Chapter 13 Do you want a ticket?
The scene was a little awkward. Xu Jicheng didn't know whether Zhang Hao was Chinese American or Chinese. He watched the dunk contest tonight and also watched Zhang Hao's interview. From the interview to the video of Zhang Hao's self-introduction, Xu Jicheng felt that Zhang Hao had completely different personality traits from domestic athletes and was quite extroverted. It is quite difficult to check a person's information these days. In China, even fugitives with known identity information are difficult to track down after crossing provinces, let alone in a foreign country.
But having been a reporter for more than ten years, Xu Jicheng had a thick face. He smiled and said, "Sorry, sorry, let's start the interview..."
Xu Jicheng simply skipped this topic. After all, it was just text news, so he could just not write this paragraph. However, he planned to add this paragraph to his own book "NBA 50 Years" to be published next year. The requirements for the country's official media and his own books are different.
"I'll just call you Aix. Congratulations on winning the slam dunk contest."
"Thanks."
"Why did you want to participate in the dunk contest?"
Zhang Hao felt the embarrassment of the domestic media when asked the first question. It was really too embarrassing. His first reaction was to say, "I participated because they invited me." But think about it, if you want to be a coach, you don't have to be in the United States, you can also go back to China! When international students return to China and study in domestic sports universities, those schools offer much higher salaries. If you have a reputation in advance, you may really be able to become a coach for a domestic basketball team at a young age.
Resisting the urge to complain, Zhang Hao thought for a moment and replied, "For the dream.
I wanted to be a good basketball player, so I came to try my abilities.
I have a dream, which may sound ridiculous to you . I want to become the greatest athlete and the greatest sports person in the history of Chinese sports. I want to join the Chinese men's basketball team in the future. I want to change the weak position of the Chinese men's basketball team in the world basketball arena, and I want to become the head coach of the Chinese men's basketball team in the future... But I know it is difficult, so I will take it step by step with my feet on the ground..."
No matter what, Zhang Hao saw that he only had a year to live, so he started bragging first.
However, Xu Jicheng listened to Zhang Hao's extremely difficult dream and calm tone, and it seemed that he was not going to speak immediately...
This is the answer from an 18 year old high school student?
If Xu Jicheng hadn't known that Zhang Hao didn't have an agent, he would have thought that this was Zhang Hao's agent who taught him. He started looking for Zhang Hao's contact information when Zhang Hao passed the tryouts, but he couldn't find it at the time. Inglewood High School refused to disclose student information. As for McDonald's, their Xinhua News Agency had no interest in the American high school All-Star Game at first, and wanted to interview them on the spur of the moment, but did not get permission from the participating players.
It was not until Zhang Hao won the dunk contest tonight that he got the opportunity to interview Zhang Hao from McDonald's.
Xu Jicheng felt the "dream" and "youth" in Zhang Hao's words. Suddenly, he recalled that 9 years ago, when he just graduated from Shandong University, he wanted to change the chaos in the Chinese media industry...
However, he is still too young! Xu Jicheng was ready to help Zhang Hao polish his words. How could he say that the national team was "weak"? He should say "I want to help the national team go global."
The meaning is the same, but it sounds completely different. Those senior officials in the domestic sports bureau who are amateurs in charge of professionals cannot stand good words.
These are the hardships Xu Jicheng has experienced after entering the workplace. It is rare to see a young man like Zhang Hao. He can't help Zhang Hao much in his career. An 18-year-old high school student... Xu Jicheng doesn't know what Zhang Hao's future will be like, but he is still prepared to help. If Zhang Hao fails in the future, that's fine. If Zhang Hao really makes a name for himself in the future, as a basketball fan, Xu Jicheng would of course like to see a Chinese player step onto the world's highest level basketball stage.
Xu Jicheng's next questions mainly revolved around Zhang Hao's performance in high school and his life after coming to the United States... Not many of them would be written into the news, but there were many topics he was going to write into his own special edition of "NBA 50 Years" titled "Chinese Athletes Pursuing NBA Dreams."
Ten minutes later, the interview ended, and Zhang Hao and Xu Jicheng took a group photo with the McDonald's advertising billboard as the background.
