Chapter 8 The feeling of stepping onto the field
The slam dunk contest is McDonald's main attraction this time. Generally speaking, there is a fee for broadcasting a program on TV, and the producers collect money from the TV stations because the TV stations can sell advertisements. However, in recent years, the slam dunk contest has not charged any money in order to be broadcast live across the United States. McDonald's even has to spend its own money on promotion on various channels.
This means that McDonald's is spending almost exclusively on this program, and the most crucial part of the show, the slam dunk contest, naturally cannot be taken lightly.
The producer carefully looked at the physical test reports of each participating player and prepared to select some to make flyers and distribute to various communities.
Some of these players deserve to be promoted, such as Carter, Desmond Mason and Ricky Davis, all of whom are high school students who are very famous for dunking in their respective states.
When the producer came across Zhang Hao's physical examination report, he was surprised.
Zhang Hao and Pierce were purely invited to make up the numbers. He was not surprised when they refused to participate, but he was naturally happy when they participated. He could use them for publicity, which would more or less increase the ratings in the Los Angeles area, and they were the kind of student group that could bring in revenue.
Pierce...his running and jumping abilities are average, which is already considered outstanding. Pierce's weight is comparable to some NBA inside players. He is really like a mound. His nickname, Little Barkley, is not a joke.
And Zhang Hao...this 109-centimeter running jump is considered top-notch among black players!
Then we need to promote this well and distribute more flyers to the Chinese community.
Chinese people are a very special group among all immigrant groups around the world. After they immigrate, they still consider themselves Chinese. Of course, this mainly includes the current one or two generations of Chinese who immigrated directly here, and their children who were mostly raised by Chinese in their families. As for the next generation, it is hard to say.
If there were 18 million Chinese people gathered together, they might even consume each other to death, but in a foreign country, they have strong cohesion.
McDonald's has not been very successful in breaking into the Chinese community. As for fast food, the older generation still prefers Chinese fast food and KFC, which better caters to Chinese tastes.
The producer didn't regard Zhang Hao's small role as a life-saving straw to open up the Chinese market. After all, it wouldn't cost much to put out more flyers. It was just what a producer should do. Moreover, Zhang Hao had to pass the selection before he could promote him more. If he didn't even pass the selection, there would be no need to promote him.
However, this also makes the producer more excited about the auditions this afternoon.
…
After the physical examination, I had lunch provided by McDonald's, which was a variety of fast food. There was a camera filming next to it, and anyone with a discerning eye knew what was going on.
As for preparing for the dunk contest...if it was the Zhang Hao from before, he would definitely not participate, because his dunks were nothing new. But now, although his dunks may not be better than Carter's, there will be so many dunkers with creative styles in the future. Now, all the creative ideas he remembers are his!
In the intervals of shooting training, Zhang Hao also practiced dunks. His excellent jumping ability allowed him to complete many slam dunks. He still had confidence. He did not have much hope of winning the championship, but Zhang Hao really wanted to pass the qualifiers, enter the finals, and get a perfect slam dunk.
I chatted with Pierce, Tyronn Lue and Muhammad for a while at noon. At 1 p.m., the three of us arrived at the Great Western Forum stadium in advance. There were two McDonald's High School All-Star qualifiers this afternoon. In between the two games was the dunk contest qualifiers.
There were spectators at the tryouts, all of whom were local students from Los Angeles, mostly from Inglewood High School.
The three of them came to the front row of the players' area. Right behind the players' area, a Latin American girl with a good figure and who looked like she often exercised greeted them: "Axel, Paul, you are here!"
Pierce just said "Hi" in response, looking like he had no interest in women.
This made Zhang Hao very confused, but it seemed to have always been like this. Pierce didn't know which of his Chinese friends said, "How dare you have a girlfriend when you have no money?" Then he didn't have a girlfriend throughout high school...
Zhang Hao, who also had no money, responded enthusiastically: "April, you're here too? Are you here to cheer me up?"
April Clark, who had gotten used to Zhang Hao's changes in recent times, raised her eyebrows and joked, "Yes, our Inglewood dunk king, let's see how you perform today."
"I originally thought I might not make it to the finals, but with your encouragement, I feel full of strength and I really want to perform..."
After a brief greeting, Zhang Hao sat down to watch the game.
Competition... There is a reason why McDonald's All-Star High School Game is not taken seriously by major schools. Judging from the individual abilities of the players on the field, Zhang Hao feels that each one is very strong individually, and is much stronger than the individual abilities of his opponents in high school competitions. In the California high school world, he and Pierce are the king bombs.
But this group of people have no cooperation. Whoever has the ball just does it on his own. There is no organization or discipline. What can be seen from them?
It was just like the All-Star Rookie Game, everyone wanted to rush in and dunk.
But the cheers at the scene were still very loud, with dunks and blocks, and no one wanted to lose to anyone else.
