Chapter 41 I Want to Wear No. 8
Pelinka was full of enthusiasm to recruit Henry Thomas and actively prepare their own company, but Zhang Hao, after promising the normal player salary + endorsement fee commission and taking the initiative to offer the agent commission of the rookie contract, no longer paid attention to this matter.
He was willing to pay hundreds of thousands of US dollars because he wanted to find two reliable people to help him solve off-field problems. Setting up a company was a good idea, but since he had handed it over to them, he no longer had to worry about it.
He provided the start-up capital, and others who were capable provided their abilities and those who were strong contributed their labor.
For now, we are just paving the way, and it remains to be seen whether it will be useful or not.
If you want to be able to use it, you have to work hard.
If I don't do well in the NBA, all these efforts will be in vain.
After settling this matter, Zhang Hao no longer thought about it.
At this stage, what he wants is a work partner that he doesn't have to be on guard against all the time.
As the saying goes, trust the people you employ; if your agent is someone like Charles Banks, who you have to be on guard against at every turn, then life would be too tiring.
He just painted a big picture for the two of them, and he didn't say anything nonsense anyway.
He continued to study and train peacefully, and at the same time began to prepare for his future life in New Jersey and investigate the place.
After receiving the information from Pelinka's investigation, Zhang Hao felt disappointed.
He thought that Rutherford, where the Nets' home stadium Continental Airlines Arena is located, was a big town in New Jersey, just like Inglewood, where the Lakers' home stadium Great Western Forum is located. After all, New Jersey is one of the richest states in the United States, with the highest per capita income in the United States. There are more than 1,300 large-scale enterprises in the 20,000 square kilometers of land...
But after a survey, I found out that New Jersey is the fourth unhappiest state in the United States!
The town of Rutherford is one of the poorest places in Jersey City!
This kind of poverty is not really poor, but in Jersey City, Rutherford Township is indeed an area with relatively lower income.
The people in Jersey City are all elites. They think about how to make money all day long, and the most popular leisure places are bars.
Although people earn a lot, the overall price level in this state is the highest in the United States. The consumption level in several large cities can even be compared with that in tourist cities. The cost of living here is extremely high, which causes a lot of pressure on everyone, which in turn has led to the growth of bars and gambling industries.
But from this perspective, the people here at least have high incomes and strong spending power.
However, high income and high spending power have nothing to do with the town of Rutherford. This small town does not even have a true star-rated hotel. In a survey of NBA players, it ranked first as the least popular away stadium for players.
At the same time, Zhang Hao also saw in the report that the second least popular away field among players was the Timberwolves' home field, Target Center.
"So one of us high school rookies went to the worst home court, and the other went to the second worst home court... Oh, no, it's because the people from other teams don't like to play in New Jersey and Minnesota, it's not necessarily that those places are really that bad."
Zhang Hao tried very hard to comfort himself.
Instead of researching the city, Zhang Hao focused on getting to know the players on his team. Starting from September 2, the Nets quickly signed a number of players, completed two trades, and quickly put together the roster.
The offseason lockout was a long-determined thing, so many trades had already been completed between the finals and the draft.
It's just a minor incident now. All teams in the league have made sufficient preparations for the shutdown, so they dare to press the shutdown button decisively.
On September 15, as agreed, Zhang Hao gave the first installment of the check for 50,000 US dollars to Pelinka and signed the capital injection contract. Then he bid farewell to April Clark and went to Jersey City.
A new life begins!
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"High school senior Kobe Bryant defeated No. 3 draft pick Jerry Stackhouse 101 to 91 in a three-hour one-on-one duel... Stackhouse was too miserable, wasn't he? He became Kobe's stepping stone!
It seems that this one-on-one match was the first time Kobe was truly valued by the NBA team?
I remember our Nets were going to draft him next year, but he directly said he would not come..."
On the morning of September 16, at the Four Seasons Hotel in Jersey City, Zhang Hao was having breakfast and reading the newspaper. It was yesterday's sports news, and the headline was Kobe Bryant beating Stackhouse.
The news is that the 76ers started to organize activities to stimulate the basketball market. Since Barkley left the 76ers, the 76ers' basketball market has been sluggish, and there has been no news in the past few months of the suspension, so they invited talents from universities and high schools in Philadelphia. The 76ers coach John Lucas arranged for Kobe and Stackhouse to practice against each other. Kobe proposed that the one who scored 10 more goals than the other would win, and then the two of them played one-on-one for 3 hours...
In a one-on-one duel for 3 hours, Zhang Hao felt that few people, even among NBA players, could beat Kobe.
He simply exhausted Stackhouse to death with physical strength!
