"I’m not even going to mention whether his coaching style is suitable for us, he simply can’t handle so many stars. He doesn’t have the extensive experience you have, nor does he have Phil’s ability to control the team... It would be better to have your son leave the Rockets to coach our team."
Bickerstaff: "John? He won’t make it, he doesn’t have the talent to be a head coach."
Kupchak: "But at least he could use your reputation to keep the players in check, and I’ve heard he’s good at communicating with the players, isn’t he? He couldn’t do worse than Mike, serving as an interim coach would still be better than Mike."
After D’Antoni arrived, conflicts in the team escalated quickly, Howard and Gasol were at odds, Howard and Kobe were at odds, Howard and Artest were at odds, Howard and Nash were at odds... Series of infighting, Howard was unhappy, and it affected the whole team’s morale.
D’Antoni not only had a simplistic coaching style but also fell into a dependency in his communication with the players. Seeing Howard, a high school prodigy, he treated him like he was Stoudemire, asked Howard to work on his mid-range shots, and listen more to Nash and Kobe, but Howard and Stoudemire were completely different.
Bickerstaff: "It’s too late to talk about this now, making Mike the head coach was the last decision Buss made for the team before he passed away, who would dare to refuse?"
Kupchak glared at Bickerstaff: "All you had to do was nod in agreement to coach for a couple more months, and all these problems would have been solved."
Bickerstaff: "Oh, Mitch, saying that, you’ll end up in hell one day."
Kupchak: "I’d better worry about not getting fired first. Jack hasn’t renewed his contract yet, and if he’s not happy with the playoffs and decides to leave, our team is doomed for the next few years, and I won’t be far from getting fired too..."
Just then, Kupchak’s phone rang. He checked the caller ID, dismissed it, and said, "Let’s go, to the boss’s office."
Bickerstaff followed Kupchak’s footsteps to the president’s office.
President Jim Buss, Vice President of Business Operations Jeanie Buss were there, along with assistant coaches Eddie Jordan, Steven Clifford, and Darvin Ham, but head coach Mike D’Antoni and lead assistant Dan D’Antoni were absent.
Bickerstaff: "Finally, I don’t have to work under that run-and-gun man anymore!"
He was 70 years old, and had accepted Kupchak’s invitation to be an assistant coach, aiming for a championship ring with the Four Giants, but after a year it turned out ; his disdain for D’Antoni had reached its peak.
But at his age, he didn’t want to offend anyone, so he kept his dissatisfaction and disapproval to himself.
When Kupchak had brought up this issue, he had not supported him, instead, he had spoken on behalf of D’Antoni, but only spoke about how ’Mike was working hard.’
This was not helpful at all... Hard work is important, but the NBA has never lacked hardworking people.
Elsewhere, Zhang Yang changed into his training gear and pulled Nash and Kobe to the training court.
The strategy meeting was scheduled for 10 a.m., and it wasn’t even 9 yet. He seized the moment to seek advice from them. No need for physical learning, just memory was enough, he could practice formally later.
While stretching, Nash joked: "You’ve been here for two months, training alone every day. What made you think of training with me today?"
Zhang Yang: "You get injured every other game, how could I dare train with you?"
Kobe: "Thanks to a certain someone’s blessing, I was idle every day. Why didn’t you ask me to train together?"
Zhang Yang: "You’re about the same, Achilles, knees, shoulders almost breaking. If you got hurt during training, wouldn’t I be blamed? Really, they should have checked your head too... cough cough..."
Zhang San: "Oh no, I spoke my mind! What if the old blacksmith walks out in anger and refuses to teach me?"
To his surprise, Kobe merely gave him a glance and continued to warm up.
Confused, Zhang Yang asked Nash: "I said that to him and he’s not angry?"
Nash indifferently replied: "If he gets angry with you over this, and it leads to a feud, and you leave, he would become the villain of the team... Uh, Jack, what’s with that look? Are you planning to deliberately provoke Kobe to anger when you have nothing better to do?"
Zhang Yang: "Oops, you caught me!"
Nash: "...You said it so loud, he heard you too!"
Hey, Zhang San did it on purpose.
Zhang Yang continued warming up; being young and fit, it wasn’t a full warm-up for a game, just a physical readiness routine. A few minutes of joint exercises and he was ready to test his skills on the court.
As he expected, everything was the same as what he ’knew six years ago’; only his moves were more polished, his shooting more accurate, his muscle memory deeper... This meant that he, personally, would definitely be stronger than anyone close to 25 on this timeline, six years from now.
He could still learn more techniques! And improve his talent ceiling!
The two veterans, however, took more than ten minutes just for simple warm-ups.
After finishing, Nash said to Zhang Yang: "What skills do you want to learn from me? I can teach you anything. After all, we’re on the same team now. I’ve signed a three-year contract, with two years left. How much you can learn depends on you."
Zhang Yang: "Is this your way of tempting me to renew my contract?"
Nash: "You can think of it that way."
Zhang Yang: "I hate to admit it, but it is pretty tempting."
Kobe, feeling ignored, interjected: "I’ve still got at least 20 years in me."
Zhang Yang: "Attraction just dropped by half."
Kobe eventually couldn’t help himself: "What’s that supposed to mean? My skills are inferior to Steve’s?"