Coach Shi looked a little stunned. "But I'm not a professional basketball coach. I'm just a country bumpkin."
As he spoke, he gave a self-deprecating smile.
Wang Yi shook his head. "The thing I value most about you is that you're not a professional."
"Huh?"
Coach Shi looked even more bewildered.
Wang Yi explained, "Huali Basketball School has no shortage of professional basketball coaches. The problem is that their way of thinking has become rigid. By contrast, many amateur coaches have unique insights into basketball, and what Huali needs most right now is an amateur coach like you. That's why Huali needs you."
Hearing this, Coach Shi felt a warmth rise in his heart.
For years, people had looked down on him. At school, he'd been treated like an afterthought, and people had looked down on him when he competed outside of school.
Now someone was telling him they needed him—and that someone was the world-famous basketball Star Wang Yi.
China's basketball powerhouse, Huali, needed him. How could that not move him?
Wang Yi continued, "That's why I wanted to offer you a contract right away, with an annual salary of 500,000. But if I did that, I'm afraid some people wouldn't be happy about it."
Most of the coaches at Huali were sincere and down-to-earth.
But people had all sorts of personalities, and there were bound to be a few who weren't particularly generous.
They might think: Why did I have to work hard at Huali for over ten years before earning 500,000, while some kid in his thirties, still wet behind the ears and without professional credentials, walks in and gets that much right away?
The coaches at Huali wouldn't care as much about this sort of thing as people in the outside world, but it was only