Basketball trainer, I created a super giant

Chapter 156 Height is the greatest talent
As the game began, Mickey pulled out his notebook and started taking notes on Yao Ming's performance.

Tang Sen glanced at it.

Mickey wrote a sentence: "He has an unpredictable passing ability and is excellent at finding open spaces."

If you only look at this sentence, you might think that Yao Ming is a passing master.

But in reality, this is all just scouting.

Just like myself back then, after entering university, I also had scouts paying attention to me.

They describe themselves as lightning fast, capable of attacking from anywhere on the court, and potentially becoming the next Muggsy Bogues.

Based on his later experiences, Tang Sen realized then that you can't trust what scouts say.

However, Yao Ming does have a certain ability to pass the ball.

Whether it's a pass after being double-teamed in the low post or a pass after being facilitated in the mid-to-high post.

This is not only related to Tang Sen's request for him to pass the ball more, but also to Li Qiuping's positioning of him on the team.

Li Qiuping hopes that he can take on all the responsibilities, lead his teammates to score points, and immediately take over the game when his teammates are not performing well.

It's an absolutely core playing style.

"Mickey, in what areas do you think Yao needs to improve?" Tang Sen asked, turning his head.

I'd like to hear what this professional scout has to say.

They travel around all year round, so they have a good eye for people.

Mickey looked at Tang Sen with a somewhat flattered expression.

Is this a test for me?
Keep in mind that sitting next to him is a top-tier trainer whom Rivers can confidently entrust half of the team to.

After a moment's thought, Mickey said, "His greatest talent is undoubtedly his height."

A height of 7 feet 5 inches is historically rare.

"At the same time, I think he is the only player over 2.2 meters tall who has both physical strength and athleticism."

In Mickey's view, 2.2 meters is a watershed. Players taller than that are either as slow as dinosaurs, like Mark Eaton or George Muresan.

Or they might have decent athletic ability, but be as skinny as a bamboo pole and have no competitive ability, like Manute Ball and Shawn Bradley.

Yao Ming, however, possesses not only sufficient physical strength for his size but also remarkable athleticism.

Tang Sen nodded, agreeing that this was also what he considered Yao Ming's greatest talent.

Other talents will have to wait.

Mickey continued, "So if he wants to improve, he definitely needs to improve on his greatest talent. But how exactly to do that is something I'll have to ask you, since you're the most professional."

He threw the question back at him, and even offered a compliment.

Tang Sen smiled.

Indeed, it would be a waste not to make good use of one's greatest talent.

This guy's standing reach is over 2.9 meters, and he can easily jump to the height of the rim.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's skyhook release point was roughly at or slightly above the rim.

So even if Yao Ming never developed the skyhook, his hook shot would still be a powerful offensive weapon.

In the end, the Eastern team easily won 111-92.

Yao Ming didn't play much, only three quarters, but still easily scored 27 points.

It's clear that his fighting ability has decreased somewhat after losing weight.

He reduced his post-up plays and focused more on mid-range shooting.

That's understandable. After all, they've been hungry and lost a lot of weight, so it would be too taxing to force a shot inside.

However, his weak opponents were still unable to stop him.

It's like an adult barging into a kindergarten and hitting people at will.

Most importantly, Tang Sen was delighted to discover that Yao Ming had now completely corrected all of his bad habits from playing basketball.

He is ready to play in the NBA.

So when they said goodbye at the airport, Tang Sen made a point of hugging Yao Ming and saying "See you in Orlando."

Having gained experience in training Brown, Tang Sen was already looking forward to seeing how far he could take Yao Ming, who had even greater talent.

See you in Orlando!

Yao Ming, his emotions still running high, nodded vigorously.

Tang Sen was still the same as always, transiting in Los Angeles for half a day to visit his mother and older sister.

I returned to Orlando on the 19th.

The morning training session proceeded as usual.

"Tang, I miss you."

PJ Brown, a bit of a closet flirt, saw Tang Sen in the locker room, exaggeratedly stood up, and gave Tang Sen a heartfelt hug.

He released Tang Sen and said, "Tang, to be honest, do you have some kind of magic? When you're here, we train with extra enthusiasm and it's really fun. But when you're not here, it just doesn't feel right."

“PJ, Donald is Ifrit!” Grant interjected with a smile.

They had already discovered that training with Tang Sen overseeing it and training without Tang Sen were completely different things.

"By the way, Tang, did someone really say you're not worth $100,000 a month?" Grant asked again.

Tang Sen was taken aback and asked him where he had heard about this.

Grant shrugged and said, "What do you think? The newspapers are all reporting it, giving Lenny Cook a good dressing down, saying he's arrogant and conceited."

This is Tang Sen.

Just look at Brown's performance since entering the league; who dares to say that Townsend's training level is not good?

