Capítulo 1291: Chapter 523

Do you believe Zhang Yang can definitely lead the team to a comeback?

No, Big Bird’s trust is not about that.

Throughout his career, as one of the top clutch players in the NBA, he knows that leading a team to fight back in adversity requires ability and luck, perhaps equally balanced, but their combined share might be less than half. More importantly, it’s about confidence!

Back in the day, whenever he faced adversity, he always believed he could come back and made his teammates and coaches believe he could lead the team to a comeback. Back then, he taught Zhang Yang the same. Now, he certainly needs to trust Zhang Yang unconditionally, just like how Bill Fitch and KC Jones trusted him back then!

And to convey this trust to the team members… Although it seems unnecessary, the moment Zhang Yang arrived in New York, he changed the basketball culture of this city. After winning the championship for the first time in ’90, Ewing still had thoughts of ‘rebelling’, but after winning the second championship, Ewing resigned to fate. He only had two thoughts left: finding another team to be the Boss or settling as the second-in-command, depending on which side offered more money. Big Bird accurately recognized Ewing’s thoughts and decisively offered him a contract that, at the time, seemed as large as Zhang Yang’s, giving Ewing enough respect to happily accept being the second-in-command rather than being forced to accept reality.

However, beyond those Hall of Fame coaches’ mentorship, Big Bird had even greater expectations for Zhang Yang. In his mind, this old partner has always been very special.

Zhang Yang has created so many miracles. The earliest was in the ’86-’87 season finals, where the Lakers clearly had a stronger team than the McHale and Zhang Yang-led Celtics. Yet, under extremely adverse conditions, Zhang Yang led the team to a sweeping comeback, winning his 4th career championship, surpassing the then-three-time champion Magician. Although the Magician later also won his 4th championship, tying the record again, without that championship, the comparison between him and the Magician would be 3-5, leaving the Magician with a superior historical status.

Now, seeing Zhang Yang facing the extreme difficulty of ‘losing this means losing the dynasty’, yet still enjoying the game, Big Bird can’t help but recall that unforgettable final…

In the eyes of others, Zhang Yang seems to be enjoying the game… He is indeed enjoying this match.

Facing the 29-year-old Jordan at his peak physical fitness and face-up skills, how could he not be excited, not enjoy it?

As for the worry about losing… whenever he steps on the court, his goal is to win, but sometimes there’s a ‘reality’ to consider. His mindset is simple: just go all out. If he wins, celebrate; if he loses, it’s not Zhang San who loses the dynasty. Losing is something ‘he’ will bear, and he has no ‘worry about losing’, just get in there and play!

However, facing Jordan, Zhang Yang still has many MMP words he wants to blurt out about physical fitness!

When he studied the footage of the first six games of the East Final, he could confirm that the 29-year-old Jordan, and ‘him’ who was only a few days short of turning 29, had almost similar fundamentals in mid-range shooting.

In mid-range skills, ‘he’ is even slightly stronger, with face-up and post-up skills, not weaker than Jordan in combining penetration and shooting, and even having a stronger sense of rhythm.

In mid-range single defense, Jordan’s aggression is stronger, pressure is better, ‘he’ better at sticking defense, better at interference, less likely to lose position. He saw in the old newspapers from the still ongoing playoffs that the media categorized ‘him’ and Jordan together as ‘the world’s best two single-defensive guards’ before the East Final began, with no ranking specified.

But in a head-on one-on-one, the actual mid-range performance of Jordan was just stronger, just more unsolvable.

He scored 34 points in three quarters! 12 out of 21 shots, including 4 out of 9 three-pointers, plus 6 out of 7 free throws, with a shooting percentage nearly 9 percent higher than his average in the first six games, yet he was still overshadowed!

Jordan tonight had a 60% field goal percentage in the first three quarters, nearly 15 percent higher than his average in the first six games!

Even when tightly marked, he could forcibly create shooting space with his physical fitness, completely unreasonable!

But precisely because of this, Zhang Yang’s competitiveness grew unprecedentedly strong, even surpassing his direct confrontation in the finals against Kobe!

…

Zhang Yang stepped back onto the court, now in good stamina, Big Bird’s rotation is better than when he was in the 80-line and Stu Jackson was coaching.

Big Bird is more ‘willing’ compared to Stu Jackson, willing to sacrifice some single-defense efficiency to let Starks and Gerald Wallace guard Jordan in the latter half of the first three quarters, creating defensive rest conditions for Zhang Yang. Of course, this is based on these two having quite outstanding defensive capabilities, and during each quarter’s start where Jordan’s stamina is at its peak, Zhang Yang still faces him head-on. After Jordan’s burst of four points at the end of the first quarter, Zhang Yang was the one defending him at the end of the second and third quarters as well.

Through this adjustment, Big Bird allows Zhang Yang to maintain a high offensive efficiency throughout an average of 45 minutes per game during the East Final to counter the stamina monster Jordan—averaging 46 minutes per game, consistently maintaining offensive and defensive standards while single-defending Zhang Yang for the entire match.

On court with Zhang Yang are Mark Jackson, McDaniel, Oakley, and Ewing.

He noticed the opposing lineup consisted of John-Parkinson, Jordan, Pippen, Horace Grant, and Carterright.

Just like their side, the opponent is also no longer using the lineup that aims to charge, that lineup has too many defensive gaps. Even if the budget exceeded a bit to create the highest total salary in NBA history, with an eleven-man major rotation, Big Bird’s offset lineup could only provide the basic defense.