Sports Medicine Master System

"Where’s Rivers?"

On the sidelines, Chen Yu asked Nelson.

The players were all here, but Rivers, the head coach, was not.

Moreover, Chen Yu hadn’t seen Rivers at all after arriving at the arena today.

Nelson looked left and right, then lowered his voice. "I only heard it from the others. Apparently, he went to interview an assistant coach."

Chen Yu froze for a second. ’You’ve got to be kidding me,’ he thought.

’How long has he been head coach? And he’s already building his own team?’

But his people were all with the Magic; it’s not like they could follow him here.

He spent two years with the Mavericks. He wouldn’t poach someone from Old Nelson, would he?

Chen Yu’s gaze swept over Lynam on the sidelines.

If someone is coming, then someone has to go.

’If he’s going to clean house, Lynam should be the primary target.’

’But that would probably be difficult.’

Lynam was far more experienced than Rivers and had always been the team’s lead assistant coach. It wouldn’t be easy to move him.

’Then it has to be one of the other three assistant coaches.’

The Pioneers’ other three assistant coaches were John Loye, Caldwell Jones, and Daniel Panagio.

Among them, only Daniel Panagio was part of Cheeks’s staff.

However, all three were less experienced, having come up from the Development Alliance. Logically, they shouldn’t pose a threat to Rivers.

’Could he just be trying to improve the coaching staff?’

Chen Yu felt that perhaps he had misjudged Rivers.

Cheeks’s mentor was Larry Brown. His coaching ability, aside from being good at maintaining player relationships, was skewed towards defense.

The entire coaching staff had a similar style.

’Maybe Rivers wants to find an assistant coach who’s good with offense to help straighten out the team’s attack?’

For a team, defense is hard to coach, but offense should be a bit easier.

And for a rebuilding team full of rookies, focusing on improving the offense first wouldn’t be a mistake.

「In the cafeteria.」

Milicic and Farooq sat together.

Farooq was wolfing down his food while flipping through a basketball terminology handbook.

As a translator, he had to quickly learn the basics of basketball, or he wouldn’t be able to translate some of the technical terms.

"This food is so good."

Pushing his tray aside, Farooq couldn’t help but sigh with satisfaction.

The NBA cafeteria had an unlimited supply of all kinds of food, and it was all top quality. It didn’t taste bad either. As a recent international graduate, he normally couldn’t afford to eat like this.

Milicic gave a distracted "mmph" in response, but his mouth didn’t stop moving as he continued to eat.

Chen Yu’s training plan had already begun. His primary task was to bulk up and gain weight.

He currently weighed 112 kilograms.

In Chen Yu’s plan, the long-term goal was around 120 kilograms.

So he had to eat, and eat a lot.

He also needed to build muscle. When he played in Serbia, his income wasn’t high, and his nutrition was poorer. Now he had to make up for it.

"By the way, that O’Ku, he’s an international player like you, and an old teammate. How come I feel like you two don’t talk?" Farooq gossiped in a low voice.

Both from Europe, on the same team... they should be good friends, right?

But from what Farooq had observed, not only did the two not sit together during meals, but they also rarely interacted during breaks in practice.

In fact, no one on the entire team spoke to Milicic.

"Are they jealous of you?" Farooq speculated. "You were the second overall pick, and I read that the Pioneers traded for you to be the core of their rebuild. They must be jealous, which is why they’re freezing you out, right?"

His tone made it seem as if he already considered himself Milicic’s good buddy, sticking up for his friend.

Milicic was startled. He quickly looked around, and only after seeing that no one was paying attention to them did he whisper urgently, "Don’t talk nonsense. It’ll be bad if they hear you."

Farooq pouted but still said, "I think they are freezing you out. During practice just now, you were wide open, and they still didn’t pass you the ball."

A flicker of helplessness crossed Milicic’s young face. He then said, "It’s not what you think. Anyway, I just need to play my own game."

That’s what he said, but he wasn’t stupid. How could he not sense the hostility and exclusion from the team?

Forget the rookies; it was especially the veterans.

Normally, in the locker room, rookies would be bullied by the veterans and have to serve them. After he came to the Pioneers, because Chen Yu and Rivers valued him, this didn’t happen much, but the hostility still existed.

Milicic couldn’t change anything. Fortunately, looking at the team’s direction, these veterans would probably all be traded away.

So if he just endured it, it would eventually pass.

"I’m done eating. I’m going to class. Do you want to go back to the apartment first? I can give you the key," Milicic asked.

They had already discussed it earlier; Farooq would move in with him.

The apartment was provided by the Pioneers. It was quite luxurious, with plenty of rooms.

"No need, I’ll wait for you." Farooq shook his head, then suddenly gave a sly, somewhat lecherous grin and said, "Now, make sure you listen to your teacher during class, okay?"

Milicic’s face flushed slightly. He shot Farooq an annoyed glare, pushed his tray in front of him, and got up to leave.

Farooq didn’t mind. He took both their trays to the return area and followed along cheerfully.

Although he had been teased a bit by Farooq, Milicic was in a good mood.

After coming to the Pioneers, or rather, after coming to the United States, he had felt like he was on the verge of depression.

The language barrier, no friends... he couldn’t talk to anyone.

