Slam Dunk: My Study Abroad Career in Northern Hunan

Chapter 688

"You don't need me to teach you this, right?"

Jordan's words fell into Pippen's ears.

Jordan's words were very beautiful, and he kept saying "you don't need me to teach you", but in fact, wasn't he just giving Pippen guidance as a boss?

It's not so much a so-called "kind reminder" as it is Jordan's ridicule and warning to Pippen.

Wanting to rise to the top is the ambition buried in the hearts of all NBA players. If you randomly find a player in the league and conduct an in-depth interview, I am afraid that there is no player who does not want to have his own team.

But if you want to be in the top position, you still want to be in the top position. The final destination of a player is still his ability.

If the ability is insufficient, there is no point in trying to get a higher position.

Jordan was also reminding Pippen in disguise: If you want to be the boss, as long as I am with the Bulls, you are not qualified!

Of course Pippen could hear Jordan's subtext. He remained silent and ran toward the frontcourt silently.

In other words, Pippen simply has no way to become the team's first end point.

Pippen's physical fitness is actually quite good. He once participated in the dunk contest and once performed a free throw line dunk in front of the fans. It is self-evident to know the level of physical fitness of a person who can complete this kind of dunk action.

As the defensive gap between Wu Dao and Pippen completely disappeared, Wu Dao's body quickly pressed against Pippen's body, forcing him to withstand Pippen.

It's nothing more than a missed goal. He only has to fight back on the offensive end, and others won't say anything about him.

Just when all the Bulls fans were disappointed, Pippen was dribbling away from the basket as if he had eyes on the back of his head. The wrist holding the ball quickly pressed back, and the basketball suddenly dropped from his hands and hit Wu Dao's feet. , rebounding towards the inside line.

Pippen also quickly adjusted his mentality, changed his dribbling rhythm, and tentatively burst into the ball. Perhaps he had long expected that martial arts would catch up with him. Pippen did not take the initiative to use force when bursting into the ball, leaving 70 to 80% of his strength so that he could deal with some emergencies.

As for players like Wu Dao, his playing style is more inclined to the role of a swingman at the 2.3 position.

Therefore, when he receives a pass from his teammate on the wing, he will habitually observe the position of his teammate in order to provide assists to his teammate when he attracts enough defensive players.

When the Timberwolves were defending, they simply did not give Pippen the same defensive treatment as Jordan. Players are not afraid of Pippen and Wu Dao one-on-one at all.

In the two years when the Bulls were without Jordan, Pippen's scoring average did not receive any explosive improvement due to the diversion of those shots that belonged to Jordan. After the 97-98 season, as Jordan moved on for the second time, Pippen also moved to many teams.

It was supposed to be Jordan playing one-on-one in the high post on the wing, but now this person has become Pippen.

In the court, Wu Dao saw that Pippen had no intention of changing the rhythm of the attack, so he raised his finger towards Pippen and signaled.

"looking at what?"

Although Wu Dao is a rookie, he is the most famous young player in the league today. He is also the leader of the Timberwolves team, and his offensive ability is also in the first echelon of the league.

In the current league environment, the boss of a team is often the person who is best at scoring on the team. Regardless of whether it is reasonable or not, regardless of whether there are so-called counterexamples, this is the judgment standard of the vast majority of fans.

It is said that it is positioned around Pippen, but in fact it is not accurate.

Pippen's joyful expression froze on his face as he watched the basketball fly over Garnett's and his own heads before falling steadily into the basket.

As long as you call back, all the problems will be solved.

His performance on those teams actually shows that Pippen's playing style is not suitable for being the team's first end point on the court.

However, when the Timberwolves faced Pippen, they simply did not show enough "respect". Apart from guarding Pippen one-on-one in the high post, other Timberwolves players did not show any desire for Pippen at all. The intention of attacking from a flank.

The attack time slowly passed.

The sudden no-look pass also caught Wu Dao off guard. He turned back to look at the direction of the basketball. He happened to see Jordan in the low post with his back to the basket and got Pippen's ball under Garnett's defense. Pass the ball.

However, after receiving the pass from Pippen, Jordan seemed not to have seen Pippen. He hit Garnett with his back. After enough physical confrontation, he quickly turned back, faced Garnett's defense, and shot. Take action.

After trying in circles for a few seconds, Pippen was still spinning in circles, unable to penetrate the martial arts defense.

From the perspective of modern basketball, an outside player who cannot absorb a large number of shots in the inefficient zone actually has no way to gain a foothold on the court as the team leader.

