The No.1 Anti-Fans in Basketball-Chapter 37: Directly Hitting the Master

After the shooting drill, they moved straight to tactical running, with defensive tactics as the main focus.

Hansen’s performance in this segment was quite remarkable; his excellent lateral movement made his defensive positioning very effective.

Once the tactics session ended, they arrived at the last segment of daily training: full-court scrimmage.

The Cavaliers’ players were divided into two teams, black and white.

White Team: Delonte West, Daniel Gibson, Anthony Parker, James, Varejao (Javad Williams, Koby Carl)

Black Team: Mo Williams, Hansen, Jamario Moon, Leon Bowen, Ilgauskas (Conningham, Danell Jackson)

They played a 12-minute quarter, with the team’s assistant coach Lloyd Pierce serving as the temporary referee.

Ilgauskas tapped the ball back to the black team’s half, and the game officially began.

In the first offensive round, Hansen quickly made a cut from the corner after seeing Varejao being pulled by Ilgauskas to the free-throw line.

It was a great opportunity, but Williams had no intention of passing; he accelerated directly to the basket, choosing a stop-and-pop shot after being closed down by Varejao’s defense, but James came flying in with a chase-down block.

Hansen looked incredulously at Williams.

Before joining the Cavaliers, Williams had played for the Bucks and was teammates with Yi Jianlian, earning the affectionate moniker "Mo No Pass" from Chinese fans.

Indeed, there are nicknames rightly earned, and his was no exception.

It seemed that if he wanted to stand out, he’d have to start on the defensive end.

For the White Team’s offense, James stood with his hands on his hips, not participating, while Gibson controlled the ball.

Gibson gestured for the others to clear out for a one-on-one.

Gibson, drafted in the second round by the Cavaliers in 2006, was like Varejao, one of James’ "Sword Guards,"—a solid rotational player and at times a starter in his three years in the league.

But this season, competition for the guard spots on the Cavaliers was fierce, and he too needed to show his mettle.

And there was no better opportunity than this, facing Hansen was both a direct competition and an opportunity to dominate.

He dribbled left and right, then suddenly drove hard from the right.

"Snap!"

But the next second, he ended up showing everyone how to "lay an egg."

Hansen spotted his chance and poked the ball right out of Gibson’s hands.

After the steal, Hansen looked up to see Mo Williams and Moon already sprinting beyond the three-point line.

Really, did all the Cavaliers’ players have such fierce fast breaks?!

He passed the ball to Williams, who, avoiding James’ chase-down, scored with a layup in transition.

Although this guy seemed focused only on the basket, when the opportunity arose, he truly delivered.

Not accepting defeat, Gibson continued in the front court to ask West for the ball to go one-on-one.

However, he quickly realized this matchup was a nightmare for him.

Although he managed to accelerate at the start, Hansen picked his pocket from behind!

This caught Hansen off guard as well; could a "Sword Guard" really handle the ball so poorly?

The White Team retreated quickly, preventing a fast break, so Hansen moved forward, using Ilgauskas’ screen to run an off-ball tactic.

Then, he saw the basketball flying towards him.

The passer was Williams!

Was this his way of returning the favor?

Basketball really wasn’t just about brute force.

Hansen caught the ball and, before Varejao could react, he shot, fast as lightning.

The shooting practice earlier had honed his touch.

points, 2 steals, 1 assist—it might be hard to believe, but in his first official day at training camp, Hansen, the rookie, was shining brightly.

Malone was animatedly praising him in front of Brown as if he had just seen his own child make it big.

Finally, James took control of the ball, then, after a pick-and-roll with Varejao, he bulldozed into the paint like a tank and ferociously slammed the ball through the hoop over Bowen’s defensive attempt.

Bowen was knocked straight to the floor.

Pierce blew his whistle; it was an "and-one."

Tsk!

Although Hansen was critical of James, he had to admit James’s athletic prowess was explosive.

However, at that moment, he noticed a detail: after the dunk, James didn’t head straight to the free-throw line but instead spoke for a while with Varejao.

Because of the distance, Hansen didn’t catch their words, but he saw Varejao turn and flash him a sly smile.

That looked incredibly sleazy!

James’s free throw missed, and Ilgauskas secured the rebound.

In the next play, Hansen didn’t touch the ball, as Williams and Ilgauskas went for a pick-and-roll and Williams nailed it.

6-2, the Black Team was off to a great start.

White team’s possession, James continued with the ball.

However, this time Varejao didn’t set the pick, staying on the weak side to screen for Gibson instead.

Varejao’s massive frame meant the quality of his screens was high, but by then Hansen had fully adapted the "Star Catcher" maneuver, significantly enhancing his ability to navigate screens.

He swiftly sidestepped.

But just as he was about to continue chasing Gibson, Varejao suddenly moved and elbowed him in the body.

Gibson took advantage of this, escaping Hansen’s defense and received a pass from James to score.

Hansen turned to look at Pierce; wasn’t that an illegal screen?

But Pierce seemed to have no intention of blowing his whistle.

Varejao flashed him that sleazy smile again.

