Slam Dunk: My Study Abroad Career in Northern Hunan

Chapter 523 96 years!
Wu Dao's trial training with the Timberwolves lasted for more than a week. It was said to be a trial training, but in fact he mostly just visited the team.

Apart from daily training matches and simple team exercises, Wu Dao has not actually been exposed to anything else from the Timberwolves.

The management of the Timberwolves may be too satisfied with the conditions of Martial Arts. During his time with the Timberwolves, Martial Arts was more often called to chat, eat, go sightseeing in the city, or was taken there by Glenn Taylor. Learn about the "Team History" of the Timberwolves.

Although Wu Dao doesn't know what the so-called "team history" is for this team that has no championship and no historical figures.

But Glen Taylor obviously didn't think so. The Timberwolves owner who was born in Minnesota is very emotional about his hometown. During the conversation with Wu Dao, he always promoted the goodness of his hometown.

Even though his hometown of Minnesota is not very prosperous in the eyes of martial arts.

In Budo's view, Minnesota is more like those industrial towns in the country that have exhausted their resources and were once glorious.

After the resources were exhausted, what was left in the town were more small town residents who were content with their lives.

Most people cannot talk about how great their dreams are, and the prosperity of the United States has nothing to do with the vast majority of Minnesotans.

The favorite activities of people here are actually hunting and ice fishing. Basically everyone in Minnesota has a tree house for weekends in the central or northern part of the state. These tree houses may be in the forest. , or located on the edge of a lake.

Being content with the status quo and enjoying life is the state of most people here.

After Martial Arts’ one-week trial training, Glen Taylor personally took Martial Arts to his manor for a relaxing vacation. Glen Taylor’s estate is located on the bank of the Mississippi River with beautiful scenery. Glen Taylor even talked to Martial Arts while talking to him. Budo said he could come here anytime during the holidays if he liked.

Regarding Glenn Taylor's kindness, Wu Dao "shyly" expressed his rejection.

The other party's sincerity in martial arts has been deeply felt during this period of play. He has a pretty good impression of Glenn Taylor. This is a boss who is willing to spend money. He is very willing to pay for the Timberwolves.

In Budo's view, if Glen Taylor does not compromise in the future and overdrafts the future of his team for Garnett, with the financial resources and character of this boss, it will not be easy to attract outstanding players to form a strong team. What a difficult thing.

It is normal for most superstars not to want to come to Minnesota, a place where the temperature is minus 50 degrees in winter, but as long as the boss has a good personality and is willing to spend money, many people can still overcome this difficulty.

For example, martial arts.
Until no other NBA team offers him an olive branch, Budo is not opposed to joining the Timberwolves.Even if a team from a big city invites him, if the other party does not pay enough attention to it and cannot give him a high pick or guarantee his playing time, Wu Dao will not consider other places.

After these days of testing, Glenn Taylor more or less understood the demands of martial arts.

Wu Dao's requirements are actually very simple. He actually has no requirements for salary at this stage. He only needs the team to give him a contract that matches his abilities in the future.

What Wu Dao is most concerned about is actually his tactical position in the team, his playing time, and training conditions after joining the team in the future.After Wu Dao realized that the Timberwolves valued him, he did not hide any requests he made.

Regardless of salary, it requires not only a core tactical position, but also an average playing time of more than 25 minutes per game, as well as an excellent team of trainers and nutritionists.

According to Wu Dao, if he grows smoothly after entering the NBA in the future, he even hopes that the team can build a championship team around him.Of course, Wu Dao said this in a joking tone. After all, he was a high school student. A small look at the future would not offend Glenn Taylor.

On the contrary, martial arts ambitions made Glenn Taylor very happy.

In fact, this kind of thing does not require Wu Dao at all. In his opinion, if Wu Dao officially joins the Timberwolves and shows his potential as a superstar, needless to say, Wu Dao will build a championship team around Wu Dao.

This kind of thing is not a problem at all for Glenn Taylor, who will pay 4 million US dollars in salary to the fourth-year Garnett in the future.

