259. If I had known earlier, I would have gone to Yao Ming's house during the regular season!_2

Zhang Yang: Big Yao, you should really take good care of your body. Playing for a few more years would benefit Chinese basketball more than anything else.

…

That night, Zhang Yang stayed over at Yao Ming's place.

The next morning, Ye Li drove Yao Ming and Zhang Yang to the United Center Arena, where Zhang Yang met up with his teammates for a pre-game preparation.

It was supposed to be a rest day on the 8th, but actually, the coaching staff got two days of rest to prepare. During the morning's tactical training, Carlisle made detailed adjustments to several tactics, deleted two, and added a new one.

For the veteran players, this intensity was already considered significant. For the rookie Afflalo, who had just come from college, it was too intense. He performed poorly during training and was criticized by Carlisle several times.

When Bickerstaff was coaching, these tasks were delegated to the assistant coaches.