The Way of the Center

At the end of November, the weather has gradually cooled down. On cold mornings, most of us will want to snuggle up for a few extra minutes under the covers. And Jeff Van Gundy got up early, put on a coat and sat at the desk in his room.

On the desk is the Thunder's complete player list, which has been painted beyond recognition by Van Gundy.

The characteristics of each player, the shortcomings of each player, the playing time of each player...Van Gundy took the trouble to write all these details on the list, and only he could understand the dense handwriting.

He has arranged everyone's rotations, except for the position of center forward. Even on the match day, he still hasn't made up his mind.

Of course, Van Gundy didn't question An Jie's ability. On the contrary, he admired An Jie very much. He saw many shadows of Yao Ming in this kid.

It's just that if An Jie also starts, it will be really difficult for the Thunder's bench lineup to gain a firm foothold on the court.

Thinking of this, Van Gundy scratched his already bald head again. If it weren't for the constant thinking day and night, his hair wouldn't fall out so badly.

...................................

Even if it was a game day, An Jie would wake up at half past six. An Jie had saved enough energy today. He knew that Van Gundy was a defensive coach, so he didn't have to worry about his playing time at all.

This is not Anjie's arrogance. Among the Thunder's centers, Anjie's defense is undoubtedly the best.

An egg, a few slices of bread, and a glass of milk, Anjie has eaten this kind of breakfast for a whole year. Otherwise, just relying on training, An Jie's muscles would not grow so fast.

After a quick breakfast, Anjie put on his black Air.Jordan basketball bag, and started heading for the Chesapeake Energy Arena.

Since Anjie didn't buy his own car, he rode his bicycle to the gym every morning. On the way of riding, An Jie is equivalent to stretching the joints and muscles of his body.

Along the way, many Oklahoma City residents greeted Anjie, and occasionally a few reporters raised their cameras to take pictures of Anjie riding a bicycle. But without exception, no one will bother him.

An Jie rode very fast, and the house he rented was near the gymnasium, so in just fifteen minutes, An Jie could arrive at the basketball court on time.

Every time Anjie entered the training ground, he was usually the only one there. Occasionally, Durant or Westbrook would come before him, but only occasionally.

But today, An Jie saw other people besides the three of them in the training ground.

"Coach, so early?" The man standing in the middle of the training ground was Jeff Van Gundy.

"Hello, Ann, how is your condition?" Van Gundy picked up the basketball on the ground and threw it to An Jie. He had already made a decision on the starting center.

An Jie took a step inside the three-point line and took off to shoot. His high release point made the arc of the basketball fly higher, and in the end the basketball fell into the net accurately.

"As long as I am on the court, I will do my best." Since Morris called and scolded Anjie that time, Anjie now has this attitude towards every game. Because even Morris, who was suffering, could persevere, An Jie really had no excuse to give up on himself.

"Very well, let's end this damn ten-game losing streak." Van Gundy is very optimistic about Anjie. In the teams he coaches, there is a strong center in the formation. He had Ewing during the Knicks period, and Yao Ming during the Rockets period. But now, An Jie is the role of that powerful center in his heart.

After the rest of the Thunder players came to the training ground one after another, Van Gundy watched the players warm up for a few minutes and then returned to his office.

Although he had just taken office for the fourth day, the originally tidy desk was messed up by various documents.

Van Gundy took out a small note, and he was going to start customizing countermeasures for the Suns' tactics. O'Neal missed due to injury, this is undoubtedly the best chance to win the Suns.

...................................

Catherine returned to the store early after school today. Due to An Jie's reason, the business of Beard's Chinese restaurant is very hot now. But she didn't come back so early to help her father with business, but because two hours later, at 8 o'clock, An Jie will usher in the Thunder's first game after the coaching change.

An Jie praised Coach Van Gundy to Catherine more than once on the phone. It seemed that An Jie got along well with the new coach, and Catherine was relieved a lot. Today, she wanted to see if Van Gundy was as good as An Jie said.

"Hey Catherine, don't go to your room and watch alone." The bearded man stopped the daughter who was about to go upstairs and go back to her room.

"These people who dined today, they all came to watch Anjie's game, and they are all fans of Anjie. Later, we all watch the game together, it's better than you watching alone in the room. So Now, you can play a guest role as a waiter for a while." The bearded man blinked at his daughter.

"Hey." Catherine smiled and put on her apron, and kissed the beard happily.

In the quiet city of Ames, this restaurant of Big Beard is undoubtedly the busiest place in the city.

The last game against the Hornets, the stands at the Chesapeake Energy Arena were empty, and today, the stadium is full again. What these fans are most looking forward to is the Jeff Van Gundy with his hips on the sidelines at this time.

Van Gundy has not yet announced his starting roster, and everyone is guessing what kind of lineup Van Gundy will make. This has become the most discussed topic among commentators on various channels before the start of the game.

Due to the rumors between Van Gundy and ESPN during that time, ESPN naturally received a lot of attention in this game. Therefore, ESPN specially sent their ace commentator Mike Breen to serve as the main commentator for this game.

"We did have contact with Jeff Van Gundy. Seriously, if it wasn't for the Thunder's interception, he would be the one sitting next to me to explain the game." Mike Brin laughed, he really didn't expect Van Gundy is going to be on the court again.

At this time, Van Gundy looked serious, not as relaxed as Mike Breen. He knew how important a coach's debut was. Watching the Suns warm up in the other half, Van Gundy ran through the plays he'd made in his mind.

Half an hour before the start of the game, Van Gundy called the players back to the locker room. The players walked towards the player tunnel full of expectations, and they all looked forward to being able to enter the starting lineup.

"I hope you all remember what we have practiced these days. The Suns will definitely launch a fierce attack from the beginning, and we will also play a tough defense from the beginning!" Van Gundy drew again on the whiteboard .

After all the tactics were explained, Van Gundy came up with the list that all players paid close attention to.

"Today! Anjie is very likely to be selected for the starting list! We saw that the starting lineups of both sides have been given ahead." As soon as the commentator of CCTV finished speaking, the five starting photos of the Suns appeared on the TV screen. However, Chinese audiences are not interested in the Suns' starting lineup. If they can, they all hope to fast-forward the picture.

Ten seconds later, the screen flashed, and the Thunder's starting lineup appeared in front of the audience.

The point guard Westbrook, the shooting guard was replaced by the swingman Damien Wilkins who had few chances to play before.

The small forward is still Durant, no matter who coaches the Thunder, Durant's position is unlikely to change. The other forward turned into a better defensive Joe Smith.

When they saw the players in the center position, all the Chinese fans couldn't help cheering.

Jeff Van Gundy started Anjie in the first game after taking office!

Standing in the middle circle, facing the starting center of the Suns, Robin Lopez is also a very familiar opponent. Anjie hadn't experienced the feeling of opening scrimmage for a long time.

"The Thunder had lost ten games in a row under the leadership of Coach Carlesimo! Now the Thunder have recruited Jeff Van Gundy to take over the team, and we have seen the changes made by Coach Van Gundy. So in this game, Can the Thunder break the curse of losing streak?" Mike Breen also immediately entered the state, his commentary was at a moderate speed and his voice was clear. This is why the NBA2K game asks him to record the commentary in the game every year.

"Both sides jump ball in the middle circle! The game begins!"

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