1 1. AUDITION(1)

January 9, 2012. Beverly Hills, California. California Route. JEM Community Center.

The size of the United States is bigger than anyone can ever imagine.

How big is it you ask? It made me, who was born and raised in Seoul, feel as if I came from the countryside.

"The goal is Division 2, understood?"

"…"

To begin with, American College Basketball is categorized in 15 different divisions.

From those 15 divisions, it is then divided anywhere between 10 to 30 conferences. Each conference contains 10~20 different official college teams. This means there are at least 1,110 different teams associated.

My goodness. How does that even make sense?

"The audition is 3 days long. Don't overthink it though. You have to control the pace."

"Understood."

Ever since I was a junior in high school, my parents and I secretly prepared to move to America. We have been working on a contract with David Jung, who is a Korean man but native to the United States. He has been sending videos of my performance on the court to different colleges.

As a result, starting today, I will begin a 3-day workout (a period where you show your skills and abilities in from of scouts or team officials) where 200 College basketball teams will be observing me.

Although excited when he first heard this, David thought the situation was worse than what he had imagined.

The highest level is NCAA Division 1 and right below would be the NCAA Division 2.

The number of Colleges in NCAA Division 1 and NCAA Division 2, the very best and second best respectively, can be counted with your hands because of how difficult they are to attain.

220 teams would be more teams than middle school, high school, and college combined in South Korea.

"Let's start by slowly warming up. Hmm? Hey! Jo!!"

In the middle of giving support and encouragement, David began walking towards a baldheaded man spewing English from his mouth.

That man may be the person David had been talking about.

"Haha! Hold on! Min-Hyuk, come over here for a second!"

"…"

After some time, David, who was pleasantly laughing, called me over to him. Therefore, I walked over next to him casually with a natural expression on my face.

As this black guy with big bulky hands gripped my hand to shake it, he gave me a slightly surprised look and began saying something in English. At the same time, I turned to David with a look asking for help.

I had no idea what they were saying.

Although I diligently studied English for 2 years, the people in America speak way too fast for me to keep up. The fact that they used words that I didn't learn in school, strange sentences and phrases just made me even slower to follow.

However, David assured me there was no need to worry too much and soon enough I will be adjusted. Does that mean I'll slowly start to understand? I am also hoping that I can catch on quickly.

"They're saying that you're taller than they expected. You seem to be taller than what you have in your profile information?"

"Huh? Oh yeah, I grew about 4 cm this year."

"He said…"

As someone noticed my need for a translator, their eyes widened, as they slowly raised their hand with their thumbs hidden.

"That's nice."

This much I could understand.

"!@##$$"

Damnit! What are they saying?

"They're asking if you are 6'7" now."

"How tall am I if I'm 6'7"?"

And why do the people here not use centimeters and kilograms? Inches and pounds are metrics that I am not familiar with.

"Around 201cm?" David said, "202cm to be exact.'

"!@##$#", "!#$!$@$"

As another period of silence came, another quick conversation came as David explained the situation.

"They're asking if you took your shoes off?"

"Isn't that normal?"

Oh yeah! That's right!

David has given me a lot of information about American Basketball. Among these, David gave me a few "physical conditions" that are important among the players.

Surprisingly, one's ability to jump high was not very important to them. In fact, the quality they emphasize as most important is lane agility and the time it takes to travel from one end of the court to another.

An individual's height without shoes on and their wingspan are considered to be very important elements.

Therefore, when they measure your wingspan, you stand upright with your arms stretched from side to side.

"So that means you're about 6'8" when you have shoes on. Oh right! You see, the people here…"

Oh, that David. Everything is good about him, however, sometimes he could be overwhelming.

Anyways, David eventually revealed the identity of the bald-headed man from earlier. He was a scout from the University of San Diego, named Bill Hauzer.

Bill, you say? I liked the name because it's easy to remember.

"He wishes you luck!"

"Huh? Oh! Erm… thank you?"

"Hahaha. Good luck, kid."

As he patted my shoulders and turned away, my official warming up began.

