If there's ever a chance to enter the NBA in the future, it's never a bad idea to forge good relationships with more NBA players in advance. For example, when you join a team and have two or three acquaintances, they might be more willing to pass the ball to you during a game.
If there's potential benefit, then it's worth doing more!
While chatting, a guy walked up who's dark as coal... really dark! Even though Zhang Hao has seen many black people, he rarely sees one this dark. He seems to be of South Sudanese descent.
This person is quite enthusiastic. While Zhang Hao initiated contact with Tyronn Lue, this blackest basketball player on the court was very proactive and warmly greeted Zhang Hao.
Nazir Muhammad.
Zhang Hao recalls that this is a player who will become a veteran in the future, someone who can barely keep up on the court but still managed to secure a near mid-level contract in his retirement years. The reason? He's strong in leading the locker room!
"The United States really has loads of basketball prodigies... But that's also because this is the McDonald's-hosted high school All-Star weekend. Although the attention is mainly on the dunk contest and universities don't care much, for high school students, the McDonald's All-Star is probably considered quite an honor, given that the participants are the best high schoolers from each state."
With more people around, Zhang Hao didn't have the opportunity to chat more like he did alone with Tyronn Lue, but it didn't matter. It's all about getting acquainted.
The four of them headed to a nearby hotel together, and once there, they met more people.
They saw Vince Carter being interviewed outside the hotel. Although Carter isn't well-known yet in Los Angeles, his dunks in the high school league in Florida are very famous. McDonald's is promoting him as the selling point for this dunk contest. Although Los Angeles media isn't interested, McDonald's is willing to pay them to report on Carter.
McDonald's is confident that as long as Carter showcases his dunking prowess, he'll definitely become popular! Even if the audience range is limited compared to the NBA dunk contest, even if it's only popular among student groups... Their main customers are those students, after all, and this is what they're aiming for.
Initially, McDonald's also invited Philadelphia's Kobe Bryant, the young star who broke Chamberlain's high school record at age 16, but he declined.
Because they're all still young and even if some will be future NBA players, Zhang Hao finds it difficult to recognize them. However, Pierce's friendship network is even better than Zhang Hao expected. Many well-known high school basketball juniors know Pierce.
Zhang Hao also met a few future NBA players whose names he remembers. Among them is one of the dunk contest favorites, Desmond Mason, and Ricky Davis, who proclaimed, "James was drafted to assist me."
More of the geniuses Pierce mentioned are unfamiliar to Zhang Hao, perhaps just high school prodigies. Like the future head coach Doug Rivers' future son "True Number One High Schooler" Little Rivers, who might not seem as talented once they reach college. Just like Zhang Hao in California high schools, he's incredibly strong and can even physically overpower most centers... But they're just high schoolers after all.
Right now, the high school rankings are chaotic, lacking authority in fans' eyes. Only those who perform exceptionally well in high school, reaching the level of Garnett, Bibi, and Kobe, can truly become famous.
In the evening, Pierce received some funds from his mom and invited a group of relatively well-connected high school star players for dinner, naturally including Zhang Hao.
Pierce's main goal for participating in this event is to see if he could meet more people. Since Zhang Hao was also going to participate later, it became a joint effort.
Seeing Zhang Hao becoming more talkative than before, perhaps because everyone is "genius high schoolers," Pierce felt very gratified. Zhang Hao has the initiative to communicate with others, which means he won't be easily isolated once he gets to college, right?
At just 18, Pierce already feels the challenge of being the big brother...
After a full day, although he met many people, Zhang Hao felt again the inconvenience of this era. Knowing them is one thing, but maintaining contact later is actually difficult!
Cell phones at this time are luxury items, not to mention these poor high schoolers... Many black high schoolers can't attend college without scholarships, and Americans don't rely on their parents after turning 18? Zhang Hao wanted to smack those public intellectuals back home who idolize Europeans and Americans like parents!
Even many NBA players are reluctant to spend money on cell phones, which are like bricks...
Zhang Hao believes this might be why the media in these days can more easily create a rivalry between two stars. Nowadays, most people can only receive information passively and have no way to actively learn more.
On the second day, Zhang Hao, Pierce, Tyronn Lue, and Nazir Muhammad returned to the Great Western Forum arena.
Although they met many people, the four who initially talked the most were together again, getting more acquainted.
Actually, just like Zhang Hao, others don't know most people either. Some have heard of names and seen videos or photos, but most understand even less than Zhang Hao about some future stars. It's a bit like domestic students who have heard of certain academic stars; they all might be semi-public figures, and the chances for mutual understanding are somewhat higher.