Chapter 11 Talents to be cultivated
That night, the five men got drunk, said many heartfelt words, and shed many tears.
In the next three days, Monkey went to Northeast China, where his father found him a job in a government agency. Crab returned to Hainan, saying he was going to be a physical education teacher. Crow went to Beijing, saying he would not come back unless he made something of himself. Local Haozi also left Donghua and went to Guangdong to start a company.
Yang Mo spent these three days in pain. Every time he saw off a brother, he felt like his heart was stabbed and empty, not knowing whether he would be able to meet them again in the future.
On the fourth day, with Zhou Yiyi's help, Yang Mo applied for the 2008 NBA draft. He wanted to take a chance, even though he was rejected by the CBA youth team last year because of his poor physical strength. Now, Yang Mo's strength is already top-notch, even in the NBA, so he wanted to give it a try.
Yang Mo submitted her application for the talent show and was quickly accepted. As long as you pay a small deposit and meet the age requirement, people may not choose you anyway.
Therefore, Yang Mo's participation in the draft did not cause any sensation, not even the slightest ripple. People are now more focused on who will be the No. 1 pick, and whether the Bulls, who have the No. 1 pick, will choose Michael Beasley, a stats maniac, or Derek Rose, who has amazing physical fitness and is known for unlimited potential, or OJ Mayo, who was compared to LeBron James in high school.
Before going to the United States, Zhou Yiyi arranged Yang Mo into the corporate team of Jinding Group.
Although it is a corporate team, it is full of big names. Donghua has a hot basketball atmosphere, and several companies are willing to spend money. Every year, you can see national team players and even some NBA players in the corporate cup. For these big players, it is the off-season anyway, and any money they can make is a lot of money. Who wouldn't do it if they can earn millions of dollars by playing a few games?
When Zhou Yiyi took Yang Mo to the internal gym of the Jinding Group, he was frightened by the group of big men who were training. These players were usually only seen on TV. Zhu Fangyu, Wang Shipeng, Chen Jianghua, Wang Zhizhi, Sun Yue, and Mike Harris, who was beaten up by Yang Mo a few days ago. Although the remaining few were not well-known, judging from their actions, they should be good players in the youth team.
"Your Jinding Group is willing to invest a lot of money." Yang Mo turned his head and joked with Zhou Yiyi.
Zhou Yiyi smiled slightly when he heard this, and whispered in Yang Mo's ear, "There are some things you don't understand. This is a business that is guaranteed to make money. Many leaders of our municipal party committee like to watch basketball games, so my dad and others are working hard to organize basketball games. Moreover, there are subsidies for winning the championship, which can be regarded as supporting cultural and sports work."
"I was wondering why these unscrupulous businessmen were willing to spend money. It turns out that the leaders like it." Yang Mo said sarcastically.
"Okay, stop being an angry young man." Zhou Yiyi pulled Yang Mo's sleeve, took Yang Mo to the center of the field, then clapped his hands and called the players over.
These players were not dealing with the Jinding Group for the first time, and knowing that this was the daughter of the big boss, they immediately gathered around. The head coach also came over.
"This is our new player. I hope we can get along harmoniously, make progress together, and strive to win the championship." Zhou Yiyi did not say that Yang Mo was her boyfriend. She knew that Yang Mo was very concerned about her reputation and did not want to be seen as someone who got in through the backdoor.
"Yang Mo, please introduce yourself." After Zhou Yiyi's brief opening remarks, he asked Yang Mo to introduce herself.
Yang Mo nodded, looked around, and found that no one looked at her seriously. If Zhou Yiyi hadn't been here, she would have left long ago. They didn't bother to give Yang Mo this face. After all, Yang Mo was just a little-known character to them.
Yang Mo suppressed her displeasure and introduced herself simply: "My name is Yang Mo, I play small forward, and sometimes power forward."
As soon as Yang Mo made this introduction, someone immediately burst out laughing. This laughter immediately infected others, and then they all laughed together.
Yang Mo didn't think what he said was funny, but to these professional players, it was a huge joke. Because Yang Mo looked too small. With this height, it would be a blessing for him to play point guard in a professional team. Small forward? Power forward? Isn't this a joke? In China, if you are not a 2.10 meter power forward, you will be embarrassed to say hello to people when you go out.
