Chapter 104 103. They are all high school students, why is there such a big gap between them?

After arriving in Oklahoma City, Zhang Yang went to the University of Oklahoma with Felton and Anderson.

Oklahoma City has a pair of talented basketball brothers who were born and raised there.

His older brother, Tyler Griffin, averaged 04 points, 05 rebounds, 12 assists, 20 steal and 14 blocks per game in the 2-1 season when he was in Grade 4. He led his team to win the Oklahoma High School League Championship and was named the state's Mr. Basketball. Last summer, he rejected invitations from a number of big city schools and stayed at the University of Oklahoma City.

His younger brother, Blake Griffin, is in the 11th grade this season. He has performed better than his older brother in the 12th grade, averaging 21 points, 12 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals and 5 blocks per game. He is undefeated so far this season and is the top candidate for Ohio Basketball Player of the Year.

The two brothers took over the state basketball player title, and although the younger brother has not officially won it yet, he is already a legend in the local campus basketball community.

It is Christmas holiday now. When Zhang Yang was browsing the news before coming, he saw that Griffin was training with the University of Oklahoma during the holiday. He wanted to go and see if he could meet him, so he called the fat street urchin Xiao Lao Da and Anderson who were squatting at the intersection of the hotel with nothing to do.

Neither Felton nor Anderson refused. During the consecutive away games, the coach did not allow them to continue training for fear that they would get injured. They were young and energetic, so it would be fine for them to find something to do... Mainly, they were worried about letting Zhang Yang go to the university alone.

If some good-looking, well-built, and sexually aroused girl from the Russian University seduces Zhang Yang away, they will be jealous... No, that will affect tomorrow's game.

Tomorrow is an important showdown between the 'Future Duo of Charlotte'.

Felton is waiting for Zhang Yang to grow up, and then he can take Zhang Yang to the nightclub. With Zhang Yang around, the girls in the nightclub will definitely not just surround Gerald Wallace anymore.

Isn't it just that he looks tougher, taller and more powerful, with better muscle lines? He has a younger brother who is more handsome and has a better figure!
Since he was going out to play, Felton called a friend who was playing basketball here.

Zhang Yang went to the University of Oklahoma with the two of them. When he saw the friend that the fat boss mentioned, his eyes widened!

Zhang Yang was even more surprised to see Felton and Paul greeting each other in a hip-hop manner.

With Felton's introduction, Zhang Yang, Anderson, and Paul greeted and got to know each other.

When Paul greeted Anderson, he just glanced at him and kept his eyes on Zhang Yang.

He wanted to become the strongest No. 3 in history, and he also wanted to say this, but he didn't dare.

As a result, this 17-year-old high school student spoke first!

A high school student who only averaged 12 points per game dared to say this!

Then, in the second game month, he averaged 15 points per game!

With this talent, you can speak louder.

Paul saw that Zhang Yang was also staring at him, but it was not the kind of scrutinizing look he had, but rather... surprise?
Paul: "Jack, is there something wrong with me?"

Zhang Yang: "I'm very curious about something, but I don't know if I should ask."

Felton: "Jack, we are all brothers. If you have any questions, just ask us and we will tell you."

Paul nodded in agreement.

Zhang Yang: "Then let me ask you... Are you guys so close? How could you even go out for a walk together?"

Felton: "On the road?"

Paul: ?
Zhang Yang: "We were just bored, so we just wandered around and trampled the road tight."

Felton: "Oh, that's what I mean. This is the first time for Chris and I to go out on the street."

Paul: ? ?

No, is that the point?

Isn't the focus on the previous sentence?

Are you done talking?!
Seeing that the two were not going to continue talking, Paul forced the topic over: "Raymond and I have known each other since high school. We were teammates at the Carolina Principality Grand Prix."

Felton then remembered that this was the main point of Zhang Yang's question, and responded, "Yes, we were teammates in high school. He was from North Carolina and I was from South Carolina. We won the Carolina Grand Prix together. I am a year older than Chris. After he graduated from high school, both North Carolina and Duke invited him to join, but we already had me in our school, and Duke also had Duhon and Redick. In the end, he chose Wake Forest University, which was short of a point guard... By the way, why are you asking this?"

Paul: Yes, yes, that’s right. This is how the topic should go.

