Chapter 33 Advice for domestic players
Just because he gets a salary of more than 200,000 US dollars doesn't mean he can waste it at will. Of course, he can do so as the three-year contract has already been signed.
But if I really do that, I guess I will be no different from those rookies who play for one or two years and then fade out of the NBA.
Back in the bedroom, Pierce had breakfast and came back to play games. This time he came out to accompany Zhang Hao to the draft, and then he had to go back to his brother for training.
However, Pierce did not insist on dragging out time. Although he complained a lot, he was really working hard in training, which can be seen from his obviously thinner body.
Zhang Hao found his debit card with a three-digit deposit in his bag. He would go to the bank to cash out and transfer the money, and then apply for a credit card. Of course, he had to save the money and pay off the credit card after use. This was how you had to live in the United States. It was so painful to go out with a large sum of cash and have people call the police every time you bought something. Last time when he sold football tickets, the other party was surprised that he wanted cash. Fortunately, there was a bank next to the Great Western Forum.
After taking the contract and debit card, Zhang Hao came to the next room and said to Pierce, "Paul, let's go shopping."
Without even turning his head, Pierce responded, "Why would two poor guys like us go shopping? If we don't go, we'll be back to California tomorrow. I have to go to San Diego the day after tomorrow, so let me play games for a while longer."
"Hey, it seems that I have to spend my NBA salary alone. How much money do I have to exchange for this check? Paul, do you think it will be as high as you if the pile is piled up?"
"Salary? Check!"
Pierce suddenly rolled down from the end of the bed, crawled to Zhang Hao's side, took the check that Zhang Hao was waving, looked at it, and was stunned...
More than 210,000 US dollars!
It's a bit difficult to stack $100 bills so high, but $10 bills are enough. Not many Americans carry a pile of $100 cash around. Usually they have $1, $5, $10, or $20 in their wallets, and large amounts are paid by credit card.
Pierce seemed to see a pile of $10 bills that was taller than him...
Shaking his head, Pierce tried to calm himself down.
"Oh my God, you took the money back now? Are you crazy? Although you have become an NBA player, you must have a reasonable plan for the use of your assets. There are too many cases of NBA players going bankrupt after retirement..."
Pierce had a feeling that if he hadn't come along this time, the one who would return to Los Angeles would be Zhang Hao, who had just made a lot of money and then went bankrupt.
Being the Big Brother is really too stressful !
Pierce's mumbling this time really surprised Zhang Hao.
Pierce actually knows so much... Wait, this guy has an older brother who is a professional football player. It seems normal for him to know all this. As the older brother has suffered losses, he certainly doesn't want his younger brother who also has the potential to be a professional athlete to suffer losses again.
"Paul, it's like this..." Zhang Hao interrupted Pierce and began to explain that the NBA had already decided to shut down.
After listening to Zhang Hao's words, Pierce breathed a sigh of relief. He knew something about this aspect, more than Zhang Hao knew before, but he didn't know that the situation had reached this point. He thought it would be resolved smoothly like last year.
But Pierce was still worried and continued, "You keep this money. I won't spend your money. I will enter the NBA in the future, and I will buy whatever I want myself."
"Yes, yes, I know, but now that I'm in the NBA, we have to buy some nice clothes, right? We have to buy a gift for Auntie, right?"
"That's fine. Wait a minute, I'll call my brother... Do you think the Nets will pay for our phone bill?"
"...I think so..."
…
After going to a bank that has a debit card and cashing the check, Zhang Hao originally thought that since these two poorly dressed high school students would be looked down upon at the bank, he would use the check to show off. However, it turned out that the bank knew him...
Live broadcast across the United States! The ninth overall pick!
At the NBA draft held in New York, many people in this city knew about him, a Chinese high school student. At least, many people would remember him in the short term. Of course, this might not be the case over time, as there are so many rookies every year.
