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Chapter 585 - 253. You have already become the public enemy of the league.

Chapter 585: 253. You have already become the public enemy of the league.

Felton’s eyes lit up at the suggestion—this was indeed a great direction to expand his shooting range based on his style of play!

"Jack, you’re so smart—I’ll give it a try!"

Felton said and did exactly that, excitedly trying...

Meanwhile, Zhang Yang was also training, practicing Marbury’s in-front body crossover dribbling skills. After a while, he turned his head and saw Felton squatting next to the three-second area.

Zhang Yang asked in puzzlement, "Why are you squatting down?"

Felton: "I rushed to that spot and stopped abruptly, but my catch-and-step-back movements were too slow. If I speed them up, I can’t maintain the stability of my step-back shooting. It might be better to just stop and shoot. I’m trying to figure out a way to solve this problem. If not, I’ll just stick to practicing stop-and-shoot."

Coming up with ideas on his own, identifying problems on his own, reflecting on his own... Zhang San felt reassured once more.

Compared to that summer two years ago when he helped Felton train, Zhang Yang now felt much more at ease.

Zhang Yang said, "That’s also a solution. As long as you can expand your shooting range, the threat will be greater, which is more advantageous for your offense organization... Why don’t you try adjusting your speed during the breakthrough? For example, slow down before you reach the throw zone, then suddenly power up for the step-back?"

Felton: "Hey! Good idea... Wait, isn’t that just Nash’s rhythm flow stop-and-step-back? But I’m not good at that."

Zhang Yang: "Right, if you could master that, you could also practice close-range stop-and-shoots well..."

Felton started counting on his fingers: "Learn the rhythm flow stop, and once mastered, I could create shooting opportunities for under the basket and the wing, and stop-and-shoot for scoring myself. Maybe I could even improve my rhythm for step-back threes and screen-assisted step-back threes... I want to learn!"

This left Zhang Yang a bit troubled. Just now, when he was teaching Felton, he noticed a sizable gap between him and Harden. Apart from the unbridgeable difference in height and arm span, just considering rhythm, Harden was leagues ahead of Felton.

Even when Harden had just graduated from high school, his sense of rhythm was stronger than Felton’s.

Zhang Yang straightforwardly said, "Raymond, learning this style might take you a long time."

Felton: "So what? I just turned 23, I have time! Like you said, I’m focusing on threes, close-range fadeaways, and passing right now, and that’s enough for me to play the main control role. I’ll take it slow, no rush."

On a hot summer day, replete with melancholy, Zhang Yang reminisced about the Felton he had met two years ago and saw his significant growth.

If Felton could spend a few years developing the rhythm flow style, it would greatly benefit his career—maybe even outperform future star Lowry or become an all-star?

Zhang Yang nodded, "Okay, in a few days, we’re going to Hawaii to train with Nash. He’ll teach us there, and he’ll certainly do a better job than I could. Alan, you should come too. Nash is very skilled in passing to moving shooters; he knows all about the running routes and rhythms of position players and cutters. I’ll ask him to teach you... By the way, I heard that in Hawaii you can learn how to fly planes, drive tanks, and operate battleships? And also learn how to disarm bombs and perform demolitions? Is that true?"

Felton, Alan Anderson: "Huh?"

No, seriously, what on earth was the kid thinking every day? How did he suddenly jump to this?

Even Felton couldn’t keep up with such a far-fetched topic this time...

...

A few days later, on July 25th, Zhang Yang, Felton, Rondo, and Alan Anderson arrived at the vacation villa that Nash had rented in Hawaii.

Before arriving, Zhang Yang had checked the map after getting the address. It wasn’t in a regular residential area, but a luxurious villa with a private sea view, which made him accept Nash’s invitation to stay; otherwise, he would have preferred a luxury chain hotel.

It wasn’t that he frowned upon ordinary residences—Zhang San had lived in an apartment before. Mainly, in the middle of summer, what if there were wildfires?. He wouldn’t be able to get far by jumping into the sea.

Zhang Yang saw the blue rooftop of the villa and completely put his mind at ease, believing the legend that Hawaiian wildfire would not burn houses with blue roofs.

Nash and his wife warmly welcomed the four of them, and Zhang Yang also met Nash’s wife, Alejandra, and their twin daughters, who were not yet three years old.

It wasn’t his place to meddle in others’ family matters—whether or not they had occurred... Well, no matter how young, girls will be girls, beauty stands for justice. Nash’s daughters, Lola and Bella, were initially shy, but within a short time, they were sticking close to him, mumbling this and that.

Having a similarly-aged unfortunate younger brother at home, Zhang Yang was quite patient with children, even if he didn’t completely understand or they didn’t speak very clearly, he still engaged in small talk with them.

Watching his daughters act smitten upon seeing a handsome guy, Nash was full of jealous thoughts...

Nash took the four of them sightseeing for a couple of days, and on the 28th, they came to a rented small court and switched to training mode.

They only had a little over ten days to train together; Nash’s family had already been there for two weeks.

When Nash and Alejandra got married, they agreed to take a vacation at a beautiful location every offseason for a month, enjoying an ’annual honeymoon.’ The first ’annual honeymoon’ in 2005 went well, but by last summer’s trip to Miami, they felt bored after two weeks.

Yet, neither of them wanted to be the first to suggest ending the tradition, and each year as the honeymoon approached, they looked forward to it again... so the tradition continued.

In mid-June, while Nash was at the Bobcats’ home court watching the finals, Zhang Yang mentioned wanting to train with him over the summer. Nash then thought about the vacation month—being practical, he figured they would be bored later anyway. It might as well overlap with this timeframe.

The reality was pretty much as he expected. After about ten days, the daughters were thrilled to see the ocean every day, but his wife and he were already bored. He had been looking forward to Zhang Yang and his group arriving for a few days.

