He Can't Play Professional Basketball

Chapter 4: He Can't Play Professional Basketball

"Sun Hao?"

Li Yuanwei repeated the name with a note of doubt in his voice.

Clearly, he had no idea who Sun Hao was.

At this point, Yang Wei, who was standing nearby, quickly explained.

He had been present during the tryout and had some impression of Sun Hao.

After explaining, he stood up and walked briskly over to the desk.

On the right side of the desk lay a thick stack of tryout reports.

He searched through them, finally pulling out Sun Hao's report from near the very bottom.

He handed it to Li Yuanwei without delay.

Li Yuanwei sat back down and began flipping through it.

His expression was decent at first, with an occasional nod, but by the time he finished, a look of regret crossed his face.

The meaning of this gesture was obvious: Sun Hao likely hadn't been selected.

Yi Jianlian looked utterly incredulous.

Sun Hao was also taken aback.

Based on his tryout performance that day, he had been among the top guards. Could it be that the Hongyuan Team only wanted big men and no guards?

"He can't play professional basketball."

But what neither Sun Hao nor Yi Jianlian expected was Li Yuanwei's next blunt statement.

Yi Jianlian's mood plummeted instantly, even stirring some resentment, but he didn't dare speak up to argue.

A twelve-year-old kid rarely dared to talk back in front of adults.

Even less so for the introverted Yi Jianlian, especially when facing the provincial sports bureau director.

"Why?"

Sun Hao snapped out of his daze and spoke up. He didn't think there was anything wrong with his tryout performance.

"Your tryout performance was decent, but your bone age test report shows you'll only grow to 1.75 meters. That height can't play professional basketball."

Li Yuanwei didn't say much, but his tone was firm.

"Right, right. A height of 1.75 meters is even a bit short for soccer, let alone basketball."

Yang Wei chimed in from the side.

"Could the test be wrong?"

Yi Jianlian clenched his fists as he asked.

He had mustered all his courage for Sun Hao.

"We used the best testing facility in Guangdong Province, one of the top in the country. There's absolutely no problem."

Yang Wei immediately retorted. Yi Jianlian was questioning his work, and in front of his superior, he had to clarify this.

Li Yuanwei nodded. Fairness in selection was something he emphasized, including the testing, which was absolutely impartial.

"Does being short mean you definitely can't play professionally?"

Sun Hao shot back.

He had already held back the urge to curse.

He knew that physical talent was a crucial factor in basketball.

Even before this, he had been pessimistic about his career prospects after transmigrating because of this very issue.

But he had pushed himself for a month, been treated like a madman, and still delivered a good tryout performance—only to be hit with this?

Not even a chance?

He couldn't accept it!

Besides, nothing in this world was absolute.

The NBA had its famous short players: three-time Dunk King Nate Robinson, the 1.73-meter Isaiah Thomas who was the "King of the Fourth Quarter," and the 1.65-meter Earl Boykins.

Even setting aside the NBA, there was a well-known short player in China: Gong Luming, the national team's starting point guard, who stood only 1.72 meters.

And closer to home, the Hongyuan Team's veteran national player Li Qun was only 1.80 meters tall.

Short players can't play professionally?

Not necessarily!

"Kid, our bone age test report is absolutely professional. You need to trust our experience. We're really doing this for your own good. Go back and study hard, don't let your parents' hopes for you down."

Yang Wei was a bit annoyed by Sun Hao's words, but with Li Yuanwei present, he kept his tone polite.

Li Yuanwei didn't say anything, but he tacitly agreed with Yang Wei's words.

Seeing the attitude of the two men, Sun Hao couldn't hold back his anger. He stood up directly.

"Then you just wait and see. Within five years, you'll definitely hear news of me playing professionally!"

His tone was as hard as iron, and he was this close to flipping them off and shouting "F*** your mother."

Li Yuanwei was stunned. He never expected that this 13-year-old kid, who stood only as tall as him sitting down, could say something like that.

He sensed something in Sun Hao's eyes that didn't belong to that age group.

This kid was no ordinary one.

