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Chapter 444 - 202. Bi Shuai: Accidentally became a legend?

Chapter 444: 202. Bi Shuai: Accidentally became a legend?

Being watched by Okafor, Zhang Yang and Felton had to give up on teaching the fans how to annoy Kidd, and when the physical examination started, they put this idea behind them, as it was just for fun.

The last item of the physical examination was the static physical data measurement such as height, wingspan, and weight, which was self-reported... After Zhang Yang filled in his information, he went to submit his medical examination report and ran into Okafor.

He glanced at the report Okafor was submitting and said with an odd expression, "Emeka, you’re 6 feet 11 inches (211 cm)?"

Okafor’s poker face revealed a fleeting mix of embarrassment and annoyance but quickly returned to calm and he replied, "My wingspan is 7 feet 4 inches (223 cm), my effective shooting height and shot blocking aren’t worse than those of a 7-foot center... What did you put for yours... How could you possibly be only 6 feet 5 inches? You look taller than Bryant, even Jordan, almost as tall as Carter."

Zhang Yang: "Randy just measured me, 196 cm, which converts to 6 feet 5 inches, right?"

Confusion flashed across Okafor’s face before he realized, "You measured without shoes?"

Zhang Yang: "You can measure with shoes?"

Okafor: "... Now that you mention it, Yao also claims to be 226 cm, but he’s actually as tall as the 229 cm Bradley. You Chinese are really... too honest."

After some thought, Okafor changed his height to 6 feet 9 inches (206 cm).

Zhang Yang was astonished when he saw this, "Uh, Emeka, doesn’t this just expose Howard’s height..."

Okafor: "Really? Should I change it again? To 203?"

In the afternoon, the Bobcats began preparing for their series against the Nets.

Before the strategy meeting, Zhang Yang received a stack of tactical analysis and several seemingly full HD DVDs, and he couldn’t help but exclaim, "Isn’t this a bit too much preparation for the game?"

Randy Brown: "Ha ha, what can you do when the Nets Team is one of the most influential teams in the East since the turn of the century? They’ve played 13 series in the past five years, giving us lots of games to analyze. Didn’t you ask Bernie to get the materials well prepared? These are edited videos; there would’ve been even more."

"But it’s only you and Rajon who get such thorough information. Everyone else just has videos of the Nets’ post-season in ’05 and ’06. You don’t need to watch the ten series’ videos from ’02 to ’04 now; Bernie said they are for you to learn fast breaks and counter-attack passing. Kidd is one of the best point guards at advancing the ball in history, and the anticipatory sense of Jefferson and Martin is also rare..."

Hearing this, Zhang Yang turned to look at Rondo, who had also received a heap of materials. Coach Rondo is eager to learn too.

The strategy meeting began, and Zhang Yang once again marveled at how well-prepared the coaching team was.

As Randy Brown said, they wouldn’t have been able to collect so much data in less than 48 hours from the Nets’ last game to their lock-in of the eighth spot against the Bulls, if it hadn’t been for facing off against Kidd.

After the strategy meeting, the Bobcats started their intense preparations.

The name casts a shadow; when the opponent is Kidd, the Bobcats do not dare to be careless even though the other side only has 39 wins. They are fully engaged in preparations, without needing any prompting or extra motivation.

Two days flashed by, and April 21st, the first game day of the 2006-2007 playoffs, arrived.

Today, the series between the Bobcats and Nets, Cavaliers and Toronto Raptors, Spurs and Nuggets Team, Lakers and Suns, amongst others, would kick off one after another.

The Bobcats just finished their pre-game meeting and training in the morning when they received a surprise!

The league announced the winners of three awards today.

The sportsmanship award, the Joe Dumars Trophy, was taken by the Bulls’ Luol Deng.

This award is decided by a voting system with one candidate from each of the six divisions, and over 440 NBA players voted on the final day of the regular season.

Zhang Yang also participated in the voting. Early on the 17th, as soon as they arrived at the Madison Square Garden away team’s training facility, the league officials came to get them to vote, and he voted for his division’s candidate, Grant Hill.

Hill’s persevering presence in the NBA after six seasons of injuries was admirable.

However, Zhang Yang felt it was also normal for Deng to win the award. Deng is keen on charity and beyond reproach in playing, hardworking and active... If there was a ’flaw,’ it would be that his defense is too clean. When facing unreasonable scorers, his interference floods and conventional defensive tactics are often hammered down.

The other two awards, to Zhang Yang’s surprise, both went to the Bobcats!

Bickerstaff won the Executive of the Year award by earning 27 of the total of 60 votes cast by the general managers and presidents of the 30 teams, narrowly beating the Toronto Raptors’ general manager Brian Colangelo with 25 votes, the Spurs’ general manager RC Buford with 6 votes, and the Bulls’ general manager John-Parkinson with 2 votes.

Bickerstaff also won the Coach of the Year award with 36 of the 100 first-place votes cast by North American sports journalists, totaling 233 points and a 25.8% share of the total votes, defeating the Raptors’ head coach Sam Mitchell with 30 first-place votes, the Mavericks’ head coach Avery Johnson with 27, the Rockets’ head coach Jeff Van Gundy with 4, and the Jazz Team’s head coach Jerry Sloan with 3.

After lunch, Zhang Yang bought two bouquets and two fruit baskets and went to the general manager’s office to congratulate Bickerstaff.

Felton, Okafor, Gerald Wallace... and others also bought flowers and fruit baskets.

They were not used to this kind of gesture before; if they were to give something, it wouldn’t be these items but something more expensive to show off.

This chapter is updated by freew(e)bnovel.(c)om