This striker is a bit of a monster

Chapter 138 Trial Training Begins (Chapter 6.5K to be Ordered)
Not every NBA player has a sneaker endorsement contract, and the NBA is also open to wearing sneakers.

This is a mature professional league, and of course there will be some small regulations.

The specific rules of the NBA on sneakers are as follows.

Players can wear basketball shoes produced by sneaker manufacturers according to their own choice.

The sneakers must be designed for basketball games. The left and right shoes match in color and design. Please do not add flashing accessories to the shoes.In terms of sneaker colors, players can wear white, gray, black and other colors that are compatible with the team's main colors.

Regarding the players wearing sneakers, there are roughly three levels in the NBA.

The first player who has an endorsement contract and sponsors to help promote signature shoes. Most of these players are top NBA players and NBA All-Stars.

Among the stars of this era, the more famous ones are the faces of NIKE, of course not Kobe Bryant and LeBron James.

And two years later, Adidas also made the Five Tigers series of sneakers.

Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett, Tracy McGrady, Gilbert Arenas, Chauncey Billups.

These are often the top stars in the NBA at the time, the facade stars of each team, the specific popularity can refer to the sales of jerseys, and even in order to get the favor of these stars, sponsors will try their best to set up players, such as when Harden signed Adidas, Adidas sent a whole truckload of sneakers, so Harden often wears shoes willfully. It is normal to bring seven or eight pairs of shoes in a game, and it is normal to wear several pairs of shoes extravagantly in a game.

And Adi's practice of delivering shoes has not only been used on Harden. After Antetokounmpo became famous, his four-year contract with Nike also expired. In order to chase Antetokounmpo, Adi sent a truckload of sneakers.

But to Adi's disappointment, Antetokounmpo chose to stay with Nike in the end.

The second level is many players who have sneaker endorsement contracts but do not have signature shoes. Such players are the most common in the NBA.

The sneakers of these players are also provided by the sponsors of the brand. You can ask the sponsors to provide the sneakers you need according to your personal preference and size. Most of the players choose to wear the same star as you. Signature shoes.

Of course, the number of sneakers is not unlimited, so often a pair of shoes may need to be worn for several games.

The third level, players with many roles in the NBA and marginal players.

Naturally, these players do not have sneaker endorsement contracts, and their sneakers probably come from two aspects.

First, the sponsors of the league. You can get some basketball shoes from the range of choices provided by the league sponsors through the team’s equipment manager, but the amount is limited. Second, self-purchase, buy the sneakers you like to wear by yourself , and there is no need to consider the brand.

But for the salaries of these players, which are not huge, expensive sneakers will also be a big expense.

So often a pair of shoes, they will wear many games.

The one who is making an offer to Zhou Lin is the American sneaker brand: Reebok.

Four years on offer for $380 million!

120 million in the first year, decreasing year by year.

Of course, Yao Ming probably had a lot of credit for being the first to offer Zhou Lin a sneaker contract offer.

In fact, after Yao Ming ended his first sneaker contract with Reebok, he could have joined his rival Nike with a higher contract, but Yao Ming felt that Reebok respected himself more in renewing his contract. But the rich and powerful Nike was a little arrogant. With this spirit, Yao Ming signed with Reebok.

Of course, purely from a commercial point of view, this is not a wise choice for Yao Ming's development.

At this moment, under Reebok, there is another super giant, Allen Iverson who has a lifetime contract.

Shaq O'Neill is also one of Reebok's spokespersons.

Originally, Nike had a chance to get O'Neal to join, but they refused to make signature sneakers for O'Neal as a rookie, which also led to Shaq O'Neal switching to Reebok. Today, O'Neal has purchased the copyright of his personal trademark, which is considered semi-departed out of Reebok's control.

And Reebok's downturn probably has something to do with their selection.

Center forwards don't buy shoes, which is easy to understand.

Yao Ming, who has a background in China's big market, failed to drive Reebok's sneaker market.

O'Neal, who is at the peak, has never been able to sell the shoes of those forwards and defenders.

