Slam Dunk: My Study Abroad Career in Northern Hunan

The news of the Timberwolves' home victory over the Bulls spread quickly in Minnesota thanks to the efforts of media reporters.

When the Timberwolves players boarded the plane to Chicago, local shops and residents in Minnesota had already hung various colorful flags with the Timberwolves logo in their shops and houses to celebrate.

Although the Timberwolves are still a long way from winning the championship and the series has only been played for one game, the fans in Minnesota seem to have already seen the Timberwolves winning the championship, and the joy is spreading among the people.

It might be difficult for others to understand the current mood of Minnesota fans. The team belonging to their city has only been established for a few years and has never even made it to the playoffs before. But this year, under the leadership of that group of young people, they not only made it to the playoffs, but even gave them hope of winning the championship.

This is something worth celebrating for all Minnesota fans.

What's more, the Timberwolves have already defeated the Bulls and taken the lead in the series with a record of 1:0, which also shows that the Timberwolves are a team that truly has the strength to win the championship. For Minnesota fans, nothing is more exciting than this.

The Timberwolves have been able to get to this point not because of luck, but because of their real strength.

Minnesota fans have already seen the bright future of the Timberwolves. Not to mention them, the Timberwolves themselves already have the strength to win the championship this year. Even if the Timberwolves did not perform well this year and failed to defeat the Bulls, a record of the Western Conference Championship would already be enough to satisfy the Minnesota fans.

A team that has never made it to the playoffs has become the Western Conference champion. This leap in performance is enough to prove the talent and strength of the young players of the Timberwolves. As long as the players can grow normally, winning the championship will not be a difficult thing.

Fans are very patient with young people, especially those die-hard fans who still support the team when the team's record is poor. These people can grow with the team. For those Timberwolves fans, the support of these Minnesota fans is also a very valuable asset in their lives.

The schedule of the NBA finals was actually very tight. On the day when the Timberwolves defeated the Bulls, the Timberwolves players had no time to celebrate the victory and rushed to Chicago overnight.

The first game of the series was played on June 6, and just two days later on June 3, the Timberwolves would play the second game of the series against the Bulls.

The schedule is quite tight, and the adjustment time given to the players on both sides is very short.

The Timberwolves had already booked a hotel in Chicago. It was already four or five in the morning when they got off the plane. The nearly five-hour flight made the Timberwolves players very tired. After returning to the hotel, everyone went back to their rooms to rest.

The next afternoon, the Timberwolves players will arrange to familiarize themselves with the stadium first. Their schedule is very tight and they will not have much time to rest.

But even in such a high-pressure environment, some of the Timberwolves players who had just won a victory had begun to get carried away.

In the early hours of the morning, there were even call girls who came to the hotel floor they had booked.
At 6 o'clock in the morning on June 4, Wudao woke up from his sleep in a daze.

After a simple wash, he went to the hotel gym to relax his muscles. In the series against the Bulls, he consumed a lot of physical energy. Although he did stretching and massage in time after the game, the lactic acid accumulated in the muscles could not dissipate so quickly.

The soreness from his muscles made Wudao feel uncomfortable all over.

If this physical fatigue accumulates, it will affect his game condition tomorrow.

There weren't many people coming to the hotel gym at noon, which gave Wu Dao some quiet time to concentrate on adjusting his physical condition.

The Timberwolves players then got up one after another.

Around one o'clock in the afternoon, the Timberwolves players gathered in the common room on their floor. Wu Dao noticed that some players, including Tom and Sam Mitchell, had expressions of deep fatigue on their faces.

It seems that they did not get enough rest last night.

Coach Philip looked around at his players, taking in the difference in mental state between Budo and the other players, and a solemn look came over his face.

"Tom, you look very tired. Didn't you get enough rest last night?"

Coach Philip's eyes fell on Tom. Facing his coach's question, Tom scratched his hair, a little embarrassed on his face. After a brief hesitation, he nodded and explained:

"Some of them are attached to their beds, and their sleep and rest schedules have been disrupted. It took them a while to adjust."

After hearing Tom's explanation, Coach Philip calmly glanced at Sam Mitchell and asked in a serious tone:

"Sam, what about you? I see you look tired too. Didn't you get enough rest last night?"

"We checked into the hotel at 5 a.m., and you slept for several hours on the plane. It's already past 1 p.m., haven't you rested enough?"

There was a hint of anger in Coach Philip's words, and his words directly exposed Tom's previous explanation. Although he was talking to Sam Mitchell, Tom could also hear the implication of Coach Philip's words.

Although Coach Philip has coached college players before, this year is not his first NBA team.

How could Philip, who has been in the league for a year, not know what kind of people these NBA players are?
Anyone who can play in the NBA can be considered a rich man in any way.

Moreover, these guys are athletes with strong physical fitness. They are in their twenties and thirties, in their prime.

How are these guys' lifestyles? How could Coach Philip not know?
If it were normal times, these players would like to play if they want to, and as long as they don't make things too big, it wouldn't have much of an impact.

In this day and age, it is very common for NBA players to have sex partners when they go out.

But what makes Coach Philip angry is that their Timberwolves are now in the critical period of the finals and have just defeated the Bulls. These guys don't want to have a good rest, but have already started to let themselves go.

This is something Coach Philip absolutely cannot tolerate.