This was the request McDonald's made to Xu Jicheng, that the words "McDonald's All-Star Slam Dunk Contest" should be marked in the news, and the pictures should also have McDonald's advertisements as the background.
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“Oh…”
Back at the hotel, Zhang Hao turned into a crying monster on the bed, rolling around on the sheets... Unfortunately, he was alone.
As a young man, and an athlete at that, he is very restless.
But when the dunk contest was over, some female classmates who came to watch the game, as well as some female students from local universities in Los Angeles, rushed into the court to congratulate him and stuffed small notes with contact information into his clothes. He gave them to his teammates in front of April Clark... Now, he feels a little regretful.
After getting up and taking a shower, Zhang Hao's complicated emotions calmed down.
He was very excited about winning the dunk contest, but he knew very well that this was not an important award. In fact, in the eyes of professional players, it was not an award at all. High school... was always just high school.
Even if you are the top high school student in the United States in the future Internet era, you will be a joke if you don't play well in the professional arena.
From the post-match interviews, Zhang Hao could tell that the mainstream media was not interested in him. Those reporters were obviously invited by McDonald's. It was more like an advertisement for McDonald's than reporting news. He didn't know how many times he thanked McDonald's for providing this stage.
The final interview with Xinhua News Agency was only for publicity purposes by McDonald's.
However, after tonight's slam dunk contest, Zhang Hao can live 30 more days. He was very happy and also received a medal!
He didn't have time to read it, and he was confused again when he returned to the hotel. He was affected by complex thoughts of both excitement and calmness. Now that he has calmed down, Zhang Hao immediately wants to know the purpose of this medal.
With a thought, subtitles appeared, and this time, I entered an interface of "Medal Hall".
The silver medal and the gold medal are both marked with "0", and the bronze medal is marked with "1".
Opening the bronze medal page, Zhang Hao saw the "Slam Dunk Master" medal he received tonight.
“Slam Dunk Master (Bronze) (Not Worn): After the signed player wears it, every time he completes a dunk in the game, the enthusiasm of the entire team in the next three rounds will be greatly improved.”
This badge is very useful! Zhang Hao thought about it and thought that if this badge is given to the best dunker in the team, the enthusiasm of the players on both offense and defense can be greatly improved in the next few rounds after the dunk! If it is the future era of inside players eating cakes, it will definitely be very useful.
"Wait, am I not an excellent dunker?"
Zhang Hao had an idea, and the words "not worn" behind the "Slam Dunk Master" medal immediately changed to "Wearing player: Zhang Hao".
Done!
He still has 422 days to live, which is not a long time, but he still has a chance to extend his life. Perhaps this dunk contest can make some universities interested in him. Such an event may be seen by the public as just a fun event, but it should still have a certain influence on the student community and schools.
He was spotted and invited to study in high school in the United States because of his top athletic ability. He has now demonstrated his talent in this area to those universities. As for the result...it's up to fate!
In fact, what he wants most now is no longer a scholarship. Of course, this is very important. What he wants is to be valued by the university team so that he can have the opportunity to play and perform. The most direct way is to get a full basketball scholarship.
With a thought, Zhang Hao turned off the subtitles. He really didn't want to see the cruel fact that he only had 422 days left to live.
Now even the thought of "It's great to live one more year" brought by the memories of the future has slowly faded. Although there are no smartphones and technology is not developed these days, girls don't have beauty filters! Although it's not easy to get along in the United States, I still have the possibility of getting along well and have the opportunity to become a professional athlete!
Zhang Hao’s goal of “living to old age” is becoming more and more determined.
Opening the envelope of the dunk contest prize, Zhang Hao found a small stack of US dollars and four pieces of paper. He counted them and found 1995 US dollars, a huge sum of money! He would not need to ask his family for money in the next two months.
As the saying goes, the poor are good at literature, the rich are good at martial arts. Unlike those black Americans living in slums, he does not have food distributed by the government, so his food consumption is quite high. As for Pierce, he has a brother who is a professional athlete, a brother who is an assistant coach, and his mother also runs an apartment, so he can live such a comfortable life.
Zhang Hao saves money every month and is very thrifty, but still spends seven or eight hundred US dollars a month.
The family can afford this, but Zhang Hao still feels that any help in reducing the burden on the family is a plus.
