Y13 [EN]: Chapter 96

Y13-96 (96/296)

00096 2010-11 Regular Season ====================================================

Dallas’s team training, like any other team, focused on refining their offensive and defensive systems.

They simulated various situations with a center-focused zone defense, and Barea and Youngjae took turns practicing staggered pick-and-rolls with two big men [a basketball play where two players set screens for a teammate at slightly different times]. Basically, Dallas always had at least two of Kidd, Youngjae, Marion, and Chandler at the heart of their defensive system on the court. It was crucial to understand the various systems designed according to the plan and to master them physically.

It was no exaggeration to say that Carlisle, one of the coaches who used the most diverse tactics in the league, had created the current Dallas team. Because of this, players with low basketball IQ (BQ) or rookies found it difficult to get into Carlisle’s rotation lineup.

“Yoon, are you okay?”

“Actually, I’m not sure either. The doctor couldn’t tell me exactly why I’m feeling this way.”

It was perhaps natural that the psychiatrist couldn’t pinpoint the cause of Youngjae’s trauma. There was no way Youngjae could tell the doctor about his past life. The cause was an injury from his past life, and for a doctor who didn’t know this, it was difficult to find a clear cause. It would seem absurd to them.

It would be a lie to say that he had overcome all his trauma in just two days. In addition to the miraculous experience of being revived from the brink of death, and because there were no situations mirroring the injuries he had suffered, it may have been suppressed. But Youngjae was able to muster courage by recalling his journey so far. It hadn’t happened to him yet, and when you think about it in terms of timing, he was injured a whopping eight years later. Besides, the team, the players, and the people around him were all different from then. As he comforted himself like that, he regained his motivation.

“I’ve heard that it’s hard to talk about and that you have to overcome it yourself, so I won’t pry. However, if there’s a problem with your performance, it will be a problem for you and for our team. I think it’s best to start with a feeling of adaptation first.”

“I understand.”

“And you can always get counseling. I don’t think it’s a bad idea to have a consultation with your doctor before the game.”

Youngjae nodded. In the United States, it wasn’t strange to receive psychiatric treatment or counseling, unlike in Korea, so Youngjae had no aversion to it. Rather, if he could get counseling and get rid of some of his terrible memories, he was willing to go several times.

“Now, we will divide into two teams to take charge of offense and defense. The defensive team will have the center guard the paint zone [the area close to the basket], and in 2-on-2 defense, do not switch and follow through to the end. The priority is to suppress the ball handler’s breakthrough and force a jumper. And the offensive team should actively use pick-and-rolls to penetrate the goal, taking into account that the opponent is playing a zone defense. The rest of the players should move actively to create space and create chances to shoot.”

Youngjae was assigned to the offensive team and teamed up with Beaubois and Mahinmi. Beaubois asked Youngjae with a worried look if he was okay now, and Youngjae, not wanting to be overconfident, told him honestly that he would have to see.

Beeep-

At coach Terry Stotts’ whistle, the defensive team, Kidd, Barea, and Nowitzki, tried to stay close to their respective assignments. The attack started with Beaubois. Beaubois dribbled the ball to the top of the key, and Mahinmi set a clumsy screen. Youngjae thought it was time and started to move slowly, dragging his matchup opponent Barea along. Youngjae tried to control himself, reminding himself that he had no injuries, and gradually began to put more force on his ankle. An ankle brace was tightly wrapped around Youngjae’s ankle.

‘?!’

The running speed was the same as before, but Youngjae couldn’t help but flinch at the unfamiliar feeling of unease. He was ashamed of himself for being so confident when Beaubois had said he couldn’t pick up speed because of his injury. In the end, Youngjae was feeling it himself. However, one thing that Youngjae had that was different from Beaubois was that he had lived a longer life than Beaubois.

Youngjae, who suddenly felt that life was so futile, couldn’t help but smile slightly at the thought that he was thinking like an old man who had lived his life.

When it seemed like a physical battle with Barea was about to break out, Youngjae was unconsciously holding back his strength. The tremendous amount of energy he usually exerted during the game was still there, but the boldness was gone. Youngjae didn’t know whether this was a temporary fear that his body was controlling to prevent strain on his ankle, or whether it had become a chronic problem. However, the only thing that remained unchanged was that in order to succeed in the current training, he had to either regain his boldness or minimize intense physical plays.

