Edward Ireland has recruited twelve players for the New York Knicks.

In big cities like New York, it is still easy to recruit professional basketball players. There have been many professional basketball teams in New York history. They have participated in the ABL League or NBL League, but they eventually disbanded for various reasons. For example, in 1941 just now, a team called the New York Jewelry Team was disbanded because the sponsor of the team, New York Jewelry Company, stopped sponsoring.

Basketball players at that time were actually not considered real professional basketball players. Most of them had a second career, and some even played basketball part-time. For most players, the salary they earned from playing basketball was not enough to support their families, so when there was no game, they had to find other jobs to support their lives.

In that era, there were also star-level basketball players who would get very high salaries. In the 1940s, the top basketball players could already get a monthly salary of $1,500. At that time, a weekly salary of $25 was considered a high-paid white-collar worker, and a monthly salary of $1,500 was considered a dozen times the income of a white-collar worker.

Of course, this monthly salary of US$1,500 can not be earned by a single table of contention, because in months without games, the team will not pay players a salary. At that time, the basketball league usually lasted for four months, which means that players had no money to get for the remaining eight months.

It is also because of this reason that players have a second profession. Some players even play for different teams at the same time. For example, some college students, they play on the school team and go back to professional teams to play games.

Chen Qiang also has college students in the New York Knicks. His name is Bob Fisgerard, a student at Fordham University in New York. Edward Ireland recruited Bob Fisgerard into the team mainly because he was attracted by his physical talent because Bob Fisgerard has a height of 6 feet 5 inches.

6 feet 5 inches, equivalent to 1 meter 96, a little shorter than Kobe, but this is already the highest height in the New York Knicks.

The shortest player in the New York Knicks is only 5 feet 7 inches, equivalent to 1 meter 74.

Originally, Edward Ireland was optimistic about several players who were less than 1.7 meters tall, but they were rejected by Chen Qiang. Chen Qiang looked down on short people, but the sport of basketball is really not friendly to short people. If it were football, there were many superstars less than 1.7 meters tall. In rugby, even if it was less than 1.7 meters tall, as long as the body was solid and explosive enough, it could still play running backs. However, basketball is too short and can't play.

Chen Qiang’s New York Knicks team, if you look at the team name, it’s the New York Knicks, if you look at the height, you think it’s the Xiangbei basketball team!

The reason why there are no tall players is not because Americans were not tall at that time, but because basketball in the primitive era believed that the big man who was more than two meters tall was too bulky and was not flexible enough to move, so he was not suitable for participating in basketball.

In fact, the white big men of that era were indeed very bulky. If the players at that time had a height of 2.05 meters, their flexibility would be similar to those of Boban Mayanovich today. If they were taller than Boban, they would definitely be more bulkier than Boban. In the future NBA, many 2.08 meters and 2.08 meters and 2.08 players would definitely not be a problem to switch to defenders.

In history, the New York Knicks introduced a player from Bob Cragish in the 1946 season. He was 6 feet 10 inches tall, which is 2 meters 08, weighed 235 pounds, or 107 kilograms. Such a height and weight ratio can definitely be flexibly moved in the future NBA, but the result is that he is bulky and becomes a loophole for the New York Knicks on both ends of the offense and defense. As a result, he only played for one season and bid farewell to the professional basketball world.

Early basketball was dominated by small players. Big players only really rose after George McCann appeared. Before George McCann, 1.8 to 1.85 meters, was the best height for basketball players. If Thomas Little lived in the late 1940s, he might have sighed that NBA is so friendly, everyone is rushing to ask me!

Chen Qiang was not very satisfied with such a New York Knicks team. The players recruited by Edward Ireland did not meet Chen Qiang's psychological expectations.

However, Chen Qiang also knew that Edward Ireland had tried his best. The outbreak of World War II also caused many outstanding basketball players to join the US military, which greatly reduced the overall level of basketball players. Otherwise, Edward Ireland would not have to recruit people in college.

Fortunately, in this era, going to college does not delay playing professional leagues. If you are in the future, college students are not allowed to join. If you go to college, just play your NCAA honestly. When you graduate from college, or take a break from school in the middle, you can only choose one of the two when you go to NBA, NBA and college.

