Chapter 5: Life Increase!
McDonald's Pacific region headquarters in Los Angeles is currently inviting top high school students to participate in the High School All-Star Game at the end of the month. In fact, there is only one important event, and that is the slam dunk contest. Other competitions do not receive as much attention as the Adidas training camp competitions. The selling point of McDonald's High School All-Star Weekend is the slam dunk contest, and this is the only competition that is broadcast live across the United States.
Some of the invited players responded, and some declined. It doesn’t matter. The legendary “high school dunk king” Vince Carter, whom they value most, agreed to participate in the dunk contest. That’s enough!
This slam dunk contest does not require any costs. Apart from food and accommodation, there are only some basic venue fees, staff costs, and prize money for the players who reach the finals. The expenses are much smaller than other commercial activities.
The invitations have been sent out for several months, and those who want to participate should have responded by phone, email, letter, etc. McDonald's feels that the work of inviting players is almost done, and preparations for the game can begin next.
There are still 10 days left before the McDonald's High School All-Star Weekend begins. Today is the deadline for submitting entry materials. There have been no new emails for two days. The staff who were preparing to count the names of participating players and submit them went to the mailbox for the last time, and saw that there were two emails today.
Upon opening the application, they found that Zhang Hao and Paul Pierce, who were from Inglewood High School in southwest Los Angeles and had performed very well in California in the past two years, were the only Chinese high school students they invited. Pierce was the best high school player in California this season.
The purpose of inviting Pierce was to sell tickets locally and make money by selling advertisements on live TV. Of course, it would be better if they could sell tickets. Information and communication technology was still very backward in those days. Outside of Florida, not many people knew Carter, who was still a high school student.
Zhang Hao could also play such a role, but McDonald's originally did not plan to invite a Chinese high school student to participate. This was related to business matters. When their Asia-Pacific Market Development Department learned that the Pacific headquarters was going to hold a high school dunk contest this year, they strongly recommended inviting Zhang Hao.
Although the Pacific headquarters agreed, the invitation was not as positive as the Asia-Pacific Market Development Department expected, which was far worse than going to communicate with Carter's family.
However, Zhang Hao responded, and the staff added him to the list and submitted it to the person in charge of the event preparations.
McDonald's was naturally happy that Zhang Hao wanted to participate in the dunk contest. Even if they were not so enthusiastic, if Zhang Hao agreed to participate, they could take advantage of Zhang Hao's Chinese identity.
They don't need to sign Zhang Hao as a spokesperson, but McDonald's still wants to use the gimmick that Zhang Hao is a top 30 high school student in the United States. It doesn't cost any money, just offer a little bonus. If Zhang Hao can get it, then he can take it. If not, then forget it. This way, they can take advantage of Zhang Hao's identity as a Chinese and promote the product in China.
The competitive pressure from KFC is too great. China is a country with a population of over 1 billion and a huge catering market. McDonald's does not want to miss the opportunity to expand its market.
…
Time, April 16th, another 5 days have passed, and Zhang Hao only has 374 days left to live. After tonight, there will be only 373 days left.
The pressure of seeing his lifespan decreasing day by day really drove him crazy, but luckily, he had the memory of the future and the feeling of "I'm so happy to be alive", which allowed him to face it all calmly and try hard to find a way to stay alive.
What is the method of hard work?
Just training!
If you can personally feel your mid-range shooting becoming more and more stable, and can clearly feel the improvement in your mid-range shooting, you can better implement the "plan to survive".
After sending the letter, Zhang Hao has been training for the past few days. Compared to before when it took him a long time to feel progress, the progress in the past few days makes Zhang Hao excited every day.
In just 5 days, the mid-range shooting ability value has increased from 75 to 79! Zhang Hao considers 70 to 79 as good, 90-94 as top, then 85-89 should be first-class level, and 80-84 is excellent level! NBA-level excellent mid-range shooting is just around the corner!
Not only is his evaluation improving, he can also feel the improvement in his shooting accuracy. Compared with his previous speed of improvement, now it can be described as rapid progress.
Zhang Hao got up and went to the small living room outside the bedroom. The apartment was a bit old, but it was quite large, more than 40 square meters, with a small living room and a bathroom. Zhang Hao, who had just woken up, saw a fat boy playing computer in his living room.
This crappy computer is not only big in size, but also has terrible internet speed and poor configuration... This is how Zhang Hao sees it from the future perspective.
For Pierce, it's baby!
