man".

And will the most exciting and eye-catching thing on the court be rebounding?
When it comes to rebounding, will there be a dazzling scorer?

Obviously, this is not possible.

Scorers are often the most eye-catching players on the court, especially super scorers.Players who can defend super scorers will also attract more attention along with the scorers.

Without Iverson, Tyronn Lue would not necessarily be recognized by so many fans.

The idea of ​​Garnett coming to defend Wu Dao is also very simple. As long as this high school student is blocked, at least he can prove that his defense is far better than Ryder!
Relying on his defensive ability, he can gain a foothold in the Timberwolves and get sufficient playing time.Although Garnett is the fifth pick, he still needs to prove his worth in the Timberwolves and get playing time.

"My name is Martial Arts."

Martial Arts nodded slightly towards Garnett and replied calmly.

NBA star player!If he had seen Garnett in the past, he might have asked him to sign his name and take a photo or something. After all, he was a high-ranking star!
But now when facing Garnett, Wu Dao appears unusually calm. It's just Garnett.
Garnett saw that Wu Dao answered briefly and felt that Wu Dao was a little cold, so he didn't care. He turned his head and looked at the court and began to concentrate.

As the players completed their positions, the referee also entered the court with the ball, and after the whistle blew, he threw the ball into the air.

"Snapped!"

With a soft sound, the basketball quickly flew towards the white team's backcourt.

After all, Christian Laettner was half a step ahead of the team's backup center Andrew Long. He caught the basketball first and moved the ball to the backcourt.

Andrew Long was the No. 88 pick in the second round of 2. He is now 30 years old. For basketball players, the experience and skills of players at this age happen to be at their peak, but their physical functions have just begun to decline.

If a player of this age has some injuries, it will be impossible for him to adapt to the intensity of the NBA. For example, Dayao was only 31 years old when he retired.

Opposing Andrew Long is White team center Christian Laettner, who was the No. 92 pick in the first round of 3 and is now 26.

The golden age of a player's athletic ability is 24-28 years old. Generally speaking, if you can't perform well at this stage, you will never be able to perform well.

In terms of explosive power, Andrew Long, who has already passed the peak, is not as good as Kristen Laettner, who is at the top.

The basketball fell into the hands of Jerome Allen. After taking the ball, he quickly advanced with the ball, and Budao had already reached the corner of the three-point line when he crossed the midline.

With his right hand against Garnett who was trying to defend him, Budo looked at Jerome Allen who was starting to approach the top of the arc and raised his left hand flat to ask for the ball.

Jerome Allen entered the frontcourt and glanced at Christian Laettner who entered the inside, and then glanced at the temporary power forward Sean Lukes in their team, and saw that the opponent was blocked by Tom Gugli. Otta stayed very close and gave up the idea of ​​passing the ball.

Sean Lukes is the center of the Timberwolves. He is 208cm tall, weighs 113kg, and has an annual salary of 120 million US dollars. He is a pie-eating talented player. His mid-range shooting rate is 49%, but most of his shots are It's open, and his success rate on shots near the basket is only 32%.

He is a player whose efficiency is very low once he faces confrontation.

However, his rebounding and positioning skills are pretty good. In the 95-96 season, he averaged 18 rebounds in 4.2 minutes per game. In this regard, it is barely his strength.

Jerome Allen had played a practice match with Sean Lukes before and was a teammate. He roughly knew that this guy's strong attack on Tom Gugliotta was probably a gift. He didn't think much and just gave the ball to him. It’s time to reach out for the ball.

I'm afraid Jerome Allen himself didn't expect that during a Timberwolves internal team practice match, the person they most relied on on the offensive end was actually a high school student who came for a tryout.

Taking a slight step forward, Wu Dao directly grasped the ball firmly with his left hand. When the basketball was taken, Wu Dao moved his right foot towards the basket, turned his body slightly and looked at Garnett.

At this time, Garnett spread his arms, looked at Wu Dao's hands, and looked at Wu Dao's feet from the corner of his eye. He was completely in the state.