During World War II, many basketball players participated in the US military, which greatly reduced the level of the professional basketball league in the US. However, this did not have much impact on the professional basketball league in the US. In 1942, both abl and nbl were in a state of half-dead. On the contrary, college basketball and high school basketball were very popular among people.

For the army, basketball is a team sport that is easy to promote. It does not require too complex facilities or too large places. There must be basketball courts on US aircraft carriers or other large warships, and basketball games will be held from time to time. Excellent basketball players to participate in the US military have promoted the exchange of basketball technology. Basketball players from all over the United States have met and exchanged technology among the US military, which has made basketball great development among the US military and has also cultivated a large number of basketball enthusiasts. The US military has even developed special wheelchair basketball competitions to allow soldiers who were injured in the war to participate. In the future, on the Korean battlefield, basketball is also the most important event for the sports meetings held by the volunteers for US prisoners of war.

After the end of World War II, those soldiers who like basketball retired and returned home, which also led to the popularity of basketball culture in the United States, which led to the birth of the NBA League. However, it was also because more and more people began to like basketball, which promoted the development of basketball, and made those ugly playing styles that only for victory gradually prevail, with strange scores like 19 to 18, which greatly reduced the viewing of basketball. Fortunately, NBA revised the rules in time to bring basketball back to life.

Back to the point, Chen Qiang was very dissatisfied with his players. He even went to try out the players himself, but found that none of these players were pitchers.

Mid-distance jump shots are an unconventional scoring method in this era, and even a prohibited method in many teams. Players will not practice mid-distance jump shots specifically, so naturally there will be no pitchers.

If the three-second zone is not expanded and there is no 24-second offensive violation, the mid-range jumper is indeed not very effective. At least in terms of shooting percentage, mid-range jumper is not as good as shooting near the basket. However, since the new league has already adopted new rules, mid-range jumper becomes important.

You should not get close to the basket for mid-range jump shots. You can directly launch an offense outside the three-second zone, without worrying about the three-second attack problem. At the same time, the mid-range jump shot can also save a lot of time to organize the offense. Even when it is approaching 24 seconds, you can still bet on a buzzer-beating ball.

The mid-range jump shot is a kind of offensive method born out of changes in basketball rules.

However, Chen Qiang's team did not have pitchers, which means that this team could not implement the tactics of mid-range jump shots.

Not only did Chen Qiang's team have no pitchers, but other teams also have no pitchers. It was also very difficult to find pitchers in those days.

"There's no choice but to come by yourself!" Chen Qiang sighed helplessly. He was forced to do it himself and finally decided to do it himself and be the pitcher on the court.

"Fortunately, the players in this era are not high and not that strong. Compared with other basketball players, my health is pretty good. If I were to be in the future NBA, I wouldn't dare to play with the courage of me!" Chen Qiang said in his heart.

The future NBA players are very strong. With Chen Qiang's small body, if they fight against other NBA players, there is no difference between them. When they meet LeBron James, they will push them like a tank and can directly knock Chen Qiang to the audience.

Of course, the physical fitness of basketball players in the 1940s was not that good. There were no black players at that time, all of them were white, and they were all thin whites. They couldn't even find a two-meter tall person on the court, so there was no need to worry about a tank player knocking people away.

Just imagine, a player like George McCann is 2.08 meters tall, weighs 109 kilograms, and is also highly myopic. He has to wear big glasses to play games, but he can rage at the basket and become the first legendary center of the NBA, equivalent to O'Neal of that era.

George McCann's height and weight are the same as that white striker Ryan Anderson. Later generations say that Ryan Anderson is a soft ball, unable to defend, no confrontation, no movement, etc., but if he was placed in 1950, he would be O'Neal like an existence.

Chen Qiang has also watched basketball games of this era. He estimated that with his physical fitness, he was still strong compared to American basketball players at that time. After all, Chen Qiang was a track and field athlete, and the physical fitness of ordinary track and field athletes is better than that of athletes in other events. So Chen Qiang was not worried about physical confrontation at all.

