Volume 2 Talent Show Controversy Chapter 75: Kobe's Gaze
The general process of NBA tryouts is the same.
The Bulls' tryout arrangements are similar to the previous joint tryouts in Europe.
What’s different is the people who show up.
The Bulls' workout was attended by head coach Tim Flood, general manager Jerry Krause, and the team's coaching and management staff.
After Jordan retired, the Bulls' former veterans left one after another, and the team ranked last in the Eastern Conference for two consecutive years.
Last year, with Stern's blessing, they got the first pick and selected Elton Brand.
But this year they were not so lucky, with the second-worst record in the league, but only the fourth and seventh picks.
In addition, this year is a weak year for the draft, so it is more difficult for them to select players and they naturally pay more attention to tryouts.
The tryout was about to begin, and at this moment, a familiar figure appeared at the entrance of the gym.
Kobe.
He did not leave the gym immediately just now, but went to the shower room to take a shower.
He didn't want to kiss his Vanessa while he was sweaty and smelly.
Krause was sitting on the sidelines of the court. When he turned around and saw Kobe, he stood up and greeted .
After seeing this, Kobe took the initiative to walk towards him.
During the offseason, he spends most of his time in Los Angeles for personal training.
But he got engaged to Vanessa in May this year and chose to travel to Chicago in his first summer.
Vanessa wakes up late every morning, and he takes this time to go to the United Center for training.
The stadium was closed during the offseason, so he contacted Krause, who called the team's physical trainer to open the door for him.
This kind of training has been going on for several days.
Someone from the management team made room for him, and Kobe sat down and quickly started chatting with Krause.
The Bulls are a legendary team in NBA history, with many legendary figures besides Jordan.
This includes General Manager Krause, who built two three-peat feats with Jordan and Pippen as the core, in the new three years and the old three years.
Kobe had a lot of respect for him.
Similarly, Krause is full of admiration for Kobe, a shooting guard who is very similar to Jordan.
The two of them talked about everything, and naturally talked about last year's playoffs.
"If you have one more outside shooter who can shoot three-pointers, I think the Lakers can easily complete a dynasty."
Klaus saw it clearly.
Ron Harper was originally recruited from the Clippers. Now he is old and his defensive ability has declined a lot. The key is that he is not accurate from the outside.
This is also an important reason why the Lakers almost capsized in the Western Conference Finals last season.
If they can find a reliable shooter, everything will be much easier.
Just like Steve Kerr during his time with the Bulls.
The Lakers and the Bulls are two different teams, but they have the same coach and their playing styles are actually not much different. It’s just that two superstars have been replaced.
Kobe nodded after hearing this.
As a person involved, he feels this even more deeply.
Not to mention how many points he can score, if he has a reliable shooter to create space for him, the situation of the game will be completely different.
As the two people were chatting, bursts of crisp sounds were heard from the field.
Their attention was also attracted by the sound.
The three-point shooting test is now being conducted on the court, and the shooting percentage of rapid fire within one minute.
Two baskets, two people, Sun Hao and Eddie House, one on the left and one on the right, each shot hit the target.
House is a scoring maniac in the NCAA and is very accurate in three-point shooting, so it is not surprising that he has such performance.
As for Sun Hao, they didn't pay much attention to him before, especially to Klaus.
The two were evenly matched in the first thirty seconds, but a gap began to appear between them in the last thirty seconds.
The person who fell was actually House!
House missed two shots. The one-minute high-intensity shooting requires a very high level of accuracy from the shooter. Moreover, this was a tryout venue, so the psychological pressure was also high.
After the last set of shots, Sun Hao completed all the shots and made them all.
Although House made all his shots, two of them missed.
Kobe also looked at Sun Hao with interest at this time.
When he walked out of the training hall earlier, it seemed that this guy's eyes were different from those of the others.
After shooting, Sun Hao went to the sidelines to rest.
Before, he was worried that practicing so much in the system would affect his hand feel, but now it seems that his worry was unnecessary.
Years of training have allowed his muscles to develop very strong memory. To be a little pretentious, he can maintain a very high hit rate even with his eyes closed.
This is by no means an exaggeration. When Jordan pretended to be cool by shooting free throws with his eyes closed, Kobe was not affected by Battier covering his eyes every day, and Klay Thompson made eight out of ten three-pointers in the dark. It's the same principle.
Just then, he saw Reed coming up for a three-pointer.
He had the upper hand in the PK with House just now, but what really frightened him was Reed, who should be his biggest competitor in this tryout.
The assistant coach on the sidelines checked the stopwatch and blew the whistle.
