The longest river

Chapter 37 Vacalo's Amazing Energy
"Did you really get blown out by a high schooler?" A reporter asked Jim Jackson after the Mavericks-Rockets game.

"That's complete nonsense!" Jackson was in a bad mood after being thrashed by Drexler.

"So you're the one who beat him to a pulp?"

Jackson was stumped by the reporters' persistent questioning.

If Fratello hadn't intervened, he would have lost his match against Yang Shuai. Saying he completely dominated Yang Shuai is also nonsense.

However, it was precisely his reaction that sparked a flurry of discussion among the reporters.

Although they felt that Jackson shouldn't be so badly beaten by a high school student, they believed he probably didn't gain any advantage.

The next day, the media began reporting on Yang Shuai's victory over Jackson.

The core of journalism has never been seeking the truth, but rather creating sensationalism and grabbing attention.

A rising star basketball player was defeated by a high school student. If you don't use such a UC headline, you don't deserve to say you've studied journalism.

With media coverage, whether Yang Shuai actually beat Jackson or not has become a hot topic of conversation.

"You really beat him?" Even during practice sessions at Cleveland High School, Yang Shuai's teammates came over with admiration and kept asking him.

Yang Shuai just smiled, neither admitting nor denying.

Lying wasn't something he liked to do, but he knew it was Vaccaro's publicity stunt, and he couldn't deny it.

Moreover, he still harbored resentment towards Jackson for deserting the stage that day.

Yang Shuai's attitude also brought his teammates to a collective climax.

Jim Jackson was Ohio's Mr. Basketball in both high school and college, a legend on Ohio campuses, not to mention his three successful NBA stints.

Yang Shuai completely dominated Jackson; it would be an injustice if they didn't win the championship this year.

Unexpectedly, this news boosted the morale of Cleveland High School.

In the following two weeks of competition, they defeated all their opponents and made great strides in the regional competition.

In the past two weeks, similar stories have become more and more frequent, and it sounds like Yang Shuai has dominated many professional players.

Because Yang Shuai now trains with the Cavaliers whenever he has time, those news reports seem more credible.

The appearance of another person also solidified Yang Shuai's positive image.

That was Jane Ramos, Fratello's old teammate from Central Montclair State University. He was invited by Fratello to join the Cavaliers' coaching staff last summer to be in charge of the players' daily training.

"Man, let me tell you, that was the first time I'd ever seen anything like it," Ramos recounted to reporters.
“I swear to God it’s all true. We train twice a day, usually from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m., but Hansen arrives at the stadium at 8 a.m. and then trains until 2 p.m.

Then, when we had our training session from 7 pm to 9 pm, Hansen would arrive at 5 pm and train until 11 pm. That's how it always was when I saw him. No professional player works as hard as him.

Yang Shuai almost broke down when he saw this news.

He does arrive a little early to warm up so that he can keep up with the intensity of professional players, and he also does some extra training after training to consolidate the training content.

But this suddenly meant he was practicing 8 hours more a day than others, something that probably only a robot could do.

However, Yang Shuai has fully experienced Vaccaro's amazing energy, and he also partially agrees with what his fellow student Zhan Mi said.

Jordan was very strong, as he had already experienced during that practice game, but Vaccaro's promotion and publicity behind the scenes were also crucial to Jordan becoming the god of basketball.

March arrived in the blink of an eye, and the regional competition came to an end.

Cleveland High School went undefeated in the regional competition and advanced to the tournament with the best overall record.

They only have three games left to win the championship.

It was at this time that a big shot arrived at the Cleveland High School quarterfinals.

Patrick Ewing, known as "The King of New York" and "The Gorilla".

Last season, Ewing led the Knicks to the NBA Finals for the first time in 20 years. Although they ultimately lost to Hakeem Olajuwon, his personal influence reached the peak of his career.

"I heard there's a high school student who's been dominating a lot of professional players, and I want to see who he is." Ewing made no attempt to hide his purpose for the trip from the reporters.

"I believe those news reports are true. He seems to be on a different level from the others on the court. I think he already has the ability to play in the league (NBA)." After the game, Ewing also gave full recognition to Yang Shuai, who scored 35 points and led the team to victory.

He even went up to Yang Shuai and exchanged a few words with him, saying some encouraging words.

Yang Shuai also expressed his respect for Ewing and took a photo with him.

You could see excitement and joy on Yang Shuai's face, but not surprise.

Because he knew Ewing was Adidas's top star, which was part of the Vakaro energy.

Two days later, Cleveland High School defeated New Knoxville High School in the semifinals, advancing strongly to the finals.

Everything is now in place. All that's left is for Yang Shuai to lead his team to victory in the Ohio 4A basketball tournament, at which point he can officially announce his candidacy.

It was at this time that Vaccaro left New York and went to Cleveland for a secret meeting with Yang Shuai.

The meeting covered two aspects: first, the timing and manner of Yang Shuai's formal announcement of her candidacy;
Secondly, there's the issue of Yang Shuai's contract.

