"Theo, you teach this guy more, do you think, if a person who people think is a parallel champion has been taught by you to become a defensive gate, won't your name as a defensive grandmaster come out? In a decade or so, you'll be retired, and you'll be able to run training camps everywhere like Olajuwon......"

Liu Mang is pouring chicken soup into Ratliff.

At the beginning of September, after the players were all reported, and after the contract renewal press conference was also settled, the Eagles' team training gradually began.

At first, it was individual training, some players just started to return to training after a two- or three-month break, and some rookies really didn't have the strength to meet the level of the NBA's regular rotation.

Among the rookies, the most obvious ones who are not at the NBA rotation level are Calderon and Korver, Calderon is okay, he has a hand to pass, he has shooting talent, he has solid ball control, he is familiar with the rhythm and rules of the NBA and other things, and he can be a third bench.

Korver, on the other hand, was lacking in ability, but his shooting talent surprised Chip England, a shooting coach who had trained Steve Kerr.

If Liu Mang is the kind of person who uses the talent of hard work to practice shooting under a soft hand, then Korver is really a shooting talent that is rare in history.

It's not just about three-point shooting, Korver shoots from outside the free-throw line to the three-point line, and his shooting accuracy in this area is simply terrible, but right now, it's just shooting well in the open space, and he can't run or anything.

When he was in college, Korver played in the minor league where the non-elite school was located, and his height of two meters and one was sometimes about the same height as the opposing center, and there were few opponents with particularly good physical fitness, and when he shot, he was basically equal to an open shot.

But it's different in the NBA, the opponents can jump and jump one by one, so Korver has not yet reached the regular rotation level, and after the training on Liu Mang's side is arranged, the main responsibility is the role players' open shooting training, focusing on catching and shooting after running.

Kwame Brown is learning defensive skills from Rutlleaf, who is 30 years old and has been increasingly underfit since last season.

For pure defensive centers like Ratliff, Howard, and Ben Wallace, 30 years old is a hurdle, because they have always had fierce physical confrontation with their opponents, they are heavy and aggressive defensively, often before the age of 30, major injuries come, and after the age of 30, they begin to decline directly, and it is quite obvious, the kind that declines in a straight line.

Ben Wallace, who has declined significantly since he was 31 years old, and Howard has never been selected for the best defensive team since he was 28 years old.

Due to Ratliff's good protection over the past two years, averaging less than 28 minutes per game, Ratliff has not had major physical problems, which is considered a lucky point.

But it's almost time for the new season training camp, Liu Mang still discussed with the coaching staff, reduced Ratliff's playing time, and also communicated with Ratliffe, and the playoffs will be powerful again, and the regular season will rest more and more, don't fight too hard like in the middle of last season, resulting in small injuries here and there at the end of the season, playing less time per game, and prolonging your career.

Ratliffe hesitated for a long time, but still accepted it, he traded to the Hawks in 01 to renew the 7-year 70 million big contract, when it expired, he was 35 years old, keep the state a little better, less injury, is the most critical thing for his age, don't make a big injury in the end, resulting in a serious decline in state, late season is not guaranteed.

Mutombo just renewed his contract and collapsed and was laid off, so it is impossible for Ratliffe to be cautious, if he waits until the 35-year-old contract expires, and the state is still good, wouldn't it be better to sign a pension contract with a team at the same age as Mutombo.

So for pointing out Kwame Brown, Ratliff is really concerned, his own contract is so big, the position of the starting center must be stable, there is a good substitute, and he can rest a little more, otherwise he will replace himself in the town scene when he encounters a little situation, which is really unbearable.

Kwame Brown has not been good on the offensive end, with a bad hand, free throws at the level of O'Neal and Duncan, but there is nothing to say about his defensive talent, he was originally regarded as the best center in the NBA single defense when no one pointed him out, with tonnage and mobility, excellent sense of bounce, and he can run out to prevent blocking and dismantling while being stable.

It was the end of September, and on September 24, the Eagles started training camp a week early, starting team practice and allowing new players and old players to start running-in.

……

……

"You cut in! At this time, you rush to the inside line, you are so strong, you don't know what to do standing there? Want to learn Carlos to shoot from the outside? Do you have that ability? You rush inside! ”

Liu Mang spewed angrily at Kwame-Brown.

Today was the first day of team practice, and the Eagles were divided into two groups.

Liu Mang, Jason Terry, Raheem, Mohammed, Kwame Brown group.

Stockton, Korver, Prince, Boozer, Ratliff in one group.

There was also a third group of Calderon, Willie Green, Barnes, Rasheed Wallace, and Kevin Willis, which were put into the afternoon training and cross-replaced into the first two groups.

