The day after the first round ended, Zhang Yang truly felt for the first time how terrifying the backlash from playoff failure could be.
He had experienced playoff eliminations before—losing to the Pistons in the second round during his rookie year.
But that time, after their exit, media and fans had praised them to the skies, with many even saying that the Rookie of the Year award was unfair and that he deserved it more than Paul.
Reaching the playoffs in their second year and making it to the second round was quite sensational at the time.
Only the fans of the team they had surprisingly beaten in the first round hurled unwarranted abuse and mockery at him.
In his second year, winning the championship at 19 and becoming the youngest FMVP broke Magic’s record, and the public sentiment about that needs no elaboration.
But now, about to turn 25 and eliminated from the playoffs, even with an average of over 35 points, he was criticized ruthlessly.
There were also some sarcastic comments—if Jack could score 50 points every game, the Lakers could sweep the Thunder Team.
Zhang Yang felt like the comment was a dig at him. Can’t a guy brag a little? And besides, he did win when he scored 50 points!
This experience was still somehow... fresh to Zhang Yang?
Even though getting criticized was annoying, he didn’t really have much of a negative reaction. After all, he was about to go back, and it was this version of him that would continue to face the criticism.
However, he was puzzled as to why he wasn’t sent back immediately this time. Did they want him to experience this kind of media environment, to accumulate experience in self-regulating against the surge of public sentiment after losing in the playoffs in the future?
But after he returned, this memory would be sealed away!
With the Gate of Trials, only the learned techniques and the sensations of playing the games could be directly brought back. Other memories required active recall to ’remember,’ supposedly to avoid the influence of memories from multiple timelines on his personal life.
Was he supposed to reflect on his failures frequently? He’d have to be crazy to actively recall memories of being insulted!
The next day, on the morning of May 6, when Zhang Yang woke up and saw that he hadn’t gone back yet, just as he wondered why he hadn’t been sent back after a full day of being lambasted, Nash called to invite him to train together... which really meant teaching him techniques.
Zhang Yang finally understood why he hadn’t been sent back immediately—this time he only had one hour to learn from Nash. The playoff opponents were too tough, and there wasn’t enough time; after the first day he arrived, there was no time left to learn!
This time his inner voice was: Amen, Yangyang loves you!
The two and a half days of learning flew by, and after the session ended on the afternoon of May 8, while Zhang Yang was discussing with Nash where to eat dinner that night, sleepiness suddenly overtook him, and he knew that his trial was about to end.
As per usual, he reviewed this trial. For the first time in a trial, he had taken the lead. Considering the current situation in timelines 10 and 80, he might always have to take the lead in the future... No, not just in the trials, but in his own timeline as well, with Gerald Wallace leaving, he would have to take up the mantle of the backcourt.
Soon, everything went black, and he fell into a deep sleep...
On the morning of July 16, 2007, at 6:58 AM, Zhang Yang woke from his slumber. After lazing in bed for two more minutes, his alarm went off, and he sat up with a slap of his hand.
His memory of ’yesterday’ was of just having started the two-day period of free agency... until the Gate of Trials popped up, and he remembered that he had activated the trial the previous night before going to sleep.
The scenes from learning techniques with Nash flashed through his mind.
And the feeling of leading the team for six games... But it was just the feeling; without actively recalling it, there were no memory visuals.
The images from studying were very clear; he could directly practice them. However, he planned to discuss with the Legendary Trainer Grove and the top shooting coach Ingles before starting formal training, allowing them to help him optimize and adjust to a training routine that suited him.
After all, his physical condition was vastly different from Nash’s. At the beginning of training, there wouldn’t be any odd sensations, but as he progressed to a certain level, the discomfort of incongruity would emerge. Adjusting at that point would be harder and take more time.
Zhang Yang had suffered from this before, and now that he had the means not to, he certainly wasn’t going to put himself through that unnecessarily.
Zhang Yang actively recalled the memory of learning with Nash, a period of two and a half days. The time was not long, and the amount learned was neither too little nor too much.
Although Nash had previous teaching experience and knew he could cram everything into Zhang Yang’s head, he didn’t teach indiscriminately. He analyzed every move as thoroughly as possible, every action, every detail of force application, as well as practical battle applications, and taught as thoroughly as he could, demonstrating repeatedly until Zhang Yang remembered them before teaching the next one.
Of course, this teaching method still shocked Kobe’s view of basketball instruction... this was how you should teach basketball!
For scoring techniques, Nash taught only three moves—step-back jump shot, shooting after using a screen, and the stride after driving to the basket.
All three were common moves for Nash. Zhang Yang himself could perform them, but not the Nash version.
For shooting after using a screen, he learned from Ginobili; for step-back jump shot, he learned from Hamblen and Harden; and for the drive to basket stride, he figured it out on his own by watching Parker and Iverson.
According to Nash, teaching him these three moves was to give him another reference point to further optimize them.
As Zhang Yang remembered this, he felt that Nash’s words seemed to make sense, and even appeared quite reasonable. Taking the strengths of various players and combining them with his own actual conditions was the correct approach to refining technique details. But he still felt Nash had some other agenda...
Right, Nash’s scoring techniques, floor general, floor general, still floor general!
The scoring techniques of Ginobili, Harden, Iverson, and Parker generally relied more on physical abilities, whereas for Nash’s three moves, aside from requiring speed, they mainly depended on rhythm—the true Rhythm Master.