The NBA's Absolute Dominance

Chapter 32 First Trial Stop: Hornets
On May 18th, Tang Bei embarked on his trial training journey, with the Hornets as his first stop.

The team tryouts weren't just for one person; the Charlotte Hornets invited more than twenty rookies and arranged physical tests and games.

Mourning, along with other promising rookies like Laettner and Gugliotta, were among the nominees, but O'Neal was absent.

In contrast to Tang Bei, Shaquille O'Neal, the top prospect in the draft, did not participate in extensive team workouts. His agent publicly revealed that O'Neal wanted to play for the Lakers and did not care about his draft position.

However, the Magic quickly stated publicly that the team had no intention of trading draft picks, and that they had already prepared a jersey with O'Neal's name on it, and publicly invited O'Neal to visit Orlando.

The Hornets had no intention of suppressing Tang Bei; the management simply wanted to see the true talent and ability of Tang Bei and several other center rookies like Mourning, in order to prepare for future draft decisions.

The Hornets hold the second overall pick in the first round, aiming to select a center.

The Hornets' interior defense is severely lacking in height. Their starting power forward, Larry Johnson, is only 198 cm tall, and last season's starting center, Kenny Gatsison, is only 203 cm tall. This is a completely short combination, and they desperately need a center.

Excluding O'Neal, the Hornets currently have three options: Mourning, Tang Bei, and Laettner. Gugliotta is a power forward and is not among their choices.

Because the Hornets already have Larry Johnson, the number one draft pick and power forward, the management tends to choose a true center from among the three.

Therefore, the focus of this trial is to evaluate Tang Bei and Mourning, and secondly Leitner.

Head coach Alan Bristol assigned Don Bei to match up against Mourning and forbade anyone else to double-team Don and Mourning, wanting to see the two go it alone.

Tang Bei won the jump ball and immediately ran towards the basket.

Mourning, confident in his upper body strength, with a weight of 109 kg and a maximum bench press of 190 kg, attempted to defend.

"No."

But he soon realized he couldn't hold on at all.

"ball!"

Just then, Tang Bei suddenly turned and blocked Mourning behind him, raising his right hand high under the basket to call for the ball.

Mo Ning knew things were going badly, so he quickly circled around to the right.

With a foundation in martial arts footwork, Tang Bei moves with great agility.

When Mourning moved in front of him, he adjusted his footing in time, while using his right arm to keep Mourning behind him and switching to his left hand to call for the ball.

Mo Ning tried desperately to push Tang Bei, but Tang Bei's low horse stance was too stable and his strength was much greater, so he couldn't push him at all.

"boom!"

At that moment, the ball was passed in, Tang Bei caught it with his left hand, then stood up and delivered a powerful two-handed dunk that shattered the rim.

Mo Ning, who was behind him, was knocked off balance by him and was blocked solidly.

“Mourning’s strength is also good, but he is a step behind Tang. Although he is very tough on defense, he has a hard time stopping Tang under the basket.”

"His footwork under the basket is also good, and he has a height advantage. I am more optimistic about China Tang."

"Let's see. Mourning's defense still has an advantage, and I really admire his defensive attitude."

A group of Hornets executives, including General Manager Dave Tvertzke, were discussing the matter on the sidelines, expressing their respective opinions.

As the game progressed, Tang Bei gained the upper hand in his offense under the basket.

Although Mourning is a strong defender, he is at a disadvantage when defending against a heavy center like Tang Bei under the basket, as he is not as strong or tall as Tang Bei.

Once Tang Bei gets under the basket, he uses only one move against Mourning: a powerful drive, repeatedly drawing fouls. Without being double-teamed, he repeatedly uses his superior talent to overpower Mourning under the basket, leaving Mourning unable to defend against his strong attacks and feeling extremely frustrated.

However, he still made many excellent defensive plays, causing Tang Bei to make several mistakes and commit two three-second violations on offense.

Tang Bei's performance on the defensive end was mixed. The old problem persisted: insufficient awareness of what was behind him, resulting in inadequate help defense on the weak side.

However, he performed well in one-on-one defense, defense under the basket, and even in help defense on the strong side of the perimeter.

His overall offensive and defensive performance is probably not as good as Mourning's, but his performance in direct matchups against Mourning is still commendable.

"Tang made quite a few mistakes! His match experience is nowhere near that of Mourning."

“He’s a newbie. What we need first is talent. Experience can be accumulated, but talent cannot be accumulated; it can only be consumed.”

"Tang's defensive attitude is also very positive. Although his skills and defensive experience are not as good as Mourning's, he has height and talent."

"Tang's ability to attack the basket is much stronger than Mourning's; they're not even in the same league. I think Tang should be chosen."

"This year's rookies are just too good to choose from!"

The management has been discussing the matter, but they are unable to reach a conclusion in the face of two exceptionally talented centers.

Then the management arranged for Tang Bei to face off against Leitner, and also arranged for Mourning to face off against Leitner, with the three of them taking turns playing against each other.

Tang Bei showed no mercy to Leitner, relentlessly attacking him from the basket. Leitner was in a very sorry state, and if he hadn't been afraid of Tang Bei's slaps, he might have resorted to violence.

Mourning's tough defense against Laettner made Laettner's offense very difficult, making it almost impossible for Laettner to create low-post opportunities and forcing him to rely entirely on mid-range shots.

After this tryout, the management made one thing clear: if the Magic drafted O'Neal, the Hornets would have to choose between Mourning and Tang Bei.

At 10 p.m. on the 20th, CCTV-1's sports news broadcast Tang Bei's news again.

Lin Xiaoyan only captured a few moments of Tang Bei smashing the backboard and collapsing the basket frame; she didn't record any video. But those few moments were already quite shocking.

Anyone in China who saw this news, even basketball professionals, was shocked and some even thought it was fake.

Xinhua News Agency had previously decided to send a professional sports reporter to the United States after Tang Bei's successful draft, but changed its decision after this press release was issued.

Xu Jicheng, a professional sports reporter for Xinhua News Agency, was hired this year as a basketball broadcasting consultant for CCTV, where he is responsible for basketball commentary and also conducts basketball interviews for Xinhua News Agency.

He graduated from the English Department of Shandong University. Xinhua News Agency wanted to send him to the United States. After consulting with CCTV, it turned out that CCTV also wanted to send someone to the United States to interview Tang Bei, and the two sides hit it off immediately.

However, not now. Xu Jicheng is also very busy with his work at CCTV and has limited funds, so he can only go to the United States to interview during talent shows.

After seeing the news, Yang Boyong, from the Second Division of Competitive Sports of the State Sports Commission, also suspected it was fake and specifically called Xinhua News Agency to find out the situation.

The next day at work, Yang Boyong called Liu Yumin over and said, "You saw the news about Tang Bei smashing the backboard, right?"

"I saw it. He's really strong, has great jumping ability, and explosive power." Liu Yumin said, a hint of surprise on his face.

Yang Boyong said, "Your physical fitness is really good, but you can't go far without skills. Once you get injured, you're finished."

Liu Yumin nodded and said, "I don't know how good the NBA is. This time, the Olympics allowed NBA professional players to participate, and I heard that the US men's basketball team selected NBA players this time."

"We'll probably only know after we fight it."

Yang Boyong, who also didn't know much about the NBA, thought for a moment and said, "In the last Olympics and World Championships, the US men's basketball team finished third, so their strength has declined somewhat. The strongest teams now are still those few European countries."

(End of this chapter)