Y13 [EN]: Chapter 169

Y13-169. 2011 Off-Season

– Welcome, everyone from Aztecs. Today, we have invited players from the golden era who shone for the Aztecs for two years. We will be listening to various stories and holding a friendly match with the current Aztecs members for 20 minutes. –

The student acting as the MC [Master of Ceremonies] proceeded with the story in a calm voice. Already, the Aztecs’ home, Viejas Arena at Aztec Bowl, was packed with not only the maximum capacity of 5,000 people but also many more without a place to stand.

The student, still calm, briefly explained the golden era by reciting the Aztecs’ performance from two years ago and called on Coach Steven Fisher for the opening remarks.

“Thank you to the Aztecs fans for coming in such large numbers. Until the start of the season two years ago, the Aztecs’ style was based on defense. Above all, my philosophy itself emphasized the defensive aspects. However, the Aztecs changed starting two years ago. There was a limit to doing only defense, and in the end, I adjusted the balance to break that limit.”

Coach Steven Fisher smiled slightly, looked around at the audience slowly, and nodded.

“If you define your limits, development ends there. I had forgotten that simple truth. But thanks to them, I broke the limits and tried to improve the Aztecs’ constitution. All the players are as precious as my fingers, and they became beings that hurt when bitten. That’s why the current Aztecs exist. Today, I hope you feel why they are called the golden era, and I hope you have time to find out what your limits are and how you can break them.”

Clap clap clap-

After that, the cheerleading performance of the Aztecs cheerleaders continued as an intermission. Billy White, Chase Tapley, Alex Williams, and Brian Carwell, who were still single, were immersed in the cheerleaders’ performance with beaming expressions, but Youngjae, Gay, and Thomas seemed uninterested and were busy talking to each other.

“Hee…”

“Hey, Kelvin! Wake up!”

“Kelvin’s girlfriend should see this…”

At the word ‘girlfriend,’ Kelvin quickly wiped his saliva and began to concentrate on his smartphone as if it would break. As the cheerleading performance ended, the players awkwardly went up to the platform, greeted the fans, and began to share stories they wanted to tell, finding common ground.

“Life in a foreign country is always difficult. But when I overcame the difficulties and fears, I got an opportunity.”

The three players who went overseas never failed to say this. It was as if they had planned it. But for the three players, going to a foreign league was a decision that required courage, and that decision provided an opportunity for them to grow further.

-Lastly, Youngjae Yoon. Please come up to the platform.-

Youngjae thought it would be better to go up in his usual appearance rather than dressing up, so he wore the Dallas Mavericks training jacket and stood in front of the platform. When Youngjae came up, the fans greeted him with more enthusiasm than ever before, and the MC, who was also a fan of Youngjae, spoke in a slightly trembling voice.

“Hello. I am Youngjae Yoon, a guard for the Dallas Mavericks and played for the Aztecs until last year.”

Wow!!

The fans cheered tremendously with just one word of introduction. That was because of Youngjae’s existence, which was like the pride of the Aztecs. In fact, the last NBA player produced by the Aztecs was center Michael Cage, who won the rebounding title once in the 80s.

After that, for a while, the Aztecs could not produce a player who played properly in the NBA due to the limitations of the conference. It was Youngjae who reopened the waterway. Leonard was drafted in the first round this season, but Youngjae was already an established player in the NBA.

The hero who was responsible for the March Madness [NCAA basketball tournament] run that raised the team to the Sweet Sixteen [regional semifinal round of the NCAA tournament] in the game against Maryland last season, even with a broken nose. That was Youngjae. Although Kawhi Leonard led the Aztecs to the Sweet Sixteen this season, the regret was greater last season. At that time, if it wasn’t for the injury, they could have aimed for the Final Four [national semifinal round of the NCAA tournament].

“Ah, I don’t think I’m in a position to tell anyone what to do yet. I’m just going to briefly tell you some stories that I can share about what I’ve experienced.”

The change from point guard to shooting guard and coexistence after becoming a member of the Aztecs. And the bloody efforts to develop strength and flexibility at the same time in line with the growth of the body. Workouts and drafts. Finally, various episodes that occurred during the season.

Youngjae calmly conveyed his story to the audience and finished by simply saying what he wanted to say.

