Sports Medicine Master System

Having finished administering physical therapy to all the Pioneer players, Chen Yu felt somewhat exhausted and found a nearby lounge to lie down for a while.

He woke up two hours later.

As he was about to leave for his hotel, Chen Yu passed through a hallway and heard a sound coming from the training court.

It sounded like a dribbling ball.

Chen Yu followed the sound and walked over.

The Rose Garden Arena’s training facility wasn’t huge, but it wasn’t small either.

It had two full courts, plus two side hoops.

After Chen Yu’s team arrived, they had renovated one of the full courts, adding a large amount of technological equipment.

At this moment, on one half of the renovated full court, Joe Johnson was shirtless, his six-pack abs and the lines of his muscles clearly visible, practicing his shooting with Dale Curry’s assistance.

On the other half-court, there were several black pillars placed on the floor, each over a meter tall and shaped like stand-up fans.

At the top of each was a ring with a diameter of forty centimeters.

In addition, there were also quite a few standing cardboard cutouts of players on the court.

Larry Hughes started with the ball at the top of the arc.

First, a purple light would illuminate at the top of the suspended backboard, like a signal. Larry Hughes would immediately follow the instruction, dribble past the cardboard cutout, and charge towards the basket.

His speed wasn’t fast; as he moved, he not only had to weave around the cutouts but also keep his attention on the pillars in different positions.

Suddenly, the ring at the top of the pillar on the weak-side corner flashed with a white light.

The entire ring lit up.

Larry Hughes came to a sharp stop and passed the ball out, as if making a drive-and-kick pass to the baseline.

The basketball hit the ring with a THUD and fell.

Two seconds later, the white light went out.

The purple light on the suspended backboard also turned red.

A small LED screen was attached behind the backboard, and it even displayed an "X" to signify failure.

On the sideline, a Pioneer’s trainer, who seemed to be named Murray or something, clapped his hands and shouted, "Larry, focus on your accuracy! The more accurate your pass, the less time your teammate needs to adjust after catching it."

A bad pass can disrupt your offensive rhythm, while a skilled point guard can always make the pass just right.

Larry Hughes nodded, picked up the ball, and started over.

This time, a blue light lit up at the top of the backboard.

Larry Hughes dribbled to the top of the arc and moved along it. Just then, on the right side of the paint, behind a cardboard cutout over two meters tall, a differently shaped pillar lit up.

This pillar was taller than the others, around two and a half meters high. It resembled a simple basketball hoop, with its top ring parallel to the floor.

Moving on the perimeter, Larry Hughes stopped abruptly and lobbed the ball into the post.

The ball sailed over the cardboard cutout in the air and dropped precisely into the ring.

The ring’s white light turned green, and a circle representing success appeared on the LED screen at the top of the backboard.

Chen Yu stood on the sideline.

Larry Hughes’s training regimen was designed specifically for point guards, meant to simulate real on-court passing situations as closely as possible to train their passing ability.

The lights on the backboard indicated different scenarios, such as dribbling at the arc or driving to the basket.

And the pillars would light up randomly.

After a pillar lit up, Larry Hughes had to react quickly. Infrared sensors inside the ring would confirm if the basketball passed through it and collect data on his reaction time.

This was just one type of training; with this equipment, many other training methods could be developed.

The goal was to develop a point guard’s ability to pass on the move, while also requiring them to constantly be aware of their teammates’ positions and movements, not just focus on their own dribbling.

’Unfortunately, they’re all stationary.’ Chen Yu was also considering whether the pillars could be made mobile.

But it wasn’t technologically feasible.

Besides, the cost would be high. It would be better to just hire a few trainers for specialized practice.

But the advantage was that a player could practice alone for as long as they wanted, and it could collect all sorts of data to identify weaknesses for targeted improvement.

Chen Yu just hadn’t expected that after the hellish training session that morning, both Larry Hughes and Joe Johnson would voluntarily stay behind for extra practice.

From what he remembered, Joe Johnson was very self-disciplined.

A simple way to tell if someone was disciplined or not was to look at their physique.

Joe Johnson’s muscle definition was prominent; you couldn’t maintain that without self-discipline.

Chen Yu walked over and asked Old Curry how long they had been practicing.

"A little over an hour now," Old Curry said, glancing at the wall clock in the distance.

"Joe, take a break."

Chen Yu called out, then beckoned to Larry Hughes on the other side to stop and rest as well.

"From now on, don’t just do extra training on your own, not even after you go home. If you want to do extra work, you have to tell us first so we can adjust your training plan," Chen Yu advised as he gestured for Joe Johnson to lie down.

The training session scheduled this morning was specially designed based on data collected from their recent performance. The intensity was calibrated to push them to their limits for effective improvement, but not to the point of overtraining, which could be counterproductive, cause injury, and affect their upcoming games.

After all, they were still in the middle of the season.

And Chen Yu figured the reason they were doing extra practice was, one, they were disciplined enough and eager to improve, and two, after the morning session, his massage had helped them relax and relieved their fatigue, re-energizing them.

