Slam Dunk: My Study Abroad Career in Northern Hunan

bull.

In today's NBA, this team is a representative of honor, dominance and strength.

The Bulls, led by Michael Jordan and having won five championships, are the ultimate goal of all teams in the league.

From the beginning of this season to the present, the Bulls have achieved an outstanding record of 56 wins and 17 losses, and they still show good dominance. In the Eastern Conference, the Bulls are also one of the teams with the best results.

Although the Timberwolves had played against the Bulls before and had a victory, the Bulls the Timberwolves faced at that time were not complete Bulls.

In the previous game against the Bulls, Scottie Pippen, recognized as the league's strongest second-choice player, did not play. As we all know, the Bulls with Pippen and the Bulls without Pippen are completely two-level teams.

In fact, many fans now recognize Pippen's ability, jokingly saying that Jordan would not have won the championship without Pippen.

This praised Pippen's strength in the same way that fans later praised Kobe and said that O'Neal would not have been able to win the championship without Kobe.

Pippen's value to the Bulls is not just about taking about 16 shots per game and scoring about 20 points in a single game.

For the Bulls, Pippen is an important axis of the Zen Master's triangle offense and a spearhead of perimeter defense against the enemy. At the same time, Pippen is also an important basket protector and attacker.

This is a good opportunity to accumulate experience, both for him personally and for the entire Timberwolves team.

He knows that the Bulls they will face in tomorrow's game can truly test the energy of their Timberwolves!
On the plane to Chicago, Budao sat on the seat next to the window, holding his chin in one hand, looking at the scene outside the window, secretly thinking about how to play tomorrow's game.

However, in terms of absolute scoring explosiveness, he is still far behind martial arts.

Competing against such a strong team in an away game must give people a different feeling.

For a player like Pippen, when he is on the court, the interference he brings to the enemy's defensive formation and the boost he brings to the team's offense cannot be fully demonstrated by data.

If Pippen was not with the Bulls at his peak, he would have been the core of the team for any other team in the league at that time.

Even a newly emerging super rookie like Wu Dao is still lacking compared to Pippen.

Throughout Pippen's entire career, he has six championships, seven All-Star appearances, and even an All-Star AMVP, a steals leader, two All-Defensive Second Team appearances, and eight straight All-Defensive First Team appearances. , there is no shortage of things like the best team at the peak of his career.

Pippen's strong defense ability and basket protection, as well as his excellent conduction ability when he was a central axis, are all better than the current martial arts.

The Bulls with Pippen are a top dynasty team with terrifying dominance.

The different positioning of the team allows the two to have completely different development paths in the development of various technical characteristics.

But as a player, Wu Dao does not want to give up tomorrow's game, not that he is very dedicated, just because he wants to play against the complete Bulls.

At least at this stage, Pippen's abilities are among the best at his position.

It can be said that in addition to regular season MVP, FMVP, scoring champion and other honors, Pippen has won almost all other honors.

Coach Philip seems to have made up his mind to give up tomorrow's game. After today's game against the Indiana Pacers, he didn't even mention how to play tomorrow's game against the Bulls.

The Bulls without Pippen can only be considered a strong contender for the championship.

From a martial arts point of view, Pippen's title as the strongest second-in-command and the strongest small forward in history is well deserved.

The night is getting darker.

Wu Dao still has some awareness of his current shortcomings. It is precisely because he has awareness of himself that he will not underestimate the "second boss" of the Bulls at all.

His value cannot be represented by his child labor wages of less than US$300 million per year.

It is true that martial arts' long board is longer than Pippen's, but from another aspect, Pippen's short board is not as short as martial arts'.

Wu Dao, who had been thinking for a long time, withdrew his gaze, put on a blindfold, adjusted his seat, and then began to close his eyes to rest.

The game against the Pacers consumed a lot of energy. As soon as he closed his eyes, fatigue came over him like a tide.

