One Year Left to Play-Chapter 93 - 29: The Eve of the Draft
Although the hotel is small and shabby, there are quite a few people staying here. Perhaps it’s because these inexpensive hotels, not far from Madison Square Garden, are commonly seen with players participating in the draft.
After all, there are only so many people in the Green Room. With hundreds of players participating in the draft, most of them are local American players. College students don’t have much money, so they basically look for these kinds of cheap hotels to stay in.
Coming out of the elevator, Zhang Hao saw a few familiar players.
"Michael, what a coincidence, you’re staying here too!" Zhang Hao greeted the mature-looking Michael Finley.
Michael Finley had an extremely mild temperament, so mild that he wouldn’t even get anxious when not receiving the ball during tryouts. Similarly, as players primarily without the ball and lacking in ball-handling skills, both projected at the end of the first round or start of the second round, they were grouped together at the Pistons’ tryouts, where they unfortunately encountered a player named Corey Alexander, who refused to pass the ball at all, leaving them merely exchanging helpless glances.
The two, who shared the same fate during the Pistons’ tryouts, surprisingly got along well.... Basically, they sat quietly without speaking, both thinking the other wasn’t that bad.
"It’s you, Aix, so how’s it going? I heard you tried out for a few more teams. How did it go?"
"Not bad, and you?"
"I’m doing okay too..."
Even though they got along, they weren’t really close. After a brief chat, they went their separate ways. 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚
Michael Finley left a strong impression on Zhang Hao. Seeing future stars like Michael Finley encountering similar situations during the draft reassured him. Most of the players were in similar situations, and it was really difficult for most of them to get tryout opportunities. Zhang Hao gradually understood that he was fortunate to pique some teams’ interest through his performances in the dunk contest and the Adidas Training Camp before tryouts began. That’s why they invited him for tryouts when he called to apply proactively. Many other players wouldn’t even get a chance when they requested tryouts.
Originally having nothing to do, he walked for about an hour to reach Madison Square Garden. The exterior was... nothing special, just like any ordinary NBA arena, and it was quite old-fashioned; it’s said to be due for renovations soon.
This arena, built in 1968, had poor road planning. The main entrance opened directly onto a road, and above the entrance was a massive poster of a basketball star, a photo of Patrick Ewing holding a ball with both hands.
Walking had its advantages, as traffic was backed up at the moment. Zhang Hao and Pierce managed to reach the arena entrance smoothly. At the ticket booth, there was a window labeled "Rookie Registration." Zhang Hao presented the draft registration receipt he brought with him and was able to enter the arena for free with his "agent."
To tour the arena, you either had to buy a ticket or have the New York City Tourist Development Company’s all-city pass. While idly exploring, Zhang Hao discovered something bewildering: the individual ticket prices for some of New York’s attractions were almost the same as the price of the all-city pass.
Pierce, upon entering the arena, switched to his chatterbox mode, expressing his surprise at everything. Zhang Hao, having visited several NBA arenas recently, didn’t find anything new.
After wandering around for more than half an hour and paying 15 US dollars for three photos to be picked up tomorrow from the arena’s photo shop, they were ready to leave.
"Aix, you can get into the NBA first. I’ll come over in a couple of years. Do you think the Lakers will pick you? I think they might..."
Zhang Hao listened to Pierce’s "Lakers dream." He wanted to tell Pierce that if the Lakers successfully formed the OK Duo next summer, there would be absolutely no chance for him to be picked by the Lakers in the future. With O’Neal, there wouldn’t be a lottery pick opportunity. Trading for Kobe even involved sending off Divac, the highest trade value. Van Exel and Eddie Jones were good, but it would be hard to trade for a top 10 draft pick.
Thus, he decided to just quietly listen to Pierce ramble.
Just as they were heading towards the arena exit, suddenly, Zhang Hao heard someone call his name.
"Hey, isn’t that Xiaozhang..."
This was a name Zhang Hao had never heard anyone call him before. The key point was, it was in Mandarin. He immediately turned his head and saw a few Chinese faces, among which was someone he had met once before, Xu Jicheng from Xinhuanet.
The person who called out his name wasn’t Xu Jicheng, but an older middle-aged man beside him.
"Aix, is that someone calling you?"
"Yes, they’re journalists from our country."
Zhang Hao explained this briefly to Pierce and walked over to greet the people approaching them.
This time Xu Jicheng spoke first, "Aix, we finally found you. It wasn’t easy to get a chance to meet you..."
Zhang Hao could hear a strong sense of grievance in this big man’s tone.
Before Zhang Hao could reply, Xu Jicheng enthusiastically introduced, "President Jiang, your eyes are sharp. I hadn’t even spotted Xiaozhang, yet you did at a glance. You were right, this is indeed our country’s talented high school basketball player Zhang Hao, whose English name is Aix... Aix, this here is Mr. Jiang Xiaoyu, the editor-in-chief of Xinhuanet Sports News.
This is the chief editor of the Imperial Sports Channel’s basketball news department...
This is...
(Switching to English) Aix, this guy beside you, I remember him as the talented high school student from California, Paul Pierce, right? Hello, we’re from China..."
Through Xu Jicheng’s introductions, Zhang Hao met some of the leaders from two major domestic media giants.
He also learned that during the past period, domestic reporters had been trying to gather news about him.
Pierce was quite used to being interviewed, being a high school star player.
A Chinese high school student participating in the NBA draft, with potential to be picked from late first round to mid-second round, was attracting significant attention from sports fans back home.
Moreover, it was different from what it was in the United States. Since Zhang Hao announced his participation in the draft more than a month ago, there’s been no decline in domestic interest!
Although various issues are gradually resurfacing domestically, due to factors such as "the more trees there are, the more strange birds you’ll find" and "too full and idle", what the people lack more is confidence.
And to what extent do the people need confidence?
If the country lacks in any aspect, they feel the nation is still lacking overall.
Military, they compare it with the US; Romance, with France; Precision, with Germany; Hygiene, with Japan... in every aspect, they want to compare with the best.
In sports, of course, the citizens hope their country excels in every possible way. Basketball has a broad following domestically. After so many years, finally, there was an opportunity for a domestic basketball player to make it to the NBA stage, triggering a fierce basketball craze.
However, there was no news to be found domestically!
Some media outlets approached the Basketball Association to see if they had any information, only to be told not to report on Zhang Hao... However, led by Xinhuanet, most media outlets ignored this bizarre request from the Basketball Association.
Since there was no news domestically, they came to the United States for interviews, but firstly, not many domestic media had the interview permit for the US. With the Soviet Union gone, their nation had become the biggest perceived enemy of the United States for various reasons.
Secondly, due to some reasons, they couldn’t obtain Zhang Hao’s contact information from the NBA. Every time NBA Headquarters announced that Zhang Hao was going to try out for a certain team, by the time they arrived, Zhang Hao had already finished the tryout and moved on to the next city.
This happened every time, always just a day or two late.
After several attempts, they realized the NBA wanted them to report on those draft tryouts they hadn’t paid attention to in previous years.
Not to mention draft tryouts, these mainstream media seldom reported on the draft events themselves.
But now the situation was different. If Zhang Hao indeed entered the NBA, they had already planned to use him as a breakthrough point to gradually increase their coverage of the NBA. So starting a bit earlier was nothing problematic.
It was a mutually beneficial arrangement.
