CHAPTER 1279: CHAPTER 517: ANOTHER "STRONGEST YOUTH ARMY" AGAIN?

However, the day of the gathering arrived, and Zhang Yang had to continue to set a good example. On a non-game day, he was already in the home team’s locker room shortly after 8 o’clock. When he changed into his training clothes and came to the training ground... Zhang San: Damn! Someone’s here earlier than me!

The 60th pick rookie, Matthews!

Matthews, who had already finished warming up and started training early, also noticed someone watching and looked over.

The two of them just stared at each other for more than ten seconds, and Matthews couldn’t hold it in and greeted him first, "Hi, troublemaker."

Zhang Yang nodded in satisfaction, responding, "You should say good morning, newbie. Good morning, Wesley."

Matthews realized he might have been a bit impolite, but his mouth couldn’t open. When he finally overcame the inexplicable sense of embarrassment and was about to speak, Zhang Yang was already calling Jarett Young to go warm up in the gym...

Iron Man: I f***ing c*** you!

Matthews didn’t even know why, clearly, he hadn’t even had a complete conversation with Zhang Yang, but he was just furious!

Zhang Yang, on the other hand, was warming up while sighing to an old friend, "Wesley is just as the rumors say, a bit excessively hardworking."

Jarett Young wholeheartedly agreed, "Yeah, he starts training promptly at 8 a.m. every day, but his habits aren’t great. He starts training without warming up, which makes him prone to injury. After Chip (Ingles) reminded him a few times, he started coming even earlier, arriving at the gym to warm up at 7:30... what, are you feeling competitive again? Want to see who arrives earlier for training than him?"

Zhang Yang quickly waved his hand, "Forget it, someone with his personality is too much to handle. To prove himself, if I came at 4 a.m., he might arrive at 3:30..."

How hardworking is Matthews? Zhang Yang learned from Tellem that on August 9th, after their summer league team finished participating in the second summer league in Las Vegas, Matthews directly returned to Charlotte with the coaching staff and started training the afternoon the next day. Even without a professional trainer, just ordinary staff earning overtime pay, he never stopped training.

Such a level of effort completely befits the nickname he earned in college - Iron Man.

However, Zhang Yang guessed there were still real-life conditions affecting him — he had no money, and it was heard that Matthews was currently sleeping on Afflalo’s couch.

Collison, Cunningham, after signing the guaranteed contracts for first-round rookies, withdrew 60% of their rookie year salary in advance and went home to honor their mothers after the summer league.

This is a peculiar situation in the American sports world, and it’s considered ’humane’. It’s a benefit spearheaded by Stern back in ’99, allowing rookies who sign guaranteed contracts to withdraw a portion of their salary in advance.

During the 90s, because NBA salaries were rising rapidly, many rookies, after signing contracts, would take them to financial institutions to borrow money to spend lavishly, with ridiculously high interest rates. And most rookies couldn’t stay in the NBA after finishing their first contracts; once they retired, they were chased by financial institutions for debts and went bankrupt.

If it were only this, the Jews (referring to owners, metaphorically) wouldn’t care, but a significant portion turned to crime once out of the NBA. In those years, it wasn’t uncommon to see "NBA team players" involved in robbery, theft, stabbing... and the Jews couldn’t stand this, as it tarnished the NBA’s public image that they had strived to improve for years.

So, after the lockout ended, Stern launched this ’benefit clause’, and it was quite effective.

Contracts from which salaries had been withdrawn lost their value in large financial companies with better risk control, effectively curbing the scenario where rookie players ’turn to crime upon unemployment’. Of course, it couldn’t completely prevent it, as large companies wouldn’t accept contracts with withdrawn salaries, but companies with less stringent or no risk control might still accept them. Nonetheless, it was considered a successful move, and the other three major North American leagues followed suit with similar clauses.

Subsequently, Stern also led the establishment of the NBDL and invested in lower-level basketball leagues like the Continental Basketball Association to absorb those players who couldn’t stay in the NBA, and even proactively exchanged with European leagues to drive talent there, further reducing the probability of NBA players turning into criminals immediately upon retirement...

Later on, Stern expanded ’humane benefits’ to all new contracts, realizing that the nature of most veteran players wasn’t much better than that of rookies.

And as the last pick, Matthews only got a partially guaranteed contract worth 420,000 US dollars and couldn’t withdraw his salary in advance, which was the rule.

Returning to Charlotte with the team, with Afflalo, the summer league leader, providing accommodation, and the team offering meals, training facilities, and trainers was definitely better than returning to the slums.

Of course, Zhang Yang thought, even if Matthews really went back home, he would surely find a park to train in every day and wouldn’t slack off.

Collison and Cunningham, though not as desperate as Matthews, still had excellent professionalism. The coaching staff informed the three rookies to report back by September 6th, and those two returned on time and underwent three weeks of special training. They were better than Millsap and Ibaka when they first entered the NBA, after all, they were seasoned college seniors.

...

After warming up, Zhang Yang came to the training field. He hadn’t trained for days, and his hands were itching, eagerly practicing three sets of catch-and-shoot threes from fixed angles.

The feeling was good, the first set of threes only made 91 shots, but the second and third sets consecutively hit each shot with 100% success!

The onlooking Iron Man gaped, "I thought the elementary schooler was accurate enough, the troublemaker is even more impressive!"