Chapter 9 The last day of training camp, 5v5 in the audience
However, after giving the thumbs up, Ben Wallace did not forget to "knock" Woody: "Congratulations, man, you just defeated a star high school student in terms of confrontation under the basket. It can be said that in this aspect, You are already one of the best among American high school students, but...basketball is not just about basket competition, it is composed of rebounding, scoring, passing...all aspects, and you are just one of them now. In a way, you have reached the highest level of high school, but you still need to continue to grow, so man, continue to come to my room tonight and watch Kang’s game videos!”
If Ben Wallace originally had some doubts that Woody was a "big guy pretending to be a rookie," then he completely dispelled this doubt during a group confrontation before the training camp.
It's no longer a question of whether Woody can do it or not, he is that rare kind...a pure rookie!
In order to improve his sense of the game, Ben Wallace would take him to watch Pistons game videos every day and tell him some regular tactics and what he needs to pay attention to as an inside player on the court.
He didn't know if he could learn to play the game just by watching the video like this.
But Woody did show strong adaptability in the subsequent 5v5 group confrontation.
This was another shock to Ben Wallace.
It can only be said that genius cannot be judged by common sense, and the speed of progress is as fast as riding a rocket.
Woody looked at Ben Wallace's serious look and laughed. He understood what Ben Wallace meant, but he could only say that he was different from the arrogant black people: "Ben, I won't do it because of this." A little bit of progress makes me complacent, but I still have a long way to go!”
After the training, Woody did not rush to Ben Wallace's room. Instead, he took a shower first and took the time to take another look at his system panel.
Just as he expected, he had completed 95% of the task of impressing Ben Wallace, and was only left with the last 5%. On the last day of the training camp, there was an open 5v5 full-court game. In that game If you perform well in the game, this task should be completed.
He is not in a hurry.
What Ben Wallace prepared for Woody today was the fifth game against the Raptors in the first round of the playoffs of the 2001-02 season that just ended.
Before the video was played, he first told Woody the antecedents of this game: "In the first two games of this series, we easily won 2-0. The outside world is optimistic that we will complete the sweep in the first round. We ourselves I thought so too, but as a result, in the third and fourth games of the series, the Raptors completed a tenacious counterattack and tied the score at 2-2. At the end of the regular season, we ranked No. 1 in the Eastern Conference. 2, and they are only seventh in the Eastern Conference. If we lose, then they will complete the 'Black Seven'..."
"We definitely don't want this to happen, they...naturally want this to happen!"
"Seriously, man!" Woody interjected at this time, "You will definitely be an excellent commentator in the future!" Ben Wallace's words made him full of expectations for the upcoming game.
This will definitely be an exciting game!
The result was not what Woody expected. The game was tense all the way, and in the end the Pistons narrowly won by 3 points.
Ben Wallace also seemed to recall the difficulties at that time. After the video ended, the lingering fear on his face disappeared for a while, and the room became silent. He pretended to be deep and asked: "Man, did you see this game?" What?"
Woody said with some uncertainty: "As an inside post, I have to practice free throws well?"
These words contained "real hurt" and a "disabling blow", which made Ben Wallace "silent". In this game, he took a total of 10 free throws and only scored 4, with a shooting rate of 40%. Although his average free throw shooting rate per game this season is not high, only 53%, in this anxious game, it is a huge benefit for him to score one more free throw, but he missed one more than usual.
He blushed and explained: "This is a life and death battle, a matter of critical moment..."
What follows next is "You have never experienced this kind of thing when you are young, you will know when you experience it", "The water for free throws is too deep, it is really difficult to grasp at that time" and the like, which makes people want to scream when they hear it. if.
It wasn't until Woody showed his evil smile that Ben Wallace realized that Woody was teasing him!
So you are like this Woody!
wrong……
Ben Wallace remembered the first time he trained, when this kid came up and asked him how tall he was. At that time, he felt that Woody did it on purpose. Now seeing how rude he was, Ben Wallace was even more convinced. This kid did it on purpose!
Seeing that Ben was immediately anxious, Woody said: "I know, you want to tell me that under any circumstances, you must believe that you can get to the end, no matter how bad the situation is!"
Just kidding, Woody had perfect reading comprehension scores in junior high school. He could figure out the subtext of those literati and poets. How could he still not understand Ben Wallace’s intentions?
Unexpectedly, Ben Wallace said with a straight face: "No, I want to tell you that there will be no easy end for those who complain! Just like we were 2 games ahead and thought we were about to sweep, but ended up being chased for 2 games in a row, so man, Don’t think you are stable at any time!”
Well……
It can only be said that Ben Wallace wants to tell Woody too many truths.
