“…… For others, it's necessary to grind in the NCAA, but for you, you play in the NCAA for a few years, and the improvement may not be as great as in the NBA.

The NCAA doesn't build a strategy around a running pitcher, but you've got past the stage of polishing your mid-range shot, and if the game doesn't revolve around your mid-range shot, in my opinion, it's a waste of your time.

In the NBA, however, there is an opportunity to build a strategy around a pitcher......

It's just my opinion, I know it's crazy, but I have faith in you.

But I can't help you decide, you think about it, my plane tomorrow afternoon, I'm at school tomorrow morning, you can come to me anytime......"

Hearing Coach Scott Collins' words, Zhang Hao, who was already in a mess of thoughts, began to think clearly.

When he first saw the draft application, the thought that popped into his head was not to think about where it would be better for him, but - I'm going to enter the draft as a high school student?

There is also a character, the university can now be chosen at will, as long as you choose target 1, then you can directly get a gift package.

Target 2 must be selected by at least an NBA team to get the package, and if you are selected in the second round, you will only get the bronze package.

And the NBA second-round pick, the average career life expectancy is just over a year!

Not only the second-round show, but also the first-round show only has a career life of just over two years and less than three years.

A high school student participates in the draft......

But after listening to Coach Scott Collins' analysis, Zhang Hao felt that the coach was not impulsive, but really considered the suggestions he made to him in terms of his current strength and playing style.

Also, Zhang Hao seems to have sensed a sentiment from Scott Collins — dissatisfaction with those colleges.

Zhang Hao empathizes with this emotion!

He has been struggling these days, and he still can't make a decision even though he has three very good options for USC, the University of Kansas, and Stanford University, just because he is holding back a fire.

He also has a temper, and when he is not qualified to express his dissatisfaction, he will be patient.

But now he's gone from being unwanted to being the one who can choose, and that emotion keeps coming.

It's just that he still has to go to a university, so he can't be exposed, but the unhappiness has already grown......

After putting away the draft application form, Zhang Hao returned to the training ground, and left the arena with Aprily Clark, who helped the team manager pack his things, and prepared to go back to the apartment.

Back at the apartment, the two of them and Pierce were going to have dinner together tonight.

If you can get together, you can get together, Pierce's side, he is going to train with his second brother after a while, and April-Clark is also preparing for the art exam, and has already signed up for the training class.

The three of them, who live in the same apartment, are the most influential figures in school sports, live together, and have a similar reputation in the school, so they are naturally friends.

But there is less and less time to get together.

When he learned that April Clark decided to apply for the art major, Zhang Hao knew that April Clark gave up her dream of becoming a professional tennis player, and instead continued her mother's dream of becoming a drama actress.

This made Zhang Hao understand the difficulty of becoming a professional athlete!

When it was time for dinner, the two friends could see that Zhang Hao was preoccupied.

"Aix, are you still struggling with where to go? Didn't the University of Kansas invite you too? Continue to be teammates with me......" Speaking of this, Pierce suddenly looked at April-Clark, and his voice suddenly increased: "Hey, Ax, you don't want to go to USC......"

But when he said this, Pierce suddenly felt a trace of 'warmth' again, Zhang Hao didn't choose to follow Niu directly, he was still hesitating, which meant that his friend still had weight, at least he hadn't been overwhelmed by Niu .

According to Pierce's logic, April-Clark is also a friend, and Zhang Hao did not choose the girl's side because of his friend + girl, which means that his friend status is higher than April-Clark!

Zhang Hao glanced at the two of them, he really couldn't make a happy decision...... Or rather, it needs motivation or resistance to make a choice.

He decided to be more direct and asked, "What do you guys think of my decision to go straight to the NBA draft?" ”

As soon as these words came out, the problem of Zhang Hao's college basketball scholarship was solved, and the atmosphere of eating dinner was quite relaxed.

The two friends didn't expect that Zhang Hao was actually struggling with this!

"Aix, it's not a good idea, high school draft, it's too exaggerated......" April-Clark shook her head.

