Champions Creed

Chapter 5 005: Invitational Tournament
Lu An works at a car repair shop during the day, and works the night shift at a 24-hour convenience store three days a week.

He worked the night shift at a convenience store yesterday and didn't go home, and then had to rush to the auto repair shop this morning.

Although he took some time to lie down and sleep for a while last night, Lu An still felt a splitting headache.

I don’t know if men’s sexual ability declines with age, but their ability to stay up late does decline significantly.

But no matter how hard life is, Lu An feels that there is hope.

He firmly believed that as long as he could support Roger to finish college, life would gradually get better.

Lu An himself has no children or wife, and he has always treated Roger as his own son.

To Roger, his uncle is his only relative in this world. To Lu An, isn’t Roger also his only relative?

In a foreign country, we depend on each other for survival.

On the way to work, Lu An passed by an alley.

He stood at the entrance of the alley and hesitated for a while, as if he was having a great psychological struggle.

Finally, he stepped into the alley. There was no other way. In the hard life, sometimes you have to rely on this thing to relieve stress.

Lu An knocked on a rusty iron door. A black man opened the door a little, poked his shiny bald head out and looked around furtively. Finally, he stared at Lu An and asked, "You want the goods?"

Lu An's expression was serious: "There is something wrong with the goods."

"what is the problem?"

"I bought a pair of second-hand jeans yesterday, and when I got them back I found a small hole on the back! Give me your money back!"

"Brother, you chopped me off for a five-dollar item, and now you want me to give you my money back? How about I just give it to you for free?"

"That's what you said. Give me back the three dollars, and I don't want the pants anymore."

"You" the bald guy wanted to refute, but in the end he still obediently returned the money to Lu An, because this guy was too stingy and nagging!

Yesterday, the bald guy gave Lu An a discount with tears in his eyes just because he couldn't stand his nagging for half an hour, just to have some peace and quiet.

It was only six o'clock in the morning, and the sleepy Lao Hei didn't want to listen to Lu An's nagging for three dollars.

Lu An took the money and handed the torn pants to Lao Hei: "Hey, honest transaction, I will buy from you next time."

Lao Hei pushed the pants back and said, "I'll give you my money back and the pants as a gift. Don't come next time. Please forgive me, sir. I'm just a second-hand clothes seller. Why should I suffer like this?!"

With a "bang", Lao Hei closed the iron door.

Lu An looked at the free jeans and the three dollars he got back, and smiled happily.

In the hard life, sometimes we have to rely on saving money to relieve stress.

At noon, Lu An had a break. With his face covered in oil, he put down the wrench, took off his white gloves that had lost their original color, picked up the takeaway and prepared to enjoy the rare ten minutes of leisure time in the day.

Just as he picked up the hamburger, a colleague from the repair shop named Eric came up and tapped Lu An on the arm with a newspaper: "Lu, this guy in the newspaper seems to be your nephew, right?"

Lu An was startled and quickly snatched the newspaper. He thought he would see some news about "Asian high school students being shot."

In the 20s in the United States, there were more five-star citizens than stray cats on the streets, so it was not surprising that Lu An had this first reaction.

But when he took the newspaper, the news on it was a hundred times more outrageous than the shooting.

Lu An knows basketball, so he knows very well how outrageous it is that Roger scored 8 points more than the entire school team combined.

If this news had not been published in the newspaper, he would never have believed it.

While Lu An was stunned, his colleague named Eric joked with him: "One day when your nephew plays in the NBA, you won't have to stay up late and work two jobs anymore, hahahaha."

Lu An started to smile foolishly. Playing in the NBA? He didn't even dare to think about it.

This past summer in Barcelona, ​​the world saw just how outrageous NBA players can be.

And there are less than 500 people who can play in this outrageous league.

There are countless high school basketball talents in the United States every year, but only a few of them can eventually make a living in the NBA.

The greatest high school player in the history of the small town of Jonesville, Roger's senior, Owen Johnson Jr., only made it to the NCAA Division I league.

So NBA? Lu An had never thought about it. But maybe Roger could really get a college offer through basketball!

Happy Lu An then read the report about Roger in the Jonesville Observer over and over again. However, even Lu An didn't pay attention to Roger's last sentence: "I want to set a small goal first - to become the best scorer in the United States."

It seemed that everyone thought this was just a joke.

No one could have imagined that this was the beginning of a change in American high school basketball.

Andy Lee is very sad today.

Because the art film world lost a rising star yesterday!
The actresses lost an excellent partner!

Ever since the Jonesville Observer reported yesterday's practice match, everyone in Jonesville has been talking about Roger.

In just 20 minutes of training, he was able to score 38 points, which was more than the total score of all the players in the team. The most incredible thing was that before this game, Roger was still a weakling who was ridiculed by the whole school.