Of course, Ben Wallace also knew that no matter how many truths he told Woody at this moment, Woody still had to experience many things himself before he could have a personal understanding.
He didn't expect Woody to understand everything now, he hoped Woody would understand it in the future.
Ben Wallace was so moved by his good intentions that he wanted to send a text message to Oakley again, but thinking about the last time he interrupted his fruit plate and was scolded, Ben Wallace held back this time.
After thinking about it, after Woody left, he made a few calls to reporters he knew. The unified words were: "Man, and1 is about to hold the final 5v5. If you are free, come and take a look. I believe it." , you will definitely get a surprise when the time comes!”
His words did arouse the interest of several reporters.
It's the off-season now, and there are really too few reports that can attract attention. Everyone is struggling to find gimmicks.
Just like that, on July 27, the last day of the and1 training camp, several media people who had originally cooperated with and1, plus a few reporters who had been fooled by Ben Wallace, a total of more than ten media people, appeared in to the training hall.
Judging from the number of media outlets, it can be seen that although and1 is currently gaining momentum, the gap in influence between it and Nike and Adidas cannot be changed overnight.
If this were a Nike training camp, the number of media outlets would have doubled several times, and there would also be dedicated staff responsible for handling unexpected situations on the court, such as confiscating the videotape after the endorsement star was dunked.
But for these students in the and1 training camp, it can be said to be very good exposure.
Although the Internet industry is changing rapidly at the moment, the majority of media resources are still traditional print media and TV channels, which are very precious. Even Outlaw and Perkins, the top players in this training camp, can only have such news on some important game days.
Surrounded by multimedia.
So even Outlaw looks eager to give it a try, wanting to perform well and gain some summer exposure for himself.
Compared to him, Perkins looked a little sad.
A week ago, Woody was able to press him to the ground and rub him. In this week, this guy's ability has improved a lot. Perkins directly faced him and couldn't take advantage of him in any aspect.
Here comes the advantage.
Destined to be Woody's foil, do you think he can be in a good mood?
But it’s not Perkins’ character to shrink back. He said he wanted to be the next “Ben Wallace”, but he really didn’t say anything against his will just to warm Ben up. And what Ben Wallace is most praised for is that “Ben Wallace”.
"Heart of Steel"?
so……
Isn't it just to let Woody "ravage" him in full view of the public?
What's this?
Men should go through some things!
I'm Perkins, do it, do it, do it!
It's a good thing Perkins didn't shout this out loud, otherwise he would have to cry.
After finally giving himself the courage to play, he turned his head and saw Woody who was warming up extremely seriously. The collapse of adults only took a moment, and the same was true for minors. Perkins hurried over: "Brother, it's light."
point."
In terms of age, Perkins and Woody are both 17 years old, but Perkins is older; in terms of stardom, Woody is unknown, while Perkins is the 78th "star high school student" in the United States.
But at this moment, I really can’t tell which of the two is older and who is more famous.
In the past week, Woody really gave Perkins a psychological shadow, so much so that Perkins really wanted to call Woody "brother."
Woody looked at him like this and patted his shoulder comfortingly: "Man, you think you are too weak. In fact, I have spent a lot of effort to solve you.
, you are a clown-like guy, even if I take care of you like Batman, it won’t be that easy!”
"Guo, is it true?"
Perkins was flattered by this comment. He didn't expect that he still had such a high position in Woody's heart.
He was waiting for Woody to give a definite answer again, and he should have looked at the arrogant face with a look of "I don't study well, don't lie to me."
Woody was noncommittal: "If you think about it carefully, were there several times when you almost grabbed rebounds? If you had grabbed those rebounds, would the relationship between us have changed?"
His rhetorical question caused Perkins to fall into recollection.
Don't say...
It seems to be true!
Perkins' face became more confident: "So, I'm not as weak as I thought?"
"Of course, buddy, warm up well, I'm waiting for a big battle with you!"
Woody responded faster than before this time. Seeing him so sure, Parkinson felt full of strength.
"See you later, man, let's have a good time!"
Perkins ran to warm up, and Woody laughed and continued to warm up.
He had just noticed that Perkins was in a timid mood. How could he play the game well with such a mood? How could he be used as a "background" for him? Of course he had to be confident!
I just didn't expect that this guy also said "if you dare to say it, he dares to believe it"!
It’s not surprising, after all, I had the experience of pressing Woody to the ground and rubbing him, so deep down I must have some confidence in myself.
But, now Perkins can only say two words in front of Woody:
Toy!
As two people with the same blue-collar position, Woody's physical talent is much better than his, but Perkins can't respond in other aspects. It's really a one-sided squeeze.