Kidd went around Mahinmi’s clumsy screen. Mahinmi, satisfied with holding Nowitzki, began to rush to the goal as planned. Beaubois was startled to see that Kidd had not been caught in the screen and hesitated, but soon someone came up to him and set a screen, and he crossed the screen again without hesitation.

“Ugh!”

Kidd was startled by the sudden screen, and only after being blocked by it did he realize that the main player setting the screen was Youngjae. It was difficult to predict because Youngjae, who had been making space by going around the inside and outside, suddenly set a screen.

“Nice!”

Beaubois went over Youngjae’s screen and lightly laid the ball up. Youngjae smiled as he lightly high-fived Beaubois, and Kidd and Nowitzki patted Youngjae as if they were proud.

Youngjae smiled awkwardly at their encouragement, but his palms were full of cold sweat. Youngjae was so scared that Kidd looked like a devil for a moment while setting the screen. It was only for a moment, but the scene of Chandler’s injury flashed in his mind the moment their bodies collided. He could only guess that it was possible because it wasn’t a situation where bodies collided in the air.

“Hmm.”

However, coach Carlisle, coach Terry Stotts, and coach Dwane Casey were closely observing Youngjae, so they could immediately see that Youngjae’s play wasn’t perfect. First of all, they decided to change the offensive and defensive teams without saying anything and watch Youngjae’s play again. They also thought that pointing it out wouldn’t change anything immediately.

Youngjae, standing in front of Kidd, seemed to have gained more confidence from the successful screen earlier, and he turned his ankle firmly and focused on defense. He knew that Kidd’s speed wasn’t as fast as he thought, so Youngjae was considering switching with Beaubois at any time.

Thud!

Kidd went over Nowitzki’s screen in the left wing area. Youngjae tried to spin to get over Nowitzki’s screen, but his ankle wasn’t as good as he thought. It wasn’t to the point where he couldn’t spin and get over the screen, but he couldn’t step smoothly, and his ankle felt stiff.

‘Still, it’s much better than before.’

Youngjae gritted his teeth. He felt that it would be more difficult to shake it off if he hesitated any longer, so he pushed himself a little. Youngjae himself was even more embarrassed because he had never thought that he would have such trauma, and he couldn’t find a clear solution.

[I think the fastest way to overcome deep and painful big trauma is to face it head-on. Trauma is harder to overcome if it takes a long time. Isn’t it best to overcome it as quickly as possible?]

Recalling Emily’s words, Youngjae tightened his ankle.

Thwack-

The moment he collided with Nowitzki, Youngjae stepped even faster to shake off his fear.

“Ha!!”

He unknowingly let out a sigh of relief. It wasn’t 100% perfect, but it was the moment when his ankle was bent most smoothly and he gained speed since the Philadelphia game.

In the end, Youngjae, who had properly cut off the passing route from Kidd to Barea, was dripping with cold sweat all over his body, but his expression was full of the thrill that a student who had just started learning basketball would have when he slammed his first dunk. For now, it seemed like he could do it to some extent during training. He didn’t know what it would be like in a real game yet.

Youngjae no longer had nightmares. The time he invested in stretching and yoga doubled from before, and after practice games including intense collisions, he felt a strange pain in his ankle, so he went to the hospital, but Youngjae started to finish his day with ice packs because there was nothing wrong.

And one more thing that had changed was that Emily was there, taking off her shoes and sitting on the bed with him, watching TV, laughing, and singing songs. Youngjae was able to gain more strength because he was grateful to Emily for being there for him, even though it was a precious vacation.

“Nebraska farmland…”

The two people who were laughing while watching TV were already reminiscing about their childhood stories.

“It’s a place in the central plains of our country, and there are endless cornfields. When I was young, I thought it was a natural sight in front of my house, but as I missed the scenery more and more, I realized that the scenery of the cornfield was really wonderful.”

Youngjae rubbed both ankles with ice packs and focused on Emily’s story. Youngjae said that it must be a very nice place to have a house with vast cornfields.

