Chapter 302: "Windy City" Chicago
According to the league schedule, the Nets will next challenge the Chicago Bulls back-to-back after three difficult overtime victories over the New York Knicks, who are currently ranked fourth in the East above the Nets.
So as soon as they came out of the Madison Garden arena, the team boarded the plane non-stop and flew straight to Chicago.
In fact, NBA teams have more than 100 games a year, and in order to shorten the time it takes for teams to travel to and from the venue, and to allow players to rest better, many teams have been using charter flights since the 90s.
The Nets also signed a long-term contract with GE Capital, the world's largest commercial aircraft leasing company, to provide the Nets with special planes, although some more financially rich teams simply bought their own planes, such as Dallas Mavericks owner Cuban, who bought a Boeing 757 for the team.
The Nets were a Boeing 737, but its interior had been modified beyond recognition, with a cabin that could accommodate 160 passengers, reduced to about 40 seats.
The entire cabin is divided into three sections, with the frontmost cabin having only 15 seats, which is specially designed for players and is spacious and comfortable; The middle cabin has about 12 seats, divided into 6 rows, and there is a square table for the coach to hold a meeting in the middle; The rearmost cabin has 7 rows of seats and belongs to the team's staff.
The NBA regular season schedule is very tight, and at the moment, the tall and strong man sitting in the second row of the plane is covering himself with a blanket and closing his eyes.
Although since being traded to the Nets, Gao Dazhuang has scored 50 points in both tough games. has created a series of NBA historical records such as two consecutive 50 points for rookies, but the psychological and physical pressure faced by tall and strong at the moment is relatively large.
Every year after the start of the season. The rookies seem to be getting more and more active, and everyone is going to jump higher. Run faster, but unfortunately, the NBA is a marathon, not a sprint.
Starting with training camp, it's a month of two drills a day, eight preseason games, and then a long road of 82 games that torment you, a dozen back-to-back games and endless days of flying, staying in hotels and busing.
Ultimately. When you start to have a little bit of a breakdown, both physically and mentally, the "rookie wall" is here.
The term "rookie wall" is used in the top sports leagues of Europe and the United States to describe the inadequacy of an athlete during his first two rookie seasons when he transitions from amateur to professional.
In fact, after the victory over the Warriors, some experts predicted that Gao Dazhuang would encounter a "rookie wall" within a month, so Gao Dazhuang has been carefully adjusting his body to avoid the "rookie wall".
Of course, the Nets' coaching staff has been a great help in this regard, and head coach Johnson doesn't like to use the concept of a "rookie wall", he likes to call it a "drop in mental concentration" to face this problem. Johnson once sternly said to the tall man: "I don't want to hear this at all, I don't want to talk about it, I don't even want to talk nonsense about it, you should start to get this whole rookie wall concept out of your head."
"Hey. High, look at this" Just as the tall and strong mind was wandering the world in the sky, Wallace's rough voice woke it up.
In the first 3 days of preparing for the Knicks. Wallace had been training with Tall Strong, so the relationship between the two quickly warmed up. Of course, one of the most important reasons for this is the strength of being tall and strong. Gao Dazhuang completely conquered the Nets players with two 50 points, and even the team's captain Delong asked Gao Dazhuang's opinion many times in the game, and the guarantee of strength also made Gao Dazhuang reduce a lot of unnecessary trouble.
AT THIS TIME, WALLACE, WHO WAS SITTING NEXT TO TALL AND STRONG, HANDED AN IPAD TO TALL AND STRONG, AND AFTER TAKING IT, HE TOOK IT AND LOOKED AT IT CASUALLY, AND FOUND THAT WALLACE WAS READING A PIECE OF NEWS:
The 2012/2013 NBA All-Star voting season has officially kicked off, with a ...... of candidates
There are a total of 120 people on the list, 60 people in the east and west regions, the first thing Gao Dazhuang saw was the list in the west, the Lakers "Five Tigers" Kobe, Gasol, Howard, Nash, Ci Shiping are all on the shortlist, Gao Dazhuang's former teammates, Harden of the Rockets, Parsons and Chinese star Jeremy Lin are also on the list, of course, Tim Duncan, Chris? Paul, Westbrook, Parker and a number of other star players are on the list.
Next is the East, the Heat's "Big Three" are at the top, Anthony, Irving, Paul George, etc. are on the list, and soon the tall and strong will see the Nets: Deron Williams, Lopez and Tall and Strong!
Although he had expected it, seeing his name appear on the All-Star voting list, Gao Dazhuang still felt a little excited and excited.
"High, the All-Star voting has begun, and based on your recent performance, I think you have a good chance of becoming the vote king, wow, I'll be proud to tell all my friends that I'm good buddies with the vote king," Wallace, who was sitting next to him, quipped.
In addition to the official website voting, the NBA All-Star Game also added new social network voting channels such as Twitter and Facebook, and even China's Sina Weibo, Tencent Weibo and other methods can be used to vote.
