I'm teammates with Kobe

Chapter 79

After McGrady and everyone met one by one, it was already 1 o'clock in the morning of the next day. After the fierce battle with the grizzly bear and the exhaustion of the boat, everyone was already too sleepy, and they all went back to their rooms and fell asleep.

Even Kobe didn't have the energy to greet McGrady anymore. After Chu Xiao and Tracy said good night, they washed up and went to bed obediently, because they had to go to the American Airlines Center for training the next morning.

After the team lost to the Grizzlies, they had 7 wins and 6 losses. If they lose again, the winning percentage will return to [-]%, and the road to the playoffs will become more difficult.

The American Airlines Center in Dallas is located in Victory Park in the northwest of the city. The house number is 2500 Victor Street. It is a luxurious stadium covering an area of ​​70 acres and can accommodate more than 19200 spectators.It was completed in 2001 and signed a 30-year home naming contract with the Mavericks, with a total amount of 1.95 million US dollars.

Early the next morning, Chu Xiao followed his teammates to the American Airlines Center for training. When he came to the street during the day, he realized that the city was not big.

It feels that this place is not as big as the CQ City ** area. No wonder it forms the Dallas-Fort Worth Metropolis together with Fort Worth and Arlington next to it.There are almost no sidewalks in the whole city, only a few in the city center, which is a rare place to walk.

But the American Airlines Center is considered to be the edge of the city. After coming out of the hotel, you need to drive west from the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center (Symphony Ctr), cross the viaduct and go north, about 5 minutes away.

The American Airlines Center, made of red bricks and granite, looks like the train station of the old cities in the European continent. It is said that when the construction started in 1999, it was still a wasteland, and the Dallas city government also wanted to use the American Airlines Center as an urban development plan. An important pawn - with a total investment of 4.2 million US dollars. After its completion in July 2001, it not only brought about the rise of nearby hotels, restaurants, and entertainment, but also quickly became one of the landmark buildings in Dallas.

Its internal high-tech sports, entertainment facilities and visual effects are said to be second to none in the league.A reporter once wrote, “If New York’s Madison Square Garden is the most famous and respected arena Mecca in the NBA, then the American Airlines Center in Dallas is the most luxurious high-tech facility in the league. arena."

Before the training started, Chu Xiao took a brief look around and found that apart from a few steakhouses filled with smoky smell, there were only fan shops.

The most displayed inside is the Nowitzki jersey, which is actually printed in Chinese.It was the first time for Chu Xiao to see a jersey with a player's name printed in Chinese in the United States, which shows how much Chinese fans love him.

Back at the main entrance, you can see the logo of the Mavericks inlaid on the glass window outside the venue. What's interesting is that the picture is not a bull's head, but a horse face.

He later learned from Han Randomly that the original meaning of the English name Mavericks of Dallas Mavericks refers to small animals without the brand of the owner in the western United States. The meaning of a small animal that has not yet been tamed.

Since Dallas is located in the southwestern United States, horses and cowboys on horseback are symbols of the American West, so Dallasites use horses as their team logo.It is said that the name Mavericks comes from the translation of mainlanders, while in Taiwan and Hong Kong it is translated as Cowboys".

After Chu Xiao walked around the American Airlines Center, he immediately returned to the training ground to join the team.

Inside the huge arena, apart from the Lakers practicing in groups, there was no one to be seen.

Because if there is a game on the day, the venue usually starts to be decorated after 3 pm, such as replacing the floor with the team LOGO, posting game posters, and placing T-shirts and dolls on the seats on special days. Every fan gets one.

Therefore, in this very quiet environment, the Lakers completed a complete set of training plans from warm-up running, simple shooting, group confrontation to dribbling training.

It lasted until 12 noon.

"咻咻咻~" Zen Master blew the assembly whistle on time, and after everyone stood in a row, he announced with his hands on his hips, "This is the end of today's training, and the Mavericks will come to continue training at 2 o'clock in the afternoon. , we just watch their game videos in the hotel, study tactics, no one is allowed to sneak out to have fun, understand?"

"Understood!" Everyone replied in unison.

Dallas is a small city, and there are indeed not many places worth visiting, so everyone went back to the hotel to eat honestly, and after an hour of lunch break at noon, they watched the Mavericks game video together in Zen Master's room in the afternoon.

The Mavericks in the 2012-2013 season had a lot of movement during the offseason. They lost two Jasons: Kidd and Terry, and then replaced them with Mayo and Collison.Elton Brand and Chris Kaman were added to the inside line, both of whom were the starting lineups of the Los Angeles Clippers, plus Nowitzki and Sean Ma Lyon, the Mavericks in the new season are still strong.

