Before the official start of school and team assembly, Yuuto became Covanord High School's ghost—arriving earliest, leaving latest.
He would practice the most fundamental drills on the empty court.
Dribbling.
Shooting.
And so on.
Where was the biggest difference between Japanese—no, Asian basketball and American basketball?
Physical contact.
This was something Yuuto discovered the first time he played one-on-one with Walker.
At first, Yuuto accused Walker of fouling. Keep playing like that, and he'd become someone everyone hated.
Walker told him: this is just how we play ball here.
High school leagues were already like this. One could only imagine what NCAA and NBA games looked like.
So Yuuto had to prepare himself. Once the new season started, he would inevitably face plenty of "rabid dogs" with their mauling-style defense.
Then.
The time for team assembly finally arrived.
Since the new millennium, international players like Yao Ming, Dirk Nowitzki, Manu Ginobili, and Tony Parker had proven through outstanding performances that world-class basketball players could be developed outside of America.
Starting in the '90s, David Stern had worked hard to globalize the league. By the new millennium, the NBA finally took a crucial step: globalizing their talent search.
In earlier years, some NBA front offices had even developed a strange obsession with foreign players.
They'd rather ignore players who had proven themselves at domestic universities, instead selecting foreign players who looked talented but had completely raw fundamentals.
Then.
These lottery tickets made their hearts tremble.
Almost every single one came up "Thanks for Playing."
With the NBA draft going global, NCAA and NSAA recruitment efforts also began turning overseas.
Especially for mid-tier teams like Covanord—they couldn't attract elite talent. If they wanted to rise, they had to find other methods.
This was how Yuuto came to Covanord's attention.
Luke Young, Covanord's basketball head coach.
When Yamashita Shigeo sent him the footage, he quickly took interest in Yuuto.
At first, he'd looked down on Yuuto. An Asian perimeter player?
There were zero successful examples—including on the international stage.
Yellow people simply didn't have the athletic gifts of Black or white players. That was undeniable.
Even Yao Ming had only become an All-Star through a combination of static physical attributes, shooting touch, post skills, and various other factors.
But after watching Yuuto's game footage, his interest was piqued.
Luke Young discovered that Yuuto's playing style wasn't Asian at all—it was very American.
The most classic example was that game against some team called Sei... something. He'd forgotten the name.
When the opponents tried to play team basketball, Yuuto still used individual ability to crush them.
This kind of hero-ball style was beloved by American fans, and Luke was no exception.
Of course.
He didn't like Yuuto's isolation plays—what he valued was Yuuto's problem-solving ability.
Athletic talent, technique, and a diverse offensive arsenal—no one could dislike such a player.
More importantly, his rate of improvement. Luke Young said he'd never seen a player like this.
He hoped Yuuto could form a lethal inside-outside duo with team cornerstone Walker.
What coach didn't dream of reaching the NCAA or NBA?
Those were the stages coaches dreamed of.
But as the NCAA and NBA pie grew larger, how could you attract attention without proving your ability?
Leading Covanord to prominence would be an impressive resume—a calling card for the NCAA or even the NBA.
"Coach, what's the quality of this year's rookies looking like?"
On the court, a senior doing stretches asked the assistant coach.
"I believe someone in this freshman class will become the team's future." The assistant coach's confidence was clearly lacking as he said this.
Last year's recruitment hadn't gone smoothly at all.
Discovering talent?
They could only do it through scratching lottery tickets—they had no real confidence.
Soon, the new players appeared. Though Yuuto was a sophomore, he was still classified with the freshmen.
"This is your captain, Tony Walker."
Walker said casually, "Just call me Tony. Or Walker's fine too."
"Hello Captain, I'm Enrique Lorne, from Indiana. You can call me whatever you want. I watched all your games last year. I think you deserve to be in the five-star recruit rankings."
This guy's ass-kissing could rival Zhao Gao himself.
Yuuto quickly rolled his eyes. "I'm Yuuto. From China. You can call me Yu."
"..."
The freshmen quickly finished their introductions.
"Nice to meet you all." Walker was quite authoritative in front of his teammates.
The assistant coach added, "You should learn well from Walker. He's not just Covanord's captain—he's also our team's primary scorer."
Besides Walker, they also introduced Covanord's other main players.
As Yuuto had expected, most were seniors.
Juniors formed the core backbone, sophomores were potential stocks, and freshmen were fresh blood.
Just like at Seihō, starting positions were usually held by upperclassmen.
...
Only basketball powerhouses—like NCAA programs Kentucky, Duke, or North Carolina with their extremely high recruitment quality—would heavily utilize freshmen.
Official training began quickly.
It was the famous conditioning drill: Hell Circuit.
Supposedly brought over from Indiana University, it included full-court sprint shuttles, rapid lateral defensive slides, and dribbling sprints.
Guards had specialized ball-handling drills; big men had additional strength training.
Two to three sets of this cycle.
The upperclassmen barely survived. The freshmen performed far worse.
After one round, only Yuuto stood there looking completely unfazed.
The assistant coach recognized him immediately—this was probably the small forward the head coach had recruited from Asia.
No surprise there. His skin color was too distinctive. Covanord had never had an Asian player before.
...
Then.
Luke Young walked into the gym. A white man, wearing a crisp suit with a clean white shirt underneath.
He looked fairly young—early thirties perhaps—with meticulously slicked-back hair and eyes full of killer intent.
"With all due respect, gentlemen, you are the worst in Covanord history!"
"Did you hear me? I've never seen worse freshmen than you!"
Here it comes—the standard American boot camp routine.
Then.
"But I will change you, as long as you train strictly according to my requirements. Even if you're just a pile of scrap metal, you can be forged into sharp blades."
After his tirade, the freshmen were scared witless.
This was exactly the result Luke Young wanted. He needed these rookies to know who was boss on this team.
Then he looked at Yuuto. This little brat from Asia had an expression so calm it was like he hadn't heard a damn word.
"Rookie."
"My name is Yuuto. But Coach, you can call me Yu."
"I didn't fucking ask your name. Why are you so quiet?"
Luke Young knew exactly who Yuuto was. This was the Asian prodigy he planned to develop.
"I heard you. But I don't want to argue verbally. Give me a chance, and I'll prove to you we're not the worst rookies."
"Fuck that. I say you're the worst, so you're the worst. Listen here—following orders is all you need to do, just like in Forrest Gump."
"I've seen it, Coach. But with all due respect, Forrest Gump had an IQ of 75—far below normal. I don't think you'd want a bunch of Forrest Gumps under your command."
Pfft!
The moment those words came out, someone couldn't help but burst out laughing.
...
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