As a result, a high school rookie who didn't even make it to the NBA dared to question Tangsen's training level.

So self-righteous!

Let's just say this: this kid is incredibly lucky to have found Tang Sen and gotten Tang Sen to train him.

So many NBA players in the league are eager to train with Tang Sen, but Tang Sen won't agree to it.

“That kid is no good. I read in the newspaper that he doesn’t train seriously and his studies are terrible.” Mike Miller curled his lip and then said, “Don, if you’re going to train a rookie, you should choose LeBron James. That kid is a genius.”

Others nodded.

Clearly, they all knew James's name.

The media lavished praise on him, and many star players in the league sought to interact with him.

It's not just Jordan.

Kobe gave him shoes, and Shaq took advantage of an away game to go and watch his game.

It's incredible that a high school student can garner so much attention.

"Him?" Tang Sen thought of the kid who could wait for him in the hotel for six hours.

"not bad."

Tang Sen smiled and called everyone to begin training.

The days spent focused on training passed quickly.

On the last day of March, the Magic hosted the Knicks.

Brown dribbled once, pulled up over Kurt Thomas, protected the ball with his left hand, raised his right hand high, and flicked the basketball at the highest point.

With a thud, the basketball followed a flat arc, hitting the inside of the rim and bouncing out.

Brown landed with a frown, shook his head, sighed, and turned to run away.

Kurt Thomas noticed this change in his expression.

"Fake!"

He cursed inwardly.

How dare you be unhappy?

In official matches, they used me as a sparring partner to practice skyhook techniques. Did I say anything?
Recently, media outlets have noticed that Brown has been using a lot of offensive moves similar to the skyhook.

Brown readily admitted that he was practicing his skyhook.

The media was in an uproar.

Some media outlets even exclaimed in surprise, "What exactly are you trying to do?"
In his rookie season, does he really have to be so all-around? At least leave some room for other rookies.

Even Kareem Abdul-Jabbar interacted with them remotely.

Want to learn how to use a skyhook? I'll teach you!
On the sidelines, Rivers sighed silently.

If a rookie dares to waste the team's offensive opportunities by using immature offensive techniques in an official game, then not only himself, but any head coach would scold him severely.

But is Brown just an ordinary rookie?
He's a star player now, an All-Star starter, so he deserves this privilege.

And most importantly, the Magic have been winning.

Brown doesn't train mindlessly; he starts training whenever the team is in the lead.

Once his opponent is about to catch up, he immediately switches modes and plays seriously.

So sometimes, even your opponents can be disgusting.

After last week's game against the Bulls, Bill Cartwright complained that Brown didn't respect his opponents.

In the end, the Magic easily defeated their opponents 97-90.

Brown wasted a lot of opportunities, but when you look at the stats after the game, he still only had 21 points and 13 rebounds.

It's frighteningly stable.

But if you look at the statistics, it's 9 out of 20, less than 50% hit rate, which is infuriating.

Rivers scratched his head and then invited Tang Sen into his office.

"Tang, maybe we should just forget about it."

The dream-like footwork combined with the skyhook is incredibly imaginative, but also extremely difficult. Rivers said sincerely, "Tang, you have to admit that every player's talent is different. Brown is very good, but his talent isn't quite at Tracy's level. Look at his shot, it's too stiff. I think it's hard for him to adjust."

Let's start practicing our special moves together.

McGrady has mastered the fadeaway jump shot and occasionally uses it in games to enrich his offensive repertoire.

In contrast, Brown.

He did put in effort in the area of ​​skyhook.

He is exceptionally hardworking, often practicing his hook shot after matches.

Even with training results and tags, progress is still slow.

It's not as good as Dreamy Footsteps.

Training in the pool seems to actually have some effect.

Brown's footwork in the low post is now more solid and varied, making him even more threatening.

Tang Sen understood what Rivers meant.

"Doug, I'll talk to him and get rid of Skyhook."

Even if Rivers hadn't brought it up, Townsend was already prepared to confront Brown and make him give up on developing a skyhook.

Previously, Tang Sen had set a deadline of one and a half months.

The deadline has now passed, and the result is that progress is far below expectations.

That just means that the attempt to change and increase talent through the system has failed.

Talent is something that's really not easy to change.

The existence of the system might raise something from 100 to 110, but raising it to 200 is as difficult as ascending to heaven.

Moreover, there wasn't enough time.

With two weeks to go before the playoffs, Tang Sen really felt there was no need to let Brown waste time on this.

You'd be better off focusing on mastering bunny hops and shooting.

Moreover, even during the off-season, Tang Sen doesn't plan to let him practice skyhook for the time being.

Let him practice his turnaround jump shot.

As it stands, Brown still employs a hard-hitting, straightforward playing style.

While stiff hands may prevent you from developing a skyhook, it should improve the consistency of your shot after a turnaround jumper.

