The Way of the Center

Under the guidance of Divac, Anjie, Asakin and Morris made rapid progress. Because of this, the Iowa State University Cyclones have become an alternative in the entire league. Now there are not many teams that play around the center. This is an era where guards and small forwards are rampant, and the center is about to become the obsolete product of modern fast-paced basketball. Good centers have almost disappeared in the NCAA and NBA leagues.

Whether you admit it or not, Hakeem Olajuwon, one of the greatest legendary centers in the NBA, once said, "Center? Does that kind of thing still exist in the NBA?"

Back then, Alonzo Mourning's center coach also acquiesced in the decline of the center.

But Iowa State University happens to be such a maverick team, they play a disciplined attack around the center. In this era of center decline, only the Cyclones still hold on to the glory of the center. Those who win the inside win the world, and this is still Ricard's creed of winning.

Divac's training has become more and more in-depth, and he even began to demonstrate the skills of small moves and fouls. He also gave each of the three of his subordinates a USB flash drive, and told them to study the contents carefully.

An Jie thought that there would be some detailed demonstrations of footsteps and technical work in the USB flash drive, but when he opened the video to learn, he was stunned by the content of the video.

What is shown on the screen is the highlight of Divac's mischief on the court. Diving, dark elbows, pulling, trash talking, petty tricks, it's a complete record of his dirtiest side. But it was such a video that Divac actually asked his disciples to study it carefully.

The next day, Divac asked Anjie what they thought and gained from last night's video tutorial, and none of the three at the bottom could speak. Even Morris, who is the most dishonest on the basketball court, thought the moves in the video were downright bad.

"I'm not kidding, these things really need you to study hard. In this league and even in the NBA, there is no such thing as a good man. Whether your name can be remembered by people does not depend on whether you play standard and honest, but It depends on whether you can become the final winner.John Stockton can be said to be one of the dirtiest players in the NBA, but instead of hating him, people stood up for him outside the Salt Lake City Arena This is the world of basketball, understand? As long as you can win, others don’t care what kind of means you use.” Divac said seriously.

So Anjie and Morris, in addition to the usual training, also spent a lot of energy on playing tricks. But Asakin's character made him unable to agree with this view, so he became the only center under Divac who did not become a demon.

With a style of play that is incompatible with this era, the Cyclones continued to march towards March Madness.

On December 10, the Iowa State University Cyclones played against the Texas Catholic University Horned Frogs. The Horned Frogs are also a team that has been at the bottom of the league all year round. For the current Cyclones, this opponent is simply vulnerable.

Anjie's performance was very stable. In this game, he scored a double-double of 17 points and 12 rebounds. Morris and Taylor also scored 15 and 17 points respectively. The Horned Frogs were completely unable to parry the offensive of the three tacit cooperation. In the end, the Cyclones defeated their opponents 53 to 72.

On December 18, the unstoppable Cyclones, which had won five consecutive victories, swallowed their first loss since the start of the regular season. Their opponent, the Red Killers of Texas Tech University, is actually not strong, but the performance of the Cyclones on the field is like sleepwalking.

Their active running, complex and tacit off-ball pick-and-roll and stable shooting percentage all disappeared without a trace in this game.

"When are you no longer satisfied with winning! When are you qualified to despise and laugh at your opponents!" Ricard roared loudly in the locker room during the intermission,

Everyone felt the anger of Ricard.

Although the players of the Cyclone team fought hard to catch up in the second half after being scolded, but the head coach of the Red Killer team is not an expert in psychological adjustment. The confident red killers are getting more and more courageous as they fight, and the audience also saw a wonderful game with anxious scores in the second half. But the Red Killers finally held onto their advantage before the final whistle sounded. Iowa State lost to Texas by four points, 68 to 72.

When you win, everyone will praise you to the sky. But once you fail, those who were still praising you just now will leave you cruelly, and then stamp your body a few times.

