Slam Dunk: My Study Abroad Career in Northern Hunan

The role of a big center on the court must be presented on both offense and defense. This is actually the requirement of the NBA league for most centers.

Unless some teams specially prepare a meat shield player to fight against O'Neal, anyone who can gain a foothold in the NBA can always show certain qualities on the offensive or defensive end.

You can focus on defense or offense, but you can never be unable to defend or attack. Such a player will not be able to gain a foothold on the court, especially in this era.

Most teams generally have higher requirements for centers. In the NBA, only a small number of teams actually operate around outside players.

If you want to attract the attention of more teams, you must have your own characteristics on the field.

He has an outstanding height and his lateral speed is not slow. The scouts actually have very high expectations for his performance on the court.

Wu Dao quickly passed the basketball in his hand to Chris Kyle, who deliberately suppressed his rhythm and ran much slower towards the front court.

In fact, they didn't realize Wu Dao's true intention when they saw the ball on the sidelines. They just thought that the Timberwolves were tired of fast breaks and wanted to change their style of play and try out their positions.

The Timberwolves have no weaknesses on the offensive end.

Whether it is positional warfare or defensive counterattacks, they are among the best in the league.

Garnett's offensive power has been recognized by more teams. A power forward who averages about 20 points per game is definitely top in the league. What's more, Garnett is still very young and has a lot of potential to be tapped.

After Chris Kyle dribbled into the frontcourt, he quickly passed the ball to Wu Dao.

From the beginning of the game till now, except for fast breaks, Wu Dao has not really taken the ball to attack.

A smart man like Chris Kyle certainly knows what to do and when. After shooting the basketball, he quickly moved to the left, leaving room for the strong right side and setting up a good stage for Wu Dao.

Wu Dao on the wing caught the ball with one hand. Facing a player who was taller than him, he turned slightly sideways, grabbed the ball with one hand and held it horizontally. His posture was natural, as if he didn't take his opponent seriously at all and didn't look nervous at all.

The defensive player standing opposite him was fully focused at this moment. He bent slightly, raised one hand high and placed the other hand on Wu Dao's waist.

Although Wu Dao is young, he is now a league superstar who can compete with Michael Jordan.

The college players on the court were even older than Wu Dao, with only Yao Ming and Oak Hill's junior being slightly younger.

However, the sense of relaxation displayed by martial arts on the field is something that the student team does not have at all.

At this time, Garnett was wrestling with Yao Ming in the interior. Garnett, who was trying to get closer to the basket, was blocked outside the paint area by Yao Ming. In the fight between the two, Garnett was not actually in the upper hand.

Wudao on the outside was slow to move, his eyes fixed on Garnett in the inside. The other Timberwolves players were standing with their hands on their hips, with no intention of assisting Wudao in the offense. They were all quietly waiting for Wudao to start his performance.

After Garnett and Yao Ming wrestled for a while, his eyes inadvertently looked at Wu Dao who was holding the ball. The moment their eyes met, Garnett immediately understood Wu Dao's meaning and quickly ran towards Wu Dao.

At the same time when Garnett pulled himself out from inside, Wudao on the wing also quickly blew the ball and rushed forward. His strong body leaned directly on his opponent. Wudao, who was almost 10 kg heavier than his opponent, had an absolute advantage in physical confrontation.

The defense line was directly broken by Wudao. The defender was even a little unstable after being pushed away. He had no way to adjust his steps to chase Wudao in the first time.

It’s not entirely true that Garnett’s pick-and-roll is useless.

Following Garnett's defense line to the outside, Yao Ming quickly changed direction and directly followed Wu Dao who was moving quickly towards the inside.

Wu Dao had no intention of confronting Yao Ming directly. While moving forward, he passed the ball from behind and quickly gave the basketball in his hand to Garnett in the high position.

Vacant seat.

Garnett shot the basketball out with a flick of his hand.