In fact, basketball in this era has no physical confrontation at all.

If you search online now, you should be able to search for some video clips of the NBA game in the 1950s. From the video clip, you can see that basketball in the 1950s had very little physical contact. From a modern perspective, basketball at that time was really too gentlemanly. Defensive players seemed to be evading from offensive players to circle around, and the same offensive players were also evading from defensive players to circle around.

In the 1940s, basketball often had that situation. The defender moved forward with the ball. The first defender went up and a steal, and the ball handled away by the ball handler. Then the second defender rushed forward and steal. And so on. There was no one-on-one defense at all. It was just that the ball was in the hands of anyone, and everyone rushed to grab it.

This kind of play where everyone comes up to grab the ball, which will naturally cause a large number of open shots. However, since no one will jump, even if the player has an open space at mid- and long distances, the ball holder will not pass the ball to him. He has to wait until the open space opportunity at the basket, so the ball holder will pass the ball over.

For pitchers, such a basketball system is full of opportunities to shoot mid-range shots everywhere, which is simply paradise!

...

Chen Qiang has not used the training space for a long time without participating in the game. Now, in order to train shooting, Chen Qiang has once again activated the training space.

This time, Chen Qiang came to the basketball training hall in the training space and started practicing with the most basic dribbling.

When he was young, Chen Qiang was also a basketball enthusiast. Although he had never been a professional basketball player, he had received regular and systematic basketball training in the sports school. However, the training time was not long, so Chen Qiang's basketball level was the level of jungle ball in the community basketball court.

Now Chen Qiang mainly practices mid-range jump shots.

Start practicing from the most basic fixed-point jump shot to catch the ball, and slowly practice jump shots after dribbling, emergency stop jump shots, etc. As for those difficult jump shot techniques, Chen Qiang directly ignored. After all, this was only in 1942. It was enough to catch and shoot, dribble, and emergency stop jump shots.

Chen Qiang knew that if you want to shoot accurately, you either have talent or have to practice diligently.

A magical pitcher like Curry is definitely born with shooting talent, and then with the hard training you acquired, you can shoot so accurately. If you don’t have talent and rely solely on acquired practice, even if you practice it by yourself, you will not be able to reach Curry’s level.

Chen Qiang is definitely not as talent as Curry, and he doesn't expect to reach Curry's level. In 1942, there was not even a three-point line. Chen Qiang just needs to practice mid-range shooting outside the three-second zone honestly, and it is enough to play the game.

This kind of mid-range shooting outside the three-second zone is similar to a free throw, and you can still shoot very accurately by practicing diligently.

There is a ten times the speed bonus in the training space, which has rapidly improved Chen Qiang's shooting level. In the month before the new team was established, Chen Qiang had already mastered a good mid-range shooting. Although he did not score every shot, his shooting percentage was still very good. Especially the open shooting after receiving the ball, Chen Qiang is a scoring method that he is better at.

A month later, the New York Knicks were officially established, and the team included Chen Qiang, a total of 14 players.

In addition to being a player, Chen Qiang also assumed the responsibility of a coach.

Chen Qiang is also a little familiar with basketball training. Although he is not as good as a specialized basketball coach, he is still more than enough to coach a high school chap. In 1942, the basketball tactical systems in Chen Qiang's mind were ahead of him for more than 70 years, and he was able to train the teams of this era.

The tactics Chen Qiang formulated for the new team are also very simple. The offense mainly consists of two moves, one is to break through quickly, and the other is to break through and pass the ball.

The tactical system of rapid breakthrough is the ultimate skill of "Cardinal" Auerbach, but Auerbach only took this tactic in 1947. Chen Qiang felt that since this tactic was useful in 1947, it should also be useful in 1942, so he used it directly.

As for breaking through and passing the ball, this is the most common and practical tactic in basketball, and even if it is placed in the future, it will be out of date. Chen Qiang will naturally not miss this simple, effective and practical tactic.

As for other complex tactics, although Chen Qiang also understands them, he should forget it if he thinks about it carefully! Basketball players of this era may not be able to implement that complex basketball tactics at all.

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Chapter completed!