CHAPTER 1273: CHAPTER 514: ZHANG SAN: KOBE, WANT TO LEARN? I’LL TEACH YOU!_3

On the 23rd, he attended Kobe’s 31st birthday party. That party was quite deserted; besides Kobe and his wife, their two kids, there were only the Garnett couple, Kidd, Ariza and his girlfriend, Big Law, Er Ha, Little Fatty, he, Zhang San, Little Biao Biao, and only a few others, along with the Filipino housekeeper and the cook.

At the party, Kobe invited Zhang Yang to train together. Zhang Yang was a bit surprised but still accepted. He definitely didn’t want to miss the chance to learn some skills firsthand. The trainer was still Grove, assisted by Hamblen from the Lakers, who was also a top trainer Zhang Yang wanted to consult.

Why did Zhang Yang call their training camp the ’California Iron King Training Camp’?

Kobe, a strong contender for the historic title of Iron King.

He, Zhang San, didn’t want to admit it, but after two consecutive seasons with an average of 10+ in iron production, he has been viewed as a strong contender for the future title of Iron King.

Ariza, although not traded to forcefully take a dominant position, still earned the nickname ’Iron Ariza’ after this year’s finals, with a total of 50 shots and 18 hits in 5 games, making him famously iron.

Kidd, the hidden Iron King.

Few people notice that Kidd ranks second among point guards in iron production since the 21st century. If Iverson is considered a shooting guard, Kidd reigns supreme on the point guard iron list. In the 7 seasons before joining the Lakers, he averaged 8+ iron shots per season, peaking in the ’02-’03 season with 9.2 iron shots per game.

Kidd’s current total iron production has exceeded 8,800. According to his ’08-’09 season average of 4.4 iron shots, if his average of 8 shots per game doesn’t continue to decrease, he is expected to enter the ’10,000 Iron Club’ before retiring.

On August 29th, after the start of the ’Iron King Training Camp,’ Zhang Yang understood why Kobe asked him to train together.

He thought he was there to learn skills firsthand, but this guy had the same idea! Not even pretending, just standing on the side watching him train!

During the 4 weeks from late July to late August of special training, Zhang Yang didn’t practice new things but improved the revised version of the 35 techniques learned last time, the details of the 40-pound ball-screen offense, and some small techniques learned from Pierce, Bibby, Joe Johnson, 30 techniques during the playoffs, and many offensive details adjusted independently against strong playoff defense teams... and so on, with the help of Grove and Ingles.

Obviously, 4 weeks was not enough for so many things, but in one offseason, he could schedule Grove for 4 weeks at most. Grove had other clients; many clients could only schedule one or two weeks in a summer, and he managed to get 4 weeks because of Boss Qiao’s influence at first.

So in the ’Three Scroll King’ training camp, the main improvements Zhang Yang had the two trainers help with were those new techniques and skills learned during the playoffs and practiced based on his feelings.

Zhang Yang found it worthy of the legendary trainer Grove and the NBA’s top shooting coach Ingles. In just 20 days, they managed to develop a relatively complete training method for him, so he could systematically develop and perfect these new things during self-training.

Yet, little did he know, during those days, both trainers were losing a handful of hair daily... Eh, why say ’again’?

When Grove arrived at the ’Iron King Training Camp’ and saw Zhang Yang there again, he even had the urge to skip work!

In this training camp, Zhang Yang had Grove help perfect what he learned from 35 and 40, starting with the 35 techniques... and then got caught by the Ironmaster?

In this situation, Zhang San indeed couldn’t do much about the Ironmaster!

Even if he trained alone in a private room, after he finished, Kobe would ask Grove what he practiced, and Grove would surely tell.

In basketball skills, there is no so-called ’intellectual property.’ Trainers help different people develop and perfect skills, which is accumulating work experience to better serve the next client. Possessing more skill guidance experience is a selling point for a trainer.

However, feeling ’forced’ this way, Zhang Yang felt it was too much of a loss. Although 35 taught him many things, it had nothing to do with the Ironmaster here.

During a break between training, he thought it over carefully and got an idea!

After the first day’s training, Zhang Yang found Kobe who was doing therapy after training.

Kobe guessed Zhang San came to hold him accountable; he already had his response ready — I paid the trainer, rented the training hall, you’re staying in the backyard of my house; if you don’t train, you can leave.

He felt he was just too clever.

But what Zhang Yang said was — "Watching like this and secretly practicing is also troublesome, right?"

Kobe frowned and asked, "What do you mean?"

Zhang Yang: "How about this, whatever skills you want to learn from me, just say it, and I’ll teach you! But I want to learn your post-up moves, equal exchange."

It was quite unexpected... Kobe was stunned for a moment and wanted to say, ’Actually, it’s not that difficult, I don’t even know why, it seems like I can learn it after watching it once,’ but learning it more conveniently and quickly is naturally better.

He responded without hesitation, "Deal!"