no shortcuts in basketball

Chapter 4 The Natural Leader
"Who is Xu Yong?" In the car heading to Tempe, Harden, who was sitting in the co-pilot, turned his head and asked with the Devils' new season roster in his hand.

Compared with other people, that pinyin abbreviated name is too special, thanks to the English mark of "she.yew" on the side, so that he knows how to pronounce it.

Driving was Scott Pera, now an assistant coach for the Arizona State Devils and Harden's former high school coach.

"Xu Yong." Pera first said the exact pronunciation of Xu Yong's name, and after eating a bite of egg pancake, he continued, "A Chinese player, a four-star high school student, ranked 2007st in the 31 high school class, in order to recruit him , Sandek promised a starting spot."

He hadn't eaten lunch in order to pick up Harden, so he could only eat while driving.

Listening to Pera's explanation, Harden's eyes widened.

The NCAA committee ranks the high school students entering the university every year, 1-25 is five-star, 25-100 is four-star, 100-200 is three-star, and so on.

Although the 31st place is a four-star, it can also be regarded as a five-star. He has never heard of a player of yellow race who can play to this level in the NCAA.

"He is still a 3A first team in Washington State, believe me, you will like him." Pera said with a smile.

"Have you met him?" Harden asked suspiciously.

"Yes, he came a week earlier than you. That guy is very mature, confident, and works hard." When talking about hard work, Pera emphasized his tone.

Hearing this, Harden turned his head and saw Xu Yong's name touched his bare chin. He was really curious about this Xu Yong.

About half an hour later, Harden appeared at the door of his dormitory, and when he opened the door to enter, he saw that there were already people inside.

He is just over two meters tall, with a strong body, shoulder width and arm span, and his face is also sunny and handsome, but the eyes he looks at him are a little strange.

It's like knowing him, but the person who seems to know may not be his kind of expression.

"Oh, I forgot to tell you, he is still your roommate." Pera said.

"Hi, I'm Xu Yong, you look like a singer I know." After recovering from his senses, Xu Yong stretched out his hand to him with a smile on his face.

"Really? I'm James Harden, I'm honored." Harden looked happy, because besides playing, his favorite thing is singing.

After a simple exchange of pleasantries, Harden and Xu Yong had already chatted together.

He didn't feel what Pera said, but what he could feel was that Xu Yong was very outgoing, not at all like those yellow people he had seen before.

During the chat between the two, he knew more information about Xu Yong besides what Pera said.

徐永在美国已经生活了两年，在布什高中的最后一年率队打出了26胜5负的战绩，个人场均能贡献17.6分7.2篮板2.1助攻3盖帽。

That helped him get offers from many universities. The reason why he finally chose Arizona State University was because he could get more opportunities here.

Harden can be sure of this, because the Devils only achieved a record of 2 wins and 16 losses last season, ranking at the bottom of the Pac10 league. Even including the invitational game, they are 8 wins and 22 losses, a standard team.

And in the list that Pera showed him, there were only three people taller than two meters including Xu Yong.

To use a good analogy, if Phoenix is ​​Los Angeles, then the University of Arizona is the Lakers, and they are the Clippers.

If it weren't for the many opportunities, who would give up the Lakers and choose to go to the Clippers?

They were talking when Pera went out to answer the phone.

"Hey guys, your training camp has started." He greeted him when he came in again.

Harden was the last to arrive at school because the decisions he made were not easy.

As a five-star high school student ranked 2007th in 17, he received offers from more than 20 NCAA schools, including giant teams like UCLA and the University of Arizona.

The two followed Pera to the training hall and met head coach Herb Sandek and their teammates.

Harden could clearly feel that many teammates looked at Xu Yong with strange eyes.

That look, if it was 50 years earlier, white players would look at black players the same way.

Yellow players belong to the bottom of the American basketball circle. If you want to make a living here by basketball, you can't be as good as others, you have to be much better.

But Xu Yong's performance surprised him again.

During the training, he actually relied on his conversation and charm to fight fiercely with his teammates.

Just like Pera said, Xu Yong is very mature and confident, making people feel like a spring breeze.

If Xu Yong is not yellow-skinned, he will definitely be the team's "team favorite".

He thought so at the time.

But what really changed his mind was what happened at the end of the training day.

At the end of the training camp that day, Jaylen Shipp, the team's main forward last season, was going to give Xu Yong a welcome gift.

A very common bullfight, although it brought a lot of personal grievances, because Xu Yong was also a striker.

At that time, everyone in the team was waiting to see Xu Yong get embarrassed, and even many teammates were booing.

After all, Xu Yong is just a rookie, and Shipp is already a sophomore and was the team's starter last season. There is an obvious difference in strength between the two.

Not to mention other people, Hipp also thought so, and he gave Xu Yongxian a chance to tee off in a gentlemanly manner.

Then, that day became the darkest moment of Shipp's basketball career.

On the first ball, Xu Yong passed Jaylen Shipp with an explosive first step, and then slammed the ball into the basket with both hands.

He clearly remembered that when Xu Yong dunked the ball, his head had already passed the basket, which was terrifying.

He also learned afterwards that Xu Yong's run-up touch height is 370cm at the top level in the NBA!

The teammates who were booing a second ago in the entire arena fell silent.

The scene after that can be described as bloody. Facing Xu Yong's attack, Hipp had no power to parry and ended in a 1-5 defeat.

Even after he thought about it afterwards, Xu Yong's "1" meant to save Shipp's face.

It was also after the bullfight that day that Xu Yong invited everyone to a meal, including Shipp, because he wasted everyone's time.

Then, Xu Yong won the trust of all the players in one fell swoop, and Shipp was completely convinced by him.

Yellow skin, black skin, white skin, these will indeed give people an instinctive first impression, but when a person is strong to a certain extent, even if others still have prejudices, they will choose to rot them in their stomachs.

Not to mention that Xu Yong still knows how to behave in the world, and these students have no "power to fight" at all.

……

"Guys, get ready for the second half of the game." Pera came to the locker room to remind.

Harden also pulled back from the memory to reality.

Xu Yong stood up and raised his hand, and the team members stacked their hands one after another.

"Brothers, keep kicking their ass hard!" Xu Yong said looking around the crowd.

"Devil team, come on!"

After shouting the team slogan, they rushed out of the locker room together.

Yes, even the yellow-skinned Xu Yong is now their locker room leader.

(End of this chapter)