San Antonio, located in south-central Texas, is the second largest city in Texas and the seventh largest city in the United States.

The Spurs are the only professional basketball team in San Antonio. Since 1996, Popovich has been the head coach and has completely changed the culture of the Spurs.

Under the leadership of Popovich, with an excellent system, good tactical literacy, and the strong performance of the GDP combination, the Spurs dynasty was created and entered the playoffs for 21 consecutive years.

With the aging of GDP, the Spurs dynasty has completely collapsed, and the transition to the current double-German period, this year's Spurs' playoff journey has come to an end, and the team's core Kawhi Leonard has been pushed to the forefront of public opinion due to injury, and the relationship with the team has been estranged, and the team has fallen into turmoil.

The Spurs AT&T Center Arena, a black-and-white arena that can accommodate more than 34,000 people at the same time.

Lai's second stop was the San Antonio Spurs, who had an 18th pick in the first round and a 49th pick in the second round in this year's draft.

The Spurs' second-round draft pick is a bit low, which is not the ideal pick for Li Yang, but if they can meet their requirements, it cannot be ruled out that they can use the first-round pick to select Li Yang.

At 10 o'clock in the morning, Bill Duffy arrived at the AT&T Center Arena with Li Yang, and a staff member immediately came forward to receive them at the door and guide them into the stadium to wait for the trial.

Li Yang is still very grateful for Bill Duffy coming to the Holy City for a trial with him, but he can also guess the reason, after all, he is also a potential excellent customer under his hands.

Generally, hot rookies, like Doncic and Ayton, generally have only one person on tryout, or maybe even one person, and several teams are watching from the sidelines at the same time.

Li Yang's trial is just the opposite, with the 18th and 41st picks in the two positions, and there are many people to choose from.

Among these people, Li Yang also saw a lot of familiar figures, including Lonnie Walker, Metu, Stewart, Bluitt, and more than 10 rookies, who participated in this trial together.

As you can see from the Spurs' selection for the tryout, their goal this year is clear: select a point guard and a swing forward.

This is normal, this year's Spurs playoff elimination has a lot to do with the weak point guard position, as for the swingman at the front, Leonard and Aldridge have always been short of such players.

really saw the competitors in the trial, and Li Yang's self-confidence was even stronger.

It's the same old-fashioned physical fitness test. What sets Li Yang apart from other rookies is his consistency, Li Yang's three-point shooting is very strong, and he has performed as well in the tryout as he did with the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Then there is the confrontational tryout, which is the same as in Cleveland, which is to show off your technical characteristics and potential.

Just as Li Yang was about to start, several people walked on the sidelines, and Spurs general manager R.C. Buford came to the sidelines with head coach Popovich and team Ming Tim Duncan.

"Is this the Chinese player?" Duncan whispered Popovich talked.

And Li Yang also officially started his trial.

First dribble, with the castrated version of the ball control master skills, Li Yang's ball control level has risen sharply, and the dribbling is called flowing water, retracting and releasing freely, although it is not very fancy, but it is very stable and practical.

"Well, that's good!" Popovich clearly saw this, and he whispered: "The dribble is solid, and there are no obvious shortcomings in the left and right hands. ”

R.C. Buford nodded in agreement.

At this moment, Li Yang suddenly accelerated, like a whirlwind holding the ball to the front court outside the three-point line, pulling up and shooting, and the three-point hollow into the net.

Popovich was still so calm, and just whispered: "The speed is really fast, by the way, what about his physical data?" ”

Hearing this, Duncan handed over a copy of Li Yang's physical test data, Popovich looked at it carefully, and made a few more comments: "The speed is extremely fast, the scoring ability is extremely strong, this may really be a rare potential guard." ”

"Okay, let's keep looking, he's going to shoot a three-pointer, right?" Popovich asked, and Buford nodded.

Sure enough, as they expected, Li Yang took the ball and came to the three-point line.

