The Whip of the God of Basketball

When Wang Zhizhi walked onto the court with a dull expression, his heart was by no means as calm as his face, because this was not only the first time he played in the regular season this season, but also the first time he appeared as a starter in his career on the pitch. In the previous Mavericks' game experience of more than a year, he played a total of 60 games, with an average time of about 10 minutes per game, often playing during the main break or garbage time.

After coming to the Celtics, Wang Zhizhi didn't get a chance to play in the first eight games at all. Even in garbage time, Leon didn't put Wang Zhizhi on the court. For Wang Zhizhi, he is used to sitting on the bench, so when Leon told Wang Zhizhi in the morning training before the game that he would start the game, he almost blurted out "Are you kidding me?"

However, Wang Zhizhi knew that Leon's Chinese was terrible, so he held back the words, and just nodded with his lips pursed to show that he knew.

And in the evening, when all the fans saw Wang Zhizhi wearing the No. 12 jersey and walked to the center circle, they all showed expressions of "you are kidding me", but then there were bursts of cheers and voices cheering for Wang Zhizhi Also one after another. Wang Zhizhi still had a dull expression on his face, but Leon could tell that Wang Zhizhi's face was slightly flushed, it seemed that he was not nervous, but excited.

This is good news. For a player, when he gets the opportunity to perform, it is inevitable to be nervous, but if he is only blindly nervous, then he will not take the opportunity nine times out of ten. A player with potential should be more excited when they encounter an opportunity, because it means that what they have learned and practiced finally have room to play!

Wang Zhizhi has been in the league for a year and a half, and his talent is not outstanding. Those advantages that are regarded as extraordinary talents among yellow players are not so prominent in the United States. And those shortcomings that are covered up among Asians are multiplied instead. Leon always believes that the most important thing for a player is to develop his strengths instead of blindly making up for his shortcomings, but the premise is that the shortcomings are not so short that you cannot gain a foothold in the league.

Wang Zhizhi's strength, defensive attitude and spirit of communication and cooperation have always been his relatively big shortcomings. In order to make him reach a qualified level, Leon specially sent Dave Cowens to conduct one-on-one special training for Wang Zhizhi. Cowens was nicknamed "Big Red" when he was a player, but he also has a little-known nickname called "Big Mafia" because of his fierce and powerful style of play, guarding the team basket like a cruel mafia under the site.

After training every day, Leon will force Wang Zhizhi to stay and carry out strength training and strong confrontation exercises under the supervision of Dave Cowens. At the same time, Leon will act as a translator to explain technical essentials to Wang Zhizhi in detail. Leon's Chinese is so good that Cowens thinks that Leon should be a Chinese professor at a university instead of a coach here.

Speaking of language, Wang Zhizhi's English has always been a weakness. The experience of growing up in a sports school made him miss a good period of language learning. This is why he had few friends after coming to the United States, and finally had to rely on Chen Weiming. This time, Leon asked Wang Zhizhi to fire Chen Weiming and only remain friends with him, and then give Wang Zhizhi an hour of language lessons every week after training.

Not only did Wang Zhizhi not resist this kind of high-pressure training content, on the contrary he was very comfortable with it, because compared with the training camps of the national team and the Bayi team, this kind of restriction is already very small. The reason why he did not practice this way in the past was because the coaches in the United States would not be responsible for the personal development of the players. These were done by the players themselves by asking assistant coaches to train them. Only people like Leon who understand China's national conditions can truly understand Wang Zhizhi. Knowing that it's not that he doesn't work hard, it's just that he doesn't adapt to such an environment. He needs someone to guide him.

Therefore, when Wang Zhizhi was standing in the middle circle to jump the ball, Leon knew that this guy could indeed play. His expression was dull and calm, with a hint of imperceptible excitement, striving to be the best of himself in a short time, because Leon only gave him five minutes.

…………………

Wang Zhizhi's opponent in the middle circle jump ball was not Najera, but Nowitzki, a player who was dubbed "German Wang Zhizhi" by some Chinese fans. Maybe they do look similar in some places, and some people even think that Wang Zhizhi has more potential than Nowitzki, but Wang Zhizhi, who has been a substitute for Nowitzki for one and a half seasons, knows that he cannot be compared with this German Yes, his touch, his core strength, his stability, his dribbling, and his coordination, you can only know that there are some things in this world that are insurmountable only if you really spend time with him and train with him day and night.

But just from the jump ball, Wang Zhizhi thinks he will win! Although both of them are bouncing matchboxes, after more than a month and nearly two months of hard practice, Wang Zhizhi's strength has made great progress. His arms are a bit thicker, but there are no muscle lines. Leon doesn't want to Excessive strength training took away his shooting touch. Cowens mostly trained Wang Zhizhi's large muscle groups in his legs, buttocks and torso, which are crucial for inside players regardless of offense and defense. On the contrary, it doesn't matter how many biceps on his arms.

As the referee threw the ball into the air, Wang Zhizhi took the lead in jumping. He couldn't jump high anyway, so it's better to jump earlier! Nowitzki was a little slow to react, but neither of them got the ball when it reached the highest point, because Wang Zhizhi used his body to hit Nowitzki, overwhelmed him, and then flicked the ball with his fingers at the moment the ball fell. , Pointed the ball into the hands of Arenas.

