The rest is just noise

Chapter 1457 Please wake me up

Liu Yuqing, who killed the game with a steal and a layup, looked extremely serious with the support of her teammates, as if the Chinese team had lost.

"We still have one game to play." Liu Yuqing explained why he was not excited.

To reporters, Liu Yuqing behaved very arrogantly. In this era when Americans dominate the basketball court, entering the finals is a winner in another sense.

The gold medal belongs to the dream team, and second place is the ultimate honor for teams from other countries, let alone the Chinese team that reached the Olympic men's basketball finals this year. This is not only a national glory, but also the pride of all Asia.

But their great hero said without a smile that there was still one more game to play.

As if they can win.

In the locker room, Qi Chengyan cried bitterly. If he had not committed a foul, the game would not have ended like this.

It was precisely when Qi Chengyan encountered a foul problem that Jaskevicius exploded.

That terrible Lithuanian almost single-handedly blocked the Chinese team's path to the finals.

Louis has always admired this young man.

Moreover, he believes that Qi Chengyan will be the key player in the match between the Chinese team and the American team. His size and defense, as well as the style that matches modern basketball, are enough for him to ignore him, Kidd and Payton on the FIBA ​​stage.

Let’s wait for the gap between NBA superstars to have a real competition.

"You can cry as much as you want now." Louis said, "When the finals are over, I hope each of us can come back here with a smile."

In fact, Louis also had unusual feelings about the Lithuanian game.

When the Lithuanians encountered a world-wide problem on the sideline, their solution was exactly the same as the men's basketball team in 2019.

That scene really brought back a lot of memories in Louis' mind.

Now, when he looks back at the men's basketball team's game against Lithuania, he will find that the Lithuanians used a slow-paced game that emphasized confrontation to keep the suspense going until the end.

This was exactly the trick Louis was preparing to use on the Americans.

Lithuania almost succeeded, which gave Louis some confidence.

However, even with many routines prepared for the US team, Louis still needs to ask for help from the sidelines.

September 30, the day before the Olympic men’s basketball finals.

Louis personally went to the airport to greet a guest from afar.

The other party is none other than Zhao Yuanzheng, the deputy general manager of the Los Angeles Lakers. As Buss’ confidant and strategist, he can be said to be the team’s shadow general manager.

After Louis, West and others left the team one after another, the real power of the management has fallen to Buss Jr., and Buss Jr. attaches great importance to Zhao Yuanzheng's suggestions. Therefore, it no longer matters whether the real general manager is Zhao Yuanzheng.

He is the current de facto helmsman of the Lakers.

Zhao Yuanzheng is a man who knows how to repay his kindness, and he knows very well who helped him get to his current position little by little.

Of course Bass Jr.'s appreciation is one of them, but without Louis's six-year planning behind the scenes, he wouldn't be where he is today.

So, when Louis asked him for help with the national team, he directly pushed away the work at hand.

In a small way, it's just to help a friend, but in a big way, it's to contribute to the national team. It's really my duty.

"Lao Lu, everything you want is here." Zhao Yuanzheng handed the information he carefully prepared to Louis in the restaurant, "I took three days off from the team and will stay in Sydney until October 2nd.

I will be there to watch the game when the time comes, so don’t lose.”

The information provided by Zhao Yuanzheng is very critical.

This information contains a summary of the strengths and weaknesses of all the games played by the players of the US team so far in their careers, including their bad technical habits, good and bad game tendencies, all covered.

Louis remembers that in the 2008 BJ Olympics, when the men's basketball team defeated Germany in the group stage, the restrictions on Nowitzki benefited from the behind-the-scenes advice of Don Nelson's son Nelson Jr.

The value of the information provided by Zhao Yuanzheng may be a hundred times that of Nelson Jr.'s suggestions.

Since Zhao Yuanzheng has been working as a professional basketball manager, Louis has intended for him to lead the scouting work. Over the years, Zhao Yuanzheng has been running around, formulating game plans and analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of each team's players, making thousands of reports.

. He has a sophisticated database in his hand for analysis. Now, he is using his own database to make a summary report on all members of the US team.

In the finals, Louis can use this report to make more targeted arrangements.

"If you are not present at the celebration party, I'm afraid no one would dare to use chopsticks." Louis teased Zhao Yuanzheng.

Zhao Yuanzheng laughed out loud, and then had lunch with Louis, chatting, and the atmosphere was very relaxed.

After dinner, Louis returned to the Olympic Village to organize today's training session.

At the end of the day's training, Louis asked everyone to write a small report when they went back.

The content of the report is: Why do we have to beat the American team?

"I don't want long speeches, just your true thoughts. Everyone should write them down and give them to me before the game tomorrow."

At this time, most of the games in the Sydney Olympic Games have ended. The men's basketball final is not only the highlight of tomorrow, but also the most exciting event in the entire Olympic Games.