You know, at that time, the Timberwolves were still a team in the first round of the playoffs. Although Garnett averaged 20+10 per game in the regular season, that level could not support his 1400 million salary.

O'Neal, who averaged 26+11 per game that year, only made $1500 million.

Top insiders such as old Olajuwon and Barkley are not as good as Garnett. David Robinson is only a few hundred thousand dollars more than Garnett.

These people have been in the NBA for so many years and have played countless games to prove their worth before they can get such a salary. Garnett, the core leader of the team who made it to the first round of the playoffs, is not worthy of his $1400 million.

The most controversial person in the lockout that year was not O'Neal, but Garnett.

However, one yard after another, Wu Dao still has a good impression of Glenn Taylor who is willing to spend money.And it can be seen from martial arts that if this old man sees hope of winning the championship, he probably won't object to paying the luxury tax, right?
Through trial training and travel, Martial Arts played in Minnesota for nearly half a month before boarding the return flight.

After returning to Oak Hill High School, he told Coach Smith all about his experiences during this period.I heard that Budao seamlessly connected with their team's practice matches during the Timberwolves' trial training, and even averaged 30+ points per game during the training matches.

Yes, the Timberwolves participated in the martial arts training matches held every morning every day, but after a few days of simply running in with his teammates, Garnett's "death coil" had less effect.

It is not an easy task to prevent someone from catching the ball, and it is simply impossible to prevent Garnett from catching the ball in martial arts.

Facing the martial arts of attacking with the ball, people like Garnett can only be trained by the military.Although his physique and lateral movement are fast enough, once a player like Budo gets away, he is simply unstoppable.

In Budo's view, Garnett's defense is already very good, able to suppress his average points per game to 30+. If it were someone else, facing his own crazy shooting mode, it would be impossible to achieve such defensive results.

Coach Smith was surprised at first when he heard the news, and then happily went to find acquaintances to help promote it.

Coach Smith is a martial arts coach, and he and martial arts have a community of interests when it comes to martial arts' impact on the NBA.

Of course, Coach Smith's promotion is not to shout loudly with a loudspeaker, but to tell others about the excellence of his players in a more subtle way.

"Kevin Garnett, you know?"

"Yes, it's that kid from the Timberwolves. That guy will be beaten to death in front of our team's martial arts!"

Coach Smith has said the same thing to many familiar coaches, but most people think Smith is "funny."

Of course, there are some coaches who are interested in martial arts and come to Oak Hill College to observe training and inspections. However, when they see that martial arts is a yellow race, their interest immediately drops.

And when they watched the game, the vast majority of coaches didn't like Wu Dao's style of play and felt that Wu Dao's playing was too unstable. His data was also based on his high shooting rights. Many people looked at it and found nothing.Obviously, many college teams are not interested in martial arts.

Of course, there are many college teams that are interested in Martial Arts, and there are also many invitations to Martial Arts for trial training, but Martial Arts did not go to those teams for trial training during the rest of the holiday.

After going through a trial with the Timberwolves, he was no longer in a hurry.

Fall 1995.

In August, the academic year officially begins at Oak Hill High School.

This semester, the team also has quite a few training games. After all, they are the state champions, and there are countless teams that hope to practice with Oak Hill.

Martial arts still maintains its strong performance in these competitions.

In November, this year's NFHS league also officially began. The competition lasted from November to March 11. As a junior, Budo averaged 11 points, 1996 assists and 42.5 rebounds per game, helping Oak Hill High School win the state title. champion.

Martial Arts, which showed strong dominance in high school competitions in Virginia, has slightly improved its reputation with the support of two consecutive championships and ESPN. They have ranked Martial Arts in the national high school rankings. Number two above.

As for number one, it’s Kobe Bryant.

Kobe has announced that he will participate in the 96 NBA draft. At the beginning of the year, Kobe also accepted invitations from some of the teams to go for trial training.