Among the players in these games, there was one player that Zhang Hao remembered, Mike Bibby, who was the New Jersey Basketball Player of the Year for two consecutive years but did not have any chance to perform.
There is a huge difference between watching a game live and watching it on TV. When watching a game live, you can clearly compare your own skills with those of the players on the field.
When watching the game on the screen, we always compare the best players with the players on the field. If we are not careful, we will think, “These players are just so-so.”
Although their individual abilities are strong, the players on the field played in a disorganized manner. Zhang Hao lost interest after watching for a while and started chatting happily with April Clark.
Pierce, who was standing next to him, listened to the conversation between Zhang Hao and the tennis girl in their apartment. He felt a lump in his throat. What happened to the saying "poor people don't deserve girlfriends"? This guy betrayed the organization!
Looking at April Clarke who was laughing non-stop because of Zhang Hao, Pierce really didn't expect Zhang Hao to have this trick! This guy was not bad looking to begin with, and unlike Pierce, he had an uncontrolled diet and a good figure. After he became smart and was willing to chat more, it seemed that this school tennis beauty was about to fall for him!
Pierce felt like his little pig brother was finally going to get some cabbage... But, he, Pickley, hadn't gotten any cabbage yet! This made him even more tearful...
In the All-Star qualifiers, Mike Bibby's team lost. How could such a best point guard in the United States lose?
When the game was almost over, the players participating in the dunk contest who did not come to watch the game also came.
When Carter arrived at the scene, many students focused their attention on him. In the past few days, Los Angeles TV and radio stations have been promoting how awesome Carter's dunks are. There is no doubt that McDonald's spent money on the publicity, but it also made many students interested in him.
Zhang Hao and Tyronn Lue also came to the court to warm up.
The host introduced each participating player one by one. Among them, the one who received the most cheers was Zhang Hao. Among the high school students in Los Angeles, he ranked at the top in strength, and only Pierce was stronger than him. Moreover, Zhang Hao was more popular among Hispanic and white students.
We all met and got to know each other in the morning, and this time through the host's introduction, we got to know each other a little better.
Although the players participating in the dunk contest are not stronger than those participating in the All-Star qualifiers, they are not much worse. They are all athletic and physically fit men. In high school, they can often get away with it with their athletic ability, unless they meet players like Mike Bibby and Pierce whose skills are obviously a level higher. As for players like Garnett and Kobe Bryant, whose athletic ability and skills are top-notch in high school, they must have been very famous in high school.
The judges' seats have also been set up. When the most prestigious judge of this year, 76ers legend Julius Erving, entered the stadium with the judges, thousands of students at the scene and players on the sidelines went crazy and all cheered!
This is the first player in modern basketball who can really play in the air! Even Michael Jordan calls him an idol!
In front of the cameraman's lens that shot from three angles, Julius Erving encouraged the participating players and then sat down with the other two judges. Not many people knew the other two judges, but they seemed to be retired NBA players who came to make extra money.
The host explained the rules. If the dunk is approved by all three judges, then the player will advance directly to the finals. If two judges approve it, the stage is pending. In the end, if there are less than 6 players who pass all three votes, a player will be selected from the players who pass two votes, and so on. If there is no vote at all, the player will be eliminated directly.
Soon, the preliminaries began. Zhang Hao's number was 13... In the eyes of Americans, it was a really unlucky number.
Zhang Hao noticed that Ricky Davis's number was 9, Desmond Mason's was 11, Tyronn Lue's was 12, and Carter's number was 25. Since Pierce withdrew from the competition, Carter will be the 24th to participate.
It is obvious that McDonald's is using it as the finale. I guess Carter will be the finale in the finals.
In terms of viewing pleasure alone, Zhang Hao felt that the dunks of the previous contestants were all pretty good, with good bounce and smooth movements. After all, they were the best high school students in the United States invited by McDonald's to dunk. When it was the sixth contestant's dunk, the first dunk that received three full votes appeared. This was also the first dunk that Julius Erving gave tonight.
Dean Grove, a dark-skinned man second only to Nazr Mohammed among the people present, won Julius Erving's first pass with a highly spectacular under-the-hip dunk.
Ricky Davis, who was the 9th player to play, dunked with his hands under the hips, but because Dean Grove had set a good example before him, Julius Erving was unable to raise his hand, and two votes were pending.
Desmond Mason, who came on in 11th place, received the second unanimous vote with a beautiful rebound catch and 180-degree dunk.
Zhang Hao thought that Tyronn Lue would surprise him, after all, Fisher could fly when he was young, but in the end, Tyronn Lue was eliminated with just a slam dunk...
Finally, it’s Zhang Hao’s turn!
There were many fans at the scene who were familiar with Zhang Hao. After all, they were all students from Los Angeles . Among them, more than 200 people from Inglewood High School were cheering wildly. Human beings are essentially repeaters, and other students also cheered along.