After entering the bank, the sharp-eyed manager took Zhang Hao and Pierce to the VIP lounge and got the matter done in no time. They only needed to drink coffee and wait.
Since the Magic Bird era, in recent years, all NBA players have become a high-income group. Even minimum-salary players, as long as they have a guaranteed contract, have an annual salary of more than 300,000 US dollars. First-round rookies have had guaranteed contracts since the 1988 labor agreement, and they are big customers in any bank... Of course, that is during the contract period or when there is money in the account.
After getting the credit card, Zhang Hao and Pierce took a taxi to a shopping mall and bought some things.
Zhang Hao felt that money is just a material possession and should be used when necessary, but Pierce firmly denied Zhang Hao's idea. The two of them only spent a few hundred dollars on clothes, and they were clothes for daily wear, not the kind of clothes that Zhang Hao wanted and could not wear out on a daily basis. The gift they bought was not an expensive one, but a beautiful dress that Pierce had heard his mother talk about.
I went out with the generosity of "spending money" and spent more than 1,000 US dollars to get it done...
However, after buying things, Zhang Hao's impulse of "how should I spend my money now" subsided.
Thanks to Pierce, otherwise Zhang Hao would have become a nouveau riche in the eyes of others.
He returned to the hotel with a few shopping bags, ready to put his things away and go for lunch. This time he definitely wasn't going to eat pizza, but a good meal. Pierce didn't think Zhang Hao was wasteful. It was a waste to buy things that were not needed. When eating, he had to eat well.
But as soon as I walked into the hotel lobby, I saw a few familiar faces and a camera.
Xu Jicheng was only in his 30s and felt that he had some gray hair. When he saw Zhang Hao, he quickly walked up to him and said with a look of resentment, "Aix, I've been waiting for you so hard..."
How creepy is it to see a man in his thirties with thick eyebrows, a square face, and a thin moustache showing a resentful expression?
Zhang Hao felt it again.
Seeing Xu Jicheng, he suddenly remembered that yesterday, before the draft, he accepted an exclusive interview with the court TV station. At that time, he said that his goal was to be selected in the first round, and then he agreed to accept another exclusive interview after the draft. As a result...
He was like Fan Jin who passed the imperial examination, except that he was not crazy... He was no different from Le who was crazy and could not even speak clearly. So we decided to interview him this morning, but he signed the contract and was so excited that he forgot about it.
Fortunately, it is daytime in New York and nighttime in China. As long as the interview is completed during the day, the domestic news can still be broadcast as usual tomorrow morning and there will be no delay.
At least the interview went smoothly. Being far away in a foreign country, Xu Jicheng was already very satisfied. It's not easy for anyone to survive abroad these days. He could imagine how much hardship Zhang Hao, a Chinese student, had to endure in the United States and how much effort he had to put in to successfully enter the NBA.
As a young basketball player in China, although Xu Jicheng cannot become a professional basketball player, he also wants to help Chinese basketball in his own way.
Thinking about Zhang Hao being alone in the world's top basketball circle in the United States, there are actually some unrelated guys in China who want to trip him up. It's fine if they are outsiders managing insiders, but when they find that a domestic player who is not from their organization has played well, they want to suppress Zhang Hao's popularity in China...
Although Xinhua News Agency can give face if the Basketball Association gives a heads-up, there is nothing the Basketball Association can do if the association doesn't give face. The Sports News Department of Xinhua News Agency does not intend to give face this time.
So, after Zhang Hao was selected at the 9th pick last night, it seemed like he had succeeded. However, Xinhua News Agency and Chaoting Sports Channel did not report the news back to China. Instead, they said that they were too busy after Zhang Hao was selected and postponed the interview to the next day. Last night, they only reported that Zhang Hao was selected at the 9th pick.
Zhang Hao felt that he did something wrong, so he invited Xu Jicheng and his group to have lunch. Xu Jicheng couldn't refuse, thinking that Zhang Hao was rich now and it would be no big deal to have a meal, so he went to have the meal. With his salary, he didn't feel bad about having to pay his normal travel expenses as reimbursed by his company, but he did feel bad about having a meal in the United States by himself.