Li Yang didn't hesitate, as soon as he raised his hand, he hit three points, and then only listened to the sound of "swish", and the three points were hollow into the net!

Li Yang kept shooting, and in just one minute, Li Yang had already shot thirty three-pointers, all of which hit!

This time, Popovich looked at it for a long time, nodded with satisfaction, and then made an evaluation: "Very good three-point shooting ability, fast shots, standard shooting posture, is indeed a good 3D player." ”

"Do you want to ...... then?" Buford glanced at Popovich and asked hesitantly.

Popovich was silent for a moment, and considering that the team already has a top 3-and-D player, Danny Green, waved his hand and said, "He doesn't deserve our first-round pick, but we can give him a second-round guarantee, and if he falls to the second round, then we can use the No. 49 pick to select him, and of course we'll have to see the results of the matchup." ”

R.C. Buford smiled slyly, "Got it." ”

In the following confrontational training, Li Yang continued to show his offensive ability, completely shooting through the defense of Lonnie Walker, who also participated in the trial, a scoring guard who also had a first-round prospect.

After the trial, Popovich stepped forward and said with a smile: "Li Yang, your trial is great, your ball control skills are beyond our imagination, your confrontation ability is better than we expected, and your understanding of basketball also impresses us." ”

"Thank you." Li Yang pretended to be as shy as a good baby.

"Lai, what do you think of the current pace of the NBA game?" Popovich's face was full of smiles, and the seemingly casual chatter was actually an allusion, Popovich was burying a mine, it depends on how Li Yang answers.

As we all know, Spurs head coach Popovich is not very interested in the league's three-point craze. He once said that if a player shoots three-pointers in the midfield, then even if he scores, the game doesn't make any sense.

The Spurs are more of a team basketball player, and they mainly use teammates' runs to create open opportunities.

"Then I'll be blunt, don't you mind!" Li Yang looked at Popovich with a smile on his face, and thought to himself that this bad old man was really bad, and he deliberately dug a pit for me to jump! It's a grandson who has been pretending to be in vain for so long just now.

"Now that the NBA has entered the era of small ball, three-point shooting and conversion will become very important, and traditional centers are gradually being abandoned by many teams because of their slow moving speed. The center only needs to do a good job of rebounding protection and rim protection, and occasionally eat cake under the basket. Li Yang said tentatively, while observing Popovich's face.

Sure enough, after listening to it, Popovich's face immediately darkened, he didn't like Li Yang's argument very much, which was contrary to his team basketball, but he couldn't be too direct: "Well, three-point shooting is really important!" ”

"Three-pointers and mid-range shots are the most efficient ways to score by finishing." Li Yang observed the words, quickly made up for it, and almost fell for Popovich.

Popovich's face turned cloudy and sunny at this time, and a kind smile appeared on Popovich's face again, and he patted Li Yang's shoulder with satisfaction: "Yes, what the young man said is still very insightful!"

"Uh...... OK! Li Yang looked at Popovich in front of him speechlessly, and the other party turned his face as if he had changed his face in Sichuan Opera.

One thought of heaven, one second of hell. If you say it's good, it's a sunny day, and if you say it's bad, there's no tomorrow!

Before leaving San Antonio, Li Yang received a reply from the Spurs management, and Buford said sincerely: "Lai, we can't give you a first-round guarantee because we have other more suitable candidates, but we can give you a second-round guarantee, if you fall to the second round, we will definitely choose you." ”

"And we want you to keep training during the holidays, oh yes, and the most important thing is to avoid injury!" Buford had a discerning expression.

This is a guarantee given by the Spurs, but as for believe it or not, it is a matter for Li Yang. These old rivers and lakes have a very strong ability to hide knives in their smiles, just listen to this kind of words, the most important thing is to look at their actions.

Although Li Yang does not like Buford's style of operation, I have to admit that the Spurs are indeed a team with a rich championship background, they have a good team basketball culture, and more importantly, they have the magical and thick black Popovich, which is very much in line with Li Yang's appetite.