Chapter 16 Why is everyone unhappy?
" You're amazing. The environment here is really nice...ah...are you driving without a license? Can I call the police to have you arrested?" Zhang Hao looked at him and yawned while teasing.
This is a park near the hotel, only 5 minutes’ drive away. There are several flower beds, some exercise equipment for the elderly, two basketball courts, and a small baseball field at the innermost part that can be used for batting.
The 16-year-old Kobe rented a car and brought Zhang Hao, Hamilton, and Bibby, who was forcibly dragged along by Zhang Hao, to the park.
Kobe heard what Zhang Hao said and shrugged slightly: "I'm sorry to disappoint you, I just got my driver's license last month."
A driver's license is a prerequisite for graduating from high school in the United States. Almost everyone will take the test after the age of 16. After Zhang Hao came to the United States, he also took a driver's license test at the age of 16.
Hearing what Kobe said, Zhang Hao couldn't help but start spitting poison again: "What's so proud of getting a driver's license? You act like you don't have a license."
"He didn't pass the exam." Kobe said and pointed at Hamilton, who had a gloomy face.
Although Kobe is mature in many aspects, such as having strong psychological qualities, he is still a 16-year-old boy after all, very boastful and a little childish.
They got up in the early morning to train, and by then everyone had become a little familiar with each other. However, after the four of them became familiar with each other, it meant that they were not so polite, and then their "true natures" were exposed. Each of the four had an extremely quiet side, and they soon quieted down and did warm-up exercises.
After Zhang Hao finished warming up, he started practicing mid-range shots. It was the first time for him to train so early. However, no one would disturb him at this time, which made him feel particularly comfortable. He understood why Kobe liked to get up so early to train. It was indeed very comfortable.
However, as he was practicing, he found that the other three people who had originally occupied a half of the court to practice shooting came to the sidelines of the half he was training on to watch. Hamilton and Bibby, who were on the opposite court about seven or eight meters away, also came over to watch.
Seeing Zhang Hao's shooting posture that couldn't be more standard, and his training shots that were ridiculously accurate... Hamilton was full of questions - is this the legendary dunker with top athletic ability? Is it really like Kobe said, his mid-range shots are so accurate!
Not to mention Hamilton, even Bibby, who had trained with Zhang Hao before, widened his eyes. After watching Zhang Hao's set of shooting training, he couldn't believe it. He watched another set, and then Bibby could only admit - compared to the last time they trained together, this guy's mid-range shooting has improved by one level, no, it has improved by at least two levels!
In two groups of 100 shots, Zhang Hao made 94 in the first group and 91 in the second group! Straight to the point, this is the training performance.
Zhang Hao ignored external things and entered the training state. He started to throw the ball at a small angle and then ran up to catch it and shoot. At this time, Kobe stopped watching first. He was stimulated and determined to practice mid-range shooting better than this guy.
Hamilton was a little dazed. Since he started playing basketball, no one of his peers has ever been better at mid-range shooting than him, not even Kobe. He always thought that he was the most accurate mid-range shooter among his peers.
But today I saw Zhang Hao...
Although Zhang Hao is one and a half years older than Hamilton, the age difference of one and a half years is quite obvious in teenagers, but it is more of a difference in physical development. As for something like shooting, Hamilton estimates that it will be difficult for him to reach Zhang Hao's level in three years, let alone one and a half years!
This is not the mid-range shot that an 18-year-old high school student should have. It's simply too outrageous!
But Hamilton really admired him. To be able to practice mid-range shooting to such a level at this age, he estimated that Zhang Hao must have trained very hard and spent a lot of time. He couldn't help but feel admiration for him.
Kobe had the same feeling, but he turned this emotion into motivation - Hamilton was only slightly better than him in mid-range shooting, and this time there was a guy he was completely no match for. He couldn't stand it and had to practice like crazy!
Bibby couldn't stay calm. He thought of Zhang Hao's short video introducing himself in the McDonald's Slam Dunk Contest - he had been training basketball for two and a half years...
"This guy really only took two and a half years to get his shooting to this level?"
Originally, Bibby didn't take this self-introduction seriously. It's not that he thought it was false, but he didn't pay attention to that sentence at all. However, compared to the fact that Zhang Hao was only one level better than him in mid-range shooting a dozen days ago, Zhang Hao has now left him far behind. This suddenly reminded him of Zhang Hao's words.
Bibby was very sure that Zhang Hao was definitely not in bad shape during the McDonald's All-Star Game, because he had practiced with Zhang Hao for two mornings and knew Zhang Hao's level a dozen days ago. But now thinking about it carefully, Zhang Hao's training at that time was different from others, and it seemed that there were some adjustments from time to time.
What kind of self-learning ability is this? The key is that now it seems that those adjustments are effective!