However, the 1995 US dollars is secondary. The real prize is the four pieces of paper!
Two 3rd row tickets for the Lakers home game tomorrow night! And two 3rd row tickets for the Lakers first round game 4 or second round game 2!
After the Lakers grab the home-court advantage in the first game of the first round, they can sell tickets for the fourth game. If they sweep and advance, they will switch to tickets for the first home game of the second round, which is the second game of the second round.
When Zhang Hao saw the ticket, the first person he thought of was the person he wanted to invite to watch the game. However, there was a talkative fat guy in the next room...
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The next morning, Zhang Hao went to the front desk to return the room card to the hotel. McDonald's only paid the room fee until last night. It was still early, just after 7 o'clock in the morning. Pierce had been sleeping in every day since he received the promise of a full basketball scholarship from the University of Kansas. Zhang Hao first took his things back to the apartment, washed and dried the clothes he had taken off in the past few days, and then came to the Great Western Forum again.
Since Zhang Hao had just won the dunk contest held in this stadium last night, the staff knew him. After hearing his purpose, they made an internal call to inquire and took Zhang Hao to the president's office.
The staff knocked on the door and there was a response from inside. Before the staff could open the door, the person inside had already opened it.
What caught Zhang Hao's eyes was a mature woman who looked to be in her 30s and was dressed quite uninhibitedly...A mature woman, Zhang Hao felt that she had been developed to the point where she could not be more mature.
And it looks familiar...
"Isn't this Jeanie Buss, the future big boss of the Lakers? She was so unrestrained when she was young?"
None of the staff dared to stay any longer, for fear of making a fool of themselves. She was the most capable of the Lakers owner's children. In her 20s, she was quite famous in the Los Angeles modeling industry and had been the cover girl of Playboy for many times... She had become the Lakers' vice president of operations at the age of 34. She looked unrestrained... and her private life was indeed chaotic, but in the team, she was quite authoritative, second only to owner Jerry Buss, and had the same say as general manager Jerry West.
The staff ran away, but Zhang Hao was still staring at the other person, which made Jenny Buss feel very happy. She was in her 30s, but she could still be stared at by an 18-year-old boy... Mainly because Zhang Hao's parents gave him a good appearance, he was tall and good-looking.
"Hello, I'm the Lakers' operations manager, Aix. Is it okay for me to call you that? Please come in..."
Jeanie Buss put one hand on Zhang Hao's forearm and took Zhang Hao into the office.
As management of an NBA team, they should not have contact with a basketball player and student, but Zhang Hao came to exchange tickets, so there was no problem.
After sitting down, Zhang Hao realized that he seemed to have been... teased?
I was seduced by a mature woman in her 30s!
And it looks like there is no trace of it... This woman wants an old cow to eat young grass!
Zhang Hao is narcissistic again...
However, Zhang Hao was obviously overthinking. Perhaps this was her habit. After all, she was a socialite. After sitting down, Jeanie Buss followed the procedure and did not do anything extra. She took out a standard form and said, "Axel, do you want to change the time of the ticket for last night's dunk contest championship prize?"
"Yes, I have another friend who wants to watch the Lakers game together. He has been a Lakers fan since he was a child..."
Zhang Hao answered this very honestly, because it was the truth. However, before he finished speaking, the other party asked first: "Let me guess, the first player of California basketball this year is Paul Pierce, right?"
“That’s right…”
Pierce is much more famous in California than Zhang Hao. In addition to his very good playing performance in the past two years, his two brothers have also brought him some attention in the local area. The Lakers have long known that he is a Lakers fan. If there is an opportunity, the Lakers will definitely give priority to Pierce when he participates in the draft... Of course, Pierce has to play well in college.
Jeanie Buss didn't ask who the other person was. She followed the procedures and rules, called the internal line to ask the sales department, the finance department... After a series of procedures, she said to Zhang Hao: "There is only one seat next to you tonight. Do you want to change it? Or change to another seat."
"Then just change one, and don't use the other one."
After confirmation, Jeanie Buss made a few more phone calls and soon, a stadium employee brought a ticket to Jeanie Buss.