As a crisp sound of the basketball hitting the net rang out in the court, Yao Ming, who had barely adjusted his steps and rushed towards Garnett, missed the ball. He could only raise his arms high and watch the basketball fly over his head and fall steadily into the net.

It was a very simple pick-and-roll, but the gap in strength between the two teams revealed was terrifying.

The audience watching this practice match today are all experts.

Everyone could see the gap between the Timberwolves and the cadet team.

The players defending Wu Dao had no way to put any pressure on him. As for Yao Ming, he was very active in defense and his lateral movement speed was also good. It was already a remarkable thing that he could "force" Wu Dao to pass the ball.

Although the student team lost the ball, the biggest problem was not with Yao Ming, but with the outside line.

But then again, if Yao Ming and Garnett swapped positions, Garnett might be able to interfere with Yao Ming's open shots.

Garnett's mobility is better than Yao Ming's, and his assist defense ability is far beyond Yao Ming's reach.

It’s just that their expectations for Yao Ming are not that high. They have already seen what they wanted to see from Yao Ming’s defense in this round.

A player's desire to win is actually very important.

After being taken away by Wu Dao's breakthrough, Yao Ming did not give up defending against Garnett directly, which was very good.

In the next few rounds of offense and defense, the trainees still had no tacit understanding. Although they scored occasionally, that was thanks to the Timberwolves players deliberately letting them win.

After all, this training camp is aimed at young people, and there are so many ball belts and media reporters watching on the sidelines, which directly messes up the students and is not conducive to the development of the training camp.

It is very necessary to release the water appropriately, and in this regard, Wudao does a very good job.

In the eyes of others, Wu Dao was deeply afraid of Yao Ming's height. When he was attacking with the ball, he would basically not face Yao Ming's defense directly, and would often choose to use a sudden pass to help his teammates get scoring opportunities.

In the view of Yao Ming's entourage, this was the result of Wu Dao being afraid of Yao Ming.

But this is just their imagination.

Yao Ming's performance in today's training match was not very good. He played for only 14 minutes, but only had 4 points, 2 rebounds and 2 assists.

Such data is obviously not excellent, and Garnett, who was facing him, had already scored 10 points, 5 rebounds and 3 assists when Yao Ming was substituted off the court. His excellent efficiency completely suppressed Yao Ming.

On the court, the performance of the two players is similar to their statistics.

Yao Ming struggled a lot on the offensive end. Under Garnett's defense, his touch was obviously not good, his hit rate was very low, and he even made a long shot under Garnett's defense.

Moreover, Yao Ming had serious communication problems with other players. He had poor grasp of the timing of pick-and-rolls and the timing of passing the ball, and was often blocked by Garnett.

When Yao Ming was substituted off the court by the coach, he could not hide the disappointment on his face.

There are quite a few players in the training camp, and all of them need a chance to play and gain experience. Yao Ming's nearly 15 minutes of playing time is already considered a lot among all the players in the training camp.

Coach Philip did not target Yao Ming because of his yellow skin and gave him enough playing time. However, Yao Ming did not seize this hard-earned opportunity and did not put in a stunning performance in the limited time.

Overall it can only be considered qualified.

Of course, the scouts and reporters present would not deny Yao Ming's ability and training value just because of his performance. These people are professionals and they can see the various problems surrounding Yao Ming at this time.

Language, tacit understanding, and the intensity of the new arena.

Yao Ming's physical talent is still recognized by many people. In their opinion, as long as Yao Ming solves some problems, he will be able to quickly adapt to the court and grow into an excellent player.

Among the scouts and reporters watching the game today, some had actually seen Yao Ming's performance in Jordan's training camp.

Some people even came to Minnesota just to follow Yao Ming, hoping to reach an agreement with the owner of the Shanghai Sharks and bring Yao Ming to their team as soon as possible.

However, compared with their enthusiasm during Jordan's training camp, the scouts at this time calmed down after seeing the various shortcomings exposed by Yao Ming in this game.

