One Year Left to Play-Chapter 110 - 35: Someone’s Trying to Trick Me into Having a Daughter Again

With the support of Liu Yudong, who was also part of the Nanjing Military Industry Team Men’s Basketball, Wang Zhizhi felt greatly encouraged.

However, thinking about recent experiences, Wang Zhizhi shook his head with a bitter smile: "I reckon it’s difficult for me to successfully leave, the Basketball Association doesn’t want me to go, and the superiors haven’t agreed either. I am a soldier, I must follow orders... Moreover, I worry that even if I go to the United States, the Basketball Association might go to the NCAA and say that I am a player in the Chinese Jia-A League. I’ve asked, if I successfully register in the Jia-A, then I won’t be able to play in the NCAA."

Hu Weidong and Liu Yudong understood the situation Wang Zhizhi was talking about, it’s really possible... no, as long as there is no support from their Nanjing Military Region, those people would absolutely do such a thing, and they are extremely adept at using moral blackmail, the word "official" has two mouths, black and white self-narrate... The crucial point is the current international situation, and the Basketball Association definitely has a point if they want to make a fuss about it.

If hooligans have a point, even a celestial king can’t win against them.

Compared to Liu Yudong’s maturity and steadiness, the 25-year-old Hu Weidong’s personality was more lively and asked: "Da Liu, do you think Da Zhi can just go participate in NBA tryouts? Didn’t Zhang Hao enter the NBA at 18?"

Liu Yudong shook his head and said: "Have you seen the Adidas Training Camp’s game footage? Zhang Hao was only 18, and his level was no less than ours. People of comparable strength like Bibi, Billups, etc., are all playing NCAA. Zhang Hao is a special case, he relies purely on his athletic ability and shooting to be on par with Bibi and Billups, that’s why he can directly enter the NBA. I think Da Zhi should do as Zhang Hao suggested, go to the NCAA to train for a few years, maybe he can enter the NBA after coming out from school! In our country, it’s quite difficult, and once you really play in the Jia-A, I worry that it will be hard for Da Zhi to leave. Haven’t you seen those player contracts?"

Thinking about those indenture-like contracts, Hu Weidong felt a bit dispirited, but there was no way around it, if you want to play, you can only sign, after all, the salary was still decent after the establishment of the league.

He’s not complaining, he’s willing to contribute to the nation, but after battling many years for the national team, he really hasn’t saved up much money, he needs to think about the future.

As for Wang Zhizhi, he truly wanted to go to the NCAA, that fellow countryman who was known even in a foreign land also suggested for him to go...

But he was only 18, carrying his excited emotions to discuss this matter with the superiors, but he was met with resistance and obstacles, now he doesn’t know what to do.

Seeing Wang Zhizhi not speaking, obviously looking very upset, Liu Yudong said: "Don’t worry, I’ll go talk to the superiors with you! I believe they will make the best choice..."

...

As for Zhang Hao, he had no idea that his casual mention of Wang Zhizhi had brought such a significant change to the starting point of Wang Zhizhi’s career, giving him a clear direction to strive for rather than languishing for several years in the country and then deciding to go to the United States.

Day by day the training went by, and Zhang Hao was constantly improving.

In terms of shooting, it seemed like there wasn’t much progress, but, with continuous strength improvements, his mid-range shooting level was unaffected, and his long-distance shots even showed slight improvement, which actually represented substantial progress.

After breaking through the threshold of an 80 strength rating, his strength rating increased rapidly, rising to 84 in just a short half-month!

The summer of the lockout, the NBA seemed to vanish from the world, in these days where the internet isn’t developed, there wasn’t even SMS news, on TV and newspapers, radio news only mentioned the labor negotiations have failed once the lockout was announced, there wasn’t much coverage on the NBA.

Occasionally, the Imperial Channel would come to interview him, once they recorded some of his training, there were no other things, the NBA couldn’t use player images for promotion, and during the offseason, besides news created by the players, there wasn’t any other news. Actually, much of the players’ news was orchestrated by the league, and even some negative news, as long as it wasn’t very damaging or impacting the league, the league would even actively publicize players’ negative news.

By the 20th of July, Zhang Hao temporarily suspended his training, he had something to do today.

Aprile Clark had passed the University of Southern California’s art exam yesterday, combined with her last SAT scores being decent, she received an interview invite from the University of Southern California, and today Zhang Hao was also going to the University of Southern California for an interview, he was also planning to apply to this university.

On the way to the University of Southern California by taxi, Aprile Clark asked: "Aix, why are you applying to USC? You should be able to go to New York University, right? It’s so close to New Jersey, and it’s one of the top ten universities in the United States."

"USC’s bio-kinesiology and physical therapy program is very good, I like this program."

"..." Hearing the name of this program, Aprile Clark found it a tongue-twister and didn’t know how to respond.

Was there really someone who would study this program?

In Aprile Clark’s view, learning to repair cars seemed better, she liked tinkering with cars, but since she wrecked her dad’s only cherished sports car in freshman year, she was kicked out by her family and had to rent a place to live, otherwise, if her dad had another car for daily commute, she would certainly continue her efforts, and ruin another one.

"Is it because you’re worried my average grades might get me rejected, so you’re applying to this university with me?"

When it comes to acting in plays, Aprile Clark felt she was pretty decent, but since she started late, her grades weren’t really improving even by senior year, she started learning about this just recently, and it was through this recent period of intensive training that she barely passed the art exams, her SAT scores could only be described as okay, and the USC City College, which is ranked first for arts colleges in the U.S., had quite high academic requirements, she barely made it, she might really get rejected after the interview.