In the team's training game, Liu Mang also played as a real game, and then was blown up by Stockton's group.

Boozer is worthy of being a natural good pick-and-roll, and the first time he played with Stockton, he had quite a tacit understanding, even better than the tacit understanding with Liu Mang's blocking and dismantling, and the two worked together to sort out the team's offense tightly and orderly, and blossomed inside and out.

And Liu Mang's team...... Liu Mang mainly played with Muhammad and Kwame Brown to block and break through, or Jason Terry went up to pick it up.

When it came to blocking, Mohammed was fine, he had been working together for so long, and he knew what he had to do.

And Kwame Brown, Liu Mang doesn't know what the situation is on the offensive end, he has been playing in the NBA for two years, and the blocking and dismantling is very stable, and the next plate is solid, but he doesn't even know where to go after the dismantling.

Kwame Brown's first two months with the Hawks were a joy, especially being cared for by two veterans, Ratliffe and Kevin Willis, receiving defensive coaching from them, feeling valued again and determined to study hard.

But...... When the team's joint practice began, Kwame Brown saw Liu Mang's ferocious appearance and felt like he had gone from hell to hell......

The new boss is so fierce!

Halfway through a confrontation match, Kwame Brown was scolded by Liu Mang to the point of blood......

The match is divided into two halves, each of which lasts 20 minutes, with a 15-minute break in between.

Kwamei Brown was sprayed by Liu Mang and doubted his life again, he had heard that Liu Mang was Jordan's disciple, and now he found that it seemed that the two of them were the same urine! He felt that he could not live anymore, so he ran to the side alone and covered his towel with his head down.

Liu Mang really got angry when he saw Kwamei Brown, how could he be so stupid with such a good physical fitness?

At this time, Jason Terry called Liu Mang aside, and Rashid Wallace, Ratliff, Kevin Willis and others also surrounded him.

"Ace, didn't you say that you should cultivate Kwamei well, give him a little confidence, and don't scold him for being too miserable if he makes mistakes?" Jason Terry asked, confused.

"Yes, Ace, didn't you ask me to take good care of this newcomer to the team?" Rashid Wallace chimed in.

Although, Kwame Brown is really spicy on the offensive end and has poor awareness, but everyone sees his defensive talent.

Liu Mang reacted at this time, he was really angry before, and the obviously weaker lineup led by the old man did 35-18 in the half, and he was so angry.

Now that I think about it, it seems that I did scold a little too harshly.

As for Rashid Wallace's care, Liu Mang really wanted to tell him that his smile

"Ace, Kwame's offensive awareness is not good, I think the reason is that he basically didn't have a good offensive role in the first two years, I trained with him for a while, studied his games in the first two years, and found that Jordan let him go to singles every time, he was trained as an offensive core in the Wizards, and his high school style of play is different from the way he was good at catching and dunking, and he lost everything he was good at in two years, you see, can you give him a little patience?" Ratliff also persuaded.

Liu Mang couldn't help but laugh and scolded when he saw Ratliff say this: "Theo, you will still protect the students, really, I am the one who will play with you when I enter the league, too much!" ”

"Haha, isn't that the student you introduced to me?" Ratliff saw Liu Mang smiling, and he was also relieved, knowing that Liu Mang would definitely find a way.

Finding hooligans when there is something is still the same law of the Eagles.

In the second half of the training, although Liu Mang was still angry when he looked at Kwamei Brown, he held back his anger.

After the training match, everyone went to their own training.

Kwame Brown wanted to lift the weight, vent, and work on his body and defense, but he was desperate for his offense.

Just when Kwame Brown was about to go to the gym, he saw Liu Mang gesturing to him, and although he was very puzzled, Kwame Brown still followed.

Liu Mang took Kwame Brown to the stadium where the floor had been resurfaced and the seats had been installed.

After coming here, Liu Mang turned on the lights that could shine on the flag above the team, and did not speak first, but looked at the flag of the 2001-2002 Eastern Conference regular season championship flying over the court.

Kwamei Brown looked at Liu Mang's silhouette, and didn't know what to do, so he was afraid of being scolded, so he could only stand, but looking at Liu Mang's back, looking at it, Kwamei Brown felt that the whole person relaxed.

Liu Mang looked at the Eastern Conference regular season championship banner that represented his greatest achievement now, and looked at it quietly, so that Kwame Brown felt Liu Mang's stable heart.

Liu Mang pondered for a while, then turned to Kwamei Brown and asked, "Kwamei, what is your dream?" ”

A magnetic and demagogic voice came into Kwame Brown's mind, and Kwame Brown was a little confused for a moment.

What are my dreams?

The word dream, Kwame Brown hasn't thought about it for a long time.

