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Chapter 2 A Different Trial

On the way, Lancelot introduced the AT&T Center while driving. Its technology fully reflects the culture of South Texas. Because the area is historically known for its livestock industry, the porch of the arena presents a The characteristics of the local ranch are also integrated into the elements of modern architecture.

The arena provides fans with the most convenient facilities, including more than 7000 parking spaces, 4 cloakrooms, 32 lounges, and 60 luxury boxes with an annual fee of more than 12.5 US dollars.It is commendable that AT&T's ceiling screen is the first in the world to use 10-pixel technology on the display.In addition, the gymnasium also provides various auxiliary facilities for the disabled.

Lancelot's tone was extremely cheerful, with a smile from the heart on his face, which made Yang Ke fully feel Lancelot's love and pride for this, which surprised him a little.

In the sound of Lancelot's introduction, the car quickly parked in the parking lot of the AT&T Center Arena. Since there were not many cars in the parking lot during the offseason, Yang Ke followed Lancelot out of the car and walked directly into the stadium. arena.

"This offseason, you've all had a good time, especially you, George! You've gained a lot of weight!"

Before Yang Ke even set foot on the court in the arena, the voice that spoke extremely fast and contained anger rang in his ears. Don't think that the only person who can have this voice here is that person, Gregg Popovich.

The combination of the Spurs and Popovich in the league is perfect. No coach has more resonance with the players than Popovich, and no coach has more unity with the team than Popovich.They are like fire and brimstone, they complement each other.

Lancelot walked in front, and was the first to see Popovich standing in front of the players, blushing and yelling at him. Having worked with Popovich for many years, he knew that Popovich was not angry, so he laughed loudly. Said: "Old bastard, I brought a good rookie!"

Popovich paused, turned around and stared at Lancelot who was striding towards him, suddenly gave him a blank look, and said angrily: "Old bastard, how many times have I told you not to disturb me?" Let me tell you, these old fritters need to be taught a lesson."

Yang Ke's expression became extremely weird in an instant. He didn't expect the conversation between Lancelot and Popovich to be like this. It seemed to be very good.

With both feet on the court floor, Yang Ke stopped behind Lancelot and watched him hand over his information to Popovich during the conversation.

Then he felt his eyes and looked at the line of players standing up in rows. Some looked at him with curious eyes, some were winking at him, and most of them were calm and could not see anything.

After reading the information, Popovich frowned slightly, then raised his head to look at the calm Yang Ke, relaxed his eyebrows a little, and asked directly: "Yang, what position are you on the court? What are you good at?"

Yang Ke quickly withdrew his gaze, looked directly at Popovich and quickly replied: "A swingman, good at defense and shooting."

Popovich pointed to the assistant coach James Borrego expressionlessly, making it impossible to see any thoughts: "Well, you go to this guy, he will tell you some basic tactics, etc. Go directly to the training match."

"what?"

Yang Ke was surprised in an instant, and his voice came out without any concealment. He checked the information and found that the rookie's trial training should be to show his personal ability on the court through technical actions such as shooting, dribbling, and layups, rather than directly Participate in training matches.

You must know that except for a few super rookies, there is a certain gap between most rookies and players in the league.If you directly participate in the training game, it is not easy for the players to show their skills and for the coach to see their potential.

Unless, that player is smart...

Although Lancelot told him before that today's trial training will be very unusual, he never thought that he would directly participate in the actual combat training match within the Spurs.

Yang Ke's reaction was completely in his expectation. Popovich raised an eyebrow at Yang Ke with a smile, "Why are you afraid? Still not ready?"

In the eyes of everyone, Yang Ke quickly adjusted from the surprise, and looked at Popovich with a smile: "That's not true, it's just a little surprised."

Popovich put away his smile and nodded. This little guy was polite and confident, and was a bit interesting.Immediately turning around and waving his hand, the players were naturally divided into two different teams, the substitute team and the main team.

Borrego, who was uniformly wearing black training suits, walked up to the substitute team, held the tactics panel, turned around and waved to Yang Ke, "Yang, come here."

Because the physical test had just been conducted and the training clothes on his body hadn't been taken off yet, Yang Ke walked over directly.

"This is already a real NBA-level team confrontation, Yang, just don't be nervous and play your own level."

Borrego didn't read Yang Ke's profile, but reminded him from his rookie status, "Remember that in the Spurs, we don't value your stats. Performance and attitude are our only criteria."

"Thank you, I will." Yang Ke knew the importance of this match to him and directly affected whether he could be picked by the Spurs, so he was very serious.