Bibi had to believe that Zhang Hao was really a trainee who had been training for two and a half years...
No, he is a basketball player who has been practicing for two and a half years . Moreover, Bibby feels that Zhang Hao may not have trained seriously before and only started to practice seriously recently!
This is totally unfair!
Bibby had been confused before. After the McDonald's All-Star Game, he specifically looked up Zhang Hao's information, but could not find much. If he hadn't checked, Bibby really wouldn't know who this peer with such outstanding athletic ability and superb mid-range shooting was.
Through the information he found, Bibby learned that Zhang Hao had excellent academic performance, but he encountered many setbacks when applying for scholarships from NCAA Division I schools.
So, Bibby imagined what Zhang Hao would look like in his mind - a super genius After being treated unfairly by the university, he began to train hard and then made rapid progress...
Imagination is the most deadly. Bibby has already regarded Zhang Hao as someone with such high talent that even he is afraid of him.
As for Zhang Hao, after practicing 500 shots in 5 groups, he stopped shooting training and started practicing waist and abdomen training without any equipment.
Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, hips fixed, upper body straight and turn left and right; stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, hands raised, hips fixed and tilted to the left and right... and other simple exercises.
Although he has always been in good physical condition, he has not done too much physically demanding training. He will have a physical test this morning, and his physical condition will definitely be a factor in whether he is selected for the final list.
Even Bibby's physical condition is not bad, but his running and jumping abilities are not that good. In terms of speed, strength, flexibility, etc., Bibby is definitely a very good high school student, and his skills are comparable to those of college students.
Zhang Hao's skills are monotonous. Apart from running, catching the ball and making mid-range shots, he has no other strengths, so he attaches great importance to physical testing.
However, as they were practicing, Zhang Hao suddenly realized that their training atmosphere had become even more bizarre. He looked at the sky and saw that the moon was almost full. It was only a few days away from the 15th day of the lunar month. With such a bright moon, a sunny day, and good weather, Zhang Hao felt that the air pressure was exceptionally low...
"Shouldn't training be a happy thing for these three brothers? What happened today?"
…
At 6:30 in the morning, after finishing the training, Zhang Hao and his group returned to the hotel, went back to their respective rooms, took a shower, and made an appointment to have breakfast together.
Teenagers’ worries won’t last too long, even for precocious teenagers like .
When it comes to training, they will practice harder because of the shooting gap between them and Zhang Hao, but away from the court, they are still good boys. Look, while eating, Zhang Hao clearly felt that the low pressure he had on the training ground before was gone.
When they arrived at the restaurant, their already popular trio, with Bibi in tow, attracted a lot of attention! When they entered the restaurant, the other high school students stared at them, making Zhang Hao feel creepy.
Although Kobe is also famous, he is still too young, only 16 years old. He does not have as high a status in the minds of high school basketball players as Garnett, who is considered a top ten pick if he runs for the draft directly now, or Bibby, who is considered a strong contender for the No. 1 pick in the future.
In the minds of high school students and in media news reports, the real genius who can be compared with Bibby and Garnett is not Kobe, nor Zhang Hao, but Shareef Rahim, the 19-year-old super genius from Joseph Wheeler High School, who is also regarded as the future favorite for the No. 1 pick.
This is Zhang Hao's cognitive bias. He has always believed that Kobe is the strongest outside player of this class, not only because Kobe will achieve the highest achievements in the future, but also because of the amount of news he can find about high school basketball players, only Garnett can be compared with Kobe.
But in fact, other high school students are more unhappy about the fact that Kobe is often in the news. It’s simple, they just don’t accept it!
Garnett was truly invincible in high school and was compared to Moses Malone. Many talented high school students believed that Kobe just had a good dad who was good at creating hype.
Zhang Hao is the dunk king among high school students. Many people are not convinced by this title. Although after watching the replay of the dunk contest, few of them think they can dunk better than Zhang Hao, but they just can't accept it. There is always a friend they claim can dunk better than Zhang Hao.
Kobe, who came from a privileged family, was seen as a sandwich, which was envied by most black players who grew up in slums. They usually expressed disdain in words but were jealous in their hearts.
Even Bibby, in fact, many people are unhappy with him. He is the kind of troll who criticizes everything on the court and does not let go of opponents, fans, and referees.
When these three people get together, everyone is jealous of them.
Hamilton was the most miserable, having done nothing. Born into a sports family, he had received a good education since childhood and was a humble and low-key person. He was envied along with the other three for no reason.
Originally, as a high school student, Hamilton appeared calm on the surface but was secretly delighted inside, sitting together with these three geniuses. But now, in this situation... he was innocently implicated.
Kobe and Bibby were used to it. Zhang Hao had no choice but to do it. What else could he do? Give the dunk king back? How could it be possible? Whatever, in another week, he would never meet most of these people again in his life. Thinking of this, he didn't care.
