One Year Left to Play-Chapter 134 - 43: What If the Talent Is Even Greater Than Expected?
The apartment is pretty good, located in a six-story building a block away, with a total of 24 units. Each unit is quite large. The landlord mentioned that this building was built only eight years ago and was renovated a year ago.
Zhang Hao could tell that the furniture was very new.
There are downsides, like the fact that in the United States there’s no real concept of residential communities, and thus, no green spaces. The property management company only does a weekly public cleaning, with extra charges for temporary cleaning. After estimating, it’s not as thorough as the property management services back home, and the labor costs are through the roof... Fortunately, he didn’t mind the ten to twenty US Dollar shared cost for interim cleaning each time.
The biggest advantage is that this apartment has security, which most apartments in the United States do not have.
The housekeeping company, laundry, supermarket, and gym are all nearby, which is convenient.
Overall, Zhang Hao was very satisfied with his new home; it has three rooms, a living room, and two bathrooms. The largest room is the bedroom, the smallest is a study, and the medium-sized room is empty. He plans to buy some simple fitness equipment to work out in the mornings.
The landlord was also pleased to rent the place to a player like Zhang Hao, not worrying about rent being overdue.
The biggest fear for landlords in the United States is overdue rent. Due to US rental regulations, if someone maliciously refuses to pay rent, the landlord can’t evict them directly but has to file a lawsuit. Although they can eventually reclaim the house and receive the overdue rent, the litigation time is lengthy, and the recovered money often just covers attorney fees, essentially giving people a free place to stay. Many face such situations helplessly, hoping the other party will earn money and their conscience will drive them to pay the overdue rent.
With the help of the team staff, Zhang Hao moved a ton of luggage into the living room. He brought all his bedding, and after making the bed, he just lay on it, unwilling to move. The rest could be done slowly...
At that moment, he again felt the loneliness and isolation he experienced when he first came to the United States.
Jumping from a familiar environment to an unfamiliar one, such emotions are inevitable.
After a dull rest overnight, he got up the next morning, saw 294 days left in his life, and braced himself again.
"Train hard, play hard, strive to become a starter! Have a long career!"
The pressure of survival made Zhang Hao’s goals simple and pure, and easier to find direction.
Breakfast was a time for reading the newspaper, and Zhang Hao knew that information was vital in any era.
Since the end of the lockout, the NBA’s popularity in the sports world has remained high. Topics like whether Jordan was still the best player, who was the best among Jordan’s successors, whether Olajuwon could win a three-peat to surpass Jordan as the greatest active player... all were hot topics.
There was also much discussion on how the 1995 batch of rookies, who seemed mediocre compared to the past few years’ geniuses, would perform in their rookie season.
There wasn’t yet an authoritative player ranking, but each major media outlet would categorize the stars, and there was a debate on who was the top player in the league.
Today, the hottest topic in the basketball world was the Chicago Daily’s rookie tier categorization.
Tier 1 rookies: Starkhouse, Damon Stoudamire.
Tier 2 rookies: Joe Smith, Antonio McDyess, Rashid Wallace, Garnett.
Zhang Hao noticed he wasn’t included in the top two rookie tiers.
Although somewhat dissatisfied, which player doesn’t want good ratings? From a rational perspective, Zhang Hao preferred not to attract too much attention from opponents.
It seemed the team valued him; otherwise, they wouldn’t have picked him, a high schooler, with the ninth pick. The team needed a player with his style, and his playing style was likely to give him a chance to showcase his shooting ability in a team currently lacking such capability. Taking advantage of this chance, opponents’ underestimation would give him better opportunities.
Low-key development is the way to go!
Zhang Hao felt he should adjust his way of doing things. Before the draft, it was all about being high-profile, making sure everyone knew he existed. But after being drafted, it was about low-key development, avoiding the radar of the stars of this era...
Living near the gym has the advantage of being able to apply for the team’s nutritional breakfast, which might not taste good but is indeed beneficial for athletes’ bodies.
When Zhang Hao applied for the nutritional breakfast, the trainer’s expression was peculiar.
The trainer felt that, with a height typical of a power forward but only weighing 95 kilograms, Zhang Hao needed to add bulk.
However, his strength was so wild, and it was more static strength than explosive power, so it didn’t seem like he really needed to gain weight... Thus, preparing nutritional meals for Zhang Hao was a troublesome task, requiring more considerations and discussions with players and coaches.
For trainers responsible for nutritional meal arrangements, the hardest cases aren’t those like Kenny Anderson, who let themselves go or are as thin as a rake. For such players, arranging meals is straightforward.
Instead, the more disciplined and healthier a player’s condition, the more complicated it is to arrange these things.
This was also a headache for the coaching staff. At 8:30 in the morning, when Zhang Hao arrived at the gym, Butch Baird and his chief assistant Randy Whitman were in a dilemma about how to plan Zhang Hao’s training?
