Basketball trainer, I created a super giant

Chapter 332 Ending the Rumors
Carlisle seemed to have taken Tang Sen's words to heart.

Tang Sen noticed that he was communicating more with the players during training.

It's not just core players like Yao Ming and Wade, but also role players.

As a head coach, you need to talk to the players. They may not tell you the truth, but it's at least a positive change.

This shows that Carlisle is concerned about the condition of these players.

This is actually very important.

Players are not machines; they simply follow a set program and coldly go on the field.

They are human beings; they have families and experience troubles in life.

These off-field factors can affect their performance in the game.

Their performance was affected; they missed a few goals and scored fewer points. What the media said and what the fans complained about will continue to affect their mentality.

If only someone could care about them at this time.

For example, if the head coach specifically arranges a few tactics for them to score more points, the psychological pressure may be relieved.

For example, if a player doesn't get much playing time, he will definitely lose his composure and become somewhat lax.

If the head coach were to give them some playing time at this point, things would definitely improve.

In the past, Carlisle didn't worry much about these things; he only focused on troop deployment and tactical arrangements.

The players are like pawns in his game; he only cares about which pawns he needs.

This change will certainly have some positive effects.

Secondly, Carlisle began to seriously plan tactics and consider how to defeat his opponent.

Even if the opponent is weak.

Off the court, he began watching a lot of his opponents' game videos.

On the field, he also started standing on the sidelines again to observe the changes in the game situation.

In this situation, the Knicks' chances of losing have decreased somewhat.

February has arrived.

There's something really important right now: the All-Star Game.

On February 1st, the league announced the rosters for the Eastern and Western Conference All-Star Games.

The Western Conference starting lineup is still the same as last year: O'Neal, Duncan, Garnett, Kobe, and Francis.

Meanwhile, not much has changed in the east.

Yao Ming continued to outperform Brown as the starting center for the Eastern Conference.

The forward line is led by Jermaine O'Neal and Tracy McGrady.

Hill's stats have declined, he's getting older, and his votes have decreased significantly.

American fans are quite realistic; they don't care about fame, they care about ability.

Last year, Jordan was a big name, but he still lost his starting position in the Eastern Conference due to a decline in his skills. He even had to rely on players like Carter to make way for him.

The backcourt remains the same, with Carter and Iverson still in charge.

Fortunately, Billups unsurprisingly made it into the All-Star game as a reserve.

Even with Kidd around.

With his current ability, averaging 18 points and 8 rebounds per game, Billups truly deserves to be in the All-Star Game.

Wade couldn't compete with Iverson and Carter in the voting, and he wasn't qualified to be on the bench either. So, like James and others, he had to participate in the Rising Stars Challenge and compete with James for the Rising Star MVP.

should be no problem.

The head coach for the rookie season is Thibodeau, so he always has to take care of his own players.

This year's All-Star Game was held in Los Angeles.

On the 11th, after winning back-to-back away games against the Hornets, the All-Star Weekend officially began.

The Knicks have a lot of players going to this All-Star Game.

Let's not even talk about Yao Ming and Billups.

Jones, for example, signed up for the dunk contest.

Billups didn't sign up for the Skills Challenge, but instead signed up for the Three-Point Contest.

Tang Sen's assessment was accurate; he was indeed an offensive point guard.

Then Prince, Gazuric, and Fred Jones were all invited to the Rookie Challenge and joined the second-year team.

Even Tang Sen, unlike the previous two years, didn't just go there to join in the fun.

This year, Townsend joined Carlisle's coaching staff as an Eastern Conference trainer, with the task of leading all the Eastern Conference stars in practice before the games.

In previous years, the Rising Stars Challenge received limited attention.

But this year is different.

Last year's draft class had so many talented players with an extremely high success rate that some media outlets dubbed it a "golden generation."

In previous drafts, it was already quite an achievement if a rookie with a score of 20 or higher emerged during the rookie season.

In the class of 03, three outstanding students emerged in one go.

It's practically a case of kids running the household.

But the result was that the second-year students won by a margin of 131 to 112, a 19-point victory.

The little devils didn't stand up straight.

Tang Sen went to the stadium to watch the match.

Thibodeau fielded a starting lineup of Chris Kaman, Bosh, Anthony, James, and Wade for his rookie year. He intentionally favored Wade, giving him a significant amount of playing time.

