no shortcuts in basketball

Chapter 98 The real Kobe

The night he arrived in Los Angeles, Xu Yong was called by Kobe Bryant.

"I know the best nightclub in Los Angeles. If you want to go, I'll pay for it." The first time he saw Xu Yong, Kobe patted his chest and said.

"Isn't this bad?" Xu Yong looked embarrassed.

"What's wrong? We're friends, and it's just a one-time nightclub consumption." Kobe said with a raised mouth.

"Okay, I want to get to know my Lakers teammates in advance. How about you call them all over and let's go to a nightclub together?" Xu Yong continued.

Kobe's face froze and he looked at Xu Yong for a while, then he laughed and punched Xu Yong on the shoulder.

Xu Yong also laughed.

He still doesn't know that Kobe is the kind of person who tells McGrady that he doesn't need to train during the offseason, and after McGrady goes to the room to rest, he runs to the weight room for extra training.

"Let's go to the training ground and see how your training is going." After he put away his smile, Kobe said seriously.

He was also a student in Olajuwon's training class. He had a good chat with Xu Yong and wanted to know how Xu Yong's dream dance training was going.

Xu Yong nodded. His current thoughts are about Zhang Fei from the Three Kingdoms, and so am I.

Because it was a test, the one-on-one after they arrived at the training hall did not have any winners and losers, and both of them consciously used their feet more.

Therefore, Kobe, who was much stronger than Xu Yong, did not have much advantage.

Of course, there is another reason, and Xu Yong's size is one size larger than Kobe's, although it is not at the level of Kobe's evaluation of McGrady, "He can do all the moves I can do and he can do it better than me". But it also makes Kobe uncomfortable.

An hour later, the sweaty two sat on the sidelines drinking water to rest.

"It seems that your training has not fallen at all." Kobe nodded in praise after taking a sip of water.

"Young people will be eliminated if they don't practice enough." Xu Yong explained. The current Kobe may not necessarily watch Los Angeles at four in the morning, but he is already very familiar with Chicago at four in the morning.

After hearing this, Kobe couldn't help but rub his chin and look at Xu Yong. He, who originally only paid more attention to Xu Yong because of his status as a student and good communication, now felt more affection for Xu Yong.

After all, like attracts like.

"Have you tried the step-breaking thing we talked about before?" Kobe asked seriously after putting down his hand.

"What about you?" Xu Yong didn't expect Kobe to ask this question suddenly, he didn't answer right away, but asked Kobe back.

"No, I haven't figured out the trick yet." Bryant froze for a moment, then said with a smile.

"Me too." Xu Yong saw this and replied.

……

The next day, the Bulls held their final practice at the Staples Center training facility.

Rose's overall competitive state looks pretty good.

There is a detail that will be overlooked, that is, the psychology is actually a very critical part of the injury.

To give a very shallow example, a person who has just sprained his ankle will be very beneficial to avoid spraining his ankle again when he plays on the court. Therefore, based on this point, he will subconsciously change his style of play.

Rose's ups and downs have a lot to do with this.

After all, if there is still a long way to go before recovering, the Bulls would not be able to take the risk of letting him play.

After seeing it, Xu Yong couldn't help but go up and remind him.

Although he didn't remember hearing that Rose suffered serious injuries due to injuries during this period, since the draft, his appearance has caused a lot of things to change. aggressive enough to cause serious injury" is not out of the question.

"I know." Rose answered ably.

Harden is just introverted, but Rose is really introverted.

But just like when he bumped into the shoulder, Xu Yongneng felt that Ross should be able to grasp his own sense of proportion.

……

That night, the Staples Center in Los Angeles was packed.

Although the team's recent performance has been mediocre, since the team won the championship last season, the Lakers' ball market has reached a new peak. Not to mention ordinary tickets for the new season, even season tickets have been sold out early.

This is the foundation of the giants. In terms of league influence alone, the Lakers and Celtics, as the two giants of the East and West, are greater than the Bulls.

And this is Los Angeles, the home of Hollywood, so it is inevitable that there will be stars in the front row of the audience.

The most attention-grabbing, of course, is the actor in "Leap Over the Cuckoo's Nest", "The Shining" and other movies, and the actor who plays the Joker in "Batman", the number one Comey Jack Nicholson, who is at the Staples Center But there are exclusive VIP seats.

Of course, in addition to him, there are many other well-known celebrities here tonight.

For example, Taylor Swift, a popular country singer who has become popular in the United States with her album "Fearless";

Another example is the heroine of "Transformers", the sexy actress Megan Fox;
Another example is Michelle Rodriguez, the heroine of "The Fast and the Furious" who is always known for her broad-mindedness and heroic appearance.

The basketball game in Los Angeles is not just a basketball game, but more like a "show".

So if you want to talk about attention, the attention brought by this game is not necessarily lower than the opening game against the Cavaliers that the fans have hyped for a long time.

After the warm-up of the two teams, the scene entered the opening ceremony.

There is an adjustment in the starting lineup for the Bulls. Gibson replaced Sangueira in the starting lineup.

