Kobe never expected that Min Congda, a general manager, would follow Grover for basketball training early in the morning.
Is he crazy? He didn't know what kind of intensity Grover was training at? And you have to practice with yourself.
Basketball is a collective sport. Kobe couldn't beat the Clippers with the Lakers.
But when it comes to one-on-one combat, the 34-year-old Kobe is still not afraid of any player in the league, including tank forwards like James.
Who is Min Congda? A basketball layman who is 1.75cm tall and has never played basketball. He dominates the league with his brains and words.
Today he even thought about going to the court to practice and have fun. I think he went to the toilet with a lantern and was looking for death.
Kobe got off the car and entered the training center. This morning he had reserved the place, and Grover and his team were making various preparations before training.
Kobe changed into training clothes, put on bandages, and came out, asking: "Where's Smart? Where is Smart? I'm here to warm up with him."
At this time, Min Congda came out of another locker room wearing a Clippers training uniform. The jersey was obviously too roomy, like a robe.
Min Congda is the same age as Kobe Bryant this year, 34 years old. Because he insists on exercising, he has a pretty good figure. He has no belly, his legs are quite strong, and his arms are very strong.
But this is relative to ordinary people. Compared with a basketball great like Kobe, he is just a little chicken. Kobe can defeat him 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
"Smart! I don't understand. Are you unhappy with your life? Why do you come to Grover to seek abuse? Can you play basketball?" Kobe teased unceremoniously.
Min Congda lifted his pants. This training jersey came from Curry. It has been slightly modified and it is still a bit too big. Next time, the team will have to make a training uniform specially for him.
"My life is very satisfactory. I just want to give it a try and see what level I can reach after serious basketball training. To be honest, I watch NBA-level training every day, and I feel like, you guys But just like that, there are things in the sky and on the ground that are blown all day long. Isn’t it just playing basketball? Practice makes perfect. What’s so great about it? What’s the essential difference between picking cotton?”
Min Congda always spoke wildly, so Kobe sneered and said, "There's no difference. Let's have a simple contest to warm up."
Min Congda shook his head and said: "I'm just an amateur. I'm not stupid. How could I beat you? You do the same. What's the benefit of beating me one-on-one? If I score one, I can go out and brag. Say I scored a bullet in Kobe's head. You tortured me to death, what's the big deal in telling it?"
While dribbling to warm up, Kobe shook his finger at Min Congda and said: "There is no way you can score any goal on my head, not even one. As for me torturing you to death, as a Laker...as your opponent, This is what I should do."
Kobe wanted to say he was a Lakers player, but then he thought, now he is no longer, he is a Nets player.
But no matter what Kobe said, Min Congda just wouldn't take the bait, and he was not stupid. If he challenged Kobe to a duel, he would not be humiliating himself!
He paid money to come to Grover to train, not to seek abuse, but to experience what it was like to receive the same training as Kobe.
Min Congda asked several players on the Clippers team, including Harden, Randolph, and Curry, who they thought trained the hardest in the NBA.
They all agreed that it was Kobe, who was a real training madman.
To be honest, the Clippers already have a lot of training freaks.
Curry, Butler, Leonard and other young people are all training very actively and hard.
But they all say that Kobe trains harder, which means there is a better world and a better person.
It happened that Min Congda still had many questions about Kobe, so through Jerry West's relationship, he found Grover and asked him to give him private lessons with Kobe.
Grover didn't agree at first, but Min Congda gave too much, so Grover called Kobe and asked Kobe tentatively. Unexpectedly, Kobe readily accepted.
Since Min Congda would not accept Kobe's one-on-one challenge, Kobe decided to let Min Congda experience what devil training is.
Before training begins, the first thing Kobe does is stretch and massage.
After completing a few simple shots and running a few steps, a specialized physical therapist began to stretch and massage Kobe's entire body.
This process is quite long, taking an hour or two to ensure that every muscle and ligament in Kobe's body is fully mobilized.
This will not only prevent his injured areas from recurring, but also prevent him from getting new injuries in the subsequent high-intensity exercise.
Min Congda had no such problem, so he sat aside and watched Kobe stretching and receiving physical therapy, and said: "Kobe, are you here to train, or are you here to kill the chicken?"
Kobe said: "Only people like you who have never played basketball and have no injuries on your body can be leisurely and contented without making any preparations. But I advise you to stretch well, otherwise I will be afraid of you when you train later. It’s going to hurt in five minutes.”
Min Congda thought that what Kobe said made sense. He was not young anymore. Although he could exercise, the intensity was relatively low.
Don't just practice for five minutes and then get injured and have to rest for two months. That would be too embarrassing.
Under Grover's guidance, Min Chongda performed some simple but effective stretches to open up the muscles and ligaments throughout the body.
This process looks comfortable, but it is actually quite tiring. After stretching for more than an hour, I feel a little out of breath.
"Damn, I'm quite tired. I thought it was a horse killing a chicken..."
The older the player, the longer he or she needs to stretch.
Kobe would have to stretch like this for an hour or two. The older he is and the more injuries he has, he might have to stretch for two or three hours.
As for young players, 19 or 20 years old, they can just do some warm-ups and then dive into high-intensity training and competitions.
After stretching, Kobe began physical training and ran on the treadmill at a constant speed for 6 minutes.
Min Congda can keep up. He usually works out at the Clippers training center, and his physical fitness is still good.
After running at a constant speed, Kobe performed another 6 minutes of accelerated running to further congest the muscles of his legs so that they could adapt to the following exercises.
This 6-minute variable speed run could cost Min Congda his life. A 12-minute run, don’t look at it, it’s only 12 minutes. When Chinese football started to conduct player physical tests, one of the items was the 12-minute run, which made many professional football players change their minds.
At that time, some well-known domestic football players were blocked by the 12-minute running line. Those who passed it were in great pain and even left a psychological shadow.
You can say that Chinese football players are bad, but they are also professional athletes, not to mention that the running distance of football is longer than that of basketball.
Kobe started with a 12-minute run. Even on a treadmill, with his pace and variable speed, it would be too much for most people.
After Min Congda finished the 6-minute variable speed run, he collapsed to the ground and could not get up.
Grover helped him aside and told him to walk around the court without moving.
But Kobe just sat there and breathed for a while, and said: "What's wrong Smart, the warm-up has just ended, and the training hasn't really started yet."
(End of chapter)