Otherwise, with that morning’s training intensity, without Chen Yu, he was sure every single one of them would have felt like dying. They wouldn’t have had any energy left for extra practice.

’So it’s not that I don’t want them to do extra training, it’s that *I* can’t handle it.’

’If you guys do extra training every day, I’ll have to be on call to give massages and relieve your fatigue anytime, anywhere.’

Besides, Chen Yu couldn’t stay in Portland forever; he would have to leave eventually.

’The main thing is, it’s exhausting.’

’Right now, Chen Yu truly wished his system had an ability, like transferring his skill buffs to others. Then he could train a few dedicated physical therapists, and his own life would be much easier.’

’Even if it meant not getting any experience points, it would be worth it.’

But that was clearly a pipe dream. He could only say he was fated to a life of hard work.

Seeing Chen Yu at work, Old Curry pointed to the equipment room in the distance and said, "There’s another one in there. I’ll go get him."

Soon, he returned with this year’s rookie, Travis Outlaw.

Chen Yu frowned slightly.

’To be honest, for a moment there, Chen Yu had hoped the one training in the equipment room was Milicic.’

’The kid has ambition, but it’s not strong enough.’

’To put it simply, he was the type of person who knows studying is important and loudly proclaims he’ll get a perfect score on the next test, but when it’s time to study, he can’t help but slack off after a little while, wanting to have fun instead, thinking the test is still far away and there’s plenty of time later.’

’His mentality just isn’t mature enough.’

"People like him need someone cracking a whip behind them to really push them."

After thinking for a moment, an idea on how to motivate him popped into Chen Yu’s head.

After finishing physical therapy for the three of them, Chen Yu sent them home.

Just then, Larry Hughes, who hadn’t been in a hurry to leave, approached Chen Yu and asked if they could talk for a moment.

"Go ahead," said Chen Yu.

Chen Yu thought it was about training, but it turned out to be a personal matter—a medical one.

"Rejection syndrome?"

Chen Yu couldn’t help but frown.

Chen Yu then learned that Larry Hughes’s younger brother, Justin, had a congenital heart defect and had received a heart transplant back in ’96.

But in recent years, he had started to experience organ rejection, and his body was slowly breaking down.

"You’re a good man."

Chen Yu patted Larry Hughes on the shoulder.

The young man had a strong sense of responsibility.

His mother had him when she was just 20. His father fooled around and rarely came home. Later, his younger brother was born with a congenital heart defect, and the family had to rely on welfare to get by for a time.

He was extremely responsible. To take care of his mother and brother, he turned down offers from famous schools like the University of Illinois and the University of Kansas, choosing Saint Louis University, which was closer to home.

Later, to earn money for his brother’s medical care, he declared for the draft early. After making it to the NBA, he had always worked hard, wanting to make a name for himself and land a big contract.

"Dr. Chen, you’re the best doctor in the world. I’ve read the news, so I know you also have expertise in cardiology. You even discovered Eddie Curry’s congenital heart disease. So, I want to ask if you could please examine my brother, Justin, and see if there’s anything that can be done."

Last month, after a long back-and-forth with the Bulls, the story about Eddie Curry having congenital heart disease was finally dug up by reporters.

It was as if a dark cloud had settled over all of Chicago.

In the end, Eddie Curry opted for surgery and was out for the season.

He found a very renowned cardiology specialist. Chen Yu had been following the matter.

Chen Yu didn’t say anything.

His brother received a heart transplant in ’96, almost eight years ago, and was now experiencing rejection. This was a case of chronic rejection.

Acute rejection could be mitigated with immunosuppressive therapy.

But chronic rejection was almost irreversible; the medical community had no effective treatment for it.

"How about this," Chen Yu said. "Before Christmas, we have an away game against the Pacers. After that game, I’ll talk to Doug, and the two of us can make a detour to Saint Louis to see your brother."

Indianapolis is only a little over three hundred kilometers from Saint Louis, so it’s close enough to make a detour.

Chen Yu didn’t think he had any way to solve chronic rejection.

But Larry Hughes had come to him full of hope, and Chen Yu didn’t want to disappoint him.

Besides, Chen Yu was planning to go back to Chicago to see his mother for Christmas anyway. It wasn’t far from Saint Louis, so it was on the way.

"Really? Dr. Chen, thank you!"

Overjoyed, Larry Hughes quickly bowed in gratitude.

Chen Yu waved his hand, signaling it was nothing, then said, "Larry, since you want to get a big contract to pay for your brother’s treatment, you need to train hard. You have a lot of potential."

Putting up 20-plus points per game in his third year in the league—while you could say it was just stat-padding on a weak team like the Warriors—still said something about his ability.

Larry Hughes nodded emphatically, thanked him again, and then left.

Watching him leave, his eyes filled with joy, Chen Yu sighed silently.

’Chronic rejection is basically a terminal illness.’

’Perhaps in the near future, Larry Hughes would still have to accept the fact that his beloved brother was going to die.’