You know, after the NBA introduced the online voting mechanism in 2005, the voting of Chinese fans made Yao Ming become the All-Star vote king twice, and Yao Ming's votes in 2005 even refreshed the record set by Jordan in 1997, and this time Chinese fans have a great possibility to help Gao Dazhuang create another miracle.
But unlike Jeremy Lin, Yi Jianlian, and even Yao Ming, Gao Dazhuang not only has huge popularity in China, but also in the United States.
Rookie of the Month can't explain that Tall and Strong scored 50 points in a row to set a series of NBA records, and 50 points is also the highest score in a single game this season, and Gao Dazhuang also surpassed Curry in the scoring list with 24 points to rank sixth, behind Durant, Anthony, Kobe, James, Harden and Westbrook.
And in the 23 matches that are currently being played. Tall and strong has played 21 games off the bench after coming to the Nets to achieve absolute centerpiece. It is conceivable that the tall and strong will launch the most powerful attack on the players in front of him.
Chicago is located in the Midwest of the United States, in the state of Illinois. Adjacent to Lake Michigan in the east, it is an international metropolis in the United States after New York City and Los Angeles, the third largest city in the United States, one of the most important financial, cultural, manufacturing, futures and commodity trading centers in the United States, and a world-famous metropolis.
Chicago is about the same latitude as New York, but because the Chicago neighborhood is close to the curvilinear shores of Lake Michigan, a large amount of cold air from the northern forests of Lake Michigan rises in the autumn and sweeps across the lake and blows directly into the city, and the streets and rivers in the city are spacious. Cold winds blow down these rivers to most of the city, giving Chicago its beautiful nickname "Windy City."
And Chicago also has a special place in the league because they have a great team: the Chicago Bulls.
The Chicago Bulls are definitely the most recognizable NBA team in the world, at least in China, because the basketball god "Flyer" Michael? Jordan, the greatest player in NBA history, has long been deeply fixed in the minds of every fan wearing the No. 23 jersey of the Bulls.
Jordan's Bulls pulled off one miracle after another at Union Center, in addition to two triple-winning feat in the 1995-96 season. The greatest Bulls team in history even won the championship with 72 wins.
Although Chicago fell into a temporary slumber with Jordan's retirement, with the 2008 Chicagoans lucky to get the No. 1 pick and pick the talented point guard Derrick with the first pick? Martel? Ross. Chicago began to rise.
In 2011, with the slow maturation of Rose, Noah, Gibson and Boozer, Korver. The addition of Brewer, coupled with Deng's all-round play. The Bulls won another chance this year. They finished first in the league under Thibodeau.
In the same year, Rose became the youngest regular season MVP in NBA history, but they fell to the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals.
Just when the Bulls were ready to show their strength, their core player, MVP Rose, was unexpectedly seriously injured, and according to a number of media reports, Rose has almost no possibility of returning this season, which also announced the dashing of the Bulls' hopes.
Named after its sponsor, United Airlines, which pays $1.8 million a year until 2014 and has the naming rights to the stadium, the 960,000-square-foot privately owned arena on 46 acres due west of Chicago's Rupp business district claims to be the largest stadium in the United States, with a capacity of 21,879 spectators when basketball games are held.
With a hint of "pilgrimage", Gao Dazhuang took the bus to the United Center arena, the home of the Bulls.
Since last night, it has snowed heavily in Chicago, but when I came to the United Center arena, the tall and strong man saw the statue of Jordan standing in the snow at the entrance of the arena.
The statue is cast in bronze, Jordan stares at the sky in the distance, holding his beloved basketball in his hand, and the statue's pose is the perfect interpretation of Jordan: Jordan in flight!
And underneath the pedestal of the statue, an inscription is engraved: Thebestthereeverwas, Thebestthereeverwillbe.
After seeing this sentence, Gao Dazhuang has been reciting this sentence repeatedly, which translates into Chinese to mean: there is no one before and no one after.
What is domineering, this is it!
Flyer Jordan brought Chicago a victory, and Chicago also gave Jordan great glory, seeing the statue standing at the door of the stadium, the tall and strong heart is infinite emotion.
Upon entering the court, there was a huge banner in the center of the entire arena with two sentences written on it, the first saying "A new era has begun" and the next saying "Respect for old traditions".
It seems like the Chicago Bulls are reminding every visitor that we respect our history, but please don't just think about our history because we're going to open up a new era.
In an instant, the tall and strong seemed to understand where the resilience of this "iron army" Chicago Bulls came from.
While the Bulls are missing MVP Rose, Thibodeau's team can fight to the death with this resilient and strong opponent, which is exactly what the Nets are lacking at the moment.
Looking at the enthusiastic fans in the stands, looking at the six championship flags hanging on the rooftop, and looking at the crazy expression of the Bulls' Noana, Gao Dazhuang knew that a tough battle was inevitable. (To be continued......)
PS: Along the way, it is my interest that supports me, the first time I wrote a book, I felt a lot, happy and depressed, but I also learned a lot of experience and lessons, I hope to write better and better! Thank you for your support!