This drama of the ugly duckling turning into a white swan will never be out of date in any era.

Even in 2024, a movie about an ugly duckling turning into a white swan with the theme of "weight loss and transformation" can gross over 30 billion yuan at the box office.

It's no wonder Roger is so popular.

At noon, when Li Andy and Roger went to the cafeteria to eat together, they saw many girls took the initiative to give Roger their phone numbers and invite him to their parties.

As Asians, Andy Li and Roger are almost invisible in school, and no girls would take the initiative to talk to them.

Today was the first time that Andy Li experienced the feeling of being the center of attention.

But what made him sad was that his good brother actually rejected all the girls’ invitations!
After the two of them sat down with their meals, Li Andy looked at the girls who were rejected and sighed, "Brother, being picky about food is not good for your physical development!"

Roger looked confused: "I'm not picky about food?"

"You still say you're not picky about food? Those girls just now may not be as good as the older sisters in magazines, but you can't judge a person by size! People need to communicate deeply to understand each other! We need to try it out to know if we're compatible!"

Roger rolled his eyes at Li Andy and said, "The autumn hairy crabs don't care about you as much as you do!"
It's not that Roger is out of touch with the world, but he just sneers at the so-called "party culture" in the United States.

Why does the United States have a party culture? Because people are afraid to go out at night. Going out to drink and eat barbecue late at night is considered an extreme sport in the United States.

If you don’t dare to go out at night, how can you kill the boring and long night? The answer is to have a party!

A bunch of young people with hormones that have nowhere to go get together to drink and play games. After getting drunk, if they fall in love with someone of the opposite sex, they will drag him/her into the room to have sex with him/her. The rest of the ugly ones will play games outside.

This is the most authentic American party, decadent, depraved and chaotic.

Roger is now heading towards the professional basketball world, so he doesn't want to get involved in alcohol or leaves. Without these two things, you can only sit there at the party.

As for things like unity and harmony, Roger prefers something more mature.

It's really hard to bring myself to touch a skinny teenager with freckles all over his face.

Besides, Roger, who has just acquired top basketball talent, still has a lot of things to do and no time to waste.

Roger was indeed famous, but only temporarily in the small town of Jonesville. In today's high school basketball world, people are paying attention to Jerry Stackhouse from Oak Hill High School and Rasheed Wallace from Simon Gratz High School.

When it comes to Louisiana, everyone focuses on Randy Livingston, the top-ranked high school student in the United States.

Roger had not yet made a name for himself nationwide, and was virtually unknown even in Louisiana.

So, Roger now has two most important goals.

First, he wanted to make a name for himself as quickly as possible in his senior year so that more people would pay attention to him. If possible, Roger didn't even want to play in the NCAA, he wanted to go straight into the league!
It is difficult to convince a man who was poor in his previous life and whose mental age is almost 30 to play student basketball while shouting slogans like "dominate the country".

Roger had no desire for college basketball.

He is a layman, and if he could enter the draft directly as a high school student and get a lottery prospect, Roger would skip college and get a million-dollar contract in the NBA without hesitation.

Unless there is really no hope in the lottery, he will choose to use the NCAA as a stepping stone.

Moreover, in this era, the salary and contract length of rookies were not fixed, so the higher the draft pick, the higher the salary. Take the 93 draft that Roger was going to participate in as an example. Webber signed a 15-year, $7400 million contract with the Warriors, while Hardaway signed a 9-year, $7200 million contract with the Magic after playing for one year.

From this perspective, the salary of the third pick Hardaway is actually higher than that of the first pick Webber.

Therefore, there is no need for Roger to go to college to play basketball in order to improve his draft position. As long as he has lottery prospects, the salary can be negotiated.

Secondly, Roger knew very well that he needed to continue to become stronger so that when the opportunity came, he could firmly grasp it.

Although he has the talent of George Gervin, it does not mean that Roger can just sit back and relax.

There are many examples in NBA history of players with great talents but ultimately wasted. Talent only gives you a very high possibility. Whether you can ultimately turn the possibility into reality depends on yourself.

The famous e-sports player Ben Simmons has extremely high talent, but it is difficult for him to even get on the court, let alone his ceiling.

The first time Roger misjudged someone in his life was with Thunder Hand Wen Tailai, and the second time was with Simmons.

He really didn't expect that the talented West Emperor's career would be like that.

And Roger never wants to be a negative example like Simmons.

Now, what Roger needs most is physical training to make himself stronger.

At this stage, I am just like George Gervin in real life, too thin and at a disadvantage in confrontations.

If you want to achieve success in higher-level competitions, this body is definitely not enough.

