Chapter 635: Chapter 196: Big Fatty’s Assault: Part 1_2
By September 13th, two days before the planned return with the Magician, Zhang Hao, who had been relaxing and training just one to two hours daily, made a breakthrough!
...
"Special Contract Player: Zhang Hao.
Age/Date of Birth: 19 years old/January 7, 1977.
Height: 209 cm, Wingspan: 221 cm
Weight: 103 kg.
Position: Forward
Team: Los Angeles Lakers.
Ability Rating: 80
Physical Attributes: Speed 89, Strength 92 (Explosiveness 88), Jumping 94, Agility 94, Stamina 92...
Shooting: Three-pointers 74 (84 from the top arc, 71 from other positions), Mid-range Shot 92, Layup 93...
Technical Skills: Dribbling 74, Passing 78, Catch-and-shoot 92, Turnaround Catch-and-shoot 78, Turnaround Fadeaway 74, Cutting 74, Hop Step 51, Spin Move 73, Back-to-the-basket Skills 55..."
Since resuming training at the end of May, Zhang Hao felt his progress was rapid. Once he had someone to guide him, his improvement accelerated further. By mid-August, after a period of independent training, his ability rating reached 79, but for over half a month afterward, he was stuck there.
Thinking he had hit a bottleneck requiring formal games to identify gaps and find room for improvement, he wasn’t anxious and got used to it.
Unexpectedly, by relaxing and training just one to two hours each day, attending school when needed, intensifying work on humanity’s reproductive efforts when necessary, and occasionally teasing the future pop diva, he made a breakthrough!
Maintaining a calm mindset is truly important!
However, looking at his many technical skills with a good level of over 70, and even after reaching the system’s minimum rating standards, the technical skills with 50+ and 60+ still gave him a bit of a headache.
Even though during personal training, he focused on what he thought would be the most useful aspects for the new season, and the Magician also endorsed his strengthening direction, learning too widely yet too easily became a delightful dilemma.
For any technical skill, mastering it is the toughest, meaning getting it above 80, with another challenge being entry-level, achieving a 50.
It’s painful not being able to master a skill, but even worse not reaching entry-level.
What Mr. Zhang finds most frustrating is having too many skills at the entry level...
"If being too talented is a crime, I think I’ve been sentenced to life imprisonment..."
Time!
In a summer, all he managed was to allow those skills he had the opportunity and ability to learn to reach entry level.
"Anyway, I’m only 19, weak as I may be, having reached entry-level is better than nothing. In the future, there’s a chance to improve these skills. For now, I’ll focus on what I excel at and currently need the most."
If Kenny Anderson and Jason Williams... plus the Magician knew Zhang Hao’s current thoughts, they would likely team up and visit him holding knives.
Seeing his layup rating increased to 93, Zhang Hao was very excited. This was his greatest progress this summer!
But there were sacrifices as well. His weight increased by 10 pounds, about 4.5 kilograms! This resulted in his speed, which was on the brink of a top-tier 90 rating, dropping to 89.
He also sacrificed some agility, which dropped to 94. Even his stamina, which should have been on the rise, seemed to have made no progress due to the weight gain... though his stamina was already excellent, so this wasn’t a major issue.
The initial decline in speed and agility was quite noticeable when he started gaining weight, but with regular training, it became less of an issue.
After giving it careful thought, he reasoned that for counterattacks, he could rely on "Single Rider," so the impact of slightly reduced speed could be ignored. In terms of agility, for someone his height, having 85 agility was already impressive, making him still top-tier. This is why he decisively increased his weight.
The effects were indeed obvious, with improvements in both strength and explosiveness. Especially in static strength, it rose to 92, proving his earlier judgment about his strength limit wrong. It turned out that while maintaining the greatest possible balance between strength, speed, and agility, his static strength could still increase, with only a slight drop in explosiveness.
With the return to the team imminent, Zhang Hao was in great spirits looking at his ability rating of 80! Seeing his strengthened skills only reaching a good level rating of 70+ didn’t bother him anymore.
Over the summer, his turnaround catch-and-shoot, turnaround fadeaway, dribbling, spin move, cutting... all reached a good level. With his physique, speed, and agility, the improvement was enormous for any sophomore player!
...
...
September 15th, the agreed time from the advance notice the Magician sent to teammates two weeks ago on September 1st, had arrived.
The Magician arrived very early today, already there by 8 o’clock, setting an example as the initiator of the gathering.
Originally, he thought the first to arrive would be Zhang Hao, but instead, it was a gigantic fellow...
The Magician warmly walked up, patting O’Neal’s back, and said, "Hey Shaq, long time no see, right? Oh, you’ve kept in good shape!"
"Hehe," O’Neal chuckled, flexing his biceps: "I didn’t come to Los Angeles just to be on TV every day. To prepare for training camp, I’ve been training hard too!"
Previously not very familiar, but since the Magician started his break in mid-August, he and O’Neal met a few times. Initially, the Magician worried that O’Neal might resist engaging with him, but it turned out that contrary to his reputation in Orlando, which was absolutely terrible and spread beyond, O’Neal was keen on establishing a good relationship with him.
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