The translator the Pioneers found was just like the one the Pistons had found—a middle-aged man with whom he had nothing in common.

Farooq, on the other hand, was the same age. In a very short time, Milicic had already taken a liking to him. At least now he had someone to vent his frustrations to.

Lost in thought, Milicic arrived at the office area.

Chen Yu had even specifically had someone clear out a small storage room for Alex to use.

The storage room had no windows. The light was on. Standing at the door and looking through the small window on it, Milicic saw Alex inside.

She was sitting at a desk, organizing the materials she was going to use.

Her back was to him, and she looked very busy.

"Nice figure, huh?" A head suddenly popped out from the side.

It was Farooq.

He startled Milicic, who quickly waved his hand, telling Farooq to get lost.

Farooq let out a meaningful chuckle before finally leaving.

Milicic took a deep breath and pushed the door open.

Meanwhile, Chen Yu was discussing nutritional plans with the Pioneers’ nutritionist.

In addition to creating specialized meal plans for each player based on their training regimen, Chen Yu also planned to have the Pioneers’ players continue taking Physical Fitness No.1.

It was a good formula, already made into a convenient supplement. In the long run, it would improve their physical condition and benefit their training and everything else.

The extra investment was negligible.

After the discussion, Chen Yu thought of Milicic and went over to check on him.

"Dr. Chen."

In the corner across from the storage room, Farooq was sitting by a planter, reading a book.

Upon seeing Chen Yu, he immediately stood up to greet him.

In front of Milicic, he was boisterous and lively, but in front of Chen Yu, he was as well-behaved as a child.

Chen Yu nodded slightly and glanced inside through the window on the door.

Inside, Milicic was sitting up straight while Alex stood in front of a whiteboard, seriously explaining English grammar.

Everything looked normal.

Chen Yu didn’t stay long. He had a pile of things to do and left quickly.

Chen Yu had also observed them during practice earlier.

During breaks in practice, Milicic and Farooq would get together and chat quite a bit.

At one point, Farooq seemed to have told a joke.

And then, for the first time since Chen Yu had arrived in Portland, he saw a smile on Milicic’s face.

Chen Yu felt he had made the right decision in changing the translator.

As for Alex, she was an English major and professional enough. That was all that mattered.

’As for Patterson teasing me about finding Milicic a girlfriend... if the two of them really did start dating, so what?’

’They’re both young. Dating is perfectly normal.’

’Besides, if they really start dating, it’ll keep Milicic away from all sorts of trouble.’

’When you’re earning millions of US dollars a year, women will be throwing themselves at you.’

’And at his age, it’s not easy to stay grounded.’

’So he might as well find a proper girlfriend.’

’At his age, Tracy McGrady already had a kid out of wedlock.’

But the two of them were getting acquainted pretty quickly.

The next day, when the Pioneers played the Pacers at home, Chen Yu noticed Alex sitting on the sidelines.

She was different from Farooq.

Farooq followed him 24/7 and had to sit on the sidelines at all times to help Milicic communicate with Rivers.

Her English classes were mostly scheduled during the day. Game time was after her work hours.

This could only mean she had been invited by Milicic.

In this game, Milicic still came off the bench.

At his current level, he couldn’t hope to take the starting spot from Dale Davis.

However, Rivers giving Milicic so much playing time had already sparked dissatisfaction from Dale Davis.

Rivers was his usual self, pulling Milicic aside to give him direct instructions.

Farooq squatted to the side, quickly translating.

Milicic nodded, taking it all in. Just as he was about to head to the sideline to wait, he was pulled back by someone else.

"Dako, you’re fast, so look for opportunities to cut to the basket. Foster is very athletic, so you need to avoid getting tangled up with him. Focus on boxing out; his rebounding is top-tier."

The speaker was a middle-aged man with graying hair and a small mustache.

Chen Yu was close by, so he glanced at him a couple more times.

His name was Mike D’Antoni, the assistant coach Rivers had just interviewed and poached from the Spurs.

After his brief playing career in the NBA ended, this guy went to Europe. After retiring there, he switched to coaching.

In the ’97-’98 season, the Nuggets set a record-low with a terrible 11-71 record. So the next season, everyone from the head coach to the starters was kicked out.

It was that year that D’Antoni briefly coached the Nuggets.

As it turned out, in that lockout-shortened season, first, their third overall pick, Reef LaFrentz, tore his ACL and was out for the season. Then he ran into "Fan the Madman," Nick Van Exel.

A maverick who thought the free-throw line was too close and would insist on taking two steps back to shoot, who had just made the All-Star team and was arrogant and defiant—how could a guy like that possibly respect a rookie head coach like D’Antoni?

For the entire season, the thing D’Antoni did most was sit on the bench in a daze, ridiculed by the media as a spectator who had bought a super VIP ticket.

In the end, out of 50 games, he only managed 14 wins and was fired at lightning speed.

After being fired, he worked as a scout for the Spurs. In the ’00-’01 season, he came over to the Pioneers and briefly served as an assistant coach for Mike Dunleavy.

When Cheeks took over, he lost his job again and went back to the Spurs to continue scouting.

He had played for the Spurs himself, so he still had some connection to them.

And Rivers had also played for the Spurs late in his career. So, somehow or other, he’d set his sights on him and poached him.

John Loye was the unfortunate one to go.