No.1 in basketball scoring
Chapter 343 - 163. The Last True - Iverson_3

Chapter 343: 163. The Last True - Iverson_3

Tonight, Iverson was on fire; the young guys on the other side really showed him respect.

Zhang Yang also played happily; his shooting percentage was a bit low, two percentage points lower than his season average of 46.5%. I didn’t know what was up with Iguodala. He defended like a mad dog. They were purposely seeking out the difficulty; this was a sign of respect for the strongest defensive player on the opponent’s perimeter.

The Iverson before me was still the original flavor AI. The next time I met Iverson, it would likely be the golden AI.

The Iverson from the Nuggets Team, although he had the highest efficiency in a season and a half, with a shooting percentage over 45% and averaging more than 7 assists per game, was no longer the real Iverson.

Zhang Yang never thought all stars must be the same: must be team players, must make good shooting choices, must cultivate a good image... What’s the fun in a basketball world like that?

The reason the current NBA is so fascinating is that every star is different.

Nash, technically perfect but a very poor defender and somewhat soft; Kidd, unmatched in team leadership but with many flaws, like not valuing coaches he deems inferior; Kobe, obsessively superstitious about shooting; James, lots of playing flaws but exceptionally talented; McGrady, with a fluid style and full of talent, but arrogant and proud... Today’s stars each have very apparent flaws, but their characteristics are also particularly prominent.

Zhang Yang didn’t know if the future him would homogenize with other players as eras in the NBA changed, becoming a part of the happy three-point shooting brigade, but at least at this moment, he was enjoying today’s basketball.

Everyone was happy... well, not everyone, as tonight only Iguodala got injured...

...

After playing three games in four days, the Bobcats had two days of rest, and then the intensity would increase—the next four games would be home games against the Lakers, Suns, Spurs, and Mavericks!

The good news was there were no back-to-back games; there were two rest days between the third and fourth games.

After returning to Charlotte at noon, Zhang Yang went to the gym in the afternoon. With the help of trainer Ingles, he practiced long passes, finally having the time. He planned to employ "Long-Distance Passing Fundamentals" and solidify his skills in long passing.

Ingles got a raise. In the summer of 2005, Jordan gave him a two-year contract worth $3 million US dollars as a shooting coach. On November 30th, Jordan completed a renewal with him for $10 million US dollars over four years.

This time Jordan really splurged, the salaries of head coaches of those tanking teams might not even match Ingles’s.

Mainly, it was because of Ingles’s strong capabilities. During the off-season special training phase, Legendary Trainer Tim Grove praised Ingles more than once, saying he was even better than Frank Hamblen.

Frank Hamblen was only good at coaching players with a shooting talent, simplistically put, he could make a good shooter better.

Ingles was different; he could find ways to help even someone with Gerald Wallace’s shooting talent improve his shooting. This season, Gerald Wallace was averaging 0.5 three-pointers a game with a 32% shooting rate. Though still poor, this was at least not as completely ignored by opponents like Kirilenko when playing outside, always garnering a bit of attention.

Gerald Wallace’s three-point shooting was not Ingles’s biggest accomplishment this summer; it was the free throws. From a free throw shooting percentage of just 55% in the early season last year to 61% at the end, this season in the first month through twelve games, it had risen to 73%.

With Zhang Yang on hand, Jordan’s long-term plan held Ingles as a crucial element, hence the heavy investment in his renewal.

Today, Okafor and Rondo also came in for extra practice.

Coaching these two was definitely the most challenging and difficult job Ingles had encountered since entering the NBA.

Rondo came to practice three-pointers and free throws, Okafor to practice free throws.

Okafor had a 38% shooting rate for mid-range shots, 41.4% for close-range shots, and a 67% rate under the basket, with an overall shooting rate of 51%, which was quite good.

But extending to the free-throw line distance, he couldn’t shoot accurately; this season his free-throw shooting percentage was only a pitiful 58%.

The regular season had been going for over a month now. Both players’ improvements in shooting form, power habits, and posture were on track. However, due to the ongoing season, in games, both would still shoot using old habits, impacting the training progress and making the effects less apparent. Thankfully, both were willing to put in the effort and didn’t slack off just because they couldn’t see results immediately.

When they flew back from Philadelphia this morning, Okafor and Rondo had arranged training sessions with Ingles earlier than Zhang Yang and reached the practice court earlier in the afternoon to start training.

When Ingles saw Zhang Yang arrive promptly at two in the afternoon at the gym, his normally stern face broke into a smile.

It wasn’t that he found coaching Rondo and Okafor troublesome; he admired their effort, but Rondo’s shooting talent and Okafor’s free throw talent really made him feel the task was too difficult.

Having a lighter job to adjust his mood naturally made him happy.

Zhang Yang trained for two hours, and "Long Pass Fundamentals" were effective; he quickly learned the knack of finding the landing spot for the long passes.

This learning speed was ridiculously fast, but Ingles was used to it. When Zhang Yang told him in the morning he wanted to practice long passes, he had mentally prepared and was full of anticipation... Jack indeed didn’t disappoint him!

Hearing Zhang Yang say his arms were tired and he wanted to work out his waist and abdomen, Ingles could only regrettably end the passing practice, arrange for a trainer to help Zhang Yang with equipment in the gym... and continue to endure the torment from Rondo and Okafor... He scolded Rondo.