If you master the turnaround jump shot, it can be unstoppable.

Rivers was overjoyed and quickly thanked him.

With the playoffs just around the corner, he's on edge, worried that any player might run into trouble.

Not to mention an absolute core player like Brown.

After leaving Rivers' office, Tangsen didn't rush to talk to Brown.

This kid listens to me a lot, so there shouldn't be any major problems.

I drove home.

Speaking of which, March has passed, and it's time for another lucky draw.

Tang Sen decided to stay up a little later, and after midnight, he offered a brief prayer before choosing to participate in the lottery.

If Tang Sen were to choose a badge, he would now want the [tag].

Despite being only a bronze-level badge, it is surprisingly useful.

Tang Sen felt this very deeply.

Like Sasser, his progress is significantly faster than before.

Tang Sen felt that the comprehension ability of the "brain" and the specific comprehension of the "label" might not be the same thing, and could not be simply evaluated by the difference between 10% and 30%.

But who can say for sure about probability?

As long as there are no short sellers, it's a profit.

Choose to extract.

Tang Sen's eyes lit up; it wasn't the Air Force.

But the silver light that followed stirred something within Tang Sen.

When the results came out, it was even more trendy.

[Congratulations on obtaining the Silver-level badge: Sheep Herding].

Tang Sen grinned, thinking to himself, "What can I say about this luck?"

Not only did I not get the new badge, but it turned out to be the Shepherd badge, which is not very useful.

It's better than nothing, I can only say.

It's April now.

Tang Sen's student list has been expanded to include one more person.

This young man is Amaré Stoudemire.

He's been doing really well lately.

At the end of the Florida high school season, he won the 2002 Florida Mr. Basketball award with an impressive stat line of 29 points and 15 rebounds.

Unsurprisingly, he was invited to participate in the McDonald's All-Star Game in New York.

Although he lost to Carmelo Anthony in the Slam Dunk Contest and to JJ Redick in the MVP race, he still gained tremendous attention thanks to his outstanding performance.

This strengthened his resolve to participate in the talent show this year.

On April 5th, the team played a back-to-back game, visiting the Nets.

Tang Sen did not go with them.

With the playoffs approaching, Sasser's training can't stop.

Early in the morning, Tang Sen still drove to the stadium.

After parking the car, Tang Sen didn't rush to the locker room, but instead went to the main entrance of the stadium.

It wasn't even five in the morning yet, and the main gate was still closed.

Tang Sen asked the security guard to open the door, and after looking around, he did not see Stoudemire.

I contacted him yesterday and asked him to come over early this morning for training.

From 5 to 8 o'clock, after training, students can return to school and continue their morning classes.

With the high school league over, just like James, he can't let his studies fall behind.

It would be ridiculous if I didn't get my diploma.

Unexpectedly, this kid was late for the first training session.

I took out my phone and called him.

Unexpectedly, a cell phone rang from behind the pillar on the right.

Then Stoudemire's tall figure ran out from behind the pillar, quickly approached Tang Sen, rubbed his eyes and said, "Sir, I'm not late, am I?"

Tang Sen breathed a sigh of relief.

I'm just worried that this kid isn't disciplined enough and can't handle hardship.

"No." Tang Sen smiled, led him towards the stadium, and then asked him who gave him the gift.

Is it that police officer named Bernie Hayes?

That man was not only a police officer, but also a local community basketball coach who had previously mentored Stoudemire and took good care of him.

So even now, Stoudemire and his brother still stay at his house.

Stoudemire hesitated for a moment, then shook his head without saying anything.

"Then how did you get here?"

Tang Sen was taken aback.

Orlando doesn't have a subway, only buses, and at 4 a.m., the buses haven't even started operating yet.

Stoudemire gave an awkward smile but still didn't explain.

He was somewhat silent.

Tang Sen's heart skipped a beat, and he asked in surprise, "You didn't come here last night, did you?"

He's a child, no one takes him, and there's no public transportation. He lives about ten kilometers away from the center of the water houses.

After thinking it over, the only option was to take the last bus here last night, and then find a place to stay for a few hours until dawn.

If that's the case, let's not even talk about how bad it is; they haven't even had a proper rest yet, how can they train?

"No."

Stoudemire then spoke, quickly shaking his head to indicate no, and said, "I came by bicycle."

He pointed outside, and the bicycle was parked over there.

Tang Sen thought to himself, "Isn't this pretty much the same?"

If you want to start training before 5 o'clock, you need to arrive at the water house center at least by 4:30.

The straight-line distance is ten kilometers, which would take at least an hour to cycle.

Adding the time spent getting up and washing up, it means this guy probably got up at 2 a.m. and rushed over here.

After the crucial training session, I still have to cycle an hour back to class.

Tang Sen frowned.

Connors is a rather incompetent agent.

(End of this chapter)