On Monday, after the daytime classes were over, the students of the Water Bell Team went to the YMCA gym to train as usual.
Coach Behrman, who usually waited for them early in the gym, was not there.
Gan Guohui frowned and muttered: "Isn't it possible that Mr. Bellman quit after working on it for a long time?"
At this time, Bellman suddenly appeared. He heard Gan Guohui's words and said: "Fat Hui, slander the coach, twenty turns back and forth."
"Huh? I'm joking!"
"Thirty."
Gan Guohui didn't dare to say any more, turned around and ran back.
While everyone was snickering, they soon discovered that Behrman had brought a strange face, a black man.
He was tall, had an afro, and wore a brown T-shirt with holes. His dark face was upturned, full of vigilance and hostility.
"Introduction, this is the new member of the team, Bickel Franklin, 6 feet 4, playing the small forward position."
"Hey, I haven't agreed to join the team yet! I'm just here to give it a try."
"That's right, try it... go ahead and change your clothes. We'll do a personal test later."
Bellman gave Franklin a new uniform, and Franklin went to the locker room to change out of it.
He looks more like a basketball player than he did just now.
Then he showed excellent physical fitness in the physical test. For him, dunking was as simple as eating and drinking.
In the test of basic skills, his dribbling was solid, his shooting posture was a bit awkward, and his accuracy was acceptable.
The most impressive thing about him is his explosive power. He starts and jumps very quickly, like a spring.
The other players on the Water Bell team were amazed.
When he finished the test, Gan Guohui ended his return run, panting, but still alive.
Bellman was very satisfied with Franklin's performance. He thought that Franklin's physical talent and skills would give him a chance to play in the NCAA Division I league.
It's just that his technical movements are a bit wild, which is obviously a sequelae left behind by fighting on the street and needs to be corrected by formal guidance.
"Okay, let's start training."
"Bobby, I told you I'm here to give it a try. Let your Forrest Gump come out, and you say he is better than me and I can only be the number two?"
Behrman smiled and said, "You want to challenge Forrest Gump to a duel?"
"That's right."
"That's a street thing. Bullfighting is just a small part of basketball. The person with the strongest one-on-one ability is not necessarily the core of the team. Just like Wes Unseld and Hayes, Monroe and Reid. Now There are exactly 10 people in the team. How about a 5v5 after training and letting you two prove who is the core?"
Franklin hesitated for a while, then nodded in agreement.
After convincing Franklin to come for a trial yesterday, Bellman took Franklin step by step into the ditch.
By then the jersey has been worn, the money has been taken, the student status has been registered, the family has been settled, and training has been done, I don’t believe you can still refuse.
Behrman still had a way of dealing with this kind of black man's thorny head. He had to coax, deceive, and provoke, and lead him by the nose.
"He's much easier to deal with than Gan." Behrman thought to himself that Gan Guoyang was someone he couldn't handle at all, and he couldn't figure out what this kid was thinking.
At this time, Gan Guoyang said nothing and participated in team training normally.
During training, Franklin had been observing Gan Guoyang and even made provocations.
But Gan Guoyang ignored it completely and completed the training content silently.
Bellman's training was so intense that Franklin was distracted at first, but soon he could only focus on practice.
When the training was over, Bellman organized a group match. He told Franklin: "I will give you all the starting players, and the remaining substitutes will be given to Forrest Gump."
Franklin said it didn't matter: "I will win no matter who I play, as long as the ball is in my hands!"
When the game between the two sides was about to begin, Gan Guoyang suddenly came up and said to Franklin: "I know you, I have seen you."
"What did you say?"
"I saw you, that day near the Assumption Church, you were playing ball on the court. The ball flew towards me. I wanted to pick it up and return it to you, but you yelled at me."
"What are you talking about, I don't remember... I did go and play ball near the Assumption Church, but when was that?"
"A car came over and almost knocked me down. I was almost killed."
"What does that have to do with me?"
Gan Guoyang didn't speak anymore, just glanced at him lightly, and the competition was about to begin.
Franklin's heart suddenly became confused. He tried hard to remember the time he played with people on the court near the Assumption Church.
But he plays in too many places and too many times every week. Since being dropped out of school, he has relied on playing on the streets to make a living.
He prefers the free life of the streets to being disciplined at school and on the school team - of course, this is how he defends himself.
He thought he was great, the best dunker in San Francisco, only worse than the monsters on the streets of Oakland.
What else do these yellow-skinned and black-haired guys do besides studying?
Franklin tried to sort out his mood, thinking that he would dunk one on Forrest Gump's head later.
But would he hit me? Franklin couldn't help but worry about what he meant by those words.
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Half an hour later, as Bellman's whistle sounded, the confrontation training between the two sides ended.
There was no scoreboard on the sidelines, and no one was counting the scores, but everyone knew who won and who lost.
Big beads of sweat kept flowing down Franklin's black forehead. His jersey was completely soaked with sweat, and his injured left leg was aching.
More than an hour of training, plus more than 20 minutes of non-stop competition, drained the body he was proud of.
Bellman came over and handed him a new set of jerseys and said: "This is the jersey you brought to change. Remember to change out of this jersey and wash it when you go back. If you find it troublesome, please stay in the locker room. The school's laundry Unions help.”
Franklin was breathing heavily. He looked up at Bellman and then at Gan Guoyang, who was already doing extra training on the sidelines.
After today's competition, only Gan Guoyang was still practicing extra, and Xu Xun couldn't bear it.
"How many points did I get?"
"I don't have statistics, but I'm sure you lost."
"I've been training for too long and my energy is exhausted."
"Everyone has practiced and we practice every day."
"..."
Looking at Franklin who was silent, Bellman persuaded: "Basketball is a collective sport. Only in a team can an individual show his value. We will go to Oakland next week to play against Fremont High School, that will decide our We need a forward like you for our destiny. Don’t you want to dunk at Tiger Stadium in Fremont?”
"People on the streets of San Francisco hate Oakland."
"That's right, this is an opportunity, in Oakland. Plus, that guy is going to be your teammate, protecting you in the paint."
Both of them looked at Gan Guoyang. He seemed to be tireless, shooting again and again, and his tall back was intimidating.
"He scared me. Before the jump, he said he knew me. To be honest, I was a little scared. I'm not a person who scares easily."
Facing the friendly Bellman, Franklin opened his heart and said what was in his heart.
"It's normal. That guy is a devil. But he is usually pretty good, so just don't be a rival with him."
As a result, Franklin took over the clean jersey from Bellman and officially became a member of the Beiqiao Water Bell Team.
