中國時報【尹德瀚／綜合報導】
美國《紐約時報》廿五日報導指出，林書豪在ＮＢＡ竄紅的速度令人驚訝，但他有今天的成就絕不是天上掉下來的僥倖，主要是靠過人的毅力、對自己的信心，以及加倍又加倍的苦練；一路走來，林書豪經歷過無數挫折，每一次挫折都讓他蛻變進化，終於造就今天在球場上光芒萬丈的巨星。
紐時報導說，林書豪在二○一○年的ＮＢＡ選秀會落選，最後選擇與勇士隊簽約。當時勇士隊教練史馬特對林書豪最深刻的印象，就是他強烈的企圖心；他記得林總是在吃完早餐後開始練球，而球隊則要到中午才開始練球。但史馬特也指出，那時候的林書豪球技還不成熟，包括投籃等技巧都不到位。
不過，林書豪從馬索曼教練學到許多，特別是「擋切戰術」的臨場發揮。馬索曼說，林書豪是他所見過最擅長「運球突破」的球員之一，這是教不來的。但林書豪並不以此自滿，去年夏天他找上有卅四年教球經驗的薛普勒教練，在其指導下苦練三分球，從而改善得分能力。
但這時的林書豪還是有個致命缺陷，他的爆發力不夠。經過薛普勒的介紹，由訓練師瓦格納幫林進行對症下藥的訓練，結果林的肌力大幅加強，立定彈跳的高度更增加了九公分。今年初林書豪轉戰尼克隊時，他已經有充分信心，準備大顯身手。
February 24, 2012
The Evolution of a Point Guard
By HOWARD BECK
ORLANDO —
The most captivating strand of the Jeremy Lin mystique is that he came from
nowhere, emerging overnight to become a star, after being underestimated and
overlooked, disregarded by college coaches, ignored in the N.B.A. draft and waived
twice in two weeks.
The
narrative is well-established, factual in its broadest strokes and altogether
flawed, or at least woefully incomplete.
Jeremy
Lin’s rise did not begin, as the world perceived it, with a 25-point explosion
at Madison Square Garden on Feb. 4. It began with lonely 9 a.m. workouts in
downtown Oakland in the fall of 2010; with shooting drills last summer on a
backyard court in Burlingame, Calif.; and with muscle-building sessions at a
Menlo Park fitness center.
It began
with a reworked jump shot, a thicker frame, stronger legs, a sharper view of
the court — enhancements that came gradually, subtly, through study and
practice and hundreds of hours spent with assistant coaches, trainers and
shooting instructors over 18 months.
Quite
simply, the Jeremy Lin who revived the Knicks,
stunned the N.B.A. and charmed the world — the one who is averaging 22.4 points
and 8.8 assists as a starter — is not the Jeremy Lin who went undrafted out of
Harvard in June 2010. He is not even the same Jeremy Lin who was cut by the
Golden State Warriors on Dec. 9.
Beyond
the mystique and the mania lies a more basic story — of perseverance, hard work
and self-belief.
“He’s in
a miracle moment, where everything has come together,” said Keith Smart, the
Sacramento Kings coach, who was Lin’s coach with the Warriors last season.
Smart can
hardly recognize his former pupil these days. Nor can Eric Musselman, who coached
Lin in the N.B.A. Development League for 20 games. Nor can Lamar Reddicks, a
former Harvard assistant coach, who fondly remembers a freshman-year Lin as
“the weakest guy on the team.”
“I look
at him on TV now,” Reddicks said, “and I’m like, I can’t imagine that he’s this
big!”
What
scouts saw in the spring of 2010 was a smart passer with a flawed jump shot and
a thin frame, who might not have the strength and athleticism to defend, create
his own shot or finish at the rim in the N.B.A. The evolution began from there.
Eager
Learner
Lin
earned a free-agent contract with the Warriors after a strong showing in the
2010 summer league, where he surprisingly outplayed John Wall, the No. 1 pick
in the draft.
Smart,
then an assistant under Don Nelson, noticed something in Lin’s first pickup
game against the Warriors’ young stars, Stephen Curry and Monta Ellis.