Yang Wei was also taken aback when he heard it, but then immediately burst into laughter.

This kid was a little chuunibyou, a little funny, and a little delusional.

Five years later?

Five years later, Sun Hao would only be 18 years old!

Those who could turn pro at 18 were all Children of Heaven like Yi Jianlian.

For someone like Sun Hao, it was nothing but a pipe dream.

If Li Yuanwei weren't sitting there, he would have already called security to throw Sun Hao out.

Sun Hao didn't pay attention to Li Yuanwei's gaze, nor did he heed Yang Wei's laughter. He simply left the office.

After walking out of the gym, he looked at the large iron sign of the Hongyuan Youth Team at the entrance and let out a long breath.

If this had been a month ago, when Li Yuanwei and Yang Wei said those things, he might have accepted it.

After all, that was how he had lived his previous life too.

People always had to bow their heads before reality.

But now everything was different. He had the system, and he could achieve more.

Not just to slap these people in the face, but even to change the sick state of Chinese basketball.

Height doesn't decide everything!

He could prove that, and he could find a way out for those who couldn't play basketball because they weren't tall enough!

And that line he just said was something he had thought through.

Five years later, he would be 18. Before that, there was no way he wouldn't have turned pro.

In fact, he might even have a chance to play in the NBA!

Remember, the NBA hadn't yet introduced the rule barring high school players from entering the draft.

As long as he was good enough, he could play in the NBA at 18!

The only problem was that he had just been rejected by the Hongyuan Team, and he had no idea where to start his basketball career.

The Hongyuan selection criteria were also the national selection criteria, which meant he basically had no chance anywhere in the country.

Yi Jianlian hadn't come out yet, so Sun Hao found a step to sit on and thought while he waited.

If he couldn't play domestically, then American High School was a good choice.

In his previous life, he had been an assistant coach in the NCAA, so he was familiar with the American basketball system and would adapt quickly.

Moreover, American High Schools were the source of NCAA talent, and the NCAA was the main pipeline for the NBA draft.

Especially in this era, Stern's NBA globalization hadn't fully taken off, and the NBA draft didn't have a high acceptance rate for overseas players.

Aside from some tall players, very few overseas guards made it into the NBA, and even those who did were mostly second-round picks who couldn't get playing time.

So comparatively, going through American High School to the NCAA was his most likely path to the NBA.

But the problems were just as big.

Basketball exchanges were very limited in this era. There were almost no Chinese players playing in the US, and the obstacles were enormous.

Take the most typical example: Ma Jian.

This former national player, who represented the Chinese team at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, caught UCLA's eye with his performance at the Games, and they offered him a full scholarship to play in the NCAA.

But the Basketball Association immediately issued a warning: if Ma Jian dared to go, they would permanently revoke his eligibility to play for the national team.

Ma Jian chose to go to the NCAA, where he averaged 8.2 points and 3.7 rebounds per game in a season, and had a career night of 21 points and 9 rebounds in a single game.

But the price he paid was that he never appeared in any national team competition again.

And setting aside that kind of obstruction, how he would even get an invitation from an American High School was another problem.

Remember, Ma Jian got noticed because he played in the Olympics. As for Sun Hao, forget the Olympics—he couldn't even get into the Hongyuan Team now.

Just as he was thinking, Yi Jianlian came out of the gym.

"Brother Hao, I think they're wrong. Height doesn't decide everything. I believe you can definitely play professional basketball."

Yi Jianlian walked quickly over to him and spoke up as soon as he arrived.

He hadn't dared to say it in the office earlier, but this was his true inner thought.

"Yeah, within five years."

He added another sentence after saying that.

Sun Hao laughed upon hearing this, stood up, and jumped to slap Yi Jianlian on the shoulder.

"Trust me, bro—what I say, I'll do."

Sun Hao's face was full of confidence.

An unnamed great man once said that there is no road in the world to begin with, but when many people walk it, a road appears.

He used to find those words strange, but now that he thought about it, wasn't a road just something people made by walking?

He would always find his own path.

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