The owner of the Sharks could clearly sense this, and even the team reporter Xiao Yang could clearly feel that today's scouts were obviously not as enthusiastic as in the previous training camp.

The game on the court did not stop because of Yao Ming's departure.

After Yao Ming left the court, Wu Dao broke out completely, either by breaking through or shooting. In just 10 minutes of game time, he scored 20 points, directly widening the gap between the two teams to more than points.

During the halftime break, Coach Philip found Wu Dao, who had beaten up the kids, and put him on the bench.

And it was not until this time that Yao Ming and his accompanying team truly realized how terrifying the power of martial arts was. When he burst out with all his strength, he and his opponents were simply not on the same level of players.

Even someone who knows nothing about football can see this.

Yao Ming also realized how restrained his martial arts skills were during his time on the court.

"It's just a practice match, Yao Ming, don't take it seriously."

"You just don't fit in well with your teammates today. In the last training camp, you beat Tyson Chandler."

"I heard that player's predicted NBA draft pick might be in the top ten."

Although Tyson Chandler is young today, he has already become famous.

The NBA has given draft predictions for players of all ages. Tyson Chandler's competitors in that class were not very strong, so his predicted draft ranking was relatively high.

Xiao Yang, a reporter accompanying the team, tried to give Yao Ming confidence with these words, and his words were indeed effective. Hearing this, Yao Ming showed a forced smile on his face.

Since he performed poorly, he could only use these words to comfort himself.

"Chandler?"

"Top ten NBA pick? Who is that?"

At this moment, Wu Dao's figure suddenly appeared in the sight of several people.

Wu Dao, who had just finished the game, also came to the rest area where Yao Ming and the others were, and happened to hear the words of comfort from the team reporter Xiao Yang.

His appearance immediately attracted the attention of several Chinese people. Xiao Yang looked up at the tall and strong Wu Dao, a smile suddenly appeared on his face, and explained:
"Tyson Chandler, don't you know?"

"The students at Mingos High School heard that they were very optimistic about his prospects as a selection."

"Yao had played against Jordan before when he was in Jordan's training camp. That Tyson Chandler was no match for him at all."

Xiao Yang's face was full of pride when he talked about the time when Yao Ming beat Chandler. It was because of this that Yao Ming's team firmly believed that he had the ability to play in the NBA.

"High school student?"

"Good draft prospect?"

"Yao Ming, if you feel proud and complacent just because you beat a high school student, then I think the NBA is not suitable for you at all."

"I don't know who the Tyson Chandler you're talking about is, but there are many players of that level in the NBA."

"Draft rankings don't mean anything. Even if you're the top pick, you may not be able to play well in the NBA, let alone a high school student who hasn't even set foot in the NBA."

"Instead of comparing yourself to that Tyson Chandler, you should look at the NBA players you're actually playing against today."

"That Garnett entered the league in 95. He was just a high school student at the time, but now he is a member of a championship team."

"Through this game, I think you yourself know the gap between you and Garnett."

"If you ask me, you are not qualified to enter the NBA right now."

"If I were you, I wouldn't be complacent about my past achievements."

“No matter what kind of results you have achieved in your country, you need to start from scratch in this arena.”

Wu Dao didn't give Yao Ming and others any face at all, and directly pointed out Yao Ming's biggest problem at the moment.

It's a mentality problem.

If Yao Ming is still benchmarking against Chandler, then today's training game will be meaningless.

"What do you mean by that?"

"Yao Ming is very young and very talented. He can play in the NBA."

"As long as he gets to the NBA, he will be able to achieve what you have achieved."

Before Yao Ming could say anything, someone in his logistics team could no longer sit still and retorted.

"It seems that you don't have a clear understanding of the NBA arena."

"But it doesn't matter, today is only the first day of training."

“You will understand the difference between basketball in China and here.”

"Yao Ming, remember my words, you still have a long way to go."

"Even if you try your best, you will probably only be able to gain a foothold on the court."

"If you slack off, you won't even be qualified to step into the competition field."

(End of this chapter)