Chapter 60 Invincible Sky Hook(1/2)
(As expected, I still requested to collect it, let's go up again~~~ Sorry, it's too late to update today.)
Karim Abdul Jabbar, whose original name is Luke Alcindo; a 7-foot-2-inch giant born in Brooklyn, New York.
He has been playing in this arena for 11 years since entering the NBA in 1969.
In these 11 years, he has won three championships, five regular season MVPs, one finals MVP, and eight selected to the league's first team.
Moreover, his career is only halfway through, and there is more glory waiting for him in the future.
One thing he has been consistent in these 11 years is that he will return to UCLA every offseason, and hone his ball skills day after day in the stadium he is familiar with under the gaze and guidance of coach John Wooden.
In the summer of 1971, the season when he won the NBA championship, he returned to his alma mater gym with the championship ring, where he met his junior brother, another super center with a different style, Bill Walton.
The encounter between the two was like Goliath's collision. Under the gaze of John Wooden, it launched a god-like confrontation.
This confrontation continued to the NBA. In the 1977 Western Conference Finals, junior Bill Walton took away his senior brother with a 4:0 and finally won the Brown Cup.
This may be a kind of inheritance of the torch, but Bill Walton was eventually trapped by injuries and failed to achieve greater achievements. Instead, Jabbar always stood firm and will continue to fight.
Now, in the summer of 1982, Jabbar won the championship again. He once again came to the old place with his championship ring, hoping to meet a center as outstanding as Bill Walton here to inherit the fine traditions of UCLA and revive the UCLA dynasty.
UCLA has never won a championship since 1975, and UCLA has not had a super center since Bill Walton.
Every year when Jabbar comes here, he always returns disappointed in the end. Those inside players are not even considered a miscellaneous fish in front of Jabbar, and they can beat them up without any effort.
The only thing that made Jabbar feel some hope and talent was last year's senior Mark Eaton, who put pressure on Jabbar on the defensive end.
Unfortunately, his offense was really bad, and he was already very old. He was taken to UCLA after working as an employee at the gas station for two years, and his foundation was quite poor.
Other players basically couldn't catch the eye of Jabbar.
The poor strength is one aspect, and the most important thing is that Jabbar cannot feel a little hard-working resistance in the confrontation with these new UCLA centers.
Maybe they had it at the beginning, but after a few rounds they succumbed to the unparalleled powerful offense and ubiquitous defense of this NBA superstar and completely lost their will to resist.
For example, the head center of UCLA in the past two years, Gray.
When Jabbar came to UCLA last year, Gray had fought against Jabbar one-on-one on the training ground.
That year, Jabbar lost to Moses Malone in the first round, so he frantically honed himself during the offseason to further improve his level.
Poor Gray became Jabbar's scarecrow for training. He was ravaged by Jabbar like a doll, and he had no temper at all.
During this offseason, Jabbar came to UCLA again. Gray couldn't help but shivered when he saw Jabbar's sports glasses glowing with cold light. He knew that his child would be abused again today.
Sure enough, before the team's formal training began, Jabbar picked Gray to do one-on-one battle exercises with him as a warm-up.
This made Gray regret it. He would have come so early if he had known it would have been less than that early. The result of coming half an hour earlier was that he would be repeatedly abused by this extremely powerful but weird-tempered senior again.
Just as Jabbar and Gray were on the court one-on-one, Gan Guoyang passed the inspection of the administrator at the door and did not bring a camera before entering the gymnasium.
This made Gan Guoyang feel unhappy again. He had to undergo examinations in his school gymnasium. After all, he was from the basketball team.
When he arrived at the museum, he found that there were actually quite a lot of people inside, most of whom were UCLA student fans, and came in to see the style of the No. 1 superstar in the history of the school.
Only reporters were stopped outside because Jabbar hated reporters.
"Swish!"
"Yeah!" The sound of the ball sweeping in the basket came from the field, and then the onlookers around him cheered.
Gan Guoyang saw the tall and long figure on the court, wearing a pair of sports glasses, hooking his hands with a stretch, and easily sending the ball into the basket at a distance of 15 feet, just like an ordinary layup.