At this time, Reebok is also facing this dilemma. Nike's market share in the field of basketball equipment in the United States is about 45%, which means that it is a dominant player.

Adidas accounts for about 38%, while Reebok has only 15%.

And just this year, Reebok will announce a partnership with Adidas in order to counter Nike.

Of course, it’s about cooperation. In practical terms, Adi swallowed Reebok with a harder fist, and played a play where the second child bought the third child to fight against the boss.

It's just that the Reebok brand did not disappear, but continued to survive similar to Nike's 'Jordan' sub-brand until it was completely acquired a few years later.

And Zhou Lin, who came from the upstream of history, knew that this kind of merger did not achieve a win-win situation.

Nike still ate the biggest piece of cake in the market and became the undisputed NO.1 in the basketball shoe market.

Of course, the four-year amount of 380 million US dollars given by Reebok is not small.

You must know that when Yao Ming was still in the CBA, the annual sponsorship fee he could get from Reebok was less than 7 US dollars. It was not until he became famous in the NBA that he signed a 5000-year contract worth [-] million US dollars.

In contrast, the first year of the contract of the 2006 NBA No. 450 pick can only get [-] million US dollars.

According to Zhou Lin's predicted pick in the draft, Zhou Lin, who is ranked fourth, can only get 326 million US dollars.

The amount of the endorsement contract can exceed 35% of the annual salary, which is already a very sincere contract.

The four-year period almost coincides with Zhou Lin's rookie period. If he can play his worth, the second contract will be greatly improved.

Of course, he can't beat his worth, and the contract that decreases year by year will not suffer for Reebok.

LeBron James is the only one who can get a big sneaker contract in his rookie period.

As the favorite of heaven, LeBron got a 7-year contract of 7700 million in his rookie period, and there were incentive clauses, and he could get nearly [-] million in the end.

And the background of this incident is Reebok, they once took out a 10-year 1.15 million which was regarded as a super endorsement contract at that time.

There is also the original 1000 million check incident, and James, who was able to categorically reject it, is indeed superior in business acumen.

But Zhou Lin didn't make a decision right away, and even when Yao Ming called to inquire about the matter, Zhou Lin remained calm.

After all, Reebok is a bit on the wane.

……

Zhou Lin, who has finished his NCAA journey, has been busy for several months. Most of the time he shuttles between the commercial shooting and the training ground, and he can only go to see Misha when he has time.

Although Zhou Lin has an accompanying system, he still spent money to find a trainer to take charge of the personal training during this period.

This also expresses Zhou Lin's positive attitude.

There has never been a lack of talent in the NBA, and hard training can be exchanged for an improvement in strength that can be seen with the naked eye.

Those NBA player trainers can indeed give Zhou Lin some good advice in certain areas.

And Zhou Lin also saw the ability of these professional trainers. In the specific skill field of these trainers, they may not lose to NBA players, but they may not be able to enter the NBA stage due to limited physical talent.

……

On June 6, Zhou Lin was invited to participate in the joint trial training in Chicago.

Many rookies chose to stop at the gate of Chicago, where the god of basketball was cast, and took photos with the bronze statue of Jordan.

Zhou Lin is also one of them.

God is inviolable, but it is also used to challenge.

Looking at the bronze statue of Jordan in the United Center, who has never imagined that he can become a totem-level figure of a team and a hero of the city a few years later.

"Hey, are you Zhou?"

When Zhou Lin took a photo with the Jordan statue, he met a man wearing a hat and black sunglasses who came to say hello.

"Hey, you're Adam, Adam Morrison?"

Zhou Lin recognized him after the other party took off his black sunglasses and hat. Adam Morrison in a baseball uniform had messy long hair and a characteristic mustache. He looks like a middle-aged man over 35.

"It's been a long time since I heard your name!"

Adam Morrison clenched his fist and bumped his shoulder to Zhou Lin and said, "George Mason University is an amazing championship team, and you have also completed an outstanding season."

"You too, Your Excellency the scoring champion!"

