All I Really Want Is To Play Basketball - Chapter 50

Chapter 50: Magnetic Defence!

Just as Su Feng was having fun with McGrady, on the afternoon of the 28th of June, the 1995 draft was held in Toronto.

This was a draft that would have a huge impact on the future. Meanwhile, it was also the first time the two NBA teams, the Toronto Raptors and the Vancouver Grizzlies, were participating in the draft.

Joe Smith from Maryland University was taken by the Golden State Warriors in the first round with the first draft order.

Smith was all-rounded, and during the early years of the Warriors, his performance could live up to the first overall draft pick.

The turning point of Smith’s life was when his contract ended.

Smith felt that the Warriors weren’t up to par, and under the influence of his famous manager, Fegan, he insisted to enter the free agency to try it out and rejected the $36 million offer that the Warriors offered.

In order to prevent coming up empty-handed, after the failure of the recontract, the Warriors had no choice but to hand over Smith to the Philadelphia 76ers.

However, after reaching Philadelphia, Smith realized that even though he was the first overall draft pick, he still had to kneel down to Larry Brown.

Then, because of the NBA lockout, when the NBA reopened their free agency in February the following year, Smith was stunned…

Therefore, his manager, Fegan, thought of an idea that allowed him to do feign action behind the facade of something else.

He signed a two-year contract worth $1.75 million, which was lower than the market price, with the Timberwolves. Then he secretly signed a seven-year contract that was worth $86 million.

The famous two-faced contract made the timberwolf turn into a husky instantly.

That was because before the lockout, the Timberwolves had already signed a six-year contract that was worth $1.26 billion with Garnett.

Therefore, when the alliance discovered Smith’s contract, the Timberwolves were stripped of the right to participate in the NBA draft first round pick for five seasons by the frustrated Stern, and they were fined a huge sum of money.

Meanwhile, Smith was named a free agent by the alliance.

That was because during the lockout, the capital and labor had reached many agreements and the NBA salary system had been perfected.

Therefore, the two-faced contract and the extremely pricey contract of Garnett caused the Timberwolves to lose the majority of their players as they did not have the right to participate in the first round pick of the NBA draft.

Meanwhile, Smith, who was once the first overall NBA draft pick, turned into an ordinary NBA player.

When he retired in the future, he had to plead for help on television programs after going bankrupt.

Therefore, wasn’t he foolish?

He had to take the risk and reject the grand offer given by others.

To put it frankly, he was too witty for his own good.

Meanwhile, after Smith was selected by the Warriors, Antonio McDyess was selected by the Clippers as the second draft order.

Following that, the Philadelphia 76ers chose Jerry Stackhouse in the third draft order.

It was known that Stackhouse was shameless.

He mocked Jordan and was defeated by Jordan. He wanted to teach Kobe a lesson but was defeated by Kobe. He wanted to compete with Allen Iverson for unlimited shooting chances and was sent away by the team immediately. Besides that, before participating in the 2000 dunking competition, he told the media confidently that he was better than his junior, Carter…

That was the end. After helping the NBA “superstars” gain their confidence, Stackhouse gave up on the fame.

In order to prevent himself from being embarrassed, Stackhouse would rather become a role player.

Meanwhile, after the top three players were announced in 1995, the players who were in the higher orders were also ready.

For the fourth order, the Washington Bullets picked Rasheed Wallace.

For the fifth order, the Timberwolves picked Kevin Garnett.

What was worth mentioning was that after Garnett was selected by the Timberwolves, Jennings, the Vice-President of the Celtics said, “Kevin is the best high school student in the NBA since Moses Malone. However, he would’ve been more successful in the NBA if he went to university.”

When Garnett saw this comment, he felt that Mr. Jennings had a strange logic.

That was because…

If he was able to make it to university, why would he need to participate in the NBA?

Before he entered the NBA, Garnett felt the hatred that the world had towards him!

They are definitely mocking me. This is definitely nonsense, this is definitely being done on purpose to disturb my mindset!

Garnett swore that he would definitely become an expert at speaking nonsense. In the future, he would only be able to insult others and nobody would be able to insult him!

Cough, back to the main topic.

After that, the more famous player, Stoudemire, nicknamed “Mighty Mouse”, was selected by the Raptors in the seventh order.

Brent Barry was selected by the Nuggets in the 15th order. Michael Finley was selected by the Suns in the 21st order…

The other players, like Bob Sura, Donny Marshall, and Eric Snow, were also selected by the teams they were interested in joining.