“Whatever you do, you will face discrimination. There is no place without discrimination. But that discrimination is not only malicious but also an opportunity to find my weaknesses. Overcome those weaknesses. Then they will have no choice but to acknowledge you. Be a confident person. Thank you.”

The fans cheered and applauded Youngjae’s sincere advice, and especially the Koreans cheered and applauded while chanting Youngjae’s name.

– Now, as the last event, there will be a 20-minute friendly match between the current Aztecs and the graduates. Those who graduated last year are currently D.J. Gay, Kelvin Davis, Youngjae Yoon, and Malcolm Thomas. Since there are four of you, we will participate in Team A and Team B with two people each. We also divided this year’s graduates evenly. –

The two teams were divided in consideration of the balance as much as possible, and the list of Team A and Team B was as follows.

Team A

D.J. Gay (G) [Guard]

Chase Tapley (G)

Billy White (F) [Forward]

Tim Shelton (F)

Malcolm Thomas (C) [Center]

Substitute: Kawhi Leonard (F)

Team B

Jamal Franklin (G)

Kelvin Davis (G)

Alex Williams (F)

Mehdi Cheriet (F)

Brian Carwell (C)

Substitute: Youngjae Yoon (G)

When Leonard and Youngjae were sitting on the bench, the fans laughed and enjoyed it, and some fans booed with slight disappointment because the two players did not come out from the beginning.

– The two players will also participate in the game, and the friendly match will not be a boring game, so please understand. –

The fans, who were disappointed with the MC’s explanation, stopped booing, intending to watch a little.

Beep- Carwell snatched the jump ball nimbly.

Tung- Jamal Franklin tried to lead with the ball, but as a freshman who entered this year, he was shrinking in big games. Even though it was a friendly match, his unstable dribbling was just the type of player that D.J. Gay could easily catch with his defense. Franklin was superior in size, but it was difficult to be Gay’s opponent, who had experienced 4 years of college and 1 year of professional play.

Tak!

“Ugh!”

Franklin was surprised by the steal, which was much sharper than his existing colleagues or college players, but the ball was already in Gay’s hands.

“If you get stolen from, stick to him and block him!!”

As expected, Franklin quickly came to his senses and stuck to it at Kelvin Davis’s passionate instructions that had been going on since the NCAA [National Collegiate Athletic Association] days.

“Don’t try to steal in a hurry! Just block the way and block the shot! It’s okay to be fooled, so don’t make big moves!”

Kelvin’s instructions were accurate. The opponent that Franklin can’t do anything about right now is D.J. Gay. In that case, the safest defense was the best. In addition, Brian Carwell, a traditional defensive center, was blocking Team B’s rim. Carwell was able to control the penetration to some extent.

Tutung!

Gay never let his juniors off the hook. Rather, he did his best so that his juniors could watch and learn his game control, so he had no mercy. Kelvin Davis was also thinking about it, but he lightly clicked his tongue, thinking that it was too much to do to the freshmen, and slowly timed it.

Tuck!

“Frank! Switch!”

Davis shouted to Franklin, who was caught in the screen, and he stuck to D.J. Gay instead, and Franklin hurriedly ran to Chase Tapley while he was out of his mind.

“…”

As the two players, who have grown into guards representing Spain and Greece, faced each other, the atmosphere in the stadium began to feel quite tense.

Pat!

Gay took a big step forward with his right foot, with his left foot as the axis. Then Kelvin slightly tilted only his upper body to prevent Gay from being fooled and blocked Gay’s path, and Gay quickly pulled his right foot back.

‘Stepback?! Did you add a shooting element too?!’

Kelvin was surprised and tried to rush forward, but the ‘sense’ he had honed while playing in the Greek league implied anxiety. As soon as Davis felt that this was a trick, he made a cold judgment and only stretched out his hand to interfere with the shooting.

Whirr-!

Then Gay did not hesitate and immediately stretched his right foot forward again and whirr- turned counterclockwise with his right foot as the axis. Despite the tremendous spin move, Kelvin Davis showed off his tremendous defensive power, chased Gay with a sidestep in a moment, and interfered with Gay by sticking his upper body to the end.

Beee!!!

“Pushing foul, Kelvin Davis!”