Becoming famous and becoming stronger were Roger's most important goals at the moment. Party? Where was the time for that?

Just then, Roger saw an advertisement on the TV in the cafeteria.

In the ad, a strong and tall man is holding a basketball and showing off his various skills. At the end, he faces the camera, showing his white teeth, and hooks his finger at the audience in front of the screen: "Don't miss the Sunshine Classic held in Baton Rouge, Louisiana this year."

The Sunshine Classic is a long-established high school invitational tournament, and it seems that O'Neal has become the spokesperson for the event this year.

O'Neal spent his college years in Louisiana. As he became the No. 1 pick in this year's draft, his popularity has reached an unprecedented height, so it is not surprising that he can accept this kind of endorsement.

Roger looked at the advertisement for this event and was eager to try it. For high school and college players to become famous, it is not enough to rely on the league alone.

This is especially true for high school players, because there are many divisions in the high school league, and the level is uneven. Take Louisiana as an example, 10 state champions can be decided in a season. And these 10 state champions will not play against each other.

So how do you judge whether a player is really talented or just a mediocre player? The answer is simple: just look at how he performs in high-level invitational tournaments and training camps.

Roger still remembers that in 2009, Jordan Crawford, then a sophomore, became famous overnight because he dunked over James at the Nike training camp.

But Crawford could never have imagined that the great King and his team would confiscate all the videos related to that dunk.

Is it that LeBron can't afford to lose? No, James has only played for three teams in his career, and the fact that he rarely changes teams shows that he is not the kind of person who can't afford to lose.

James must have been afraid that Crawford would be too proud, so he took such good care to block the video.

In short, this kind of training camp or invitational tournament organized and participated by star players plays a big role in increasing the fame of student players.

If Roger can show his skills in this Sunshine Classic, he will definitely make a name for himself quickly.

Unfortunately, the Sunshine Classic usually only invites some strong teams to participate. Bullock High School, which only won three games last season, is definitely not included.

However, during the afternoon training, Coach Hawke brought an unexpected news: "We have received an invitation to the Sunshine Classic next week! Cheer up, guys, this is a great opportunity to play against a high-level team from all over the country!"

Hawke was passionate, but the players were lifeless.

A good opportunity to play against a high-level team? A good opportunity to be beaten by a high-level team.

Judging from the team strength alone, Bullock High School is indeed not qualified to participate.

The tournament organizers invited the team because Andre had a Division I prospect and Bullock High School was a local team in Louisiana.

Therefore, Brock High School is considered a tool team that is inserted into the competition to increase local popularity.

Other teams went there to demonstrate their strength, and Bullock High School was there to be demonstrated its strength.

All the players were dejected. After all, who wants to embarrass themselves in such a big competition?

But Roger was eager to try.

Here's your chance to become famous!
After school, Roger returned home excitedly. As soon as he opened the door, he saw his uncle busy in the kitchen.

When Lu An heard Roger open the door, he turned his head happily and said, "Nephew, look at the gift I gave you on the table!"

"Gifts? Why buy gifts when it's not a holiday?" Roger said as he walked towards the dining table.

There is a shoe box on the dining table.

Roger opened the shoe box and found a pair of brand new Jordan VI sneakers inside!

This is definitely not cheap for an uncle with a meager salary.

Moreover, Roger's memory told him that Lu An was a contestant who could bargain with others for half an hour for two dollars.

As a result, he just bought such expensive sneakers when he said so?
At this time, Lu An had just brought the food to the table. Compared to usual times, today's dishes were obviously much richer.

Then, he took out a bottle of wine from the cupboard, sat down with a smile, and poured himself a glass:
"Try them on quickly. Your old pair of basketball shoes are out of shape. Don't get hurt because of this."

Roger looked at the expensive sneakers, a little surprised.

Then he spotted the Jonesville Observer on the dining table.

Yesterday, because Lu An went to work the night shift at the convenience store and did not go home, Roger did not have the chance to tell him the news that he had successfully joined the basketball team.

But now it seems that my uncle already knows everything.

"What are you standing there for? Try on your shoes quickly, then sit down and eat."

"Uncle, these shoes cost a lot."

"Don't ask about social affairs. Just play your ball and study hard, and don't worry about other things. Oh, don't throw away your old shoes. Keep them for me. Also, I was joking when I said I would find you an aunt if you could join the school team."

After that, Lu An raised his head and drank a glass of wine happily: "Anyway, congratulations on joining the school basketball team, do your best!"

Roger looked at his uncle, who had dark circles under his eyes and a receding hairline from staying up late, and who normally dunked like a dunk but bought him a pair of new sneakers without hesitation, and smiled slightly.

In the upcoming Sunshine Classic, he must make this pair of sneakers worth the money!
(End of this chapter)