Pippen succeeded in cutting in, throwing away Wu Dao and getting a wide open position.

Making such a provocative move in front of an old bird made the Bulls' home fans very dissatisfied. They jumped to their feet and shouted loudly to Pippen, asking Pippen to show his martial arts skills.

In fact, Pippen himself should have understood this.

And compared to Jordan, because Pippen has been the "second boss" all year round, he is accustomed to operating as the axis of the team and his vision is slightly broader than Jordan's.

The Bulls' offensive system has basically not changed much, except for the positioning of Jordan and Pippen.

Pippen's face-to-basket breakthrough skills are weaker than Jordan's. Pippen, who was forced to stop by Wu Dao, quickly turned around and exploded the ball with force, but what greeted him was Wu Dao's strong physical confrontation.

Fans call Pippen an "all-around small forward." This does not mean that Pippen has no offensive blind spots. It is just because Pippen meets the functional positioning of small forwards by teams and fans in this era.

A huge force hit Pippen. Not to mention a breakthrough, Pippen was even a little unsteady in catching the ball under the influence of martial arts. Instead, he was forced to take a step back by martial arts.

The Bulls players began to push back, and as Ron Harper dribbled the ball into the frontcourt, the Bulls players also began to position around Pippen.

"Wow—"

Just like Pippen's "nickname", he is essentially a player who likes to attack the basket. His ability to digest the ball in the inefficient zone is actually far inferior to Jordan's.

And at the same time that Wu Dao looked back at the basketball, Pippen's figure quickly passed by Wu Dao and cut into the basket.

Being beaten up by such people is not an unforgivable "crime".

Pippen cut into the basket with his hands on his chest and happily motioned for Jordan to pass back.

Wu Dao stood inside the three-point line, with a defensive gap of nearly one meter away from Pippen. Unlike Jordan, Pippen's offense rarely takes a lot of shots in inefficient areas.

"Come up, Batman?"

As the basketball hit the net, amazing cheers erupted from the stands. Bulls fans excitedly shouted Jordan's name and poured into the court.

Pippen, who made an air cut into the basket, listened to the enthusiastic cheers of the fans and had mixed emotions for a while.

"As expected of an all-around small forward, his passing vision is really good."

"I'm afraid the average No. 1 position doesn't have your passing vision." "No wonder Michael was able to win the championship after having you as his second-in-command."

At this moment, the voice of martial arts came to Pippen's ears.

The conscience of heaven and earth, Wu Dao did not deliberately sow discord between Jordan and Pippen. In fact, there is no need to sow discord between these two people. As Pippen's mentality becomes unbalanced, the relationship will naturally deteriorate.
He sincerely lamented Pippen's excellent passing. Although he didn't want to admit it, he had to say that it would be difficult for martial arts to replicate a pass like Pippen's in actual combat.

Although Wu Dao's words were genuine compliments, they fell on Pippen's ears, and he only remembered the word "second master".

Glancing at Wu Dao with a smile on his face, Pippen began to defend himself without saying a word.

Pippen didn't ask Jordan why he didn't pass the ball to him in the open space. This kind of questioning was meaningless at all, because Jordan scored the ball, so Jordan's choice was right.

On the basketball court, the truth is so simple and pure.

As long as you can score the ball, your shot is reasonable.

If you can't score, even if you are shooting from an open position, it is unreasonable to take a shot.

In the next few rounds of offense and defense, Pippen kept trying to hold the ball and attack Wu Dao alone, but unfortunately, the explosive power that Pippen was proud of was of no use in front of the talented and young Wu Dao.

Wu Dao's defensive steps were very good and the entanglement was very tight. Without the help of his opponent, Pippen had no way to break through Wu Dao's defense.

In order to break through Wu Dao, Pippen also tried two high-post shots, hoping to use this method to expose some obvious flaws in Wu Dao's defense. But it is a pity that Pippen, who returned to the game not long ago, was not able to score the ball.

After two consecutive strikes, it actually strengthened the martial arts' established defensive tactics of preventing breakthroughs but not shots.

Pippen's personal efficiency in singles with the ball was low, and the entire Bulls team, which operated according to the triangle offensive system, saw a significant decline in offensive efficiency.

What's even more distressing for Bulls fans is that Wu Dao still maintained a high level of performance under Pippen's defense.

