63: 62.

Mysterious Oriental Genius 63: 62.

Mysterious Oriental Genius Featured in the newspaper!

And it’s a major one!

The day after securing the second spot in the Southern California league, on Monday morning, Zhang Yang was practicing in the morning when Thomas ran out and stuffed a newspaper into his hands, his expression joyful.

Zhang Yang looked where Thomas was pointing…

and saw his name!

Jack Zhang!

He had thought it was just a local minor paper, but when he glanced at the heading, it was the Los Angeles Times!

Had his performance been good enough to be featured in this newspaper?

He read the article again, no, he thought too much, it was just hitching a ride on the ‘School Basketball Season’ wave, in a special feature on the basketball season.

College courts, NCAA basketball tournaments, also known as March Madness, starting in mid-March; high school courts, the final stages of high school leagues in various states are also in full swing.

The CIF top-level league was also nearing its end, with the championship starting on the 15th, 32 teams from four districts competing for the title.

As the main team from Compton High School, they had already secured first place in their district early, as the district’s seeded team, and were highlighted in the reports, which casually mentioned their junior varsity team.

However, although it was just a casual mention, it was recognition they had earned through performance.

Inglewood High School, Santa Barbara High School, Southern California High School, Oakland Middle School…

they all had special columns, but their junior varsity teams’ performances weren’t reported!

Their performance in the Southern California league received the assessment—dark horse.

Zhang Yang, DeRozan, and Tatum, the three core players, all received evaluations.

DeRozan had the most coverage—20 games, averaging 24.1 points, 4.6 rebounds, 3.8 assists, 1.4 steals, hailed as the strongest rookie in California.

Averaging 24.1 points might seem not that high, there are plenty of lower level leagues averaging over 30 points, but in the Southern California league, this was enough to rank third!

The data from the Southern California league had the highest credibility among all the non-top level leagues.

A 9th grade freshman performing like this in the Southern California league, DeRozan was rightly called the strongest rookie, the former ‘top middle school player in Southern California’ had now become the ‘former top middle school player in California’.

The evaluation Tatum received was odd—Tyronn Lue’s nephew.

An average of 15 points, 5.2 rebounds, 8.8 assists, 2.2 steals, 1.1 blocks per game, clearly not as attention-grabbing as the title of an NBA player’s nephew.

The evaluation Zhang Yang received, he felt was full of holes—the best coach’s eye, the mysterious Eastern genius unearthed from a baseball field.

Who the hell told the reporter about his initial baseball playing days?

He wasn’t as good at baseball as Iverson was at football, mentioning it was quite embarrassing!

Mentioning a Chinese person, they used the word ‘mysterious’, very American.

As for Thomas’s insight, that was a fact, Aboya, Miller, Monroe, Keith…

these were all digs from other places, not spotted by other top-tier schools.

Zhang Yang saw his average stats for the first time, he hadn’t paid attention before—averaging 18.4 points, 7.6 rebounds, 1.8 assists, 2.6 steals, 1.8 blocks, with a 56% shooting accuracy.

His scoring in the last few matches of the league was much higher than this, but before Christmas his stats were merely at a sixth man level, pulling down his overall data…

but for a major newspaper to give him a remark and post his stats was already quite something.

…

The junior varsity team had advanced to the replays, and the school had given them a few days off to prepare for the weekend’s game.

This year’s championship, hosted by the San Diego Missionaries Middle School, starting on Friday, lasting three days, a knockout stage.

At 9 a.m., Zhang Yang arrived at the training ground and handed the newspaper to ‘I always train earlier than anyone else’ DeRozan.

DeRozan had already seen this newspaper, his mom had already prepared the clippings, but seeing the description ‘former top middle school player in California,’ he couldn’t help smirking.

But seeing that Zhang Yang, with less than a year of playing basketball, had nearly caught up to him, DeRozan handed the newspaper back to Zhang Yang, and continued to train!

By 10 a.m., Johnson and Burke arrived to lead the team in preparation training.

They were about to compete in the ‘Championship Game’, and the players were very excited, Johnson too.

13 wins and 7 losses, just swap those numbers around, and that was his initial prediction for the season.

He was happy, but at the same time, he felt reluctant.

After this week, most of these players would no longer be under his coaching, DeRozan, Tatum, Zhang Yang, Miller, Monroe, Kanter… all of these guys would move to the main team.

