“Well done is worse than well said.”——This is a classic saying left by Benjamin Franklin, an iconic figure in American history, two hundred years ago. Today, two hundred years later, it has become the motto of Kirk Hinrich, the head coach of the Chicago Bulls. As the son of a basketball coach, Hinrich is not the kind of player who is eloquent and likes to brag. Instead, he focuses more on his beloved basketball. Therefore, Hinrich is a difficult subject for reporters to interview, but for fans in the Windy City, he is indeed a player who can help the Bulls realize their championship dream again.
Newborn:
On January 2, 1981, a new life was born in the small town of Sioux in northwest Iowa, USA. This is the protagonist of this article, Kirk James Hinrich. Coincidentally, his father Jim Hinrich, as the basketball coach of the local West High School, also received the team's first victory of the year that day. Both Jim and Kirk Hinrich’s mother, Nancy, believe that this child will definitely inherit his father’s basketball pedigree and find his own sky on the court.
Perhaps it was fate that Hinrich was deeply fascinated by sports, especially basketball, before he learned to walk. Basketball is the second most popular sport in Iowa after football, and his father, Jim, often lets him sit next to him when watching basketball broadcasts. Whenever commercials were on, little Hinrich would play mini basketball with his father. At that time, he could accurately throw the ball into the basket that was about six feet high and hung on the wall of his bedroom. As Hinrich grew up, his parents also set a rule: if he accidentally broke something while playing, he could only touch the basketball until another day. This also makes Hinrich cherish every minute and every second with basketball even more.
Being born in a basketball family has saved Hinrich from many detours. Whenever Hinrich was dribbling or making position moves, his father Jim and mother Nancy gave him a lot of guidance and advice. This also laid the foundation for him to have solid basic skills in the future.
Hinrich really started playing basketball in the second grade. His father, Jim, found his former mentor, Ray Nacke, who taught at Briar Cliff College, and asked if his son could participate in his summer basketball training. camp. This made Ray Nacke hesitant, because the participants in his training camp were all fourth-, fifth- and sixth-grade students, but after Jim's repeated insistence, Ray Nacke finally agreed to his request. Hinrich lived up to his father's expectations. With his extraordinary talent and hard training, he quickly stood out from the crowd. When he graduated from this training camp two years later, he became the undisputed leader among them.
Jim and Nancy were not surprised by Hinrich's teenage success, and his friends also took it for granted. Because Hinrich was superior in almost all sports at that time. In football, he was the school's star quarterback. In baseball, he was both an excellent pitcher and a powerful hitter.
Of course, among many sports, basketball has always been Hinrich’s favorite. SuperSonics All-Star Gary Payton was the one Hinrich imitated at the time. Payton's flexible footsteps and agile stealing of the ball during defense, as well as his excited expression after making the offensive players mute, left a very deep impression on Hinrich. From that moment on, Hinrich aspired to be a glove player.
Emerging:
When Hinrich entered the varsity team at West High School as a freshman, his talent was already becoming known, but some still thought he was more of a coach dad. In order to avoid suspicion, Hinrich started out as a ball boy. He took the bus to games with the school team and participated in the pre-match pep rally. After training, he also took the initiative to compete with his seniors in spot shooting. When other students went to parties and play, Only Hinrich remained alone in the gym to hone his skills. These experiences made it undisputed that Hinrich would become the team leader in the future.
In his second year after joining the school team, Hinrich had already been favored by many universities, and Hinrich’s favorite was Iowa State coached by Tim Floyd. At that time, he also verbally promised to join after graduating from high school. The team. However, due to the resignation of Zen master Phil Jackson, Tim Floyd was invited by the fat manager to join the Bulls, which made Hinrich later change his mind and become a member of the University of Kansas.
The West basketball team achieved an excellent record of 82 wins and 9 losses during Hinrich's time and was a strong contender for the state championship almost every season. In his senior year (note: high schools in the United States are four-year), the team finally won the state championship and scored 25 points in the finals.
This is his first taste of championship, and it is also the first championship in his father's coaching career. Hinrich's perfect performance allowed the residents of Sioux Township to taste a state championship for the first time in 65 years.
Hinrich set new records in steals, assists, and points during his four years as the best player in the history of the team. He was also honored to be selected as a high school All-American by USA Today and Parade. Nominated for the All-NBA Team, and shared the Iowa Mr. Basketball honor with his future college classmate Nick Collison (note: now playing for the Seattle SuperSonics).
The growth backgrounds of Hinrich and Collison have many similarities: they are white players born in small towns in Iowa, and their fathers are both high school basketball coaches. Therefore, their understanding of basketball is more mature than that of their peers. Although they belong to different high schools, they both participated in Iowa's AUU (Note: National Amateur Athletic Union) representative team, so the two are not strangers. . Collison still remembers his first impression of Hinrich: "This kid doesn't seem to be afraid of anything." Collison recalled their first AAU encounter with the then All-American McDonald's star guard Ronald Curry (Note: He later joined North Carolina and switched to playing football. Now playing for the team led by the NFL's Oakland Raiders), Hinrich took the initiative to guard Curry without saying a word. As a result, he not only guarded Curry, but he also scored nearly 20 points in the first half. From then on, no one dared to do it again. Despise this seemingly weak white point guard.