Wu Dao didn't even know when he fell asleep. He only knew that in his sleep, someone tapped Wu Dao's shoulder gently, waking Wu Dao up.

The flight time was actually very short, but Wu Dao, who was physically exhausted, did not have a keen sense of time. After being shaken awake, Wu Dao took off his blindfold and slowly opened his eyes.

The teammates had all been woken up by the flight attendant at this moment. The plane was preparing to descend, and everyone's seats were adjusted back to the starting position.

Wu Dao rubbed his eyes, woke up, and waited quietly for the plane to land.

It was late at night when the Timberwolves players arrived in Chicago, and every player who got off the plane became energetic.

Although the schedule is heavy, all of those guys are NBA players after all and can be considered rich. Their nightlife is much richer than that of ordinary people.

As soon as they arrived in Chicago, someone encouraged the teammates not to rush back to the hotel to rest, but to go to the nightclub to hunt for women, and then return to the hotel to "sleep."

Hunting for beauty.
In this kind of thing, the performance of martial arts is still relatively traditional. On the one hand, the moral concept is that he has a girlfriend. If he wants to be a prodigal and has no relationship with his girlfriend, he can just break up openly. There is no need to do it. This kind.

Of course, Wu Dao's main concern is not entirely moral. He is not interested in girls at nightclubs and is afraid of taking the path of a magician or a future Kobe Bryant.
Although not all of them fell on the nightclub girl
Martial arts will not join them, nor will they stop them.

And looking at Coach Philip's nonchalant and commonplace look, you can understand that this kind of thing is too common in the league.

If it were the playoffs or the eve of an important game, Coach Philip would definitely not be so indulgent to his players.

But today is different. He has already made up his mind to give up tomorrow's game. Under such a general premise, he doesn't care if the players do something a little out of the ordinary tonight.

The players got on the bus to the hotel one after another. The "big brothers" Wu Dao and Garnett did not join them, and the other players also showed some lack of interest.

We simply got on the bus to the hotel together.

Their current behavior is like this. Whether they will want to do some fancy work after arriving at the hotel is not something others can know.
In fact, in this era, there are many door-to-door services.

NBA players are a hot commodity to some people.

There are too many women who try to "take shortcuts".

That night, Wu Dao slept deeply, and until he got up the next day, he could still feel some fatigue on his body.

However, as Wu Dao completed his "daily mission" in the gym and obtained the recovery potion, the fatigue accumulated before was truly wiped away.

In the afternoon, when the Timberwolves players gathered together to prepare to go to the court to adapt to the venue, Budao noticed that the faces of the players were full of exhaustion.

Only a few people such as Garnett, Cherokee Parks, and Wallace are in better shape. Every one of the other players looked tired. You can't see dark circles on the faces of black players, but the deep eye lines really reveal too much information about martial arts.

"These guys."

Seeing the appearance of his teammates, Wu Dao's eyelids jumped, but he could only sigh secretly in his heart, having nothing to say.
After adapting to the venue in the afternoon, the Timberwolves players felt a little careless.

These guys were still there the day before, vowing to win two games, but the actual actions they took were somewhat different from what they said.

As the evening approaches, the United Center opens to the public.

The media reporters were the first to arrive at the arena, much earlier than the players and fans.

At close to six o'clock, players from the Timberwolves and Bulls also arrived at the arena one after another. In addition to doing some pre-game preparations, they also needed to allocate part of their time to deal with interviews with media reporters.

For the Timberwolves, coach Philip only appointed one person from Wu Dao to accept the media’s pre-match interview with him.

Today, the Timberwolves are intentionally increasing the exposure of martial arts, and the league is also consciously acting as a promoter to help the Timberwolves accomplish this.

As the season progresses, the NBA "quietly" opens up the Asian market. Now that televisions are not popular enough in China, the ratings contributed to the NBA are actually limited.

But Neon is different. Although the Neon economic bubble burst in the early 90s and the Great Depression hit, as an important anchor of Laos and the United States in the Asia-Pacific, the economy was still "far ahead" in the s.

