against the front

Chapter 10 Sacramento

"Hey Bill, is this where you're taking me?"

On May 5, six days after arriving in the United States, Yan Hua and others followed Bill Duffy to Sacramento, the capital of California, to participate in a rookie training camp organized by the Sacramento Kings.

"Yan, you have to know that although Sacramento is not a big city, the basketball atmosphere here is very good. The attendance rate of the Sacramento Kings has also been maintained in the top three in the league. This is a very competitive team. "Compared to Houston, Sacramento is indeed a lot worse. For many rookies participating in the draft, big cities are always the first choice, so Bill Duffy doesn't want Yan Hua to be like them, because the city of Sacramento Because of this, he resisted participating in the Kings' rookie training camp.

"This city still looks pretty good." Although the urban area of ​​Sacramento is not big, and you can basically see the entire urban area at a distance, Meng Xu doesn't have any ill feeling towards this city, of course As for whether he can stay in the future, everything is still unknown. After the rookie training camp held by the Rockets was closed, Bill Duffy contacted five Yan Hua successively. In the rookie training camp, Sacramento is only their first stop, and Yan Hua and others will only stay here for five days.

"The competitiveness of the Kings is now a thing of the past. They have not entered the playoffs for two consecutive seasons."

"However, the Kings now have three draft picks, so the competition in the rookie training camp here should not be as fierce as the competition in Houston." Although Zhou Feng's main responsibilities are Yan Hua's translator and English teacher, Zhou Feng and Long Sanfeng They still did a lot of things for Yan Hua outside of their responsibilities. After Bill Duffy told Yan Hua that he had contacted several rookie training camps for him, Zhou Feng and the others immediately collected the detailed information of these teams. With the number of draft picks, after Bill Duffy told Yan Hua that Sacramento is a good place, Zhou Feng and Long Sanfeng told Yan Hua the current situation of the Kings they collected.

In fact, after getting a general understanding of the NBA draft system, Zhou Feng suggested that Yan Hua go to the Orlando training camp to have a try. After all, the Orlando training camp is officially organized by the NBA, and almost all NBA teams will send management personnel and Scouts, go there to investigate the status of each player in detail, so it will be easier for Yan Hua to attract attention when he goes there.

However, Zhou Feng's suggestion was rejected by Bill Duffy, and Bill Duffy's reason for the rejection was very good. Yan Hua had no experience in participating in the NCAA Division I, and the Orlando training camp was full of talents. It is easy to cause visual fatigue, because most people's eyes will focus on those talented NCAA players. It will not be easy for Yan Hua to shine there. It is better to choose a few teams with suitable draft picks for trial training, so as to make the most of them. Yan Hua's talent and strength were all displayed.

Since Sacramento is a small city, and although the Kings have three draft picks, they don't even have a top ten pick, so those talented rookies will naturally not come to this rookie training camp organized by the Kings. I feel uncomfortable, so there are not many rookies in the rookie training camp held by the king. The management of the king originally invited more than 20 interested rookies to participate in the training camp. The result is very exciting. The face is that only 7 people accepted the King's invitation, and the rest either went to the training camp held by other teams, or went directly to Orlando to participate in the training camp officially organized by the NBA. Rookies, rookies are also picking teams.

"Geoff, look what I brought you?" I have to admire Bill Duffy's connections in the NBA. - Petrie, he ran out to pick up Yan Hua himself. To be precise, he came to pick up Bill Duffy, and after Bill Duffy hugged Geoff Petrie, he introduced Yan Hua to him.

"He's really a nice big guy, Pete, you take him to Reggie's now." Geoff Petrie obviously showed Bill Duffy a lot of face, but he just took a straight look at Yan Hua, He asked his assistant to take Yan Hua to the training camp, while he stayed to prepare and arrange for Bill Duffy to eat and drink. Contrary relations are inevitable in any country, and he doesn't need to spend his own money anyway.

The current situation of the king is very embarrassing. Ever since the head star Chris Webber was sent away due to internal strife, the king has started to go downhill. Vicky, Mike Bibby, Ron Artest, either because of character issues or because of strength issues, all of them were embarrassed to take on the task. However, the Kings lacked the determination to completely mess up and pinned all their hopes on the draft. , so the current status of the Kings is that there seems to be no shortage of players in every position, but each position seems to lack a player who can hold the ground. Clearly, which position you need to pick a rookie in the draft.

As for the current situation of the team, as the head coach Reggie Toyes is undoubtedly in the eyes and anxious. He does not want to be fired midway like his predecessor, so after the end of the regular season, Reggie Toyes Iss has been looking forward to the rookie training camp held by the king, hoping to use the three draft picks in his hand to select some good rookies, but the king has held two training camps in a row, and the results are not very satisfactory.

Especially this rookie training camp. Before the camp opened, Reggie Toyce sent invitations to rookies who were interested in him and could get the pick in his hand. He also made many training plans and prepared to send to Orlando Just like the training camp, divide them into several teams and fight against each other, so as to find out the details of each rookie, and by the way, test their performance under high-intensity confrontation.

But the final result embarrasses Reggie Toyce, and makes the plans he prepared in advance all become a pile of waste paper, because the rookies who were invited to Sacramento to participate in the rookie training camp, even two teams They can't be formed, let alone a round-robin match, so Reggie Toyce can only observe their details through a three-on-three half-court confrontation.

(End of this chapter)