Basketball Terminal

Chapter 8 Beginning

Brett Briermayer is young; born in 1985, he is 36 years old, which is the prime of his career as a basketball coach, a time to accumulate experience and build a resume.

Six years ago, 29-year-old Brett Briermayer had some experience as a head coach when he was an assistant coach for the Cleveland Cavaliers. In the summer of 2015, he served as the head coach of the Cavaliers' Summer League, leading rookies and short-term contract players in the Summer League.

In 16, he won a championship with the Cleveland Cavaliers and was subsequently hired by the Nets as an assistant coach, working for the Nets' newly appointed head coach, Kenny Atkinson.

He held this position for five seasons, assisting head coaches from Kenny Atkinson to Yak Vaughn, and this season Steve Nash.

The star players he coached have changed from Brook Lopez, D'Angelo Russell, and Spencer Dinwiddie to Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, and James Harden, who was just acquired through a trade.

As the saying goes, "A new emperor brings a new court," and after Kenny Atkinson left the Nets, Brett Brillmeier's position on the coaching staff gradually became marginalized. Yak Vaughn served as interim coach for a dozen or so games before the Nets welcomed Steve Nash, which also led to a major overhaul of the coaching staff.

The team's new owner, Joe Tsai, has invested heavily in the pursuit of a championship, assembling a star-studded coaching staff for Nash, including Coach of the Year Mike D'Antoni and Philadelphia 76ers assistant coach Udoka, to complement the Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving lineup.

It's January now, and the entire season has been postponed and shortened due to the virus, with the number of games reduced to 72. Kevin Durant is back after recovering from a ruptured Achilles tendon, and the Nets currently have a 7-6 record in 13 games, ranking in the middle, but the team is in good form, having recently achieved two consecutive wins, defeating their crosstown rivals, the New York Knicks.

After acquiring James Harden in yesterday's trade, the Nets have instantly become championship favorites, forming a super trio that has garnered national attention. They have surpassed the Knicks to become the hottest team in New York.

But all of this had little to do with Brett Briermayer. After being marginalized from the coaching staff, the management didn't fire him, but instead demoted him to the "frontier" to become the head coach of the Long Island Nets, the Nets' G League affiliate. This was an exile, but also an opportunity to evaluate and develop him.

Like most coaches in this league, Brillmeier has a passionate passion for basketball and a hidden ambition to become a head coach in the future.

It's important to know that NBA head coaches are an even rarer job than NBA players. The league has over 400 players, but only 30 head coach positions.

He viewed this "exile" as an opportunity to gain experience as a head coach and showcase his coaching abilities. Therefore, he wasn't discouraged, but instead threw himself wholeheartedly into this relatively low-profile job.

Aside from a few local veteran fans, no one would know who the coaches of the G League teams are, and they might not even know the names of the teams.

Like the NBA season, the G League has also been postponed. The season, which was originally scheduled to start last November, is expected to start in February this year, with the schedule not to be announced until the end of January.

Some teams may be unable to participate, and like last year's Disney playoffs, the games will be held in one location, with players and coaches under closed management. It's currently mid-January, and teams are busy recruiting. The new season is expected to begin in about two weeks.

There are several sources of players for the Development League. One is the Development League draft, in which undrafted NBA players can participate and be selected by Development League teams, with the draft model being the same as the NBA draft. Another source is players sent down by higher-level teams. Some NBA rookies who have underperformed and need more experience will be sent down to the Development League to gain experience. Some NBA players sign two-way contracts with teams, allowing them to play in both leagues.

Another option is for basketball players outside the NBA, who can sign contracts directly with G League teams through various channels.

Today's tryouts for local players organized by the Long Island Nets are one way for G League teams to scout and sign free agents. Teams can hold one or more tryouts during the offseason, inviting some well-known players to participate for free, and also attracting qualified local players to pay to participate.

Of course, a screening process takes place during the finalization of the tryout roster. Those who don't meet the age, height, weight, or playing experience requirements are all eliminated, otherwise there would be too many applicants. Before the tryouts, Brett Briermayer received over two hundred resumes, which was far too many. The Greater New York area has always been one of the most talent-rich regions for basketball in the United States, producing countless basketball superstars, and historically boasting one of the highest numbers of players who have made it to the NBA.

Furthermore, due to the impact of the virus, many people couldn't find jobs playing sports, so resumes naturally flooded in. Brett had to do some screening, discarding those that didn't meet the requirements.

Relying solely on players submitting their resumes is certainly not enough. Most players with some reputation and ability will have introducers, and teams will provide them with tryout opportunities free of charge. These introducers, who have connections with the Long Island Nets or Brooklyn Nets, often include some "connected" players in their lists.

Take Kelvin Davis, for example. He was brought in by the Nets' media relations department; he was a 62-year-old rookie. Nobody expected him to make it to the professional scene; his tryouts were just a publicity stunt.

Various people in the management team would send in people, such as their own relatives or friends' children, with the aim of fulfilling their professional basketball dreams and experiencing what professional basketball training and selection are really like.

These are all American customs and etiquette. Although Brett Briermayer didn't like them, he had to accept them as part of the team, and besides, it didn't cost him anything.

Yesterday, McCalley sent someone over, calling to say there was a popular player on the internet with good defense, and suggested a tryout. Brett was swamped with roster and tactics for the new season, and had no time to think about any internet celebrity player.

This season, the Long Island Nets' coaching and training staff are newly formed, and as the head coach, I have a lot of work to do.

Of course, Brett remembered McCallian's words. McCallian was in charge of scouting and recruiting young players for the Nets, had a lot of resources, and had close relationships with G League players; he had to be given face.

“His name is Victor Lee, he is of Chinese descent, please take care of him.”

Soon Brett's phone started ringing with calls from an unknown number, but he was too busy to answer. He later saw the missed calls and text messages from the same number – they were from Victor Lee, along with his resume.

I glanced at it, and his height and build are so-so, acceptable. But his resume is simply appalling. He spent his high school and college years on the bench of mediocre teams, his stats were average, and there were no highlights in his career.

No wonder he can only be a basketball influencer. At best, he can only impress ordinary people with his amateur skills; he has no chance of appearing on the professional stage.

Out of consideration for McCallien's relationship and reputation, Brett thought long and hard before sending him a text message asking him to participate in the local player tryouts on the 14th, which is today.

If the text message had been sent even a day later, or the tryout even a day earlier, Brett could have found a reason to refuse. Some people are destined to never play professional basketball, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, because it's just too brutal here.

The trial training session started at 10:00 AM. Brett drove to the Nassau Arena at 9:30 AM and then ran into Levi in ​​the lobby.

Brett recognized him at a glance, and Levi said something to Brett that he would never forget: "I will become the best player in the league, starting now."

(End of this chapter)