After lunch, Pierce went back to the hotel, and Zhang Hao and a group of people from Xinhua News Agency and Imperial TV went to Madison Square Garden again for an interview.
After the interview preparations were completed and the camera started recording, Xu Jicheng talked about Zhang Hao being selected, which talents were selected by the ninth pick, how rare it is for a high school student to be selected in the draft, etc., and then began the interview and asked: "You are the first Asian to be selected in the first round of the NBA. Why did you choose to skip college and enter the NBA? I heard that more than a dozen top universities invited you to join."
Xu Jicheng directly expanded China into Asia, which Zhang Hao could understand... Compared to the need to be low-key before the draft, Zhang Hao is no longer low-key and said directly: "A good horse never turns back. I have applied to join those universities before, but they rejected it because they all play basketball. Playing in the NBA is more attractive to me."
"Being selected 9th overall, what is your goal after joining the Nets?"
"First, I need to establish myself in the NBA and find my place."
Xu Jicheng's impression of Zhang Hao improved as he felt down to earth and continued to ask, "The NBA is likely to be suspended this summer. There are reports that the Las Vegas Summer League has been cancelled and the Orlando Summer League may also be cancelled. Can you tell me about your plans for this summer? Are you planning to return to China to rest?"
"I won't go back this summer. I want to train hard this summer to hone my skills and strive to get stable playing time as early as possible next season. I also need to consider where to go to college and communicate well with the school. After all, I won't be able to study in school for a long time, and rest is too luxurious for me."
"Do you pay attention to domestic basketball? Do you think there are any domestic players who have the potential to enter the NBA?"
"I think there will be players entering the NBA soon. We also had a player selected by NBA players before, although it was in the third round, he still had a chance. It's a pity that he suffered a serious injury at the age of 21 and was unable to join the Hawks.
I think many talented players in China enter the professional arena too early. It is too easy to get injured when they play in the professional arena at the age of 13 or 14. If possible, I think they can have a chance to go to European youth training camps or American universities to try... For example, Wang Zhizhi, he is a few months younger than me, but he can already make great contributions to the national team. If the country can let him play in the NCAA for a few years in an American university, I think he can enter the NBA smoothly..."
Xu Jicheng thought this suggestion was reliable. The NCAA did not receive much attention in China, or in other words, China did not know that the level of the NCAA basketball championship was high enough to be called the second-best basketball league in the world. The Basketball Association was also unwilling to admit this. If a domestic player who entered the NBA made this suggestion... However, this suggestion was made by a player who skipped college and joined the NBA directly, so it was not convincing no matter how you looked at it...
The interview was very pleasant and smooth. The questions asked by Xinhua News Agency and the Imperial Television Station were not malicious. Soon, the interview of more than ten minutes was over. People from both media outlets had to go back and transmit the information back to China to prepare for tomorrow's report.
As for Zhang Hao, he returned to the hotel and played Tank Wars and Contra with Pierce... They would return to Los Angeles tomorrow, and after that, they would go their separate ways. They didn't have much free time left, so they couldn't miss the chance to play games.
The next afternoon, Zhang Hao and Pierce returned to Inglewood together. At noon, the NBA and the players' union announced that due to the failure of negotiations on the agreement amendment, both parties chose to initiate the "force majeure to interrupt the labor-management agreement". The NBA began to shut down from 0:00 a.m. on July 1.
Zhang Hao, Pierce and April Clark, who came to pick them up, arrived outside the Great Western Forum and saw that the Lakers had begun to remove their player posters above the main entrance of the arena and began to prepare for a lockout.