He has reached a preliminary agreement with headquarters, and Adidas is expected to offer Yang Shuai a five-year, $8 million endorsement contract, which is almost the largest expenditure Adidas America has made this year on signing basketball players. This figure is quite staggering in this era.

Keep in mind that even as Adidas's top star, Ewing's contract is only a little over 100 million a year.

What Vaccaro told Yang Shuai before wasn't just empty talk; he genuinely saw him as the hope for Adidas's revival.

Of course, the actual signing will only happen after Yang Shuai announces her candidacy and hires an agent.

In order to ensure the smooth progress of the cooperation between the two parties, Vaccaro has even found a suitable agent for Yang Shuai: Arne Tellem.

Tellem has both influence and reputation in the agent circle, and he can maximize Yang Shuai's off-court benefits.

Yang Shuai had no objections to any of this. If it was the basis for him to sign that big contract with Adidas, then it wouldn't be a problem.

With that money, he could help the Rondo family change their current predicament, and of course, he could also live a life that transcends social classes.

When Yang Shuai came out after finishing his meeting with Vaccaro, he unexpectedly ran into Johnson at the door.

"Is that Sonny?" And to Yang Shuai's surprise, Johnson actually recognized Vaccaro.

“My head coach at UNLV was a good friend of his. He used to go to NCAA games often, and he had many of his clients there,” Johnson continued to explain.

However, Yang Shuai was stunned by his explanation.

When Vaccaro spoke with him before, he expressed his deep resentment towards the NCAA. Now Johnson is saying that the NCAA has many of Vaccaro's clients.
Johnson is unlikely to lie; the only possibility is that Vaccaro is hiding something from him.

"Sir, you wanted to see me?" Yang Shuai then remembered that Johnson had come to see him at the door.

"Let's talk about the tactics for the finals." Cleveland High School's opponent is Mommy Valley Day School, which eliminated them last year.

Casey Shaw left the team after last season, but the strength of Mommy Valley Day School has not declined.

This is mainly because they play a team-based basketball system, which is rare in high school basketball, the so-called "ironclad camp with ever-changing soldiers".

“Perfect timing, you can also tell me what you know about Sonny.” Yang Shuai said as he and Vaccaro walked towards the stadium.

From Johnson, Yang Shuai learned more about Vaccaro.

Vaccaro first became known in the 60s when, at the age of 24, he and his college roommate founded the Dapper Dan Basketball Classic.

It was an all-American high school All-Star game, a charity event, which quickly attracted the attention of NCAA basketball coaches.

Although the event itself doesn't make money, Vaccaro has built connections that are far more valuable than money.

Later, recognizing Nike's potential, he used his connections to recommend himself to Nike's vice president, Strasser, and became a Nike employee.

Then, Vaccaro began to demonstrate his top-notch operational capabilities.

At the time, the NCAA had no brand sponsors, so Vaccaro gave the shoes to the coach for free and then secretly gave the coach a sum of money so that the coach's players could play in Nike shoes.

This could be considered a form of indirect bribery, but it earned Nike millions of dollars.

It was precisely because of his significant contributions to Nike that Vaccaro had considerable influence in the subsequent signing of Jordan.

Yang Shuai then learned about what happened next. Vaccaro rose to fame thanks to Jordan, but due to his conflict with Knight, he eventually left Nike and joined Adidas along with Strasser, who had hired him.

"Then why did he break with the NCAA?" This was still the question Yang Shuai was concerned about.

"Jerry Takanan".

Johnson mentioned a name, which was also the one he initially mentioned to Yang Shuai: the head coach of the team he played for when he was at UNLV.

Tacanian is an NCAA legend and the originator of the NCAA run-and-gun offense. He transformed UNLV from a bottom-tier team into an NCAA champion.

But just like his run-and-gun tactics, he likes to constantly break the rules.

His most famous tactic was player recruitment; he would go to great lengths to recruit students with outstanding talent but subpar grades into his team.

Among them were even some streetball players involved in flour trading.

As a result, the NCAA and he were at odds.

However, due to Takanian's influence, the NCAA couldn't directly target him, so they set their sights on Vaccaro.

They banned Vaccaro from continuing to work with college coaches and even sent a former FBI agent to investigate Vaccaro's bank transfer records.

That made Vaccaro and the NCAA enemies.

Hearing this, Yang Shuai had a clearer understanding of Vaccaro.

There is no doubt that Vaccaro is an outstanding person, but his actions regarding Jordan show that he is also a gambler.

The reason he approached me, a high school student, was not only because of the previous grudge with Nike, but also because of revenge against the NCAA.

In a sense, Vaccaro used Yang Shuai as a "bet" for his revenge.

Therefore, Yang Shuai can choose to trust Vaccaro, but not completely.

"Sir, do you know any agents?" After a moment's thought, Yang Shuai asked Johnson.

(End of this chapter)