One Year Left to Play-Chapter 128 - 41: I Want to Wear Number 8 (Happy New Year, Please Vote!)
Pelinka was full of energy as he worked on poaching Henry Thomas and actively preparing their company, while Zhang Hao, after promising normal player salary plus endorsement fee commission and proactively offering the rookie contract’s agent commission, no longer focused on this matter.
Willing to spend those tens of thousands of US Dollars, he wanted to find two reliable people to help him solve off-court issues; establishing a company was a good method, but once entrusted, there was no need to manage further.
He provided the startup funds, and others contributed their skills or hard work.
For now, it’s just laying the groundwork; whether it will be used remains to be seen.
To make use of it, he still has to work hard himself.
If he doesn’t succeed in the NBA, all this preparation will be in vain.
After handling this issue, Zhang Hao stopped focusing his mind on it.
At this stage, all he wanted was not having to constantly be on guard against work partners.
As the saying goes, if you trust someone, don’t be suspicious; if you’re suspicious, don’t employ them. If the agent was like Charles Banks, who always needed to be on guard against, life would be too exhausting.
Paint a big picture for the two people; anyway, he wasn’t bluffing.
He continued to study and train with peace of mind, while also starting to prepare for upcoming life in New Jersey, investigating things there.
Receiving the information gathered by Pelinka, Zhang Hao’s heart sank.
He had thought Rutherford Town, where the Brooklyn Nets’ home stadium Continental Airlines Arena is located, was just like Inglewood, the city where the Lakers’ Great Western Forum is located. He thought it was a big town in New Jersey, considering New Jersey is one of the wealthiest states in the US, ranking top in per capita income, with over 1,300 sizable enterprises across 20,000 square kilometers of land...
But upon investigation, he discovered New Jersey is the fourth-least happy state in the US!
And Rutherford Town is one of the "poorest" places in Jersey City!
This poor isn’t truly poor, but within Jersey City, Rutherford Town is indeed relatively lower in income.
People in Jersey City are all elites, constantly thinking about how to make money; the most popular leisure places are bars.
They earn a lot, but the overall prices in this state rank highest in the US, with the consumer standards in several major cities even comparable to tourism cities, resulting in a high living cost here, which puts great pressure on everyone, in turn driving the growth of the bar and gambling industries.
However, if you look at it this way, at least people here have high incomes and strong spending power.
Only high income and high spending power have nothing to do with Rutherford Town; this small town doesn’t even have a truly starred hotel. In NBA players’ surveys, it ranks as the least popular away location.
Moreover, in that report, Zhang Hao saw that the second least popular away location is the Timberwolves’ Target Center.
"Both of us high school rookie players ended up at the worst and second-worst home stadiums... Hey, wait, it’s other teams’ players who don’t like going to play in New Jersey and Minnesota; it doesn’t necessarily mean those places are truly that bad."
Zhang Hao tried hard to comfort himself.
No longer researching that city, Zhang Hao focused on learning about his fellow team players. Starting from September 2nd, the Brooklyn Nets quickly signed many players, completed two trades, and swiftly filled the roster.
This offseason lockout was already a settled matter, so between the end of the Finals and the draft, many trades were already completed.
Now it’s just minor activities; all the league’s teams had prepared fully for the lockout, which is why they dared to press the lockout button decisively.
On September 15th, as agreed, after giving the first payment of a $50,000 check to Pelinka and signing the investment contract, Zhang Hao bid farewell to Aprile Clark and headed to Jersey City.
A whole new life started!
...
...
"Senior high school student Kobe Bryant defeated No. 3 pick Jerry Stackhouse in a 3-hour singles match with a score of 101 to 91... Stackhouse was too miserable, becoming Kobe’s stepping stone!
It seems that Kobe truly caught the attention of NBA teams during this singles match?
I remember our Brooklyn Nets also planned to select him next year, and he directly stated he wouldn’t come..."
On the morning of September 16th, at the Four Seasons Hotel Jersey City, Zhang Hao was enjoying his morning tea while reading the newspaper; yesterday’s sports news had Kobe smashing Stackhouse as the headline.
The news went like this: The 76ers started to organize activities to stimulate the market; after Barkley left the 76ers, the team’s market was rather bleak, and with nothing newsworthy during these few months of lockout, they invited local college and high school talents, with the 76ers head coach John Lucas arranging for Kobe and Stackhouse to practice together. Kobe suggested the winner should score 10 more points than the opponent and then, the two had a 3-hour singles match...
hours of singles matches—something that even an NBA player, Zhang Hao felt, couldn’t have many who could outlast Kobe.
Purely relying on endurance to wear Stackhouse out!
However, this also requires Kobe to have the capability, the ability not to fall behind by 10 points to an energetic Stackhouse in a one-on-one match, and then rely on endurance to wear him down and finally win the singles match.
In the news, Zhang Hao could almost sense Stackhouse’s despair during his 3-hour singles match...
Over the past few months, truly immersing himself in this era, Zhang Hao’s understanding of the basketball world deepened significantly, letting him truly appreciate how Kobe was so highly sought after in this era. Although Kobe had considerable controversy since high school, in terms of exposure rate alone, many NBA stars weren’t on par with him.
