No.1 in basketball scoring-Chapter 882 - 378. Little Duncan: Honest advice is hard to hear!

Harden: "Jack, you don’t like the nickname ’Tiger’? It suits your team well, tigers and housecats are both felines, but tigers are way more imposing."

Zhang Yang: "I really like the nickname, but comparing our performance tonight to that Kings team, personally, as a player, I find it embarrassing. At least for now, we’re not worthy. If it were that Kings team, I think they could get 70 wins in the East this season."

Harden: "I think in the future, you’ll be even better than that Kings team. My coach has commented on you, saying you’re talking dreams in the world of capital, and you have enough potential. Keep at it, and you’ll definitely become a great team."

Zhang Yang: "Roy thinks so highly of us? What an honor!"

Roy Williams, 58 years old, legendary active NCAA coach, assistant during Larry Brown’s college coaching era.

In 1988, after Larry Brown led the Kansas Jayhawks to a championship and left college basketball, Roy Williams took over the Kansas Jayhawks at just 38 years old. At that time, the University of Kansas not only lost Larry Brown but also multiple senior core players graduated, led by Danny Manning. Public opinion at the time thought Roy Williams was just a temporary transition coach, but within a year, he led the Kansas Jayhawks back to March Madness, making it consecutively for 14 years, reaching the Final Eight ten times, the Final Four four times, and twice to the finals, though luck was not on their side, missing a championship, especially losing unexpectedly in ’03 to Syracuse University led by Anthony.

In ’03, Roy Williams’ contract with the University of Kansas expired. North Carolina brought him over with a staggering six-year, $48 million contract, breaking the North American basketball coach salary record at the time. The highest NBA contract then was Phil Jackson’s $30 million over five years, later surpassed in ’05 by the million-dollar salary the Knicks gave Larry Brown.

Currently, the highest-paid basketball coach in North America is Phil Jackson of the Lakers, with a salary of $12 million a year, followed by Duke’s Coach K with a seven-year, $65 million contract. Larry Brown, who was laid off by the Knicks, is currently in litigation with his old team over unpaid wages, and if counted, he’d be the second-highest.

Popovich and Pat Riley are also rumored to have salaries over ten million, but Popovich’s main role with the Spurs is actually as the Executive Vice President, and Pat Riley is the General Manager of the Miami Heat, generally not counted in salary rankings.

When Roy Williams took over at North Carolina, the team had failed to make March Madness for two consecutive years, during the downturn period after Carter and Jamison left college. Roy Williams joined and immediately set things right, leading the team back to March Madness in the first year, and with the ’North Carolina Four Freshmen,’ they won the championship and became renowned nationwide in the second year. Including this year’s championship, Roy Williams has led the team to two championships in five years. Except for Harden, who chose to leave college early for the draft, the other three of the ’New North Carolina Four Freshmen’ decided to stay another year, making them championship favorites next season.

To receive praise from such a legendary college coach, Zhang Yang was indeed pleased.

After browsing some news and chatting for a while, Zhang Yang went back to his room to take a shower and sleep.

Harden and the Tatum brothers went to the game room to continue playing video games.

The next morning, Tyronn Lue came to pick up the Tatum brothers. Older brother Carmelo went back to school; he’d skipped classes for more than half a month and needed to return to study before next month’s exams to avoid failing. It’s time for some last-minute cramming.

Younger brother Jason went to stay at Coach Lue’s house.

Double Harden said goodbye to Zhang Yang at the airport, happily dragging the top-spec laptop, game console, and gifts for Big Roy, all sent by Zhang San, back to Compton.

This time, Harden stayed at Zhang Yang’s house for over half a month, eating, drinking, and taking things, something he wouldn’t have done before because he couldn’t repay the favor. But now it’s different; he’s about to enter the NBA draft, expected in the top five or even higher, and soon he’ll have some cash to return the favor.

And Zhang Yang, familiar with Harden’s character and his mom’s strict upbringing, would have avoided giving expensive gifts in the past. But now that Harden is part of society, giving some small gifts isn’t a big deal.

There were gifts for DeRozan’s family too, which Harden would help bring back. Zhang Yang originally invited DeRozan to come watch the game, but Big Roy stayed in Los Angeles to accompany his parents, who were undergoing treatment, and couldn’t make it.

After seeing Harden off onto his flight, it was almost noon. Zhang Yang drove straight to Tuhang Stadium.

Felton and Okafor also arrived at the stadium before noon, setting an example and showing their core players’ preparedness to their teammates.

The other members of the Big Brother Group weren’t called because the three cores had a small meeting to discuss the game.

As for what they discussed... what useful things could these three honestly talk about? When discussing tactics and strategy, Okafor only speaks when necessary, Felton is the atmosphere maker, Zhang Yang can’t be expected to talk all by himself.

They mostly chatted about news and hot topics.

Felton: "Did you guys see the report on last night’s Lakers vs. Nuggets game? The Lakers, like us, also scored 130 points. Iverson had 35 points, Allen and Anthony both scored 30, yet they still couldn’t beat the Lakers. The Nuggets only scored 116 points and got blown out in the last quarter."

Okafor: "The Lakers scored 28 in the first quarter, 31 in the second, 32 in the third, and 39 in the fourth. Their full-force offense might be stronger than ours."

Zhang Yang: "Yeah, that’s really a shame."

Felton: "Shame about what?"

Zhang Yang: "Not being able to see the live broadcast! By the time I got home, it was already 11 o’clock, and the broadcast had just ended. Kobe scored 46 points, Garnett had 24 points, 16 rebounds, and 6 assists, Kidd had 17 points, 14 rebounds, and 8 assists, and Vujacic was 5 for 5 from three-point range... Such a pity I couldn’t watch. Too much popularity is a hassle, there were too many post-game interviews..."

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