Not all players are like Dennis Rodman, who could make love on the window screen the night before and grab dozens of rebounds on the court the next day.

After all, players with such energy are a minority among the minority.

For most people, if they don’t get enough rest after an intense game, it will often affect their next game.

Never before has Coach Philip felt that the NBA championship was so close to him.

But some players among the Timberwolves did not seem to cherish this hard-won opportunity.

Sometimes once an opportunity is missed, it will never come back.

Coach Philip looked at several players who were obviously tired. After a long silence, his eyes fell on Wu Dao.

Now, Wu Dao is the leader of their team.

Uniting the locker room is something a qualified leader must do.

"Budo, what do you think?"

Although Coach Philip saw through the lies of Tom, Sam Mitchell and others, he did not expose the matter directly in front of many players. Although the NBA players on the court are not rookies, they must have guessed what Tom, Sam Mitchell and others did last night.

But guessing is one thing, but directly exposing it is like tearing off the skin of Tom and other players.
Tom is also a player with a family. Some things are not good to be talked about openly. It is enough for the players to understand it in their hearts.

If something like this happened, I'm afraid only a young person like Kobe would be so foolish as to say in public, "Shaq did it, too."
The emotional intelligence of these Timberwolves players is not so low.

Wu Dao breathed a sigh of relief. It was not until Coach Philip asked him this that he realized why Tom and the others looked so exhausted.

After all, he had spent too little time with these people. Wu Dao originally thought that at such a critical moment for the team, these guys should be able to protect their lower bodies, but he overestimated these teammates.

However, what made Wu Dao feel a little relieved was that among the starting five, only Tom was overly active last night. Players like Garnett and Ben Wallace were all energetic and seemed to have adjusted very well.

Wu Dao knew that this kind of thing would be a bit tricky to handle, and he felt helpless that Coach Philip would throw such a difficult matter to him.

Be a good person? Just laugh it off and move on?

This might be detrimental to the prestige he has worked so hard to establish in the team.

Will it get ugly? This may affect their next game between the Timberwolves and the Bulls.

The best way to deal with it is actually to pick it up high and put it down gently.

Wu Dao, who had a plan in mind, also turned his attention to Tom, Sam Mitchell and others:

"Tom, Sam, Stanley."

"You three will team up with me this afternoon when we get familiar with the course."

After saying that, Wu Dao looked at Coach Philip and nodded imperceptibly. Coach Philip could vaguely understand Wu Dao's plan, so he didn't dwell on this topic any more. After a simple team formation, he took all the players on the bus to the stadium.

There are more call girls tonight than just Tom and the other three, but Wu Dao has no intention of saying anything more to the other substitute players.

On the martial arts side, those substitute players who didn't have much playing time had already been sentenced to death by him.

No matter how Coach Philip arranges the players later, Wu Dao will definitely not look at those people with a good face.

The substitutes who are labeled as "marginal figures" by the star players will probably be kicked out of the team soon.

Although this may be very cruel to the substitute players, it is also their own fault.

During the afternoon training at the gym, Wu Dao did not specifically talk to Tom and the other players. He was just practicing shooting on his own, and Tom and the others became his caddies, picking up the balls for him.

Tom and others had no resistance to this "job".

In fact, these people were already prepared to be scolded by Wudao. Although Wudao was only a first-year player, in the minds of the Timberwolves players, Wudao's leadership status was recognized by everyone.

However, until the end of the practice, Wu Dao did not mention what happened last night to the three players.

This attitude made players like Tom feel a little awkward.

They all realized that what they did was wrong, and instead of being scolded by Wu Dao, they became nervous.

Will the teams just have to play after this year's series is over?
Wu Dao didn't say anything to me, was he planning to ask the management to fire me? !

This thought occurred to the three players, and they suddenly became uneasy.

Stanley was the most impatient person. Seeing that Wudao was about to go back after the training, he came to Wudao and stopped him.

He is a little different from Tom and Sam Mitchell. Tom is an All-Star level player who can always be a starter no matter which team he goes to.

Although Sam Mitchell is a substitute rotation player, he also has certain data support, and even if he leaves the Timberwolves, he will probably be able to get a relatively good contract.

But Stanley Roberts is different.

His tool man attribute is too strong. If the team had not just adapted to a player of his level, he would probably not be able to survive in the league.

In order to deal with O'Neal, all teams in the league now have a meat shield reserve, and his replaceability is actually very strong.

Moreover, the Timberwolves are a championship-contending team, and Stanley Roberts does not want to leave such a team.

"Budao, don't you have anything to say to me?"

"I did something wrong. Last night I..." Stanley Roberts was going to confess to Wu Dao directly, but when he got to this point, Wu Dao suddenly stretched out his hand and stopped him from saying the next thing.

"What you did last night has nothing to do with me."

"I have no curiosity about your private life, and I don't want to know what you did last night."

"But, Stanley, I hope you can perform at your best in tomorrow's game."

"If you can't do it by then, the Timberwolves will no longer have a place for you."

"I think you should be able to realize that I am qualified to say this."

"The Timberwolves will be my team in the future!"

"No, the Timberwolves are my team now."

“My goal is to win the championship.”

"If any of you become an obstacle to my winning the championship, I will definitely sweep you away."

"Remember this."

"I don't want to hear sorry, I only care about performance."

(End of this chapter)