The Legend of the Hungry Wolf in Basketball

Chapter 245 [The "Ladder" of Locke Park]

When visiting New York, Ye Feng also went to places related to basketball.

He hailed a taxi and the driver recognized him immediately. "Ye Feng, you've arrived in New York? Where are you going?"

"Rock Park, is there anyone playing there now? I want to go and have a look."

The driver said excitedly: "Are you going to race with the people there?"

Ye Feng smiled and said: "I don't play games, I just want to watch them play. I still need to learn how to dribble."

The driver laughed and said, "You are too humble, you are the NBA's scoring leader."

Ye Feng smiled and said: "Streetball pays attention to tricks. I belong to the practical school. I usually use backs and jump shots to solve problems. I am not suitable for streetball. If I do difficult moves on the streetball court, I can't do it." come out."

Drivers know this is a fact. The freedom and fancy style of street basketball are obviously very different from the orthodox professional basketball in the NBA.Street basketball legends want to enter the NBA and make a name for themselves in the NBA. Even if they go through all kinds of hardships, they may not be able to achieve much. Even Alston, the king of street basketball in New York, is no exception.

New York has two basketball meccas, Madison Square Garden and Rock Park.
Since 60 years ago, Rock Park has been the holy land of streetball, as long as the history of NBA here. In 1946, Holcombe Locke, a New York Park Board clerk, was determined to entertain the idle kids of Harlem on sweltering summer nights, so he created a summer basketball league.The headache for the park is that the nets in Rock Park are always torn apart in less than two days. In the end, the park managers simply stopped changing the nets, so until today the bare rim is still a striking symbol of the street court.
The function of the net is to slow down the falling speed of the basketball, and it is also an eye-catching sign when shooting from a long distance.The direct consequence of not having the Nets is that early streetball rarely had long shots. Players like to score by dunks or layups. For this reason, they must first pass their defenders.Thus was born the fancy style of streetball, but at that time there was no crotch dribble, and the best players were only good at changing direction dribbles.
The political instability in the United States in the 60s engendered a sense of desperation in many, especially the young, that was even more evident in Rock Park.It was an era of street heroes, "Destroyer" Hammond, "Goat" Manigat, "Pee Wee" Kirkland and other streetball legends were called "streetball poets" or "streetball poets" in Rock Park. "The Gods of the Asphalt".
The appearance of these legendary players made Rock Park famous, and many people came here to watch them play.The hoods of cars parked on the side of the park are the best courtside seats, the bridge over 155th Street is the second-floor box, and the rooftops of the high-rise buildings around the park are cheap seats. The best players in the NBA also came here to compete with the streetball masters. Chamberlain, Nate Archibald, Cowens and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar were all regulars at Rock Park.
Nowadays, many NBA stars have come here to compete with streetball masters.Iverson, Artest, Kobe, Carter, Baron Davis, etc...
This is a place regarded as the temple of streetball by streetball players all over the world.Rock Park is not a park in the general sense, but a Mecca of streetball that combines American culture, black culture and basketball culture.

Those street heroes are never afraid of pro players, they see pro players as ordinary people who just got lucky enough to play in a professional league.Outside of the NBA, those pro players are like poor kids in the surrounding neighborhood.

In the summer of 2003, Kobe came to Rock Park and hinted that he wanted to break the record of 25 points in a street ball created by Hormond (the street fighter nicknamed "Destroyer" in Rock Park) at the age of 74. But after fighting with local golfers, Kobe's wild words became a joke in the park. He only scored 14 points in the first half, but the second half was canceled due to heavy rain.

Therefore, some people compare Rock Park to the Bermuda of the NBA. Many NBA stars will be insulted by the stars of Rock Park when they visit Rock Park in summer, but they will still enjoy it and persistently appear on the court in Rock Park.
The taxi drove to Harlem very quickly, and the people on the street immediately became much thinner, almost all of them were blacks.

After getting off the car, Ye Feng entered the park alone, feeling a little disappointed, the place gave him a feeling of shabby and deserted, completely different from what he had imagined.

It is said that outsiders need to pay attention to the following points before going to Locke Park: don’t easily look into the eyes of others, don’t talk to people standing on the side of the road easily; never walk, must drive; bring a gun, never empty-handed Come on, maybe your designer sneakers, your video camera will be snatched, maybe you'll get beat up for accidentally glancing at those Harlem block bastards.So you have to be accompanied by guys who grew up on the real Harlem block, and everything depends on them, that's the rule.

It doesn't sound like a basketball sanctuary, but rather a gathering place for gangsters.But that is to say that before the 90s, now that black people are presidents, the situation is already different.

Ye Feng stopped a black man and asked when there would be a game, but he was told that this place is only lively in summer, and the great people come to play every day, everyone comes to watch, and no one comes to play in winter.

Ye Feng was extremely depressed, thinking that the Americans have fallen, and they don't come out to play in the cold weather, so how can they improve their skills? (Indoor court) When he entered the basketball court, he felt that the place was very small, and there were games that could not accommodate many spectators.There are a few white guys playing, and they are all bad.He sat on the sidelines for a while, preparing to leave.

When he was about to leave, he suddenly heard someone calling him. "Hey, are you Ye Feng from the Clippers?"

Ye Feng looked back at the guy who called him and was very happy. This black guy looks funny, his height is about the same as him, his body is round, he looks like he weighs 400 jins, and he is holding a basketball in his hand.He thinks that the blacks are all similar in appearance, and they can't tell their age.