Adam Morrison promoted himself, and Zhou Lin naturally had to return the courtesy. Adam Morrison scored a terrifying average of 28.1 points per game in his senior season, and he was still a sick player. Insulin injections are required before every game.

A sick white shooter with mediocre talent, everything he has done in the NCAA is great enough.

At least on the spiritual side to achieve the ultimate.

Even if he is finally lost in the NBA due to many reasons, he is enough for many players and fans to respect him.

"Although the NCAA experience is somewhat regrettable, on the NBA stage, I will shine even brighter." Adam Magicon looked at the trapeze in front of him and said ambitiously.

"Let's go together!"

Zhou Lin patted Adam Morrison on the shoulder and said.

In the process of entering the arena before the official trial training, Zhou Lin met many familiar faces.

Brandon Roy, LaMarcus Aldridge, Rajon Rondo, Jordan Farmar, PJ Tucker, David Noll, Guillermo Diaz and more.

"Hey Lamar, nice to see you again."

Zhou Lin also saw his teammate, Lamar Butler, who arrived a few hours earlier than him, and they hugged each other again after they met.

Thanks to the performance of NCAA March Madness, Lamar Butler ranked 58th in the recent NBA.Draft.

Of course, this position is not safe, and there is a high probability that you will lose the election.

NBA team executives like to give places to young Europeans at the end of the second round.

Of course, many of these players will not log into the NBA immediately, but will be placed in the European basketball world for a few more years. After entering the mature stage, they will be recruited from the NBA, such as Argentina's Ginobili and Scola, who are known as European Kobes. That's true of Spanoulis.

Lamar Butler's prospects are very uncertain, because his body is too thin and his height is not enough. Even if he enters the NBA, he can only play the No. [-] position, and he has no advantage in the No. [-] position. He needs to be polished, so scouts are not optimistic about his prospects.

But this is already the second only to Zhou Lin among the four players who decided to participate in the Patriots team.

Jay Lewis' ranking is outside the 80th place, and Tony Skin's ranking is even lower than the 100th place among all players.

Those who were not on the list did not receive an invitation to participate in the joint trial training.

This time, there are about 60 players participating in this joint trial training. Of course, some of them will miss the NBA.

Italy's Andrea Bargnani, the favorite for the No. [-] pick, did not come to participate in the joint trial training.

Generally speaking, the joint trial training is the occasion with the greatest exposure, as long as you accept the invitation, you will come.

But there are exceptions.

It's okay for the No. [-] favorite to refuse the joint trial training. After all, he has the capital, and he will most likely only accept individual trial training with three or so high-ranking teams.

And the remaining players, LaMarcus Aldridge, Zhou Lin, Adam Morrison, Tyrus Thomas, Brandon Roy, became the best players among these rookies.

They are the players who receive the most media attention, and the flashes are constantly flashing across these prospective rookies.

And these future lottery picks also conveyed goodwill to each other and exchanged phone numbers with each other.

The NBA is very big, so big that the fate of these players may go in a completely opposite direction in the future, but at the same time the league is also very small, with only [-] teams in the NBA. Maybe in a few years, they will join forces to win the NBA championship. Maintaining a good relationship is necessary for future development.

There are more than a dozen contact numbers in Zhou Lin's phone book.

In addition to the on-site staff, players, and media, there will also be scouts or team managers, or assistant coaches from each team.

The NBA draft is a big event, and even some teams that did not have a draft pick that year will send people to Taobao.

Carol Dawson, general manager of the Rockets, Jerry Colangelo, general manager of the Raptors, John Paxson, general manager of Chicago, and Josh Nash, general manager of the Blazers, were all present.

And in the distance there is a great player with a hat watching everything on the training ground.

The real statue of the bronze statue outside the United Center arena, the great basketball god Michael Jordan!

Just three days ago, on June 6th, Michael Jordan had officially become the second shareholder of the newcomer Charlotte Bobcats in the NBA, and took over basketball matters.

Today is also Jordan, the first time he inspected his favorite players as a non-player.