“He’s
getting to the paint,” Smart recalled. “You say, ‘Man, that’s a unique skill.’
Now he needs to pass the ball, as opposed to trying to get to the rim all the
time.”
Soon,
Smart noticed something else. Lin was the first player at the Warriors’
training center every day, eating breakfast by 8:30 a.m. “Then, all of sudden,
you’d hear a ball bouncing on the floor,” Smart said. Practice typically began
at noon.
Another
assistant, Stephen Silas, began working daily with Lin, and provided him with a
catalog of tapes showing elite point guards in the pick-and-roll: how they got
into the lane, how they kept the defender on their hip, how they drew in the
opposing big man to free up their pick-and-roll partner. Phoenix’s Steve Nash
figured prominently. Silas and Lin worked on drills to give Lin other options,
like a floater in the lane.
Then Lin
would get into a game and try to use what he had learned. But he would
overpenetrate and miss the open man.
“It
wasn’t there yet,” Smart said.
As for
his perimeter game, Smart said, “Jeremy couldn’t shoot at all.”
Lin had a
habit then of pulling the ball behind his head and tucking his feet up under
him — “like he was springing up off a trampoline,” Smart said.
Still,
Lin kept arriving early, leaving late, devouring film and working studiously
with Silas and later Lloyd Pierce. But what Lin really needed was game
repetition. The Warriors sent him to Reno, their D-League affiliate, on three
occasions. That is where the lessons started to take hold.
Stages of
Growth
In Lin’s
first D-League tour, the focus was primarily on developing his pick-and-roll
game.
“He had
no problems scoring for himself,” Musselman said. “It was more seeing the
opposite side of the floor, and using the whole floor, instead of just the side
the pick-and-roll was on. And he kept getting better and better at that.”
Having
yet to harness his aggression, Lin got called for a lot of offensive fouls.
Still, Musselman saw something special immediately, a quality that foretold
possible greatness.
“I
thought he was one of the best dribble-drive guys I ever coached, up there with
Gilbert Arenas,” Musselman said. “Things you can’t teach.”
By Lin’s second
tour, they were working on how to take a blow on the drive and still get off
the shot. Musselman also introduced a middle pick-and-roll — one used
frequently by Chris Paul in New Orleans — set just beyond halfcourt, in
transition, to give the guard maximum room to drive.
“That was
the point when we knew that he was a special player,” Musselman said. “Because
the more wide open the floor was, the better he became.”
They also
worked on how to read and attack defensive double-teams. On traps, Lin learned
how to draw the opposing big man out and set him up before exploding past him.
By Lin’s
third D-League tour, he had also smoothed out his jumper and become more
confident in his 3-point shot, which Musselman said was “probably the most
dramatic change.”
In 20
games, Lin averaged 18 points and 4.4 assists, while shooting .477 percent from
the field and .389 from 3-point range. Throughout the experience, Lin urged
Musselman to treat him like all of the other D-League players, and to push him
just as hard.
Musselman
noticed something else, too. As an N.B.A. player on assignment, Lin got
first-class plane tickets. “He gave them to teammates,” Musselman said.
When
Lin’s rookie season ended, the Warriors saw a player who might grow into a
backup role behind Curry. They could not have foreseen the changes to come
between July and December.
Beating
the Ghost
Doc
Scheppler has coached in Bay Area high schools for 34 years. He first saw Lin
as a scrawny eighth-grader. But even then, “he had the ability to see the
floor, make the right decision, make the correct angle pass. And that is just
not done at 13, 14 years old.”
Last
summer, Lin sought out Scheppler to help him with his 3-point shot. It was
improving, but Lin was still shooting too high and throwing the ball — a
“flying weapon,” Scheppler called it.
Working
mostly in Scheppler’s backyard in Burlingame, Lin learned to begin his shot on
the way up and release it at his peak. They also worked on a variety of in-game
situations: the catch-and-shoot, off-the-dribble shots, and hesitation moves to
create space.
Lin’s
perfectionist tendencies came out in a 3-point-shooting drill called “beat the
ghost,” in which Lin earned 1 point for every shot he made at the arc and the
“ghost” earned 3 points for every shot Lin missed.