In front of Jabbar, the 7-foot Gray also seemed to be one size smaller.
Gan Guoyang looked at this relaxed freehand goal on the sidelines, and couldn't help but imagine what would happen if he had defended Jabbar?
"I guess I can only watch the ball be shot into the basket..." Gan Guoyang thought so.
At this time, Gray on the court once again watched Jabbar turn right and hook his hand in the right waist position. The ball was hollow again and the Nets were not touched much.
"Famar, aren't there any better players here? I don't want me to be the only one when I play." After Jabbar scored many goals and didn't even feel the pressure at all, he complained to Larry Famar on the sidelines.
In the past, John Wooden would be there to re-guise his proud disciples after Jabbar's return.
But this year, Wooden was not in good health, so after Jabbar visited his mentor in person, he went to college to train alone, and naturally met Larry Famar.
Famal felt very unhappy about Jabbar calling him his name, and Jabbar spoke too straightforwardly and directly treated Gray as air.
However, Jabbar's introvert and weirdness are also famous, and with his extraordinary strength, he will not care about other people's feelings.
"Sorry, Mr. Jabbar, he graduated and withdrew from a group of people this year, but there is only one center among the new players, and the others are backcourts and power forwards." Famal explained. This year, UCLA players have been lost in serious cases, and half of them are gone, so there are more freshmen recruited.
"Then let him try it, although I don't have any hope." As he said that, Jabbar returned to the court, picked up the basketball, and suddenly a very long-distance hook near the top of the arc. After the ball drew a big arc, it actually went hollow into the basket again!
This casual, ultra-far hook won the applause of the audience, and Gan Guoyang swallowed after seeing it, thinking that this guy was too terrible.
I didn’t feel strong when I watched the game at the Great Western Forum Arena before, because both sides were professional players and were very motivated to confront each other.
Now that we are in ordinary training, facing these amateur college players, Jabbar's ability to show off his casually few moves is simply overwhelming.
"Gan, Gan!" At this time, Gan Guoyang actually heard someone calling him. He looked around and found that it was Famal waving to him.
After Jabbar asked him to try it out, Famal immediately thought of Gan Guoyang. Although he was only 6-foot-10, this guy was also a center forward anyway.
Besides, it would be better to let him compete with Jabbar, which would just be able to destroy the sharpness of this thorn head.
Since the fight that day, Famal has never allowed Gan Guoyang to participate in the full-game confrontation training again. In addition, several players from the first team were blowing in his ears and exposing the fact that Gan Guoyang said "bad things" on the court. Famal naturally would not like Gan Guoyang.
The most important thing is that this guy from Gan Guoyang is a yellow race. What is the future of a basketball court that requires speed and strength?
Therefore, during normal training, Gan Guoyang was late and left early, and Famal didn't care. He ignored it and let him die.
This method, just like he treated the car repairman Mark Eaton, heard that he was selected to go to the third place in the fourth round of the NBA draft this year, where birds don't shit.
Famal glanced around and saw Gan Guoyang who was staying in the audience, staring at Jabbar's hooked hands, and felt anger again. He didn't even want to walk to him and shouted at him. He yelled at him and waved to him.
When Gan Guoyang heard the shouts, he immediately walked to Famal.
"Gan, you are still playing in the center position. Go up and compete with your seniors and learn some skills and experiences." Famal pointed to Jabbar on the field and said.
"Ah? Good... Good..." Gan Guoyang heard at first that he wanted to fight with Jabbar, but he didn't know what to say for a moment.
But he quickly calmed down. After all, he was a person who played with superstars like Thurmond and Chamberlain, and he scored in front of Chamberlain. It was not a problem to have another Jabbar.
When Gan Guoyang took off his coat and changed into a basketball uniform, warmed up and came to the court, and stood directly with Jabbar face to face, he realized that this feeling was really different from before.
Although Nate Thurmond and Wilt Chamberlain are both super centers in the famous league, they have both retired for many years at this time, especially Chamberlain of the Big Beidou, who has retired for nearly ten years.
Two former superstars in their forties are like lions in their twilight years, their majesty is still there, but their strength has long been greatly reduced.
