One Year Left to Play-Chapter 279 - 98: This College Student Is Unusually Popular

On November 23rd, the Brooklyn Nets arrived in Boston for the third game of their four-game road trip.

1:00 PM, the visitor training court at the North Shore Garden Arena.

Jason Williams asked with a grim face, "What are we doing here? I can't shoot, and you're not a guard to practice pick and roll."

Zhang Hao, preparing the basketball hoop for Edwards and the trainer, responded, "Well, there's nothing fun to do outside, so let's practice rebounding together."

Jason Williams was usually too idle outside team training, and he seemed fussy from boredom—but regardless of this, Zhang Hao thought so.

Even if you lose a game, you can always learn something useful or not, but watching, listening, and thinking more is never wrong.

During the game against the Knicks, when Zhang Hao was substituted out for rest, he heard Randy Whitman praising Patrick Ewing's rebounding protection to Alvan Adams. At first, Zhang Hao didn't understand, as Ewing's rebounding was considered the weakest among the four legendary centers. It's not that it was so bad, but when evaluating a star player, it's always based on his position, and Ewing should be evaluated among the top-level rebounding centers.

After noting the coach's dialogue, Zhang Hao focused on this aspect and saw that, although Ewing's rebounding wasn't top-notch, his positioning was excellent, creating great opportunities for Little Anthony Mason and Oakley to grab rebounds. Combining this with Ewing's own top-notch rebounding ability, the trio out-rebounded Jason Williams, one of the league's best rebounders.

Last night, during a chance encounter with the fussy Jason Williams, Zhang Hao never expected this strange personality from his teammate.

Whether or not Jason Williams was just bored, Zhang Hao believed he was bored.

Before the season started, Jason Williams was doing muscle mass and strength training, but after the season started, to maintain health and fitness, this type of training had finished. Outside of team practice, Zhang Hao rarely saw Jason Williams training at the arena.

During last night's game review, Zhang Hao decided to strengthen his rebounding skills, as it's something used in every game, and as a big man, he definitely needs to practice.

Since Jason Williams was bored and had time to fuss, naturally Zhang Hao had to find something for his teammate to do.

But facing Zhang Hao's training invitation, Jason Williams outright rejected him: "My rebounding is so strong, what's there to practice."

Zhang Hao was more direct: "You lost the rebounding battle to Ewing yesterday."

Upon hearing this, Jason Williams bristled: "That wasn't me losing! It was them ganging up on me! It's because your rebounding is weak; when I was blocked by two guys, you only got those few rebounds."

"Yeah, my rebounding is too weak.

So I'm here to train with you; you teach me how to grab rebounds. If my rebounding improves, won't you be more at ease?"

Zhang Hao answered very confidently.

Jason Williams thought about it, seems like that's true, but... why should he help this guy train?

"Hurry up, Kevin's practicing threes, the two of us are going to grab rebounds!"

"Wait, when did I agree to train with you?"

"Don't sweat the details..."

Saying no with his mouth, Jason Williams' body was very honest.

Edwards shot a brick three-pointer, Jason Williams turned around brusquely, sticking to Zhang Hao, accurately judging the dropping point of the rebound. Even when disadvantaged in confrontation, he used seemingly rough physical contact to entice Zhang Hao into counteracting, then moved to the rebound's dropping point and grabbed the ball.

Without external interference, Zhang Hao's rebound was completely outdone by Jason Williams!

Chris Owen picked up the ball and passed it to Edwards running around the three-point arc, who continued to shoot...

Edwards finished a set of 100 three-point shots, hitting 78 out of 100. Right after warming up, the first set was of moving-position shots, not static-point training, which was quite decent.

22 rebounds, 2 bounced out of bounds, and 20 were grabbed, with Jason Williams taking 16, while Zhang Hao only grabbed 3 rebounds where he was already in the best spot and one rebound where distance and speed were in his favor.

After the set, Jason Williams was very pleased: "What's the use of being big... no, what's the use of being fast, what's the use of jumping high, what's the use of being strong, rebounding is all about the brain!"

Feeling deeply hit!

Looking at the trainer's statistic of 4 to 16 in rebounding, Zhang Hao felt like a dagger pierced his heart... 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

"Teach me!"

"Huh?"

"I said teach me!"

Seeing Zhang Hao's serious look, Jason Williams, having just crushed Zhang Hao, was tempted to agree but...

"Aix, I can teach you, but this isn't something you learn just by studying; I know you're a fast learner, but this is more about accumulating experience... okay, I'll teach you."

Seeing Zhang Hao's eager expression, Jason Williams decided to teach him.

Without much talk, Jason Williams started explaining directly: "Grabbing rebounds isn't about getting ready when you see the ball hit the rim; it's about keen observation. During rest, I watch opposing teams' game footage to observe their shots. I also constantly watch when teammates shoot, including you, analyzing the direction the ball bounces when it misses in specific zones and calculating probabilities.