As he wished, Wade scored 31 points.

If the first-year team wins, his performance will definitely earn him the MVP award.

Unfortunately, his teammates were a disappointment.

Or perhaps, the opponent was too strong.

The second-year team, with Stoudemire as its core, was completely outmatched by Bosh and Kaman, allowing him to score a whopping 37 points.

In addition, Prince locked down Anthony.

Despite his strong physique, Anthony couldn't overcome the seemingly frail Prince. His signature jump shot was also contested by Prince's long arms, resulting in 7 out of 15 attempts being made.

And James.

Jones's defense made him feel like he was back in the nightmare of the 71-point defeat.

James only scored 17 points in the entire game.

This was during the Rising Stars Challenge, and Jones didn't play full-court defense the entire game.

Gazuric completely outclassed Kaman.

Originally, as the head coach of the second-year team, Kurt Rambis was not keen to give the Knicks players too much playing time.

When I used it, I found it to be more useful than ever before.

Their offense and defense are outstanding; it's almost like using three star players.

After the game, Rambis seemed to have mixed feelings when facing reporters. He briefly praised Stoudemire, but his attention was entirely on Prince and the other two players.

I only realized today just how formidable the Knicks' bench is.

Gadzuric, in particular, is fast, jumps, and is tough enough. He also has a good low-post shot and a hook shot under the basket, and his footwork is agile.

If the Lakers had a center like that to be O'Neal's backup, it would be perfect.

As the player who managed to stop James, Jones unexpectedly gained a lot of attention.

This level of attention increased significantly after he won the dunk contest the following day.

"Rick."

Before the afternoon practice session, a reporter asked Carlisle a question.

Is it a waste to have such a defensive stalwart who can stop LeBron James and win the Slam Dunk Contest, relegated to the bench and constantly put on the injury list?

If he were on a regular team, he might not be the absolute core player, but he would be a good second or third option.

Whatever Carlisle could say, he would have told the reporters, "You have no idea how long I've been having headaches because the team is so strong."

Forget about the dunk champion, there's a Swift sitting right next to the water cooler.

He was also nicknamed the New York Rain Man.

Tang Sen was also surrounded by reporters who came up to ask him what it was like to train a group of top-level players.

Tang Sen glanced at the reporter who asked the question and retorted, "You're making it sound like I haven't been trained."

Moreover, superstars are trained by themselves.

The reporter who asked the question blushed and, embarrassed, dared not ask any more questions.

One reporter did ask a rather interesting question.

Ask Tang Sen what he thinks about Iverson's lack of training, and ask if he can change Iverson's mind during the upcoming training session.

Many players who trained with Townsend described his training as the best in the world, saying it was irresistible.

"He doesn't train?"

Tang Sen looked at him strangely, as if there was such a rumor.

Especially last season, the season when Iverson and Larry Brown had a falling out.

Larry Brown then stepped forward and complained to the media that Iverson had missed training without reason.

But Tang Sen thought that was complete nonsense.

Seeing all the reporters looking at him, Tang Sen said, "If he doesn't train, do you think he could average 40 minutes per game this season?"

"Do you guys not know what 40 minutes per game means, especially since he's a short player who has won a scoring title?"

Looking at O'Neal's gradually increasing weight, you could say he's been slacking off in training.

But Iverson?

This guy's official height is 183cm, but that's probably inflated.

With that height, it's unimaginable how much effort it would take to establish oneself on the court and even win the scoring title.

Like Tang Sen, who is about the same height as Iverson, he also trained like crazy in order to stay on the court.

Allen Iverson averaged over 40 minutes per game during the season, and even averaged 46 minutes per game in the 01 playoffs.

Given the intensity of NBA games, if he didn't train for a week, he would be exhausted on the court.

Not to mention his sharp breakthroughs; in order to score, he makes all sorts of difficult breakthroughs and layups, often throwing the ball in while lying down.

Without a strong core force, he couldn't have accomplished it.

But can core strength be acquired out of thin air?

"Stop saying Allen isn't training. That's obviously a rumor. He has paid a huge price and endured a lot of hardship in training to achieve what he has today."

Tang Sen felt that with his authority in the industry, he was fully qualified to put an end to this rumor.

(End of this chapter)