Different from all the outside opponents that martial arts has encountered, Garnett is 211cm tall and weighs about 110kg. Moreover, Garnett has good physical talent and strong mobility. This is something that martial arts has never encountered before. High-speed large type.

In the past, the players he faced in martial arts were all players whose physical talents were far inferior to his own. Now Garnett stood in front of him, giving him a completely different sense of defensive pressure than the opponents he had encountered before.

It's even much stronger than the pressure brought by Kobe!
Grabbing the ball with his left hand and bringing it to his waist, Wu Dao moved his right foot laterally and while taking a tentative step, he quickly feinted with the ball.Garnett's energy was highly concentrated, and he would move half a step sideways whenever there was any movement on the martial arts side.

Seeing this scene, Wu Dao quickly dropped the ball with his left hand, took a step forward with his right foot towards the left, and turned his right hand into a ball protector and directly pressed against Garnett's body, accelerating the breakthrough.

At the moment when Wu Dao made a sudden advance, Garnett seemed to have expected it. He followed up Wu Dao's movement with a sliding step, and his body directly collided with Wu Dao's side. The powerful force stopped Wu Dao's sudden movement.

Wu Dao, who was stalling, had no intention of continuing to attack. After an emergency stop, the basketball quickly pulled back and adjusted. When the ball rebounded into Wu Dao's right hand, Garnett noticed that Wu Dao's feet were slightly wrong, and the basketball was briefly in Wu Dao's hands. The suspension stagnates.

Garnett didn't even think about it for a moment. Wu Dao made a breakthrough while suspending the ball. But just as Garnett adjusted his steps and shifted his center of gravity, Wu Dao directly blasted the ball and moved a big step laterally. He also quickly connects the ball and pulls out his hand directly from the high position.

"!!" By the time Garnett reacted and stepped forward to block the shot, it was already too late. The moment the basketball flew over his head, his fingertips were just about to reach his martial arts wrist.

"Shh!!!"

Under the gaze of everyone, the basketball thrown by Wu Dao went directly into the net. Under the basket, several players waiting to grab the rebound looked at Wu Dao in surprise as he maintained his shooting posture.

Garnett's defense was excellent and he didn't lose his position at all. Although he failed to block the shot in the end, this does not mean that there is something wrong with Garnett's defense. Martial Arts' high post back proved the success of Garnett's defense. , and all the players present knew that Garnett's defense just now must have caused some interference to martial arts.

In the eyes of most people, Wu Dao's shot selection is not good. If such a ball can be scored, it is completely a superstar ball.

The reason why this kind of ball is called a superstar ball does not mean that only superstars can score this kind of goal. It just means that only when a superstar plays this kind of ball, it will not be scolded by coaches and fans.

But there is no doubt about the difficulty of this type of ball. Not only does the role player dare to play it, but even if he dares to play it, whether he can score it is another matter.

Wu Dao can send the ball into the basket with a calm expression, which shows that this is not the first time he has played such a ball.

In the stadium, Wu Dao turned around and started to defend.

Garnett glanced at Wu Dao's back and followed Wu Dao towards the frontcourt without saying a word.

Off the court, Coach Bill opened his mouth when he saw that Wu Dao still chose to shoot under that kind of defense. He subconsciously regarded Wu Dao as his team member and wanted to curse, but the "F" sound was not uttered yet. At that time, I saw the basketball entering the net.

Seeing this, Coach Bill swallowed back the curse words that came to his lips.

Phillip Sanders understands Coach Bill's current mood very well. When he first saw Wu Dao playing in the training camp, he was quite confused about Wu Dao's sometimes choice of shots.

But the more you see it, the more you become immune.
Yesterday's practice match was actually not as intuitive as today's matchup.

Because of the absolute talent gap between Ryder and Wu Dao, some of Wu Dao's attacks seem reasonable.

But today, facing a player of similar height and excellent defense like Garnett, Wu Dao's "unreasonable" characteristics have become particularly prominent.

"Mr. Phillip Sanders, was this how martial arts was played before?"

Coach Bill pointed at Wu Dao who was returning to defense, and couldn't help but ask Flip Saunders who was watching the ball next to him.

