On the afternoon of Feb. 17, at the Staples Center, the rookie team's training officially began.

Of course, the biggest purpose of this training session is not to train the players, but to make commercial noise.

Every year during All-Star Weekend, the pre-rookie training and pre-All-Star training are open to the media throughout. To put it bluntly, this training is a show for the media to increase the exposure of all-stars.

In the training ground, some of the players were fighting, some were talking to each other, and some were being interviewed by reporters. There are only a handful of people who are training in earnest.

Link regretted a little, knowing that the All-Star Game training was for show, he put trainer Marcus Murphy on the side. Will brought. Now Link can only train with an unfamiliar trainer, and Link always feels that it is not very efficient.

At this time, Link's practice was naturally the offensive footwork he learned from Kobe Bryant in the early hours of this morning.

Link and Kobe Bryant continued training until half past seven in the morning, when they were both too tired to stop.

To Link's surprise, after training with Kobe Bryant in the early morning, he didn't feel sleepy, and he was refreshed when he walked on the street in the morning. Moreover, having such an extra practice not only allowed him to learn a lot from Kobe, but also made his little white bar progress grow beyond the plan.

After training, Kobe Bryant patted Link's shoulder with a grin, "Next time I have a chance, we will be together again, and I am very happy to train with you." ”

Link really didn't know if it was a good thing or a bad thing. Fortunately, I am not a player of the Lakers, otherwise I would have received a call from some paranoid person in the middle of the night from time to time.

Speaking of what Kobe Bryant taught Link today, it's a lot and it's also miscellaneous.

What tentative steps, dribbling steps, or even back-to-back steps, anyway, Kobe Bryant thinks of where to talk about it, and it doesn't matter if Link can't digest it.

Because Kobe Bryant knows very well that basketball is something that you can't learn just by relying on others to teach you a few times. Unless you are willing to go down and think slowly, you will never become a trick in your "arsenal". Therefore, whether you can learn or not depends not on digesting when you are learning, but on how much time you are willing to spend practicing.

Link also knows this truth, when he talked to Tony. When Allen was learning to defend, Link loved to catch his teammates and practice with him when he was fine. Conley was the most tortured, he was embarrassed to refuse Link, so he was only tortured by Link over and over again on the training ground.

Now Link can have a decent defensive foundation, except thanks to Hill's talent and Tony. In addition to Aaron's guidance, we also have to thank Conley for his sacrifice.

However, the defense of the trainer in front of him is too weak for Link. He doesn't need to step up, he can go straight to the middle. With an unfamiliar trainer, it can't be practiced at all.

Seeing that Link has been catching the trainer to practice his steps, the reporters are also interested. In particular, some media from China finally took advantage of Link's break to go up and interview.

"Link, do you have time for an interview?" Chinese reporters are still quite cautious, after all, there are not many Chinese players playing in the NBA, and they don't know what kind of temper the other side is.

"No problem." Link smiled, and he was happy to see that the "hometown" media came to interview him.

"What were you practicing just now? We've seen from the very beginning of the training that you've been practicing the same sport. ”

The reporter communicated with Link in English, and Link looked around, but there were no American reporters, so when he answered, he spoke Chinese.

"Offensive footsteps, all sorts of offensive steps. I want to perfect my attacking tactics, so I have to hurry. ”

The reporters were overjoyed, and Link's Chinese speech was not at all unmistakable.

"What does it mean to you to train hard? You're pretty much the hardest working player in the entire training gym, so why are you working so hard during the relaxing moment of All-Star Weekend? The reporter also began to communicate with Link in Chinese, which not only shortened the distance between the reporter and Link, but also directly shortened the distance between Link and Chinese fans.

Chinese fans will feel that this guy is no different from everyone except that he couldn't choose his nationality at the beginning. Jeff. Austin would be overjoyed to know about this. In the future, the door of the Chinese market will undoubtedly be greatly opened to Link.

