When it came to mid-August, Hansen’s personal training camp concluded.
The second pick Ball has his own personal brand. This year, Nike placed its bets on the top pick Fultz and the third pick Fox among the newcomers, while UA focused on two rookies from the Kings, Mitchell and Tatum.
These two newcomers also participated in Hansen’s training camp this time. Tatum’s performance was noteworthy, but what truly impressed people was Mitchell.
After the training camp, Hansen even gifted him a pair of yet-to-be-released Panda Three sneakers with his autograph.
Mitchell is a shooting guard, but his barefoot height is only 1.86 meters, and his three-point shot is unstable with a lack of organizational skills. This makes him somewhat similar to Tony Allen in some ways—neither here nor there, which is why his draft position won’t be very high.
To exaggerate a bit, you could even say he has some similarities to Bronny.
In fact, right after the Madness, Mitchell only had the outlook of being a late first-round pick.
But through his outstanding performance in the trials, he pushed himself from the end of the first round into the lottery, with a rank promotion even greater than Hansen’s back then.
There are two main reasons behind this.
One of them is his physical attributes.
Aside from height, his other physical attributes are almost maxed out.
In terms of static abilities, he has a wingspan of 208 with a height of 186, and as a newly graduated NCAA player, his body fat percentage reached an astonishing 5.9%.
In dynamic aspects, his standing leap of 92.71 cm is the best among this year’s draft players, and his maximum leap of 108.87 cm ranks fifth in the same cohort, but his biggest advantage is speed. His 3.01-second sprint over three-quarters of the court is even faster than Wade.
This talent allows him to gallop across the court like a cheetah, with a strong presence on both offense and defense. Latest content publıshed on 𝕟𝕠𝕧𝕖𝕝⁂𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙚⁂𝔫𝔢𝔱
And the other reason is his game temperament.
To be honest, Hansen didn’t pay much attention to Mitchell in his past life. In his impression, Mitchell was just lukewarm, at most an All-Star-level star.
Hansen didn’t even suggest to UA to sign Mitchell during this contract negotiation; UA picked him entirely on their own.
But this training camp completely overturned Hansen’s view of him.
This guy’s competitiveness can truly be described as terrifying. His three-pointer may be inaccurate, but he dares to throw seven or eight shots from the outside in a single training match, and if given the opportunity he’ll even show you some ultra-long three-pointers.
Including on the defensive side, despite being short, his excellent wingspan makes his defense very aggressive, and even after being shaken down, he can immediately bounce up from the ground and chase back.
His style of play is flashy, energetic, and reminiscent of Hansen’s early days with an attitude of "I’ll beat you no matter who you are."
But unlike Hansen, this guy has a particularly lively and cheerful personality.
To put it in a slightly poetic way: even with the force to shatter the backboard, Mitchell often wears a big smile.
This kind of contrasting charisma is really endearing.
Hansen even somewhat regrets not having the Cavaliers trade up for him during the draft.
However, what he can be sure of is that the Kings will surprise everyone in the new season.
Because this kind of rookie with both leadership qualities and abilities has a very strong team-leading capability.
After finishing his personal training camp, Hansen immediately embarked on the new year’s East University tour.
During this East University tour, Hansen announced during an event with Yao Ming that he would represent the East University Men’s Basketball Team at the 2019 World Cup.
This not only instantly ignited the emotions of East University fans at the scene but also stirred up the entire East University fan circle.
After so many years, they can finally see Hansen play for the East University Men’s Basketball Team. This feeling of relief after a long drought makes people get goosebumps.
Moreover, Yao Ming also discussed the issue of naturalized players at the event.
This is something used worldwide, but East University has never used it because of national circumstances, and it will change because of Hansen’s participation.
In simple terms, the East University Men’s Basketball Team is expected to welcome its first naturalized player at the 2019 World Cup.
Obviously, Yao Ming has ambitions, and if the East University Men’s Basketball Team can get a good result at the World Cup, it will be extremely helpful for him in promoting policies afterward.
He also mentioned this during previous exchanges with Hansen.
Hansen also agrees with this; "history" shows Yao Ming’s reform of basketball marked a watershed at the 2019 World Cup. Before that, basketball had red and blue teams, and you could say that half of the team could dominate Asia.
However, due to a sideline ball in that World Cup, a match they shouldn’t have lost, the East University Men’s Basketball Team ultimately failed to get out of the group stage, which also led to Yao Ming’s policies being impossible to fully implement afterward.
Just like the NBA has only one chance, the East University Men’s Basketball Team may only have that one opportunity.
Hansen’s decision also caused many East University fans to turn from detractors to supporters.
These consequences were within Hansen’s expectations or indeed his decision was also influenced by his current personal needs.
Now he has a very low need for the Anti-Fans System, so what he needs more now are not detractors but fans.
After finishing the East University tour and returning to the United States, Hansen traveled to Thousand Oaks City in California to attend the ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Kobe Mamba Academy.
After landing and then an hour’s drive, he finally arrived at the sports academy Kobe was proud of.
Upon seeing it, Hansen finally understood why Kobe had remained silent over the past year.