Others' attention originally wasn't on Zhang Hao, like Desmond Mason and Ricky Davis, their focus was Carter, the one constantly interviewed these past few days.
But hearing the cheers from the on-site fans, they also shifted their attention to Zhang Hao.
As for Zhang Hao, now walking onto the court, his mood was extraordinarily excited!
For a memory of the future, this was the first time in his life that so many people were watching him participate in a competition, but memories of this era made him quite calm, because there were quite a few spectators at his school's games as well.
In this instant, Zhang Hao, originally seeing basketball as a way to make a living due to possessing future memories, truly fell in love with such cheers from the heart.
With complex but predominantly excited emotions, Zhang Hao came to the center circle.
Listening to the cheers, Zhang Hao patted the ball. He wasn't worried about the dunk being bad, but he didn't know which dunk to choose, after all, this was just a selection trial.
A myriad of future images of dunk masters participating in dunk contests appeared in his mind. He lacked creativity in this aspect, but it did not prevent him from having a good memory and watching a lot of games.
Whatever, Zhang Hao decided to do something direct: starting from the center circle, he accelerated while dribbling. Near the three-point line, he increased his speed to the maximum, grabbed the ball from outside the three-point line, took two steps, planted his left foot on the free-throw line and leaped up, floating through the air, and gently slammed the ball into the basket.
To speak of this dunk, without considering distance or jumping height, it's just an ordinary light dunk. But on an NBA team's court, it looked astonishing enough, and Zhang Hao's light and free artistic touch seemed to say—what's the point of this selection trial?
It truly looked stunning!
All spectators were cheering! Several players who had a good relationship with Zhang Hao were loudly shouting from the sidelines. After he finished dunking, his teammates from Inglewood High School rushed in to high-five him, all wearing team jerseys.
No suspense here, the three judges immediately raised the approval signs.
Even Julius Erving was amazed by Zhang Hao's artistic dunk.
Julius Erving said to his old teammate beside him: "Andrew, didn't expect a surprise, this guy looked ordinary, couldn't tell he could dunk so beautifully."
Andrew Tony, the main guard for the 76ers in the 80s, his shooting ability competed intensely with Lakers' Byron Scott, enough to be called the second or third shooter in the mid-80s.
Andrew Tony nodded in agreement with Julius Erving's words, responding: "Looking at his dunk, it's clear he hasn't taken the selection trial seriously. Heard that one called Carter is amazing at dunking, curious about how their final will go… Julius, be careful not to give out approvals too readily, later if the one called Carter hasn't dunked, and you've already given all 6 approvals, what will you do…"
Julius Erving nodded. Initially, he didn't feel he was granting "randomly", they're high schoolers, after all, need encouragement, but compared to Zhang Hao's dunk, he now felt some of the approvals for the other contestants' dunks were a bit casual.
Other contestants were stunned by Zhang Hao's dunk, surprised at how well he could dunk! It was like "I haven't even exerted myself and passed already".
An unexpected situation occurred! Even Carter focused his gaze on Zhang Hao, who was chatting away with the strongest high schooler in California.
Today's Carter isn't the future version, arrogance written on his face, he already received a full scholarship promise from North Carolina, comparing himself to the next Jordan. Though he met Zhang Hao yesterday, he didn't take it to heart, didn't expect this guy's dunking to be this good.
After Zhang Hao, no unanimous votes!
The next 10 contestants didn't receive unanimous votes, though 3 received two votes and entered the pending zone.
Finally, Carter came on as expected, clearly the camera positions changed, evidently due to instructions from McDonald's producers; Carter's selection trial dunk was to be used as promotional footage.
Carter couldn't wait, he'd heard "that Chinese guy's dunk still hasn't been surpassed…" 10 times just now from voices beside him, making him quite unhappy.
Some students from Daytona Beach Continental High School and high school basketball players from Florida were familiar with Carter. Players like Pierce heard of Carter, but it was only hearsay, the majority were very interested in this high schooler being promoted by McDonald's, eager to see how he would dunk?
Carter dribbled the ball leisurely from beyond the three-point line at a 45-degree angle on the right side, ran into the paint, grabbed the ball on the right side of the three-second area, then exerted force for a step, and directly jumped, grabbed the ball single-handedly with his right hand, spun 360 degrees in the air, and slammed the ball into the basket with momentum! When the ball was slammed into the basket, Carter had just reached the highest point, head effortlessly parallel with the rim!
Nearly two thousand present gasped!
If Zhang Hao's dunk earlier was stunning, Carter's dunk was astonishing even as people had already given it significant attention!
Even Julius Erving stood up and slapped the table.
Is this a high school dunk contest? In Julius Erving's view, few NBA All-Star dunk contest dunks were better than Carter's!