"It's such a pity that the league was shut down just when you entered the NBA. You missed the summer league to adapt to NBA-level games." April Clark said when she saw this scene. She also dreamed of becoming a professional athlete, but since her senior year of high school, she could no longer participate in junior competitions when she turned 17. She realized how big the difference is between adult sports and student sports.
"Yeah..." Zhang Hao also felt that it was a waste of time. If he could use the summer league to know what it would be like for him to play against rookies, undrafted players, players in the Development League, etc., it would obviously be of great help for his rookie season.
The summer league will only last about ten days at most, so it won’t affect training and there will be opportunities for actual practice.
"Come on, Axl, one day, I'll play in this gym! Will you come along?"
"The Lakers are moving to downtown in 1999. It's said that the location has been chosen. The Los Angeles Sports Arena Company and Anschutz Entertainment Group are paying for it. It seems that the Clippers are also going to move in. Which team are you talking about?"
“……” Pierce looked at Zhang Hao and wanted to strangle this bastard to death!
April Clarke was laughing beside her, and Zhang Hao would always stab Pierce when she talked about her dreams.
"April, let's go to the most expensive restaurant. I'm going to eat Aix out of money tonight!"
Pierce is ready to work hard! Spend grief and anger for appetite!
"You're on a diet, and after a month of losing weight you want to eat it all back in one meal?"
"April, don't stop me! I want to beat him up..."
…
The noisy and sumptuous dinner became the last gathering of the three after they graduated from high school. They had already graduated from high school as early as early June when Zhang Hao went everywhere for trials.
Now, we are really going our separate ways, preparing for the NCAA, preparing for the NBA, preparing to become drama actors...
Everyone was imagining their future during the chat. Although they knew the road ahead would be difficult, they were all full of hope as young people should have.
The next day, Pierce took a flight to San Diego, April Clark returned to the training camp, and only Zhang Hao stayed in the apartment.
He contacted the players' union and asked them to send the agent recruitment information to their channels. He also asked Pierce's mother to help him arrange an interview appointment. He planned to train while waiting to sign an agent.
"Auntie, please take care of the agent's appointment. Oh, and I need to call my dad to talk about something."
"Do you want your father's bank account to send money back to your father?"
"How do you know?" He was indeed planning to return to Los Angeles so he could call Zhang Hao and then go to the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China in Los Angeles to transfer the money back.
"Your father called me yesterday and told me to keep the money for myself and spend it on training and my body. He also told you not to call him unless you have stable playing time in the NBA."
“…”
Zhang Hao felt that his father was really strong-willed. Whenever Zhang Hao asked for money, he would immediately gather the money and send it to him no matter what the situation at home was.
Fortunately, the most difficult period of domestic and foreign trade business, when the RMB was forced to appreciate, has passed, and the situation at home has improved a lot, but I can no longer easily come up with thirty or fifty thousand US dollars like I did in the past.
Zhang Hao temporarily gave up this idea. There are indeed many places to spend money this summer. When he goes to Rutherford, New Jersey after the lockout, the rent and other expenses will not be small. If the start goes well, he may have to buy a house. The housing prices in New Jersey have been strong and it is worth buying.
The agent just had to wait for the other party to contact him and then conduct an interview. In the afternoon, Zhang Hao arrived at Inglewood High School.
As he expected, the school could not refuse his request to continue training there in the summer, and they also helped him contact younger schoolmates who needed to work and study to serve as caddies. Of course, he had to pay himself $7.5 per hour, which is the hourly wage for high school students in the United States and is protected by law. However, the amount cannot be exceeded, otherwise it will be troublesome if he is caught while in college.
It took an hour to warm up, which was a more professional warm-up method that Zhang Hao learned in the Adidas training camp. Although he was still young, he had already begun to try his best to move every muscle and joint like a veteran to avoid injuries during training.
After finishing the warm-up session, Zhang Hao had an idea and the subtitle prompt came.
"The host will use the top-level static confrontation (growth card) against the special contract player Zhang Hao. Are you sure?"