The next play, Hansen again ran an off-ball tactic, but this time Williams didn’t pass, choosing to drive to the basket himself, but misfiring.

You pass to him once, he returns it once—it truly was an exchange of favors, no more, no less.

White team’s offense, Varejao was making his usual move.

This time, Hansen decided to forcefully squeeze past Varejao’s illegal screen.

Although Varejao was a center, he wasn’t known for confrontations, and since Hansen was the one initiating, Varejao couldn’t exert much force.

But as Hansen squeezed past, Varejao fell to the ground like a leaf swept away by an autumn wind.

At that moment, Pierce’s whistle sounded, indicating a defensive foul for pushing by Hansen.

"He’s setting illegal screens and you don’t call it?" Hansen was immediately annoyed, as the double standard in the call was obvious.

"They wouldn’t call it in a real game either," Pierce replied confidently.

"Damn!" Hansen cursed in Chinese.

It seemed the league was siding with the Cavaliers by not calling, and it had even become a standard during the Cavaliers’ internal training.

"Kid, you should learn what respect means," Varejao said, puffing out his chest as he got up.

"You don’t know that ’damn’ is a plant?"

Hansen pushed him away. He didn’t think Varejao knew what ’damn’ meant, just like how his former Rockets teammates would think "f**k it" meant tomato.

Unexpectedly, Varejao, like a woman in front of a rich handsome man, fell down easily when pushed.

He really was an acting star, even performing among his own teammates.

Pierce’s whistle blew again, and Hansen was called for another foul.

Looking at Varejao on the ground, he still wore that sleazy smile.

But it was at that moment that Hansen suddenly calmed down.

He shifted his gaze towards James at the far end.

Since the three-point contest began, Varejao had been provoking him.

Back then, he thought it was just this guy acting crazy and biting wildly like yesterday, but now recalling how Varejao was targeting him, wasn’t it while chatting with James?

So, Conningham was right yesterday. James wasn’t just going to let yesterday’s matters slide?

Right, the spike in negativity also proved this when he came out of the gym.

And James really didn’t need to get his own hands dirty—sending a lackey like Varejao was enough.

Even if he beat Varejao up, even severely, it wouldn’t affect James at all.

Isn’t this what lackeys are for?

To kill without dirtying your own hands.

Plus, if a real fight broke out, all his training performance up to today would be for naught.

This really was, utterly hopeless!

The ball still belonged to the white team. This time, as the play restarted from the sideline, Varejao set a solid screen for James.

James accelerated again towards the paint.

Seeing the miserable state of Bowen, Moon on the weak side didn’t dare to help defend under the basket.

James soared in the three-second area, pulling the ball above his head, ready to perform his signature tomahawk dunk.

But just then, a figure dashed from the free throw line into the paint, throwing himself into the air and swinging his hand towards James.

"Bang!"

The ball reached its highest point and was slapped hard against the backboard by James!

Hansen then felt like he had hit a wall.

Because he rushed so fiercely, his body couldn’t dodge in time after the block, colliding hard with James in midair.

The massive impact made his chest feel tight—James’s body was just too strong.

James was also knocked out of bounds, staggering a couple of steps almost falling down.

Everyone was stunned.

They were not shocked that Hansen could block James but that Hansen dared to block James during a public team training session!

Even Pierce forgot to blow the whistle.

Even if blocking before body contact wasn’t a foul, he should have blown the whistle.

The first to react were the sideline reporters, quickly grabbing their cameras to get more shots.

"What have you done!" Varejao rushed up like a mad dog and fiercely pushed Hansen.

Gibson, Williams, and others also rapidly approached Hansen.

Seeing this, Hansen, ignoring the pain in his chest, forcefully pushed back Varejao.

Maybe Varejao was used to acting, or maybe Hansen’s current strength was indeed great, but Varejao, after being pushed, staggered back several steps and fell to the ground.

It looked as if Hansen really knew some kind of Eastern Martial Arts, momentarily stunning everyone else.

The photographers didn’t stop their cameras.

Seeing this, Malone quickly entered the field to pull Hansen away.

The game was interrupted by this sudden situation.

At this point, Brown, who had already gone to check on James, turned back furiously and shouted at Malone, "Quick! Get this guy out of here!"

Hansen was finally taken back through the players’ tunnel by Malone.

"Do you realize we were discussing whether to let you start? But what you just did destroyed all that!" Malone said in a low voice, rebuking him.

"Are you referring to my block on LeBron, or pushing down Varejao?" Hansen asked with a smile.

"You..." Malone was stunned, as Hansen was still able to smile at this time!

"You should go back and reflect!" Malone didn’t know what else to say at the moment.

After returning to the locker room, Hansen first took a shower, then changed clothes, and started scrolling through social media on his phone.

Reflect?

He didn’t think he needed to reflect on anything.

When others set their dogs on you, killing the dog might not even be satisfying, and could still leave you reeking; it’s better to take up the issue with the dog’s owner.

As for Malone mentioning the matter of starting, if James was intent on causing trouble for him, he likely wouldn’t agree anyway.