"Let's not talk about the NCAA, how many NBA teams will play around the center now? This is the trend of modern basketball development, and coach Ricard's backward basketball thinking will definitely make him pay the price in the end. At the beginning, he can achieve Five consecutive victories is because his opponents don't understand the whirlwind team, once the opponent has thoroughly studied the whirlwind team's style of play, then the whirlwind team will still be as vulnerable as before." This is a newspaper Part of an article written by a certain commentator after the Cyclones' loss, you must know that two weeks ago he was still praising how wise Coach Ricard was and how promising Anjie was. It's no wonder that most coaches will affectionately call the commentators "idiots who don't understand shit."

Wu Hua is one of the few reporters who stand on the side of the Cyclones, not only because there is a Chinese player in the Cyclones, but because he feels that a loss in a game does not explain anything. After many interviews and observations, Wu Hua knew that coach Ricard and his players would not be just a flash in the pan, and that this group of people really had a heart longing for victory and were willing to work hard for it.

A week later, the Cyclones finally did not play. To be precise, there are no games in the entire NCAA league, because the time has come to December 25, Christmas. In the west it is a festival comparable to the Chinese New Year, so all the schools are also on holiday.

During the one-week Christmas vacation, An Jie's mother also thought about asking her son to go home to rest for a few days. An Jie also wanted to go back to China very much. He hadn't seen his parents for more than three months, and he couldn't go back to the room he was familiar with. He has not been able to breathe the air of the motherland, and even apart from talking to his parents and friends, An Jie has not spoken Chinese with others for a long time.

"If you miss home, come back. If you just go back to China, you can spend New Year's Day together before leaving." The mother's tone on the phone showed infinite yearning.

"No mom, a round-trip air ticket for Christmas costs more than 2,000 US dollars. It is not easy for you to send me here to study, so let's save the money if we can." More than 2,000 US dollars, this is almost an ordinary The net income of a Chinese family without eating or drinking for a whole month, some families can't even reach this figure.

"Oh, don't worry about it. Come back if you want. You don't have to worry about it."

But An Jie is not a child after all, and he should always consider the actual situation at home. An Jie also hopes that his parents can live comfortably in China, and he doesn't want them to increase the burden for some high expenses of his own.

"Okay, mom, stop talking, let's start the video."

Christmas is also a holiday for family reunions in the United States, so there are hardly any people in the school. Angie's teammates and roommates were also home for the holidays, most of them not native to Ames.

Divac also returned to China temporarily this week, and there are still many things waiting for him to deal with in his hometown. Divac is said to have received an invitation from the Serbian government to serve as a humanitarian adviser to Serbia. This villain who does all kinds of evil on the court is actually a benevolent humanitarian in life.

Ricard also invited Anjie to go to his home to spend Christmas together. Anjie originally wanted to agree, but when he learned that Ricard had no children, he didn't want to disturb the sweetness of the coach and his wife. It's night.

Just like that, after a brief video call with his parents, An Jie was the only one left in the dormitory. Due to the team's holiday, Anjie completed what he needed to practice during the day, and Divac repeatedly asked himself not to over-wear his body, so Anjie didn't plan to soak in the basketball gym at night. It's actually a holiday today, why not go out and find a restaurant to comfort yourself, and count yourself as celebrating Christmas. As for that nutritious recipe, let’s set that aside for today.

………………..

The streets of Ames City are uninhabited. This is a quiet small town, but now most people spend Christmas Eve at home, resulting in only a few pedestrians on the street.

An Jie walked casually without a goal, but most restaurants were closed these days, which made him a little disappointed. After walking for an unknown amount of time under the snowy night sky, An Jie suddenly found a restaurant that was still open. The appearance of this restaurant is ordinary, and there is nothing special compared with the few adjacent shops. And the name of this restaurant is even simpler, but this simple name has completely attracted An Jie's attention. Red light tubes spell out three Chinese characters on the restaurant's door: Chinese Cuisine.

In the few months since he came to the United States, An Jie has not eaten authentic Chinese food once. With anticipation, An Jie pushed open the door of this slightly shabby restaurant.

As soon as the door was pushed open, a girl in an apron rushed up from behind the bar and bowed to An Jie.

"Hello!" The girl spoke very poor Chinese.

The girl in front of her has bright blue eyes, a tall nose, fair skin, and smiling red lips. This girl is very special because you can find both American and Asian facial features on her face.

"Excuse me, sir, are you here for dinner?" In the subsequent conversation, the girl only used English. It seems that her Chinese level is only good at saying "Ni Hao".

