The longest river

Chapter 15 Leader
After the game, Thaddeus had coffee with Yang Shuai and Paul at a cafe near the school.

He spoke very quickly, and Yang Shuai and Paul had to strain their ears to listen to him.

Their team is called the Klass team because it is sponsored by the Klass brand, which means they have to wear the opponent's shoes during the game.

As for the jerseys, the official sponsor of this tournament is Adidas, so they are all Adidas jerseys.

Even the drinks they consume during the competition are Gatorade, a brand owned by Nike; they are not allowed to drink anything else.

Yang Shuai already knew that the NBA was a commercial league, but this was his first time experiencing the commercial nature of American basketball, and it was quite authentic.

Thaddeus seemed to have endless things to say; after discussing the team, he moved on to the match schedule.

The tournament will be held in mid-June and will last for a week. They will start intensive training about two weeks in advance.

This means that Yang Shuai will have to take leave in early June to travel to Inglewood and join the team.

After the conversation, Thaddeus left, as he had to head to Greenville, South Carolina, to scout other players.

Just as Paul said before, Thaddeus is recruiting basketball talent from all over the United States, preparing to make a big splash in this AAU tournament.

"Paul Pierce plays at Inglewood High School, and barring any unforeseen circumstances, you'll be teammates with him in the tournament."

After Thaddeus left, Paul and Yang Shuai did not leave immediately; the two chatted about some other details.

Pierce?

Yang Shuai had only recently learned that Pierce was in the same year as him, and he never expected that they would become teammates so soon.

Although he had never seen Pierce play, he didn't have a very good impression of Pierce.

This mainly stems from his classmate who was a big fan of LeBron James in his past life.

He claimed that he could only beat LeBron James by forming a Big Three, and then he boasted that he was on par with James. The most famous thing he did was get physically beaten to a pulp in the Finals.

However, this feeling did not affect his expectations, and he was also eager to know the gap in strength between himself and the top high school students.

"If that's the case, does that mean I can stay in Ohio and play in the state AAU?" Yang Shuai suddenly realized this question.

If he can stay in Ohio to play in the AAU, then the favor Johnson did for him won't go to waste; it would be a win-win situation.

"It's up to you to choose."

The AAU Championship and the State AAU Tournament are two separate events. The State AAU Tournament is a qualifying event for the AAU National Championship, while the AAU Championship is an elite-level event organized by the sponsoring tournament organization.

However, the exposure of the tournament is not much less than that of the national competition. Since Yang Shuai has already joined the Gaishiwei team, he doesn't necessarily have to go to other states to play in the state AAU competition.

Of course, Yang Shuai will be under even more pressure then, because it means he has to perform well in the tournament.

The Geely team will gather many talented players from all over the United States, and the competition it faces will be much greater than that of state teams.

Cleveland High School's opponent in the tournament semifinals was Mommy Valley Day School from the Toledo Division, led by Casey Shaw.

Shaw was a 6'3" white center who was not ranked in the top 100 in the 1994 class; he was just a three-star high school player.

However, Cleveland High School learned a lesson in this game.

Because Momi Valley Day School is different from the teams they have encountered before, they play team basketball and create scoring opportunities through frequent passing and cutting.

This explains why their team's star player was only a three-star high school student, yet they still managed to rank second in the region.

Furthermore, their tacit understanding extended to the defensive end, with frequent double-teams and switching, which severely tested the ball-handling ability of the opposing player.

Yang Shuai's performance was greatly diminished in the face of this kind of defense.

Cleveland High School ultimately lost 54-67, bringing Yang Shuai's first NSAA season to a close.

The locker room at Cleveland High School was somewhat somber after the game.

The biggest difference between school basketball and professional basketball is the significant changes in roster.

Most junior players start from the bench when they enter the school, and by the time they become key players, it is usually their third or fourth year.

Therefore, a large number of key players leave every graduation season.

For twelfth-year players like Luther, their high school basketball careers have come to a regrettable end. And for the rest, losing these senior players casts a huge question mark over the team's competitiveness next year.

Yang Shuai sensed this when he entered the locker room.

He didn't look at the twelfth-graders, but instead focused his gaze on his remaining teammates:

"No matter who returns to the team next year, I guarantee that as long as I am here, the same thing will never happen again."

After saying that, he left the locker room and went straight to the court for extra practice.

Actually, he didn't need to say such things, because he had already done enough for the team this season. If it weren't for him, Cleveland High School's season would have ended after the divisional preliminaries.

By saying this now, he is essentially shifting all the responsibility onto his own shoulders.

However, for Yang Shuai, after he transmigrated, he was first adopted by Lin Xiulan, which solved his food and lodging problems. Then he met a good coach like Johnson who cared about the players. Then he met DiFrancisco and Paul. Everything went very smoothly.

This defeat in the tournament marked the first time he experienced the taste of failure.

Moreover, with the graduation of Luther and others, he officially became the team leader, and it was necessary for him to step up and take responsibility and boost morale after the team's defeat.

After arriving at the training ground, he immediately spent 1 points to redeem a C-level dynamic vision talent enhancement pack.

Dynamic vision can improve the ability to judge the landing point of rebounds, the speed of reading defenses, and the consistency of catching and shooting. Of course, most importantly, it can improve court vision and better spot open teammates.

He doesn't expect himself to become a combo guard like Daniels right now, but he needs to be able to handle the ball better when facing double teams.

Of course, in addition to finding better passing opportunities, passing also requires sufficient accuracy. Therefore, in addition to improving his talent, he also needs to strengthen his passing accuracy training.

Basic passing drills can be done simply by holding the ball, facing a wall, and combining it with dribbling.

After he practiced for a while, Johnson arrived at the stadium.

He came to comfort Yang Shuai.

"No one can achieve success overnight, and your progress is already quite remarkable."

Johnson's words were not an exaggeration at all. It has only been half a year since he selected Yang Shuai for the Varsity team, but Yang Shuai has already gone from a player who could not get playing time to a core player of the school team.

"I just feel that if I get a little better, we might be able to reach the top this year."

If they had been eliminated in the regional preliminaries or the regional competition, Yang Shuai might not have felt this way, but now they are only two wins away from the state championship.

Looking back, if he hadn't given up playing basketball on the local courts to gain more points and improve himself because of the Truth incident, the outcome might have been different.

Johnson showed a look of admiration. Defeat is when you can see the difference between players. Yang Shuai has this spirit, so his future achievements are destined to be great.

He reached out and patted Yang Shuai on the shoulder:

"Regret is also a part of life. Just like you said, we will have another chance next year."

Yang Shuai nodded, realizing that dwelling on what had already happened was pointless.

“Sir, I’ve decided to play in the Ohio AAU tournament first, and then go to Inglewood.”

Yang Shuai announced his decision.

He initially thought that way because he didn't want to waste the favor Johnson had done for him, but now he has another reason: to use the state's AAU games to improve his passing.

He had discovered through his one-on-one fight with Luther that although abilities could be improved through personal training, the improvement speed was much faster through actual combat.

The same applies to passing ability, since the situation on the field is much more complex than facing a wall or even training.

To have such an opportunity, he needs to join a team that he is relatively familiar with and whose head coach trusts him relatively.

Otherwise, he would have been substituted off the field after several mis-passes.

"I'll make the arrangements; you can just go ahead and showcase your talent."

Johnson doesn't have Paul's extensive network, but he's someone you can absolutely trust to get things done.

(End of this chapter)