Anthony the Reborn

Chapter 228 The Eve of the Olympics

With the signing of these players, the Nuggets are almost ready for the new season, but the offseason is still very long. For the Nuggets players, each of them has to go through this long offseason, and This offseason means something different to each of them.

For a veteran like Mutombo, this offseason is the same as the previous offseason. His main task is to maintain his body, do a certain amount of exercise, and maintain his competitive state. With his loved ones on vacation, the offseason is over.

For players like Williams who still have some room for improvement in the league, the main task of this offseason is training. During normal games, although they follow the team's systematic training, but because of the long game , Their training is messy and disorderly, and there is no specificity and coherence, so they need this systematic training in the offseason very much. This time is very critical for them.

For international players such as Dior and Nash, their offseason is relatively rich, but they are not the same. For players like Dior, because it is the rookie season, they are not so aware of self-improvement. Strong, so they will spend a relatively long period of time returning to China to recuperate, and then have a period of recovery training one or two months before the start of the season, and strive to adjust their physical condition to the best before the new season. For players like Nash, the process is similar, but in comparison, they will spend less time with their families, and then choose to join the national team, or enter the training camp early for offseason improvement training .

Finally, for Anthony, his offseason was different from others. The Olympic Games are held every four years. Because of his excellent performance in the league, Anthony was quickly recruited by the league. There are some other long-established superstars in the league, but because of the consistent strong performance of the US team in the international arena, many superstars refused the invitation to the game for various reasons under the instruction of their agents.

When Anthony received this invitation, he was communicating with Vandeweghe on basketball. As a person who traveled through time, Anthony naturally knew that this Olympic Games was the first Waterloo encountered by the US team in history. He is now As an American, especially someone who wants to change the fate of Carmelo Anthony, he naturally decided to participate, so this time he did not listen to the advice of Vandeweghe and Andrews, but insisted on participating in the US national team.

Previously, some of the superstars participating in the national team were Duncan and Iverson with a strong sense of national responsibility, while others were ordinary stars, such as Marbury, Boozer, etc., and the others were sophomores or Rookies, such as James, Wade, Stoudemire, and even Okafor who didn't play an NBA game finally appeared on the roster. The addition of Anthony, although he is a rookie, still made the U.S. national team The starlight is a little more.

Originally, Anthony hoped to compete with his new teammate Nash in the Olympics, but because the Canadian team finished fourth in the Americas Championship, they missed the Olympics. Even after the game, Nash made a withdrawal from the national team. The statement, which also made the two people have no chance to play against each other in the Olympic Games.

But for Anthony, he knows that this competition will definitely not be easy. First of all, the rapid development of European basketball competition, especially the typical European team style of play will have an incalculable impact on the US team, and compared to this , more importantly, the strength of this national team is really much weaker than before. Counting Anthony, there are only three absolute strengths like Iverson and Duncan. Although others have played well in the league , but to rely on individual ability to defeat team basketball, their strength is obviously not enough. This year's finals is a very good example.

In addition to these, there is another more important thing. The mentality of the US team, this group of national team members, not only has almost zero experience in the international arena, but also their mentality is arrogant. They don't feel that their opponents can have any impact psychologically. Even Iverson doesn't seem to care about their opponents.

Although Anthony performed well in the league, when it comes to the national team, seniors like Iverson and Duncan, and even Boozer and Odom are all seniors, so it is not easy for him to ask others to do it in public. What, I can only find out the team's head coach Larry Brown in private, but obviously, he later found out that Coach Brown's control ability is much weaker than he imagined. Facing the star-studded national team, Coach Brown is an actual combat ability A good coach, but for the mentality of the players, what he can do is really limited.

In the end, Anthony had to give up, because he knew that it was really difficult for this national team to make changes without any setbacks.

Anthony has been waiting for an opportunity, but this opportunity has never come, because the US team does not have to participate in the Americas Championship, so they did not play against other American teams in the game, so the opponents in the warm-up match naturally chose these teams.

After these games, the U.S. team still showed strong dominance, with an average margin of [-] to [-] points per game. The performance was applauded, and many well-known basketball legends even said that the basketball level of the US team is already far ahead of other countries. Many experts have threatened that the US team is determined to win this game.

People in the whole country seem to take it for granted that the U.S. team won the championship. This atmosphere makes the national team look down on the game even more. Even Coach Brown doesn't seem to emphasize that the players should pay attention to their mentality.

When Anthony saw this, he understood very well that the U.S. team lost the championship in the end. The U.S. team did show a lot more strength than their opponents in the warm-up match, but it was in America, and the style of the American team itself is more like , the United States, which has much better personal ability, is naturally invincible, but the European teams play completely differently, not to mention that this time the home game is in Athens, Greece. , the things drawn from these games are also useless.

But now Anthony has finally experienced a feeling called everyone is drunk and I am sober, but now he has also experienced that kind of helplessness. He is only a rookie after all, and there are many things he cannot change, what he can do , I hope to use my strong performance to help the US team realize their long-cherished wish of winning the championship.

Soon, after a series of training and layoffs, the U.S. team finally ushered in the Olympic Games, and the final 12-man roster was released. The 12 players are Duncan, Iverson, Marb Ryan, James, Anthony, Boozer, Richard Jefferson, Marion, Odom, Stoudemire, Okafor, Wade, the head coach is Larry Brown.

After finishing the preparations, on this day, August 8th, Anthony went to the beautiful city, the birthplace of the Olympics, the capital of Greece, the beautiful Athens with the US Olympic team.

When we arrived in Athens, because there were two days before the game, Anthony and his Nuggets did not arrange training, but took everyone to the city for a visit. Before the crossing, Anthony had no chance to come to Athens Playing around, after time travelling, this is the first time I saw the beautiful city of Athens.

Athens is known as the birthplace of Western civilization and the birthplace of democracy. As a famous historical and cultural process, for tourists, this is a beautiful city that cannot be more beautiful.

Among them, the most attractive ones are the Acropolis and the Parthenon. As the two most famous tourist cities in Greece, Anthony and his American team will naturally not miss such a place.

Anthony was also impressed by this beautiful city. In China before crossing, although the economy developed rapidly, as a Chinese, Anthony could feel the loss of ancient Chinese culture, which was completely uncontrollable. , and even in the end, the ancient cultural relics that were once seen everywhere have to be searched, which is really a kind of sadness. In contrast, Greece's protection of ancient cultural relics is very good.

Anthony is also good at shooting all the way in his hand. Since he joined the national team, because of the All-Star game, he and Iverson have a feeling that they hit it off. Friends who don't talk about it, Anthony admires Iverson's desire for the game, and Iverson is impressed by Anthony's ability and calm attitude as a rookie. It can be said that the two get along very well. Well, after this trip, the two of them can be said to be the best two of them.

After this trip, Anthony also had a lot of photos on his phone. It happened that he and Iverson shared a room, so after they returned to the dormitory, they took photos to look at.

Flipping through the photos one by one, Anthony and Iverson were also laughed at by their exaggerated looks in the photos, but soon, Anthony found a very special photo, not because of the photos themselves But behind that photo, he found a familiar figure that could no longer be familiar.

Although it was unintentional, he could still vaguely recognize the figure of that person, and it turned out to be Su Xi!
(End of this chapter)