Голдэн Стэйт Уорриорсын шинэхэн тоглогч Яксел Лендеборг Денвер Наггетсийг 134-114-ийн харьцаатай хожсон тоглолтын дараа өөрийн тоглолтод эргэлзэж байснаа нуусангүй.
Даваа гарагт болсон тоглолтод Яксел Лендеборг 31 оноо, 12 самбараас бөмбөг авалт, 6 дамжуулалт гүйцэтгэж, карьерынхаа түүхэн эхлэлийг тавьсан шилдэг тоглолтоо үзүүлжээ. Гэвч тэрээр тоглолтын өмнө өөрийн чадварт тийм ч итгэлтэй байгаагүйгээ илэрхийлж, “Би өөрийгөө бүтэлгүйтэх байх гэж бодож байсан” хэмээн Peacock сувагт ярьсан байна.
Дөрвөн жилийн өмнө жижиг коллежид тоглож байсан тэрээр бэлтгэл тоглолтын үеэр хангалтгүй тоглосныхоо дараа Стефен Карри болон Дрэймонд Грийн нараас зөвлөгөө авчээ. Ахмад тоглогчид түүнд өөртөө итгэлтэй байж, алдаа гаргахаас айхгүйгээр довтолгоонд идэвхтэй оролцохыг зөвлөсөн байна. Уг зөвлөгөөг хэрэгжүүлснээр Лендеборг NBA-д гараагаа амжилттай эхлүүлж, сүүлийн дөрвөн тоглолт дараалан хоёр оронтой тоонд хүрсэн оноо авсан Уорриорсын анхны шинэ тоглогч болжээ.
Дрэймонд Грийн залуу тоглогчийнхоо талаар “Тэр өдөр ирэх тусам сайжирч байна. Түүнд сурах зүйл маш их байгаа ч заасан зүйлийг шууд хэрэгжүүлж чадаж байгаа нь гайхалтай” хэмээн онцоллоо. Лендеборг өөрөө хамгаалалтын тал дээр, ялангуяа сул талын хамгаалалт дээр суралцах зүйл их байгааг хүлээн зөвшөөрөв.
Дасгалжуулагч Стив Керр түүнийг 24 насандаа ийм түвшинд тоглож байгааг үнэлээд, хамгаалалт болон довтолгоонд алдаа гаргаж байгаа ч тоглолтыг гартаа авч чадсаныг нь онцгойлон дурджээ. Лендеборг тоглолтын дараах ярилцлагадаа ч Трэйси Макгрэди, Винс Картер, Кармело Энтони нараас тоглолтоо хэрхэн сайжруулах талаар зөвлөгөө хүсэж, суралцах эрмэлзэлтэй байгаагаа харуулсан байна.
Дэлгэрэнгүй эх сурвалжийг харах
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DENVER — It’s been easy to forget at times in his first four NBA games that it wasn’t too long ago Yaxel Lendeborg was just another guy on a basketball team at a junior college in the middle of the desert, five hours from anywhere. Like, not even four years ago.
One person it hasn’t been lost on, despite his outspokenness, is Lendeborg.
The Warriors rookie’s willingness to say whatever is on his mind, on the court or in press conferences, has already earned him a certain reputation. But it has also resulted in an endless stream of soundbites, some of which offer some actual insight.
For example, Lendeborg didn’t hold back on Peacock after the Warriors’ 134-114 win over the Nuggets on Monday night. He led the way with 31 points, 12 rebounds and six assists, the best performance in a historic start to his career — but not even he saw this coming.
“I definitely thought I was gonna wet the bed,” Lendeborg said. “Definitely didn’t have the best hopes for what I was gonna do.”
While that’s the open book we’ve come to know, it doesn’t exactly express the kind of confidence that would lead a 24-year-old rookie to chirp back-and-forth with Luka Doncic.
It sounds like the rookie who took six tepid shots in his first preseason game —a little more than three weeks ago, that’s where Lendeborg was. Inside a 10,000-capacity gym in Honolulu, he made one shot and finished with four points in an exhibition loss to the Clippers.
What happened afterward might have changed the course of Warriors history.
“After the game in Hawaii, where I think I had like three points and only took like three shots,” Lendeborg said, undercounting on both, he approached Steph Curry and Draymond Green.
“I asked them, you know, just for some guidance and advice. They told me, just try to be confident, be aggressive and play through the mistakes. I’m gonna be in a position to do that. Just hearing that from those two guys, I was coming into the game timid, like I don’t want to mess up what they’ve got going on. And they pretty much just gave me free roam.
“So they helped me out, and from then on, I just vowed to be a little more aggressive.”
Curry, Green and coach Steve Kerr all backed up the message publicly after Lendeborg’s underwhelming preseason debut: They didn’t just want him to be aggressive — they needed him to be. If nothing else, Lendeborg has proven to be a quick learner.
Message No. 1: Received.
Lendeborg has scored in double digits in every game since — eight including the remaining four in the preseason — averaging 20.1 per contest on 13.1 shots. He’s the first Warriors rookie to reach double figures in the first four games of his career since Chris Webber in 1993.
“He’s definitely getting better each and every day,” Green said. “It’s extremely exciting because there’s so much he don’t know. He don’t know a lot.”
Lendeborg said the game is already slowing down for him, at least offensively. He acknowledged he still has lots to learn on the other end of the court.
“I still have to figure out my weakside help,” Lendeborg said. “I gave up a lot of buckets down low. Just thinking my teammates gonna get back, and they’re thinking I’m gonna stay there. So it’s just a little confusing.”
Green has been more than eager to teach Lendeborg all of the tips, tricks and hints he’s learned over his 12 years in the NBA. Advice has been coming at him like a firehose.
And Lendeborg just keeps gulping it all down.
“I find myself talking to him the entire game,” Green said, “just telling him something different. And I think what’s most of it is he can apply it right away. Like you tell him something, and he comes down next play, and it happens. He applies it right away. So that’s special in itself.”
When it’s not coming from Green, it’s coming from Kerr.
“It’s definitely gonna be trial and error for me, but I really appreciate him for continuing to talk to me, have patience with me,” Lendeborg said. “He’s not screaming at me; he’s talking to me like a human. … There’s nothing for me, to be like, acting arrogant, or in a negative way toward it.”
Lendeborg, it seems, doesn’t miss a moment to learn something new. Even in his postgame interviews. Back on the Peacock set with Tracy McGrady, Vince Carter and Carmelo Anthony, Lendeborg turned the questions around on the trio of NBA legends.
“Do you guys have any advice, just to keep going, things I gotta work on?” Lendeborg asked the hosts. “Things that you guys see that I don’t see?”
It’s a Master’s level course on the league for a player who just four seasons ago was averaging single digits for Arizona Western College, an NJCAA school on the western border in Yuma.
Since then, of course, Lendeborg has gone on to win a national title at Michigan and earned his No. 11 overall selection in this past June’s draft. That’s a steep climb, and it would appear that Lendeborg’s arrow is still pointing sharply up and to the right.
“I think that’s the exciting part – where this can go,” Kerr said after Lendeborg’s 31-point night. “Because there’s still probably 10 plays that I can pull up on tape, either mistakes defensively or offensively not recognizing something that he needs to recognize. Despite all that, he just dominated the game and took over. At 24, in his fourth game. So, pretty impressive.”