The game officially started, and the Celtics won the ball for the first offense.

"This guy has finally learned to use his body to find confrontation. Time is not in vain." Dave Cowens watched Wang Zhizhi overtake Nowitzki in the scrimmage, and knew that his devilish extra training after each training was not in vain. At the beginning, Cowens was not very willing to help Wang Zhizhi to practice more. He felt that a player like Wang Zhizhi could only practice three-pointers, and it was a waste of time to practice confrontation. Cowens began to train Wang Zhizhi only after Leon's repeated requests, persuasion, and even coercion. He soon discovered that although his foundation was weak and his talent was poor, he was extremely resilient and enduring. No matter how to criticize and yell at him, he can silently fulfill Cowens' request and stick to it.

This quality reminded Cowens of his former self, the Under-size center who relied on willpower to fight in the jungle of giants.

Leon on the side nodded. He is concentrating on the game. Obviously, the offense at the beginning is very important. When playing a game against an offensive team, it is very important to open up the touch as soon as possible. When the offensive feeling is opened, the game Otherwise, facing a team like the Mavericks is likely to be stunned by a wave, just like the Celtics are stunned by a wave of others.

"You've become stronger, Wang." Nowitzki didn't care after the jump ball failed, and chatted up with Wang Zhizhi while returning to defense. While playing for the Mavericks, the free and open atmosphere of the Mavericks still left a deep impression and nostalgia on Wang Zhizhi. Before the game, when the Mavericks players saw Wang Zhizhi starting, they even came up and hugged Wang Zhizhi one by one. Nuo Wisky is one of them. Nowitzki's personality contains not only the seriousness and melancholy of the Germans, but also the wildness and uninhibitedness unknown to the Germans, which can be seen from his hairstyle that grows long and short for a while.

He also regarded Wang Zhizhi as a teammate from the Mavericks period, and wanted to chat and joke with him, but Wang Zhizhi ignored him. Made a pick and roll. Although Wang Zhizhi's action was suspected of covering for a foul, the referee was still judging the scale at the beginning of the game. Arenas took advantage of this fairly good screen to easily get rid of Nash's defense and broke through to the left 45 degrees away from the basket 14. The position of the foot, and then an emergency stop jump shot, the ball hit the board and went into the basket.

"Arenas' offense is as fast as thunder. It must be admitted that the Celtics this season may be changing the league's offense. More and more teams are on the road of strangulation, but the Celtics and Mavericks Hold high the banner of offense. And we can see that the Celtics' offense is not only based on high speed, their high shooting level, and concise and decisive style of play are all consistent with their head coach Ang is as refreshing and refreshing as it is." Walton can pick up a lot of words from Arenas' first offense.

Looking back, Nowitzki, who had just been ignored by Wang Zhizhi, immediately responded back. He and Nash completed a pick-and-roll, cut outside to catch the ball, and directly caught and shot the ball at his favorite position to the right of the free throw line. Unreachable shot release point, the ball draws a beautiful arc, hollow into the net. Obviously, Wang Zhizhi couldn't interfere with Nowitzki. He didn't stop after the ball was conceded, and immediately served from the baseline. After receiving the ball, Arenas ran all the way across the half court, gave the ball to Pierce and then cut in. Walker has come to the free throw line to respond, Wang Zhizhi is 45 degrees on the left, Pierce is on the right at the top of the arc, and Reed, who followed up, finally landed his position on the right corner he likes, a typical second fast break formation.

Walker and Arenas attracted the defense of the Mavericks. Arenas circled the baseline from right to left. Immediately after Arenas went to the left, he used Wang Zhizhi's cover to throw away Nash again. Pierce passed the ball It was given to Arenas who came back and cut into the inside from the left again. At this time, Najera was restrained by Walker. The three-point maniac had already started to go outside the three-point line. Delacon and Pierce were ready to move, but Nowitzki could only let go of Wang Zhizhi and slide inward to stop Arenas.

At this time, Wang Zhizhi was on the left baseline, and he was vacated. Arenas did not ignore him, because in the morning training, this set of tactics that they are best at was practiced countless times. Arenas turned sideways and held the ball with both hands. A strong pass was passed to Wang Zhizhi, and Wang Zhizhi no longer dropped the ball like the first time he caught the ball. He caught the ball firmly with both hands. He didn't think about anything, just like usual training, started with a faster speed than when he practiced in China, and threw the ball to the basket by feeling.

The same beautiful arc, the same unattainable shooting point, no one interfered with Wang Zhizhi, the ball fell into the basket steadily, two points! Wang Zhizhi's first two points for the Celtics!

After scoring the goal, Wang Zhizhi quickly ran back to his team's half-court defense, because if he didn't return to the defense quickly after scoring a goal during training, he would be scolded to death by Dave Cowens. But at this moment, there is still a picture flashed in Wang Zhizhi's mind. It was his first goal in an NBA game. When he was in the Mavericks, facing the Eagles, it was also on the left baseline, and it was also a 15 Wang Zhizhi just wants to say that it feels so good to score a goal.

And Leon, who was still sitting on the bench at the beginning of the game, also stood up from the bench after Wang Zhizhi scored a goal. He looked up at the timer, 35 seconds had passed, and Wang Zhizhi had four and a half minutes left .