Basically, "well-off" families have big-ass TV sets. Although the NBA's ratings increase in Asia is extremely limited, it also allows NBA management to see a larger market for martial arts.

Although the ratings increase in Asia is not that big, in the United States, the emergence of martial arts has greatly increased the NBA's attention among Asian groups.

For the league, attention is money.

At the pre-game press conference, the media, large and small, aimed their weapons at Wu Dao and Coach Philip. After a brief hello, the reporters started asking questions at the instruction of coach Philip.

The questions asked by reporters are relatively friendly, and they are all simple and non-nutritious questions.

Things like "How are you preparing for the game?", "Are you confident about the Bulls' game?", "How do you feel about playing against Michael again?"

This type of question is very routine, and the answer is of little value.

Wu Dao showed his tact and humility as always when facing the media. After praising Michael Jordan for a few words, he easily dismissed the media.

Pre-game press conferences are often like this.

In fact, the most difficult time to hold a press conference is after the game, and it is after the game after losing the game. After losing the game, it is when you face the inquiries from the team's local media.
That's when it's the hardest.

Night falls.

Fans watching the game entered the stadium one after another. After some simple "transition activities", the lights of the venue dimmed.

The Bulls' home music, Sirius, also rang throughout the stadium and echoed in the ears of the fans.

This song is also affectionately called "God's Ditty" and "Jordan's Execution Song" by fans.

The moment the music started playing, amazing cheers erupted in the United Center. Amid the DJ's hoarse cheers, the player tunnel opened and the Bulls players trotted out of the tunnel one after another. Every player came on stage. , the on-site commentators took the trouble to introduce their home players.

Michael Jordan came out as the finale, and his appearance also pushed the cheers to the climax.

Michael Jordan ran out of the tunnel with an indifferent expression, giving people a "very majestic" feeling.

The fans looked at Jordan's "I'm the coolest" expression and cheered loudly.

Shortly after the Bulls players entered the stadium, the players' tunnel on the other side of the stadium also opened.

The on-site commentators were also in high spirits when introducing the Timberwolves players and did not treat them differently, but this was not the case for the fans at the scene.

The cheers were sparse, and the sound was not at the same level as when the Bulls players played before.

That is to say, when Wu Dao entered the stadium, the cheers in the venue were slightly louder, but they were still not as high as the lowest level of cheers when the Bulls players came out.

Chicago's home pressure was felt clearly by the Timberwolves players during the players' entrance.

The spotlight on the top of the arena came back on.

The players lined up on both sides of the court greeted the cheers of the fans. Wu Dao turned his head slightly and looked at the Bulls team, and his eyes quickly found Pippen.

Pippen was wearing jersey No. 33, with his hands behind his back and a dull expression.

"Well, it's very impressive."

I have to say that the Bulls' second-in-command is also very impressive.

None of these core players of the dynasty team should be underestimated.

After the players from both teams returned to the rest area, they began to make final pre-match adjustments.

Until this time, coach Philip called the players together and said to them:
"Today's game, you can just watch and play."

"Don't force yourself to win the game, relax a little and try a different style of play than before."

Philip is not obsessed with the outcome of this game, but he will not directly ask the players to surrender or directly use substitutes to train.

He will control the playing time of the players, allowing the players to maintain a certain level of competitiveness while not allowing the players to be overly exhausted.

Compared with the calm pre-game atmosphere of the Timberwolves, the Bulls are completely different.

Their tactics had been repeatedly deduced before the game. After arriving on the court, the Bulls players gathered around Jordan:
"What time is it now?"

"Competing time!"

Loud chants rang from the Bulls' rest area, and under the expectant eyes of the home fans, the Bulls' starting five entered the court.

Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman, Tony Kukuch, Ron Harper.

At this moment, Wu Dao's eyes also fell on the Bulls' starting players, and he lightly clenched his fist with his right hand:
"No matter what others think, I must try my best to win!"

(End of this chapter)