The NBA does not refuse high school students to participate in the draft, but for so many years, only Moses Malone has played out.

Even Garnett's participation in the draft, although the media coverage was lively, there were not many people who were optimistic.

April-Clark's reaction was within Zhang Hao's expectations.

Just when Zhang Hao's thoughts began to shift in the direction of college, Pierce exclaimed, and then said excitedly: "Oh my God, Aix, you said another idea that I didn't think of, why don't we go to the NBA draft together?" That's cool! Straight out of high school and playing in the NBA ......"

As soon as Pierce's words came out, Zhang Hao's emotions that had just begun to fluctuate were immediately annihilated......

Rubbing his eyes, he thought for a while, reorganized his language, and said: "Paul, if you lose the NBA draft, you won't be able to participate in the college game, and your aunt will beat you to death......"

After saying that, he ignored Pierce, who seemed to freeze in an instant, and turned to April-Clark, who was calmer, more rational and mature, and asked, "If there is a professional tennis club that invites you to participate in training camp at this time, but you will lose the opportunity to prepare for the art exam, what will Aprile choose?" ”

This question is not very accurate, and it is not the same situation as the situation experienced by Zhang Hao, but April-Clark understood what Zhang Hao meant.

She found out that Zhang Hao actually had a more inclined choice, maybe Zhang Hao didn't find it himself.

If you don't try, but choose a stable path, perhaps, one day Zhang Hao will regret it......

However, if you try, you will regret it.

April-Clark struggled for a moment, and eventually, she smiled, "I'll try." ”

At this time, Pierce also reacted, but what he said this time was completely different from before: "Aix, you have to think about it, it's cool to go straight to the draft, but it's too risky." ”

Zhang Hao asked again, "Do you think I can do it?" ”

"Of course!" Pierce replied without hesitation.

"I think you can too!" April-Clark chose to give Zhang Hao confidence at this time.

Both April-Clark and Pierce discovered that this friend was wilder inside than they remembered!

Zhang Hao is actually more inclined to fight, this is not simply a desire to participate in the NBA draft immediately, but the comprehensive impact of what happened during this period of time.

The most important thing is - how can a teenager not be crazy?

……

On the evening of May 24, Olajuwon led the team to defeat the Spurs led by this season's regular season MVP David Robinson in two consecutive games in the Western Conference finals, and the score was 2-0.

On May 25, Inglewood High School head coach Scott Collins handed in his resignation to the school and traveled to New York to meet with his brother's team management, along with a draft application.

On the other side, with the help of Pierce and Aprile Clark, as well as the school, Zhang Hao contacted some media and held a small press conference at the stadium of Inglewood High School.

More reporters came than Zhang Hao expected, Sports Illustrated and American Cable TV, two national-level media outlets, more local media in Los Angeles, and some media in the city where the famous university is located.

I don't know what Zhang Hao is going to do, but the media likes to report unexpected news, and Zhang Hao has been very popular in the past for a while, and has recently met with the head coaches of many NCAA teams one after another...... The announcement at the press conference is a bit exaggerated, but they can ridicule it, anyway, it's news, it's not bad.

Today, Zhang Hao rented a suit, adjusted his mood, and organized his language, and then entered the venue of the press conference, and the cameramen of ten or twenty media began to press the shutter.

At this moment, Zhang Hao felt the feeling of blood surging again, he was really excited, and he was very excited just to announce this decision.

But he has experienced too many similar scenes during this time, and he can also try to calm himself down.

For a high school student, the media didn't have much patience, and after Zhang Hao sat down, a reporter asked directly: "Zhang, are you going to announce which university you are going to today?" ”

Zhang Hao didn't procrastinate, shook his head, and said directly: "I once thought about entering the NCAA, and I've been working hard for that goal."

Now I have successfully received many university invitations.

But I thought about it for a long time and made my decision.

I don't want to play in college anymore, I'm going to skip college games and go to the NBA draft. ”

As soon as these words came out, the scene was quiet because there was no professional person to maintain the continuous messy sound.