"Hey, what are you laughing at? This guy is very strong, I lost to him." Although Mike Harris did not understand Chinese, he heard the sarcasm in their laughter and immediately stood up to defend Yang Mo.
But he was speaking English after all, how could these quasi-illiterate people who had been in the training team since childhood understand him? Only Wang Zhizhi and Sun Yue understood and looked at Yang Mo a little more.
At this time, Zhou Yiyi also wanted to explain something, but Yang Mo held her back and signaled her not to speak. In Yang Mo's opinion, nothing was more convincing than action. She would beat them up and see if they still dared to be so arrogant.
After being stopped by Yang Mo, Zhou Yiyi stopped talking. At this moment, his cell phone rang, and he hurried out.
As soon as Zhou Yi left, Wang Yuhuai, the head coach of the Guangdong Youth Team, immediately called everyone together and announced a group competition.
Soon, the players were divided, with five national players as the main team, and the other youth players plus Mike Harris as substitutes. The Jinding Group's corporate team had a total of twelve people, including Yang Mo, so naturally he was not allowed to play. To the head coach, Yang Mo was just a wild boy who came out of nowhere, so he was too lazy to send him to the field to embarrass himself.
There was certainly no suspense in the game. The five-man national team faced the four youth team members led by Mike Harris. Of course, it was like cutting melons and vegetables. They were beaten 20:5 in less than ten minutes, and all five points were scored by Harris alone.
Mike Harris was fed up with such a bad game. He thought that he had been dragged down by two stupid teammates a few days ago and suffered the greatest humiliation in his life. Was he going to lose again today?
He quickly called a timeout, then pointed at Yang Mo and said to Wang Yuhuai, "Coach, replace this guy. I want him."
Although Wang Yuhuai didn't quite understand what Mike Harris said, he roughly understood what he meant. Anyway, to him, this was just a sparring team, and it didn't matter who played, so he waved his hand and approved it.
After Yang Mo got the chance to play, he immediately said to Mike Harris: "You will be responsible for scoring, and I will take care of the interior defense."
"Okay." Mike Harris knew Yang Mo's defensive ability and agreed immediately. After all, he was beaten . In his opinion, Yang Mo was the best inside player in China besides Yao Ming.
Mike Harris knew that Yang Mo was very strong, but the other players didn't know that. They only heard Yang Mo speak fluent English and thought that he might have returned from abroad, so they paid more attention.
Ding! As the youth team player who temporarily acted as the referee blew the whistle, Yang Mo passed the ball to Mike Harris and quickly ran inside.
After running to the inside, Yang Mo immediately stood there, motionless. Seeing this, Zhu Fangyu, who was defending him, couldn't help but laugh, thinking to himself: "This guy's sense of position is too poor. He still plays power forward?"
At this moment, Mike Harris took a shot from outside the three-point line. The moment he shot, he shouted "Rebound"!
It was obvious that he had no confidence in his shot. It would be a miracle if he could make the shot when he was double-teamed by Chen Jianghua and Sun Yue.
Sure enough, bang!
The basketball hit the front of the basket heavily, and then flew high between Yang Mo and Zhu Fangyu.
Zhu Fangyu secretly shouted "Great!" and just when he was about to jump up to grab the rebound, he was pushed hard by Yang Mo and his body flew out immediately...Puff!
He fell heavily to the floor, catching him completely off guard.
Before he could understand what was happening, Yang Mo had already grabbed the backboard and jumped high... Boom!
Yang Mo slammed the basketball into the basket with both hands!
"Good shot!" The youth team members watching the game off the court couldn't help but stand up and cheer for Yang Mo with their fists clenched.
Mike Harris quickly ran over, bumped chests with Yang Mo, and then proudly shouted to the five members of the national team: "Didn't I tell you that he is very strong?"
Wang Yuhuai was somewhat stunned by Mike Harris's shouting, and murmured to himself in a low voice: "Is this kid really a promising talent? Zhu Fangyu is quite strong, how come he was knocked away by just a slight squeeze from him... His arms are really amazing, they look even longer than Dazhi's!"
