unfinished glory

Chapter 14 Preparations for Summer League
After breaking away from the encirclement of reporters, Li Chongxiao called his family immediately.

After finally calming down his mother who was about to rush to the United States to buy a house for himself, he called old Coach K to announce the good news.In the end, he hung up a brief phone call with Yao Ming and agreed to find a time for a detailed discussion.

After handing over the follow-up matters with the Spurs staff, Li Chongxiao found Luol Deng and Du Hong who were still celebrating. The two were very surprised that Li Chongxiao was selected.

Du Hong now shamelessly said that thanks to the two three-pointers he passed to him in the Spurs training camp, otherwise the Spurs would have no chance of picking him.

The three of them laughed and laughed for a while, then took a group photo together, and made an appointment to go back to Duke to talk again.

Back at Duke, Li Chongxiao immediately approached Coach K and described to him some situations during the draft.

Talking about Luol Deng's complacency on the stage after being selected, he looked like he was pointing the country; talking about Du Hong's bitter face after losing in the first round, and then being ecstatic after being selected; talking about himself Before being selected by the Spurs, the embarrassing situation of almost calling home to contact the domestic team...

After talking and laughing, Li Chongxiao was silent for a while, and then let out a sigh of relief: "Fortunately, I was selected!"

Old Coach K patted him on the shoulder: "It's all over."

This pressure is not only on Li Chongxiao, but also on himself: "But you can't take it lightly now. There are many people who are selected every year but cannot sign. The summer league is the key. You have to take it seriously and prepare well."

"Thank you, I will, coach!" Li Chongxiao and old coach K gave a deep hug, and then left.

When passing the training ground, I saw my former teammates.Andy Borman and Nick Horvath came over with envy to congratulate; Pagliuca, Melchioni and others had complex expressions, hesitating to speak; Redick continued training with a blank face; only Sheldon Williams muttered things like "I'm going, I'll go higher."

The short year of Duke University ended this summer!
On the day of the draft, Li Chongxiao invited Luol Deng and Du Hong to train together.

On the second day after returning to Durham, the two came to the training ground that Li Chongxiao had leased for a long time.

Seeing the training equipment not inferior to Duke University, and hearing that there is a professional training team, the two were dumbfounded: This is really a waste of money!

Li Chongxiao introduced some of his daily training and preparations before the draft, and the two of them knew how much effort he had put in for the 58th pick (actually the 57th pick).

Except for some cultural courses, I basically stay in the training hall, and the diet is strictly formulated according to the recipe.

Then he introduced the training team he hired, and said that he will soon formulate a targeted assault training plan according to the characteristics of the Spurs to ensure that the summer league is effective and can be signed smoothly.

If the contract is successfully signed, this training will continue until the end of September, until the Spurs' training camp.

As the 7th pick, Luol Deng is not worried about signing, but he can improve his strength to a greater extent, and he will have more opportunities with the Bulls in the new season.

After obtaining the consent of Li Chongxiao and his trainer, he immediately expressed that he would also come up with a customized training plan for himself.

Du Hong watched from the side with envy and hatred. Only then did he know that these two teammates belonged to local tyrants, and he was the only one from a poor and poor family. If you want to make a plan, you can't help but be shy.

Upon seeing this, Li Chongxiao and Luol Deng said that they had given the money and they were not allowed to refuse, in return for Du Hong's care for them during the year at Duke.Du Hong was so grateful that tears filled his eyes and promised several meals.

More than ten days passed in a flash. During this period of time, Li Chongxiao focused on training open three-pointers, running without the ball and catching and shooting on the offensive end.

At the same time, the defensive end has strengthened one-on-one marking and follow-up defense, and strengthened the intensity of defensive entanglement.Basically follow his template - Bruce Bowen's way.

Now Li Chongxiao can basically defend against Du Hong's attack alone, but his pass defense is still relatively weak.

Facing Luol Deng's offense, he can also interfere with the opponent's shooting to a great extent, and if he breaks through, he will be able to defend in general.

The Spurs are participating in the Rocky Mountain Summer League this year in Salt Lake City.

A total of eleven teams participated this time, namely Utah Jazz, Phoenix Suns, Dallas Mavericks, Portland Trail Blazers, Denver Nuggets, San Antonio Spurs, Chicago Bulls, Indiana Pacers, Charlotte Hornets, Atlanta Hawks and Seattle supersonic.

Teams will choose some opponents, not all of them will play against each other.

The game time is from July 7 to July 17. Players participating in the summer league will report to their teams one week in advance and conduct some training.

Li Chongxiao came to the Spurs on July 7 and asked the team for his favorite No. 10 jersey.This summer league team is led by Spurs assistant coach Mike Budenholzer.

The rest of the teammates are Devin Brown, Greg Davis, Kesley Edwards, Noel Felix, Desmond Ferguson, Sheila Mfull, Leroy Hurd , Harold Jamison, Bernard King, MacDonald, Mark Perry, Brooks Sales, Benno Udry and Vincent Yarbro, a total of 15 people.

The core of the team is Devin Brown. This player played 58 games on behalf of the Spurs last season, averaging 10 minutes and scoring 4 points. He is an important rotation player in the Spurs.

And Benno Udri is the 28th pick in the first round of this season, and he will definitely receive key attention.

There are other players like Leroy Hurd and Greg Davis, both undrafted this year.Both of them looked at Li Chongxiao very wrongly.

There are also some undrafted and second-round picks from previous years. The highest pick is Vincent Yarbro, the fourth pick in the second round in 2002, and now he has no ball to play.Let Li Chongxiao deeply understand the cruelty of NBA competition, and he is more cautious.

The Spurs have 8 players who have contracts this season, plus Devin Brown and Udri, who are basically confirmed to sign, there are 10 players, and there are 5 places left.

In this summer league, at most one or two places can be produced, all of which are crucial to the remaining 13 people.

At this time, your competitors are not only players from other teams, but also your own teammates.

Li Chongxiao is a rookie selected by the Spurs this year, and he temporarily leads the competition.Everyone else dismissed him vaguely, especially small forwards and post players.

Li Chongxiao's position in the Spurs is Bowen's substitute, and he can occasionally play in place of Ginobili.

Therefore, during the team training match, he did not rush to perform like other players, but played steadily.He plays reasonably when he has the ball, actively moves when he does not have the ball, and actively marks people when defending.

The players who were harassed by his defense complained about him, but Devin Brown and Udri had a good impression of him. When the three were on the same team, they played very smoothly together.

After two days of training, Coach Budenholzer established the outside triangle of Devin Brown, Udrih and Li Chongxiao, and then matched with two insiders to form the starting lineup.

(End of this chapter)