J Kidd and Joumana got married in ’98. After the wedding, Joumana leveraged his influence to beco a host for Phoenix Television’s Channel 12.
J Kidd nodded as if he’d been holding it all in. Without any prompting from Chen Yu, he began to ramble about his love life.
For instance, he talked about how much he loved Joumana, and how the kiss he blew during free throws was his way of expressing his love for her.
Then ca a heap of trivial matters: Joumana thinking he was too laid-back, him feeling she was too career-driven and neglected their child, and they’d even fought more than once over an old fla.
"Who?"
Chen Yu cut J Kidd off abruptly, staring at him in disbelief. "You’re telling you dated Donnie Bryston? The one who sang ’Un-Break My Heart’?"
J Kidd nodded sheepishly. "You didn’t know?" he asked. "It was all over the news at the ti."
Chen Yu shook his head. He had just started at Jackson morial Hospital in ’95 and was swamped with work. He had no ti to keep up with celebrity gossip.
’Donnie Clifton, though?’
Chen Yu gave J Kidd another look. ’This guy’s got ga,’ he thought.
"Go on," Chen Yu said, waving his hand for J Kidd to continue.
But at that point, J Kidd seed to run out of things to say. He rubbed his face in frustration. "Chen, I have so many regrets now, and I just don’t know what to do."
Chen Yu didn’t rush to give an answer. Besides, it wasn’t a question he could answer anyway.
His grandfather always used to say that it’s hard for an outsider to judge family matters. Chen Yu had no intention of getting involved in soone else’s dostic affairs.
Chen Yu was simply worried that these off-court issues would affect J Kidd’s performance in gas.
Besides, J Kidd had only just now voiced the problem and acknowledged it. He needed ti to think things through.
’A good psychologist’s job is to guide you, to let you make your own choices.’
Chen Yu thought about the psychologists back at Jackson morial Hospital. During sessions, they’d just listen to patients ramble. They’d insist on splitting a single conversation into multiple sessions, charge exorbitant fees, and live a life of leisure. ’What a sweet gig.’
"How about this," Chen Yu proposed. "After training is over the day after tomorrow, we can talk again properly and figure out how to solve this."
Chen Yu set a ti.
J Kidd nodded. He even ca over and hugged Chen Yu, thanking him for listening.
"It’s no problem," Chen Yu said with a smile as he saw J Kidd to the door. "If you ever need to talk, feel free to co find anyti."
As Chen Yu opened the door, Brian happened to be walking in.
Seeing Brian, J Kidd’s expression flickered. He gave a quick nod of acknowledgnt and then hurried away.
"Just Clifford left, right?" Brian asked.
Chen Yu nodded. He had intentionally saved Robinson for last.
Brian sat down, his expression serious.
Chen Yu tidied away the candy and the small potted plant from his desk.
A mont later, Robinson pushed the door open and ca in.
He was slightly taken aback to see Brian but didn’t seem to mind. He sat right down and asked with a wide, goofy grin, "Chen, I don’t have anything to talk about. Let’s just sit for five minutes, yeah?"
The players before him had all been in and out in five minutes, so he wasn’t worried.
Chen Yu’s smile vanished. "Clifford, I’m sorry, but you and I are going to have a talk."
Robinson’s grin froze on his face.
「Fifteen minutes later.」
"Chen, do you think he’ll change?" Brian asked as they stood in the doorway, watching Robinson walk off into the distance.
’How should I know?’ Chen Yu thought.
’People who get involved with weed have poor self-control. Who the hell knows if you can trust a word they say?’
Brian’s face was a mask of frustration. "Sotis, I really just want to trade them all away and be done with it."
There’s Hardaway, always injured.
J Kidd, Mr. Nice Guy himself, has gotten into a ss of his own.
Then there’s Robinson. All three of the team’s core players have problems.
’With things like this, maybe we should just trade them all and rebuild,’ he muttered.
Chen Yu chuckled. "What’s the matter? Frustrated? We could have a chat about it. Don’t worry, it’s on the house."
Brian visibly shivered and quickly shook his head. "Don’t even joke about it. I’m fine."
With that, he walked off quickly.
At five in the evening, Chen Yu arrived at the arena again to prepare for that night’s ga.
In reality, there wasn’t much to prepare for. It was just one ordinary ga out of the 82-ga regular season.
The team was like a precision machine, running smoothly. Chen Yu didn’t need to do much—just stick to the routine.
During the pre-ga warm-ups, Chen Yu sat on the sidelines, quietly observing everyone.
The morning’s conversations seed to have had so effect.
For instance, with Dudley out, Charalidis was set to start. He was on the court with Jon Hamm, constantly practicing his low-post moves.
Then there was J Kidd, who was, surprisingly, practicing his shooting with uncharacteristic focus.
Chen Yu had seen the internal stats. He knew that despite being a two-ti assists leader, J Kidd’s shooting was atrocious.
His scoring average wasn’t bad—he could put up over 15 points a ga.
But a look at his shot chart told the real story: his makes were almost exclusively at the rim. He scored by driving to the basket.
Whether it was from 3 to 10 feet or from the long two-point range of 10 to 16 feet, his field goal percentage was a paltry thirty-odd percent.
It was probably his biggest weakness.
Even Nelson, who was sitting next to Chen Yu silently taking notes, found it strange. "Why is Jason working on his shot all of a sudden?" he asked.
J Kidd had been in the league for six years, but he’d never developed a reliable jumper before. It was partly due to a lack of natural talent for it, and partly because he himself felt it wasn’t a problem—he could just focus on his assists.
He rarely practiced shooting with the team.
But today, for so unknown reason, he’d had a change of heart and was proactively working on it.
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