In this era when black people shouting "I love China" in Chinese can be popular, why can't Chinese Americans?

"Training hard means everything, and I know very well how I got up from the bottom. So, I won't relax for a moment. Because there are a lot of people behind you, and once you relax, there are people who want to replace you. ”

"If you had the chance, would you like to come to China to play?" In the end, the reporter asked a question that was enough to keep all Chinese fans concerned.

Link was a little confused, when this guy came to play in China, did he mean the CBA or the national team? No matter which one you refer to, it's not realistic.

"Of course I'll go if I have the chance, but for now, I still want to do what I'm doing." Link could only answer in a very official tone, which can be regarded as a fool.

After seeing off the Chinese reporters, Link sat on the sidelines and thought for a while. One of the great advantages of being a Chinese-American may be that you don't have to contact the Chinese Basketball Association. After all, China does not allow dual citizenship, and Link can't play for the Chinese team even if he wants to.

What's more, Link's wishes are not so intense.

Winning glory for the country is of course something that every boy will fantasize, but joining the Chinese men's basketball team is not as simple as winning glory for the country. The rules of the game are probably more complicated than those in the NBA.

When the Chinese Basketball Association enters the Yao Ming era in the future, Link is willing to do what he can to support. But now...... Forget it, the Chinese national team is wading into troubled waters, it's better to stay away.

"Link, what have you been practicing? Are you thinking about how to overshadow me tomorrow? ”

Just then, Link heard someone talking to him. When I turned my head to look, I found that it was my "good teammate" in the first-year team. Cousins.

As one of the best interior players in the 10-time rookie, Cousins was naturally invited to participate in this year's rookie game. Since Link and Cousins didn't play against each other during the regular season, Cousins kept pestering him as soon as Link arrived in the locker room today.

"Don't expect to get my pass tomorrow, Link."

"On the training ground, I'm sure I'm not going to show mercy to your men, bastard!"

"If something happens tomorrow, I won't spare you!"

Cousins is like a wet market aunt, always nagging around Link from time to time, and Link can't stand it anymore.

Isn't it necessary to lose to yourself once!? And that game is strictly speaking Cousins lost to Randolph, why keep catching me!

"No, I just practice casually, who dares to steal the limelight from you." Link didn't get entangled with Cousins, Cousins was extremely immature at this time, and there were few people in the league who could communicate with him.

"It's useless to practice no matter how much you practice, bastard. See that guy? Wall is my buddy! Tomorrow, he's going to pass me the ball and many, many balls. As for you? You'll be forgotten, man. "Cousins is a bit of a kid, and losing to the draft has made him haunted by it until now.

"Yes, yes, that's your buddy Wall. But you probably don't know what's going on, DeMarcus. Our team is special this year, we have two champions. Wall and repeater Griffin will be the focus of attention tomorrow. So guess what, will your good brother Wall pass the ball to Griffin or pass it to you? You've seen Griffin's dunk, right? All of L.A. are waiting to see him dunk. You and I, we will all be forgotten. ”

Hearing Link say this, Cousins looked at Wall, then at Griffin, who was surrounded by reporters, and pouted.

"But don't worry too much, DeMarcus. Because of me and you, we don't want to be forgotten. But in the middle of the two, how can we get noticed? That's right, we have to join forces. We have to take the initiative and steal the limelight from them. The rookie game isn't really about winning or losing, and if we can't even leave an impressive picture, then what are we going to play? ”

Link flickered vigorously, dealing with a guy like Cousins, how to be nonsensical, after all, this kind of person's brain circuit is abnormal.

"I ...... I'm not going to join forces with you! Cousins scratched his head, then turned away, not pestering Link again.

Link's roots are finally quiet, and Cousins will surely ponder whether to believe himself or not now. After a while, it shouldn't be annoying again.

Although he said those words in order to fool Cousins, Link really wanted to leave a good performance. What's the point of just being there for Wall and Griffin?

It's All-Star Weekend, so let's increase our exposure.