basketball kingdom

Chapter 3 Individual Trial Training
Bryant's Achilles tendon in his left foot restricted his take-off, resulting in a barely dunked dunk, which made him feel a little disappointed.

It was precisely because of the rupture of the Achilles tendon that Kobe retired from the ranks of the league's top stars. ESPN even ranked Kobe Bryant 25th among the stars of the season. He vowed to face ESPN, but he failed to do so.

The Lakers' record and signings in recent years have not been smooth, coupled with their own injury factors, Kobe Bryant included retirement as a consideration for the first time.

Next season will be his No. 20 season with the Lakers and the last year of a decent contract. Although he has not publicly announced his choice, he already has the answer in his heart.

……

After Kobe read the report about Xu Tian yesterday, he was full of curiosity about this mysterious young man from the east, so he called Xu Tian early this morning.

Seeing that Kobe didn't pick up the basketball that rolled to the edge of the court, Mike called Kobe loudly, "Hey, Kobe! Xu has arrived."

Hearing Mike's voice, Kobe turned around and saw four people standing outside the training hall. When he saw Xu Tian, ​​Kobe couldn't help admiring in his heart.

Mike is already strong enough, but Xu Tian, ​​who is behind Mike, feels a lot bigger than Mike.

"Come in!" Kobe said to the four of them. Since the matter to be discussed is related to basketball, it is natural that the training hall is more suitable.

The idle Mike respected Kobe very much, and he completely lost the procrastination just now, and directly led Xu Tian and the others into the training ground.

This training hall is specially used for training, and there are no audience seats around, so the few people who came in could only stand in the hall.

Xu Tian took a closer look at Kobe's training clothes, and found that they were completely soaked in sweat, which meant that Kobe's training time had been very long.He couldn't help thinking in his heart, it's only 07:30 in the morning, it seems that Los Angeles at four in the morning is not a rumor.

Seeing several people walking into the training hall, Kobe said to Mike: "Go get Mickey and Byron, there's no need to wait for nine o'clock, start the trial immediately."

Mike agreed, and quickly walked out of the training hall to inform Mitch Kupchak and Byron Scott.

Li Lang translated this sentence to Xu Tian in a low voice, because Xu Tian was tall, when he listened to Li Lang's words, he had an obvious bowing motion.

Kobe's attention was on Xu Tian, ​​so he naturally saw this movement and understood that Xu Tian didn't know much English.

Instead of communicating with Xu Tian, ​​Kobe walked to the edge of the arena, picked up the basketball there, and called "Xu".After attracting Xu Tian's attention, he threw the ball towards the floor with his right hand, and at the same time said a word to Xu Tian, ​​"Slam dunk!"

Xu Tian often watches Slam Dunk and knows the meaning of this word.After looking at the basketball that bounced into the air, his body reacted instantly and ran towards the basket.

In order to test Xu Tian's speed, Kobe deliberately threw the basketball ahead of time. If the physical test data on the scout report was true, Xu Tian would definitely be able to dunk the ball in.

Xu Tian, ​​who was near the midfield, seemed to be transformed into a yellow lightning bolt, quickly ran towards the basketball, and jumped one step from the free throw line.

Kobe sighed again in his heart, Xu Tian's speed, jumping and explosive power are all top-notch without exception!

Xu Tian grabbed the basketball that had just started to fall with his right hand, straightened his whole right arm, pulled it behind him, and when his body reached the highest point, he smashed the ball hard towards the basket.But because the jump was not enough this time, the ball hit the back edge of the ring and bounced out.

After Xu Tian landed, he looked at the bounced ball and felt a little pity.This is a dunk passed by Kobe. He originally wanted to show his strength, but he didn't expect to dunk too hard.

Byron Scott happened to see the scene of Xu Tian's dunk, and couldn't help admiring in his heart, what a young man who can dance!
Since the "Zen Master" Phil Jackson stepped down as the Lakers coach, the Lakers have experienced three coaches, but it turns out that none of these three is the answer to the coach position.

After D'Antoni resigned last year, the Lakers interviewed Byron Scott three times, and finally made him the No. 20 fifth coach of the Lakers.This Lakers showtime legend who won the best coach in the 07-08 season started his career as a Lakers coach with the vision of reviving the Lakers.

However, last season, Scott led the team to the worst record of 21 wins and 61 losses in the history of the Lakers, which led to more and more calls from the outside world to dismiss him, so he is under great pressure from public opinion.Seeing Xu Tian's physical talent now, I can't help but feel a little excited.

Although Scott is a little rigid on the tactical level, after all, he has been in contact with basketball for a long time. After seeing Xu Tian's series of moves, he can still see his talent at a glance.

Scott stepped into the training hall, picked up the basketball not far from the door, and gently threw the ball to Kobe.

