One Year Left to Play-Chapter 52 - 16: Why Is No One Happy Anymore?
The Adidas executive in charge of this training camp spoke into the microphone after everyone gathered and the cameras started recording: "Welcome to the Adidas 1995 Basketball Training Camp.
We’ve always been committed to helping young athletes grow, providing the most professional training support to talented high school players. We at Adidas hope that you will be able to in the upcoming training camp..."
Zhang Hao glanced at everyone, and then realized he was the only one with yellow skin here—about eighty percent of the people were Black, with only about twenty or so White people.
Looking at his number 99 training uniform...he remembered that next year, Tracy McGrady would also participate in this training camp. Next season, Odom would become the top high school player in the nation at the age of 17, then McGrady, the best high school player in North Carolina and half a year younger than Odom, would overshadow Odom at the training camp and skyrocket in popularity. But as the best high school player in North Carolina, McGrady’s number in the training camp was 175, and that year it seemed there were 181 participants in the camp...
This ranking system, Zhang Hao thought it must be based on Adidas’s prediction of the players’ strength attending the camp because Garnett wore number 1 and Bibi was 2.
But him being 99 is one thing, how is McGrady 175? How on earth did they rank this?
Listening to the Adidas executive, who kept saying "we at Adidas this and that," Zhang Hao knew it was for the sake of reputation, but in reality, it was still a business. However, Adidas indeed ran every aspect of the training camp better than any other current amateur player training camp. Their core goal, much like McDonald’s, was really to advertise.
Nevertheless, they truly turned this training camp into the most authoritative ranking representation of this era. Now those media outlets nearly all crowned one of Garnett, Bibi, or Raheem as the top high school player in the nation, but the one widely recognized by the public was the final Adidas ranking after the training camp, which was considered the best high school player in the U.S.
As for situations like Pierce receiving a full college scholarship offer and not wanting to participate... In this day and age, information transfer relied entirely on television and newspapers. A high school genius like Carter wouldn’t be known by many people outside Florida until before the slam dunk contest. So if he didn’t participate and wasn’t ranked, that’s just it.
After the Adidas executive finished the opening speech, the training camp officially began. The players were divided into 9 groups and led by trainers to 9 assigned training fields for tests, including physical and technical assessments.
Bibi was number 2, Kobe’s number was 10, Hamilton was 55, and Zhang Hao was 99. By sheer coincidence, the four were all separated, and Zhang Hao was assigned to Group 5, heading to Field 5.
Upon reaching the training field, a mature-looking Black high schooler approached Zhang Hao with a deliberately exaggerated tone and said, "Aix, oh, you’re number 99? Guess I’m still better than you, look, I’m 66! Flip it and it’s your number, what a coincidence!"
Zhang Hao ignored him and looked at the 11 high school players temporarily grouped with him. He thought this group wasn’t too bad; he knew future NBA stars Lamar Odom and Antoine Jamison among them.
He didn’t know the other 8 that well; he had exchanged greetings with some yesterday but wasn’t familiar with them. Some names he remembered, some he didn’t... Another person he knew and had played against several times, with each meeting ending unpleasantly, was Corey Benjamin, who was a year younger than him and attended Compton’s Fountain High School in California.
Seeing Zhang Hao ignore him, Corey Benjamin was furious! This guy doesn’t even have a college interested in him yet he’s still so arrogant!
On October 5th of the year before last, this guy dunked over him, and he couldn’t help but shove Zhang Hao. As a result, a chubby kid rushed over and punched him senseless, leading to a brawl between the two teams, where he ended up being banned for 3 games.
He had only pushed the guy a bit, and it wasn’t even his fault for not standing his ground. Plus, he was the one who got hit, but he still got suspended... What annoyed him even more was that he couldn’t beat Pierce in a fight so he didn’t dare make a move, and Fountain High wasn’t a match for Inglewood High in basketball either.
In the senior year, this guy became the best forward among California high schoolers and won the state championship with Pierce. It was in the quarter-finals that they eliminated their Compton Fountain High School!
Over two years, in 7 encounters, their Compton Fountain High School only won the first one, which involved a fight, and lost the rest. The "Inglewood Thug Duo" in Fountain High’s eyes went wild every time they saw them, as if they were the ones who got beaten; in reality, it was Corey Benjamin who got hit!
