The No.1 Anti-Fans in Basketball-Chapter 39 The Curse of Cleveland

Time flew by, and before long, a month had passed.

The Cavaliers’ season training camp had essentially concluded.

That month went by relatively comfortably for Hansen.

James and Varejao didn’t come looking for trouble with him again, so he could fully immerse himself in training.

He successfully increased his weight to 100 kilograms and had completely adapted to the new muscle memory.

Moreover, after bulking up, his explosive power had improved, and with sufficient training intensity, his Mysterious Steps had made some progress in a short time.

Although still far from Wade’s talent, his ability to break through had come a long way compared to his NCAA days.

At least during team practices, defenders could no longer completely disregard his threat of penetration.

Of course, to take it a step further, he had to stick to high-intensity training and try to exchange for talent through the Anti-Fans System.

In addition, he had done exceptionally well in terms of integrating with the team.

On one hand, this was due to his excellent learning ability, also known as basketball IQ;

On the other hand, it also had to do with the Cavaliers’ tactical system.

The Cavaliers’ main tactic was defense, or more accurately, a counterattacking defense.

This was just like the Summer League, perfectly aligning with his expertise.

All of this ultimately led to Hansen smoothly securing a spot in the Cavaliers’ rotation as a rookie.

As for whether he could progress further, that would depend on his performance in the upcoming preseason games.

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Before the new season officially kicked off, the NBA released the new season’s team strength rankings.

The defending champion Lakers ranked first on this list.

The Lakers had won the finals easily last season and during the offseason, while maintaining their core lineup, they upgraded their small forward from Trevor Ariza to Ron Artest, thus increasing their overall strength.

The Cavaliers were ranked second on this list.

Among the strong teams in The East, the Pistons Five Tigers had disbanded, the Hawks were a regular-season team, and the only real threats to the Cavaliers were the Magic and the Celtics.

The addition of O’Neal to the Cavaliers was supposed to counter Howard, and with three-point shooters like Anthony Parker and Hansen joining, they already had an advantage over the Magic.

Although the Celtics had brought in Rashid Wallace, their core players aside from Pierce were past their prime and unable to stop the Cavaliers.

The official assessment was that this season’s Cavaliers were unmatched in The East, with their only rivals being the Lakers.

The Cavaliers’ first preseason opponent was the Bobcats.

Last season, the Bobcats finished tenth in The East and didn’t make the playoffs, making them an ideal opponent for the Cavaliers, who needed to integrate.

However, upon arrival in Charlotte, Brown announced that James would not be playing in this game, with the veteran Ilgauskas also resting.

It was baffling to waste such an opportunity for integration, and Hansen couldn’t quite understand the plan.

But this was actually good news for him.

After a month of training, what he felt most on the court was James’s extreme desire to have the ball.

As long as James was on court, the ball was in his hands nine times out of ten.

Now with James not playing, the other Cavaliers would have more opportunities.

On the night of the game, about ten thousand fans poured into the Time Warner Center Arena, the Bobcats’ home court.

Since the Bobcats joined the League in 2004, they hadn’t yet made the playoffs, so their popularity in Charlotte was average at best. Plus, it was the preseason and James wasn’t playing, so having this number of spectators was a surprise.

Hansen had contributed to this turnout.

During pre-game warm-ups, photographers focused their cameras on Hansen, and he was greeted by a wave of boos.

There was no helping it; his number 77 jersey was just too conspicuous.

Especially since the Bobcats had Jordan’s stamp on them now, Hansen wasn’t going to receive any warm welcome here.

To Hansen, however, the booing sounded like sweet music to his ears.

Every one of those boos was adding to his Anti-Fans System points!

And then came even louder boos, as Hansen’s expression seemed to frivolously invite them.

Of course, there was one exception: the Bobcats’ head coach, Larry Brown.

Brown was notorious for his reluctance to play rookies, a reputation no doubt contributed to by Darko Milicic.

But in fact, on that Pistons team, the rookies he utilized included but were not limited to Tayshaun Prince and Mehmet Okur, both of whom he trusted with starting responsibilities in their sophomore year.