After hearing this, Phillip Sanders did not answer immediately. Instead, he looked at the middle-aged man sitting on the other side of him and asked with a smile:

"How about this player?"

"He will be able to land in the NBA as soon as the year after next. I want to use all means to win him!"

The middle-aged man sitting on the seat with Coach Bill and Phillip Sanders at this time is called Glenn Taylor. He was a former Minnesota congressman and a famous rich man in the United States.

He has a unique emotion for Minnesota and the Timberwolves. In order to make the Minnesota Timberwolves truly famous, Glen Taylor does not care about money at all.

He met Flip Saunders through Kevin McHale, who was once a teammate with Flip Saunders. He is an NBA superstar born in Minnesota and was selected to the NBA 21 in 75 years.

Kevin McHale retired in 93 and left the NBA. Today, he is the executive vice president of the Timberwolves, a hometown team.Today's team executive chairman Jack McCoskin is not in good health. He is now rarely involved in the specific affairs of the team and is about to retire.

After yesterday's practice match, Flip Saunders, who realized the value of martial arts, called his old teammates, and Kevin McHale even brought his boss Glen Taylor with him when he came to watch the game today. .

At this time, the people on the seats did not answer whether they were facing Coach Bill's questions or Flip Saunders' questions.All eyes were focused on Wu Dao who followed the team back to defense.

After a while, Kevin McHale broke the embarrassment and said: "The game has just begun, don't be anxious, keep watching."

"We still need to see more about this player's style of play."

Unlike Flip Saunders who has seen a lot of martial arts training, Kevin McHale and Glenn Taylor have no understanding of martial arts at all. It is really embarrassing for them to make a conclusion based on one goal.

But at this time, Glenn Taylor also saw that Phillip Saunders attached great importance to martial arts, and he himself was also attracted by the goal just scored by martial arts. When watching the training, his demeanor was obviously much more solemn.

On the court, Tom Gugliotta broke through the young Mark Davis and went directly to the basket for a layup.

The audience watching the game today are all "heavyweight guests" who want to see his recovery. He needs to perform well!
Tom Gugliotta probably doesn't know that the team management who came today was not here to see him at all.

The offense and defense alternated, and after Jerome Allen got the ball in the backcourt, he advanced all the way to the frontcourt.

After trying it for a while, I saw that my opponent was not out of position and it seemed that I had no chance, so I passed the ball to Wu Dao again.

This time, Wu Dao held the ball and faked a shot and then dropped the ball directly to break through. He had already crossed the three-point line with a quick acceleration. When Garnett returned to defense, Wu Dao quickly stopped and half-turned.

Seeing Wu Dao's action, Garnett also froze and hurriedly blocked his right side in advance to prevent Wu Dao from turning around and passing him.

But the moment he moved, the martial arts accelerated directly and took another step forward.

And when Garnett followed up again, Wu Dao made another sudden stop and half-turn.

Learning from adversity, Garnett did not move his position this time.

Sure enough, Wu Dao paused briefly and then dropped the ball with a lunge. However, this time, Wu Dao did not rush to the right at all. The moment the ball dropped, Wu Dao had already completed the change of direction in front of his body. The moment the basketball turned to his left, Wu Dao headed left. He took a diagonal step back, instantly opening up a distance of nearly one meter from Garnett, and then quickly combined the ball and shot a jumper.

Continuous sudden stops and starts, mixed with fake moves, made Garnett unable to figure out Wu Dao's offensive intention. By the time he saw Wu Dao combine the ball, it was too late. When he blocked the shot, the basketball had already passed the penalty area. Nate's head plummeted toward the basket.

"Shh!"

Amidst the soft sound, Flip Saunders on the sidelines clenched his fists with a happy face.

The fact that Wu Dao comes to the Timberwolves for trial training is the result of his operation. The better Wu Dao's performance is, it can also prove his vision, which is a good thing for him.

Seeing this goal, the expressions of several team managers on the sidelines changed. Whether they were the boss or the executive chairman, they all understood the game and saw the value of martial arts.

(End of this chapter)