The attention of other people was not on Zhang Hao. People like Desmond Mason and Ricky Davis were all targeting Carter who had been interviewed continuously in the past two days.
But when they heard the cheers of the fans at the scene, they also turned their attention to Zhang Hao.
Zhang Hao, who walked onto the court, was extremely excited!
As for his future memories, this was the first time in his life that so many people gathered to watch him participate in a competition, but the memory of this era made him quite calm, because there were also many spectators in their school's competitions.
At that moment, Zhang Hao, who had originally regarded playing basketball as a way to survive because of his memories of the future, really fell in love with this kind of cheering from the bottom of his heart.
With complicated but mainly excited mood, Zhang Hao came to the center circle.
Listening to the cheers, Zhang Hao patted the ball. He was not worried about not dunking well, but he didn't know which one to choose. After all, this was just a tryout.
A large number of slam dunks by future slam dunk masters participating in slam dunk contests emerged in his mind. He himself did not have much creativity in this area, but that did not prevent him from having a good memory and watching a lot of basketball.
It doesn't matter. Zhang Hao decided to take a more direct approach. He started dribbling from the center circle and accelerated. When approaching the three-point line, he increased his speed to the fastest. He grabbed the ball with one step outside the three-point line, took two steps in a row, stepped his left foot on the free throw line, jumped up, floated in the air, and gently slammed the ball into the basket.
This slam dunk, without considering the distance and the jumping height, is just an ordinary slam dunk. However, the competition venue is the competition venue of an NBA team, which looks amazing enough. Moreover, Zhang Hao's light and freehand feeling seems to be saying - what is the need for this kind of selection competition?
It looks really amazing!
All the spectators were cheering! Several players who were close to Zhang Hao were shouting loudly on the sidelines. After he finished the dunk, his teammates from Inglewood High School rushed in to high-five him, all wearing their team jerseys.
There was no suspense, and the three judges immediately raised the sign of pass.
Even Julius Irving was surprised by Zhang Hao's freehand dunk.
Julius Irving said to his old teammate next to him: "Andrew, I didn't expect there would be a surprise. This kid looks ordinary, and I really didn't expect him to dunk so beautifully."
Andrew Toney, the main guard of the 76ers in the 1980s, competed vigorously with Byron Scott of the Lakers for the second shooter with his shooting ability, which was enough to be called the second or third shooter in the mid-1980s.
Andrew Tony nodded in agreement with Julius Irving and said, "Looking at his dunk, it's clear that he didn't take the trials seriously. I heard that Carter's dunks are amazing. I wonder how their finals will turn out in a couple of days... Julius, don't be so casual with your passes. What if you give out all six before Carter dunks..."
Julius Irving nodded. He didn't think the reward was too "casual" at first. After all, high school students needed encouragement. But compared with Zhang Hao's dunk just now, the dunks of the previous contestants were given to the two who passed, and Julius Irving felt that it was a bit casual.
The other players were surprised by Zhang Hao's dunk. This guy is really good at dunking! He looked like he passed the dunk without even trying hard .
An unexpected situation occurred! Even Carter focused his attention on Zhang Hao, who was having a great chat with the strongest high school student in California.
The current Carter is not who he will be in the future. Pride is written all over his face. Having already received a full scholarship from North Carolina, he compares himself to the next Jordan. Although he met Zhang Hao yesterday, he didn't take him seriously at all. He didn't expect this guy to be so good at dunking.
No unanimous vote after Zhang Hao!
The next 10 contestants did not receive full votes, but three of them received two votes and entered the waiting area.
Finally, Carter, the last act, arrived. Obviously, the cameraman's camera position had changed. Apparently, this was an order from the McDonald's producer. Carter's dunk in the tryout was to be used as a promotional video.
Carter couldn't wait any longer. He had just heard someone say "No one can surpass that Chinese kid's dunk..." for the 10th time in a row, and he was already very upset.
Some students from Daytona Beach Continental High School and some high school players from Florida were familiar with Carter. Players like Pierce had also heard of Carter, but they had only heard of him. Most people were very interested in this high school student who had been promoted as a selling point by McDonald's for a while, and wanted to see how he would dunk.
Carter dribbled the ball from the 45-degree angle on the right side of the three-point line, dribbled slowly into the paint, grabbed the ball on the right side of the three-second zone, took a step, and then jumped up, grabbed the ball with his right hand, turned 360 degrees in the air, and slammed the ball into the basket! When the ball was slammed into the basket, Carter had just jumped to the highest point, and his head was easily parallel to the basket!
Nearly two thousand people at the scene exclaimed!
If Zhang Hao's dunk just now was amazing, then Carter's dunk was still shocking even though people had already attached great importance to it!