Not only did he hit two pull-up three-pointers on Pippen's head, he even fired up Pippen during one of the offensive rounds. A series of three kills broke through Pippen, Jordan, and Rodman. Defensively, he got to the basket and scored a dunk.

With martial arts' strong personal ability as a contrast, fans are also full of disappointment in Pippen.

Even when Pippen got the ball from the outside again, some fans in the infield burst out with dissatisfaction, yelling at Pippen to give the ball to Michael.

Many times, the pressure brought by the fans on the scene is even greater than the pressure brought by the team's coaches on the players.

Amidst the overwhelming shouts, Pippen finally stopped trying to break through Wu Dao's defense. After getting the ball on the wing, he used his excellent wingspan to lob the ball to Jordan who was in the low post under Wu Dao's defense.

"Have you given up?"

Wu Dao looked at Pippen's expressionless face and thought to himself. Although Pippen's emotions were not shown, Wu Dao could feel that Pippen was a little disappointed and unwilling.

The score between the Bulls and the Timberwolves began to gradually widen. As Jordan beat Garnett and missed a layup with the help of Wallace, the point difference between the two teams was temporarily fixed at 8 points.

When the game got to this point, Bulls head coach Phil Jackson actually had a smile on his face.

In the court, as Wu Dao held the ball and scored against Garnett, the latter got up and tried to dunk, causing Rodman to get a defensive foul. Phil Jackson also called a timeout in time.

The players from both sides returned to their respective rest areas. Phil Jackson did not criticize Pippen loudly for his "gaffe", but comforted him softly:
"Scotty, don't take it to heart. Although the Timberwolves' martial artist is young, his offensive power is one of the best in the entire league."

"That's not something a single player can defend."

"Don't think too much, just do what you can."

"You've been fighting for so long. Take a good rest. Although the doctor said you have recovered, you still need to pay more attention."

"Don't let injuries affect subsequent games. The outcome of the regular season is not that important to us."

Phil Jackson changed his previous attitude and softened his attitude when facing Pippen.

Pippen was already mentally prepared for the coach's "strange anger", but he didn't expect to hear such words after the game, and for a while he felt a little guilty in his heart.

Jordan also walked up to Pippen, patted Pippen's shoulder lightly, and said with a smile: "I didn't guard against that young man when I faced him before."

"Listen, we're a team."

"The defensive failure will not be the responsibility of any one player, but the responsibility of our entire team."

Jordan is also the kind of "dog-faced" who changes his face whenever he says it, and is basically "no trace". He and Phil Jackson sang in harmony, softening the originally fierce conflicts.

I have to say that Phil Jackson is indeed a legendary coach when it comes to handling player relations. And Jordan, who can create the Bulls dynasty, is much more mature than the future Kobe in this regard.

Both Jordan and Kobe are paranoid madmen.

It's just that the two had different experiences in the early stages of their careers, which also allowed these two very similar people to achieve different results.

Kobe Bryant's early career can be said to be smooth. He was born in a basketball family, a high school rookie, and was selected by the Purple and Gold Lakers. Although he played on the bench for a year and a half, he became an All-Star in his rookie season in the first three years, and then assisted O'Neal. , and even in his early twenties, he created three consecutive championships and achieved great achievements early on that many stars cannot achieve in their lifetime.

It is precisely because of this smoothness that Kobe is so happy.

The young and arrogant Kobe was unable to properly handle the relationship with his teammates, and the Lakers dynasty also fell apart.

But Jordan was different. He entered the league as a college student in the 84-85 season and experienced a major injury that nearly ended the season. He experienced the pain of averaging 43 points per game in the playoffs but was unable to lead the team past the first round; he also suffered Survive the torture of the Pistons.

Jordan during the Bulls dynasty understood the importance of teamwork better than young Kobe during the Lakers dynasty.

Therefore, Jordan is more rational and diplomatic when dealing with internal conflicts.

After O'Neal left, Kobe also experienced many, many things, which also made him more mature. Although Kobe's physical function during that period was slightly inferior to that of his youth, Kobe during the Lakers' two championships was more mature than he was during the three consecutive championships. He was even greater during the championship period.

The Bulls changed into a rotation midway through the second quarter.

Jordan sat next to Pippen. Although his face was calm, he was quietly relieved in his heart.

Sometimes Jordan really wants to thank martial arts.

If it weren't for such a powerful foreign enemy, it wouldn't be easy for him to unite the Bulls players.

Only when the Bulls face strong external pressure can they become the strongest Bulls!

(End of this chapter)