One Year Left to Play-Chapter 240 - 83: Men Should Be Faster

The venue was actually full.

The fans were very enthusiastic, with quite a few holding signs with "X" written on them.

"Huh? Why that high schooler?"

Listening to Damon Stoudamire, the veteran players smiled or joked quietly behind his back.

This kind of mentality... they didn't think much of it, as they had all gone through the same thing back in their day.

When players in the same draft class performed well and received more attention, they also felt similarly in the early stages of their careers.

In matters like this, over time, one naturally gets used to it.

However, Damon Stoudamire might be different; this "true team core" might become an All-Star...

Damon Stoudamire looked at the dark player tunnel opposite him, with visible envy and jealousy on his face!

The Raptors have a dismal market; as a new team, in Toronto, they might not be completely invisible, but compared to the local hockey team, they are at most as popular as a local minor league team's, while in comparison to the Toronto Maple Leafs, a veteran team in North America's hockey scene, they are at most budding green leaves.

This comes after the Demon Bird Duels and the Bulls Dynasty, which drastically boosted Canadians' enthusiasm for the NBA, allowing the Raptors, this newly formed team, to rival Toronto's hockey minor league teams in terms of popularity.

As for the Vancouver Grizzlies, it's even less worth mentioning. During their home opener, the attendance was barely half, with half of the 19,772 seats empty.

Arriving in New Jersey to play the Brooklyn Nets, Damon Stoudamire was quite familiar with this team. After all, the Nets have been part of the NBA for quite some years, formerly a strong team in the ABA league. As a basketball prodigy from a young age, he knew the NBA well and was aware that the Nets also had low popularity.

When he arrived in Rutherford Town and saw the bleak environment, he liked it and thought Zhang Hao would be treated the same as he was in Toronto.

But, the situation was quite different!

When the visiting team players entered, the Raptors were booed, with Little Flying Squirrel as the main target!

When it was time for the home team players to enter, there were cheers for Almon Gilliam, but they weren't that loud.

But when Zhang Hao, the Brooklyn Nets' second starter, entered, the cheers and screams erupted!

Many fans were here specifically for Zhang Hao.

This made Damon Stoudamire even more envious and jealous. In the 95 draft class, they showed talent beyond expectations during the preseason, but that was just talent showing.

The regular season was the real test to see if they could turn the talent into actual ability.

He played well enough in his first game, with 26 points and 11 assists! 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

But Zhang Hao scored 44 points, becoming the first player from the 95 draft class to stand out!

Just because Zhang Hao scored 44 points, his 26+11 stats were merely regarded as "not bad."

Even if Zhang Hao performed very poorly later, with bad shooting, people would still have high expectations for him. Even though negative feedback would come if he didn't play well, those expectations wouldn't disappear quickly.

Because he already had his masterpiece performance.

This made Damon Stoudamire extremely envious and very jealous.

On the other side, Almon Gilliam, listening to the cheers for Zhang Hao, was also highly envious with a tinge of jealousy. However, he had a more positive attitude. When Zhang Hao stood beside him, he said sourly, "Aix, you should thank me; your high score was thanks to my draw!"

Zhang Hao felt helpless inside but said, "Of course, Almon, you're the team's strongest in one-on-one."

Almon Gilliam was very satisfied with Zhang Hao's response.

This statement would not even be denied by Kenny Anderson.

Almon Gilliam had a straightforward personality that easily offended people. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been let go by the 76ers, nor would he have fallen out with Kenny Anderson after joining the Brooklyn Nets. He didn't get along with Coleman either, having been forced to play two years as a substitute.

However, all the others, including the last player to enter, the team's leader Kenny Anderson, didn't feel there was anything wrong with Zhang Hao receiving far louder cheers than anyone else.

In the opening game, Zhang Hao had 44 points, and the ones most affected weren't others but his teammates.

At the same time, Zhang Hao also felt that even if the team was heading in a positive direction, everything wasn't harmonious inside. Many small conflicts and minor disputes still existed.

After all, it was a group of people with different personalities, life experiences... gathered together, so it couldn't be all warm and familial that easily.

Nevertheless, due to many complex factors, Zhang Hao could still sense a kind of strange rapport among his teammates...

Once on the court, Zhang Hao felt the hostile gaze of the opposing hot rookie.

"Players who are 183 cm are just infuriating... eh, he doesn't seem to be 183."

Muttering to himself, Zhang Hao had a thought, and the opponent's player analysis details appeared in subtitles.

Weak!

Really weak!

The only one with an ability rating over 75 was that rookie from his same draft year.

"Damon Stoudamire, 22 years old, 178 cm tall, 75 kg, ability rating 83, offense 87, defense 61, passing 92, three-point shot 86, mid-range shot 85, layup 88, speed 97, strength 72..."

A bit strong!

Besides Little Flying Squirrel, the others had the highest ability rating as small forward Tracy Murray, at 74; also, with a 74 ability rating was an outrageously sized inside player, Oliver Miller, weighing 133 kg and only 206 cm!