Champion, please stay!

Chapter 83, Section 81: Rely on Strength, Not Talk (Seeking Guaranteed Monthly Tickets)

Last night, after having dinner with his two coaches, Yao Ming came to wait for Yi Shui to finish training.

He could tell that Yi Shui had really pushed himself to the limit at that time.

There wasn't much I could say at the time, but I'm going to remind Yi Shui about it today.

Now, watching Yi Shui's long-distance sprint counter-attack to the basket, and on the last shot, he jumps up and pulls up a tomahawk layup...

That evening, Yao Ming saw Yi Shui return to the hotel exhausted from lifting weights.

The next morning, when Yao Ming went for an early walk, he saw Yi Shui in the square, doing pull-ups and practicing Tai Chi with an old man. She looked very energetic and showed no signs of having been exhausted the night before.

"..."

He had heard the rumor that started with Curry—that Yi Shui lost interest in basketball in his sophomore year because his opponents were too weak and became obsessed with women. When he turned 20, he suddenly woke up, started to practice basketball seriously, and a year later, he defeated all his opponents in his class, won the NCAA championship, swept the three major awards, and became the NBA number one draft pick.

He initially didn't believe it, thinking it was a tactic used by Yi Shui's agency to promote the talent show.

He'd only known me for less than 48 hours, but he was starting to believe it...

Yi Shui was engrossed in practicing Tai Chi and did not notice the little giant secretly observing him.

After finishing his morning exercise, he arrived at Laoshan Gymnasium and found that his efforts to avoid increasing his strength too quickly and to deplete his energy in advance had been in vain.

Today, the 12th, is registration day.

Yesterday, some of his prospective teammates arrived. When someone greeted him, he would stop training to chat for a bit; otherwise, he would focus on training.

So engrossed in training, I forgot about all the other tasks that needed to be done on the day of registration.

Fortunately, I had a lot of fun in the morning doing Tai Chi and seeing who could do more pull-ups with the old men, so I didn't feel like I wasted my time.

However, the 'reporting day' did have some effect, and soon all the teammates got to know Yi Shui.

Yi Shui's way of letting his teammates get to know him was simple—he won them over with his skills!
When interviewed, Yi Shui, who had never played a single professional match and were suddenly added to the final training camp roster, were polite in words but harbored some dissatisfaction.

The main players are in the shooting guard and small forward positions. Yi Shui's inclusion means that the competition for these positions will be even fiercer. If Yi Shui is ultimately selected, there will be one less player selected from their pool.

Originally, these people were all in a competitive state. After two rounds of training, some got along well, while others got along worse. But today, regardless of whether they got along well or not, they were all on the same side and wanted to give Yi Shui, the one who was left behind, a warning!

I also want to see the top draft pick's ability. What if he wins?
Then they took turns beating each other.

Yi Shui didn't use any special techniques. If the opponent was close to him, he would just drive straight in. If the opponent left him open to defend his drive, he would pull up and shoot. If it went in, it went in. If it didn't go in, he could drive in to grab the offensive rebound and shoot again.

After demonstrating his strength, Yi Shui's relationship with most of his potential teammates did not improve.

But the strange, sarcastic voices in my ears are gone, and that's enough.

He wasn't there to build relationships in the first place.

Once you're on the court, let your skills speak for themselves!

...

On July 13, after the reporting day, the men's basketball team began its final training camp and selection process.

Yi Shui thoroughly tested the second and third positions of the training team, which had another advantage.

Apart from tactical training and practice matches, the coaching staff no longer bothered him.

Provide him with resources such as nutritionists, trainers, and physical therapists, and let him decide what training he wants to do.

It wasn't just the prospective teammates on the training camp who had the thought, "So what if he's the number one draft pick? He's just a junior in college."

Domestic coaches initially thought so too. They believed that Yi Shui might be stronger, but after all, he was just a young man who had just turned 21.

Now, they regard the Yi River as their hope for the outside world! They cherish it like a precious treasure!

They recalled the fear of Yao Ming dominating the CBA in the first two years of the century, and Yi Shui, in terms of position alone, might be even more dominant.

Of course, this is in comparison to Yao Ming at that time.

Moreover, they had to admit that the training of that player was clearly more professional than that of their own professional coaches and trainers.

Furthermore, given Yi Shui's terrifying recovery ability, they could already foresee that the gap between the other team members and Yi Shui would only widen.

As time went by, the training team underwent two rounds of layoffs on the 19th and 24th, reducing the number of people from 37 to 24 and then to 14.

Actually, the 12-man roster should have been decided on the 24th, but the coaching staff had difficulty making a decision on the point guard position.

It's not that there are too many good point guards, it's that there are none available!

After hesitating for two more days, on the 27th, the coaching staff came up with a way to decide the point guard lineup: whoever could dribble the ball from the backcourt to the opponent's three-point line under Yi Shui's full-force defense and successfully pass the ball to the right 45-degree angle or low post.

Yi Shui felt like he was being used as a tool, but he also sensed the helplessness of Jonas and Guo Shiqiang, who had come up with this method.

The shooting guard and small forward positions are filled by Wang Shipeng, Zhu Fangyu, Li Nan, and Wang Lei. While they may not be the strongest, they are sufficient for pure shooters and backups.

In the paint, the quartet of Yao Ming, Wang Zhizhi, Yi Jianlian, and Du Feng is an advantage in these two positions in international competitions.