But this also requires Kobe to have the ability, the ability to not be 10 goals ahead of the energetic Stackhouse in a one-on-one, and then rely on his physical strength to wear down Stackhouse and finally win the one-on-one.
Zhang Hao seemed to be able to sense Stackhouse's desperation in the three-hour duel from the news...
After a few months, after truly integrating into this era, Zhang Hao learned more and more about the basketball world, and truly understood how much attention Kobe received in this era. Although Kobe has been very controversial since high school, many NBA stars are not as good as him in terms of exposure rate.
After breakfast, we packed our things and, with the help of the hotel staff, put several large boxes of luggage into the car and headed to the town of Rutherford.
Eighty percent of this pile of luggage was what his parents asked him to bring when he came to the United States to study. Many of the things had never been used, but he didn't throw them away. Now he was going to a new city. Although he wanted to throw away all the things when he left Los Angeles, he finally took them all with him.
Although he had seen a lot of bad reviews about the Nets, especially the place where the Nets are located, Zhang Hao had felt very bad since arriving in Jersey City yesterday afternoon. When he just arrived at the Four Seasons Hotel, he heard fans who recognized him pointing and talking. So early this morning, he paid a little tip and asked the hotel staff to help him rent a car so that he could report to the Nets early.
When the car drove out of the city, passed an industrial area and entered an agricultural area, Zhang Hao was no longer calm... Fortunately, houses appeared again after a few minutes. They were sparse but at least it could be seen that there were many people. On the contrary, the population density was even greater than that of the suburbs of Los Angeles. After all, New Jersey is the most densely populated state in the United States , not the only one.
Finally, we arrived at the town center of Rutherford, which consists of several streets.
The landmark building is the Continental Airlines Arena, the home arena of the Brooklyn Nets.
Zhang Hao had a rough idea of Rutherford Town from the scene he saw after entering the town. It was a large area of agricultural land, with houses arranged in a disorderly but dense pattern around the town center, which was made up of several streets. The tallest building in the town center was a 16-story hotel. Zhang Hao knew from the Nets travel guide that this was a so-called 4-star business hotel, the kind that claimed to be one but didn't have a star rating...
Compared with Jersey City's highly developed manufacturing and transportation industries, Rutherford is a densely populated, purely agricultural town.
To put it bluntly, this is an urban-rural fringe!
"Playing in this place, it's easy to focus on basketball..."
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Zhang Hao was disappointed. No wonder not many people knew where the Nets were. Before he joined the Nets, he didn't even know there was a place called Rutherford Town in Jersey City.
The key is the awkward geographical location. Although this place is under the jurisdiction of Jersey City, it takes an hour to drive to Jersey City. Although there is no traffic jam, it is too far to drive to and from work every day. It takes an hour even if there is no traffic jam.
Crossing the border to neighboring Pennsylvania is actually not as far as Jersey City.
As for the good places, Zhang Hao tried hard to find a point that could comfort himself - at least the environment is good, with farmlands and gardens everywhere. Compared with Jersey City, where the environment is seriously polluted, at least the environment here is good.
However, after arriving at the stadium, Zhang Hao found that the Continental Airlines Arena looked really good. After making the playoffs for two consecutive years in 1993, it received a large investment and was renovated. It looks like a new stadium.
With the help of the security guard, Zhang Hao put his luggage in the lounge and went to the head coach's office to report.
Head coach Butch Baird was very satisfied seeing that Zhang Hao had maintained his body shape very well. But he had a headache when he thought about the core point guard Kenny Anderson who returned to the team a few days ago and gained more than 20 pounds, or more than ten kilograms, after two months of suspension and now became a fat man weighing nearly 90 kilograms... Kenny Anderson was only 183 cm tall.
Butch Baird asked, "How are you doing, Axe? Do you want to take a physical test today or take a few days off first?"
Zhang Hao responded: "I can take the physical test at any time. I want to train under the guidance of the coach as soon as possible."
Butch Baird nodded. This was consistent with his impression of Zhang Hao. Although they could not contact the players during the lockout, the NBA teams were not idle. They sent scouts to pay attention to what the players were doing. Among the players that the Nets team focused on was Zhang Hao, a high school rookie. They knew that Zhang Hao had not been idle the entire summer and did not act like a nouveau riche after entering the NBA and making money.
For example, the point guard Sean Lespert selected by the Trail Blazers did not play a single NBA game, but owed more than 500,000 US dollars in Las Vegas. As soon as the lockout ended, the Trail Blazers traded Sean Lespert to the Bucks. The Bucks were forced to pay 30% of his salary for three years in advance to save Sean Lespert from being sued by the casino.
The Nets paid Zhang Hao 30 percent of his season salary in advance, which was the process of elimination.
If Zhang Hao becomes complacent after getting the money, there is no need to focus on his training. Just treat it as a failure in winning the lottery.