Adam Morrison said with a smile: "I will most likely go to the Charlotte Hornets, which is a team that is very suitable for me to play. Michael has sent me a text message before."

And historically, Adam Morrison did go to the Charlotte Bobcats, and Joe boss did give Morrison a good team status and shooting rights, but Adam Morrison didn't make it.

In fact, Jordan had paid attention to Adam Morrison many years earlier, and choosing him was not a decision made on the spur of the moment.

Trials will start soon.

The first part is the physical examination.

These include both static and dynamic talents.

The static talent test includes: height, wingspan, weight, body fat percentage, standing tall...

The dynamic talent test is: bounce (run-up jump and jump in situ), bench press (84 kg), speed (running back and forth in the restricted area, 3/4 field sprint)

The second part is: shooting special test training.

The third part is: half-court special training (including passing, dribbling, footwork...)
The fourth part is: the actual combat test of five-on-five in the audience.

The last is the medical physical examination of the joint trial training.

"6 feet 10.75 inches, 210cm!"

Zhou Lin was 210cm tall in shoes, and the staff was about to record it, but Zhou Lin stopped the staff and made a look and said, "Can you write six feet nine?"

In fact, Zhou Lin's barefoot height reached 206.25cm, and his height in shoes reached 210.35cm. At Zhou Lin's strong request, the staff changed the data to six feet nine and one-half inches in shoes, which is 207cm, the barefoot height is six feet eight and one-half inches, which is 205CM.

Of course, Zhou Lin's tricks will be dismantled in a more detailed team's individual trial training, but the recognized data of the NBA in the future will still be the record of joint trial training.

Then the data of each item will be released.

Weight: 102.2KG.

Armspan: 209.8CM.

In situ touch height: 269.5CM.

Body fat rate: 6.5%
Penalty switchback run: 11.21 seconds

3/4 field sprint: 3.15 seconds

……

Zhou Lin's speed and speed are already much faster than that of Adam Morrison, who is the main small forward, and even comparable to some players in the second position.

There are no speed guards among the players in this class. Jordan Farmar and Kyle Lowry are not considered fast.

However, in terms of jumping ability, it is not bad. There are quite a few players with a run-up jump of more than 40 inches. Jordan Farmar has reached 42 inches or more than 106cm. Brandon Roy also has a maximum run-up jump of 41 inches, and Shannon Brown He is the player with the best jumping ability in this draft, with a maximum run-up jump of 44 inches, or 113cm, which is also top-notch in the entire NBA.

As for the biggest run-up jump this time, the player who shocked the trial training the most was Zhou Lin.

His biggest run-up jump, 93cm.

This allowed Zhou Lin's maximum touch height to pass the threshold of 360cm!
Zhou Lin was not that surprised by this. After all, he had jumped 89cm when he was at C-level, and now he has only increased by 4cm at B-level.

"37 inches! Brother, you are not taking drugs, why don't you be sent for a drug test."

Including LaMarcus Aldridge, Adam Morrison, and Tyrus Thomas all witnessed Zhou Lin's touch, and they all showed horror.

Marcus Aldridge's 34-inch leap was shocking enough.

In fact, Zhou Lin, who is almost the same height, jumped 3 inches more than Aldridge!

The maximum touch height of the two is almost the same.

Aldridge is only slightly higher than Zhou Lin. This is because Aldridge, who has a better wingspan, is 9 cm taller than Zhou Lin.

Adam Morris has only a pitiful 30 and a half inches maximum run-up jump.

Of course, this kind of surprise is more because Zhou Lin is a yellow race. He is in the same position as Zhou Lin. He is slightly shorter than Zhou Lin. Tyrus Thomas jumped out of the 39-inch 98cm maximum run-up jump, which is also the highest so far. player.
It is simply the NBA version of Sakuragi Hanamichi.

In addition to Zhou Lin, there are also constant surprises in the joint trial training center.

Sail Sidney, whose ancestral home is Senegal, was originally predicted to be in the middle of the first round of the draft, but when his physical test data came out, he attracted the attention of scouts.

