NBA's King of Talking

On June 27, Jia Fei continued training at the Thunder's training facility. Besides the team's trainer, he trained with another rookie, Reggie Jackson.

Reggie is two years older than Jafie. He studied at Boston College for three years and led his team with an average of 18.2 points per game in the 2010-11 season, earning a spot on the ACC All-Conference First Team.

Jia Fei doesn't plan to engage in high-intensity strength training right after entering the league. Based on his understanding of the NBA from his previous life, strength training should be gradual. Turning himself into a muscle giant early in his career is not a wise move and will instead hinder his skill development.

His coach at Cornell, Jim Cahon, has been advising them for the past year to focus on the fundamentals, to emphasize technical training, to have a sense of teamwork, and not to get caught up in individual play.

Jia Fei has currently incorporated Allen Iverson's physical talents, but the integration rate of his talents and techniques is only 4%. This means that he doesn't yet possess any trace of Iverson's skills; he has only imitated them. Therefore, he has decided to keep a low profile until the integration rate reaches 5%.

For the entire morning, Jia Fei focused on basic skills training, from the simplest dribbling and layups to spot shooting and free throws from various positions on the half-court, and then to practicing footwork on the defensive end. He completed the training diligently and meticulously.

Reggie was somewhat surprised by Jia Fei's seriousness and emphasis on the basics. He had heard about the story between Jia Fei and Derek Williams, and he had thought that this young man was unruly, eccentric, and fearless. He did not expect that this person would be so pragmatic.

So how much of the rumors and reports circulating in the media are true, and how much are false?

After training, the two sat on the sidelines chatting.

"Reggie, it's a surprise we've become teammates!" Jia Fei said with a smile. He was indeed surprised; the two had never crossed paths before.

"Yes, to be honest, before you participated in the trial, I had only heard of you, but I had never heard of your games." Reggie was telling the truth. Even though Jia Fei had won the championship with the team, he still knew nothing about this yellow-skinned first-year student.

“That’s normal, I’m not a starter on the team either. I think you probably know Kemba the most, right?” Jia Fei laughed, completely ignoring Reggie’s words.

Reggie nodded: "Kemba has played for several seasons and is considered a star player. I'm curious why you don't stay in school for a couple more seasons? If you continue playing next season, your playing time on the team will definitely be more than in your freshman year."

“I want to go out and make money. To be honest, I really need money!” Jia Fei looked at the basketball hoop opposite him. “Before, Kemba didn’t understand either. Generally speaking, those who play in the NCAA for one year and then enter the draft are super geniuses, like KD and Melo.”

Jia Fei's frankness earned Reggie's favor. Not many people in this world are willing to admit they need money. Many will say it's for their dreams or to improve their skills, but few will admit they want to come to the NBA to make money. He came from an Air Force family. Although his family wasn't wealthy, they never had to worry about making a living. But he had seen too many poor people and knew how difficult life was for those at the bottom.

"Jia, do you still have the energy? If so, how about we have a one-on-one match?" Reggie invited.

"Sure, I still have energy!" Jia Fei readily agreed. Reggie is a combo guard with excellent individual ball-handling and offensive skills, and playing one-on-one against such a player would undoubtedly improve his skills.

"How about we play five balls?" The two had been training for a while and were a bit tired, so playing five balls would be a little easier.

"Okay!" Jia Fei stood up from the floor, stretched his joints, and got ready.

Ready? Reggie passed the ball to Jia Fei and said, "You go first!"

Jia Fei didn't hold back either, holding the ball and facing Reggie, he took a probing step with his right foot.

Reggie stepped forward to press, and as a defender, his physical strength was not bad. At around 190cm tall, he was not at a huge disadvantage when facing Jia Fei.

Jia Fei dribbled the ball and drove hard, but the opponent pressed him so tightly that he couldn't get any speed. His crossover dribble and subsequent shot missed...

Possession changes hands, Reggie attacks.

Reggie also took a jab step, and suddenly started his drive against Jia Fei's defense, making a strong right-hand drive! When he realized that he couldn't overpower his opponent with speed, he made a two-sided in-out move, creating space before stepping back and hitting a jump shot!

Reggie scored first!

Reggie continued his attack, dribbling the ball to his left, then using a crossover dribble to his right, forcefully closing the distance before driving to the basket. He attempted a layup, but was hampered by Jia Fei's long arms – and missed!

Jia Fei attacked, facing Reggie's close defense, he dribbled the ball to the left and made a strong drive, but his turnaround jump shot was blocked - still no luck!

Reggie scored on a fast break and hit a pull-up jumper!

Reggie leads 2-0!

After that jump shot, Jia Fei stopped giving Reggie any space to shoot and started guarding him closely.

Reggie attacked, forcing his way into the paint despite tight defense, and attempted a high lob shot under the basket, but it was blocked out of bounds by Jia Fei's long arms and quick hands!

Jia Fei attacked, dribbled past Reggie, turned and tried to lay up, but was chopped off by the latter with a chop to the neck!

Reggie attacks, takes a series of probing steps before moving to his left, feints and then turns to his right, his single-shot is disrupted—still misses!

After Reggie took a 2-0 lead, both players started missing shots and couldn't score easily.

But if you shoot a lot, you'll eventually score. After missing six shots in a row, Reggie finally scored another point with a jump shot, taking a 3-0 lead!

When he was leading 4-0, he stopped scoring again, while Jia Fei finally scored his first point of the game with a jump shot!

Ultimately, Reggie won the one-on-one match with a score of 5-2 thanks to his superior offense.

After the fight, Reggie was exhausted, while Jia Fei was in good physical condition.

"Jia, aren't you tired? You have amazing stamina!" Reggie said, panting. This kind of one-on-one match is very tiring because you can't rest on either offense or defense.

"Not bad!" Jia Fei didn't feel very tired at all. This wasn't because he was Versailles, but because he had absorbed Iverson's physical talents. As everyone knows, Iverson was consistently among the top 3 in the league in playing time during his prime, averaging over 40 minutes per game. He was a famous stamina monster.

Reggie plopped down on the ground and said, "Jay, to be honest, your defense is really, really great. You're too fast; I can't beat you with speed at all. You still need to improve your offense!"

Jia Fei nodded; Reggie was right. If his defense wasn't good, the game might not even last until he scored.