“Youngjae grew up in Korea when he was young, right? What is Korea like?”

When the story of Korea came up, Youngjae smiled awkwardly and hesitated to speak.

“I don’t have many good memories. It wasn’t a house with beautiful scenery like Emily’s. I really don’t have many memories in Korea, so I don’t have anything to talk about.”

Emily simply nodded in response to Youngjae’s words. Youngjae instead told her about his school days in the United States.

“The basketball coach was so tough that he was called a devil. Then one of the team members told the coach to eat him [a Korean expression meaning to trick or get back at someone]. So we mixed pepperoncino in the drink the coach was drinking. The coach can’t eat spicy food.”

“Oh my. So?”

“The coach was panting like a dog sticking out his tongue, and we received twice as intense training as usual. Hehe, but we laughed and trained because it was so good.”

Emily chuckled and listened to Youngjae’s story, and Youngjae also laughed happily because he remembered what happened at that time.

As the night deepened and Youngjae saw Emily hiding her yawns with tired eyes, Youngjae picked up two ice packs and got up from the bed.

“Go to sleep, you have to leave tomorrow.”

“Yeah… I’m sorry. But, are you really okay? It must be uncomfortable to sleep on the sofa…”

Emily looked at Youngjae with a worried expression, but Youngjae said he was okay and laid Emily down on the bed. Emily, who was lying on the bed as if by force majeure [an overwhelming, irresistible force], felt happy that Youngjae was personally adjusting her pillow and covering her with a blanket.

“It’s okay. So don’t worry and sleep well. Good night.”

Youngjae smiled and stroked Emily’s fair forehead and cheeks with his hands and turned off the lights in the room. Youngjae came out of the room and collapsed on the sofa and soon fell into a deep sleep.

============================ Author’s Note ============================

★Thank you for your advance subscriptions, recommendations, comments, and coupons!!

＠I’m sad that I can’t watch the final Game 5 live because of the exam on Monday. I hope those who watch live will enjoy it for our sake too haha.

＠Today, Rico is a bit long. I guess that’s because I’m trying to solve the questions from the last episode.

※Staggered Pick and Roll: This is a method in which two people screen with a time difference. From the defender’s point of view, it is momentarily confusing which player to block. If you are not prepared, you can launch a proper counterattack. However, it is necessary to assume that the person executing it also has good tactical movement.

Yeonhwigaram44/// Oh, you read it all in two days!!

Angel’s Affair/// Hmm??!!

Kundara, misscherry, OLD-BOY, and Financia/// Thank you for your comments!! Be careful of your health in the hot weather~

Gangjail/// lol We also spend our holidays like that. Finish homework, play 2k, write novels, and watch basketball.

ㅎ0ㅎ/// Hehehe that’s a trade secret lol

Don’t look/// If you look at the beginning, you will see that he is saving his body a little because of the injury, but it didn’t come out much. The reason it exploded this time was because it was the same injury scene from his past life. The previous injuries of his colleagues were different from the injuries he suffered. Of course, the degree of injury varies from player to player even in the same scene. Trauma can simply appear when you play basketball again, but it can also explode when you don’t see it or experience the same phenomenon.

For example, Choo Shin-soo suffered a fractured left thumb in 2011 after being hit by a ball from a left-handed pitcher. Choo Shin-soo said that for the next two years, he was scared just to see a left-handed pitcher throwing the ball towards his body. However, there was nothing like that in batting or defense with right-handed pitchers. The same was true even if a left-handed pitcher threw it to the outside. He says he’s fine now.

We also regret that we couldn’t describe it more naturally. We will try harder.

Dopikan/// That’s right, but I don’t think mentality is limited to one thing. For example, there are cases where the mentality for criticism or criticism is strong, but the mentality for one’s own failure is weak. Some people have a good mentality in grades or work, but are fragile in romance.

Progeuma/// Thank you for your first comment. As you said, I think trauma can be different for each individual.

Moyongsageukji/// This is your first comment. Thank you^^

Yeosin Yuri Praise/// Thank you for your comment. We think similarly. I think trauma can be a big field, but it can also occur in detailed scenes.