Chapter 4 I'm the One to Take You Home
In late June, Yu Fei's spring semester came to an end.
For the past four months, there were only two things in his life that mattered: school and training.
Day after day of physical training and post play training had gradually given Yu Fei the stamina to play 4 minutes per quarter in a full game, as well as a basic understanding of playing in the post.
(PS: High school games in America consist of four 8-minute quarters with a very fast pace, and teams favor a run-and-gun style of play where everyone runs like men possessed.)
Yu Fei's rate of improvement exceeded Hank Sylvan's expectations.
Initially, Sylvan hadn't wanted Yu Fei to participate in AAU games during the vacation, but now, he had changed his mind.
Even though Sylvan detested the existence of AAU, he had to admit that America's youth basketball system could not do without it.
For many unsung talents, AAU games were their only path to fame before encountering high-level competition.
Yu Fei was already in his junior year, and among players of his age group were many prodigies who had made their names known much earlier.
Yu Fei didn't have the time to remain an unknown. If he wanted to become a nationally recognized top high-school player before the end of his high school career, this summer was crucial.
Sylvan decided to set up an AAU team and take them to Seattle in early July to take part in a Nike regional invitational tournament.
Yu Fei was his chosen ace.
"Seattle?" Yu Fei hadn't expected Sylvan to want to take him to Seattle to play AAU. According to his understanding, shouldn't they start from a small place like Kent City?
That was Yu Fei's notion of low-profile growth and leveling up step by step.
Sylvan knew what Yu Fei was thinking and said directly, "Kent is not a basketball city. The city has never produced an NBA player. We have no established AAU tournaments, no celebrity-run training camps, and no invitationals. Playing AAU here won't be of any help to you."
Yu Fei trusted that Sylvan would arrange everything well, so he had no objections and fully accepted the plan.
Anyway, Seattle was only 20 miles (32 kilometers) from Kent City, very close and convenient for traveling, but Emerald City's basketball atmosphere was incomparable to that of Kent.
That day, when Yu Fei returned home, he told his mother about going to Seattle to play in the AAU.
Yu Fenglin only had one question, "Coach Sylvan will be going with you, right?"
"Of course, I'll be playing on his team," said Yu Fei.
"Then go ahead," Yu Fenglin asked about the costs of participating in the AAU games, then didn't say anything more.
Yu Fei had become accustomed to his mother's non-traditionalist approach. Although he was somewhat puzzled at the beginning, after spending more time together, he came to appreciate this quality.
Nagging adults are like the annoying watermarks that pile up buffs in a video, the worst.
In the following days, aside from training, Yu Fei also took some time to keep an eye on the 2000 NBA Finals.
Even though he was completely unaware of the current professional basketball scene, he knew that this was the first year of the OK Dynasty. But he hadn't expected Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe to be at odds with each other already.
Over the past few months, he frequently saw O'Neal complaining on TV about not getting the ball, and even though he didn't name anyone, everyone knew who he was talking about.
And Kobe was doing his own thing, saying that he would always be consistent, unaffected by anything.
Despite internal discord within the Lakers, few people had faith in the Pacers.
This aging team was setting up for their last dance.
Reggie Miller, Sam Perkins, Jalen Rose, and five other players were set to become free agents that summer, and Larry Bird, who had his own coaching philosophy, had announced early in the season that this would be his last year coaching.
Not every team's last dance could be as perfect as the '98 Bulls.
The only chance the Pacers had was Jalen Rose's dignity-and-pride-staking, foot-undercut against Kobe. If he could have been more thorough, perhaps Kobe could have been sidelined, but unfortunately, that move only caused Kobe to miss two games. Moreover, in the two games that Kobe missed, the Pacers only won one of them, no team could lose as meekly as the Pacers did.
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Even when Kobe was undercut in the first game, leaving him with only 70% of his fighting capabilities, and in the decisive King of the Hill battle he angrily scored just 8 points to set an example for James, even when Bird sent Shaquille O'Neal to the free-throw line 39 times in a single game in an act of madness, the Pacers still couldn't win.
The result was so glaring, in the game where Kobe scored just 8 points, in the match where O'Neal took 39 free throws, both games with strategies pushed to the extreme, the Pacers lost.