Although it's been a whole week since I got here, I took that time to get my body used to the American-style workouts. From stretching, all the way to training methods, everything was completely different and unfamiliar compared to what I did in Korea.

That being said, I had to get used to this no matter what. I did not come all the way here just to fail.

"Come on, Kim! Come on!"

As I did the running and stretching, I felt as if I was a monkey trapped in a zoo. Each and every step and movement I made, the scouts were either taking pictures or were busy conversing with the other scouts.

As some scouts were conversing on their phones, there was one named Bryan Miller who was engaged with the players to help and encourage them.

The two words "keep focus" was heard plenty of times and could be easily understood.

"Great! Again!"

How do I put this? Bryan continued to be a sweet man.

That being said, when it came to our exercise, he was a monstrous man. However, he kept using simple English for me to understand him better. For example, when he wants to ask if I've eaten, he would simply say "Food. Eat?"

Because of that, I really liked Bryan.

"One more!"

After the warm-ups were finished, the first skill that we were showing was our dribbling skills.

Bryan kept insisting that I wear some sort of glove, but when I did, it made dribbling the ball much harder.

However, ever since I took it off yesterday, handling the ball became much easier!

"Next!"

After the dribbling section, we began the "Shooting Drills".

This is where we shoot a ball tens, if not hundreds, of times from whatever point line is chosen. David and Bryan told me it was very important to leave a good impression when it comes to my shooting skills.

Because of this, I tried harder to focus on my game.

*Toong*

"…"

A man named Corey who came with Bryan said if I receive a bounce pass, I would need to shoot the ball directly from my wing position (wing position: the most corner area to shoot a point).

As David said, the scouts were watching close my shooting balance and release. I was told they were going to observe my hand-eye coordination very closely as well.

In Korea, we emphasize the importance of going by the book. However, what the officials cared about were very different from what I had imagined.

This is the part that I put all my hope in.

"Woo!"

As I made 5 shots in a row, the crowds broke out in cheers of admiration.

["Wow… everything about you is great, but…"]

At this time, I heard Coach Yu Bu-Young's voice in my head.

*Ting!*

Ah! Damnit! I can't be thinking of something else.

"It's okay, Kim! It's okay! Again!"

Even I knew that I seemed to be distracted. To put it in simple terms, I had deep thoughts running through my head that made things more complicated than simple.

Because of having so many thoughts, if I get tied onto one idea, I can't get it out of my head.

*Ting*

*Ting…*

*Ting… Ting Ting…*

"KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKk"

After missing 8 shots in a row, the amazed crowds began to burst into a laughter. Missing these many shots consecutively seemed to be funny, even though it was just a simple workout.

I saw a guy that seemed to be saying something like this: "Well, what else would you expect from an Asian?"

Although you could say it was a simple misunderstanding, however, it seemed that what I thought was right.

It's because I'm Asian, you say?

"Bryan!"

Since I'm already upset, I decided to turn it up a notch.

Going back to the spot I was shooting at, I placed the ball in my left hand.

*Swoosh*

Good. On to the next.

Next, I switched my wing position to the 3-point line. From there, I directly shot the ball that was passed to me. Similar to the way my idols growing up would shoot 3 points.

As if there were a screener, I juked them out as I simultaneously took the shot.

*Swoosh*

Now as I was near the hoop, I made a baby hook shot and it hit the shot off the top of the backboard. Then, I immediately did the same thing on the opposite side.

*Swoosh*

Lastly, I took a shot at the opposite end of where I took my first shot.

*Swoosh*

"Good! Alrig..."

"Bryan!"

What was I supposed to say in this situation again?

There was a term that my English teacher in Seoul taught me to use. Oh, yeah!

"I'm on fire!"

"Hahahahahaha"

What's so funny?

Because I got even more upset, I just kept shooting the balls that were passed to me in the same manner. I kept making shots until the laughter turned into astonishment.

That's because I made around 30 shots in a row.

How dare they laugh at me.

However, it does feel like I overdid it.

"You idiot!"

David was clearly mad at me. This terrible personality of mine.

My rebellious personality was clearly a problem.