After the dean of the nursing school, the basketball team manager, and the head coach came to visit and confirmed that Pierce would attend the University of Kansas , Pierce's mother stopped caring about Pierce's studies.
Since Pierce was admitted to university and studied nursing, which would be easy to find a job in the future, Pierce's mother was very satisfied. All three sons were admitted to university and received full scholarships. As for whether Pierce could become a professional athlete like his second brother, Pierce's mother didn't care much... Mainly because of Pierce's chubby appearance, she really didn't think Pierce could eventually become a professional player like his second son. Maybe he would be like his eldest son, who had talent but lost the chance to become a professional player because of his undisciplined diet. So, Pierce now plays games every day. His mother said that he could play games as much as he wanted after he got into university...
The computer belongs to Zhang Hao. When he first went to the United States to study, his family still had money, so they bought a lot of things for him, including a computer, a pager, and so on. The only thing missing was a mobile phone. The latest game software was basically bought with the pocket money Pierce earned from helping his mother clean the corridors, move things, and so on. The two of them took turns playing.
In the past, Zhang Hao really liked playing games, but now he has no interest in these games. The picture quality and the mosaics all over the screen are not enough to describe their poor quality... He will be interested in Red Alert, CS, StarCraft, Warcraft 2, Diablo 2... and other games when they come out in the future. It can be said that those games have completely changed the entire gaming era.
Zhang Hao watched Pierce playing the interstellar space exploration mecha game "Elite" Part 2. Pierce was the only one mumbling. It was the same as usual. When Zhang Hao played, he rarely talked. It was always Pierce who talked. Pierce didn't feel anything was wrong at all, but was confused as to why he played for so long today. In the past, if there was no training, the two of them would fight over the game.
Today, the younger students are having a match against a Southern California high school at their school, and they will be using the training ground. Zhang Hao is also planning to take a day off.
But let's be honest, Zhang Hao also found it quite interesting to watch Pierce play, mainly because the game was interesting. Although the graphics of today's games don't have as good as in the future, they are better in terms of plot and high playability... The most important thing is that games are fun only when you play with others, even if you can just play alone and watch it alone.
At noon, feeling hungry, Zhang Hao said hello to Pierce, went out to buy three pizzas and came back to eat together.
After coming to the United States, Zhang Hao discovered that things like pizza, hamburgers, and fried chicken nuggets are the same as the Shaxian snacks in China.
But in the same way, he saw that in the United States, a steamed bun costs $5... and the taste is weird, which is not important. The pizza here in the United States is quite different from the pizza in China, but some very cheap Chinese food in China is extremely expensive in the United States, and some of the shapes are very different . He and Pierce went to eat a big steamed bun that cost $12, which needed to be cut with a knife and fork to share.
After buying pizza in the next block, Zhang Hao saw a letter in his mailbox and his eyes lit up! Could it be that the new school replied?
I took it out and looked at it, and was a little disappointed. They were reply letters from Adidas and McDonald's.
However, Adidas sent one reply letter, while McDonald's sent two!
"Is this fat guy really participating in the dunk contest?"
Zhang Hao thought about how Pierce only had three dunks in high school... he was a man of loyalty!
If Pierce dunked first and then Zhang Hao dunked, then the comparison would probably allow him to get a perfect score for the dunk.
Just as Zhang Hao opened the reply from the Adidas training camp, the subtitle prompt came again.
"Specially signed player: Zhang Hao, has successfully signed up for the Adidas 1995 Summer High School Basketball Training Camp. Congratulations on increasing the host's lifespan by 15 days.
Special signed player: Zhang Hao has successfully registered for the McDonald's High School All-Star Slam Dunk Contest. Congratulations to the host for increasing his remaining lifespan by 15 days.
Remaining lifespan 404 days, usable lifespan 403 days. ”
Looking at the specific time, location, hotel, etc. written on the letter, Zhang Hao was very excited - as expected! Specially signed players, that is, if they participate in an important event, they may get rewards!
His main purpose of participating in these two competitions was to get rewards. He was not very optimistic about the final result, but since he could get rewards by participating, why not?
However, he did not expect that there would be rewards for actively participating in the Adidas training camp, but this also made Zhang Hao's alternative plan more feasible - if it really doesn't work out, he will play in lower-level leagues or organized street events.
Pierce participated in Adidas' ABCD training camp last year. This is a similar promotional event competition organized by Adidas to compete with Nike in the basketball shoe market, but the competition level is the highest among the training camps of major sports brands.