They originally predicted that Zhang Hao wanted to be in the limelight, held a press conference to announce where he was going, and they were discussing how to write some news that made Zhang Hao ugly, and this kind of news was best sold for money.

Sure enough, Zhang Hao really said something that was in the limelight, but it was something that the reporters of these more than a dozen media did not expect at all.

This Chinese high school student, a Chinese high school student who has just become a hit, actually skipped the college stage and announced that he would directly participate in the NBA draft!

At this time, a female reporter, perhaps well-intentioned, or perhaps wanting to dig up more news, reminded: "Aix, if you sign up for the NBA draft, you will lose the opportunity to participate in college sports!" ”

"I've thought about it, I'm well aware of the NCAA rules, but I don't think I will regret the decision I made."

Zhang Hao said, suddenly had a flash of inspiration, and said: "I want to bring my talent to the NBA!" ”

……

……

In recent times, basketball fans in the United States have often seen the name of a Chinese teenager in newspapers or sports news.

Especially a week ago, the Chinese teenager beat Kevin Garnett, the best high school student in the United States, to win the MVP of the Adidas Training Camp Classic, which has already left an impression on many basketball fans.

Recently, more than a dozen NCAA Division I universities and universities with high cultural requirements have recruited Zhang Hao, and Zhang Hao has often appeared in the news.

But none of those news can compare to this news.

Zhang Hao chose to participate in the NBA draft as a high school student!

Overseas players either played in other professional leagues and then participated in the NBA draft, or they went to college in the United States for a few years and then participated in the draft.

This is the first time that an overseas player has come to the United States to participate in the draft directly after finishing high school!

Without considering this, the high school draft alone made Zhang Hao suffer the same baptism of public opinion as Garnett - beyond his means!

Yes, even Garnett has such an assessment in the media.

This year, the high school draft was a mistake, and there was only one exception to Moses Malone, and other players who managed to enter the NBA as high school students ended up wasting their talent.

The reason why fans and the media have such an opinion is because as a high school student, if they can be selected by the NBA team, they are definitely the most talented high school students, and they have a high probability of successfully polishing their skills when they go to college, and there is a high probability that they can successfully enter the NBA to become an excellent instant combat force, at least.

But they enter the NBA as high school students, their bodies are not mature enough, their skills are not good enough, and then they don't play time, and then their talent is wasted......

The vast majority of people agree that high school students entering the draft are the wrong decision.

Although there are good reviews, there are more negative reviews.

The high school players of their generation are still the pioneers, and they can pave the way for those high school rookies in the first few years of the new century.

If there is any benefit to Zhang Hao in announcing this matter, it is that more people know his name.

The next morning, Zhang Hao was reading the morning newspaper while eating breakfast, and Pierce took another newspaper and started a new day's chatterbox, this time he was attacking the news that read Zhang Hao.

For example, Boston TV's evaluation is very sharp, but it is very reasonable: "Aix Chang originally had a bright future, if he went to college to hone his skills for a few years, he could enter the NBA smoothly, he was really talented, but he chose a clearly wrong path......"

This is all a nice thing to say, and many media directly turn on the ridicule mode.

The reaction of the media is more intense than Zhang Hao imagined, and the opinions of the masses are easily influenced by public opinion, the media say that, they naturally think that is it, and in fact, this is really the case, high school students participating in the draft look too unreliable, and many high school geniuses are unknown to everyone when they reach the NCAA.

Does Zhang Hao regret such a situation?

He has no time to regret it, yesterday afternoon, after Coach Scott Collins submitted his draft application form to the NBA and passed, the NBA sent a real-time update of the draft registration to each team, which has the contact information of each player, that is, the address and phone number......

Maybe it's just curiosity, maybe it's casting a wide net, but Zhang Hao doesn't have much time to think about it now and not regret it, when he announced his participation in the NBA draft, it was tantamount to telling those colleges that he wouldn't go to college to play and didn't want a basketball scholarship.