Championship-contending teams have a tough environment for developing rookies; you can’t expect to achieve success while also training newcomers, a lesson the Warriors would later underscore as a prime example.

Brown, looking at Hansen now, still found him as strikingly handsome as he had been during the Charlotte tryouts.

At the end of the day, it wasn’t that he disliked using rookies; he just didn’t like players who were poor on defense.

Like the regular season, the preseason didn’t have an opening ceremony either; once the warm-up was completed, the starting players began to emerge onto the court.

The Cavaliers: Mo Williams, Anthony Parker, Moon, Varejao, O’Neal

The Bobcats: Raymond Felton, Gerard Henderson, Gerald Wallace, Boris Diaw, Tyson Chandler

Henderson was in the starting lineup, but Hansen wasn’t, and according to the fans’ standards, "Bread" Brown was even less inclined to use rookies than old Brown.

Once the game started, the Bobcats unexpectedly took the upper hand.

Old Brown was also a defense-oriented coach, and the Bobcats’ defensive capabilities on the court were by no means weaker than the Cavaliers’.

Chandler was strong in the low post; Wallace and Diaw, the two forward swingers, were quick in help defense, resulting in O’Neal getting double-teamed as soon as he received the ball.

Of course, defense wasn’t the only factor influencing the court dynamics; there was offense too.

The Cavaliers’ offensive spacing was too congested!

The main problem stemmed from Varejao.

Varejao’s appearance easily reminded people of another tall player in the league, Joakim Noah.

Similar height, also skilled in defense and playmaking, and even the same long hair, the only difference being that Varejao had no shooting ability.

When Ilgauskas was previously the starting center for the Cavaliers, this wasn’t an issue since Ilgauskas had a reliable mid-range shot.

With Ilgauskas extending to the free-throw line and Varejao setting good screens, James could easily slash to the basket.

But now paired with O’Neal, he looked foolish on the court, as both Diaw and Wallace would simply ignore him and converge on O’Neal.

Hansen was confused again, unable to understand why Varejao had no shooting ability at all, just as he couldn’t understand why James couldn’t develop a three-point shot.

Was there some curse over Cleveland?

Yeah, there must be!

Of course, Varejao wasn’t the only one causing spacing problems for the Cavaliers; Moon was too.

As James’s backup, his three-point shooting performance wasn’t much better than James’s.

After half of the quarter, the Bobcats were already leading the Cavaliers by 8 points, 18 to 10.

The difference in the score wasn’t huge, but the mood among the Bobcat fans in the stands was incredibly high.

Yes, the outcome of a preseason game was inconsequential and James indeed wasn’t playing, but the Cavaliers were officially ranked second in the league, while the Bobcats were twentieth.

The twentieth team was dominating the second; how could that not be thrilling!

It was at this moment that Wallace made a direct steal from Williams’s pass to O’Neal, leading the Bobcats to launch a fast break, topped off with Henderson’s dunk off a pass from Wallace, which completely ignited the Time Warner Center Arena.

The image that first appeared on the LED jumbotron wasn’t of Henderson’s dunk but of James chewing his fingernails on the sideline.

What is visual language, huh!

This was telling the Cavaliers that without James, it wasn’t about whether they could win, but whether they could avoid a beating.

Brown was feeling a bit embarrassed at this point, and that’s when Malone whispered something in his ear.

Brown nodded and then turned to call Hansen over.

Hansen took off his training suit and tossed it to Conningham beside him, then quickly walked to the scorer’s table.

On the court, Williams forced a drive and drew a foul, bringing the game to a dead ball, accompanied by the shrill sound of the sideline whistle.

Hansen tucked his jersey into his shorts and then pointed at Moon on the court.

Moon ran over and high-fived him, then left the court.

The number 77 jersey appeared again on the LED jumbotron, and boos echoed through the arena once more.

Hansen gestured with both hands, signaling for the boos to get even louder.

Amidst the increased booing, Hansen looked up at the scoreboard.

to 10.

On draft night during a domestic interview, Zhang Weiping once asked him how he felt about joining the Cavaliers.

His response at the time couldn’t be more apt for this moment.

You guys really do need me!