As a high school student, Hinrich also represented the United States in the World Youth Men's Basketball Championship held in Moscow in 1998, and helped the U.S. team defeat Greece, Russia, Croatia and other strong teams to remain undefeated. The record won the championship. Prior to this, Hinrich had his father accompany him whether he participated in basketball games or baseball games. This period of the World Youth Championship was the first time Hinrich lived and competed independently in a foreign country.
After graduating from high school, Hinrich and Collison joined the Kansas University basketball team led by Roy Williams. Hinrich, who has just started his college career, often misses his parents and hometown, but basketball allows him to integrate into college life faster. Coach Roy Williams is very satisfied with his newcomers. In the past few years, Kansas has missed outstanding players such as Baron Davis, Quentin Richardson and Mike Miller due to various reasons, but this time it really wiped away the gloom of the past. In addition to Hinrich and Collison, the team also recruited Drew Gooden from California (note: now playing for the Cleveland Cavaliers), a big man who was one of the best in the country in terms of athleticism and flexibility.
As the pride of high school, Hinrich could only play a walk-on role in the team at first, but as the classic line goes: "Some birds cannot be caged because of their feathers." So beautiful."
Once after a big away win, the team bus was taking the players back to the school dormitory. The players went back to their rooms to celebrate. When coach Roy walked out of the dormitory, he found Hinrich parking the car alone late at night. Walking around the court, Hinrich, who was very dissatisfied with his performance, was reviewing his shortcomings. His love for basketball was enough to melt the wind and snow that hit him. Roy saw this, and he walked up to Hinrich and said: "Kid, you are the point guard I want."
Hinrich did not disappoint Roy. As the season progressed, he gradually occupied The position of the team's starting point guard. In the team's final thirteen games, Hinrich shot over 40% from three-point range and made Kansas' offense smoother. He scored 123 assists throughout the season, the fourth-highest total among all rookies in Kansas history. Kansas also won the Big 12 Conference championship for three consecutive years.
After the rookie season, Hinrich has not been idle. He very much hopes to join the American Dream Team 5 to compete in the Indiana World Championships. However, because the coaching staff of Dream Five valued Jay Williams from Duke University more, they had to give up Hinrich. Hinrich, who suffered the blow of losing the draft, did not lose heart, but worked harder to prepare for the new season.
As a sophomore, Hinrich was already an indispensable mainstay for Kansas, and the outstanding performance of Collison and Drew Gooden also made Hinrich an efficient off-court point guard. He averaged nearly 7 points per game. assists, and a terrifying 50.5% three-point shooting rate also rewrote the team's history record. Kansas, which had high hopes, lost to the University of Illinois in the 16-8 game in March Madness. Hinrich felt very guilty for the loss and was deeply aware of the importance of a good body in this kind of hand-to-hand combat. Since then, he has spent a lot more time in the gym than before, using sweat to gain 15 pounds of muscle.
Getting better:
Hinrich was generally considered by experts to be picked in the first round before the draft. However, due to the abundance of talents in the 2003 world, it is uncertain whether he can enter the lottery area. However, just one week before the draft, Jay Williams, the second overall pick of the Chicago Bulls in 2002, suddenly suffered a car accident and will not be able to play for a long time in the future. So the Bulls drafted Hinrich with the seventh overall pick in order to fill his void. Hinrich was very happy when he learned the news. He went to Las Vegas with his friends to celebrate, and he entered his rookie season in the NBA with great expectations.
Hinrich, who just arrived, seemed very unconfident at the beginning of the season. However, with the arrival of former Suns head coach Skiles, Hinrich has room to show his talents. Like general manager John Paxson, Skiles sees himself in Hinrich. They began efforts to mold Hinrich into a leader.
In the blink of an eye, the season has come to an end, and Hinrich is playing smarter and more confidently. He scored a season-high 29 points against the Orlando Magic, and a few days later scored his 14th of the season in the team's final meeting with the Pacers. Second double-double--18 points, 11 assists. Hinrich's assists and three-pointers ranked first among all rookie players, and these 144 three-pointers also ranked first among all rookies in Bulls history, and were rated by fans as the Bulls' season. Best player.
However, because the two veterans in the team, Scottie Pippen and Jalen Rose, are old and the other players are too young, the weak Bulls only achieved a record of 23-59. Although he dealt with failure most of the time, it should be said that Hinrich gained a lot in his first season. He was selected to the NBA Rookie First Team together with Dwyane Wade, LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, and Chris Bosh. The inside line composed of Eddy Curry and Tyson Chandler, who have repeatedly made low-level mistakes, also shows great potential.
