Pierce holed up in the hotel for two days resting, and today he finally agreed to come out, accompanying Zhang Hao to the dunk contest! This morning, they still needed to find a park to practice their routines together.
Swearing to his mother that he would definitely make it to the finals of the dunk contest, Pierce declared that he had done it!
Practicing routines definitely couldn't take place at the Great Western Forum, so as Zhang Hao and Pierce finished breakfast and headed out to find a park to practice, they spotted Ricky Davis in the nearest park to the hotel. Seeing them, he immediately stopped practicing.
No one wants their opponents to know their dunking strategies in advance.
Simplifying their choice, the two decided to go back to school to practice.
The practice process was simple and ended quickly, so simple that Pierce couldn't help but complain: "Is that all my role is? Just standing there? Can't you give me a bit more action..."
Seeing Pierce go into his talkative mode again, Zhang Hao teased: "Why don't you try a 360-degree under-the-leg passing in mid-air?"
Pierce felt a stab in his innocent heart: "If I could jump and spin 360 degrees and still make a pass, wouldn't I just enter the dunk contest myself?"
Pierce felt that Zhang Hao's sarcastic nature was getting worse, with the frequency of his jabs increasing rapidly! Initially, it was just an occasional stab, but now it was several jabs a day!
There wasn't much training; they needed to conserve energy for the finals of tonight's dunk contest. If they got to the second round, which was the deciding round, at least four high-difficulty dunks would be needed. Advancing from six to three wasn't easy.
If it were the original Zhang Hao, he wouldn't be very interested in the dunk contest and only knew he had a good jump but didn't know how good it was. But now he knew, his jumping ability was top-notch, and with so many dunk moves he could use... of course, he needed to conserve his energy and make an effort; missing one day of practice wouldn't matter much.
They went to a billiard room near the school to kill time by playing some pool, and around noon, Zhang Hao and Pierce decided to find a place to eat a couple of burgers, and they ran into Aprile Clark, who was coming out for lunch after morning classes.
After greeting, Aprile Clark said enviously: "I really envy you guys, Paul, you got accepted to the University of Kansas, and Aix, it's so easy for you to go to college too... I still have to study for next month's exams."
"Didn't you say you wanted to study auto repair?" Zhang Hao asked, quickly added a joke: "A beautiful auto mechanic, when I have money, I'll buy a car and wreck it just to have you fix it."
Aprile Clark burst out laughing at Zhang Hao's words and replied: "I'd also like to go to a technical college to start earning money earlier, but my mom wants me to study drama, to see if I can get into USC."
"With how beautiful you are, if you perform in plays, I'd definitely buy a ticket to support you... You've acted in plays before?"
"Aix, I've acted in the school play! I even invited you to watch, but you skipped it to go train!"
"...Haha, Aprile, it's nice weather today."
"Yes, very nice, it's been raining since morning."
"Will you come to watch the dunk contest tonight? If you come, I'll have the club members get you a seat by the court."
"Of course I'm going to your match..."
Beside them, Pierce watched Zhang Hao happily chatting with the school's tennis beauty, feeling like a third wheel without a chance to join the conversation, infinitely pitiful inside... Just because he is slightly thinner and slightly more handsome than me? Just getting a bit more outgoing and there are girls around tirelessly?
This appearance-based society! It's full of malice!
...
...
April 28, 1995, the day of the McDonald's High School All-American Dunk Contest has arrived.
A dunk contest event always attracts more attention than other competitions, so McDonald's scheduled it last, even after the High School All-American Game, focusing primarily on this event. Since the end of the state high school leagues in late January, promotion has been ongoing.
By now, it has gained significant attention nationwide, even grabbing more community interest than most of the NBA's first-round series.
Carter and Zhang Hao's dunks, once edited into sports news on the American Cable TV Station, brought nationwide recognition to Carter, a high schooler, and also drew quite a bit of attention to Zhang Hao.
Especially in Chinese communities, Zhang Hao's fame soared!
The Lakers had no game today, and they had just reclaimed home-court advantage from Seattle, returning to Los Angeles. When not having a game, they're not training at the arena either, as their home arena is busy nearly every day, being leased out for non-game days, which they are well accustomed to.
But in the afternoon, quite a few Lakers players came to the Great Western Forum, wanting to check out tonight's dunk contest contestants.
Zhang Hao and Pierce, along with their team members, arrived at the Great Western Forum after three in the afternoon. Before them, some students from Inglewood High School had already arrived. McDonald's wasn't into ticket selling, which wouldn't bring in much money compared to their promotional expenses, so giving away tickets was their approach. Students from Inglewood High School, South California High School, and other famous Los Angeles high schools could easily get a ticket if they registered early.
"Purely public service," was McDonald's promotion gimmick.