Basketball: Starting from the Rodman template

Chapter 79 Withdrawing from Summer League

Some people can perform well under pressure, while some people can perform abnormally under too much pressure.

LeBron James doesn't know which one he belongs to, but tonight, the summer league team specially assigned to him by the Cavaliers management didn't make him play comfortably.

His rough breakthrough technique with the ball and his lack of shooting skills were further amplified in this game.

The summer league players, except for the rookies, are a bunch of "veteran" with several years of professional experience. Their talents are far inferior to LeBron James, but they know how to deal with rookies too well.

LeBron James played very hard under their "male left and right".

Except for the first quarter, it took time for the opponent to adapt to his style of play, allowing him to score 7 points in a single quarter, and also gave 3 assists and 3 rebounds. In the remaining three quarters, the Cavaliers played very dull.

At the end of the game, the Cavaliers lost, and LeBron James only had 13 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists, which is not as good as Wade, let alone Woody.

After the game, LeBron James said dejectedly: "The NBA field is longer than the high school league, and the confrontation is also more intense. I still need time to adapt to all this!"

It is said that "surrender loses half", he is still an 18-year-old kid, and reporters should not be aggressive.

But who let Nike and LeBron James' team blow up LeBron before?

The reporters didn't let him go at all.

One of the reporters continued to ask sharp questions: "Your high school teammate Woody just finished the first game of the summer league. He played very well. Do you think his adjustment ability is better, or his original ability is better!"

These two choices are "pitfalls". No matter which one LeBron James chooses, it is tantamount to admitting that he is not as good as Woody now.

He raised his head very old-fashionedly, avoiding the cameras on the sidelines, a few irritability flashed in his eyes, and then he looked at the camera again, and said seriously: "Our opponents are different opponents, and our teammates are also different teammates, so I don't think this can be confused. I think he played very well. At the same time, I think Dwyane Wade also played very well in that game."

The subtext of this statement is:
Give me Wade, don't I C?
However, his performance today is destined to be stepped on by Woody the next day's news.

Not the next day, many reporters began to brag about Woody. Some of them thought that the Cleveland management should be very upset now; some believed that Woody's potential was greatly underestimated, and his risk was overestimated;

Among these manuscripts, there are many reporters who originally wrote the drafts to praise LeBron James severely.

As a result, LeBron James' poor debut made these reporters immediately change their attitude!

And this is what it takes to enter the NBA as the "Pride of Heaven"!

In 01, the "Number One Scholar" became the biggest "parallel import champion". There are personal reasons for this, as well as Michael Jordan's reasons, but it cannot escape the reasons of the media.

Therefore, the endurance of the heart is really crucial for a high-ranked rookie in the NBA!

LeBron James did not show his ability to resist pressure on the court, but off the court he was comforted by his team, and he kept saying "I am King, I am the No. 03 pick in [-], I am the best rookie in this year, and Woody is also my defeat!" He quickly adjusted.

Therefore, whether the ability to resist pressure is strong or not is different from thick-skinned.

Just like a taciturn person, he is not the same as an introverted and obedient boy.

Nike has temporarily stopped its long-standing praise for LeBron James.

LeBron James' performance, especially after Woody's eye-catching performance on the opposite side...

They can't blow it anymore!
Let's rest for two days...

They don't blow, someone blows.

Scottie Pippen appeared in the sidelines of the game. After the game, he said: "James didn't perform very well today, but he still showed his all-round side. I think I can see the shadow of my youth in him. I believe he will get better!"

However, whether it is LeBron James, the Cavaliers management, or Nike, no one pays attention to him.

Cavaliers: The "Chosen One" who co-authored us is Pippen, right?

LeBron: You are the "second child", your whole family is the "second child", no matter how bad I am, I am still a "Magic" Johnson!

Nike: I spent such a high contract, signed a high school student, and then packaged him as "Pippen", right?
They... can't avoid it.

I really dislike it!

Adidas's publicity department can be described as "Chinese New Year" these two days.

But in the second game of the summer league, Woody's performance also dropped.

The Heat's opponent in Game [-] was the Detroit Pistons.

Before the start of the summer league, everyone was looking forward to this game, because this was the first time Woody and Milicic met in the NBA.

But as a result, Milicic encountered a contract dispute with his home team.

The other party must pay liquidated damages before he is willing to release him.

The problem is that the NBA stipulates that the team can only pay players a buyout fee of up to 50, and the rest needs to be paid out of pocket.

Milicic is running to escape the war and the NBA with an annual salary of tens of millions. He is ambitious, but he doesn't want to pay too much, so he stays with his team in Europe and slowly argues with his home team.

I don't know if we can catch up with the new season, but the summer league will definitely not be able to catch up.

The Pistons have also become one of the few teams with no rookies in this summer league.

As for the Heat, Woody and Wade are both rookies. Although Haslem has played in France for a year, his one-year experience is just that, and what good league can France have?

In the end, they lost the summer league by 76 to 85 and 9 points.

Woody's performance was much worse than the previous game. He only made 14 of 6 shots and his shooting percentage was only 43.8%. With his "cake-eating" scoring style, this shooting percentage is definitely not enough.

The number of rebounds remained stable at 12, which was only 1 less than the previous game.

But the number of assists is only 4, the number of steals is only 1, and the number of blocks is only 1, which is a big drop.

In addition, he also had 6 fouls and 3 turnovers.

most important……

This is the first time in his career to lose!
From the first public 5v5 game he played in the training camp to the present, he has never lost in any official public game. In his final year of high school, St. Mary High School even won the final state championship trophy with a record of 28 wins and 0 losses!
Looking at the bright red numbers, Woody felt a little dazzling.

He wouldn't lose a little pearl just because he lost a summer league game.

