Unlike the other kids, Chris Middleton didn't finish the dunk until his junior year of high school. When he was 12 years old, his father drove him to a basketball training camp in Atlanta, and when he saw the other children flying on the court, Middleton had a sour feeling in his heart that he had always thought he was good, and when he came here, he realized how bad he was.
His father brought him here to tell others that there were people outside the sky. Middleton has been introverted since childhood, not as scrappy as other children who play ball.
In the ninth grade, Middleton was excluded from the varsity team because of his Spanish class score of only D. So his parents simply told him to stay away from everything about basketball and gave him two choices: either play in person or forget about basketball completely. Stimulated by this, Middleton worked hard to complete his Spanish class and achieved good results.
This "radical method" was used countless times in his later basketball career.
Towards the end of high school, Middleton received no attention from his home university. David Odom, a basketball coach at the University of South Carolina in the United States, once stumbled upon Middleton, but when he learned from the high school coach that Middleton could not even dunk, Odom immediately gave up the idea of understanding him.
Toward the end of his senior year, Middleton had been rejected by almost every college of his choice: he was too physically fit to dunk. His style of play is too old-fashioned, and deliberately imitating the classical quarterback does not satisfy the college scouts.
Fortunately, Middleton's parents still opened up a college path for him: Texas A&M University. A&M University coach Mark Trung highly regards Middleton, even though he is almost 20 years old, he has no leg hair.
After two years of college, Middleton has secured the starting position of the team and is considered by scouts to be selected in the first round.
He had planned to run directly, but Mark Brown asked him to stay another year because Brown thought he still had room to rise. Brown was poached by the University of Maryland less than a year ago, and Middleton tore the meniscus in his right knee in college games. After returning from injury, he was very careful in every move on the court, a phenomenon that was seen by scouts, and he was labeled "soft" because of it.
2012 was the big year of the NBA Draft: Anthony Davis, Bradley Beale, Rivers Jr., Damian Lillard, and Andre Drummond all resounded with thunderous names. While everyone was debating how far the gifted thick-browed brother could get the Pelicans, Middleton and his father were afraid to look at the big screen anymore because the first round of the draft was over and his name hadn't been pronounced yet.
Fortunately, Pistons general manager Jodumas took a look at Middleton: "I don't see a weak player, he's just playing at his own pace. ”
Middleton came to the NBA and played in the Orlando Summer League at the request of the team. Once he finished a game with the Pistons' assistant coach, And Jodumas just passed by. Dumas walked up to Middleton without mercy and sternly rebuked him: This is not a university, you have to pick up your spirits. You're playing too soft, it's not a contact game, it's a MLS basketball!
To help him, Pistons assistant coach Brown brought in Inglish and pistons at the time, "Golden Bombers" Singer and Middleton, to train one-on-one and team two before the game. They carefully calculated the score, spraying garbage words, and the scene was quite intense. Even Greg Monroe couldn't resist staying and watching.
This training obviously inspired Middleton's fighting spirit, and even if he was later sent down to the Development League by the Pistons, he still did not change his mind, because he knew that when his injury healed, the lion in his heart would definitely return. It is this training that allows Middleton's defensive potential to be unleashed. On the offensive end, Middleton's shooting pace has been perfect, it is not an exaggeration to say that no Pistons player can completely lock him up, and one of the Pistons' Five Tigers, Tyshaun Prince, gave him the nickname "Baby Joe Johnson".
However, the Pistons did not care about the progress of the second-round show, and they wanted to get the most popular 55 points Mr. Brandon Jennings. They used Knight as their main chip and Middleton as scraps in exchange for jennings, the "wounded genius" Jennings.
That same year, the Bucks poached head coach Kidd from the Nets. The Nets' "old version of the Big Five" left a big shadow on Kidd, and as soon as he arrived at the Bucks, he fell in love with Middleton and established him as a core player.
At Kidd's behest, Middleton defended harder, breaking the old one-man habits, perfecting his right-handed offense, right-hand low-post offense (he's a master of the left), and shooting more three-pointers. But Kidd sometimes yells at Middleton in training for being "terrible" because he knows it will stoke Middleton's fighting spirit.
In seasons 15 and 16, Middleton averaged 18 points per game, becoming a quasi-All-Star-level forward swingman, and his defensive efficiency ranked eighth in the league. With him in and without him, the Bucks are completely two teams.
It's only at this time that Kidd's hellish monster Antetokounmpo has been "finished," and another Milwaukee genius, Jabari Parker, has emerged from the shadow of injury.
In the middle of the season, Middleton's left hamstring muscle was torn. During his injuries, he became "half disabled", unable to take care of himself and able to maintain basic mobility with the help of friends. During his recovery, Antetokounmpo has become the bucks' well-deserved core of the future.
After returning from injury, Middleton was in a bit of a slump. He even suffered from severe septic laryngitis, the kind of disease in which he had to insert a needle into his throat to drain pus and blood. But the Bucks had signed a five-year, $70 million contract with him the year before, and the general manager was so worried every day during that time that he put a Middleton's head-shaking doll on his desk to remind himself that if he was fired, it was because of him.
In the 2017-18 season, the Bucks met the Celtics in the first round of the playoffs. The two sides fought to grab seven, Middleton averaged 25+5+5 per game, shooting 60% from the field and three-point shooting! Since then, he has become the "man" that Green Army fans call.
The following year, Spurs coach Budenholzer parachuted into the Bucks, and the Bucks had the league's first regular season record. Averaging 18.3 points, six rebounds and 4.3 assists per game, Middleton, the team's second-best scorer, was named an All-Star for the first time in his career. The media's impression of him has changed dramatically: low-key, stable, powerful, reliable.
Last season, Middleton made 48 appearances for the Bucks, averaging 19.4 points per game and 5.5+ 5.3 assists and steals. But even so, his popularity is still not as good as his teammates Alphabet Brother, not as good as those "talented" players who like to sensationalize. But he didn't care: "My father said that I was late in life, but I knew my own strength, from beginning to end." ”