Here it comes! A Chinese team has officially signed the NBA's number one draft pick!
The Formosa Dreamers of the Taiwan Professional Basketball League (TPBL) have announced the official signing of Anthony Bennett, the first overall pick in the 2013 NBA Draft. This marks the third time in his career that he has joined a Taiwanese team, having previously played for the Kaohsiung Steelers and the Hsinchu Street Attack Lions of the P+ League. During the 22-23 season with the Attack Lions, he averaged an impressive 22.6 points, 12.3 rebounds, 2.9 assists, and 3.3 steals per game.
At that time, Bennett had a certain dominance (in the Taiwanese league), after all, "watered-down number one pick" is still an NBA number one pick, and he was more than enough to dominate our provincial league; organizing, stealing, rebounding, scoring, variously getting fed and drinking, playing from position one to five with various fancy moves, one person could take over the highlights of the day.
However, it has been proven that people easily become complacent and stop striving for progress in comfortable environments. After relying on his past achievements to put up high numbers, the arrogant Bennett began to neglect his physique management, leading to a gradual increase in weight...
As a comparison, I specifically found a close-up of this guy during his last year in the NBA with the Nets. Lack of self-discipline also once threatened Bennett's journey to make money, as he switched to the KBL league next door in South Korea last September, joining the new team SonoSky Gunners, but was kicked out by the owner before the start of the season!
The reason for being cut was: too lazy, lacking systematic training throughout the offseason, worrying physical condition, failed to pass the team test. It's heart-wrenching that Bennett was only signed for a one-year contract at $40,000 a month, yet he couldn't escape the fate of being optimized.
It's also quite sigh-inducing to think that after being discarded in the NBA with an average of 4.4 points per game, we thought he could aim to return to the league through overseas training, but he has been missing in action ever since.
Now only 31 years old, his footprints have spread across multiple leagues around the world, from Turkey's Fenerbahce to Puerto Rico's Santurce Crabbers, from Israel's Jerusalem Hapoel to Taiwan's Hsinchu Attack Lions. The gradual decline in the reputation and influence of the leagues also proves the fact that Bennett is getting worse and worse.
Some people have said before, "With a similar style of play that's neither here nor there, Bennett could learn from Draymond Green on how to establish himself in the NBA," theoretically it's true, but in practice, these two are not even on the same level.
Don't look at Draymond occasionally performing chokeholds and kicks, offending many people, but he has a very stable relationship with superstars. He can be the top supporting player for Curry, doing dirty work without complaint; he can be buddies with LeBron, and even launch a joint brand of Hennessy wine together...
On and off the court, he knows how to gain the support of the big brothers, not just limited to smooth interpersonal skills, this is Draymond's survival secret. As for Bennett, whether it's basketball IQ or emotional intelligence, he stands out in none, so don't even think about catching up with any dish.