A Real-Life Shawshank Redemption

Chapter 5: Real-Life The Shawshank Redemption

After returning from the Hongyuan Youth Team, Sun Hao kept turning over every possibility in his mind.

In the end, he chose the dumbest method, but also the only one that might succeed right now: writing letters.

He looked up contact information for NCAA schools online, picked one—Sierra Canyon School—and persisted in writing to them.

The content of each letter was simple: he hoped they would send a scout to China to watch him play.

This approach seemed foolish, but it wasn't impossible—in fact, the odds weren't even that small.

For one thing, Sierra Canyon School, as a Los Angeles high school, was relatively open to overseas players.

UCLA, which had recruited Ma Jian back in the day, was also a well-known university in Los Angeles.

For another, anyone who'd seen the movie The Shawshank Redemption would know that the protagonist Andy wrote to the governor nonstop year-round, and after six years, he finally secured a substantial budget to build a library for his prison.

On top of that, Sun Hao's system wasn't like those instant-cheat systems; it needed time to show results.

So over the next year or two, besides persisting with his letters, he had to keep training inside the system.

Since he could enter the system anytime, anywhere, sticking to training was entirely achievable.

Opportunities favor those who are prepared.

If his letters finally paid off and a scout came to China to watch him play, and he performed well enough to impress them, then entering an American high school would be a natural progression.

He'd already coasted through his last life, and with the sting from Li Yuanwei and Yang Wei, he wasn't short on motivation.

With a plan, a goal, and even the drive, all that was left was persistence.

Just like how running feels exhausting at first, but after a while, it becomes easy.

This was a process of overcoming both body and mind.

At first, Sun Hao also found it exhausting, not worth it, unnecessary—why not just muddle through like in his past life?

As a transmigrator, making money was relatively easy.

But every time he thought of Yang Wei's smug face and Li Yuanwei's attitude, he gritted his teeth and pushed through.

Sometimes, living was just about that one breath of pride!

All things are hard in the beginning. Once he gritted his teeth and got through the initial period, Sun Hao gradually adapted.

In fact, if he missed a day of training in the system, he'd feel restless all over.

Frostbitten eggplant, spring blossoms, frostbitten eggplant again, everything revives...

In the blink of an eye, two years passed.

Yi Jianlian was still in middle school, but Sun Hao had already finished his junior high years and become a local high school student.

He didn't slack on his studies, and his height had shot up to 1.60 meters in those two years.

Kids at this age are in a growth spurt, and while it was a bit fast, it wasn't outside the realm of science.

Well-known players like Jeremy Lin and McCollum had also experienced growth spurts of 10 centimeters or more in a single year.

Of course, after two years of training, he hadn't just grown taller—his entire physique had improved, from strength to jumping ability to ball-handling and shooting.

With a 1:2 time ratio, two real years equaled four years of professional training in the system.

To put it vividly, aside from his height, his abilities in other areas were already close to CBA player standards.

And what they called CBA-level meant being like Jordan in amateur games.

After entering high school, he smoothly joined the school team and led them all the way to the Guangdong Provincial High School League finals.

He averaged over 20 points per game.

That scoring wasn't particularly eye-catching.

Not because he wasn't strong enough, but because he was too strong—he'd basically put the game away by halftime, crushing the opponent.

Even so, none of the CBA youth teams, including the Hongyuan Team, had extended him an invitation.

An obvious established fact: they all firmly believed in bone age testing and were convinced that as the big guys kept getting taller, Sun Hao's advantages would keep shrinking.

But Sun Hao didn't care about any of that.

What he truly cared about was tonight's final.

After persisting in writing letters for two years, Sierra Canyon School was finally moved by his determination and sent a scout to watch his game live.

In other words, how he played tonight might very well determine whether he could eventually go play in an American high school.

He had to seize this chance!

Guangdong Province's basketball atmosphere was second to none in the country, and tonight's final drew huge attention. The three-thousand-seat arena was packed.

Sun Hao swept his gaze across the venue and immediately spotted the American scout near the back of the stands.

Even from a distance, he picked him out in the crowd.

After all, in this era, there weren't that many Americans in China.

What's more, when Sun Hao looked at Smith, Smith was also looking back at him.

But unlike the burning, eager fire in Sun Hao's eyes, Smith's gaze carried mostly helplessness.

The NBA was in an era dominated by centers, and the whole country was very interested in tall overseas players.

Ma Jian's being scouted back then was closely tied to that.

But guards... that was a completely different extreme.

The U.S. already had a glut of its own guards, each one more explosive than the last, so they had little interest in overseas players.

