The Road to Stardom: Start as a Slam Dunk Master.

Chapter 263 Trivia in August

Unfortunately, the exciting scoring battle only lasted seven or eight minutes. With Payton and the main team firing on all cylinders, the rookie team was soon widened by the score.

Lin Dong tried to organize and control the ball, but it was useless.

Facing Payton, who can defend him alone, Lin Dong's offense is not enough to help the team get open, and even passing the ball becomes difficult. After all, it is almost difficult for teammates to bypass the main team's defense to meet him.

In youth basketball, with his excellent personal ability and experience, he had no problem playing point guard, but in fact, many times on the court, his guest point guard was grabbing everything and just pulling his weight. His abilities cover up some of Lin Dong's shortcomings as a point guard.

His passing vision is first-rate, but there is still a gap compared with historical point guards. His sensitivity to the point guard's own responsibilities is also obscured by his own offensive desire and some habits, which sometimes leads to some inconsistencies. An irrational choice. To put it bluntly, Lin Dong is not suitable for this position.

On the contrary, the effect is better when he concentrates on playing the 3 position. Earl Watson is also in the first-team lineup of the NCAA this year. Except for facing Payton, he will not pass the ball continuously against anyone else on the main team. None of it can be heard.

But even Lin Dong, who moved to the No. 3 position, faced Payton's one-on-one coverage and shot only 42.3% from the field. He made 26 of 11 shots from the field, including 3 3-pointers and 2 free throws. Scored 29 points, 4 assists, 2 rebounds and 1 steal.

No one else in the rookie team scored in double figures. Only Chandler scored 8 points after gradually adapting to Pedrague's confrontation.

The other three, Watson scored 4 points and 5 assists, Vladimir scored 4 points and 2 rebounds, but it was veteran Randy who was somewhat 'disliked' by the rookies before and did not score 1 point with the Golden State Warriors last year. ·Livingston scored 9 points, becoming the second-highest scorer on the rookie team.

I never gave up attacking from the beginning to the end, and I really tried my best. I also activated all the states that I should activate, but it still didn't work.

Frankly speaking, this is not the most damaging thing to the confidence of the newcomers. What is really more terrible is that this is just a Sonics team that plans to fail this year...

The gap, strength... stood like a big mountain in front of all the rookies, and finally allowed them to see what the real NBA is.

At Lin Dong's offensive level, Payton couldn't completely lock down his scoring, but his shooting percentage was suppressed to death.

despair! Not to mention Chandler and the others, even Lin Dong felt the same pressure as the mountain.

Having been invincible at Rigao, at the Nike Summit, and even at the World Championships, Lin Dong has indeed developed some kingly aura, which helps him become stronger when he encounters the strong.

Payton stopped several key shots from the start. Firstly, it relied on the defensive momentum, concentration and determination, and secondly, it relied on the strong physical confrontation. Of course, there was also the factor that the referee did not blow the whistle very much... ...But if your goal is Jordan, if your goal is the extremely competitive playoffs or even the finals, then referees and large-scale penalties should also be objects that you need to conquer.

But this made Lin Dong feel very excited after playing.

The feeling of not being able to find an opponent is very scary. Lin Dong knows very well that it will lead to his own regression and it is easy to lose his goal and direction.

Scoring, which once felt the easiest in the game, has now become a very difficult task, and they were surprised to find that they could not defend themselves when their opponents only used 40% or even 30% of their energy to attack.

Physical confrontation and weight gain are one solution, but that is obviously not something Lin Dong can do now.

What shocked Lin Dong even more was that he failed to grasp the key ball handling that caused the morale of the rookie team to plummet.

If any opponent these young players have ever faced, they have spent 70% of their energy on offense and 30% on defense.

He secretly set a new goal in his heart: before next year's draft, he must beat Payton once! It's the kind of undisputed win. You can beat him head-on while maintaining no weight gain and suffering physical losses! Then maybe you need to polish your skills to a truly superb state, and frankly, Lin Dong himself doesn't know if that state exists...

Payton understands the node where the team is starting to gain momentum. This is already another level of defender. It is also a lesson that Lin Dong learned today. You have to know what ball should be defended in normal state and what ball should be defended in normal state. Only by defending with all your strength can you be qualified to be called the best defender, and only then can you be qualified to strive for the dpoy that is second only to FMVP and championship trophy honors!

But now we have goals and direction.

This is no longer the house of youth basketball...

After a whole year of tormenting in Rigao, and relying on his experience beyond that of his peers and his ability to break through boundaries after time travel, he tormented his peers in Nike and the World Championships.

The main team, on the other hand, attacked like crazy and the rookie team was unstoppable. In the end, the score between the two teams easily reached an exaggerated 96:54.

But at this moment, let alone the aura of a king, even if the aura of a bastard comes, it will be in vain.

What everyone feels now is that the opponents are using at least 60% of their energy to defend! They can't wait to intercept every ball for the rookie team, making the rookies feel as tired as if they have played a whole game every time they want to score a goal.

Payton's mouth is definitely unforgiving.

He posted his 45 points, 8 assists, and a shooting percentage of 69%, and proudly said to Lin Dong, "Hey, Lin, I only used % of my strength."

Lin Dong just smiled. The essence of trash talk is not to be stubborn with others. You have to admit if you lose.

Of course, when it’s time to fight back, you still have to fight back: “Okay, buddy, I’ll remember it. I’ll definitely give you my exact words by this time next year.”

"Oh! God, let's take a look at this confident rookie. Next year? In another twenty years, when I get too old to play ball, I think you will have a chance!" Compared to Lin Dong and Payton's confrontation The people who were really surprised by the relative rhetoric were actually the entire Sonics team and their boss Schultz.

