Basketball boy, starting to shine from the slam dunk

There were two media outlets that wanted to interview Zhuang Yu. Since they rejected ESPN, the other media would naturally refuse as well.

These are all left to Assistant Coach Wesley to handle.

After Assistant Coach Wesley left, Anderson came over and said, "This is an interview with ESPN. Why did you refuse?"

Zhuang Yu made an excuse at random: "Now I have to focus on the competition. I don't have time to participate in interviews, and I don't want too much attention from the outside world."

Anderson still felt a little sorry for Zhuang Yu.

But Zhuang Yu didn't know that this time he attracted the attention of not only media such as ESPN, but also more people.

......

Oklahoma City, Thunder.

A group of Thunder players were training in the training arena. During the training break, several players sat on the sidelines, drank water, rested, and chatted.

"Russell, I heard that UCLa defeated the University of Oregon in an upset. UCLA's Chinese player Zhuang scored 28 points by himself. Did you watch the game?" Thunder substitute Nick Collison looked at Russell - Westbrook asked.

When this topic was brought up, teammates also started talking.

Kevin Martin laughed: "Originally, I thought the University of Oregon would win. After all, they were second in the regular season, and UCLA's former core player Shabazz Muhammad was abandoned. UCLA's lineup obviously did not have an advantage. .Under such circumstances, it is hard to imagine that UCLA actually won."

Westbrook was unhappy when he heard this: "Why can't we win at UCLa? So what if we are second in the regular season? The regular season is the regular season, and the knockout rounds are the knockout rounds."

Seeing that Westbrook was unhappy and was seriously arguing with Martin, his teammates couldn't help but laugh.

No one was surprised by Westbrook's reaction.

After all, UCLa is Westbrook's alma mater, and unlike some other NBA players from the NCAA, he is very affectionate for UCL.

Coach Ben Holland, who was at UCL at the time, saw his potential, brought him to UCL, and trained him carefully.

In his first season at UCLa, Westbrook was just a "water cooler keeper", averaging only 3.4 points, 0.8 rebounds, and 0.7 assists per game.

At this time, coach Ben Holland gave him a chance, which made him jump from a "water cooler keeper" to the team's new star.

In his sophomore season, he averaged 12.7 points, 3.9 rebounds, and 2.4 assists per game. It was also in that season that he met Kevin Love, and eventually brought UCLa into the NBA with Kevin Love. "Tournament" semi-finals.

Unfortunately, in the semi-finals, they encountered the University of Memphis led by Derrick Rose, the "proud man of heaven", and finally lost to the University of Memphis 63:78, stopping in the semi-finals of the tournament.

Although UCLa lost to the University of Memphis, Westbrook performed very well. He scored 22 points, 3 rebounds, and 2 assists.

This game brought Westbrook much attention and greatly improved his draft stock.

Originally, many people thought that he would be selected by a certain team with the 10th-20th pick in the first round. However, he was snatched away by the Thunder with the 4th pick in the first round. He formed a team with the Thunder and Kevin Durant. He became the "Thunder Stars" and was later selected to the All-Star team.

To this day, Westbrook still misses his days at UCL and is very grateful to UCL for cultivating him.

During the offseason, he would also invite a few friends to return to UCL for training.

He doesn't allow anyone to look down on UCLa.

At this time, the team boss Durant said: "I didn't watch the game live, but then I went to watch the highlights. UCLa played very well, and the Chinese player named Zhuang also played well. No, as a freshman As a player, I would say it’s great.”

Of course, compared with Durant, the NBA scoring leader and a historical scorer, Zhuang Yu's statistics this season are actually just like that.

Because in Durant's freshman season, he averaged 25.8 points per game and a double-double of 11.1 rebounds per game, and won the Associated Press College Player of the Year Award, as well as the Naismith and Wooden Awards. Called crazy.

When Durant praised UCL, Westbrook smiled: "Yes, UCL is great, and Zhuang is also great. Kevin, will you come with me to watch it live next time? I have seen the schedule. If UCL can score The Pac-12 League finals, we just didn’t have a game on the day of the finals.”

"Oh?" Durant raised his eyebrows with some intention.

He is a basketball fanatic and does not usually like to spend time and party, but he is very interested in everything related to basketball. It seems good to go to watch an NCAA game.

After thinking about it, Durant smiled and said: "Okay, remember to call me when the time comes. I hope UCLa can reach the finals."

Westbrook laughed: "Haha, believe me, I will definitely reach the finals."

......

Houston.

In an office, Rockets scouting director Arturas Kanisavas was writing something on his desk.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the office door.

"Come in." Kanisavas said without raising his head.

Click.

A white man in his thirties, wearing a crisp suit, opened the door and walked in, shouting: "Supervisor."

Hearing the familiar voice, Kanisavas raised his head, smiled at the white man and said, "It's Harvey, do you have a problem with me?"

Harvey is his subordinate, a scout for the Rockets.

While asking, Kanisavas stood up, motioned to Harvey to sit on the sofa, and walked to the coffee machine: "Would you like some coffee?"

Harvey said hurriedly: "No, thank you."

Although Harvey said no, Kanisavas poured him a cup of coffee. He also poured a cup himself and sat across from Harvey.

Harvey said "thank you", took the coffee and put it on the coffee table, but was not in a hurry to drink it. Instead, he said: "That's it, I found a good player. He is now playing at UCL. He is UCL Bruins players.”

"Oh?" Kanisavas raised his eyebrows slightly, "I seem to have seen the news. Ucla defeated the University of Oregon in an upset. I remember they had a player named Shabazz Muhammad who was known as an All-American in high school. The number one high school student, are you talking about him?"

"Uh, not really." Harvey said with some embarrassment: "Shabaz Mohammed didn't play in these games for some reasons. I'm talking about another player from UCL, named Zhuang Yu."

Zhuang Yu?

Kanisavas was a little surprised: "Chinese?"

"Yes." Harvey nodded and introduced: "He is a Chinese, an international student, a freshman this year, and he serves as a defender. He just joined UCL a few months ago. He was just a substitute at the beginning, but when he became the Pac-12 League At the start of the regular season, he quickly became the team's 'sixth man' and became the team's starter at the end of the regular season."

"Throughout the regular season, he averaged 17.0 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 6.2 assists per game."

"And, in UCLa's game against the University of Oregon, it was under his leadership of 28 points, 6 rebounds, and 7 assists that UCLA was able to upset the second-place University of Oregon in seventh place."

After saying that, Harvey paused and observed the supervisor's expression. Seeing that the other person seemed very interested, he continued: "I think this is a player with great potential."

[Author's digression]: While watching Huawei's press conference and typing, there is always noise, far ahead, far ahead...