"Tiago Splitter, Matt Bonner, Manu Ginobili, George Hill, Young, you go first. You have to remember, wait..." Borrego Holding a pen, he explained the tactics in detail on the tactical panel. Although he was looking at a few old players, Yang Ke knew that he was actually speaking for him.

The Spurs' assistant team enjoys a high reputation and status in the league, which is enough to show that their standards are not low.

Just like now, Borrego's tactical explanation, based on the offensive tactics, a lot depends on the player's on-the-spot performance and vision, but it places great emphasis on creating open shooting opportunities, off-ball screens, and moving the ball immediately.

Yang Ke listened carefully. In his opinion, this offensive tactic tests the player's shooting level, pick-and-roll skills and cutting skills.And perhaps because of the temporary combination of the lineup, the defensive tactics are extremely simple, basically zone defense.

The key to all tactics is the enthusiasm of the players on the field. Is it because of taking care of me, or is the Spurs' tactics itself like this?

Yang Ke lowered his head and thought about it. Torrego's explanation made him think a lot, which was beneficial to his performance to a certain extent.

"That Asian, is this year's rookie? I don't know how strong he is?"

"It should be good, after all, it was brought by Lancelot himself."

"Come on, it's just a regular tryout for rookies..."

"Anyway, I don't like him..."

While the two sides were actively preparing, the remaining assistant coaches on the field began to chat in a low voice while preparing to record the data.

The stadium is small, and both sides of the preparations are very quiet, so even if the assistants have deliberately lowered their voices, the voices have passed into Yang Ke's ears.This not only made him more silent, but also revealed an inexplicable look in his eyes.

Ginobili at the side saw this scene, walked up to Yang Ke's side, and said to him softly: "Yang, don't worry, they are not malicious."

Looking at Ginobili, Yang Ke smiled and said naturally: "Thank you, I don't care."

He could hear all the bad words, no matter how bad they were, and those assistant coaches didn't add malicious words, they just simply didn't agree with their own strength, and this was the impression left on them by the level of Asian basketball for a long time.

Ginobili nodded in satisfaction. A polite person tends to impress others. He reached out and patted him on the shoulder: "Well, come on, I'll pass you a few good balls later. Remember to take your chances."

"Thank you."

Yang Ke smiled and expressed his gratitude, but he didn't care too much, because basketball is different from others, and the key to his performance lies in himself.If you can't make a shot and can't clarify your position, it's useless for someone to take care of you.

It didn't take long for Borrego to finish his tactics, and then let them warm up to avoid injury or discomfort in the next training game.When the main team is ready, everyone except the players leaves the court and stands on the sidelines.

Standing on the court, Yang Ke looked at the five people opposite: Tony Parker, Tim Duncan, Danny Green, Richard Jefferson, DeJuan Blair.I couldn't help but took a deep breath, it was impossible not to be nervous.

After all, it was because of the training game that there was no scramble for the ball, but the ball was directly handed over to Tony Parker for him to advance to the frontcourt.

Parker walked slowly across the half court, watched from a distance as George waited for him with open arms, raised his right hand and dropped the basketball to Duncan who pulled down the high post.

Splitter watched as Duncan received the ball and quickly moved forward to block the box. Duncan has a very good hand at cricket, and the high post is within his attack range.

coming? !
At this moment, Jefferson, who had been staying in the bottom corner, suddenly moved up, and Yang Ke, who was facing him, immediately reacted.Keeping his eyes on Jefferson's trajectory, Yang Ke started to follow, but was suddenly blocked by a wall in front of him on the way.

Yang Ke took a quick glance and saw that it was Blair who had come to cover the pick-and-roll. Without thinking too much, he turned around and bypassed Blair.

The next moment, Yang Ke saw Jefferson who had already grabbed the ball and was about to go inside.With both feet running at full speed, Yang Ke rushed over like the wind, and the distance between the two instantly narrowed.

"So fast?"

Surprise flashed in his eyes. Jefferson knew very well that the offense would become very difficult if this continued. He glanced at the side and made a decision in his mind.

Soon Yang Ke took a big step and appeared in front of Jefferson's side. Before he could stand still, Jefferson had already moved towards him with the ball.

Actively pursue physical confrontation? !
Yang Ke narrowed his eyes and took a small step back to give himself 0.75 seconds to react. Then he noticed that Jefferson's speed had slowed down and realized something was wrong instantly.

He quickly looked at Jefferson's hand, only to find that the basketball was gone. Seeing this situation, Yang Ke's body instantly relaxed a little, and he let out his suffocated breath.

Turning around, he saw Parker cutting into the basket with the ball, and George Hill, who was too fast for him. As his own inside line was already empty, Parker easily made a layup.

(End of this chapter)