Moreover, when they played with Gan Guoyang, they always had the mentality of guiding their juniors with the seniors, so they naturally had a strong spirit but no murderous aura.
But Jabbar is different. At this time, he is just in his early thirties, at the peak of his career, and has just won the NBA championship. With his arrogant and cold personality, the kingly aura is undoubtedly revealed.
Karim Abdul Jabbar in the Islamic translation is Allah’s “noble and powerful servant.”
Gan Guoyang looked at Jabbar standing at the top of the arc with the ball, and felt a hint of fear and fear in his heart for the first time. It not only came from the opponent's 7-foot-2 height, but also from his aura of standing there looking down on everything.
"Hello, it's you. I've heard of you, a Chinese, Gan." Jabbar actually took the initiative to come forward and greet Gan Guoyang and stretched out his right hand, which made Gan Guoyang flattered.
"Hello, Mr. Jabbar, it's honor to see you." Jabbar's friendly attitude made Gan Guoyang calm down again, and shook hands with the giant with a little sunshine.
Famal didn't expect that Jabbar would be so friendly to this thorn, which was beyond his expectations.
In fact, Jabbar has always had a good impression of the Chinese because he was Bruce Lee's apprentice and also made movies with Bruce Lee. Unfortunately, the Chinese superstar died young.
"Let's start, I hope you can resist for a while." After a little greeting, Jabbar went straight to the point, preparing Gan Guoyang for abuse.
"No problem." Gan Guoyang didn't say much, prepared to defend within three seconds, and squirted trash talk in front of Jabbar. He didn't have the courage to do so.
When Jabbar turned the back basket with a smooth face basket, held the ball and shook his shoulders, cut inward and hooked his left hand, and sent it firmly into the basket, Gan Guoyang realized that the problem was big.
All of Kareem Jabbar's actions were done without any obstacles, just as if Gan Guoyang did not exist.
Gan Guoyang tried hard to cover Jabbar, but found that his 6-foot-10-year-old height was really short in front of Jabbar.
Jabbar doesn't look particularly strong, but as a professional player, he has been conducting professional strength training for many years. Gan Guoyang's "talent" and one year of training cannot stop Jabbar.
Only after playing in a round did Gan Guoyang realize what is NBA level and what is a superstar.
My level is not enough for Jabbarce.
But Gan Guoyang has always become more and more courageous as he sets down, and he never easily admits failure. He only played a ball and had a chance later.
Both sides are conducting a common one-on-one challenge on the street. The side who scores will always hold the offensive power until the shot fails to make the attack and the offense and defense will be converted.
In the previous one-on-one game, Gray never gained an offensive power from beginning to end. He only had an offensive opportunity at the beginning, but was slapped by Jabbar for a long time.
Gan Guoyang did not seem to have done better than Gray in the next few defenses, and Jabbar's hook was still so unsolvable.
Because Jabbar's body has amazing flexibility and coordination for many years of yoga, no matter what kind of defensive pressure he faces, Jabbar, who is not particularly strong, can always rely on his feet and long arms to make hooking moves.
Within 17 feet from the basket, Kareem Kareem's hook is as easy and free-spirited as an ordinary player's layup.
After Jabbar scored 5 goals in a row, the audience around him felt a little bored. Such a one-sided single-handed challenge was really meaningless.
However, Jabbar signaled to continue to compete with Gan Guoyang, because the people who were really confronted on the court had different feelings from the audience on the sidelines. He found that this Chinese boy who was half a head short of him had a rough single defense technique, but he was improving every goal.
From the beginning of trying to interfere with Jabbar's hook, to the later period, slowly focusing on physical confrontation and disrupting Jabbar's movement rhythm, Gan Guoyang has now begun to pay attention to controlling Jabbar's lower plate and suppress Jabbar's attack choice from the offensive route.
"Very good, I'm already sweating now. If you work harder, maybe you can defend me." Jabbar said while transporting the ball.
Gan Guoyang had no energy to listen to Jabbar speak. His entire attention was focused on Jabbar and every movement of every part of his body.
To be continued...