Let alone a Yellow Race guard.

Yellow Race guards were notoriously weak in physical confrontation and fundamentals.

To be precise, they didn't believe any Yellow Race guard could play in the NBA.

The only reason they sent him to China was because this kid named Sun Hao was just too persistent.

Every single day, a letter crossed the ocean to their school mailbox. By now, not even the security guard—even the principal's lover—knew who Sun Hao was.

The Shawshank Redemption had only been released in the U.S. the year before and caused a sensation, and then, wouldn't you know it, a real-life version showed up the very next year.

And he kept writing for two whole years.

So the school finally sent him.

From the occasional videotapes he'd seen before, Sun Hao's talent seemed average, so Smith just treated it as a vacation trip.

After the opening ceremony, both teams' starters took the court one by one.

Cheers rang out from the stands.

Student basketball—no matter the country—always had a great atmosphere.

Amid the crowd's cheers, the game quickly got underway.

Sun Hao played Point Guard, and he started showing off right away.

In school-level basketball games, when someone's individual skill far surpasses everyone else, the game becomes all about that one player.

Sun Hao was no exception. He faked out his defender and sank a three-pointer right off the bat.

The atmosphere in the arena ignited from the very start.

In the stands, Smith blinked his sleepy eyes—whether from jet lag or boredom—and turned his gaze to the court.

Sun Hao's shooting looked pretty good.

But that wasn't the only surprise.

Right after that three, Sun Hao turned around and made a steal after a hard physical confrontation, then finished a fast-break layup.

And on the next possession, with his 1.6-meter body, he actually fought for an offensive rebound and scored on the putback!

From the opening tip, Sun Hao had already scored 7 straight points!

Smith's expression turned a bit more serious now.

Not because of how many points Sun Hao had scored.

In a game at this level, even dropping thirty or forty points didn't mean much.

It was because Sun Hao was showing a level of physicality completely beyond his peers.

That was rare among the Yellow Race, especially at this age.

He could shoot, he could hold his ground in contact—Sun Hao's confidence in persistently writing to Sierra Canyon School had real backing!

Just as he thought that, Sun Hao rotated on defense, Leapt Up, and actually blocked his opponent's shot clean!

This kid could really jump!

Seeing this, Smith Suddenly Felt that giving Sun Hao a chance might not be a bad idea.

In previous games, Sun Hao would coast once the score got out of hand, but tonight, with a scout in the stands, he went all out.

He laid out every bit of his ability.

Scoring, steals, rebounds, assists, even blocks and defense—he handled everything.

He completely dominated the game.

He was the sole focus of the entire arena.

As conspicuous as an exclamation mark magnified a hundred times.

In the end, he exploded for 50 points, 8 rebounds, 6 steals, 5 assists, and 3 blocks, leading his team to a 72–47 blowout victory and winning the provincial league championship.

He also took home the league's Most Valuable Player award.

As he held up the MVP trophy, Sun Hao caught sight of Smith applauding him from the stands, and he knew things were all but settled.

At that moment, his heart surged with indescribable excitement.

Two years of effort had finally paid off!

After celebrating with his teammates, Sun Hao returned to the Locker Room.

He was waiting for the scout from Sierra Canyon School to come find him.

But before the scout arrived, Yi Jianlian showed up first.

He came in with a big hug that nearly knocked him flat on his back.

Yi Jianlian looked even more excited than he was.

Ever since he started high school, the two of them had seen each other less often, and this time it had been two months.

"You've gotten taller."

"You're taller too, and stronger."

They repeated the same exchange they'd had every time they'd met over the past two years.

Yi Jianlian kept getting taller, already closing in on 1.9 meters.

Although Sun Hao was still nearly a head shorter than Yi Jianlian, he had grown to 1.6 meters and, just as Yi Jianlian said, gotten much stronger.

"You can definitely go pro. How about I talk to the coach? Not the youth team this time—I've already moved up to the second team."

Yi Jianlian couldn't help but speak up.

Even though two years had passed since the tryout, he still hadn't given up on the chance to play pro ball with Sun Hao.

Sun Hao smiled and waved his hand.

Setting aside the fact that the CBA still used height as a selection threshold, having been rejected once, he wasn't about to go crawling back a second time.

If the CBA wasn't coming to him, it meant their opinion of him was still the same as it had been at the tryout. There was no point in making a fool of himself.

Besides, the CBA wasn't his goal anymore.

Seeing Sun Hao refuse, Yi Jianlian could only shake his head helplessly.

After seeing Yi Jianlian off, it wasn't long before Smith came into the locker room.

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