Beating up the Boss at the Beginning (Please Subscribe)_2 79: 75.
Beating up the Boss at the Beginning (Please Subscribe)_2 After many years, Eddie Jones finally got his revenge on the number 8 who had driven him away.
In the overtime game, Kobe was exhausted—his off-season weight increase to 105 kilograms significantly impacted his stamina, and even his health.
In the first 25 games, he missed 5.
Eventually, the Miami Heat overturned the Lakers in the overtime game, with O’Neal winning the OK battle.
After watching the thrilling game, Zhang Yang said goodnight to his parents, showered, and laid down.
He opened the Gate of Trials; on November 8, he had amassed 60,000 Shooting value and received the reward of +1 to his physical talent.
His physical talent had increased by 4 points.
At nearly 23 years old, after adding 1 point to his physical talent, his stamina was 88, suggesting that his talent upper limit must have reached 91.
On December 17, he accumulated another 50,000 Shooting value and received a notification to start training that evening.
The main team’s schedule was even more intense, he could make eight or nine baskets per game, his Three-Point Ability steadily increased, and with greater stamina, he could extend his training time…
This time it took 3 months and 5 days to use up the 110,000 Shooting value, a significant increase in acquisition speed.
A new task refreshed on the 10th, and unlike what he had thought regarding Shooting talent and physical talent, one task offered a random Shooting talent +1 for 60,000 Shooting value, and another task to increase shooting speed required 80,000 Shooting value.
The second task was so expensive it made Zhang Yang’s teeth ache, but it was a good reward.
If shooting speed could be increased without compromising shot stability, it would be greatly helpful for pick-and-roll shots, stop-and-pop jumpers, and the Euro step…
In the past two days of rest, Zhang Yang had already organized the basketball skills he had learned in the past year and a half, what he was good at, techniques that were not suitable for him, and the areas that needed the most improvement…
He was ready to seek guidance!
The teacher he hoped to meet most was naturally Nellie, but switching timelines likely meant he no longer knew him, which was fine since he was thick-skinned and could just get to know him again.
Curry wouldn’t be bad either, with the best long-range shooting ability in history.
His three-pointers need no further words, and that surprising long two-pointer, some seasons he could shoot at least two per game with a 60+% long two-point field goal percentage.
Among the top shooters, Curry has one of the lowest mid-range shot numbers, averaging less than one per game, but his terrifying long two-point ability boosted his average mid-range shots to 3, a top-tier performance.
Alan Houston would also be nice, unrivaled in off-screen shooting, and reportedly a decent guy too.
Big men weren’t out of the question either.
Dirk’s playing style wasn’t much different from a guard, earning him the nickname of seven-foot Bird.
Just not Garnett or Kobe.
Although their skills are good, dealing with them is too much of a headache…
Lost in his thoughts, Zhang Yang drifted off into a deep sleep…
Waking up, Zhang Yang found himself in another unfamiliar room.
Sitting up, he saw an old-fashioned butt-end TV at the foot of the bed, which made him feel a bit uneasy.
He took a look at himself in the mirror on the bedside table, Damn, this kid is handsome!
He actively recalled timeline 10…
He looked pretty much the same as he did in the year 2011, around twenty-two or three years old.
That mirror, too, had such a vintage vibe to it.
At that moment, a flood of information entered his mind.
He was born on June 6, 1963, a Chinese-American, with both his paternal and maternal grandparents having fled to California during World War II.
In high school, he was discovered by the school team’s coach and began playing basketball.
He loved scoring and had once scored 69 points in a single game during his senior year.
He also became the first Mr.
California Basketball of the 1980-81 school year during his senior year.
He chose to join the University of Kansas Jayhawks because he admired Wilt Chamberlain, the most scoring player in basketball history.
During college, he was controversial; his teammates mocked him for only caring about scoring, but they couldn’t do without him—if he didn’t score, the team would lose.
The media criticized him as well, but he didn’t care.
In 1985, after his senior season, he entered the NBA Draft.
During tryouts, the Lakers, who had the 23rd overall pick, promised to select him, leading him to reject all subsequent tryout invitations.