Louis and others who are far away in Australia don't know what kind of efforts are being used to promote this game in China.

After three major humiliations in the 1990s, Chinese people generally have no favorable impression of the United States. At the World Championships the year before last, the men's basketball team had proven that they could challenge the American team. Now, the Sydney Olympics has given them another chance.

Space Yi was ridiculed by black fans for his remarks that carried the expectations of 1.3 billion people. However, the men's basketball team led by Louis indeed carried the ambitions of 1.3 billion people. When simple patriotism became fanatical, the whole country

There is a direct and visceral need from top to bottom, and that is to bring down the arrogant Americans on the biggest stage in the world.

Fortunately, we are not yet in the age of social media, so players in the Olympic Village do not feel that pressure.

On the other hand, head coach Louis had his most difficult night in the Olympic Village.

He tossed and turned, but couldn't sleep.

Lorraine and Wuxia were originally going to watch the game at the venue tomorrow, but due to unforeseen circumstances, they were unable to make the trip. Wuxia could only stay at home and watch the live broadcast of the finals on TV.

Louis' anxiety increased.

He struggled in bed until four in the morning before falling asleep slightly.

An hour and a half later, the alarm clock woke Louis up.

Although he only slept for a short while, Louis didn't feel sleepy at all. He knew that there was no point in staying in bed because he couldn't sleep anymore.

Louis walked to the bathroom, flushed his face with cold water, and saw himself clearly through the mirror.

This is not much different from him when he was young.

He is 40 years old, but he looks like he is less than 30 years old. He is simply radiant. This is really thanks to Kobe's weight loss plan.

Louis took another splash of cold water.

But he still couldn't use the stimulation of cold water to dispel the distracting thoughts in his mind, and those strange thoughts were the reason why he had insomnia.

Finally, Louis decided to face that distracting thought.

This may be the only way to dissipate it.

That distracting thought brought Louis to September 3, 2019, the night when China played Poland.

He was on vacation at that time, so just like an ordinary football fan, he not only invited friends, but also hired the most famous local chef to cook at home.

Louis remembered that the person who came to watch football with him at home was named Chen Mo, who was his childhood friend.

From the very beginning of the game, Chen Mo criticized the referee. He didn't understand why the National Basketball Team, which was sitting at home, did not enjoy any home whistle.

If it weren't for the disastrous ending, the referee should have been the focus of discussion after the game.

They dared to allow the Chinese team's main goalkeeper Qiang Yiyi to commit three early fouls at home, and also allowed core defender Guo Shao to leave the game before the third quarter was played. The whole game was filled with inexplicable misjudgments and blindly missed calls.

If you ignore the last minute, Zhou Qi's performance in this game was excellent, and he was even the cornerstone of the team. Since Space Yi committed three fouls early, Li Ran could only let Zhou Qi play the entire first quarter, and only played in the second quarter.

He rested for two minutes and was not replaced until the last two minutes of the third quarter.

At that time, Louis felt something was wrong, because Zhou Qi's physical strength was not good and he could not sustain such a high-intensity continuous rotation.

What made Louis even more uneasy was that after the start of the fourth quarter, Kong Yi and Wang Zhelin cooperated unexpectedly smoothly, and the Chinese team always maintained the lead. Zhou Qi rarely got a long rest.

As Zhou Qi rested for more than five minutes, Louis' worry increased.

He knows Zhou Qi so well!

In addition to physical strength, Zhou Qi's biggest problem is his lack of consistent concentration on the game. Especially when he sits off the court for a long time, and then comes on, his competitive state may be completely different from before.

Therefore, when Li Ran replaced Zhou Qi in the last two minutes, who had rested for nearly 10 minutes, Louis' heart was already hanging.

Then, Zhou Qi was first called for an offensive foul for getting stuck under the basket, and then was called for a second offensive foul for excessive movement while in the low post. Then it came to 12.5 seconds before the end.

The men's basketball team served a sideline ball. After some planning, Li Ran decided to let Zhou Qi serve the ball.

Ironically, just before Zhou Qi served, Louis had a premonition that it would make a mistake.

As a result, the referee, who had been blind all night, finally blew the home whistle, and the referee saved Zhou Qi's first pass that almost missed.

And when the bold Li Ran chose to let Zhou Qi continue to serve the second ball, Louis could no longer breathe.

You already know the result.

Louis once again used cold water to drag himself back from that horrific memory.

※※※

That night, Louis' childhood friend Chen Mo was so angry that he changed Zhou Qi's nationality to Polish on the encyclopedia.

But Louis just drank a lot of wine, and finally lay half drunk on his sofa and exchanged novels: "If you wake up and find that what happened tonight was just a dream, remember to wake me up."

(End of chapter)