Then you just have to admit that the skill was not up to par.
4 to 2, the Lakers said goodbye to the Pacers, sounding the horn of a new era, with O'Neal being chosen as the Finals MVP, and in the locker room, he embraced Kobe, embodying the demeanor of a leader; "Without my little brother, I couldn't have won this championship."
Los Angeles Times writer Mike Bresnahan wrote with abandon, "Look at Shaq's love for Kobe, look at the respect between them, all the rumors of discord at this moment have vanished into thin air! What's important for us is not just that OK proved they could win the championship, but more importantly, that 22-year-old Kobe could watch 28-year-old Shaq slowly age, they would become the Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar of the new century."
Yu Fei knew that these two would later have a fallout, so to him, Bresnahan's sweet nothings were just an unburied reverse prophecy.
Besides, even now, Kobe didn't seem all that excited.
What's going on? Why does Kobe look a bit like Durant in the 2018 Game 3 when he made that long-distance three-pointer at the buzzer to defeat the Cavaliers?
On his face was a sense of relief similar to that of Durant.
Yu Fei didn't think much of it because the world of the NBA was still very far away from him.
The following week, Yu Fei lived life as usual.
With the conclusion of the worst draft in history, the new millennium welcomed its seventh month.
Yu Fei and six of his peers headed to Seattle under the leadership of Sylvan on a coach.
Interestingly, among the six people accompanying Yu Fei, there was also a girl.
Her name is Quinn Thomas, known as the number one female high school basketball player in Kent City, who led the Royal Team to the Washington State 4A championship tournament for four consecutive years.
Before Yu Fei, Quinn was the star basketball player of K-M, even Anthony Lawson had to line up behind her.
This time, Quinn was also joining Sylvan's team, to participate in the Nike regional invitation tournament held in Seattle.
This is what's interesting about AAU, they allow mixed-gender teams, and Sylvan believes that even though Quinn is far less physical than her male counterparts, her infamous three-point shooting in Kent City could still be of help.
Aside from Quinn, the others were members of the school team, namely Anthony Lawson, Muhammed Hili (Power Forward), Kevin Hughes (Shooting Guard), Bobby Jonas (Point Guard), and Andre Moore (Small Forward).
Moreover, both Bobby Jonas and Andre Moore were seniors who had graduated.
Sylvan, looking to instantly increase the team's fighting power, asked them to come over and help out temporarily.
Jonas was the former captain of the Royal Team, standing no taller than 5 feet 7 inches, a dedicated point guard, averaging 22 points over four high school years and was the all-time leading scorer for the Royal Team. His biggest issue was not being able to carry his teammates, while Moore was a 6 feet 2 inches small forward, a decent 3D player within the scope of Kent City.
Looking around, the tallest on the team was naturally Yu Fei, followed by the 6 feet 6 inches Lawson, and then the 6 feet 4 inches Hili who mainly played power forward. It could be said to be a team quite poor in terms of talent.
As Sylvan put it, even in Kent City, this would be a below-average team, and to expect to grab a spot in the Nike regional invitation tournament held in Seattle would be simply out of the question.
Unless Yu Fei could exhibit the prowess of a top regional player (state-level).
Since the whole team came from the same school, Yu Fei and his AAU team used the school team's name directly – the Royal Team.
Having never participated in any AAU tournament before, they were rated as a Category C team by the organizers, and they had to win both matches on the first day in order to progress to the official tournament the next day.
The Royal Team's first opponent was also a new team without a competition record – they called themselves Starfish.
But Yu Fei noticed that nearby there were many college scouts paying close attention to the tall players of the Starfish Team.
Before the game, both teams had five minutes of warm-up time, and the tall player from the Starfish Team swaggered over, pointing rudely at Yu Fei, said, "Hey, the Asian kid!"
Yu Fei asked kindly, "What's up?"
"My name is Jeffrey Dai," he introduced himself, but both his expression and tone were annoying, "Jeffrey Dai from Seattle Prep High School! You better remember my name, because in a few years you'll see me on TV, and then you'll remember how I sent you home today!"
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