"I'm Ye Feng, hello." Ye Feng walked over and greeted the fat man, even O'Neill was a size smaller than this man.

The fat man smiled and said, "I didn't expect to meet you. Are you interested in fighting a bull with me?"

"Are you sure?" Ye Feng really couldn't think of how a person of this size could play basketball.

The fat man was very confident, and said with a smile: "Don't worry, I know you have a game tomorrow, and I won't use my body to force you. We will play streetball. Wait...you never watch streetball, no Do you know me?"

Of course Ye Feng didn't know him, he was taken aback and said, "Are you a famous street player?"

The fat man laughed and said, "My name is Troy Jackson. I used to play in AND1. I am a good friend with Alstom. My brother is Mark Jackson. I have a nickname, Ladder Climber."

Ladder?With your figure, a ladder made of Adamantium alloy can hold it up, right?Ye Feng also wanted to see what he was like playing basketball, so he said with a smile: "Come on. Let's compete. It's good to have some exercise in the cold weather. I heard that few people come here in winter?"

Jackson said: "Yes, but I come every day. In order to lose weight, I have to keep my weight within 400 catties. I don't want to be called fat."

Ye Feng really wanted to tell him, "Even if you lose 100 catties, you are still fat, you can only lose one character..."

Ye Feng changed his mind, he wanted to exercise his muscles, fighting bullfights with others was more interesting than finding a place to practice shooting by himself, he just hoped that the people in front of him would not disappoint him.He was generous enough to let Jackson go first.

Jackson patted the ball twice and said seriously, "Pay attention."

After finishing speaking, he dribbled the ball and made a breakthrough from the right. Seeing his thick legs stepping away, Ye Feng was worried that he would burst his sweatpants.

Before meeting Jackson, Ye Feng couldn't associate "lightness" with fat, but now he has this feeling.

Ye Feng slid to keep up easily, stretched out his hand to steal the ball, Jackson immediately exchanged the ball with his back, dribbled two steps, and turned towards the baseline, how could Ye Feng's speed allow him to easily turn over?Another step blocked the breakthrough route, but it was not over yet. Jackson dribbled the ball from his crotch to his left hand. He stopped in the middle and made a shooting posture. Ye Feng raised his hand to interfere. Turned in the opposite direction again, lowered the basketball with his right hand and entered.

Ye Feng couldn't believe it was true.There is actually a fat man on this planet who can make such dazzling extraordinary movements, just now this is simply a dream.If Dameng was of this size, he probably wouldn't be able to move.

Troy Jackson was a guy who was heavier than O'Neal but had the skills of a guard.As long as anyone in the United States knows streetball, there is no one who does not know this "ladder" in front of him!But he has no NBA experience.He is 2.08 meters tall and weighed 340 catties when he was the thinnest. Because he has been trapped in excess weight, he has not been able to become a professional player like his brother, but has been active in the semi-professional basketball world.

Jackson passed the ball to Ye Feng and said triumphantly, "How is it? You are not the first NBA player I have played against, but you are the biggest."

"Then I'm going to attack too." Ye Feng took the ball and broke through from the right, directly accelerating without any fancy moves.In this way, Jackson can't keep up with him. He is heavy and his speed deficiency cannot be made up. This is the reason why he can't play in the NBA.Ye Feng passed by Jackson, smashed the ball on the ground while moving, threw off the defense and jumped up, caught the ball with both hands, and dunked the ball in reverse!

Unlike Jackson's technique, Ye Feng showed excellent physical fitness.

The students who were playing stopped to watch the two of them "bullfighting" and applauded the dunk.

The two continued to fight.Jackson displays a variety of guard skills, low footwork, and a very comprehensive offensive end.Ye Feng only felt that his eyes were full of violently shaking flesh, but this guy's technique was really skilled, which was a bit contrary to common sense.

Of course Ye Feng won.He is always different from street players. If he can pass the opponent with one fake move, he will not do the second one. Jackson can't guard him and let him perform consecutive dunks.

After fighting for a while, Jackson was out of breath, and stopped: "No more. No, you are too fast. I can't defend you at all, it's not fair."

"I can't slow down and deliberately let you abuse me."

Ye Feng went to the vending machine and bought two bottles of water, the two sat down and chatted for a while, admiring each other.

Jackson's performance like this can be said to be a miraculous character. Ye Feng thinks that he can score a lot of points in the NBA just by looking at offense. "Troy, how do you practice your skills? If you are asked to teach apprentices, can you teach them well?"

"I can only talk about the training method. Whether it can be done depends on the talent of the person. Who do you want me to teach?" Jackson asked anxiously.He is already 33 years old. After retiring from AND1, he has nothing to do and relies on his own money. He hopes to find a job.But no one in the NBA asked a street player like him to be an assistant coach, not even anyone who asked him to be a training partner.

Ye Feng thought that Love's body is also very strong, but he can't use his feet to play singles in the low post, wasting his weight, he can't learn Mutombo's skills well, Mahon can only teach defense, and the Clippers still need an assistant coach.If Dameng can't invite you, this one in front of you is a good choice.

"I hope you teach low post footwork. You can't play in the NBA because of your weight and defense, but your offense is very good. You can also do some moves that the NBA doesn't have. I will discuss it with the coaching staff. Are you interested in trying?"

Of course Jackson was interested, and immediately left a phone call, ready to wait for good news.

(End of this chapter)