Chapter 34: Let’s go to America!
He paid 30 US dollars for the training, and the extra hour's pay... was taught by Pierce. If he was paid an extra hour for each training session, the younger students who helped with the training would be more active and motivated.
For him now, spending an extra 7.5 US dollars is nothing. Before... he could buy a big pizza with plenty of delicious ingredients. He really couldn't afford it before.
After finishing the training and taking a shower, Zhang Hao rode his newly bought bicycle to a physical therapy center near the Great Western Forum Arena. When he came back yesterday, he came to the Great Western Forum to see the news that the Lakers were preparing to shut down. The main purpose was to make an appointment with the physical therapist and come for physical therapy every afternoon.
This is what he wanted. It is necessary to do physical therapy after training. Although he is still young and has been exercising, he may feel better after a good night's sleep, but youth is not a reason to squander the body... The main reason is that he is rich now and can afford the physical therapy fee of dozens of dollars.
The money you earn is meant to be used for yourself and your family. If you want to live to a ripe old age, you must have a healthy body and a long career as a player and coach.
Although it was painful, when he came to the United States, the average salary in Beijing was only 500 or 600 yuan, and the highest in Shanghai was just over 700 yuan. The cost of one day of physical therapy would cost one month's salary in Beijing, but the money had to be spent.
He is able to listen to advice when he shouldn't spend money, and when he determines that he must spend money, he pays the expenses decisively even though it hurts. Fortunately, his family used to be rich, otherwise the two situations would probably be reversed - he squanders when he should save, and is stingy with money when he should spend.
…
At the Great Western Forum, Jerry West looked at all the player-related things in the arena being put away, feeling helpless. Compared to those bosses, he was more pure in basketball...mainly because he didn't make any money when he was playing, not as much as he makes now as a general manager, so he just felt uncomfortable with this kind of struggle for interests.
Estimating that they would not be able to use the stadium for at least a month starting from July 1, Jerry West and other staff packed up their belongings, got in the boss's son's car, and went back to the Time Warner training hall.
Back at the Time Warner practice facility, Jerry West asked Jim Buss, "Jim, what are Garnett and Zhang doing after they were selected?"
Jim Buss didn't know why Jerry West paid so much attention to these two high school students, but he respected this big brother who supported him in the fight against Jeanie Buss. He would naturally try his best to do what he was told. If he wanted to compete for power with the eldest sister, his ability was far from enough and he had to have the support of other management personnel of the team. Fortunately, Jerry West and Mitch Kupchak both supported him... But even so, they could only compete with Jeanie Buss. Jeanie Buss's ability was too strong, and her personality charm made his younger brother become scum.
Jim Buss took out the report sent back by the scout from his bag and said, "Garnett signed a three-year, $5.4 million contract with the Timberwolves the night he was selected. He is currently choosing a good private middle school for his sister. There is no latest news. Zhang signed a three-year, $4 million contract with the Nets the morning before yesterday. He returned to Los Angeles yesterday and has started training at Inglewood High School today. This morning he also announced through the Players' Union that he was recruiting an agent...
Jerry, why do you care so much about these two high school kids?"
"I want to know what these talented high school students who are selected will do after they are selected and observe their situations," Jerry West responded.
"Didn't their team reject our chips?"
"We have to make more attempts. What if we succeed? If we don't try, we will never succeed. We apply for trades to the teams of 100 talented players. Even if only one succeeds, it will not hurt us..."
Jerry West was helpless. This young man was not good at anything and was the most jealous person in the boss's favor.
If the boss's eldest son Johnny Buss was willing to take over old Buss's business, Jerry West would never get involved with Jim Buss.
But Johnny Buss didn't want to inherit the family business, so he went to set up a league with a group of wealthy basketball fans and reached an agreement with the NBA. It is estimated that in two years, a women's version of the NBA will be created.
This does not reflect Johnny Buss' ability. What does reflect his ability is that he has reached an agreement with Toyota to build a new stadium in the next three years. It will not only be a training venue, but a real basketball stadium that can accommodate more than 6,000 spectators. It will serve as the new training hall for the Lakers and the home court of UCLA. This business ability is no less than that of Jeanie Buss.