…

Back to Orlando.

After Su Feng and McGrady finished their physical examinations, their results completely shocked the three coaches.

Although Su Feng’s potential score had a firewall installed by his newest version 7.0 brick shots system, he was only 17 years old.

As for McGrady, after seeing his statistics, Mancias exclaimed, “The sky is his limit.”

Of course, when doing the physical examination for Mancias, Mancias also realized that McGrady’s spine was different from the ordinary person’s.

Therefore, Mancias suggested to McGrady, “I recommend you to not increase your weight too quickly in the future. Besides that, decrease the number of breakthroughs in case of any collisions.”

In Su Feng’s past life, when McGrady was the highest scorer in the Orlando Magic, he scored with jump shots. Back then, McGrady’s average match time was nearly 40 minutes, and apart from minor injuries, he did not suffer many major injuries.

After transferring to the Rockets, because of the cancellation of rules, McGrady’s weight increased.

It was a correct move for Mancias to recommend McGrady to control his weight. However, Su Feng felt that in order to prevent several injuries, McGrady not only needed to control his weight and decrease his breakthroughs.

To be honest, the best technique for McGrady was recuperative basketball.

In order to prolong his professional career, McGrady had to show his talent as much as possible in a limited timespan.

However, there was nothing he could do. In the 90s, as a famous superstar, if he did not play for 40 minutes, he would be regarded as a coward.

Being the core player was the tradition of that era.

After the training, Su Feng specially looked for Frazier.

That was because after the one-on-one match with McGrady, Su Feng realized that he found it difficult to defend against a player who was taller and faster than him.

McGrady had yet to train his jump shot. If McGrady nailed that, Su Feng would not be able to defeat McGrady.

Although Brick Shot Points were important, Su Feng’s skills were the most important.

If he was not able to defeat McGrady, who was a year two, Su Feng would definitely not qualify for the NBA!

Su Feng knew that it was difficult for him to develop his “dribbling talent” and hence decided to start from defense, which was what he was the best at.

Frazier was Nash’s coach in the past life. Apart from teaching Nash how to shoot, he also taught him how to defend.

Hmm…

Although Su Feng felt that it was useless for him to teach Nash how to defend, Su Feng believed that Frazier was exceptional.

“You are saying that Tracey is struggling?” asked Frazier curiously.

“Yes, when playing against Kobe, he has too many attack techniques. I cannot really tell what he will do,” replied Su Feng.

“Then shall we try to initiate the attack?” said Frazier.

“Initiate the attack?” asked Su Feng.

“Yes.” Under Frazier’s advice, Su Feng quickly understood what he meant by initiating the attack.

If Su Feng only learned the “death coil” and “mad dog defense”, the advice that Frazier gave would be something elite.

For example, Frazier told Su Feng how to make use of the rules and make use of his hands when defending a player who was good at breakthroughs.

For example, Frazier also told Su Feng how to maintain a safe defense distance.

Combined with his experience in defence, under Frazier’s advice, Su Feng quickly figured out a new set of defence techniques.

Su Feng named this technique “Magnetic Defence” or “Spare Tire Defence”.

To use a simple analogy, your goddess treated you like a spare tire and never initiated conversations with you. However, once she felt that you were being cold to her, she would come forward and make you show concern to her again.

This relationship was between about 30cm to 50cm, as Frazier drew a path for Su Feng based on his arm span and his speed.

Within this range, if McGrady attacked, Su Feng would retreat. If McGrady wanted to shoot, Su Feng could make use of his arm span to block him.

“You don’t have to be too fierce in your defence or force him to a dead end. That is because you can never ensure that you will be able to make an accurate defence every time.

“As long as you can force your opponent to deplete his energy, you have succeeded in your defense,” said Frazier.

Then, for the next few days, when Su Feng was practising with McGrady, he made use of this new technique to defend McGrady.

In the end…

It was really useful.

That was because Su Feng won a one-on-one match for the first time in his life.

After countless losses, Su Feng finally won!

21:18. Su Feng regretted not having a camera with him when he saw McGrady fall to the ground in exhaustion.

If not, he would definitely capture the moment.

Look, I beat McGrady, I beat McGrady!

Hmm…

Although beating a guy who was one year younger than himself was nothing worth bragging about…

Su Feng had gained experience in defence!

Just as Su Feng was about to diss McGrady excitedly, suddenly, in his mind…

…