Capítulo 96: Chapter 96: The Olympics Opening
After the draft, Wade Dong found Deng Hua.
"I think there are problems with the team's training," Wade Dong said directly.
"Yes," Deng Hua nodded and asked, "What are the problems?"
Although Wade Dong had only played in the NBA for two months, he was the Finals MVP and had set multiple NBA records, so Deng Hua always felt that Wade Dong had more insight than him.
For example, the rebellious Guo Qi had given the team's veterans and Deng Hua a lot of trouble since he joined the national team. Deng Hua even considered kicking Guo Qi off the team, but when Wade Dong arrived, Guo Qi became obedient.
Wade Dong said, "There's less than a month until the Olympics. During this training period, I think we should reduce shooting and offensive coordination training and focus more on physical conditioning and defense."
"You're absolutely right," Deng Hua patted Wade Dong's shoulder. "With you on the team, our offense is strong enough. The other players just need to focus on defense."
"That's not what I mean," Wade Dong shook his head. "Offensive ability is hard to improve in a short time, but defense can be improved. Everyone is a professional player, and as long as they have the right attitude, they can do well in defense."
Offense relies on talent, defense relies on attitude.
Deng Hua hesitated, "You want to use the NBA method to train their defense? But I'm not very good at that..."
"No problem," Wade Dong confidently smiled. "I'm good at that."
After saying that, Wade Dong exchanged two skill packages: the Brown Defense Coach Package and the Sloan Defense Coach Package.
Under these two coaches, their teams' defense was outstanding in the league, each with its own characteristics.
"Good, then I'll leave this to you," Deng Hua trusted Wade Dong completely. Since Wade Dong said he was good at it, he must be very good at it.
Wade Dong knew that his two defense coach skill packages were not enough, so he called Nash and used Nash's connections to hire a few defense coaches to fly to Shanghai immediately.
...
In the following half month, the national team focused on defense training under Wade Dong's guidance.
Deng Hua felt a bit dazed. Wade Dong joined the national team to play, but during the entire training camp, Wade Dong's role was more like a coach. He rarely participated in on-court training, only constantly urging his teammates. However, the team's improvement in this half month was obvious.
Especially for some young players, with Wade Dong's guidance, they would definitely make significant progress in the next season. This was the most valuable part.
After the training camp, the team flew directly to London. This year's Olympics would be held in the UK.
The Olympics, held every four years, attracted as much attention from the public as the World Cup, especially since the 21st century, when China had become the world's leading nation in various aspects, including economy and sports.
In recent years, China's gold medal and total medal counts in the Olympics had been the highest in the world.
However, every Olympics still had regrets, especially in track and field events and team sports like basketball and soccer, where China still lagged behind.
For example, basketball and soccer... China was still far from competing at the world level. Soccer was not even worth mentioning, and although basketball had shown some improvement in recent years, it had only reached the quarterfinals. To reach the semifinals or win the championship was still a distant goal.
This year's Olympics men's basketball group draw ceremony was held at the end of April.
China was in Group B with the host country UK, BX country, AD country, and XB country. The US was in Group A. (These letters might look strange, but they should be understandable.)
In Group B, China's biggest opponent was XB country, which had Wade Dong's old rival Gasol, who had lost to Wade Dong in the Western Conference Finals a month ago.
As for the other countries, Wade Dong didn't consider them a threat.
On the evening of July 27, the London Olympics opening ceremony was held.
Athletes from participating countries began to enter the stadium. Due to time constraints, the camera couldn't capture every athlete.
However, when China entered, the camera focused on Wade Dong's face for a full thirty seconds. It was clear that Wade Dong's emergence had shocked not only the basketball world but also the entire sports world.
This opening ceremony lasted three hours, ending at 11 pm.
However, in China, the viewing time for the opening ceremony was from 5 am to 8 am due to the time difference.
After the opening ceremony, Wade Dong and his teammates returned to their dormitories to rest.
On the way back to the dormitory, Wade Dong asked, "Yi Nan, did you bring a mask?"
"No."
"I forgot too."
Wade Dong was a bit annoyed, "The air here is so dusty. I should have brought a few boxes of disposable masks."
Zhu Gui came over with a mischievous smile, "I don't have disposable masks, but I have a few boxes of one-time use items. Do you want them?"
"Old Zhu, I don't think you have any sense of humor."
Wade Dong rolled his eyes at Zhu Gui and went back to his dormitory to rest.
After the entire opening ceremony, Wade Dong felt like his sweat was full of dust. He needed to take a shower quickly.
After showering, Wade Dong lay in bed, holding his tablet and reviewing the opponents' information and some game footage.
International competitions were different from the NBA. Some NBA superstars might not adapt well to international competitions, and Wade Dong's playing style was more suited to the NBA. To eliminate this small concern, Wade Dong spent several dozen talent points to exchange for a bunch of skill packages.
Gasol's international competition experience package!
Ginobili's international competition experience package!
Doncic's international competition experience package!
...
Ginobili's snake-like dribble skill package!
Doncic's step-back three-pointer skill package!
These players had all achieved good results in international competitions. Wade Dong didn't care how much these experience and skill packages would improve him; having them was better than not having them. After all, he had accumulated quite a few talent points at Peking University.
...
July 29.
Beijing time, midnight, the Chinese men's basketball team faced their first group opponent, the XB national team.
The XB national team was considered the only team in this year's Olympics with the strength to challenge the Dream Team. They were also China's strongest opponent in the group.
This match could be considered the battle for the top spot in the group.
Before the game started, Gasol and Rubio came over to greet Wade Dong, which made the national team's players very envious.
In fact, Yi Nan and Wang Xin had also briefly played in the NBA, but in that league, people only respected the strong. So these two came over to greet Wade Dong.
As soon as the game started, this friendly atmosphere disappeared.
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