But Johnny Buss dealt with the Los Angeles City Hall, the NBA, UCLA, Toyota, investors... all parties, not for the Lakers, or the first goal was not the Lakers, but for the women's basketball team he established. After the future women's version of the NBA league is established, this stadium will become the home court of the team he owns.
Jerry West was good at judging people. He knew that old Buss wanted to leave his property to his son rather than his daughter, so he chose Jim Buss to assist. If Johnny Buss was willing to take over the Lakers, he would not get involved with the boss's stupid son.
This guy has absolutely no vision and no foresight, but Jerry West has gotten used to it. This stupid son of the boss not only has no long-term vision, but he doesn't even know what to do now. They went to watch the Adidas Training Camp Elite Game together that day, but he couldn't see the talents of Garnett and Zhang Hao that were visible to the naked eye!
Jerry West accidentally put most of the general managers and scouts of the league's teams in the same category as Jim Buss...
However, Jerry West couldn't understand where the Timberwolves and the Nets got the courage to bet on a high school student?
He had already learned through some channels that the Timberwolves had made a draft promise to Garnett, so he gave up on selecting Garnett at the beginning and was ready to take a chance on Zhang Hao. Even he was gambling on his luck. The Nets actually selected Zhang Hao with the 9th pick. He was really puzzled and still couldn't figure out where the Nets got the courage from.
Jerry West put the matter aside for the moment and said to Jim Buss: "Jim, you and Mickey need to step up your efforts in Orlando, and be careful to hide yourself well so that others will not find out that we are guiding public opinion."
Hearing Jerry West's answer, Jim Buss nodded: "I understand..."
Think about it, when assigning work to Kupchak, Kupchak can easily guess the purpose and know what he has to do. But when assigning work to the boss's stupid son, everything has to be reminded, but Jim Buss must be involved. After the goal is achieved and finally reporting to the big boss, most of the credit must be given to Jim Buss, so that it is possible to help this useless prince to get to the top.
I feel so tired!
Although Jim Buss didn't have much ability, he had good execution, especially when it came to intrigue and gossip. Jim Buss was very talented. He was so talented that Jerry West felt that Jim Buss should have been born in the harem of an ancient dynasty. It would be best if he had a different gender, so that he could fully display his talent...
Jerry West was quite surprised by the attitude of the Nets. When they heard Ceballos' bargaining chip, they immediately refused it. It was estimated that they would have to increase the chip in the future. Fortunately, they had accumulated a lot of chips in the past few years.
…
As for Zhang Hao, he didn't know that the Nets had already had a round of negotiations with the Lakers. The Lakers were willing to trade Ceballos for him and were willing to increase the price. Otherwise, he would definitely cry and make a fuss about playing for the Lakers. It is always good not to move. After living in Los Angeles for three years, he is obviously more accustomed to life here... Of course, the most important thing is that he clearly knows what the attitude of a team towards him is.
Only by paying attention to his team can he feel stable and secure. What he needs most now is stability.
Sometimes not knowing something can make you feel more comfortable. Zhang Hao is now training hard so that he can get his own playing time and gain a foothold in the Nets more quickly in the new season.
After a week of training, he clearly felt that his strength was increasing! His strength rating also increased rapidly from 76 to 79, reaching a major bottleneck!
The bottleneck issue was discovered by Zhang Hao when he was using the CIC growth card. The difficulty of improving from 79 to 80 and the length of training time required are more difficult and longer than from 80 to 81.
What surprised him most was that the increase in strength during this period did not affect his speed and flexibility!
The most awesome effect of Growth Card is back!
When he first arrived in the United States, he was asked by the head coach to work on his physique. He spent almost all of his freshman year training his physical fitness and practicing basic skills such as shooting and layups. It was not until his second year that he skipped directly to the senior year and became the team's main player.