Zhang Yang: "I heard that you, Boss, regard Chris and Williams as imaginary enemies and that they are the ones you want to defeat the most. I didn't expect that you have such a good relationship with Chris."

Felton: "Is there any conflict between treating them as imaginary enemies and wanting to defeat them and having a good relationship with them? I like making friends very much. If I don't have a good relationship with them, it must be that they are jealous of me. They never beat me in college."

Zhang Yang: "That's right, your three universities are in the same division, and North Carolina is the champion. They are definitely no match for us..."

Paul: I shouldn’t have said that. Let’s get back to the topic!
We were just chatting, but you stepped on my feet!

I have 3 NBA first-round draft picks as teammates, and I can also win the national championship!
Also, this 17-year-old rookie who has never played a college game actually keeps saying "our North Carolina". Can he please have some shame?
After chatting for a while, the four of them entered the Russian University campus together.

Paul is now the favorite basketball star of the locals. He asked a passerby for directions, and the passerby excitedly took the four NBA players to the playground. But unfortunately, the Oklahoma University team that usually played training games here every day went to Edmond next door for a warm-up game, and there was only a group of people playing baseball on the playground.

Paul and Felton originally wanted to see the Griffin brothers who may enter the NBA in the future, but they were a little disappointed when they didn't see them.

Seeing a group of people playing baseball, Paul said, "Jack, I heard that you used to play baseball, shall we go and play?"

Zhang Yang: "You guys can play baseball too? I have no problem with that."

Felton: "I've played it before, so it's okay to play around."

Anderson said he couldn't play baseball.

The three of them came to the open space on the playground and expressed their desire to join.

Seeing that there were three talented NBA rookies, the students who were playing basketball took off their gloves, hats, and baseball sticks, allowing the three to choose positions.

Zhang Yang stretched his body. It was a little difficult for him to beat these two people in a one-on-one basketball match, but playing baseball, he had 5 years of baseball experience!

15 minutes later, the game was over...

Zhang Yang: "No, you guys are so good at playing baseball?"

Felton: "Jack, weren't you a baseball player before? Why are you so weak?"

Zhang Yang was silent for two seconds, then replied, "I was so bad at baseball that I switched to basketball in grade 10..."

Paul: "Didn't Raymond tell you that he was a star player on the baseball team when he was in high school? Oh, didn't we just talk about that? The two of us won the Carolina Baseball Grand Prix together, and when we graduated from high school, Raymond and I both received scholarship invitations from college baseball teams."

Zhang Yang: "Who knew the Grand Prix you were talking about was actually a baseball game?"

He felt extremely sad and angry: Give me the ball, I want to go home!

...

The three rookies had a great afternoon, and the only one who was injured was a basketball teenager with five years of baseball experience.

At 7:40 p.m. the next day, at the Ford Center in Oklahoma City, the Bobcats and Hornets entered the court one after another.

Zhang Yang looked at the 20,000 seats in the venue, which were all filled and every fan was full of passion... Oklahoma City people are really passionate about sports!

But it is normal. Oklahoma is a state famous for its good sports atmosphere. There are hundreds of professional sports clubs in Oklahoma City alone. However, among so many clubs, there is not a single team affiliated with the four major leagues.

It is said that after New Orleans was hit by a hurricane, it was the Oklahoma State Legislature that took the initiative to contact the NBA and the Hornets, converting the Ford Center built in 02 into a basketball arena and leasing it to the Hornets. It was also responsible for solving the problems of accommodation and transportation for the Hornets players, and gave the Hornets tax incentives. The Hornets originally planned to move to Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, another city in Louisiana, which is also the home of the university where O'Neal once studied, but the deal failed. The other side did not think of helping each other out of "friendship in the same state", but took advantage of the situation and asked for a sky-high price. It happened that the Oklahoma State Legislature gave such a good offer, so they temporarily moved here.

This is enough to show the people of Oklahoma City's desire for the top league.

There is another reason why Oklahoma City fans are so enthusiastic - the Hornets owner sets the ticket prices very low.

Except for the front row tickets, the prices of tickets for other seats do not exceed US$50, and the season ticket price is as low as US$999, which allows you to enjoy 41 home games.

Thousands of $1 grandstand tickets are available for low-income fans at every game.

The average ticket price for the Hornets this season is only half of that for the Raptors, the second-lowest team in the NBA.