But the point guard position... isn't without its highlights. Take Lü Xiaoming from the Fujian team, for example; he's fast and has a very skillful passing ability.

This inspiring point guard is only 176 cm tall. He can hardly shoot when there is someone in front of him. In practice games, he often gets more assists than shots. When the intensity of the game increases, he is like a headless fly when he drives in.

Chen Jianghua is tall, 186 cm, with excellent speed, pressing and tackling skills, a great counter-attacking mentality, and excellent field vision, making him very suitable for international matches.

At only 19 years old and weighing less than 80 kilograms, he's fine without physical contact, but he falls over at the slightest touch. His teammates are afraid of injuring him when he drives into the paint.

Liu Wei, at 28 years old, is in his prime. He has the size of an NBA heavy point guard, a steady playing style, and can shoot and pass... he's good at everything, but he's not strong enough.

Zhang Qingpeng is a good combo guard with accurate shooting, excellent passing skills after receiving passes from the inside, and a tenacious defense. However, he is not tall enough. His playing style is more like a shooting guard, but he is only 187 cm tall. He also has the common deficiency in ball-handling fundamentals among domestic point guards.

Sun Yue has excellent physique and talent, but he has been wandering around for many years, and the level of the matches he has played is uneven, with his skills being eclectic but not refined.

...

During the test, Yi Shui didn't hold back and used the same fierce fighting spirit he had when fighting Turtle, Rose, and Beasley.

This isn't the time to give face; it's time to choose teammates for yourself.

He also wanted his teammates to feel the gap between them. He didn't know if these teammates would be motivated to work harder and thus drive the overall development of the domestic industry. Anyway, he just wanted to do his part.

Just as Yi Shui had predicted, only Liu Wei, whose hip circumference is comparable to Paul's, successfully completed the test, sticking his leg out to the three-point line.

Sun Yue was forced to pass the ball before crossing the center circle.

But compared to Chen Jianghua, Lü Xiaoming, and Zhang Qingpeng, who couldn't even get past the three-point line, Sun Yue is much better and also knows how to move the ball in time.

On the afternoon of the 27th, the selection of the 12-man roster for the men's basketball team was completed.

Liu Wei passed the selection process based on his own ability, and the coaching staff voted for Sun Yue and Zhang Qingpeng for the other two guard spots.

Final list:
Outside players: Yi Shui, Liu Wei, Sun Yue, Zhang Qingpeng, Wang Shipeng, Zhu Fangyu, Li Nan, Wang Lei.

Inside players: Yao Ming, Yi Jianlian, Wang Zhizhi, Du Feng.

In the evening, after the Olympic Committee approved the roster and updated the information of the Chinese men's basketball team on its official website, Yi Shui received a system notification.

"You have been successfully selected for the official Olympic roster. Congratulations! National team exclusive reward: Leader (National Team Exclusive Skill)."

Yi Shui, who was having dinner, received the message and was in a great mood.

This time, we'll give out rewards directly!
"Leadership: When representing the national team in competition, your presence always gives your teammates more confidence and reduces the fear and anxiety caused by the strength of the opponents. (Leadership: Fundamentals.)"

The basics... can be improved?

How can we improve them? Should we beat up their teammates on the national team's forward and defensive lines again? That probably wouldn't be very effective.

Even his closest friends from the Guangdong gang no longer play against him.

Looking back on the past month and a half of intensive training, Yi Shui was quite emotional.

Before he reported for duty, Shen Zhiyu told him about the factions in the domestic basketball scene: the Southeast F3, the Jiangsu-Zhejiang-Shanghai team, the Beijing team, the Taihang Mountain team, the Bayi team, etc.

He initially considered himself to be from the Shanghai faction, but apart from having a good relationship with Yao Ming, his relationships with other Shanghai players were just average.

Players in this group seem to be more reserved and don't really like his straightforwardness.

He thought the Guangdong gang, with whom he wouldn't get along, quickly became friends. One reason for this was that he also shared the surname Yi. Du Feng's suggestion, "Why don't you check your family tree to see if you're distant relatives?" immediately brought them closer.

However, Yi Jianlian doesn't seem like a typical Guangdong native at all; he's so slow to speak, it's hard to believe he enjoys going to Thailand...

...

With the roster announced, the Chinese men's basketball team has entered the final stage of preparation and training.

Yi Shui trained as hard as ever; since he was there, he wanted to do his best.

In the past period of time, in addition to training, he has occasionally kept an eye on the situation at the club.

Curry and Chalmers officially signed contracts after the Las Vegas Summer League concluded.

Curry's performance in the Summer League was... average, averaging 17 points and 3 assists per game, not as good as Yi Shui had imagined.

Chalmers actually performed better, averaging 12 points and 8 assists per game. According to the news, this mature point guard demonstrated excellent court vision, passing consistency, and shooting consistency.

As Yi Shui had predicted, Walsh began dismantling the defense, almost completely clearing out the backcourt.

On July 13th, Stephon Marbury was waived;
On the 16th, a trade was completed with the Warriors, sending out shooting guard Jamal Crawford in exchange for versatile forward Al Harrington.

On the 21st, after signing a rookie, they brought in another guard, Chris Duhon, with a 2+1 three-year full mid-level exception.

These moves weren't particularly flashy, but their purpose was clear: Yi Shui could see the team gradually improving.

Soon, August arrived, and the Olympics began...

(End of this chapter)