During that time, he initially improved his strength and speed, but when his body became strong enough, strength training had an impact on his speed and flexibility. At this time, coach Scott Hollins stopped his physical training and asked him to focus on technology. After his body developed fully, he would consider whether to go the agile or power route.
Zhang Hao's idea is to pursue speed and agility when he is young, and then focus on strength when he is older and has passed the peak of his athletic ability.
Originally, Zhang Hao had many concerns about using the strength growth card this time. The biggest worry was that he would get injured from training too hard, so he was only going to give it a try. If it affects his speed and flexibility and there is a risk of injury, he would temporarily suspend this training.
After all, for him, speed, flexibility and physical strength are three very important parts of his off-ball play.
He plans to go for the power style when he gets older. In addition to the impact of the decline in physical fitness, there is another very important point. Seven or eight years later, he will definitely not have only shooting as his strength like he does now. After so many years, his singles and other abilities will definitely become stronger.
"When using a growth card to improve a certain physical quality, will it avoid the negative effects of this training? Or reduce it to the minimum?"
Zhang Hao thought about it and decided to continue training. If his speed and flexibility were affected, he would stop temporarily and focus on shooting and running training.
The training situation is very encouraging, but there is still something that gives him a headache recently.
That's what broker recruitment is all about.
There is one thing that affects his current appeal to powerful agents - he has already signed the rookie contract on his own!
Generally speaking, as long as there is a possibility that a player will be selected by an NBA team, agents will flock to him. A 3% to 5% commission on his salary is a great temptation for agents.
Being an agent is not as easy as it seems. Just like 99.9% of athletes cannot enter the NBA, most agents live in poverty when they don't have NBA players or players who have successfully made fortunes overseas. Sometimes they have to invest in a player out of their own pockets. When the player cannot find a job, they have to support him and there is no guarantee of return.
He has no commercial appeal right now because there is no precedent for him to demonstrate his commercial value, so his only appeal to powerful agents is the commission from the guaranteed contract of the ninth overall pick.
But he signed the rookie contract himself! Now when you sign an agent, the agent does not get a commission unless he takes the initiative to give it. Otherwise, if the agent signs him and has no other income, it means he has worked for three years in vain.
He estimated that the Nets did not expect that their rush to sign the contract would cause .
Because all the other players who were selected had agents, including Garnett. After Garnett made up his mind to participate in the draft, he hired an agent.
Ask Zhang Hao to take the initiative to give 3% to 5% of his salary? If it was before signing the contract, he would definitely be willing, but now that the contract has been signed, he really doesn't want to, tens of thousands of dollars a year...
"Let's do this for now. Anyway, from the current situation, it seems that I haven't shown any commercial value. I will talk about it after entering the NBA..."
Zhang Hao plans to put this matter aside for the time being and wait. If a capable agent with good vision comes to him, he will sign the contract then.
Anyway, he knew that once he became successful, the old Jewish man in New York would definitely support him, his commercial value would be revealed, and those powerful agents would immediately try their best to get close to him.
Athletes, after all, rely on competitions to demonstrate their worth. Zhang Hao has seen this too much in the future information age.
Didn't Charles Barkley say that if Jordan wasn't a good basketball player, with his looks, education, and character, he would only be able to be a plumber when he grows up...
Zhang Hao estimated that the old Jewish man must want to use him as an excuse to promote his game in the Chinese market. However, the NBA has been suspended and cannot use any player's name or image...
Just a few days ago, the NBA officially announced a suspension. Following the suspension of the Las Vegas Summer League on July 3, the Orlando Summer League, which started on July 9, also began a suspension.
This summer, even if the game didn't stop, he only had to play in the summer league. Now that the summer league is gone, he really has nothing to do.
Therefore, he is ready to devote himself to training.
Watching his life span decreasing day by day, he could only suppress his uneasy mood when he felt the improvement brought by his training.
…
On July 8, 1995, the Chinese men's basketball team defeated the South Korean team 87-78 in the final of the Basketball Asian Championship in Seoul, South Korea. Hu Weidong, the strongest player of the Chinese men's basketball team, scored 33 points in the final and single-handedly blew up the South Korean team's outside line.