Without chatting too much, Zhang Hao said goodbye after exchanging the tickets. Jeanie Buss didn't do anything extra either. In terms of complying with NBA rules, Jeanie Buss did a very good job.
Complying with team rules and regulations and having strong abilities are the reasons why Jeanie Buss, despite being a woman, is regarded by her father Jerry Buss as the child most like him.
When Zhang Hao left the stadium, he saw many people queuing up at the ticket window to buy tickets for tonight's second game in the Lakers-Supersonics series and at least one more Lakers home game.
Zhang Hao looked at the four tickets in his hand, put away the three tickets for tonight's game, hesitated for a moment... and soon stopped hesitating. He walked around in the crowd, first eavesdropping on those who were obviously scalpers and listening to their offers. Then he walked around in the crowd again and finally found his target. This person was complaining that the front row seats for the next Lakers home game were sold out... Zhang Hao knew that this was because the tickets that were meant to be sold were sold out.
Zhang Hao acted decisively and moved forward stealthily.
The other party was startled when he saw a tall man approaching. The Chinese man smiled like a salesperson and asked, "Hey, do you want a ticket?"
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6275 US dollars!
It's been a long time since I had so much money in my pocket! Zhang Hao smiled as he returned to the apartment.
I found out the market price this morning. The 3rd row tickets for the 4th game of the first round of the Lakers were originally priced at US$972. After the Lakers defeated the SuperSonics in the first game, they were quickly sold out. Because they were pre-sale tickets, there was a high probability that they would become tickets for the second round. From the first game, although the Lakers' record was not as good as the SuperSonics, their performance in the playoffs was obviously better than that of the SuperSonics. After all, the Lakers have three quasi-All-Star players, so they sold very well. Scalpers also increased the price sharply. The 3rd row was sold for more than US$3,500, and there was no demand. The scalpers were selling tickets for the stands, and the front row tickets were basically bought out as soon as they were taken out.
Zhang Hao directly offered a price of US$4,000, and the other party bought it without hesitation, even if there was only one.
Being a scalper... and a business with no capital investment, Zhang Hao felt a little excited.
He didn't expect it to sell for such a high price.
"I should have known I wouldn't have exchanged the ticket for that guy above. It's 4,000 dollars... I think someone would buy two tickets at a 50% increase..."
Looking back to yesterday, I had less than 300 US dollars left in my pocket, and I was still struggling with when to call home. International transfers are still a bit troublesome, unlike in the future when I can just use a mobile app to do it. Now I don’t have to worry about food for a while.
Put the two seat numbers next to each other and go to the room upstairs. Pierce lived here, which was next to the landlady's room.
As soon as Pierce got home, his mother scolded him, but he was used to it. He had been beaten since he was a child. His two older brothers were so outstanding in their school days, so he had to be outstanding too, otherwise he would be beaten. But no one knew that he would become such an outstanding basketball player in the future. After all, there were so many good players in high school and college, but only a few of them could enter the NBA.
But he was still depressed. He just went out for a few days and played games, but he was punished to clean the corridor. He put his luggage away and was about to clean the corridor with a broom and mop when Zhang Hao came.
"Paul, here, for you, the ticket for tonight's game, in the third row..." Zhang Hao simply and directly stuffed the ticket into Pierce's hand.
"Lakers tickets? Oh my god, they're really Lakers tickets! They're expensive, right? How can I accept your tickets..." Pierce said this, but he didn't refuse at all. He took the tickets and straightened them out like a treasure. "Did you buy two tickets with your bonus?"
Pierce knows this event better than Zhang Hao . The prize money for the first high school dunk contest was US$1,993 two years ago, and US$1,994 last year. In theory, there will be no change this year.
As for the Lakers game tickets, Pierce has checked and found that the front row tickets are unaffordable and the stand tickets are more than 50 US dollars. For him, it is better to spend a dozen US dollars to watch the live broadcast at home.
"No, it seems to be the All-Stars prize provided by the Great Western Forum."
"That's great. It's still better to hold the competition in Los Angeles. The prizes are always more than those held in other places. Front row tickets for the Lakers. I've never sat so close to the court. Thank you so much. When I become an NBA superstar in the future, I will definitely repay you. I will treat you to lunch today. Wait for me. I will clean the corridor and my mother will definitely give me money..."
