Just one step away.
But after arriving at Oro Real Madrid, Sun Hao discovered that this was the hardest step of all.
There were not only talented players like him who had completed two consecutive leaps, but also many adult players who had been eliminated from La Liga.
Some of these players had talent, while others had ability.
Although Sun Hao ranked fairly high among them in terms of ability, he no longer stood out as much as before.
The competition here seemed far less intense than in the youth team, but it was truly like a thousand troops crossing a single-log bridge.
Or, to put it more vividly, going from Oro Real Madrid to La Liga's Real Madrid Team was as difficult as going from the G League NBDL to the NBA.
This was also the first real challenge Sun Hao had encountered since coming to Spain.
But Sun Hao's conviction was unwavering.
It was like walking the Huashan Plank Walk. He had already traveled two-thirds of the way, so there was no reason to turn back.
Besides, he was not someone who would admit defeat.
The Oro League was physically intense. Since his physicality no longer gave him the same advantage it had in previous leagues, he worked extra on that aspect in the system.
European League basketball valued pick and rolls, and the system could not provide that kind of training for the time being, so he built good relationships with his teammates and voluntarily stayed behind after games to train.
Whatever he lacked, he trained. He kept improving himself.
Even when Fernandez invited him out to have fun, he suppressed his restless heart and politely declined, pouring almost all his time into training.
His goal was to enter La Liga within a year. There were still more than six months left, which became a full year when the system was included. He had to give it everything he had.
Jocelyn's situation had saddened Sun Hao, but it had also spurred him on.
Throwing himself into training was the most effective way to forget that experience.
The Sun Hao who had been called a lunatic years ago appeared once again at Real Madrid.
His high-intensity training finally paid off.
Sun Hao had already been among the better players, and coupled with his image as a hard worker, he quickly earned the head coach's appreciation. The coach made an exception and put the fifteen-year-old Sun Hao into the rotation.
Because he had prepared thoroughly, Sun Hao delivered the first time he appeared in the Oro League.
Whether it was setting pick and rolls for teammates, making decisions after teammates set screens for him, or even evading opponents' pick and rolls, Sun Hao handled everything very well.
He made no mistakes on the court and seized his opportunities to score 5 points.
Sun Hao only came off the bench for eight minutes in his first game, but his performance was excellent.
For a fifteen-year-old competing alongside players in their twenties and even thirties, that was already a very impressive showing.
And this was only the beginning.
Sun Hao's steady style of play, completely unlike someone his age, continued to emerge in the games that followed, and the head coach trusted him more and more.
That brought steadily increasing playing time, along with increasingly outstanding performances.
The biggest difference between the Oro League and the two leagues Sun Hao had played in before was that tactical execution was demanded much more strictly, and pick and rolls were used far more often.
Team play was emphasized more here, so individual statistics did not stand out as much. Pick and rolls were also emphasized more, which naturally made understanding them even more important.
Over the following half year or so, these were exactly the things Sun Hao worked on.
He repeatedly used pick and rolls to get shots and score from the perimeter, created screens for teammates, and took passes from them to score.
Although he was a Point Guard, his style differed from other European Point Guards. He leaned toward scoring, and more importantly, he could score.
Over the next half year, Sun Hao celebrated his first birthday in Spain and fully adapted to the physicality and intensity of the Oro League.
More importantly, as the games continued, he gradually unlocked a series of Badges.
Pick and Roll Master (Bronze): Slightly increased the shooting percentage of drives, layups, and jump shots after using a pick and roll.
Pick and Roll Evasion (Bronze): Slightly increased a player's ability to fight through and get around opposing screens on defense.
Iron Wall (Bronze): Slightly increased the difficulty for offensive players to fight through or get around pick and roll screens, while draining their stamina.
All three Badges were related to pick and rolls.
European basketball placed enormous importance on pick and rolls, so unlocking these Badges was only natural.
And besides the three new Badges he had gained over the past half year, what delighted him even more was the Basketball IQ Badge.
Although Oro was a second-tier league, its tactical complexity surpassed both the NCAA and the two leagues he had played in before. This was also one of the characteristics of European basketball.
Whenever he was not training, he spent his free time studying those tactics.
As a result, his understanding of basketball techniques and tactics continuously improved.
Finally, before the season ended, he successfully upgraded his Basketball IQ Badge from Bronze to Silver!
He had obtained his first Silver Badge!
Basketball IQ (Silver): Effectively increased understanding and application of basketball techniques and tactics.
Though the difference was only two words, after upgrading the Badge, Sun Hao could clearly feel that his understanding of basketball techniques and tactics had reached a new level.
It felt like advancing from merely glimpsing the doorway to achieving complete mastery in a fantasy novel!
The Silver Badge's help was immediate. In the Oro playoffs Semifinals against Joventut, he recorded the first Triple-Double of his season.
13 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists! Plus 3 steals and 1 block!
That game became the turning point of the series. With that victory, the Real Madrid Team reached the finals and ultimately won the championship.
Thanks to his outstanding performance in that game, Sun Hao was also named the Oro League's Final Four MVP!
In one year, with a little luck but even more effort of his own, Sun Hao won his first MVP trophy in Spain.
Although it was only a second-tier league and carried limited prestige, it was already dazzling enough.
After all, no Chinese player had ever made a name for himself in a European League before, not even in a lower league. But Sun Hao had broken that precedent.
Of course, aside from his parents, no one back home knew about this result.
The Most Valuable Player of a Spanish Second Division league was not yet worth media coverage.
What domestic fans cared about now was who would become the first player to debut in the NBA.
Before this, the only Chinese person to appear in the NBA was Song Tao, who had been selected by the Hawks with the 67th overall pick in the third round in 1987. However, injuries had kept him from ever reaching the NBA.
And at that time, the NBA had received very little attention in China.
But after the NBA's new president Stern's famous 1989 incident, "40-Minute Wait to Open CCTV's Door," the NBA gained an audience in China, and fans naturally had greater expectations.
The player they anticipated most was Bayi Team's Chasing Wind Youth, Wang Zhizhi, who had emphatically blocked Admiral David Robinson at the Atlanta Games a year earlier.
According to previous reports, Wang Zhizhi was very likely to be selected by an NBA team because he had reached the eligible age for 22-Year-Old Automatic Entry.
In other words, that would most likely happen a year later.
So compared with Sun Hao winning MVP in the Spanish Second Division, that was what fans cared about more.
But Sun Hao did not pay attention to any of that. Or rather, his ambitions extended far beyond it.
La Liga's 1997-1998 season came to an end. After a brief Offseason, the curtain would rise on a new season.
Sun Hao would most likely continue playing in the Oro League.
But on the eve of the new season, an assistant coach from La Liga's Real Madrid Team came to the locker room.
Because the team's original Starting Point Guard, the Brazilian Fernando, had chosen to return to the Domestic League for the new season, the team had ultimately failed to find a suitable replacement.
Left with no other choice, they could only accept the loss in strength at that position and turn their attention toward newcomers.
At that moment, Sun Hao, who had produced one standout performance after another over the past year, naturally entered their sights.
Opportunities always went to those who were prepared.
And so, with 95.5% effort and 4.5% luck, Sun Hao replicated Pau Gasol's feat from a year earlier. He completed a Three-Step Jump within a year and successfully joined La Liga's Real Madrid Team!
Thanks to Gods and Devils, Duanqiao Canxue, Lifelong Reader Z, and Reader 20190530200536796 for the tips. Thank you, bosses, for your support. Muah~
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