Even Julius Erving stood up and slammed the table.
Is this a high school dunk contest? In Julius Irving's eyes, few dunks in the NBA All-Star Slam Dunk Contest can be better than Carter's!
The fourth unanimous vote!
Carter is a ruthless man of few words. Some people previously questioned why he was so highly valued by McDonald's. Now everyone understands that he has the ability!
After celebrating with his high school teammates, Carter raised his neck towards Zhang Hao, and his meaning was very clear.
Carter looked down on everyone else, but Zhang Hao, a Chinese teenager who had obviously retained his strength, was regarded as his rival.
This made Desmond Mason and Ricky Davis, two players who wanted to win the championship very unhappy. Zhang Hao was also implicated, but Carter, who looked down on them, was the one who made them most unhappy.
…
The trials are over! Zhang Hao, Carter, Dean Grove, and Desmond Mason, the four players who were unanimously approved, advanced to the finals. Ricky Davis and Millers Simon from Santa Ana High School, the two players who received two votes, were finally selected by Julius Erving to enter the finals.
In the finals, the rules are similar to those of the NBA Slam Dunk Contest. There are five judges, and each judge scores 6-10 points. The minimum total score is 30 points and the maximum is 50 points.
The final will be the day after tomorrow, which is the evening of the 28th, and will be broadcast live across the United States by American cable TV.
When the host announced the final list, competition time, location, rules, etc., the dunk contest trials ended.
Zhang Hao and others did not leave, but stayed to watch the next All-Star Qualifying Game.
"Oh, Axel, even though I know you're a good dancer, I still can't believe you made it to the finals..." Pierce started talking again.
"Yeah, Axl, you seem to seldom dunk in the game. Why?" At some point, April Clark sat next to Zhang Hao.
Pierce knew the reason for the question from the Latino tennis girl, but he did not respond. He was not afraid of trouble, but Zhang Hao did not want to cause trouble.
Zhang Hao responded: "I was afraid that Paul's self-esteem would be hurt. The height he jumped was too short."
Pierce was speechless, but he felt something was wrong. Shouldn't he use "Short" to describe poor jumping ability? Why use "Small"?
Maybe this Chinese friend hasn’t learned English well enough!
"Axl, that guy named Carter is such an awesome dunker! Are you confident you can beat him?" April Clark asked.
"I will try my best and I want to beat him, but he is really strong. He is the best dunker I have ever seen." Zhang Hao gave an evaluation from the bottom of his heart.
However, when Zhang Hao said he wanted to defeat Carter, it came from the bottom of his heart.
It was during this trial that he realized how much he wanted to win!
Even if it was Carter, he wanted to win!
"Is he that good?" Pierce said he didn't quite understand the world of dunkers.
"It's really amazing. It's hard for me to do a dunk like his, but he should be able to do the dunk that I did, although mine wasn't that difficult." Zhang Hao analyzed it carefully.
It’s not that difficult... Pierce really wants to find a policeman to ask, is it illegal for a high school student to beat up a classmate?
I really want to hit him!
The All-Star selection ends after 55 minutes, which means the first and second halves are 20 minutes each, with no timeouts, no dead balls, and a 15-minute halftime break.
Not to mention whether anyone would watch such a live game, even Zhang Hao, who was watching the game on site, found problems. It was only interesting in the first few minutes, but later on it was like 10 people each playing 1 against 9. Once they grabbed a rebound, they would not give it to others. There were even situations where teammates competed with each other for rebounds.
Finally, the game was over. Players like Ricky Davis left without giving any face. Zhang Hao, Pierce and others stayed until the end, but they really couldn't stand it.
Later on, Zhang Hao mainly chatted with other people. He got to know the final player Millers Simon, and quickly found out the occupations of his three generations of ancestors. He was just a kid without any scheming... This guy's father was actually a management member of the Lakers, another form of second-generation basketball player!
However, the NBA does not have a rule that children of team management or head coach cannot play in the NBA.
Zhang Hao invited Pierce, April Clark and one of her female classmates, Tyronn Lue, and Muhammad to have dinner together. They just had pizza, fried chicken and something like that. They were all poor students and didn't care about that much.
Just when Zhang Hao and others went back to the locker room to change into casual clothes, they met Carter. This time, Carter took the initiative to greet them.
"Hey, brother, let's go for dinner together?" Carter came up directly and asked for dinner. Black people tend to be more direct.
"That's great. We're going to have dinner together?" Pierce responded.
"That's great... Axel, your dunk was cool, I think there will be a great matchup on the 28th." Carter suddenly changed the topic here.
Did this guy come here to provoke me? Zhang Hao felt a little strange, but it didn't seem like it. He seemed to really think that he was a good opponent. But Carter's arrogant high school student look before...
Without thinking too much, Zhang Hao responded: "I also hope it will be a wonderful duel..."
