On April 6, 2008, the second semifinal of the "Nal Four" battle was in full swing. The two teams were the University of Kansas Jayhawks and the University of North Carolina basketball team.

The venue was filled with fans from both sides who came to watch the game. In addition, as the semi-finals of the semi-finals, many professional scouts from NBA teams and some team managers were also among them, who were preparing for their own teams.

The team is looking for potential players, because many players from both teams participating in the game will participate in the NBA draft this summer or in the next few years.

At this time, the game has entered the second half, and it is less than 3 minutes from the end. The score on the field is that Kansas leads North Carolina by 17 points. In the NCAA, where the attack time is 35 seconds, in the remaining time, as the lagging side

If North Carolina wants to make a comeback, the possibility is infinitely close to 0.

——The game has entered garbage time. This can be seen from the fact that North Carolina coach Roy Williams began to withdraw his main players. The outcome of the game has been decided. Even if his main players are on the court, there is no possibility of regaining the score.

Kansas also came on the bench, and coach Bill Self tacitly agreed to withdraw the main players. Unlike today's opponents, they still had one game left, and that game was the last game of this year's "March Madness."

game.

Garbage time ended quickly. As the final buzzer sounded, the University of Kansas Jayhawks players cheered and celebrated with excitement. This game, which was considered to be a close match before the game, unexpectedly ended in a one-sided situation.

In the locker room, the players of the University of Kansas Jayhawks cheered excitedly and celebrated the victory of this game. They finally won and could advance to the finals. Their opponent in the finals was Memphis, led by talented guard Derrick Rose.

College Tigers.

In another semifinal before this game, the University of Memphis Tigers defeated the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) 78:63.

In the locker room of the University of Kansas Jayhawks, the joy of winning was overflowing at this time. Among the players celebrating the victory, there was a player with yellow skin and black hair who looked a little different.

The reason why this person looks different is, firstly, because of his skin color, he is the only yellow person in this team; secondly, because although he seems very happy, his eyes are somewhat lonely and sentimental.

In this team's victory over the opponent, this yellow man came off the bench for 19 minutes and made 2 of 7 shots, including 0 of 3 3-pointers, and 3 of 3 free throws. He scored 7 points, 4 rebounds, and 3 assists.

3 steals and 3 turnovers. At first glance, as a substitute, except for his lower shooting percentage and more turnovers, his performance can be considered comprehensive. But the reality is that of his total 7 points, including

4 points were scored in garbage time...

In fact, his presence in this game was very low. The two North Carolina defenders he faced, Wayne Ellington and Danny Green, both contributed double-digit scores. In the second half, due to

With his strikes and mistakes, Kansas was beaten to a climax by the opponent and almost overturned.

Therefore, even if the coach and teammates didn't say anything, it was an extremely difficult thing for him to accept because of his extremely high self-esteem.

With mixed emotions, he walked out of the arena with his bag on his back and got on the bus back to the team. He took out his mobile phone and saw two missed calls, both from the same person.

He called back, and soon, a slightly hoarse male voice came from the other end of the phone: "Kane, my good brother, congratulations on entering the finals!"

"Thank you, Russell, I... played well today... well, I will definitely perform well in the finals to avenge you!"

"Well, help me fix Memphis properly. I'm waiting for your good news, brother!"

After hanging up the phone, he slowly closed his eyes and leaned back on the chair to relax. Suddenly, a text message alert sounded - he opened his eyes, turned on his phone, and checked the text messages.

The person who sent the text message was his girlfriend - Zhou Jing. The content of the text message was also very simple, with less than 10 words - thank you and have a good fight.

The young man named "Xie Kai" smiled bitterly and immediately replied - a must!

After replying to the message, Xie Kai casually browsed the news and forums. Many of the news about their game against North Carolina had been posted to mainstream sports websites. On the forum, fans of the two teams were having an "overtime match".

"The debate was so fierce that people can still feel the tension of the semi-finals.

There is not much news about him. He is not the core of the team, and he is not even a starter. Moreover, his performance in this game is sluggish, and the reporters who write articles will not write about him in particular.

But there is still some news about him. After all, as the only yellow person in the two teams, his skin color is naturally topical. However, most of the news about him is negative.

Xie Kai saw the title of one of the news articles - "Don't let Kane?

The team's main rotation can do nothing but hold back the main force. The article also wrote at the end: "If Kansas wants to win the championship, it needs to reduce Kane Shay's playing time. The yellow-skinned defender has never been

Unable to perform well in top competitions!”