But Sun Hao was immediately shocked.
Reed's three-pointer was much worse than he remembered.
Not to mention him, he couldn't even see House's taillights.
He missed half of his shots and was even worse than Jaric who played with him.
Sun Hao felt that his cognition had suffered some impact.
Poor performance?
Or is he like Ginobili, who only developed his shooting skills after entering the NBA?
The latter possibility is probably more likely.
Otherwise, with Reed University's performance, even with those reasons, he would not have fallen to the late second round.
After the basic training, the scene quickly entered into a one-on-one session.
Sun Hao’s first opponent was House.
It was exactly the same as the joint tryout in Europe, the people in charge of the tryout were really in a hurry.
"I've heard of Michael Reed, a star player in the Big 10, who's pretty good at breaking through."
"Who do you think will win in a one-on-one duel between the two of them?"
Kobe was still talking about Reed, but Klaus's attention was already on the one-on-one between Sun Hao and House.
The rebuilding Bulls don't need a pure shooter, and he is now looking forward to the two of them showing their abilities in other areas.
"House, he's proven himself in the NCAA."
Kobe gave his own judgment. He had never heard of any Asian guard playing in the NBA before. To be more precise, there was no one who could play in the NCAA.
The duel on the court started quickly, and House took the ball and attacked first.
Sun Hao went straight forward to press.
A slide step coupled with an aggressive steal attempt.
His current defensive style is a combination of Iverson and Paul. He presses the defense when facing guards and forces the opponents away from the basket when facing big men.
House…directly missed the dribble.
His dribbling ability is really not that good.
Although he scored crazily in the NCAA, he is a player with a very high assist rate.
This scene surprised Kobe who was watching on the sidelines.
However, what surprised him was not House's mistake, but Sun Hao's defensive steps.
Although he doesn't look very skilled, he is very professional.
Perhaps only those who are very familiar with Kobe know how much he values his pace.
He later mentioned more than once in his autobiography "Kobe Bryant" that whether it is offense or defense, pace is always the most critical factor in determining success or failure .
"what is his name?"
He couldn't help but turned around and asked.
"Sun Hao, 18 years old, played in Spain before. He was the MVP of both the Champions League and La Liga this year."
Klaus' assistant at the side spoke up to answer.
Kobe nodded, an expression that said, "I see."
We rarely hear news from Europe here in the United States, so this is not surprising, but this is the first time I have heard of Asian players playing in Europe.
I just don't know if he is Chinese, Japanese or Korean.
While they were talking, the offense and defense on the field had already changed. Sun Hao saw that House was very close to him, so he changed direction and accelerated past House.
House chased from behind and flew to block the shot, and the two men confronted each other in the air.
Sun Hao had the upper hand in the aerial confrontation and steadily sent the ball into the basket.
Kobe showed an expression of appreciation at this time.
He doesn't like to express his emotions through words, so his eyes are colorful even on the court.
The defensive steps in front, coupled with this first step and confrontation, really made Sun Hao a little interested in him.
After five goals , Sun Hao only allowed House to score one goal, and the score was 5 to 1.
Kobe was appreciative, while Krause was surprised.
Although he is experienced, he doesn't know much about European defenders.
His perception of European guards is similar to what most teams have in mind: good at organizing defenses but poor at shooting.
It is common sense in their eyes that the European league is not as good as the NCAA.
But Sun Hao's performance refreshed his understanding.
The two scorers seem to have similar styles. House, the NCAA guard, was beaten by Sun Hao, the European guard...
After all the one-on-one matches, in addition to Sun Hao, there was another guard player who performed particularly well, Reed.
Compared to the previous three-point shooting, Reed showed another level of performance in the one-on-one situation.
His breakthroughs, confrontations, and defense are all impressive.
This is a very mature player, and his strength is obviously stronger than others.
As expected, the person who even Kobe has heard of is quite capable.
At this time, Klaus stood up and said something to his assistant.
After the assistant understood, he quickly walked over to head coach Frode and whispered in his ear.
The one-on-one is over, and the rookies are ready for the next two-on-two.
But at this moment, head coach Frode suddenly blew the whistle.
He asked Sun Hao and Reed to step out, and then signaled them to have a one-on-one fight.
This move drew whistles and boos from the other rookies.
In football training, there is a training method that is used frequently and is also the most exciting part.
Pad drills, elite showdown.
Sun Hao and Reed are now about to stage this scene on the basketball court.
Kobe also sat up straight at this time. He could guess that this was Krause's arrangement.
But this also made him very interested in who would have the upper hand among the two people who performed best in the one-on-one tryout.