The Lakers were ridiculed for wasting a first-round pick, and the media slammed him as arrogant.
Rumors had spread before the draft that the Lakers would break their draft promises and had regrets.
However, he didn’t know if the Lakers had any regrets because the renowned Red Auerbach, who claimed to have seen him play in two games, used the 20th pick in the first round to draft him ahead of schedule.
He didn’t make it to the Lakers, couldn’t join the team of his idol Wilt Chamberlain, instead, he went to the Celtics, the mortal enemies of both the Lakers and Chamberlain.
Auerbach told him that his innate talent for fast breaks, persistence in shooting, and tenacity on defense were perfect for the Celtics, and his three-point ability was something the team had been dreaming of.
Then, on his first day reporting to the Celtics, he got into a fight with the team’s boss, Larry Bird.
Bird told him to roll back to Los Angeles and throw baseballs by the sea; he told Bird to roll back to Ireland and farm the land, and then they started hurling insults at each other, with Bird throwing the first punch, and then he toppled Bird.
This incident caused a huge stir, with Boston’s media attacking him, calling for the Celtics to throw this rookie—who couldn’t stop talking about the Lakers and Chamberlain—out to Los Angeles.
But Red Auerbach still, as promised, gave him a check for 90 thousand US dollars, while the median annual salary in Boston the previous year was 19 thousand US dollars.
Fighting with Bird seemed to have had no impact on his joining the Celtics; the team atmosphere was already very odd, every member was an eccentric, and his addition did not at all stand out.
When Bird was hit, no one helped; nobody in the NBA liked Larry Bird.
Danny Ainge was polite to everyone and seemed caring, but his actions didn’t line up with his words, which made him seem insincere, like how he didn’t lift a finger when Bird was beaten, let alone intervene, despite usually calling out ‘big brother’ very diligently.
McHale appeared to have OCD, even folding his discarded jerseys neatly, only for staff members to toss them into the laundry basket, getting jumpy if anyone touched his things.
Bill Walton was a stutterer, taking ages to get a single sentence out clearly, getting furious when people lost patience with him.
Dennis Johnson and Robert Parish only hung out with each other, very insular, partly because most of the team members were white.
Bird didn’t keep his mouth shut just because he got punched; he would mock Zhang Yang whenever he saw him, and when retorted, would fight back verbally but no longer physically instigate—it was pure bickering.
On the opening night, he stirred up trouble again; after being fouled hard by Bill Laimbeer, he retaliated on the spot, resulting in a brawl…
which led to a two-game suspension amidst the controversy.
Later, he grew passionate about shooting, criticized for a selfish playing style, got passionate about defense, criticized for destroying the beauty of basketball…
Laimbeer, with whom he had fought, stood up for him—if defense is not allowed in basketball games, then the NBA might as well give the championship trophy directly to Michael Jordan; that guy is the most accurate shooter.
His rookie season was pretty good, mature from playing four years in college, serving as a substitute for 80 games, averaging 26 minutes per game, scoring 14.6 points, 5.1 rebounds, 1.1 assists, 1.4 steals, with a shooting percentage of 45.5%, and a three-point shooting percentage of 37.5%; he and Bird were the only two players in the entire team capable of making three-pointers.
He ranked first in scoring among all the subs in the league, however, he did not win the Best Sixth Man Award.
Yesterday, the day before the playoffs started, his teammate, Bill Walton, averaging 7 points, 6 rebounds, 1.8 assists, and 1.4 blocks, won the Best Sixth Man Award.
Walton, on learning of his award, didn’t stutter and shared in an interview that it was ridiculous he won, even refusing to accept the trophy.
Today is the day of the first playoff game…
Zhang Yang ‘read’ the message he received, and his whole person was numb.
Putting aside everything else, he wanted to play with a technical master, but damn it, he ended up on the same team as Larry Bird!
That was worse than being teammates with Garnett or Kobe!
And to top it off, he had fought Larry Bird!
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Today only 8,500 words were updated; I will write an additional 1,500 words tomorrow to compensate.