Generally speaking, there are no senior high school players participating in this competition, as most of the talented players in the senior high school have already been divided up by major colleges and universities. Therefore, it is usually the players who are among the top 100 high school students in the United States in their sophomore or junior years who participate. The players who make the final high school all-star lineup will basically be able to join the NCAA Division I league team in the future.
Zhang Hao is obviously an exception. He received the invitation this year largely because there are many Chinese people in the host city.
Zhang Hao felt that he must work hard to try to get the recognition of a college coach, just like Coach Scott Collins of Inglewood High School, who saw his ability and talent and selected him.
College coaches have a lot of power, and they have a lot of say in scholarship arrangements and player selection.
But thinking about college... Zhang Hao still has a headache. He sent his game videos and resume to 22 first-level universities, but so far only nine universities have responded.
Most of the universities that responded were interested in his SAT scores. Zhang Hao estimated that if he applied for universities purely based on his grades instead of basketball scholarships, those schools would be much more enthusiastic.
Taking the three letters back to the bedroom, Zhang Hao gave the one to Pierce and opened his own reply letter to the McDonald's High School All-Star Slam Dunk Contest.
The Adidas camp was held in San Francisco this year, and the McDonald's High School All-Star Weekend was held in Los Angeles.
As for the McDonald's All-Star Weekend, you will report to the designated hotel on the 24th. The 25th and 26th are the tryouts for the competition, including the preliminaries of the slam dunk contest. The McDonald's High School All-Star is modeled after the rules of the NBA All-Star, but there are tryouts in the first two days. The high school all-star game will be on the 27th, and the three-point contest and slam dunk contest will be on the 28th.
The most popular and the only event that is broadcast live nationwide is the Slam Dunk Contest. The three-point contest also had the opportunity to be broadcast live nationwide because of the Slam Dunk Contest, but I guess not many people paid attention to it.
Zhang Hao did not receive an invitation to the All-Star Game, but Zhang Hao learned about the All-Star Game in the past few days and found that the selection of high school students for the All-Star Game is very strange. It is composed of all the state league champion teams in the East and the West, and experts select one player from each state champion high school that is divided into the East or West. Sometimes the best players do not have the opportunity to participate.
Pierce was also invited but declined because it was unnecessary.
The Adidas training camp is different. Zhang Hao is a special case. Most of the other participating players are sophomores and juniors in high school. The first step is a one-week training camp, during which some competitions and selections will be held in various ways. Finally, the All-Star lineup will be decided. At the node between the NBA regular season and the playoffs, they will seize the time to hold an event imitating the NBA All-Star Game. The two teams are composed of high school students from the Eastern and Western Conferences.
After Zhang Hao paid attention to this event, he saw the promotional poster for the Adidas high school basketball training camp. The cover player used for the promotion was Kevin Garnett, the best high school student in the United States from Farragut High School... After Zhang Hao paid attention to Garnett at the time, he found out why this guy didn't go to college and went straight to the NBA. His grades were so bad. What kind of learning enthusiasm could make a senior high school student only get more than 300 points in the SAT exam?
There was an ACT test at the end of April and another SAT test in early May. Garnett, who had difficulty in taking exams, did not study hard to get into college, but came to participate in this competition. Perhaps he never thought about going to college at all... and had no chance to get in.
The Adidas camp was not broadcast live, but it attracted more attention than the McDonald's camp and the All-Star Game! Almost all of the MVPs of this event eventually made it to the NBA, and almost all of the 18 players on the final roster of this event made it to the NCAA Division I team.
The McDonald's High School All-Star Game is almost a formality, the dunk contest only looks at physical fitness and dunk creativity, but the final game of the Adidas training camp is a real test of technique and basketball talent.
While Pierce was eating pizza, Zhang Hao used his computer to search for detailed information about the competition at the Adidas training camp.
Using a computer these days requires a lot of patience...
“Yoho!”
Zhang Hao looked at the list of contestants and quickly found some familiar names. They were not familiar with each other, but he knew those people.
Garnett, Kobe, Hamilton, Bibby, Jermaine O'Neal... But most people still don't know them, there are more than 100 of them.
Zhang Hao thought about the speed of his improvement in mid-range shooting... He didn't have much expectations for the Adidas training camp, but now he has them. He is good at running, catching the ball and shooting. If he has a teammate who is better at passing the ball and can get along better with him, maybe he can make the final 18-man roster?
Then the probability of entering the NCAA Division I school team will greatly increase!