"Without Kidd, the Mavericks' starting point guard became Darren Collison, a short, fast point guard selected by the Hornets with the 2009st pick in the first round of the 1 NBA draft. David, has a precise shot and is good at advancing the rhythm.” When watching the game video, Zen master pointed out that the key to the Mavericks is to break through their point guard,

"Except for this 1.83-meter point guard, everyone else in the Mavericks is tall, and everyone relies on his passing, so when defending, I hope that Chu Xiao and Kobe can block his shots by assisting defense. and organization."

"As for offense, Chu Xiao can single-handedly beat Collison to create space for himself to shoot or pull up a jumper. Collison is short, thin, and not explosive enough. You are 13 cm taller than him, so you have an advantage in confrontation. You should be strong and strong, and you don’t need to think too much about the possession of the ball.” When Zen master arranged offensive tactics, he hoped that the players in this game could play around Chu Xiao and make full use of the pick-and-roll to cooperate.

Chu Xiao has fully proved in the previous games that he can play alone or create scoring space for his teammates. He is clear-headed and calm on the court, calm about any situation, super selfless, and can always pass the ball Give the player who should pass the most, and make few mistakes, and win the trust and support of teammates.

So without any hesitation, everyone agreed to use him as a tactical point for this game.

When everything was arranged, it was already 4 o'clock in the afternoon, and it was time to go to the visiting team's locker room to prepare for the game. After leaving Zen Master's room, Chu Xiao wanted to go back to his room and take a hot shower before going down, so he asked Kobe for help. Opinion, ask everyone if they can wait for him for a while.

Kobe couldn't help laughing when he heard the words, he touched Chu Xiao's head and said, "Fool, this is Dallas, their boss is Cuban! And do you know what kind of person Cuban is? Don't tell me, he The worst thing is money, because money is just a boring number to him. How can such an inhumane person let the visiting team's locker room have no hot water! Such a shameful thing, a rich man of his level Never do that. Go see it if you don’t believe me.”

"Really?" Chu Xiao dubiously followed the boss downstairs, and then set off on the same bus.

The American Airlines Center at 4 o'clock in the afternoon is completely different from the morning.Near the gate of the arena, there are tourists taking pictures with cameras and fans who arrive early and prepare to enter the arena. Some people shouted Long live the Los Angeles Lakers, while others shouted Beat La, hoping to beat the Lakers. Fans from both sides shouted a slogan. .

The bars and coffee shops next to it were also open, and the fans came in and out. The lively scene was like a domestic market, which shows the status of the NBA in the eyes of Americans.

Because there are too many people at the main entrance, the bus enters through the special passage of the side entrance. After getting off the bus, it can go directly to the dressing room through another passage.

When passing by the Mavericks locker room, Chu Xiao finally understood what Kobe was talking about.The bald boy Thackeray shouted directly, "Oh my god, this dressing room is more comfortable than my home!"

I saw that the dressing room was very luxurious and spacious, covering several thousand square meters.There are floor spreads, the Mavericks logo is printed in the middle, a huge widescreen TV is placed on the wall facing the door, and on both sides are all-wood-clad wardrobes for each player. Equipped with VCD, CD and game consoles.

Chu Xiao was directly stunned by these luxurious facilities. If it hadn’t been set up in the gymnasium, if it hadn’t been for the tall and strong Mavericks players taking a shower and changing clothes inside, if it hadn’t been for the huge LOGO on the street stall...he would have thought it was a Five star hotel.

"This isn't a locker room, it's clearly a high-end club!" When leaving, Thackeray still sighed.

Kobe laughed, "Cuban invested 350 million dollars to build this place, so it is also the most luxurious locker room in the entire NBA and even in all professional sports."

"My God, this is more than my entire NBA contract!" Chu Xiao finally couldn't help sighing.

"So, such a person will not let you take a shower without hot water. Not only that, but he also generously built the league's most advanced visiting team locker room for the visiting team. The facilities inside are similar, but the size is slightly smaller That's all."

The talking time came, and Chu Xiao couldn't wait to go in and take a look, "How can this be called small? Even in a reduced version, the size has reached 743 square meters, with changing rooms, shower rooms, and physiotherapy rooms all available."

Kobe said, "So I really like coming to the Mavericks to play away games. Every time I go to their locker room, there is a feeling of returning to the home court. Even the shots have become more accurate."

"Oh~" Chu Xiao suddenly realized, "It turned out that you scored 62 points in just three quarters against the Mavericks, which was higher than their entire team. That's how you came about!"

"No, that's our home stadium!"

Kobe smiled, "It doesn't matter."

(End of this chapter)