One Year Left to Play-Chapter 97 - 31: Astute to the Point of Being Uncanny (5K—Please Recommend)

"Hey, Scott, you wouldn’t run back to your high school just because that kid got picked by another team, would you? That’s not going to work! We’ve already signed the contract!" Pistons head coach Doug Collins said to his brother nearby.

"..."

Scott Collins rolled his eyes at his older brother; he’s already here, what else can he do?

It’s just that the plan was completely disrupted! 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

The reason he suggested Zhang Hao enter the draft was because he had reached an agreement with his brother, who needed him to help as an assistant coach, and his condition was to draft the genius player from their high school, which was Zhang Hao.

After evaluating at the Adidas Training Camp, Doug Collins agreed to this request because Zhang Hao performed exceptionally well in the games and was young.

Once Zhang Hao confirmed he would enter the draft, Scott Collins officially resigned and joined the Pistons.

Just a moment ago, before Zhang Hao was selected, Scott Collins was still thinking about picking Zhang Hao at the 18th or 19th position in the mid-first round, and when the team met the drafted player, he would suddenly appear and see what reaction Zhang Hao would have.

However, this dream was crushed by the Brooklyn Nets!

"Who am I? Where am I? Why am I working as an assistant for this damned Doug? What’s the point?"

...

On the other side, Zhang Hao’s reaction was even more bewildered than the reactions of those teams’ management.

He was just sitting and waiting, and at this moment, his thoughts had turned to "It’s pretty good if the Lakers pick me at the 37th position," "Even the Clippers at the 53rd position can get me into the NBA"...

Suddenly, his name was called!

Beside him, Pierce exaggeratedly cheered, the other prospective players around erupted in astonishment, various discordant comments emerged, and staff came to take him away... Zhang Hao was bewildered throughout.

It wasn’t until he wore a baseball cap with the Brooklyn Nets logo and shook hands with David Stern, muttering a few words of thanks, and sat next to Garnett, that Zhang Hao still hadn’t come to his senses.

Life’s ups and downs are just too thrilling!

When he held the press conference to announce his participation in the draft as a high school student, he imagined a beautiful scene at the time.

Then came a wave of harsh reality...

By the time the draft started, he was ready to accept his fate, preparing for the lowest possible scenario, and realized even not being selected but joining the summer league wasn’t unacceptable. Suddenly, he was picked at the 9th position.

Garnett, next to him, had called Zhang Hao several times but realized Zhang Hao didn’t seem to hear him. He wasn’t mad though.

He completely understood Zhang Hao’s situation now; he never expected Zhang Hao to be picked at this position.

Previously, there were cases of high school students being picked; in NBA history over the past 50 years, only three high school students had been selected by the NBA. Moses Malone was drafted by the ABA and doesn’t count as an NBA selection.

The first high school student truly selected by the NBA was Darryl Dawkins at the 5th position in the 1975 draft by the 76ers, considered a decent role player, but when compared to Lionel Hollins, the next pick, he fell far short; the latter was a star with All-Star, Best Defensive Team, and Championship titles, and retired his jersey.

After that, the highly talented Shawn Kemp was also only picked at the 17th position in 1989. Garnett analyzed and thought Zhang Hao would be picked in a similar range at best.

Actually, Garnett thought during his workouts that he was crazy to believe the media’s hype that many teams were interested in him among the top ten picks or that he’d surely be in the top ten, especially with water in his brain on the East Coast, until Celtics legend Kevin McHale noticed him during his workout with the Timberwolves.

He even asked McHale why he promised to pick him, and McHale responded, "I’m just betting, anyway, it’s my first time representing the team in the draft, and if I pick wrong, I can say I lacked experience."

Before getting the promise, Garnett roughly estimated he would be picked in the latter part of the first round, much like Zhang Hao’s situation.

This was also the idea of Logo Man, and the Pistons’ prediction was similar, thinking it wouldn’t be a problem to pick Zhang Hao at the 18th or 19th position, both of which were Pistons’ picks.

Yet, the Brooklyn Nets unexpectedly picked the guy at the 9th position!

...

...

"How did things come to this?"

Zhang Hao felt he needed to sort it all out.

He pondered for a long time but couldn’t figure it out, as he hadn’t even tried out with the Brooklyn Nets!

From the moment he was selected, he was in a daze, and when he truly came to his senses, he was already living in a suite in a five-star hotel. Now he was in Pierce’s room, where Pierce could finally connect his console to the TV and happily play games.

But now, it feels so great! It’s as if every cell in his body is joyfully dancing, with uncontrollable excitement.

He made it to the NBA!

Zhang Hao recalled that when his name was called by David Stern, he had already metaphorically slapped some people in the face.

First were some universities. By choosing to enter the NBA draft, in the United States’ sports system, he essentially gave up his amateur athlete status, so those universities automatically withdrew their full scholarship offers to him.

His actions clearly sent a message to those universities — you ignored me back then, now I’m not interested even if you want me.

Though the universities still wanted to maintain their dignity and didn’t act like buffoons, it wasn’t necessary, but journalists wanted to stir things up! When they interviewed them, some universities clearly expressed their view — high school students skipping college to enter the NBA draft was a mistake.