The Hornets owner explained that he didn't want to see large areas of empty positions in the team like in Charlotte, even if it meant paying the players at a loss.

These factors combined make the Hornets one of only two teams this season with 100% attendance at every home game, the other being the Detroit Pistons.

However, even though it sounds so nice, Zhang Yang still thinks that this is the Hornets owner paving the way for moving back to New Orleans in the future - I don't owe you anything, and I have returned all the benefits you gave to the fans.

Even if New Orleans was destroyed by the hurricane, it is still a south coast city. The ticket prices can be much higher than in Oklahoma City, and the ancillary income is much higher than in Oklahoma City. There is a reason why no team in the four major leagues is willing to settle in Oklahoma.

At 8 o'clock in the evening, the Bobcats' away game against the Hornets began.

Hornets starting lineup: Paul, Rasual Butler, Desmond Mason, David West, P.J. Brown.

Bobcats starting lineup: Felton, Kareem Rush, Gerald Wallace, Eli, and Brezek.

With Okafor of the Bobcats absent, the Hornets have a clear advantage in the interior. Although P.J. Brown is 36 years old, he is still strong, averaging 9 points and 7 rebounds per game and playing very good defense. After Magloire was traded, David West was promoted to the starting power forward, and he soared from a substitute with an average of 6 points per game to the fringe level of an All-Star, averaging 17 points per game.

But Felton and Gerald Wallace performed fiercely, not only eliminating the disadvantage in the interior, but also leading the team to the upper hand!
Felton relied on his tank-like body of 185 cm and 93 kg to fight back and forth with Paul. The key point was Gerald Wallace, who almost skinned Desmond Mason alive!
杰拉德-华莱士半节3投2中，加上4中3的罚球，拿到7分2板1盖帽，率领山猫队以15比11领先黄蜂队4分。

P.J. Brown was substituted out early in the first half after committing two fouls. He was so angry at Desmond Mason's defense.

Desmond Mason didn't have any trouble blocking Gerald Wallace's cuts or breakthroughs.

P.J. Brown watched Gerald Wallace, whose arms were thicker than his, rush in unhindered, and there was nothing he could do except foul.

The Hornets traded 2004 All-Star Magloire for Desmond Mason last summer, partly to make room for David West, but more importantly because they valued the strength of this violent forward who averaged 17 points per game last season.

Who would have thought that Desmond Mason, who was in his prime at the age of 28, would become so weak when he came to them. He could only score about 10 points in each game, and his shooting percentage plummeted to 39%.

The defensive performance was even more terrible. Although Desmond Mason had no defensive skills, he relied on his enthusiasm and strong physical fitness to deal with those physical outside players very well. The first time James played against Desmond Mason, he was defended and only made 25 of 7 shots. Francis and Wade were also at a loss when they met Desmond Mason, but this year he was not very active in defense.

When Zhang Yang was looking up information about the Hornets, he saw an interesting story about Desmond Mason - in July last summer, more than a dozen of his paintings were sold for a total of 7 million US dollars, which was higher than his salary in the NBA this season. One of the paintings was bought by David Stern and is currently hanging at the NBA headquarters.

Hornets head coach Byron Scott replaced JR Smith to see if he could use the high school player's explosive scoring power to break the game.

Although JR Smith averaged only 7 points per game, he once scored 33 points in the game against the Grizzlies, leading his team to an upset victory over the 50-win Grizzlies.

On the Bobcats side, Bickerstaff replaced two high school students, Zhang Yang and Perkins.

On Paul's side, Felton was there to break the defense with force. The team was at a disadvantage in the interior, and Gerald Wallace had already knocked P.J. Brown down.

Zhang Yang knew that his mission tonight was to deal with JR Smith.

After the timeout, the Hornets attacked.

Paul passed the ball directly to JR Smith.

This high school student was substituted in for singles play, otherwise he would not have been substituted in.

The main reason was that he and David West's pick-and-roll offense was not going well. Gerald Wallace ignored Desmond Mason's cut-in and just stared at the two of them.

Even Brezek was able to provide good backup defense on Desmond Mason, and now that the burly and ferocious center was on the court, Paul had no expectations for Desmond Mason.

JR Smith's one-on-one breakthroughs are flashy. If it were other players, their emotions might be affected and they would press forward to defend, or at least worry about being passed.

