One Year Left to Play

The Lakers opened with a four-game winning streak, and the topic of winning in itself is not as attractive as the suspenseful scores they played against everyone.

In everyone’s view, winning is expected, and losing is the real news.

At noon, the NBA officially announced the Player of the Week for the first week. Zhang Hao, with an average of 32.2 points per game, a high shooting percentage of 13.3 out of 23 shots per game, and a record of 4 wins and 0 losses, beat Scottie Pippen and Stockton to win the Player of the Week for the first week.

And this, before the Lakers played against the Phoenix Suns yesterday, the media were already predicting that as long as the Lakers won against the Suns, Zhang Hao would be a lock, because the Bulls and the Utah Jazz only played 3 games in the first week.

This year there is a change that neither the media nor the fans have noticed.

Zhang Hao put up a 28+8+4+4 game performance, in last season, or put on any other sophomore player this season, it would have been singled out for coverage by the mainstream media and discussed by the fans.

But this year, such a performance is no longer enough for people to discuss his personal performance, because they feel this is the performance he should have, and more attention is still on the topic of the Lakers’ "industry conscience."

Winning the Player of the Week made headlines and sparked discussions, but no one doubted Zhang Hao receiving the Player of the Week anymore.

This change is like people seeing Jordan score over 30 and the Bulls winning, which for a player, is definitely regarded as glory.

Anyway, in Garnett’s view, this is the treatment he wanted.

Arriving in Inglewood Town, looking at the poster above the Great Western Forum entrance, Garnett felt a bit distressed—back then, when they were both chosen in the top ten picks, they said they would meet properly in the NBA, but this guy became an All-Star early, made First Team, while he, Garnett, is still slowly working his way up!

However, this year Garnett also played at an All-Star level!

In the first 4 games, he delivered an average performance of 20.2 points, 10 rebounds, 2.8 assists, 1.2 steals, and 2.2 blocks per game!

But compared to Zhang Hao’s performance of averaging 32.2 points, 9.3 rebounds, 2.5 assists, and 2.7 blocks per game...

During the draft, their Minnesota Timberwolves selected Ray Allen and traded him for Marbury, signed Dean Garrett, the 1988 second-round pick, and successfully renewed veteran players Doug West and Sam Mitchell...

A series of quite good moves made Garnett very confident and excited to make a playoff push starting in his sophomore year.

At that time, he chose to temporarily forget the bug among the players of the same class, Zhang Hao.

But Zhang Hao is like a haunting specter, his Lakers, after acquiring Barkley, signed O’Neal, and traded for Kenny Anderson...

The entire summer, the basketball news Garnett saw was only about the Lakers.

Even though Zhang Hao seldom appeared in public during the offseason, there was news about him shooting TV dramas...

Garnett accepted it; he couldn’t compete with a large city, so he hoped his personal progress could compare with Zhang Hao and trusted that his summer advancement would at least allow him to catch up with Zhang Hao in terms of personal capability.

Then, Zhang Hao’s opening three-game scoring was even higher than Jordan’s.

Unbelievable!

Yesterday Garnett came to Los Angeles with the Minnesota Timberwolves, and last night he secretly watched the Lakers’ game from the corner. The Phoenix Suns showed playoff-level strength during regular play, but in the crucial fourth quarter, Zhang Hao stood out, using defense and distraction to help the Lakers secure the victory...

Garnett stared at the far left of the Lakers’ poster where Zhang Hao was for quite a while. Then, he called Marbury to leave together, have lunch, and come back to play in the afternoon.

He found Marbury missing!

Looked at the big gold watch on his wrist—wasn’t it just standing here for 10 minutes? Wasn’t it like yesterday when he stood here for ten or twenty minutes? So he left his teammate and ran off?

Garnett was very upset, and soon enough, he realized he was upset too early...

Just over ten minutes ago, Marbury came out of the arena door, and now he walked out again pulling someone along. Although that person showed no expression, it was clear that the person was not particularly willing to come out.

Marbury pulled Zhang Hao beside Garnett: "Forget the nutrients and naps; let’s go have lunch together! Can you seriously eat that nutrition stuff? You really changed the whole person since you joined the NBA and became so cold, just like Kevin said..."

Zhang Hao glanced at Garnett who spoke ill of him behind his back and replied calmly: "Used to it."

Garnett was unnerved by Zhang Hao’s gaze, for a moment, he felt a little panicked, as speaking ill behind someone’s back... Wait a minute, Garnett felt he was merely stating a fact! Why did he feel guilty?

However, Zhang Hao didn’t refuse, and without Marbury pulling him along, he followed them.

"Our 95 class genius high school group hasn’t gathered for a long time, over the past year we haven’t had the opportunity to meet," Marbury said with a sentimental tone.

Garnett also remembered back in May last year...

Zhang Hao coolly interjected: "Who told you to go to college?"

"Oh, you think I didn’t want to graduate high school like you all and earn all that money? But now I made it to the NBA, Raheem is in the NBA too, Carter and Jamison are still in college, Kobe I thought would go straight to the NBA, but turns out he went to Duke..." Marbury also started his ramble.

Hearing these names, Zhang Hao also had some feelings, as if the training camp before graduating high school just happened yesterday.

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