After the first night's training ended, the trainees all returned to their own rooms for the night.
These teenagers, carrying basketball dreams, chatted about their respective teams and the beautiful girls at their schools.
Ahem, after all, they were all hot-blooded young men.
"Wow... really? Link, you still haven't had a girlfriend yet?"
"You're not still a virgin, are you?"
Matt Babcock asked in surprise.
The trainees in the same dorm immediately burst into laughter. Although they weren't old, as basketball stars in their respective schools, they possessed the so-called "priority dating rights."
In terms of looks, while Link couldn't be called incredibly handsome, he was at least somewhat good-looking.
It was just that Link had been immersed in basketball for the past few years and hadn't put his mind on girls.
"The training camp arranges two games every day, and professional staff will re-rank us based on our performance."
"By the way..."
"If you can make it into the top 3 on the last day, it's easy to receive full scholarship invitations from prestigious NCAA schools like Duke, North Carolina, and UCLA."
"Yeah, I wonder who our opponents are for tomorrow's game?"
"The training camp arranges two games for us every day. It's said that besides NCAA scouts coming to observe, there are even scouts from the NBA."
"Wow..."
"NBA scouts? That's so cool!"
The trainees in the dormitory all had their eyes lighting up when they talked about the "NBA."
The NBA is the highest temple of basketball in the world. More importantly, even if one is just a benchwarmer watching the water cooler in the NBA, they are qualified to become a millionaire; and eighty percent of the 25-plus trainees in the camp come from the lowest strata of America.
Playing professional basketball and entering the NBA is their dream!!!
...
...
After chatting with his roommates for a while, Link suddenly thought of the 10 Goat Points he had obtained not long ago.
Besides completing tasks issued by the system and achieving hidden accomplishments, Goat Points could also be obtained by participating in 5v5 games.
Every 100 Goat Points allows for one random draw.
In order to become stronger quickly and make a name for himself in the ABCD Training Camp as soon as possible, Link conducted a random draw.
A moment later.
A series of cold, mechanical electronic voices from the system rang out in Link's mind.
[Ding, congratulations to the Host for obtaining 'star training partner card — Draymond Green']
"What?"
Link was suddenly confused.
It's only 2011 right now; Draymond Green hasn't even grown his hair out yet? How can he be my training partner?
And can he even make it here now?
Soon, the system introduced the functions and instructions for the [star training partner card]:
1) Use the [star training partner card] to meditate and enter the "Virtual Space" to practice with the star. Any skills learned or attributes improved in the Virtual Space can be manifested in reality (excluding physical categories such as strength, Speed, explosive power, etc.). Additionally, during the star's training session, the body's self-healing Speed increases by 5 times.
2) Duration of one [star training partner card] — 6 hours in the Virtual Space. The time flow in the Virtual Space is 1:6, meaning for every [star training partner card] used, only 1 hour passes in the real world.
3) If interrupted by the outside world during use, the training effect will be reset to zero.
4) A maximum of 2 [star training partner cards] can be used within 24 hours.
5) When the star training session ends and the spirit returns to the real world, Stamina will be 100% restored;
...
...
"Holy crap!"
"This star training partner card is just too awesome!"
"Setting aside the fact that a star is training me for free, just the 100% Stamina recovery and 5x self-healing Speed—isn't this just a weakened version of a Senzu Bean? It's a total super cheat!"
"With this thing, I can push myself to the limit in the real world to improve basic abilities without worrying about muscle damage caused by overtraining."
"Also... many NBA players have literally trained themselves into the ground, like Arenas, who was obsessed with strength training. But with this star training partner card, I can likely avoid those problems."
Link thought to himself.
star training partner cards are also divided into grades. From low to high, they are: Star, All-Star, Superstar, Megastar, and Hall of Fame.
Additionally, there are special types of training partner cards for non-basketball athletes.
For example: tennis players, trampoline athletes, shooters, boxers, and so on.
...
...
The night was deep.
The lights in the entire dormitory building had been turned off.
All the trainees had entered their dreams, and only then did Link use the [star training partner card], entering a state of meditation.
He had no choice; his roommates were all sixteen or seventeen-year-old boys. If they saw him meditating, they might come over and disturb him. After all, the current Link hadn't established enough prestige among his roommates.