But that was his job, to cultivate outstanding reserve talent for the main team.

As the saying goes, it’s never too late to sharpen your weapons.

The training from Monday to Wednesday was intense, and complaints were definitely there, like Tatum who always liked to nitpick, but complaints aside, everyone trained with great effort.

When Thursday arrived, Compton High School’s reserve team went to San Diego, rested for the night, and arrived at the San Diego Seagull Stadium early the next morning.

This was a standard basketball stadium with more than 3,000 seats, the home court of the University of California, San Diego basketball team.

The number of spectators at the scene was more than Zhang Yang had expected!

Most were there for the ’07 class’s strongest newcomer in California, DeRozan, with many people shouting “DeMar,” but since it was a city with a large Chinese population, Zhang Yang also heard some shouting “Jack,” which made him feel great.

The players of the Compton High School reserve team were highly spirited, whereas the players from the opposing Milligan High School main team were not feeling great.

They had been firmly in the top four, but in the last month, they were overtaken by those fifteen- and sixteen-year-old kids!

And they were overtaken by a direct defeat!

They watched helplessly as the other side rose from ninth to fourth, while they fell from third to fifth.

Today, they wanted revenge!

Last time, leading by more than ten points at halftime, they were overturned, and they definitely wouldn’t let that happen again!

An hour later, Milligan High School achieved their goal, they indeed did not face the crisis of being overturned again.

The first quarter ended 27 to 25, the second quarter 31 to 22… Compton High School’s reserve team had a double-digit lead by halftime, and it was Milligan High School that needed to turn the tables!

Entering halftime, the players of Milligan High School were furious!

Last time they clashed, they had a significant strength advantage, leading by 18 points at halftime, although they were eventually overturned by those three freaks of talent, they certainly had the overall strength advantage.

Just a month had passed, and now it was their turn to be beaten down, losing by 11 points at halftime!

Seeing Zhang Yang using his tricky footsteps to find space for shots among crowded defenders, witnessing DeRozan hitting one stop-jump shot after another, seeing the two of them improve so much in strength compared to the last encounter… the players of Milligan High School were not willing to accept this!

They had been in the top four in the Southern California league by putting in a lot of sweat.

Was all their effort so useless in the face of talent?

They couldn’t accept it!

In the third quarter, Milligan High School launched a fierce counterattack, but it was only moderately effective, with a score of 28 to 25 for that quarter, they only managed to close the gap by 3 points.

In the final quarter, Compton High School, having withstood the counterattack, surged again, scoring 31 to 27 in the quarter, widening the gap back to double digits!

The players of Milligan High School tried very hard, but what they couldn’t see was that the two talents they cursed as “just relying on talent” were trying even harder than they were!

DeRozan scored 30 points, grabbed 4 rebounds, and dished out 6 assists, Zhang Yang scored 26 points, grabbed 9 rebounds, had 2 assists, 1 steal, and 3 blocks, Tatum scored 16 points, grabbed 7 rebounds, and had 9 assists and 2 steals, Aboya had 16 points…

114 to 102, Compton High School’s reserve team defeated Milligan High School’s main team and advanced to the ‘Championship’ semifinals!

As the second highest level of high school basketball in California, the Southern California league’s championship stage could still attract some college scouts and professional player agents to the scene.

And this year, there were two players in the Southern California league who were especially attractive to scouts and agents, one being the center from Seaside High School, and the other being Compton High School’s DeRozan.

Many professionals came to the game, and DeRozan’s performance did not disappoint them, boasting a diverse scoring method, comprehensive skills, and a range that extended from close to beyond the three-point line.

However, they didn’t expect that coming to see a secondary league quarterfinal match would bring them a pleasant surprise.

Zhang Yang’s performance caught their eye, and at certain stages of the game, they felt that Zhang Yang was even better than DeRozan!

Those who had seen that issue of the Los Angeles Times Sports section remembered that mysterious Eastern talent who had switched from baseball… A few days ago when they saw the newspaper, they didn’t take it seriously, thinking it was just like “Tyronn Lue’s nephew,” merely a media hype.

This being a state with a large Chinese population, when they read the Compton High School column, they only cared about Afflalo, Hip, and DeRozan.

Little did they expect that Thomas actually had uncovered another top talent!

…

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