"right."

"This way please." The girl was still very polite.

"Hee hee, what do you need sir?" At this time, the woman put a glass of water on the table and handed An Jie a large menu.

An Jie opened the menu, and the names of the dishes in it had Chinese names and English names. An Jie didn't know what to order, so he just pointed to one on the menu. "Let it be."

"One piece of Guailu fried rice, just wait a moment, sir, the rice will be ready soon."

Taking advantage of the time when the woman was cooking, An Jie turned his head and looked around the restaurant. Apart from the menu and signboard, there is nothing Chinese here. After a while, the woman came out of the kitchen with a plate of rice.

"Your Guailu fried rice, please use it slowly, sir."

An Jie put a big mouthful of rice into his mouth with a spoon full of anticipation, but he almost spit it out just after chewing a few mouthfuls. What kind of weird fried rice is this? It's obviously just the result of frying some leftover vegetables and a bunch of messy ingredients. Even if it's not regular Chinese food, it shouldn't be so unpalatable. Such things are simply discrediting Chinese food. An Jie was a little angry. He went out to look for food on Christmas, but found such a plate of stuff. He put the money on the table and was about to leave the restaurant.

"Sir, where are you going!?" The waitress yelled in panic when she saw An Jie was about to leave.

"I have already put the money on the table." The decoration is so careless, maybe I shouldn't have hoped for this restaurant in the first place.

"But you haven't finished your meal yet." The waitress innocently pointed at the steaming fried rice on the table.

"Tell your chef, don't fool people with such things in the future, I'm a Chinese through and through, but even I can't get used to the unique taste of your restaurant at all." An Jie was furious. Come on, but it's not good to lose your temper with a little girl, so I can only express my dissatisfaction implicitly.

"You mean, this fried rice is not delicious?" The girl changed her polite attitude at first, and stared at An Jie fiercely with her big blue eyes.

Yo, you are not happy to complain about your dissatisfaction with the service?

"Why are you so angry, I just asked you to convey my real opinion to the chef."

"What kind of chef is not a cook? I fried this plate of rice! You criticize my fried food like that, it's simply too hateful!" The girl now made it seem like she was a guest, and An Jie was the waiter who made the mistake.

"It's unreasonable!" An Jie didn't want to continue entanglement with a little girl, he opened the door, and was about to turn around and leave.

Just when An Jie had just opened the door, a middle-aged man with a beard suddenly walked in and almost bumped into An Jie.

"Oh, I'm really sorry for this gentleman. It was snowing too much outside and I didn't notice someone came in at the door." The bearded man repeatedly apologized to An Jie.

"Dad! Why are you apologizing to him? This guy actually insulted my craftsmanship!"

"Dad?" An Jie's mind was completely messed up.

"Go back to my room and go to Catherine first." Looking at the bearded man's reaction, it's not the first time this girl has done this to a guest.

The girl named Catherine walked up the stairs angrily, and then there was a loud slamming door from upstairs.

"I'm sorry, guest, since her mother left, this girl has become more and more self-willed. What did you just order? I promise to make you the original Chinese flavor. Are you Chinese? The one from the Cyclone team The starting center? If you come, you can order whatever you want, and everything is free!" The bearded man always felt that the tall boy in front of him looked familiar, so he had seen him on TV.

"Yes, I am the starting center of the Cyclones. Sir, do you also like basketball?" When mentioning basketball, Anjie immediately got excited again.

"Of course, I'm a 20-year old fan!" The bearded man patted his chest confidently.

After that, Big Beard treated An Jie warmly, and the taste of the dishes was very authentic as Big Beard said. If he hadn't tasted it himself, An Jie would never have believed that such a dish was made by a foreigner. An Jie's Christmas Eve also became lively with the delicious Chinese food served by the beard and the speculative chat between the two. Two men, one old and one young, watched the live broadcast of the NBA Christmas Game on TV until late. But for some reason, An Jie always thought of the wayward girl who was lying in his room from time to time.

Outside the window, heavy snow was still falling, and the whole city of Ames seemed to be covered with a white quilt. At this moment, An Jie's scorching heart seemed to be gradually melted by a sheet of white snow.

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