When his wife saw his friends had arrived, she found an excuse about needing to be at the gym the next morning and left Hawaii for Phoenix City. The nanny and Nash would look after the children.

Alejandra was a fitness gymnastics coach and had opened her own gym after marrying Nash.

Originally Nash thought Felton, Rondo, and Alan Anderson came to vacation and would train with him, but without much interaction with him, teaching Zhang Yang would suffice.

But unexpectedly, all four of them came seeking his guidance!

This is truly... awesome!

Nash: Could it be that I too will have followers all over the world one day?

Although his style of play was attractive, and he had numerous fans after turning 30, few fans actually tried to emulate his playing style. Even his own fans would rather learn Iverson’s flashy ’butterfly step’ breakthroughs, Kobe’s iron shots, or McGrady’s bending grab-and-shoot technique... Even learning Duncan’s 45-degree bank shot was more popular. Realistically, learning his rhythmic style suited ordinary people more for playing casually.

In the NBA, hardly any players imitated his style. Firstly, his style wasn’t explosive enough to attract the younger players, and secondly, the way professional players play is really different from how ordinary people play. Ordinary folks should learn from him. Most in the NBA shouldn’t, as street basketball doesn’t demand such high rhythmic skills. Professional players trying to learn from him would need good rhythmic sense, or they’d have to spend multiple times the usual practice duration, to play like street basketball in an NBA game... and that duration was longer than many players’ NBA careers.

So, Nash held Zhang Yang in special regards, meeting someone so young who could learn his style and grasp its essence for the first time.

Unexpectedly, Felton came to him wanting to learn his advance rhythm and retreat steps, and Rondo came to learn his offensive push and detailed moves, adding two more who wished to learn his playing style, one a top-tier genius and the other a top genius known as ’Little Kidd’!

Alan Anderson... his talent was somewhat lacking, but he came to learn positioning, just to be an extra practice partner, and that also helped Zhang Yang train his response tactics.

Indeed, Nash agreed to train Zhang Yang, not just because he foresaw a ’honeymoon’ period being boring, but seeing Zhang Yang adopt his play style was delightful. There was also another critical reason — to help Zhang Yang as a way to return the favor for defeating the Spurs in the finals.

Nash was the player who least wanted to see the Spurs win the championship, and his animosity towards the Spurs was not less than Carter’s.

Had it been another year, Nash wouldn’t have felt much affectionate towards the Bobcats players, but that season, when he was severely fouled and the Bobcats overturned the Spurs just a step away from championship glory and snatched the championship, his affection for the young Bobcats players maxed out immediately.

But not long after training began, Nash was feeling frustrated.

Zhang Yang mentioned he learned Nash’s retreat shooting and needed Nash’s advice on some minor details — these ’feel’ aspects, where even top trainers like Grove and Ingles couldn’t help.

Nash gladly accepted and asked Zhang Yang to demonstrate his newly learned retreat shooting... and then he felt frustrated.

"Jack, did you learn these moves just last month?"

"Yes."

"Raymond mentioned you watched the video one day and got it by the next?"

"Uh, sort of!"

"I finally understand why Kidd was willing to swallow his pride to join forces with Kobe and Garnett. I’m even thinking of teaming up with Yao Ming now!"

Nash empathized deeply; the kid was only 19, more talented, more eager to learn, and as hardworking as him. It was lucky their peaks didn’t overlap; otherwise, he’d feel more discouraged, especially since this guy seemed likely to steal his daughter away too...

Regarding Nash’s complaint about ’how can you be more talented and harder working than me?’, Zhang Yang had no answer. He often voluntarily recalled his first experience in the ten timelines, where Nash at 36 prepared and sustained himself with pre-game warm-ups and after-game therapy... You taught me, Teacher Nash!

As for kidnapping Lola and Bella, he swore he had never thought of that; if those two lolitas were face-chasers, what could he do?

...

Despite the annoyance, Nash taught the four young Bobcats players with dedication.

As a master of fundamentals, off and on the ball techniques, he was almost entirely proficient. Teaching the four students went very smoothly.

As for Felton, whose talent in rhythm was average but had a long-term commitment to learning, Nash greatly admired and even increased his liking for him. He liked such young players who have the heart for ’accumulated efforts and sudden success.’

Alan Anderson was quite average in all aspects, but he worked hard enough to be pleasant to Nash.

Any player from the team that defeated the Spurs and won the championship looked good to him.

Rondo... that just made Nash frustrated again; he had never seen someone with such poor shooting talent, even among centers.

However, Rondo’s talent for passing was so impressive that even Nash was amazed. For such a short guy, something seemed wrong, he couldn’t be misnamed, surely not misnicknamed; ’Little Kidd’ was indeed a Little Kidd.

Nash had an idea: to imprint his ’Son of the Wind’ style on Rondo’s passing. A version of Nash without scoring?

Training these four players also benefited Nash. The young players had completely different styles of play, which allowed him to gain more varied insights during coaching.

As days passed, September came.

Zhang Yang immersed himself in training. With Grove and Ingles helping set a solid training foundation and Nash directing the intricacies, his retreat shooting, screen-shooting, and stride layup techniques improved rapidly.

In his spare time, Zhang Yang also kept an eye on the team’s affairs.

Competing with the Chicago Bulls for veteran rookie Joe Smith failed as the Bulls scooped him up with a far above-market offer of $10.62 million over two years.

Competing with the Jazz Team for Kyle Korver, the Jazz threw down $18 million for three years in a high offer. An irate Jordan offered Joe Smith of the Jazz Team $20 million for three years, but the Jazz countered with $21 million over three years to keep their player...

Zhang Yang felt the real meaning behind Jordan’s words — Jack, you’re now the league’s public enemy.

...

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