What is Zhang Hao doing here?
Showing off!
Only by being in the spotlight can those universities take him seriously. Now that he is ready to be in the spotlight, Zhang Hao hopes that this will happen as much as possible!
…
After having breakfast and taking a short rest, at 8:30 in the morning, a team of four from the Hate-Suppression Squad arrived at the San Francisco Auditorium, where all 102 high school students participating in the training camp had gathered.
On the large training ground that was temporarily converted from a competition stadium, 102 talented students from major high schools in North America gathered here after changing into their training uniforms.
After the group was assembled and the cameras started recording, the executive in charge of the training camp from Adidas took the microphone and said, "Welcome to the Adidas 1995 Basketball Training Camp.
We at Adidas have been committed to helping young athletes grow and providing the most professional training assistance to talented high school students. We at Adidas hope that you will be able to participate in the next training camp..."
Zhang Hao looked at everyone. He was the only one with yellow skin. Most of them were black, and there were only about 20 white people.
Looking at his No. 99 training uniform… He remembered that next year, McGrady would also attend this training camp. Next season, Odom would become the top high school student in the United States at the age of 17. Then McGrady, the best high school student in North Carolina who was half a year older than Odom, would surpass Odom in the training camp and become a big hit. However, McGrady, the best high school student in North Carolina, would be No. 175 in the training camp. It seemed that there were 181 people attending the training camp that year…
Zhang Hao felt that this ranking should be based on Adidas' prediction of the strength of the players participating in the training camp, because Garnett wore No. 1 and Bibby wore No. 2.
But, it’s okay that he is No. 99, but McGrady is No. 175. How are they ranked?
Listening to the words of the person in charge of Adidas, who kept saying "our Adidas is this and that", although Zhang Hao knew that this was for the sake of reputation and was actually still a business, it is true that Adidas is the best in all aspects of the training camp among the current amateur player training camps. Their core goal is actually the same as McDonald's, which is to advertise.
But they did make this training camp the most authoritative ranking representative of this era. Now, almost all media outlets praise one of Garnett, Bibby and Rahim as the best high school student in the United States, but the public widely recognizes that the one ranked by Adidas after the training camp is the best high school student in the United States.
As for situations like Pierce who didn't want to participate after receiving a full scholarship from a university... these days, information is transmitted entirely through television and newspapers, and a talented high school student like Carter was not known by many people outside Florida before the dunk contest, so he didn't participate and was not in the rankings, which means he was not in the rankings.
After the Adidas head gave the opening speech, the training camp officially started. The players were divided into 9 groups and taken by trainers to 9 arranged training grounds for testing, including physical tests, technical tests, etc.
Bibby was No. 2, Kobe was No. 10, Hamilton was No. 55, and Zhang Hao was No. 99. Coincidentally, all four of them were separated. Zhang Hao was assigned to Group 5 and came to training ground No. 5.
After arriving at the training ground, a mature-looking black high school student came up to Zhang Hao and said in a pretentious and exaggerated tone: "Aix, oh, you are number 99? As expected, I am better. Look, I am number 66! It's your number when it's reversed. This is really a coincidence!"
Zhang Hao ignored this guy. Looking at the 11 high school players who were temporarily assigned to a group, Zhang Hao felt that their group was not bad. Two future NBA stars he knew were Lamar Odom and Antawn Jamison.
He didn't know the other eight people very well. He had met some of them yesterday and exchanged greetings, but they were not familiar with each other. He could remember the names of some, but not of others...One of them was Corey Benjamin, a student from Fountain High School in Compton, California, who was one year younger than him and whom he knew and had played against several times. Each matchup was unpleasant.
Seeing Zhang Hao ignore him, Corey Benjamin was furious! This guy is still so arrogant even though he doesn't even have a college degree!
On October 5th of the year before last, this guy dunked over his head, and then he couldn't help but push Zhang Hao. As a result, a fat guy rushed out from the side and punched him, knocking him out. In the end, a fight broke out between the two teams, and he was also implicated and suspended for three games.
It was obvious that he just pushed the guy, and the guy didn't stand firmly, and he was the one who was hit and was suspended... What made him even more upset was that he couldn't beat Pierce in a fight and didn't dare to do it again. In terms of basketball, their Compton Fountain High School was no match for Inglewood High School.
In his senior year, this guy became the best forward among California high school students. He and Pierce won the California championship, and their Compton Fountain High School was eliminated in the quarterfinals!
In two years, they fought seven times, and except for the first fight, Compton Fountain High School lost all the others. In the eyes of Compton Fountain High School, the Inglewood Thugs went crazy every time they saw them, as if they were the ones who were beaten that time. Obviously, Corey Benjamin was the one who was beaten!