In the 2004-05 season, the Bulls found several strong comrades for Hinrich---Ben Gordon from UConn and Chris Duhon from Duke, as well as Duhon's college teammate Luol Deng. and Argentinian Andreas Nocioni, the whole team seemed full of energy. However, in a preseason game against the Wizards, Hinrich was fouled by Larry Hughes during a breakthrough. He stood up and pushed each other. Then the two big men Antonio Davis and Brendan Haywood who were assisting in the game started to struggle with each other. The situation became even more chaotic. This group fight delayed the game for 3 minutes and 22 seconds. In the end, Hinrich, who was not calm, was fined $10,000 by the league.
After experiencing an embarrassing 9-game losing streak at the beginning of the season, the team made a bold change, placing Ben Gordon, who has strong offensive ability, in the sixth man position, and let Duhon and Hinrich form the starting lineup. Backcourt combination. This move worked well, and the Bulls' young teeth finally began to break out. They won 22 of the next 32 games. At the end of the season, they won 47 games, 24 more than last season, ranked second in the Central Group behind the Pistons, and reached the playoffs for the first time since Jordan retired in 1998. playoffs. Although they were eliminated by the Wizards 4:2 in the first round, they have given Bulls fans who have been depressed for a long time hope of revival.
In this season, Hinrich's technical statistics have improved in almost all areas. What's even more valuable is that when Duhon played more point guard, Hinrich's assists remained at a high level ( 6.4 times). Off the court, his low-key and easy-going personality and his example on and off the court also made Bulls teammates and fans trust and rely on him more. Hinrich was unanimously elected as the Bulls' new captain.
In Hinrich’s third season, the team traded away two inside players, Antonio Davis and Eddy Curry, and their record also declined compared to the previous season. With 41 wins and 41 losses, they had to finish third in the playoffs. In one round, they met the future championship winners, the Miami Heat. Although they did not escape the fate of being eliminated, the Bulls still caused a lot of trouble for the Heat. Hinrich performed very well, averaging 20.5 points and 7.7 assists per game. However, what is slightly lacking is that he made 24 turnovers in six games.
Bringing glory to the country:
After the season, Hinrich was also invited to Las Vegas to participate in the training camp of the Dream Seven Team preparing for the World Championships in Japan.
On the morning of July 25, Hinrich learned of the unfortunate death of his grandfather. Before returning to his hometown of Sioux, Hinrich told the media that he was very honored to lead his country in the competition and be with so many outstanding players. It feels great. Coach K also admired Hinrich very much. Although the team's roster was repeatedly reduced during preparations, Hinrich finally came to Japan with the team. Regrettably, the Dream Seven team, led by the new generation, lost to the Greek team in the semifinals and only won a bronze medal.
Looking to the future:
In the new season, the Bulls signed two-time Defensive Player of the Year Ben Wallace and drafted Tyrus Thomas, a rookie with excellent physical fitness. After a season of running-in, the team has gradually found the feeling of the game and its results have steadily improved. Hinrich's responsibility is also growing. Although he doesn't say it, in his heart he is very much looking forward to the moment when he holds the NBA championship trophy for Chicago fans.
In his junior year, as the team recruited a new point guard, Hinrich became a live player in the lineup and began to develop into a combo guard. This season, he averaged 15 points and 5 rebounds per game. 5 assists, and scored 21 points and 6 assists in a game against his old rival Missouri, leading the team to a 105:73 victory over the opponent. Hinrich had already attracted the attention of many NBA scouts at the time. The trio of him, Collison, and Gooden led Kansas to the national semifinals, but unfortunately lost to the later champion University of Maryland in the semifinals.
Drew Gooden immediately announced that he would drop out of school after the season and participate in the NBA draft. However, Hinrich and Collison, who are generally estimated to be worth the first round, chose to return to school for their senior years. They did not want to give up their last chance to play for Kansas. A chance to win.
In today's trend, if an NCAA star will attend school for four years, there are only two situations. One is a figure like Tim Duncan who is definitely the second overall pick, and the other is that he has difficulties with his own skills. To make up for the shortcomings, I have to stay until my senior year and look forward to proving myself with my results, like UCLA's Jason Kapono. Generally, players with potential will drop out of school when their value rises, but players like Hinrich who give up their first-round or even lottery opportunities to return to school to fight for honors are really rare.
In the new season, Hinrich has made a lot of adjustments. With the graduation and departure of outside pitcher Jeff Boschee (note: current assistant coach of the Blue Valley Northwest High School basketball team), Hinrich's position is basically fixed. The shooting guard and point guard are handed over to Aaron Miles. This transformation has stimulated Hinrich's scoring potential. He averaged 17.3 points and 3.5 assists per game and was selected to the Big 12 All-Conference Team by the Associated Press. As a result, Kansas once again reached the semifinals despite suffering from short-handedness and injuries. They defeated Marquette University 94:61 in the semifinals, but then lost to Syracuse University led by Carmelo Anthony in the finals. Hinrich felt bad throughout the game, especially when he missed a key three-pointer before the final whistle, causing the team to lose 78:81 with three points. In the locker room after the game, Hinrich also shed sad tears. His college career ended in this regretful game.
The question you asked: The highest this year seems to be 33 points and 13 assists