When talking to Budao on the phone about the trial training, Kobe seemed very happy. Some teams showed goodwill to him during the trial training, which made Kobe very happy.

This kid even boldly told Wu Dao that his draft pick would be higher than last year's Garnett.

Yes, Kobe knew about Garnett.

After all, Garnett was also a high school student participating in the draft. In Kobe's heart, Garnett had already been silently marked as a guy who needed to be surpassed.

Although Wu Dao felt that Kobe was a little too optimistic, he did not discourage him.

There were a lot of outstanding players in the 96 draft, and they are not comparable to 95. Moreover, in 95, the player that attracted the most attention from the NBA was not Joe Smith, the number one pick at that time, but Joe Smith, who was in college at the time. Second, the much-watched Tim Duncan.

Last year, Tim Duncan scored 25 points in the game against Wallace and was "appointed" as the No. [-] pick by Jerry West. However, he didn't expect it. Tim Duncan did not choose to end his college career, but continued his studies.

Now in 96, most NBA teams are focusing on mature college players.

For example, Keith Van Horn of the University of Utah, who is said to be destined to become the "Second Bird", is also attracting attention, although at the beginning of the year he announced to the outside world that he would not be able to participate in the 96 tournament due to "family issues" draft.

Therefore, in fact, high school student Kobe's draft prospects are not as "good" as he imagined.

Mid-1996.

The NBA draft, known as the 96 golden generation, was officially held.

Just like in the memory of martial arts, this year's No. 76 pick, without any surprise, was picked by college player Allen Iverson.The lucky guy who took away Iverson was the Philadelphia [-]ers.

The No. 96 pick in 211 was Marcus Camby, who was drafted by the Toronto Raptors. He is a [-]-inch striker. In his career, this guy has one NBA Defensive Player of the Year award, two first defenses, two second defenses, and four blocks. king.

Although his scoring ability is not very strong, his defensive ability is outstanding, which means there are too many injuries, otherwise his career will be even brighter.

The third overall pick is Sharif Abdul-Rahim, a power forward with a height of 206cm.After this guy was drafted by the Grizzlies, he was trained as a core player and was able to post 18.7+7 in his rookie season.In the following years with the Grizzlies, he averaged 20+ per game every year.

But you know the Grizzlies, they are not even qualified to make a trip to the playoffs.

After Sharif Abdul-Rahim moved to multiple teams, he also suffered from injuries all the time. He did not have any dazzling record throughout his career.

The entire '96 draft.Marbury with the fourth pick, Ray Allen with the fifth pick, and Antoine Walker with the sixth pick are all familiar figures. When Budao paid attention to this year's draft, he saw these familiar figures appearing in the draft. On TV, there is also a feeling of nostalgia.

What he originally witnessed was the most glorious history of these players in the NBA, but what he is witnessing now is them entering and leaving the league.

Just as history has it, Kobe became the No. 13 pick and was selected by the Hornets.

Seeing Kobe Bryant's "mourning mother-in-law" look on TV and then forcing a smile on his face, Wu Dao couldn't help but let out a hearty laugh in front of the TV.

Kobe was very angry. What kind of "hanging thing" were the Hornets?Are you worthy of choosing him?
After Kobe, there is another son of the wind with the 15th pick, Steve Nash.

Unlike Kobe, the smile on Nash's face was obviously much more sincere.

But just as history has developed, Kobe was traded to the Lakers before the Hornets' hat was even warmed up.

At this time, Kobe Bryant called Martial Arts with a smile on his face and informed him that he had successfully entered the Los Angeles Lakers in the draft.

Los Angeles Lakers!

Even in the 90s, it was still a brilliant team, and the Lakers in 96 were very strong! !
The excitement of the draft obviously has nothing to do with martial arts. He is just a bystander, a high school player who dreams of entering the NBA.

After the draft, Wu Dao returned to his own rhythm, continued his own training, and played his own high school games.

One year, one year later, maybe I will be the one standing over there!
(End of this chapter)