Bickerstaff was still searching for free agents to fill the remaining two slots, while Zhang Yang had already started special training with Jordan on June 29, before the free agency market opened.
Alongside him for the special training were Felton and Gerald Wallace.
However, if it weren’t Jordan teaching them, they might as well have given up.
Gerald Wallace and Zhang Yang were more than willing to play one-on-one with Jordan, but when it came to someone else teaching them, they were resistant, with only Felton looking forward to it...
The ones leading their special training were the Legendary Trainer Tim Grove and Ingles.
Jordan, watching Grove and Ingles, felt as if he were transported back to his own playing days over a decade ago when he would train each summer with both Grove and Frank Hamblen, who was known as the ’league’s top shooting coach’ at the time.
Zhang Yang was excited to hear that Grove would be helping with their training, but the content of the training was different from what he had expected, primarily because his training was different from his two teammates—it focused on physical fitness!
Starting at 6:30 in the morning, they would do an hour of anaerobic and aerobic strength training, eat breakfast at 8, and from 9 to 11, continue with two more hours of physical conditioning.
In the afternoon, with Ingles’ help, Zhang Yang, already weary from the morning’s workout, would do 2-3 hours of fatigue-resistant shooting practice, plus one hour of pass-control training.
The duration of the training was about the same as usual, but much more exhausting!
Based on his age, Grove scheduled his physical training to be one day on, one day off.
On the days without physical training, Grove would work on his defensive footwork fundamentals, and the afternoon shooting and pass-control sessions would be reduced in volume.
Actually, Grove initially planned for Zhang Yang to fully rest on his off-days, but Zhang Yang’s physical strength, though not as good as Felton’s or Gerald Wallace’s, had a recovery ability better than that of these two 20-something-year-olds.
Beyond that, Zhang Yang’s existing defensive foundation also greatly surprised Grove!
After the first defensive training session, Grove expressed his astonishment to Jordan and Ingles, "I watched the videos you sent, I thought Jack just had good defensive talent and a sense for disrupting shots, I did not expect his defensive footwork to be so solid, even better than many college graduates!"
Ingles responded, "Jack’s defensive fundamentals are indeed quite good, but he is too young, his physique and stamina are not great, so we usually have him defend against wing shooters; he is also very clever, knowing he has an advantage in defending the basket and the wing. Occasionally, when he needs to play one-on-one, he chooses to use his wingspan to disturb the opponent’s shot and block the middle, forcing them to go baseline."
Grove replied, "He really is a smart and hard-working kid. He must train very hard usually, to have such great shooting fundamentals at 18, to know so many techniques, and to have laid down such a defense foundation—it’s quite remarkable."
Upon hearing this, Jordan had a peculiar expression, while Ingles hesitated before saying, "He is hard-working, but actually, he doesn’t spend much time practicing techniques and defensive steps. Usually, it only takes him a few days to learn a new technique, but after he masters it, he reduces the training time for that new skill."
Grove asked, "Why? Don’t you stop him from doing that? Being mediocre at everything is worse than being good at nothing!"
Ingles answered, "That’s how he thinks, too, so he spends most of his training time on shooting and the techniques he excels at, which he uses most often in games. He says defensive steps, triple-threat moves... these are just skills he feels he might occasionally need, so he learns them first but doesn’t invest too much time. They’re easy to learn, but to train them well is hard, and for him right now, the return on investment is not proportional."
He turned to look at Jordan, who averted his gaze, unwilling to speak.
Alright, it seems to be true!
He remembered now; ESPN had reported that Zhang Yang started playing basketball when he was 15, in his sophomore year of high school, when he was 16, in his junior year, he was named California Mr. Basketball, and he joined the NBA less than a month after turning 17... At first, he thought it was just a legendary tale; although he had no doubts about Zhang Yang’s talent, he thought it wasn’t as exaggerated as the stories said.
But Zhang Yang’s natural talent turned out to be even more extraordinary than the legend!