God's hand behind the scenes

Chapter 17 Some people are happy and some are sad

Since most of the NCAA games are held at night, Rappers usually conducts tactical training on the afternoon of the home game, and then allows the players to prepare themselves before going to the competition arena.

At four o'clock in the afternoon on the day of the game, just as all the players finished training and were about to leave the arena, they were left behind by Rappers.He looked at Monk Zhang Er's puzzled players, coughed dryly, and said with a serious face: "Well, the purpose of keeping everyone here is mainly to announce in advance the starting lineup for tonight..."

Rappers' words were like a drop of cold water dripping into the frying pan. There was a sudden buzz in the originally quiet line, and everyone began to whisper to each other.You must know that before the start of the game, Rappers would only announce the starting list when he arranged his tactics before the start of the game, but this time it was so much earlier, which seems very unusual!
Before everyone could react, Rappers took out a note and began to read the contents of the note word by word: "Point guard, Irvine; center, Lawson; power forward, Thomas; Small forward, Cohen Gai; and shooting guard—" He deliberately elongated his voice, and even glanced at Chang Wei, "Chris Lee!"

When the last name was pronounced, everyone was stunned, and the smile on Celestand's face gradually froze.After Rappers reported the names of the first four people, Celestand firmly believed that this was just a little joke he made, but when he got to the shooting guard, something happened. He was not the starter of this game?
Celestand quickly came back to his senses, and he yelled: "Coach, why didn't I start? I feel that I have been in a good state during this period and I haven't made any mistakes. Please give me a reason!"

In stark contrast to him was Li, who stood at the back of the line. The moment he heard his name, he fell into a dazed state, and he didn't wake up until Celestand questioned him.Although he was already happy in his heart, he didn't show the slightest smile on his face, for fear that Celestand would take his anger out on him.

Rappers didn't look at Celestand, who was gnashing his teeth. He said lightly: "John (Celestand) stays, and the others disband on their own. Tonight's game starts at 8 o'clock, and remember to gather at the arena at 7:[-]. "Chang Wei knew that Rappers was going to do psychological work for Celestine, so he and several other members of the coaching staff urged the players to leave quickly. Some things are not suitable to be said in public. De saved face.

After everyone left, only Rappers and Celestand were left in the empty stadium. The latter still looked unconvinced, waiting for the coach to give him an explanation.Of course, this is also because of Rappers's gentle personality. If he were replaced by some grumpy coaches, Celestand would have been directly thrown into the cold palace.

Rappers thought about it, and said slowly: "John, there is a reason why I don't let you start, and because of this reason, I may not give you the starting position in future games."

Celestand's face became even uglier, and he gasped and asked: "Why? Is it because Li is better than me? Even if I often give him a small trouble, I am confident that I can do better than him on the field. .”

Rappers shook his head, and said earnestly: "You are not the same type of player as him, John, I know you like to attack very much, and the number of shots you take is ranked first in the team, and your scoring efficiency is not that good. Low, but now we need a full-time defender on the perimeter. I thought about it for a long time, and Lee is more suitable than you."

"But I am better than him, and I believe I can do better than him on the defensive end. There is no rule that an outside scorer cannot also serve as a defensive gate?" Celestand still can't accept it, and wants to fight for it in the end .

"You're an old player, and there are some things I think I should be honest with you about. It's true that offense is a good way for any college player to improve his draft pick, but the team doesn't need five The scorers play together, you know? And don't you think you're taking too many shots?"

"Too many shots? What does this mean?" It may be that I have never paid much attention to the statistics of each game. Regarding Rappers' statement, Celestand said it was a bit difficult to understand, and I didn't think I shot a lot of shots. ah!

Rappers had known for a long time that Celestand would not easily accept the arrangement of playing as a substitute, so he carried a copy of the statistics of the team's previous 14 games with him, and now he took it out to show Celestand.

"Average 9.8 shots per game? Isn't that a lot, coach?" Celestande said indifferently as he quickly found his line of work.In his eyes, the so-called "many shots" means more than 15 shots per game, and his own 9.8 shots are not too small!

Rappers smiled helplessly and said, "Look at the data of Tim and Irwin again."

Celestand's eyes widened, and he couldn't believe what he saw.As the captain of the team, Irvine averaged only 10.3 shots per game, and Thomas, the team's current top scorer, only shot 12.1 shots. Adding his 9.8 shots, three players with so many shots per game started at the same time. , It is quite rare in the NCAA arena.

Just when he was feeling unbelievable, Rappers' gentle voice sounded in his ears again: "You have to know, there is only one basketball. With the abilities of Ervin and Tim, they should have shot more shots, but in order to accommodate You, they average as many shots as you do. Even though the team is doing well right now, it's a hidden danger."

Celestand murmured, "They sacrificed so much for me... so what am I going to do now?"

Rappers patted him on the shoulder and said with a smile: "That's why I let Lee start instead of you. He doesn't need to occupy too much possession as a perimeter defensive gate, and he can also relieve Irwin on the defensive end. Pressure. As for you, I hope you can become the team's best sixth man, and when you play with the second team, I can give you unlimited firepower."

This really shocked Celestand, what is the unlimited right to fire?That's the treatment of top scorers!Although I can only fire at will when leading the second team, isn't that enough?Thinking about it now, it seems that playing the sixth man is not bad, at least it can generate better data.Celestand is very self-aware. He doesn't expect to be the number one star of an NBA team, as long as he can be a good role player.

Thinking of this, he nodded vigorously and said loudly: "Thank you for your trust, I am willing to give up my starting position, and I believe that I will play even better in the sixth man position than I am now!"

(End of this chapter)