In addition to the momentum of young people and the experience of applying to colleges in the past few months, there is another reason for making such a decision - there are many games in the NBA!

More than 80 games a year!

Now that it's all decided, let's give it a good go!

It's not easy to be selected, you have to think about which teams you want to try out, or in other words, consider which teams are really likely to choose him, if some teams don't send out an invitation to tryout, he takes the initiative to apply for a trial, and he doesn't care if he doesn't get invited to take the initiative to participate in this kind of shame, he wants to maximize the probability.

After breakfast, Zhang Hao began to gather information, and Aprile Clark and Pierce were also helping, checking the trial times announced after the draft draw of those teams, checking the drafts of each team in recent years, checking the roster list of each team, and checking the expiration of each team's contract this summer......

April-Clark and Pierce had no idea that the draft would have so much to prepare...... In fact, like Garnett's participation in the draft, there is not so much preparation.

But Zhang Hao is different, he has the awareness of this, in this regard, other high school students participating in the draft can't compare with him, unless there is an agent after a few years of college, and the agent will handle these things.

But he doesn't have an agent now, so he has to do it himself.

These materials are not secret information, they are all things that can be found with a little time, but Zhang Hao feels that it will be of great effect.

Checking information, answering the phone, making phone calls...... In the next few days, Zhang Hao was busy with these things......

……

Zhang Hao's participation in the NBA draft not only made him really popular in the American sports circle, but the news was transmitted back to China!

Regarding the fact that another high school student is participating in the draft, the media will definitely have to hype it again, Garnett has been hyped for a long time, and the fans are a little tired, and now they can repeatedly fry the same topic, how good.

As a result, many NBA teams were asked at the regular press conference whether they were interested in Zhang Hao, a high school student, and some teams revealed that they had sent Zhang Hao a trial invitation.

Several large media really re-revised the draft prediction list for Zhang Hao, which is not a troublesome thing, but you can add a name to sell the newspaper as news again......

Relying on his performance in the Adidas training camp, Zhang Hao ranked 58th in the draft ranking given by CNN, and was considered likely to be selected at the end of the second round, 29 teams, two drafts, and the 58th pick was the lowest pick.

Although when reporting that Zhang Hao participated in the draft as a high school student, many media used derogatory wording, but the ranking given by American cable TV stations was not the highest, but the lower batch.

ABC, that is, the ranking given by ABC, is 44, and the ranking given by Sports Illustrated is 37, this pick is the Lakers' second-round pick, the Lakers only have this one draft pick this season, and the highest prediction given is the 28th pick in the first round to be selected by the Jazz.

Major media have predicted that Zhang Hao may be selected at the end of the second round or even the first round, and this situation is normal in the eyes of American basketball fans.

First of all, this year's draft is not a draft year, because Duncan's sophomore season once again refused to enter the NBA early, directly making this year from a first-class draft year to an ordinary draft year; Then, Zhang Hao really showed his talent in the Adidas training camp; Finally, almost one-third of the players selected in the second round are dropped directly every year, and more than half of the second-round picks are not guaranteed contracts.

The draft market has been better than Zhang Hao expected, after all, he has no agent, no professional person to analyze him, and he is planning for the worst.

His athleticism, combined with his performance in Adidas training camp, physical fitness, and high school performance, have made several teams willing to draft him from the middle of the second round to the end of the first round, which means that his draft market is already on par with the NCAA MOP.

But that's just it, more teams in the lottery and even the first round more want to be able to use the strength right away, if the strength reaches the level of O'Neal, Duncan, Grant Hill and others into the NBA, who will bet on talent? Or does it mean that they have that level of talent?

The term "older rookie" does not exist in this era, but it is reliable to finish college.

After such public opinion came out, Zhang Hao had a little bottom in his heart, but he still had to plan well, choose the team for the trial, and do his best in the trial.

He knows that he has a second-round market, relying on the performance of the McDonald's Slam Dunk Contest and Adidas training camp, and it depends on the performance of the trial to really make the team decide to choose him.