Anyway, the salary has to be paid. If the lottery fails, there are people in Los Angeles who will take over...
"OK, Axel, let's go to the locker room first..."
Zhang Hao came to the locker room under the guidance of Butch Baird. The innermost closet belonged to Kenny Anderson, the only Nets player who had been selected for the All-Star Game. Zhang Hao had already learned some things from Pierce's chattering and chose the closet closest to the locker room door.
Butch Baird was very satisfied that this rookie was good at handling things, so he asked, "What number do you want on your jersey, Axe?"
Jersey number... After thinking for a while, Zhang Hao remembered the news he saw at breakfast today and said, "Number 8, coach, is anyone using it?"
Butch Baird responded, "No... Why No. 8? There doesn't seem to be any famous player with this number. The only one I remember is Moses Malone, and he didn't wear it for long."
Zhang Hao replied: "There is no special reason. If there is one, there are 8 players selected before me. I am curious about why they are better than me. Besides this, there is... It's not very important. I'll take number 8!"
"Really... Haha, let's do some body measurements first and make custom jerseys and training clothes for you." The young man's mentality made Butch Baird, a former NBA player, couldn't help laughing out loud.
Zhang Hao nodded and followed Butch Baird to the training ground. The assistant coach had already prepared for the physical test.
Watching Zhang Hao going for the test, Butch Baird felt that special feeling again. The last time he met Zhang Hao, which was the day after the draft to discuss the contract, he felt during their communication that Zhang Hao's conversation was far more mature than his peers.
Neither arrogant nor impetuous, neither humble nor overbearing... In terms of psychological quality, not only high school students, but also many players who graduated from college and entered the NBA are not as good as Zhang Hao.
After taking tests on height, arm span, weight, reach, etc., Zhang Hao went to warm up. He was wearing sportswear and sneakers. Although he hadn't received the team's training suit yet, it did not affect his warm-up and physical test.
When the trainer was guiding Zhang Hao in his warm-up, he discovered that this rookie was extremely professional in his warm-up!
Not only was he professional, but he was also patient, treating himself like a veteran in his 30s. He didn't seem casual at all and was very focused on warming up.
He has been working with the Nets for more than ten years, and this is the first time he has encountered a rookie who attaches so much importance to warm-up!
Most rookies, because of their young age, do not pay much attention to the warm-up process. Some rookies are even careless about the warm-up before the game. Many rookies suffer from injuries when they first enter the NBA, which is related to their lack of attention to this aspect.
The trainer was surprised by Zhang Hao. On the other side, Butch Baird looked at Zhang Hao's static physical test record and a question mark popped up in his mind - we selected a small forward, but ended up getting a power forward?
Nowadays, with Zhang Hao's height, he basically plays the power forward position, and some people play the center position.
Height 206cm, wingspan 216cm, weight 96kg, reach 272cm...
With regard to static physical fitness, except for his extremely light weight, he is definitely a power forward!
Very beautiful static physical fitness, but will this affect Zhang Hao's mobility?
Butch Baird is worried about this. There have indeed been cases where players played outside in high school, but suddenly grew taller in college and became inside after graduating from college. There were even cases where players played point guard in junior high school and the early years of high school and became centers after graduating from high school.
What he valued was Zhang Hao's athletic ability and shooting. He now feels that he may have made a mistake, or that it was a mistake for Zhang Hao to participate in the draft right after graduating from high school. Zhang Hao should play in amateur competitions for another two or three years, and then participate in the draft after his body shape changes. He can also adapt to his body shape changes in college.
As for Zhang Hao, after nearly an hour of warm-up preparation, he began the dynamic physical fitness test.
Zhang Hao was very familiar with the job and was very experienced in physical tests. He had a calm mentality. After all, he had been selected, the contract had been signed, and the advance salary had been almost spent. There was nothing to worry about and he just had to show himself to the best of his ability.
During the physical test, Zhang Hao felt pretty good, with no significant fluctuations from his performance in several tests before he left Los Angeles.
When it came to the technical test, which was mainly a shooting test, Zhang Hao felt that he was in very good shape and demonstrated his abilities very well.
He has tried his best. He doesn't know how his test results appear in the eyes of the coach of the NBA team, nor does he know what the new teammates who arrived at the gym later than him think of his test performance. Anyway, he has tried his best.
Little did he know that Butch Baird was filled with question marks when he looked at the three record sheets of Zhang Hao's latest test report.
Butch Baird felt incredible when he was watching Zhang Hao taking strength and dynamic physical fitness tests just now. When he saw that Zhang Hao's shooting test was as good as when Zhang Hao went to other teams for tryouts and was not affected but became more stable, he felt like he might be dreaming!
