NBA's King of Talking

Jia Fei had never been to New York, though he had been to New Jersey for a draft. Of course, New Jersey is very close to New York State; it seems like you could just throw a rock across the border.

Broadway, Wall Street, the Statue of Liberty… Jia Fei had never seen them in person. Kemba Walker had invited him to New York more than once, but he had never gone. There were many reasons, of course, but the most important one was that he didn't have the money.

Playing costs money, no matter what you play, it costs money.

Jia Fei's trip to New York was definitely not for leisure. Playing basketball can make money; it has always been possible in the US. It's just that you can make a lot of money playing basketball in the NBA, while elsewhere you can only earn a small amount.

The flight from Oklahoma City to New York takes about two hours. After landing at LaGuardia Airport, Jia Fei took the subway to the Bronx, where Kemba Walker lived.

The Bronx is the northernmost of New York City's five boroughs, boasting the most parkland and home to the famous New York Yankees baseball team. The borough's population is predominantly of African and Latin American descent, with a smaller Asian population.

This place was once a notorious crime hotspot in the United States, and even in recent years, many crimes still occur here.

Kemba Walker comes from an ordinary family in the local area. He has three siblings. He was named McDonald’s High School All-American in 2008 and has now won the NCAA Tournament Championship and the Most Outstanding Player award. He is the only NBA player in his family (even during the lockout). He is the pride of his family.

Kemba Walker's mother, Andrea, warmly welcomed Jia Fei and his teammates. There were quite a few people gathered in New York; besides Jia Fei, there were Art Mayork, Oriak, Napier, Lamb, Rosek Smith, and Tyler Orland. Basically, the core rotation players from UConn's championship-winning team were all there.

Seeing his old teammates made Jia Fei very happy. It was the first time he had seen players like Smith since winning the championship; everyone was busy with their own things, so it was hard to see whomever he wanted.

"I've already found you a place to stay!" Kemba Walker said with a grin. Of course, his house couldn't accommodate that many people, but he was a local bigwig, so finding a place to stay was easy for him.

In the afternoon, Kemba Walker took Jia Fei and others out. He was quite the local celebrity; fans frequently came up to shake his hand, take photos, and ask for autographs. Jia Fei and his friends also enjoyed the star treatment, taking photos with various fans.

Jia Fei hadn't practiced signing his autograph; he thought his signature was ugly. But he couldn't resist the enthusiastic fans! They even pulled out their underwear for him to sign, so what did he say?

Kemba Walker was referring to a place that resembled a guesthouse, located not far from Arthur Avenue. The building had four floors and appeared to have many rooms; it was a Mediterranean-style building.

The house looks clean on the outside, but it has been unused for a while and looks dusty.

“This house belongs to my childhood friend. They don’t need it now, but he agreed as soon as I asked. They used to run a hotel here, but business didn’t go well, so they closed it down. You can stay here as long as you want, and the utilities can be settled later!” Kemba Walker proudly introduced.

Jia Fei followed his teammates into the building, which was indeed fully equipped. Apart from a little dust that needed to be cleaned, it was ready for immediate move-in.

Kemba Walker is really something. You know, even though this place is chaotic, it's still New York, and the rent here is much higher than in Oklahoma City. These guys are all poor students; they don't have much money to begin with. What more could they ask for than a place like this?

Jia Fei walked around and looked around. The building had a total of 12 rooms, which was more than enough for the group of them, and there were even more to go.

When Kolam said he wanted to share a room with him, he wondered if the kid had some ulterior motive.

“Jeremy, there are plenty of rooms. Give me a reason to share a room with me!” Jia Fei looked at Lamb.

Lamb chuckled sheepishly, "I just love living with you! You know history, geography, movies, and you're good at housework!"

"Wait, you want me to do the cleaning, that's why you want to share a room with me, right?" Jia Fei asked.

Lamb was unwilling to admit it, and said in a fawning tone, "Whatever the reason, just let me share a room with you!"

Seeing his pathetic state, Jia Fei was at a loss. This guy was fine in every other way, except he loved watching those kinds of movies. With so much time on his hands, wouldn't it be better to find a girlfriend? Watching movies all the time would only make him more and more of a loser!

After confirming their rooms, Jia Fei and his group went to a nearby supermarket to buy some daily necessities. After all, this was a place they would be staying for a while, so it was always good to keep it clean.

In order to share a room with Jia Fei, Lamb diligently helped with the cleaning this time. When Jia Fei saw that Lamb had bought a lot of toilet paper from the supermarket, he seemed to guess what was going on.

July in New York is quite hot. As a temperate continental humid climate, the climate here is somewhat similar to Tianjin in China, but there are also some differences.

The advantage of summer is that you don't need to prepare thick blankets, and you only need a few simple clothes, which is convenient.

That evening, Jia Fei and his group played basketball at a nearby outdoor court. Kemba Walker wasn't there, and the local amateur basketball players didn't recognize them at first. Clearly, they weren't very well-known.

Even without playing against other players, just playing among Jia Fei and his group from Kangda University can provide excellent training results. Their fundamentals are very solid, and their skill level is quite high. If they were to team up and play against those amateur players, it would be a complete stomp.

In the first few days after settling in, they hadn't found any opportunities to play in commercial matches. Jia Fei and the others spent their days looking around the area and their evenings playing basketball at the outdoor court, keeping their lives quite fulfilling.

Kemba Walker quickly found a match for his brothers. A local pizza company wanted to organize a commercial competition and wanted to form a team to participate. Jia Fei and his group had enough people, so they happily reached a cooperation agreement.

The collaboration was simple: Jia Fei and his team would help the pizza company compete in tournaments, and the pizza company would pay them for those tournaments. Since they could earn money while competing, Jia Fei and his team were naturally very happy.

The opponents in the game are also quite strong, consisting of many NCAA players, as well as NBA undrafted players and NBDL players.

Jia Fei's team not only includes NBA lottery picks like Kemba Walker, but also other members who are all champions. Their overall strength and teamwork are both excellent.