No.1 in basketball scoring
Chapter 289 - 143. Small Goal Achieved_3

Chapter 289: 143. Small Goal Achieved_3

Zhang Yang greeted Herrmann but didn’t chat much.

He was interested in Herrmann because Jordan himself made a move to snatch him from the Spurs, having heard that Herrmann was a fan of Jordan.

Zhang Yang had looked up Herrmann’s information, 27 years old, 206 centimeters tall, weighing only 102 kilograms, very thin, but he could play as a shooting guard. In the Spanish club he mainly played forward, but on the Argentine national team he mainly played as a shooting guard, where even Ginobili played as a small forward for him.

Since Herrmann was a player personally invited by the boss, Bickerstaff could only complete the signing first before testing Herrmann.

Zhang Yang took a break from training to watch Herrmann’s test.

South American players favored by the Spurs might not be the strongest, but they certainly had some specialty that caught Popovich’s eye.

Soon he discovered why the Spurs were interested in Herrmann—the guy’s shooting accuracy was incredible!

In the first set of three-point tests, he made 94 out of 100 shots, then 88 in the second set, 91 in the third set... In all five sets of three-point tests, he could hit about 90 shots, with the lowest at 88.

Zhang Yang found out from Bickerstaff that the Spurs had been following Herrmann as early as around 2000, had been in contact for a long time, but Herrmann had a very long contract with the Spanish club, which only expired this year, and the buyout fee was very high. The Spurs waited until this year... only to have Jordan cut in front of them.

Looks like Herrmann got the idea of playing in the NBA after contacting the Spurs and started preparing early. Otherwise, he couldn’t have achieved such a shooting percentage beyond the NBA’s three-point line.

No wonder he could make Ginobili switch positions in the national team to play as a small forward. With such shooting accuracy and range, it was too effective in international competitions.

At 206 centimeters, being able to shoot like this, he’s like a broke version of the "Birdman" Durant, isn’t he!

But training is one thing, how he’ll perform during games is another story, and it’s not clear yet whether he can adapt to NBA games.

If he can adapt, they’ll have another solid shooter for the positions 2-4.

That puts more pressure on Alan Anderson, Matt Carroll, and Jumaine Jones.

For Zhang Yang, this is good news; competition among shooters brings pressure, and pressure is what drives them to get stronger.

...

While Zhang Yang watched Herrmann, his teammates gradually arrived at the gym for training.

At the beginning of the month, most of the teammates had already returned to start training. This morning, only Felton, Gerald Wallace, and Okafor had not shown up.

Okafor had also been busy this summer. Jordan had entrusted his friend Charles Oakley to teach Okafor defense. They started in mid-June and trained for a full two and a half months, not finishing until the end of August. Now, Okafor was at his home in Texas with his family, waiting for the team to call him back.

Zhang Yang heard Jordan joking that Okafor had trained until he ended up in a boxing ring... very Oakley-esque.

After watching Herrmann’s tryout, Zhang Yang chatted with the new center, Muhammad.

He was a very amiable player. Although he wasn’t very old, just 29, he had played in the NBA for 8 years. However, he seemed much older because of his mature looks. In addition to being amiable, he was also very steady, liked to take care of younger players, which made it not surprising to think of him as older.

The newcomer Muhammad looked after the most was Rondo, who was also happy to hang out with his new teammate. At first, Zhang Yang was quite surprised that Rondo had made a friend so quickly. It was only later that he found out Muhammad was Rondo’s senior, which explained their friendship.

Regarding Muhammad’s arrival, no one was happier than Perkins. Black Perkins was finally no longer the darkest one on the team, as Muhammad’s skin tone was about the same as his.

After wandering around the gym for a morning, Zhang Yang went home in the afternoon to help his parents pack up.

Zhang Chen and Yang Jing had been in Charlotte for several months, and they had finally settled the deal to open a new farm. They planned to stay in Charlotte for a long time. With the season starting soon and Zhang Yang having early departures and late returns, it would be inconvenient to continue living there.

Last month his parents had started looking for a place to live, and a few days ago they had rented a villa in the suburbs and were preparing to move there.

Zhang Yang was still planning to live in his apartment. It was close to the gym and convenient. If he occasionally wanted to stay at his parents’ place, it was just a half-hour drive away, no trouble, and it was also convenient for his parents to come see him.

Regarding this decision by Zhang Yang, Yang Jing constantly expressed her sadness in front of her eldest son, saying that her son had grown up and no longer needed his parents. But in private, she was utterly delighted... which made Zhang Chen want to snitch on her to his eldest son, but he was afraid of getting beaten.

Mainly, after living together for several months, they got a bit annoyed.

Kids want their private space and time to be alone, and it’s actually the same for parents.

Yang Jing wasn’t the type of mother with a strong desire to control when it came to raising children, otherwise she wouldn’t have allowed her eldest son to go to high school in another city by himself years ago.

After being busy for two days, on September 15th, his parents moved out. Zhang Yang looked at the empty house and felt... so awesome! The feeling of slouching on the sofa in his underwear playing video games was just too good to be true.

He had a leisurely day of rest, and that night, Zhang Yang went to bed at 10 pm, opened the Gate of Trials, and silently invoked the start of the trial. 120,000 Shooting value was deducted by 100,000, and soon, he was fast asleep...

...

In the 85-86 season, your team won the championship 4-2 against the Rockets in the Finals. As a rookie, you averaged 15.8 points in the Finals, the third-highest in your team, which convinced the general manager Auerbach to truly commit to developing you as one of the future cornerstones.

Before the 1986 draft, Auerbach leveraged all his connections, trading away multiple players and draft picks to acquire the second overall pick, choosing Len Bias, whom he saw as another future core player, and boldly declared you and Bias as the future of the Celtics dynasty... But three days after the draft, disaster struck, Len Bias overdosed on drugs and died...