But Zhang Yang followed closely. JR Smith dribbled for several seconds, but Zhang Yang had no reaction. He chose to shoot directly... Zhang Yang, who was ready, jumped up in time and stretched out his hand to interfere...

"bang"

Ironclad!

For other players, few people would pay attention to the playing style of a sophomore high school student who averaged 7 points per game, but Zhang Yang paid attention and studied it, and knew that JR Smith hardly scored in the interior, averaging less than 1 goal per game from close range. People were impressed by his dunks, but they were all counterattack dunks, and he basically never went into the interior in positional battles.

Zhang Yang's defensive strategy is to only defend mid-range and long-range shots, and he doesn't care whether he wants to break through or not. If JR Smith enters a spurt and can make a shot despite interference, he will accept it.

Obviously the other party didn't smoke tonight!
Perkins protects the defensive rebound!
Paul showed his leadership style and led his teammates to retreat quickly. The Bobcats failed to start a fast break and fell into a positional battle.

Felton advanced to the frontcourt and saw that it was JR Smith defending Zhang Yang, so he passed the ball to him.

He and Gerald Wallace took turns to play for half a quarter and needed to take a break.

When playing against JR Smith, Zhang Yang didn't even call for a pick-and-roll. He took the initiative to press forward and leaned sideways against the opponent.

JR Smith just made an effort to confront and reached out to steal the ball, Zhang Yang suddenly turned left, bypassed JR Smith and rushed forward. JR Smith lost his strength and saved the ball outside the three-point line!

Zhang Yang broke through the middle and Brandon Bass, who was guarding the basket, had to press forward. Zhang Yang used the European step, stepped to the left side of the three-second zone, turned around and shot quickly before David West, who was rushing over from the baseline, could reach out... and it hit!
In the offense-defense transition, JR Smith continued to ask for the ball, but he missed the shot and the opponent scored. How could this be possible?

Paul was a little hesitant, but still chose to trust JR Smith. In the game against the Grizzlies, he recognized the strength of his teammate.

but……

JR Smith once again made a strong shot despite Zhang Yang's interference!

"bang"

"beep"

Brandon Bass fouled Perkins on the offensive rebound!
Paul was so angry that he ran to JR Smith and said with his head raised: "You are taller and stronger than him, you should break into him! Just like Felton broke into me, breaking into the lane and shooting is better than shooting against interference, right?"

JR Smith responded perfunctorily to the rookie's roar.

The Bobcats served the ball from the baseline and when Zhang Yang got to the frontcourt, he saw that Paul was defending him, so he decisively took Paul to create space.

Felton played one-on-one against J.R. Smith and successfully broke into the inside, but unfortunately he missed the quick stop and short jump shot.

During the offense-defense transition, Paul still gave the ball to JR Smith. If he didn't give the ball to this teammate, he would be useless.

Paul was expecting JR Smith to break through Zhang Yang and score... But, it would have been better if he hadn't yelled just now. His yelling instead aroused JR Smith's rebellious psychology.

You think he can't make the shot against the rookie's interference? JR Smith just wants to shoot for others to see!
Zhang Yang's defensive intensity is not very high in NBA-level games. The reason why he does not lag behind in defense is because he does not make mistakes, makes favorable choices, and has top-notch shot prediction and grasp of the timing of interference!

JR Smith didn't have a seizure tonight. With the effective interference from Zhang Yang, his third fadeaway shot missed!
This time, the Bobcats were prepared. Felton stepped back to use Perkins's position to grab the defensive rebound and push the ball forward!

Gerald Wallace made a quick run down the middle to attract the defense. Zhang Yang received the ball on the right and rushed forward. With Gerald Wallace as the distraction, he rushed to the basket, jumped high, and slammed the ball into the frame with one hand!
The Hornets called a timeout again!

Byron Scott looked at Zhang Yang who was celebrating with Gerald Wallace by bumping chests, and then looked at JR Smith. They were both high school players, so why was there such a big difference in their brains?

　I updated a little late today. I took a nap after get off work and slept until 10 o'clock. I quickly finished this chapter and updated it. Please give me a monthly ticket! Please give me a recommendation ticket! Let's set a flag. I will update more tomorrow if I get 2 recommendation tickets!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)