Volume 1: The Road to the European Emperor Chapter 24 The next Gasol?
a step far.
However, after arriving at Oro Real Madrid, Sun Hao found that this was the most difficult step.
Not only are there talented players who have completed double jumps like him, but there are also many adult players who have been eliminated from La Liga.
Some of these players are talented, and some are strong.
Although Sun Hao's ability is relatively advanced among them, he is no longer as outstanding as before.
The competition here seems to be much smaller than that in the youth team, but it is truly a situation where thousands of troops are crossing a single-plank bridge.
Or to put it in a more vivid way, going from Oro Real Madrid to La Liga Real Madrid is as difficult as going from the Development League NBDL to the NBA.
This was also the first real challenge Sun Hao encountered after coming to Spain.
However, Sun Hao's belief is firm.
It’s like walking along the plank road on Mount Huashan. You’ve already walked two-thirds of the way, and there’s no reason to turn back.
And he is not a coward at heart.
Oro's matches were very competitive, and he no longer had the advantage in confrontation like in previous leagues, so he added training in this area in the system.
The European league places a lot of emphasis on pick-and-roll, and the system was not able to conduct this type of training for a while, so he built good relationships with his teammates and took the initiative to practice more after the game .
He practices whatever he lacks and constantly improves himself.
Even when Fernandez asked him to go out and play, he suppressed his restlessness and declined, devoting almost all his time to training.
His goal is to enter La Liga within a year. There is still more than half a year left, including a year in the system, so he must go all out.
And while Joseline's incident made Sun Hao sad, it also stimulated him.
Putting your energy into training is the most effective way to forget this experience.
Sun Hao, who was regarded as a lunatic a few years ago, appeared in Real Madrid again.
The high-intensity training finally brought rewards.
Sun Hao's strength was already at the forefront, and coupled with his image of hard work, he soon won the appreciation of the head coach, who made an exception and included the 15-year-old Sun Hao into the rotation.
Thanks to sufficient preparation, Sun Hao performed well in his first appearance in the Oro League.
Whether it is setting screens for teammates, the choices after teammates set screens, or even how to avoid opponents' screens, Sun Hao does everything very well.
He made no mistakes on the court and seized opportunities to score 5 points.
Sun Hao only played for 8 minutes as a substitute in his first game, but his performance was quite outstanding.
This is a very good performance for a player who is only 15 years old and is competing with some players who are 20 or even 30 years old.
And this is just the beginning.
Sun Hao's steady playing style, which is completely inconsistent with his age, continued to be demonstrated in subsequent games, and the head coach's trust in him grew.
What followed was increasing playing time and increasingly outstanding performances.
The biggest difference between the Oro League and the two leagues Sun Hao had played in before is that the requirements for tactical execution and the use of pick-and-rolls are much stricter.
This place emphasizes teamwork more, so individual data will not be so prominent. It emphasizes pick-and-roll more, so naturally the understanding of pick-and-roll will be more important.
This is what Sun Hao did during the next six months.
Use pick-and-roll to frequently shoot from the outside to score, create pick-and-rolls for teammates, and score after receiving passes from teammates.
Although he is a point guard, his playing style is different from other European point guards. He prefers to score, and of course the key is to be able to score.
Over the next six months, Sun Hao spent his first birthday in Spain and fully adapted to the confrontation and intensity of the Oro League.
More importantly, as the game progressed, he unlocked a series of badges.
Pick and Roll Expert (Bronze): Slightly improves your accuracy when completing a breakthrough, layup, or shot after a pick and roll.
Pick-and-Roll Dodger (Bronze): Slightly improves a player's ability to get through and around screens while defending.
Iron Wall (Bronze): Slightly increases the difficulty for the defender to pass through or around the pick-and-roll screen, and depletes the opponent's physical strength.
All three badges are related to pick-and-roll.
European basketball attaches great importance to pick-and-roll, so unlocking these badges is a natural thing.
In addition to the three new badges he obtained in the past six months, what made him even more excited was the basketball IQ badge.
Although Oro is in the second-tier league, the tactical complexity is more complicated than the NCAA and the two leagues he played in before, which is also one of the characteristics of European basketball.
In addition to training, he spends his free time studying these tactics.
As a result, his understanding of techniques and tactics continues to improve.
Finally, before the end of the season, he successfully upgraded his basketball IQ badge level from bronze to silver!
He got his first silver badge!
Basketball IQ (Silver): Effectively improve the understanding and application of basketball skills and tactics.
Although it is only a difference of two words, after upgrading the badge, Sun Hao could clearly feel that his understanding of techniques and tactics had reached a new level.
That feeling is just like in a fantasy novel, where one goes from having a glimpse of the basics to having a thorough understanding of the subject!
The silver badge helped him immediately, as he recorded his first triple-double of the season in the semi-finals of the Oro playoffs against Joventut.
13 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists! Plus 3 steals and 1 block!
This game became a turning point in the series. Real Madrid reached the final and won the championship with the victory in this game.
Sun Hao was also elected as the Oro League's top four MVP for his outstanding performance in that game !
In one year, with some luck and more importantly, his own hard work, Sun Hao won his first MVP trophy in Spain.
Although it is only a second-tier league with limited value, it is already dazzling enough.
You should know that no Chinese player has ever been able to make it in European leagues, even in lower-level leagues, but Sun Hao broke this precedent.
Of course, no one in the country knew about this result except his parents .
The most valuable player in the Spanish second division is not worth media coverage.
What domestic fans are paying attention to now is who will be the first player to land in the NBA.
Before that, the only Chinese player to appear in the NBA was Song Tao, who was selected by the Hawks with the 67th overall pick in the third round in 1987. The latter missed the NBA due to injury.
Moreover, the NBA received very little attention in China at that time.
However, with the famous "40-minute wait to knock on CCTV's door" incident in 1989 when the new NBA commissioner Stern took office, the NBA has gained an audience in China, and fans' expectations for this area are naturally greater.
The player they are most looking forward to now is the "wind-chasing boy" of the Bayi team, Wang Zhizhi, who blocked "Admiral" David Robinson in the Atlanta Games a year ago.
According to previous news, Wang Zhizhi is likely to be selected by the NBA because of his age (22-year-old players automatically participate in the draft).
In other words, that is what will most likely happen in a year.
So compared to Sun Hao winning the MVP in the Spanish second division league, that is what fans are more concerned about.
But Sun Hao didn't care about these things, or in other words, his ambitions went far beyond this.
The 1997-1998 La Liga season has come to an end. After a short offseason, they will usher in the curtain of a new season.
There is a high probability that Sun Hao will continue to play in the Oro League.
However, just before the start of the season, the assistant coach of La Liga Real Madrid team came to the locker room.
Because the team's original starting point guard, Brazilian Fernandoño, chose to return to the domestic league in the new season, the team ultimately failed to find a suitable replacement.
Ultimately, they had no choice but to accept the team's loss of strength at this position and begin turning their attention to newcomers.
At this time, Sun Hao, who had been performing brilliantly in the past year, naturally came into their sight.
Opportunity awaits those who are prepared.
Just like that, with 95.5% effort and 4.5% luck, Sun Hao replicated Pau Gasol's feat a year ago, completed three consecutive jumps within a year, and successfully entered the La Liga Real Madrid team!