On one
occasion, Lin made 17 3-pointers but lost 21-17, then kicked the ball in anger,
Scheppler recalled with a chuckle. He refused to stop until he beat the ghost.
It took 14 games. When Scheppler tallied up all of the scores for the day, Lin
had converted 71 percent of his shots from the arc. “That’s the beauty of
Jeremy Lin,” Scheppler said. “It’s not about moral victories. It’s ‘I have to win.’
”
Yet an
outside shot would not be enough. Lin needed to be able to consistently convert
shots in the lane. And to do that, he needed to withstand the contact.
On
Scheppler’s advice, Lin sought out Phil Wagner, a physician and trainer who
owns Sparta Performance Science in Menlo Park. Wagner saw a player with
enviable athleticism, but who lacked the explosiveness of an elite N.B.A.
player.
“Most
basketball players can create force very quickly,” Wagner said, referring to a
player jumping off the floor. “Jeremy couldn’t.”
He
compared Lin to a stretched-out rubber band — flexible, but lacking that
snap-back quality. The goal was to make him “stiffer,” through a training
program of heavy weights and low repetition, in conjunction with a high-protein
diet. With the added muscle, Lin pushed his weight to 212 pounds from 200,
while increasing his vertical leap by 3.5 inches, Wagner said. The result is
evident every time Lin barrels into the lane this season.
“The
biggest thing I see is when he gets intro traffic, he’s able to maintain his
direction and his balance, because he’s stronger,” Wagner said, adding, “He’s a
physical guard. That’s where I see his hard work and the program he did with us
paying off.”
Wagner
added: “Before, he was a motorcycle: he was maneuverable, but very off-balance.
Now he’s like a Porsche: he’s fast, but he’s stable.”
Unfortunately
for the Warriors, they hardly had a chance to assess Lin’s off-season
transformation. The N.B.A. lockout prevented them from working with him until camps
opened in early December. He was on the court for maybe 90 minutes before the
Warriors cut him in a move to clear payroll room to chase a free-agent center.
Putting
It All Together
The
Knicks picked up Lin on Dec. 27, after training camps had ended, and after the
Houston Rockets cut him, also for payroll reasons. The coaches were impressed
with his solid 6-foot-3 frame and his athleticism. He instantly ranked among
their top players in agility tests.
But the
coaching staff had seen little of Lin since the spring of 2010, when they put
him through a predraft workout. Because of the compressed schedule, practices
were few. Lin was fourth on the point-guard depth chart.
Still,
the same traits Lin showed in Golden State quickly emerged. He was the first to
arrive every day, and the last to leave. He sought and devoured game tapes.
When he requested his own clips, Lin asked to see his turnovers and missed
jumpers, not his assists.
In side
sessions with the assistant Kenny Atkinson, Lin kept working on his jump shot
and his decision making in pick-and-roll situations. The coaches instantly
recognized his ability to blow past defenders, but without much regard for what
he would do once he beat them. So they worked on footwork, judgment and subtle
movements to freeze a defender.
The work
continued, quietly and without much notice, for five weeks, until Feb. 4, when
20 months of lessons coalesced into one eye-opening performance, and then a
string of them.
“He has a
tremendous capacity for processing information,” Smart said. “When you talk to
him, he’s looking you in the eye and he’s analyzing the information. He’s
putting them in the folder in his mind. Now he’s opening the folder and pulling
the things that he needs.”
Now Lin
is an entrenched starter for a quality team, with a jump shot that warrants
respect and a passing touch on par with the league’s best. But the education
continues. Teams are forcing Lin to go left, to his weaker hand. They are
flustering him with multiple defenders. On Thursday, the Miami Heat held Lin to
just 8 points and 3 assists, the worst performance of his otherwise-magical
run.
The box
score shows failure. To Lin, it reads like a teachable moment.
“I’m sure in the next couple weeks, someone’s
going to figure out how to slow him down and stop him,” Reddicks said before
the loss to the Heat. “It’s a chess match. He’s going to figure out how to beat that. That,
to me, is a kind of a testament of who he is.”
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