Only three people in the world know about Payton and Lin Dong's individual training process before the Nike Summit, Lin Dong, Payton, and Sakuragi Hanamichi.

The fact is that before the Nike Summit, Payton, who had neglected training, felt that it was already difficult to defend Lin Dong, so much so that he had to capture Sakuragi Hanamichi's young man, and use the pretext of teaching Sakuragi to let Sakuragi and Lin Dong fight. He went to the east to practice sparring to cover up his embarrassment that he was a little unable to guard against the opponent.

So even though everyone has heard the story about Lin Dong and Payton practicing in the gym, most people think that it was just Payton teaching the juniors. Even after watching the Nike Summit and the World Championships, they all have the same idea.

Who could have imagined that a 17-year-old boy could have a back-and-forth with Payton?

What happened to the 42% shooting rate? What happened to 29 points?

This is the defensive level of the NBA, not a point-scoring battle like the Nike Summit or the World Championships.

Moreover, the one guarding him was Payton, the all-out glove!

In the finals that year, Jordan also surrendered an embarrassing 19-for-5 shot against this guy. Although that was mainly due to the help of his teammates, Payton was known as the glove because of that battle.

Facing Payton's all-out efforts, the rookie was able to make 26 of 11 shots. Even though he was completely disadvantaged by physical confrontation and his teammates were unable to provide support, he still maintained a shooting rate of more than 40%. Payton defended tightly. Scored 29 points in the game, this is already incredible, right?

This needs to be polished and the physical resistance strengthened. Is that okay? Then go straight to the Jordan model?

Absolutely real thighs... As long as they can really win him next year, the SuperSonics will have a promising future!

Schultz's eyes shone, secretly adding a lot of confidence to this year's decision to make a mess.

The other main players in the team also had a very different attitude towards Lin Dong after the game.

On the one hand, it is certainly because of respect for the strong, but on the other hand, everyone can see the attitude of the team's current boss Payton towards Lin Dong, as well as Lin Dong's future talent and ceiling.

They are all veterans who have played in the NBA for several years. No matter now or in the future, this young man will obviously be the core of the Sonics. Building some friendship in advance is always the best option.

Not to mention newcomers such as Chandler. They can't hold the lap of old players. Payton has no good feelings towards other newcomers except Lin Dong. In comparison, it is obviously better to hold Lin Dong's lap. It's a smart move.

After a game, he becomes the favorite of the team every minute. From the team owner, to the new team members, and even the staff of the arena, they all treat this Asian who is not even a member of the SuperSonics at the moment. He was greeted with compliments and smiling faces, making Lin Dong feel that the first step of integrating into the NBA team was quite easy.

In the evening, Payton treated the whole team to a feast, mainly to refresh Lin Dong and welcome him to join the team's training army. At the same time, he also gave Lin Dong a big red envelope, worth a hundred thousand US dollars.

The reason is perfect. This is the bonus he won from betting on the Internet, and the object of the bet was Lin Dong. Everyone split it half and half.

The NBA's rule that rookies are not allowed to have contact with the team does not apply to the SuperSonics and Lin Dong's model.

According to the rookie regulations before the 05 restructuring, only players who have officially submitted a draft application to the NBA can be called rookies. From the day he submits his application until the end of the draft, teams are not allowed to have any form of personal contact with rookies. , even more absurd gift.

But Lin Dong is only a high school student now and has not submitted a draft application. Although everyone knows that he will enter the NBA in the future, at least as far as the rules are concerned, he is not yet in violation of the rules.

So training with the team every day became Lin Dong's theme throughout August in Seattle.

The daily training of the NBA team still poses a certain challenge to Lin Dong. The physical training is more intense than anything he has been exposed to before. This is also the first time in Lin Dong's life that he has actively reduced the amount of training. To that extent My physical training already involves restrictions on bone development, so it is not my first choice for pursuing development now.

In other respects, Lin Dong was also impressed by the Sonics' emphasis on basic skills during training.

Especially in terms of ball control, a 211-centimeter center is required to dribble like a defender, and even maintain a ball-control height of 5-10 centimeters to dribble for ten minutes, and complete various required actions. In the Dragon Kingdom, even a 185-centimeter defender may not be able to match the intensity of ball-handling training.

Even though they have very few dribbling opportunities on the court, it doesn't make it any easier for them.

As for a historical point guard like Payton who has already mastered ball control, his training and heavy investment in basic skills also makes Lin Dong feel a bit stunned. He spends more than an hour every day just training on ball control. Much more energy than he devoted to any other project.

"Basic skills, this is the secret to staying at the top." Payton's simple words made Lin Dong change a lot of his understanding of training: "A lot of ball control can keep you feeling on the ball. One day off is like ten days of injury. , and only by controlling the ball day and night, and only by training the ball control enough to integrate into your body and make basketball a part of your body, can you be qualified to practice other things! And only in this state is it possible? Let you make further progress.”

Lin Dong has always been very receptive to good things.

Controlling the ball...then keep practicing!

During the entire August, several important events happened for Lin Dong.

One is that Schultz offered him an endorsement contract.

Yes, the CEO of Starbucks plans to get Lin Dong's endorsement before he can truly establish his worth, to help him expand the business territory of Dragon Kingdom.

After all, just because Lin Dong won the World Championships on behalf of the Dragon Kingdom, he already has a pretty good reputation in the Dragon Kingdom, and this reputation is mostly among the youth groups, and that is precisely Starbucks The largest first batch of targeted customer groups.

The second is a rookie sneaker endorsement contract from Nike.

The third was to meet an agent who came to introduce himself. His name was Aaron Goodwin.

(End of this chapter)