Zhang Hao silently confirmed in his mind, and the subtitles changed.
"When special contract player Zhang Hao performs strength training, his comprehension of static strength training will be greatly improved. He will be able to understand his physical condition more easily and know more clearly what he needs to train next. The efficiency of muscle and digestive system nutrient absorption will be greatly improved, and his body's recovery ability will also be greatly improved. The efficiency of static strength training will be greatly improved, until the static confrontation evaluation is increased to 90."
Looking at this prompt, combined with the experience of using the CIC Growth Card last time, Zhang Hao knew that with this card, training would definitely not just increase static strength. If the training could also improve explosive power and other aspects, there would definitely be some improvement. Of course, the improvement in training content is the main thing, and improvements in other aspects would only be things that happened to be trained, or things that needed to be trained to train static strength.
There is another point. The last time Zhang Hao used the mid-range shot growth card, he discovered that not only did his mid-range shot evaluation improve, but he also became better at practicing mid-range shots. If you ask him to teach others how to practice mid-range shots, he can definitely do it!
This may be another function of the growth card, which gives him more advantages when he is a coach. Not only does he know how to train, he has also practiced it himself. And, from another perspective, this growth card, which trains players, is not only about training players to play, but also about considering the players' after retirement. The best career for players after retirement is definitely to be a coach or trainer and continue to shine in the team.
"It's really a perfect system for being a coach..."
After Zhang Hao complained inwardly, he said to his junior who had waited for a long time and received an hour's salary for nothing: "Jason, let's start. Help me keep count."
Jason Hart, a sophomore who is one and a half years younger than Zhang Hao, will be a senior next semester. He is the school team's hope after Zhang Hao and Pierce graduate. In his sophomore year, Jason Hart started, averaging 12.3 points and 4.6 assists per game. Although he is not tall, he has very good skills and is one of Zhang Hao's teammates who works very happily with him in the school team.
There is a job that can make money and he can train with Zhang Hao. The school will definitely give this opportunity to Jason Hart, who comes from a not-so-good family background and is the future pillar of the school team. It just so happens that they are familiar with each other.
Jason Hart doesn't need to do too much. He just needs to help count when practicing with the equipment, help prepare the equipment for use, put the equipment back into place after training, and help serve and pick up the ball when practicing shooting. Zhang Hao does the training on his own, and Jason Hart can't help much.
Otherwise it wouldn’t be this price.
Instead, Inglewood High School's new coach Elvin Hayes asked Jason Hart to learn more about how Zhang Hao practices shooting.
From the very beginning of Zhang Hao's strength training this time, he felt the difference from his previous training!
The training looks similar, but in terms of details, every time he practices a movement, which part of the body to use to exert force, the timing and breathing method of each movement... and so on, he can easily judge what was not done well before and then make adjustments.
The most direct feeling is that you will feel more tired! The more efficient the training is, the more tired the muscle groups that need to be trained will be!
The focus is on training the waist, abdomen and back strength, and static confrontation, which is actually mostly related to core strength.
45 minutes of strength training was more tiring than the two-hour training Zhang Hao did with Pierce before!
Apparently, it worked!
However, this was his first time to engage in more professional and efficient training and Zhang Hao felt deeply tired after just one hour.
After resting for a few minutes and catching his breath, Zhang Hao did not waste any time and went to the training ground to practice shooting.
Practice shooting while feeling your muscles tearing so that your shooting can adapt to the changes in your muscles. Otherwise, if you only train your muscles, your shooting will be easily affected when your strength improves.
After an hour of strength training, three large groups, each large group was divided into three small groups, and each group did 100 fixed-point mid-range shots. Zhang Hao felt much more tired than usual, but he didn't force himself and finished today's training.
It took almost 3 hours from warm-up to the end of training. This was the first time for Zhang Hao to do such professional strength training. He knew that he was not used to it yet. Once his body gradually adapted to such training, he would perform better. It also meant that his body was improving!
