One Year Left to Play-Chapter 59 - 19: Challenging My Mid-range Shot?
"Pierce, with the two of us as a duo, we’re definitely the strongest pair..." The naturally sociable Marbury excitedly said beside Zhang Hao.
An off-ball shooter, Marbury loved having teammates like this.
Even though Marbury suffered a miserable defeat in the mid-range shot challenge against Zhang Hao three days ago, he didn’t mind—it was simply because Zhang Hao was truly strong! That mid-range shot was absurdly good, and in this aspect, Marbury was genuinely impressed! He admitted his defeat wholeheartedly. When he saw he was grouped with Zhang Hao in the team training for the last two days, he was tremendously excited.
The date had arrived at May 14, the 5th day of the training camp, and after the afternoon training session, another batch of players was eliminated, leaving only 36 players in the camp—a full two-thirds of the players had been cut.
Individual training had ended, and now it was time for the team training phase. The 36 players were divided into 6 groups, each with 5+1 players.
Being grouped with Marbury, Zhang Hao felt a little frustrated.
This future Beijing Team head coach was truly skilled, but he was too talkative. He never stopped talking at any moment, and one chatterbox, Pierce, was already enough—more would be unbearable!
Having a chatterbox next to him, Zhang Hao felt an inexplicable sense of security—perhaps because he was already used to it.
While chatting on and off with Marbury, Zhang Hao observed the other four teammates at the same table who were eating.
Zhang Hao noticed something about the team composition—each group had 5 players with clear positions and 1 versatile sixth man.
Their group was considered quite mediocre; except for Marbury, only he was the NBA player Zhang Hao had impressions of. The two guards were Marbury from Lincoln High School, Brooklyn, New York, and Philip Hinkie from Memphis Loosan High School; for the forwards, there was Zhang Hao himself and Isaiah Sanders from Green High School, Bartow County, Georgia; the center was a white guy named Steve Jack from Saint Paul High School, Saint Croix, Minnesota; and the sixth man was a forward about the same height as Zhang Hao, named Bunchie Turner from Vicksburg High School, Greenville County, Mississippi.
Besides Marbury, Zhang Hao hadn’t heard of any of these people at all.
It was possible that one of them might enter the NBA in the future, but they certainly wouldn’t become famous.
The upcoming cooperative training was something Zhang Hao valued greatly. The supposedly renowned shooting coach Chris Owen repeatedly emphasized to him that his type of player was highly reliant on teamwork.
Finally, the last test was approaching. For team training, Zhang Hao viewed it as a crucial test to determine the final list of 18 players. Even though the final competition wasn’t broadcasted, there were many scouts, and because of Garnett, NBA scouts were bound to come and watch. This was the chance Zhang Hao had been eager to seize to boost his reputation.
When the training camp began, he was promoted by Adidas as the "Mid-range King," but it was merely Adidas’s promotion. After a few days, the fans discussed everything and were done with it—he was far from being the type of player that fans would passionately talk about privately.
Becoming famous these days was a challenge Zhang Hao could fully anticipate, with limited channels for spreading information—without public social media for people to discuss, it made it difficult to maintain momentum. Even in the United States, the birthplace of the internet, online dissemination was quite inconvenient, so he certainly couldn’t miss this opportunity.
His current goal had shifted from performing well in the training camp and making the final roster, to wanting to become the most dazzling one, or at least one of the most dazzling!
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Over the past five days of training, from the attitude of the camp members towards him to his personal mindset, drastic changes had occurred.
"Pierce, we need to coordinate better in our upcoming training. I’ll make a sacrifice and practice with you more—how about it, are you pleased? A future NBA superstar point guard passing to you! Maybe we’ll become teammates in the elite game... hey, why are you coming over?"
Zhang Hao was listening to Marbury’s ramblings—not only did he not find them annoying, but he found them comforting. He had gotten used to the incessant chatter over the past few days, and when no one was bothering him, he actually felt something was missing.
When Marbury suddenly stopped talking, Zhang Hao followed Marbury’s gaze, seeing a fierce-looking guy approaching their dining table; it was clear he wasn’t just passing by, as he stopped.
"Mid-range King? Dare to challenge me in mid-range shooting?" Garnett was direct and his tone was extremely arrogant.
Hearing Garnett’s words, Marbury couldn’t help but pout but said nothing; he just thought Garnett was really bold!
In the first three days, a total of 20 high school players who considered themselves good shooters came to challenge Zhang Hao. Marbury was among the first batch, and he lost—as did everyone who followed.
Although, among the well-known players, only Marbury came to challenge, players like Odom had self-awareness, Raheem and Jamison weren’t troublemakers, and guys like Kobe, Hamilton, and Bibi knew they couldn’t win and didn’t bother—among the truly famous, only Marbury lost. But Garnett should have at least heard about Zhang Hao’s undefeated record in the training camp’s mid-range shot competition, right?
Of those 20 players who challenged, 12 came on the first day, 6 on the second day, and only 2 challenged yesterday, with none today.
The others had already recognized Zhang Hao’s title as the Mid-range King—even though Garnett was formidable, in terms of mid-range shots, Marbury believed Zhang Hao was definitely much stronger than Garnett.