In the end, he had no choice but to cut it with a foul, but in an instant, the 5,000 spectators, the players who were playing the game, Kawhi Leonard and Youngjae sitting on the bench, and finally Coach Steven Fisher could not help but admire the two’s great growth. The fact that this tremendous mental battle took place in just 3 seconds was a good stimulus for the freshmen to feel the difference between the NCAA and the pros.

After about 5 minutes, the friendly match began to proceed in a situation where Team A, led by D.J. Gay, was gradually earning points. Team B was also able to lead the game to some extent with a variable switching in which Kelvin Davis blocked D.J. Gay and Jamal Franklin blocked Chase Tapley, but Jamal’s leading was not very good when Team B was attacking, so the attack was cut off, and they were simply passing and passing, relying on the open chance that Kelvin Davis was getting.

Swish-

Nevertheless, Kelvin Davis was trying to prevent more than 2 possessions from being earned by scoring goals in those limited opportunities and tight defensive pressure. But Gay made Team B dizzy by skillfully performing a simple breakthrough after inside/outside play, or a sensible penetration pass to the goal, or a 2:2 pick and roll.

“Hoo, it’s overwhelming.”

Kelvin Davis lightly hit the back of Alex Williams’ head as he grumbled.

“What’s wrong with a senior being overwhelmed?”

“Ah, damn… Gay and Kelvin have all become monsters and come back, so I can’t keep up!”

Alex Williams also worked hard for a year and showed a good performance in the NCAA, but he was keenly aware that the gap between that and the pros was quite large. He realized once again that college players are preferred over overseas players in the draft, but the actual skills are not the same.

But Brian Carwell, who was silently listening to the story with Kelvin Davis, turned his head and looked at Youngjae, who was warming up on the bench, without saying anything.

“Ah…”

Alex Williams seemed to realize what that gaze meant, and he began to feel a sense of security and fear with a short exclamation of ah-.

“If Gay and I are monsters… would that guy have become a god? You have to be someone like that to play in the NBA. Watch carefully.”

============================ Author’s Afterword ============================

★Thank you to those who gave me advance reservations, recommendations, comments, and coupons!!

＠Ah, Joara was completely out of order yesterday;;; I was anxious because the site kept lagging or not opening from last night, but in the end, I waited for about 10 minutes from 12 o’clock, but I couldn’t find an answer.

＠Jamal Franklin was nominated for Memphis as the 41st pick (11th in the 2nd round) in 2013. Malcolm Thomas also played in the NBA for several years as an undrafted player. He played in Philadelphia last year. But Thomas should be seen as between an NBA leaguer and a D-leaguer [NBA Development League player], and Franklin only played in 3 games last year and is still unemployed this year. In fact, Leonard is the only one who survived in the NBA.

Angel’s Doctor///Thank you for the first comment!!

Thank you for your comments, 사라질영혼님, -DarkANGEL-님, sis-yuki님, 오마리온님, 파이넨시아님, CountOfDark 님/// Have a nice day today~

ㅎ0ㅎ님/// Hope is gradually disappearing.

하늘빛실타래님/// LOL, the aftereffects of watching all at once LOL

울트라10님/// Yes. As you said, Novi is healthy for a big man. He is definitely not injury-prone. However, although he installed a post-up in that season, he still enjoyed face-up and breakthrough. Of course, Novi’s offensive burden was too great… so that’s why I meant that the proportion should be reduced. In fact, he has hardly used face-up for the past 2-3 years.

rtg98님/// Yes. He even won the dunk contest, beating Dominique Wilkins. Recently, Barea, Isaiah Thomas, Nate Robinson, etc. have been playing in the NBA with a height of 170. However, the characteristic of these people is that their lifespan is short. If you get older and your speed and athletic ability decrease, there is no future;; And it seems that the guards were a little shorter than they are now when Webb was playing.

goimosp님/// That’s right. Leonard was originally a player who could have been picked at a higher number, so it was difficult to play with him, so he sent him to San Antonio as is.

야베스님/// The draft depth is good in the 12th season, so there are still many steel picks even though it has only been 3 years. Among the 2nd rounders, Draymond Green and Chris Middleton are big hits, and Jae Crowder, Mike Scott, and Papanikolaou are good players. The Howard Drama will be described in the future through conversations and articles from the club’s executives during the off-season.

킹덤브라더스님/// Yes. We pulled it forward by 1 year.

Aㅏ잉여롭다님/// Duffy will appear in the middle from time to time ㅎㅎ