Rose, Xu Yong, Deng, Gibson, Noah.

This starting lineup is really Deng playing with a group of young players on rookie contracts.

The Lakers used a regular lineup, the outside "old fish" Fisher and Kobe partnered, the striker was a combination of Ariza and Lamar Odom, and the center was "Little Shark" Bynum.

The enthusiasm of the fans at the scene is very high.

Just looking at the starting lineup, this is a game where adults beat children.

What's more, this kid just suffered a four-game losing streak in the past week.

In other words, this is the welfare bureau of the schedule, which belongs to the kind of game where champagne can be opened directly at the beginning.

The game started immediately. Bynum easily jumped up and moved the ball back to half court. The Lakers won the opportunity to attack first.

On the Lakers' first possession, Kobe did not appear on the strong side.

This is one of Kobe's mature habits. He will first let his teammates find out how he feels, or in other words, check the state of his teammates first.

Bynum reached for position under the basket, preparing to beat Noah.

The NBA has many top inside beasts below the neck, such as the regulars of the "Shaq Five", JaVale Olajuki, Thabeet who played against Xu Yong before, and Bynum in front of him.

In terms of physical talent, Bynum is definitely the one that ranks first in history. He is 2 meters tall and has a wingspan of 13 meters. As a big man, he can jump 2cm. Has a soft feel and a solid footstep.

"Baby Shark" is not a nickname that everyone can call.

He is also the youngest player in NBA history to land a player. Yes, he is younger than James. He was in the NBA when he was 18 years and 6 days old.

But it is precisely because of this that he showed everyone what it is like to play in the NBA with an immature mind.

上赛季他场均14.3分8板1.8盖帽，算是来到了生涯新高度，不过季后赛受到膝伤困扰，数据暴跌到6.3分3.7板0.9盖帽。

It stands to reason that he should take good care of his injuries during the offseason when he encountered such a thing. As a result, as an extreme sports enthusiast, he went overseas bungee jumping wearing protective gear not long after the operation.

And that's not to mention, he also played poker with the "Playboy" model while recovering from his injury, which made everyone in Los Angeles know.

Perhaps because of these reasons, his performance so far this season is very average. He failed to support the Lakers inside when Gasol was absent, and was criticized by the media for a while. You must know that Los Angeles is more magnifying than a magnifying glass.

So when he finally meets a soft persimmon, he has to behave well.

The ball was fed in, Bynum lowered his shoulders and exerted his strength, directly choosing to hit hard.

But Noah did not lose his defensive position as he expected.

Noah: If I can’t stand up to the big shark, I can’t stand up to you, the little shark?
Bynum then chose to start using his feet, but Noah showed good ability to defend the inside after not suffering a loss in the confrontation, and he did not suffer at all.

In the end, Bynum had no choice but to turn around and pull the ball high before hitting high.

Now he finally got the chance to make a shot, but he missed it.

Noah didn't lose his defensive position, and the long arm was always in front of him, which was too difficult for him.

Noah turned around and received the defensive rebound. The Lakers' first wave of offense did not score.

And after Noah collected the rebound, he performed his best trick, directly holding the ball and accelerating forward.

The entire Bulls pressed forward, and Kobe focused on Xu Yong, who was going down immediately, but on the other side, after receiving a pass from Noah, Rose changed his direction and wiped past Fisher, who was lifting his trouser legs. Layup scored two points.

The Bulls took the lead.

Looking back, Bynum continued to ask for the ball in the low post. This time he used the hook from "Sky Hook" Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, but unfortunately he still failed to make a hit.

And when he took off the offensive rebound for a second attack, Noah slapped the ball away.

The Bulls took advantage of the situation and played a defensive counterattack. Rose made a layup and caused a foul. After making two free throws, the Bulls directly beat the Lakers 4-0 at the beginning!

The fans at Staples Center were agitated.

At this time, their first feeling was that the Bulls' focus and enthusiasm didn't look like a team that had lost four games in a row?

And why does Rose look different from previous games?

But soon, this restlessness disappeared, because Kobe, who found that Bynum was really bad, finally started to hold the ball.

After reaching out to signal to pull away, Kobe directly chose to single out Xu Yong.

Seeing this, Xu Yong also put on a posture.

The two of them directly moved yesterday's bullfight to the arena.

Kobe chose to break through from the left after a feint. His start and rhythm control were perfect. In terms of technology alone, he was even better than Jordan.

However, Xu Yong was not passed over. Last night's bullfight with Kobe allowed him to become familiar with Kobe's offensive rhythm in advance.

Grinding the gun before the battle, unhappy also light.

"boom!"

But at this moment, a scene that was familiar and surprising to Xu Yong appeared. Kobe directly used a heavy dribble to stop during the breakthrough, and then jumped to the ground and turned around to make a step-back jumper towards the free throw line.

This time Xu Yong couldn't pounce and could only watch Kobe complete the shot.

"Shh!"

Kobe's shots hit steadily, helping the Lakers break their scoring drought.

Xu Yong, who saw Kobe using "hit the pivot foot hard": Sure enough, the world is real.

(End of this chapter)