At this time two years ago, he had just reached the peak of his career, becoming the NBA's No. 1 pick and attracting the world's attention.

At this time, Kwame Brown is looking forward to being the next Olajuwon in people's mouths, or the next Abdul-Jabbar or Chamberlain.

But when it came to the team's training camp and the start of the preseason, he immediately fell from the peak to the lowest point of his career.

He was only 19 years old, he was asked by Jordan to be like a superstar, scoring in a low-post single, and he didn't know anything, only the physical talent was there, when he was in high school, he was mainly based on air cutting and dunking, no one could stop him, although he also had a huge physical advantage in the NBA, but he had to go to the low post singles, he didn't have that skill, O'Neal also mainly used small hooks as scoring skills.

As a result, after his rookie season, he averaged 14 minutes per game and 4 points and 3.5 boards per game.

It's not terrible to have less time, what is terrible is Jordan's temper, a ball is not played well, he is replaced, wait a few minutes, replace him again, and then play two balls and replace it, even let him think about it, and he doesn't give him a chance to think about how to play well and how to test his ideas right, slowly, the more he plays, the less confident he becomes, and Jordan's crazy scolding, his self-confidence is even worse.

And because of Liu Mang, a disciple who learns everything quickly, in the second year, Jordan scolded Kwame Brown even more, this is not a comparison, but it is good, with comparison, the gap between the two is too obvious, which makes Jordan look down on Kwame Brown even more, and in the end, Jordan didn't even scold, Kwame Brown already felt that he was given up by the world.

So, the word dream hasn't appeared in Kwame Brown's world for a long time.

Kwame Brown recalls the ecstasy of becoming the No. 1 high school student in the nation from her senior year of high school to being the No. 1 pick in the NBA, to the cliff of her later life...... As Kwame Brown fell into his memories, a voice reached his ears.

"Kwame, how is it, do you have any dreams in mind? Say, no one will laugh at you......"

Dream? Kwame Brown remembered that his dream was to become the next player like Abdul-Jabbar, to be able to play until he was in his 40s, and now the NBA is making more money than before, and the longer he plays, the more money he can make, which can be used to buy a big house for Joyce Brown, the mother of his seven siblings, who has worked hard to raise her, and give her a lot of money, so that this great mother, who is only in her 40s but already looks like an old man, can live a good life. Let your younger siblings go out without wearing shabby clothes with patches that can't find a place to get a needle, and they can all have a good life.

But now, Kwame Brown has recognized that he doesn't have the feel of Abdul-Jabbar, and he feels that he is a better choice to be a defensive gate, like Ratliff, using defense, and making more than 10 million a year in his 30s.

And he is physically gifted, and Ratliff himself has said that he may be better than him.

No one has ever hit Kwame Brown's heart like this in such an environment before, and no one has talked to him well in the past few years, so after Kwame Brown entered Jordan's purgatory world, he did not have a clear future orientation for himself and a clear goal for himself.

Seeing Liu Mang's gentle expression and eyes, which were completely different from those in the afternoon, Kwame Brown blurted out: "I want to be the best defender, this is my dream......"

But halfway through the sentence, Kwame-Brown muffled again: "But I'm so bad at offense, too stupid, I don't know what to do, and I don't know what I should do if you scold me." ”

That's it! What Liu Mang was waiting for was Kwame Brown discovering her own problems.

Liu Mang continued to say in a demagogic tone: "Kwamei, don't worry so much, you have to know that if you have high expectations for you, someone will scold you, it doesn't matter, the most afraid is that you don't know how to work hard when others scold you, everyone sees your current efforts, you can learn more from Nazr how to go down, you can learn with Carlos to learn the choice after blocking and dismantling, let yourself appear where you should be, and become everyone's backing on the defensive end, I believe you can become what we want......"

The timing was so good, just at this time, the team staff who came to clean the stadium turned on all the lights, and the dazzling light was sprinkled on Liu Mang's head, and Kwame Brown looked at Liu Mang as if he was shining.

"We all have unrealistic dreams, my dream is to be the best player in history, our team's dream is to beat all opponents, to be the best team, to win the championship! We all have things that seem like idiots fantasize, but we're all working hard for our dreams, trying to get closer to our dreams, and it's hard, but we're all trying.

Kwamei, you are now a part of us, you have to believe in yourself, you are the future interior pillar of the team, and set off towards your current dream - the best defensive player in the world! ”

Kwame-Brown saw Liu Mang spread out his hands as if he wanted to hold the whole world in his arms, and it happened that the headlamp on Liu Mang's head sprinkled the light, and Liu Mang seemed to be bathed in light.

At this moment, Kwame Brown seemed to see an angel......