Chapter 1102: Chapter 1102

The most memorable part was the 10-year contract renewal. Kobe, Gasol, Nowitzki, Pierce... all got long contracts, but Duncan only got a short two-year contract with the lowest salary.

It always feels ’retirement rumor’ was deliberately spread by someone with an agenda.

However, when Zhang Yang saw the list of Duncan’s career honors in the news about retirement, he understood why Duncan remained calm as usual after being eliminated last night.

It’s worth noting that this year, the Spurs’ playoff overall strength was the strongest among all championship-contending teams. Most media and fans believed that as long as the Spurs beat their Lakers, it was equivalent to having one hand on the O’Brien Trophy. The next two rounds would be easier, even if they were eliminated 2-4, most still believe the Spurs’ overall strength was stronger than their Lakers.

But their Lakers had Zhang San and Kobe, two players whose mid-and-long-range shots couldn’t be stopped by the Spurs, allowing them to make a comeback against the odds.

For Duncan, this elimination should feel similar to being reversed and eliminated in the 2013 finals, a championship slipping away.

But Duncan’s mindset was completely different from the 2013 finals—O’Neal retired in ’11, and Duncan won the championship in ’12!

Duncan with 2 MVPs, 3 FMVPs, 5 championships, firmly outshines O’Neal’s 1 MVP, 3 FMVPs, 4 championships.

Speaking of Power Forward, he’s the greatest in history!

Speaking of Center, he’s the greatest of the 21st century! Even expanding to the entire NBA history, including the ancient basketball era, only Russell and Jabbar have more honors than him, Chamberlain doesn’t measure up, and the value of his championship rings is quite significant.

Perhaps for Duncan now, if he could catch up with or surpass Jabbar’s number of championships, reaching the top modern basketball center, dominating both inside positions would be the best. He’s striving with full effort, but even if he doesn’t catch up, it’s okay, they’re not from the same era, as long as he’s better than O’Neal...

Zhang Yang also saw topics related to Leonard, mostly critical. The young talent bravely took his first step towards stardom and fell hard.

Leonard performed excellently for a top-tier 3D player in this series, but he still has a long way to go to be the mainstay. He remembers that the original Leonard won FMVP in ’14, yet still didn’t reach an All-Star level in the next season. Popovich gave him plenty of opportunities, the right to take shots, but in the 14-15 season, Leonard only averaged 15+, marking a career low in shooting percentage, and it wasn’t until the 15-16 season that he averaged 20+ for the first time.

He thought of the young talent he partnered with in the 11-12 season finals. The foundation was really poor, just enough to have adjusted the basic shooting form, even with the pressure of being compared with Zhang San, the young talent’s growth cycle is difficult to shorten because the most basic things are missing.

Time reached 8 AM the next morning at Nash’s house in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles.

Teacher Nash was awakened by a bothersome student, just about to vent some morning grumpiness asking what the kid wanted, but after waking him, the kid was silent, so Nash angrily got up and went to the backyard training field. Sure enough, the bothersome student was already training, probably ran over from his own house.

The Lakers had already returned yesterday afternoon, and the team scheduled the group practice for this afternoon, but Zhang Yang was eager to get to Nash’s house in the morning wanting to learn something. ɪꜰ ʏᴏᴜ ᴡᴀɴᴛ ᴛᴏ ʀᴇᴀᴅ ᴍᴏʀᴇ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs, ᴘʟᴇᴀsᴇ ᴠɪsɪᴛ novel(ꜰ)ire.net

Nash saw Zhang Yang practicing shooting and grumbled as he called the maid to prepare breakfast.

No choice, the successor I chose, even if I cry, I have to teach the skills well... A 23-year-old MVP, 25-year-old double-first team, a genius with the prospect of becoming the league dominator after Shaq, Kobe, and Nash!

If Zhang Yang truly becomes the strongest in the world someday, Nash imagined the pride he’d feel.

Zhang Yang trained for a while, then Nash called him over for breakfast, during which he shared with Nash what he wanted to learn.

Nash curiously said: "You want to relearn pick-and-roll? Before when I wanted to teach you, didn’t you say shooting after learning the pick-and-roll was enough? Why suddenly want to learn it again?"

Before? When was before? Surely not during the time being teammates in ’10, the training info shows that not long after the Western Conference Finals in ’10, he had a fallout with Steve Kerr, and as soon as the season ended, Nash certainly didn’t have the mood for teaching, so it must have been after joining the Lakers...

After quickly thinking, Zhang Yang responded: "Before you were there, the team didn’t need me to initiate offense through pick-and-roll, shooting after a pick-and-roll was surely enough. But this year, if we win the championship, I guess you would most likely choose to retire, then it becomes necessary, since it has to be learned anyway, now there’s time, might as well train early, who knows it might be used in future games."

Hearing this, Nash had no objection, he preferred Zhang Yang to learn more of his skills, and become more like him.

After breakfast, just past 9, the team trainer arrived, Nash jokingly complained "you prepared everything and lastly informed me", then began warming up with the trainer’s help and started the teaching session.

For the next two hours, Zhang Yang learned ways to initiate offense through pick-and-roll holding the ball with Nash. In this respect, technically speaking, it’s not higher than shooting after a pick-and-roll, it has higher awareness requirements, needs more observation, thought, and the most crucial part—the suitability of teammates.

Nash emphasized during teaching: "If the teammates aren’t suited for pick-and-roll offense, then better go for individual plays, just like when I was with the Mavericks, hardly played pick-and-roll with them, only when Jamison joined the Mavericks as the sixth man that season did I play more pick-and-roll, though our record wasn’t good that season, I got lucky, that season’s pick-and-roll offense caught little Colangelo’s attention...