บท 25: Chapter 22 He is here for a reason
Sonny Vacarro had a pair of widely recognized "Fire Eyes," able to distinguish the true talents on the court.
Actually, this wasn't so much a skill, because real geniuses are quite easy to spot.
Vacarro was confident in his eye for talent, even though he wasn't always spot-on.
About ten years ago, he had spotted a high school student at the ABCD Camp and convinced Nike to offer him a half a million US Dollar endorsement contract, only for the kid to rapidly fall from grace after getting a taste of big money.
This incident taught Vacarro a great lesson; ever since then, when observing high school players, he paid attention to character and temperament as well as talent and skill.
People with bad characters don't know how to be grateful and aren't worth supporting.
Those with poor temperament can hardly achieve greatness, let alone be worth angel investment.
The quintessential "This kid is something special" story that Vacarro liked to recount was that of Kobe Bryant in 1995. At that time, Kobe, still a lowerclassman, struggled to become the best player at the ABCD Camp, but he told Vacarro on closing day, "I might not be the best player in camp right now, but next year I will be."
Vacarro still remembered Kobe's demeanor at that moment; he had already foreseen the future of a basketball superstar.
So many years had passed, and Vacarro met countless people, yet he couldn't figure out Yu Fei.
From the fact that he dared to ask Kobe an out-of-bounds question, it was obvious that he had guts, but he didn't seem too intelligent, since his team had several younger students, which was not conducive to his team's competitiveness.
Just when Vacarro thought Yu Fei was going to suffer a big loss, he started the game by throwing an alley-oop pass to a lowerclassman.
Then he matched up with the shortest player on the opposing team.
As far as Vacarro knew, Yu Fei was a post player.
"Chris, what position does that kid Frye actually play?" Vacarro asked, puzzled.
Chris Dennis, the one who had recommended Yu Fei for the camp, was also baffled.
"Frye has always played center in the school team; he is an inside player with the skills of a guard..."
"But he's currently matching up against the opposing guard, and judging by his defense, his lateral movement is quick, he can totally keep up."
Then, Yu Fei blocked Will Bynum with a big rejection.
"If the scouts saw his performance now, maybe his national ranking would rise," Vacarro started to suspect that Yu Fei playing the post was out of necessity.
Given that his school was weak, and as the tallest person on the team, it was normal for him to fill in as center.
To be honest, whether filling in as center or actually being a center with the ball-handling of a guard, this was nothing unusual.
Youth basketball was, after all, a circle teeming with wonders.
However, many of these wonders lost their spirit when stepping into the adult-level college games.
Yet, the agility Yu Fei displayed, enough to guard a guard, couldn't be simply summed up as a wonder.
This was genuine talent.
A big man capable of guarding a guard on defense had limitless possibilities.
As Vacarro watched, he began to sense something was off.
Yu Fei was more than just matching up with guards; he was outright playing as a guard.
Since the team had Will Wilkins, Yu Fei didn't need to play center; he let Iguodala play power forward while he took over ball-handling duties in a big way.
This time, he didn't pass.
Facing Bynum's size disadvantage, he chose to bulldoze through with his body, breaking into the paint and nailing the trademark floater off the glass.
Half a minute later, Yu Fei intercepted an opponent's pass and went coast to coast for a thunderous dunk.
Helping on defense, he disrupted the opponent's shooting opportunity, seized the rebound and broke away; at the opponent's free throw line, he pulled up for a jump shot.
Aside from low-post play and three-pointers, Yu Fei displayed a full range of offensive skills.
"He doesn't quite resemble Lamar Odom anymore," Vacarro laughed, "He reminds me of someone else."
Dennis asked, "Who?"
Vacarro laughed and said, "That enthusiastic kid at the draft who was overly affectionate with Mr. Commissioner."
This was almost the most popular draft joke since last year.
In the year 2000, number four pick Darius Miles, after having his name called by David Stern, became so emotionally overwhelmed that he walked up to the stage and gave a stunned Stern a very intimate full-body hug.
This prompted Stern to immediately issue detailed instructions on how the drafted players should embrace the commissioner at the end of the draft.
Poor Darius Miles' professional career had started under a cloud.
Originally, Vacarro also believed that Miles would be the next generation's superstar and would outshine Garnett.
As a result, after a year had passed, there was no sign of Darius Miles's talent being realized.
However, Darius still had time. They say to watch a rookie for three years; if there's no indication of the potential to grow into a star within the first three years of a professional career, then one can say with 95% certainty that it will probably never happen.
Now, when Vacarro mentioned that Yu Fei reminded him of Darius, was that a positive sign?
Chris Dennis felt uncertain.
When Vacarro saw Yu Fei's team end the half with a 19-point lead, he decided to leave and watch games on other courts.
"Keep an eye on him, this kid is special."
In any case, Yu Fei made it onto Vacarro's daily observation list.