But there was a tight breath in his chest, which made him very depressed.

original……

This is how it feels to lose!
"Man, this is mine, I didn't hit it well!"

Woody's performance was not good, and Wade's performance was even worse. He made 14 of 4 shots and his shooting percentage did not even reach 30%.

This is also a big reason why he and Woody were restricted tonight:

Neither of them has a stable mid-range, giving each other enough space.Relying on Haslem's mid-range shooting ability, which cannot become a tough task, is not enough to make opponents afraid.

Spoelstra came over to comfort the two people: "Don't worry about it, everyone came here like this!"

Woody is just uncomfortable, not a lot of pressure.

This is thanks to LeBron James. His second summer league game started earlier than Woody. Before Woody started, they were over. LeBron James continued to play poorly.

After the game came the best news from the Cavaliers' summer league team:

LeBron James is considering retiring.

After the news came out, the summer league officials were a little panicked.

Because the next game is the Heat vs. Cavaliers, they can wait for this game to make a lot of money!
If LeBron really retires at this time, then this game will lose a lot of highlights.

Woody is also looking forward to LeBron James can continue to play in the summer league.

After the game against the Pistons, he now knows very well that compared to the "old guys" in the summer league, it is "peers" who are easier to deal with.

Although they are more talented, they have not been realized yet. At the same time, everyone has no experience and belongs to the same starting line.

Woody also pointed at LeBron James and said "blood" back!

It's not just him, Wade and Haslem are also looking forward to this day!
No offense intended, they respect LeBron as the "No. [-] pick", but the summer league has progressed so far, and judging from the current situation, it is true that he is more like a "soft persimmon".

"Eric are you there?"

After the game with the Pistons, Spoelstra gave Woody and the others a vacation.

Mainly to take care of Woody, the American high school league will not arrange to play a game every two days.This intensity is too high, if additional training is arranged, he is afraid that Woody will not be able to bear it.

But I didn't expect Woody to knock on his door early in the morning. When he opened the door, Woody went straight to the point: "Dude, help me watch the game against the Pistons yesterday. Is there anything I can improve!"

Spoelstra was taken aback for a moment, he really didn't expect Woody to have such an idea.

Woody showed a helpless expression: "The standard of the NBA should be higher, right? I can only play smarter!"

"Okay then, sit down first, I'll prepare a playback video for you!"

Spoelstra nodded in agreement. When he took the computer, he originally wanted to ask Woody if he wanted to call Wade over to make progress together.

But think about it, this guy's mind definitely can't keep up with Woody's rhythm, let's break it one by one, the worst is to help Woody solve the problem, and then go to Wade later and arrange special counseling for him.

Because of this, Wade in his sleep sneezed fiercely, and woke him up directly, opened his eyes in a daze, smacked his mouth twice, and fell into a deep sleep again, murmuring indistinctly:
"Who, who is missing me!"

Woody's questions were more thoughtful and more detailed than Spoelstra's. He found that Woody now has a good understanding of some of the Heat's common tactics.

This speed of progress is really fast!

This is also good, he can focus all his work on Wade and help him grow.

That afternoon, the day before the game between the Heat and the Cavaliers, LeBron James officially held a press conference and announced that he would miss all the remaining games of the Orlando Summer League.

Because of his performance, the reporters became more and more sharp about his questions.

"Can we understand that you chose to avoid meeting Woody on the field?"

LeBron James hurriedly said: "Man, I'm not trying to avoid playing against anyone, but I have discovered my own shortcomings, so we have decided to participate in the next Charlotte Summer League. You know, the scale is bigger and the number of games that can be played is also more. I hope to get more opportunities to exercise!"

There's really nothing wrong with saying this.

Compared with the Orlando Summer League, which only has 6 teams participating, the Charlotte Summer League has more than a dozen teams, and there are indeed more games that can be played.

After the "three little ones" of the Heat knew the news, they felt a little regretful at that time.

However, LeBron James has retired, and the match between the Heat and the Cavaliers will continue.

Woody and Spoelstra studied the video for nearly a morning yesterday. This game has improved a lot. At least the ability to grasp some opportunities at the basket is much better than before.

It may also have something to do with LeBron James' sudden announcement of his withdrawal, and the Cavaliers summer league team with feathers all over the place is also unwilling to fight.

In this game, he scored "20 plus 10".

In this game, Pat Riley also came to the sidelines and bought tickets out of his own pocket.

He's not here for the LeBron James vs. Woody matchup, but...

Day 7 of Woody leaving Miami, miss him!

Therefore, the "magic fortune teller" flew to Orlando not far away.

After the game, the reporter asked Woody a question: "Do you plan to participate in the Charlotte Summer League?"

Woody almost laughed out loud when he heard the news.

Good guy, "he runs away, he chases, he can't fly" right?
This drama, let alone, is really worth seeing, and Woody even told Woody that his heart is moved.

However, after the game, Pat Riley specifically asked Woody and Wade for a visit: "Guys, how are you? If you feel that you have adapted, you don't have to play in the next few games!"

In terms of the confrontation scale of the summer league alone, it may be more fierce than the NBA regular season.

This is the place where "the strong prey on the weak" and risk their lives for a contract.

Pat Riley is very worried that they will be injured in this kind of place, and it will not be worth the loss.

He has watched the videos of these three games. He is very satisfied with the performance of Woody and Wade in these three games. At the same time, he feels that Woody and Wade don't need to prove anything on such a stage.

Woody didn't insist. After these three games, July is almost bottoming out. He still has the task of gaining weight, and he will definitely have to adapt after that. If this is the case, the time is really tight, and there is really no need to waste time in the summer league.

In this way, Woody and Wade ended their journey in the Orlando Summer League and returned to Miami ahead of schedule.

　Third update today.

　　Brothers, today is another 1-word update, see you tomorrow.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)