他的臂展达到了恐怖的7英尺8.5英寸也就是2.35米，打破了联合试训的纪录，此前保持这项纪录的球员是 2003年的落选秀道格.韦恩，后者的臂展是 7英尺7.5英寸。

With excellent wingspan, it is easy for Sail Seaney to become an excellent defensive insider. It is conceivable that this gentleman's pick should soar after the end of the joint trial training. Many teams are willing to cultivate type of player.

In terms of strength, Zhou Lin also had 84 bench presses of 185 kg (7 lbs).

And this figure is the same as that of Dwight Howard, who is known for his upper body strength.

Regarding the bench press, it is not that whoever is bigger has an advantage, but the core strength.

A lot of small guards are great on the bench press.

Kevin Durant did not push the 84 kg bench press once, while the baby-faced Stephen Curry could push 10 times, and the shorter Thomas, this data was 13 times.

Kevin Durant, who won the worst record of zero times in history, which can only be tied but cannot be broken, also complained about the bench press after the trial training.

The original words of Tucao probably mean: what is the use of bench press, give me a ball, who of you present can beat me!

And in fact, it really is.

Of course, after entering the NBA, the attribute that has improved the most is actually strength.

Competing with iron bumps every day, can the strength not increase?

So in the eyes of general managers and scouts, bench press data is not as important as other physical data.

Just like Dwight Howard's strength, most of it started to skyrocket after entering the NBA, and reached nearly 500 pounds at its peak.

It's just a devil's muscular man.

After the first day of trial training, Zhou Lin received several individual trial training invitations without any surprise.

Including the Raptors and Trail Blazers, and the Bulls.

The top four teams, as long as they invite, Zhou Lin will not refuse.

"Listen, Zhou, it's best to control the teams in the trial training within 5 teams, according to the order of signing or invitation."

A high-ranking rookie will not go to many teams to participate in trial training.

Thomas Jackson analyzed about two reasons.

[-]. Attitude, a high-ranking rookie, you don’t need to worry about not being selected. Now is the stage when those teams are begging you to try out. If there are too many teams on tryouts, it will make people think that you are worried that your market is not good enough. Only the kind of rookies who are worried about their picks or even losing the draft will try their best to participate in individual trials for several teams.

Second, the tendency, if you participate in the team's individual trial training, it proves that you are willing to join this team, and the team will also take this into consideration when choosing you.

Three, disadvantages, and the most important point, because every rookie player will have more or less defects, whether it is physical, technical, or psychological, these will be the criteria for the team to consider you, The more trial training you participate in, the more problems will be exposed. Once these problems are exposed, it is normal for the ranking to plummet.

At the suggestion of Thomas Jackson, Zhou Lin prepared to choose to go to the Toronto Raptors, who hold the No. [-] pick first.

After all, this is the No. 2006 lottery, and [-] was a small year in the draft. The Italian genius may not be able to secure the No. [-] pick. Zhou Lin still has the possibility to give it a try.

And Thomas Jackson has already agreed to the opponent's general manager to try out first.

But before Zhou Lin walked out of his room.

Someone knocked on the door and came to see him.

"See you again, Zhou! The data of the joint trial training is excellent."

Zhou Lin and Jordan met for the first time in the Jordan Classic in 2005. Later, Jordan also witnessed the scene where Zhou Lin led George Mason University to abuse his alma mater, the University of North Carolina.

"Thanks, Michael!"

Zhou Lin smiled.

"Interested in coming with me to Charlotte?"

Michael Jordan cut to the chase.

"We've decided to go..."

"Let me guess, Toronto?"

Thomas Jackson said with a little embarrassment: "Yes, Mr. Jordan, the day after tomorrow, how about going to Charlotte the day after tomorrow?"

Michael Jordan spread his hands and said: "Don't have illusions. The Raptors have been eyeing Bargnani for a day or two. They have already reached a private agreement. No one can shake his No. [-] pick."

"But we've already made an appointment!"

Jordan said domineeringly: "Let the people of Toronto stand aside, listen, Zhou, I like you, don't reject me!"

(End of this chapter)