※※※
Yu Fei was unaware of how many people were watching him. During the game against the Oscar Team, besides trying to play at his best, he was recalling who Will Bynum was.
Finally, when he sat down for a rest in the second half, he remembered.
Will Bynum was a foreign player in the CBA, but Yu Fei didn't have a strong memory of him because his active seasons were probably between 2012-2014. At that time, the previous life's Yu Fei was not even 10 years old. He remembered Bynum because he had watched Guangdong Team games with his father. Although they were not from Guangdong, because their own province didn't have a CBA team, if one wanted to watch CBA games at that time, Guangdong Team was an ideal choice, as they had the star player Space Easy.
And Bynum was a foreign player for Guangdong Team.
But Yu Fei was too young back then and didn't remember very clearly. By matching Bynum's face with "picking locks" time and again, he finally pieced together a complete image from the fragments of memory in his mind.
This forced him to confront much from his past, something he had been trying to avoid. After transmigrating, he had avoided recalling the things from his former life and had focused solely on training hard, determined not to waste his talent. But now, Bynum had inadvertently caused him to remember a lot.
A few minutes later, the game ended, and the Jade Team's first battle concluded with a victory.
Yu Fei wiped the moisture from the corner of his eyes and reinforced his resolve. Once, even playing professional basketball in China seemed like a lofty dream, but now, he could even see the doors of the NBA opening up to him.
If there really was a God above, then there was a reason for him being here.
He was determined to walk this path and to go further than anyone else.
"You're awesome, Frye,"
Bynum said to Yu Fei after the game.
Yu Fei didn't appreciate the praise; instead, he responded, "You should apologize to Andre. You were wrong about him; he's great and can be of help."
"I will," Bynum said, then walked towards Iguodala.
Suddenly, a loud noise came from not too far away.
Everyone's gaze shifted to that court, where DeAngelo Collins was seen gripping the rim fiercely, sitting on top of two people who had apparently been knocked over by him.
Even though he had already scored with the dunk, he did not forget to humiliate his opponents by yanking on the rim, "You think you can stop me?!"
After delivering his trash-talk, Collins's lackeys on the sidelines loudly echoed it; he was certainly the only player to create a home crowd feel on the court.
"That big brother is also very impressive, but I don't like him," Bynum's head shook, "It's not that I don't like him as a person; I just don't like his poor imitation of the 'Fab Five.' It's really not the same."
Yu Fei just shrugged, not engaging in the conversation.
He didn't like the Michigan Fab Five, especially after learning about them; he thought most of what they left behind was negative:
They brought a street-style thug attitude into college basketball, where everyone started to relish humiliating their opponents when in the lead, throwing out unfriendly trash talk, and dunking with excessive rim-hanging to taunt the competition;
The fact that all five of them, who were selected for the McDonald's All-American Game, teamed up for college, was something else.
The problem was that the Fab Five's grandstanding did not translate into substantive achievements.
After the game with the Oscar Team, Yu Fei and his team took a 20-minute break before diving into their second game of the day.
This time they faced a mixed team led by eleventh graders. With Yu Fei struggling to find his range from the mid and long-distance, Roy took over the offense and powered through, helping the Jade Team to another victory.
In their last game of the day, the Jade Team came up against the Inglewood Team, which had also refused to let Iguodala join.
With scores to settle and vendettas to uphold, Yu Fei combined penetration and shooting, assisting Iguodala while also rediscovering his shooting touch. The outcome, naturally, was unrivaled.
The Jade Team ended the first day of the ABCD Camp undefeated in three games.
Yu Fei was selected for the day's best lineup with an average of 16 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 assists.
Moreover, compared to his time in the school team, the biggest difference for Yu Fei in the camp was his registered positions.
His primary position was point guard, his secondary was small forward, and his third was power forward.
This caused the scouts' evaluations of him to swing from one extreme to the other.
NBA scouts onsite wrote in their observation logs of Yu Fei, "It's hard to have an accurate assessment of Frye Yu. He can protect the rim like a center, attack the zone like a small forward, and push the ball up like a guard. He can also hit the top-of-the-arc three-pointer, is quite confident in his mid-range jumper, and while not very accurate, his shooting form is good. He seemingly can do it all, and comparing him to Lamar Odom, the ABCD Camp version of Frye seems more like an intermediate between Darius Miles and Scottie Pippen. The question is, can he make these skills work in college, or even, if he went straight to the NBA, could he still do what he did today? If the answer is yes, then he should be the number one draft pick for 2001. If the answer is no, then his future will largely depend on how the team develops him and his own efforts."
Finally, the first round of recommendations would start next week. Thanks to everyone's support, although I haven't walked the recommended route this week, my data is still good. Please continue to maintain it. There's no way around it for a new book. After the launch, I won't beg endlessly like an old lady for "follows and votes."
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