When Hu Weidong was interviewed after the game, he was asked about Zhang Hao. He answered modestly: "Although Zhang Hao is very young, he dares to go to the United States to make a living. This is something I envy very much. My dream is also to play in the NBA. He has done what I have not done. I hope he can make a name for himself in the NBA and let the children in China know that Chinese players can also enter the world's top league..."
As information is difficult to disseminate these days, it is not known how big a sensation Zhang Hao has caused in the country, nor is it known how much fame he has gained by being selected during the Asian Basketball Championship.
But he did give a huge confidence boost to basketball players in all walks of life in the country.
After winning the championship, the Chinese men's basketball team returned to China. Currently, it is the preparation period for the Chinese Basketball A League, and the country's top players and young talents are all busy.
The Blues Association initially planned to have 12 teams participate in the first season of the league, but the players come from all over the country, and the strength of the players in each province varies greatly. Investors, namely team owners, players, officials from provincial Blues Associations, officials from Blues Associations... are needed to negotiate and discuss together, and invite players and owners. The main reason is that those officials don't understand these things at all. The league is held because it can sell tickets, and the Blues Association gets commissions from ticket sales. Regardless of whether the team makes money or not, they will get commissions from ticket sales.
However, the Basketball Association has been having a headache recently as a military player withdrew from the registration for the first season of the league. The player is now trying to apply to the military, hoping that the country can recommend him to study in the United States.
This news has not been spread to the outside world, but the top basketball players in the country know about it.
Because this player is a genius who was named the best center in the Basketball World Youth Championship that just ended not long ago!
Hu Sanpao and Zhan Shen were extremely excited when they heard the news and rushed to the young genius's home to find out what happened.
"Brother Hu, Brother Liu, are you here to persuade me too?"
"No, no, no, we hope you can hold on, we will help you!"
Wang Zhizhi originally thought that the two strongest players inside and outside the national team were here to persuade him to re-sign up for the A-League which would start at the end of the year, so his attitude was not very good. After all, he was only 18 years old, and he had been tormented a lot by the people from the Blues Association these days.
As for his Nanjing Military Industry Corps men's basketball team, the leaders had different opinions. Some were worried that the Bayi team had just been established and its strength would be affected by losing Wang Zhizhi, while others felt that it was a good thing for Wang Zhizhi to be motivated and that he could make greater improvements by playing in a stronger league and at least see the world instead of staying in the immature domestic basketball circle.
Ordinary people do not know that in terms of team events, national teams have always , and this is even more so in men's team events. Although table tennis and badminton also have team competitions, those team competitions are actually single or double competitions, rather than true team events. The senior management personnel of each sport are very clear about this.
Therefore, there is another concern that makes the Nanjing Military Industry Corps men's basketball team hesitant - what if Wang Zhizhi doesn't play well in an American university?
Then wouldn't the future pillar of the men's basketball team, whom they had high hopes for, become a joke? If he didn't play well in the American university and returned to China to play in the A-League and beat the others, how would the others cope?
The players are not united. Some, like Hu Weidong and Liu Yudong, support Wang Zhizhi, while some have the same concerns as the top executives, fearing that they will lose face in the future, so they come to be lobbyists for the Blues Association, advising him not to do stupid things.
Some people who want to support Wang Zhizhi dare not express their support for fear of affecting their future.
People's hearts are always complicated.
Hu Weidong and Liu Yudong were the first group of players who would participate in the first season of the A-League to support Wang Zhizhi, and they even came directly to his home.
This touched Wang Zhizhi deeply, and he apologized for his unfriendly attitude just now.
Liu Yudong patted Wang Zhizhi on the shoulder and said, "It's okay. We just hope you can stick to it. You are more talented than us. At your age, you should go to the United States to play. If you end up like us, then we can only stay in Asia. We all hope that you can lead us to the world in the future instead of just ruling Asia! I want to see the national team win more games in the world championships, instead of winning one or two games and barely making it to the quarterfinals before being eliminated..."