In the blink of an eye, Link arrived in the Virtual Space, standing inside a basketball court.
Draymond Green, wearing a number 23 Golden State Warriors jersey, stood before him with a stern face.
This was Link's first face-to-face contact with Draymond Green; in his previous life, it was always through a television screen.
His first impression of Draymond Green was that he was thick and burly, like a small mountain, several sizes larger than he appeared on screen.
"Man, come on, let's start our training tonight!" Draymond Green said.
Seeing the lifelike Draymond Green appear before his eyes, Link, in order to feel the realism, made a bold decision. He walked up to Draymond Green and suddenly gave him a punch.
"Ow..." Draymond Green immediately let out a mournful wail.
"Whoa... this tactile sensation of hitting flesh is exactly the same as the real world. It's too realistic. I thought it was just a projection..." Link thought.
But in the next instant, a large black fist came flying toward Link's cheek.
"Bang!"
Link took a punch to the nose, and a surge of intense pain hit him.
Link felt like the bridge of his nose was about to break. He instinctively touched it, only to find to his astonishment that it wasn't bleeding.
Right...
This is in a Virtual Space-time.
Although the touch is the same as the real world, it cannot cause actual damage.
After taking a punch from Draymond Green, Link quickly returned a kick.
A traditional martial arts technique—A Kick to the Bloodline!
"Ow..." Draymond Green, who was kicked in the crotch, immediately curled up in pain.
Link wanted to continue.
But Draymond Green hurriedly reached out to stop him: "Hold on! Hold on! This is a basketball court, not an Octagon. I'm here to help you practice basketball."
Only then did Link suddenly remember the main business.
"Alright then, let's begin!" Link said.
Draymond Green, whose nuts had been kicked by Link, took a while to recover before saying: "Our training project for today is—Point-Forward Distribution!"
Point-Forward Distribution was Draymond Green's trademark.
Draymond Green introduced the technical essentials of Point-Forward Distribution to Link in detail. Furthermore, after the explanation, with a wave of Draymond Green's hand, many training devices for Passing appeared on the basketball court.
...
...
Just like that!
Link in the Virtual Space began practicing with Draymond Green.
To Link's surprise, after an hour had passed, he didn't feel a trace of fatigue.
Draymond Green smiled and told Link that in this space, there is no Stamina consumption.
An hour later.
The [star training partner card] was finished, and Link returned to reality from the Virtual Space.
The first thing he did was check his attribute panel to see how the training effect was.
The basic attribute for [Passing] increased by 1 point, rising to 55 (88).
The basic attribute for [Passing Vision] increased by 2 points, rising to 52 (90).
This was the result of Link following Draymond Green to train "Point-Forward Distribution" for 3 hours.
Besides this, in the latter 3 hours, Link also followed Draymond Green to train defense.
Such as sliding, side-sliding, and other defensive footwork techniques.
Defense is Draymond Green's bread and butter; he can defend multiple positions and is the "confidence" behind the Golden State Warriors' infinite switching defense.
The basic attribute for [Perimeter Defense] increased by 2 points, rising to 52 (73).
The basic attribute for [Interior Defense] increased by 3 points, rising to 33 (92).
The basic attribute for [Steal] increased by 2 points, rising to 55 (87).
The basic attribute for [Block] increased by 2 points, rising to 22 (8).
Attributes in the defense and playmaking categories saw multiple improvements. Link was quite satisfied with this result.
One must know that the Green Teacher's sparring partner card is only at the Star level. If it were replaced with an All-Star, Superstar, Megastar, or even a Hall of Fame level, wouldn't he just take off?
Of course, the training effect also depends on one's own potential; otherwise, even the best teacher would be useless.
It was already 1:00 AM, and Link was ready to sleep.
However...
Having just come out of the Virtual Space, he was full of energy and couldn't sleep at all.
Dammit!
What should I do?
There's a game in the morning!!!
If I stay up like this, how will I have any energy then?
Uh...
Fine!
The incidental effect of the [star training partner card] has now become a "side effect."
There was no other way!
In order to maintain a good competitive state for the morning game, Link had no choice but to leave the dorm and go run laps downstairs.