Kobe caught the flying ball, walked to Xu Tian's side, and slightly squeezed the muscle of Xu Tian's right arm with his left hand.Xu Tian didn't exert any strength in his right hand. Many coaches touched his muscles. Although muscles can't represent absolute strength, they can provide a reference to some extent.

After confirming the hardness of Xu Tian's muscles, Kobe pointed to Xu Tian with his right hand, then pointed to himself, and said word by word: "You and me, one-on-one."

The words one-to-one are still easy to understand.

Mitch Kupchak and Jim Buss arrived on the practice field without the rest of the front office following.

This was done because Xu Tian's physical test data was leaked before. In order to prevent such a situation from happening again, the Lakers only allowed a few people from the decision-making team to watch the trial training.

These external factors did not affect Xu Tian. For him, it was just another one-on-one match.Even if he is facing Kobe, he has to find a way to win.

After everyone entered the training ground, Kobe and Xu Tian stood at the top of the arc. In order to show Xu Tian the opportunity to attack, Kobe first served Xu Tian.

When Xu Tian held the ball in his hand, all the confusion and other feelings in his heart disappeared, and the only thing left was the desire for victory.It's just that because Kobe didn't define the points needed to win, he didn't know how many points he needed to win.

But he soon realized that he might be thinking a little too far.

Kobe didn't wait for Xu Tian to start dribbling, he had already leaned up with his body, and directly confronted Xu Tian physically, leaving him no room to dribble.In the past few years, what Kobe has declined is only his athletic ability, and his core strength has remained very good, so he gave Xu Tian a big impact when he came up.

Xu Tian grabbed the ball with his right hand and subtly pushed Kobe with his left elbow. His strength is still weaker than Kobe's. If he doesn't use his elbow, he can't open up the offensive space at all.With the help of this small space, Xu Tian started to dribble with his right hand, intending to use his speed to get rid of Kobe's defense.

Xu Tian's elbow actually aroused Kobe's fighting spirit. You must know that he has been fighting since the 90s when he used his elbow to open the way. He has never seen such a scene.Immediately reacting, he chased after Xu Tian who wanted to start, and blocked Xu Tian's position with force, preventing him from accelerating.

Kobe's defensive action is very big, if it is a bit of a foul according to the current rules, but since neither of them stopped, the ball is still going on.

Because Kobe was always close to Xu Tian, ​​and Xu Tian had to protect the ball, he couldn't find a breakthrough space at all.

Xu Tian's dribbling movements have been slightly deformed when the strength confrontation is at a disadvantage. At this time, he will naturally think of the offensive method he relies on.

At the free throw line, Xu Tian chose to stand still after opening a little space with his elbow. He really couldn't break through Kobe's close defense.

Kobe had thought of this a long time ago, and used his right hand to cover Xu Tian's sight when he took off. This is Battier's usual blindfold defense.

Most of the scouts are professionals who have seen countless rookies. Since Xu Tian's scouting report has the shortcomings of taking two long points and taking too many shots, Xu Tian will definitely try this when the offense is blocked.Therefore, fighting physically from the very beginning is a defensive strategy that Kobe had long thought of.

The ball finally hit the front edge of the rim, but failed to hit, and the offensive and defensive teams switched.

After Kobe took the ball, he leaned forward directly, and when speed and bounce were not dominant, he directly hit Xu Tian with his back and singles.

Xu Tian used his right forearm to withstand Kobe's back, but because of the strength gap, Kobe gradually pushed him inside the free throw line.Just when Xu Tian was about to withdraw the bench, Kobe received the ball with both hands, turned around halfway with his left foot as the pivot foot, and made a gesture of preparing to shoot facing the basket.

Xu Tian reacted immediately, and exerted a slight force on his knees, trying to block Kobe's shot.

But this was just a fake move. Kobe waited until Xu Tian took off completely, then moved his right foot by a large distance, completely distanced himself from Xu Tian, ​​and made an easy shot.

For the first time, Alice felt that Xu Tian seemed like a person who was not very good at playing basketball. Judging from his performance, he was completely stunned by Kobe.

Kupchak asked Scott who was standing aside, "Do you think Xu is worth the second pick?"

Scott clasped his hands on his chest, still with an inscrutable expression on his face, and replied: "I don't know, there is no precedent for Asians to succeed. Xu is very talented, but NBA players are very talented~"

Xu Tian silently picked up the basketball that fell on the floor, but this simple attack and defense made him understand that he still didn't practice enough.If he was facing Kobe before his Achilles tendon ruptured, he would lose face now.

Kobe looked at Xu Tian who was holding the ball in his hands. He had already forgotten that this young man's English is not very good, and shouted to Xu Tian: "Welcome to the NBA, rookie!"

(End of this chapter)