Although Xie Kai knew that some reporters would have no bottom line when writing articles in order to attract attention, he was still a little unhappy. His performance in this game was indeed not good, but he could not completely deny a person just because of his poor performance in a game.

.

Xie turned off the news page, opened the forum, and saw that many fans were talking about him in the University of Kansas forum. The focus of the discussion among the fans was Xie Kai and Sasha Cowan, two foreign players who are the team's main rotation.

Whether they can be relied upon in the finals. Fans unanimously agree that if the game really gets passive, the playing time should be reduced or even not given to these two players, especially Xie Kai.

Seeing this, Xie Kai turned off the screen of his mobile phone angrily, not to look at these messy things. He didn't like to be looked down upon, but he knew that he couldn't control other people's thoughts. What he could do,

Just show good performance and shut up those who look down on you and those who try to laugh at you!

…

At night, Xie Kai lay on the hotel bed, unable to sleep for a long time. His teammate Brandon Rush, who was in the same room with him, contributed a game-high 25 points in this game and became one of the major contributors to the team's victory.

At that time, he was lying on the bed, sleeping soundly, and the sound of snoring came, which seemed particularly loud in this quiet room.

Xie Kai couldn't sleep, and he was thinking about his future. The current situation is that his University of Kansas Jayhawks have advanced to the finals of this year's NCAA Final Four. Regardless of the final result of the finals, they can at least win

Runner-up. And he himself can also become a runner-up or even one of the champions.

For many players on the teams participating in the NCAA tournament, having the opportunity to become a member of the championship team is such a proud thing! But for Xie Kai, although this is a huge team honor, it is not

Become the golden key to achieve his goals.

——Because his goal is to enter the NBA!

There are thousands of basketball players in the NCAA, but there are only 60 spots selected by the NBA every year. Not all of these 60 spots are allocated to NCAA players, as well as international players who are over 19 years old.

Year-old high school players, etc.

Under such circumstances, it is not easy for an NCAA basketball player to be selected by an NBA team. Not to mention Xie Kai, a yellow man who is not even a top player in the NCAA.

This is already Xie Kai's second NCAA season. In his freshman year, he served as the team's water cooler keeper, and his playing time was extremely sparse.

The main rotation of the game, he averaged 20.8 minutes of playing time per game, averaging 9.1 points, 4.2 rebounds, 2.9 assists, 1 steal and 0.5 blocks per game, with a shooting percentage of 45% and a 3-point shooting percentage of 38%.

With such data, even if you have an NCAA champion, it will be extremely difficult to be selected in the draft. Not only are the data not outstanding, but Xie Kai, as a yellow man, has average physical fitness and does not seem to have great potential.

Therefore, it is not easy to become a "lottery player" in the draft.

Xie Kai plans to participate in the NBA draft this year. He knows very well that as a sophomore, if he cannot be selected this year, even if his junior or senior statistics are better than this year, his chances of entering the NBA will not be better than this year.

high.

In today's NBA, what teams value more when selecting players is the talent and potential of young players. How many senior players with excellent immediate combat ability are completely eliminated in the draft by freshman players with rough skills but full of talent?

Suppressed, many can only be selected in the second round, and some even lose the draft.

There are very few young players with overflowing talent who will play in the NCAA for four years in college. Kevin Durant before him and Carmelo Anthony who is further away all joined the NBA after their freshman year.

Draft. When high school students could still participate in the draft, high school students such as Kobe Bryant and LeBron James even skipped the NBA draft.

Become famous as early as possible! Basketball is a sport that feeds youth. For those talented young people, if they enter the NBA league early, they can earn a lot of dollars early.

Xie Kai has no talent visible to the naked eye, and his fighting ability is not top-notch. But entering the NBA is his dream and his pursuit of more than ten years of basketball career. Before this door is completely closed to him, he hopes to work hard.

Go get a chance to play in the NBA.

Since March Madness, Xie Kai's performance has not been very satisfactory. As one of the team's main offensive points on the outside, he has exposed high-intensity physical confrontation in a cruel and fierce competition such as a single knockout match.

Insufficient shortcomings. In recent games, this shortcoming has been magnified.

It is foreseeable that if his performance in the next finals is like the last few games, then the possibility of him being selected in the draft in June will become very small.

The NBA has never been optimistic about the talent and potential of yellow people. In the absence of real data, Xie Kai really has no choice but to be favored by those NBA teams.
Chapter completed!