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Out of the blue, but Thomas was still thrilled. The more fierce Johnson was now, the more it showed how interested this colleague was in Zhang Yang, which was definitely a good thing for Zhang Yang.

Through Johnson's analysis, Thomas became even more optimistic about Zhang Yang.

It wasn't just Zhang Yang's technical skills and shooting talent that Thomas valued; what he saw in him was excellent physical quality paired with a tactical awareness, hard work, and potential leadership abilities.

High school head coaches rarely scout for technique; most junior high prodigies dominate purely with their physical attributes.

On the foundation of good physical quality, being able to shoot stationary three-pointers like Harden, or having a passing sense like Tatum, was already a rare feat.

Players like DeRozan with excellent physical attributes and a rich repertoire of offensive moves at just 14 years old were few and far between; a vast place like California might not produce one in a year.

Initially, Thomas only hoped that Zhang Yang would become an outstanding high school or even college player, but now, he felt he could perhaps expect more?

He was a coach who truly loved basketball, eager to cultivate good players, and the brighter the future prospects of his players, the happier he was.

...

After training with DeRozan all afternoon, and returning to Thomas's house in the evening, Zhang Yang didn't continue training. Instead, he took out the textbooks and notes from his seniors that Thomas had helped him get ahead of time, to preview the new semester's courses.

Controlling the daily training time, not overly exhausting the body, helped ensure the continuity of training and prevented it from affecting physical development.

Although he had passed the age when boys grow the fastest, there was still room for growth; he had to at least reach his 'supposed' height of 196 cm.

Picking up the books again, he felt less irritable than the past two days and was able to focus.

Maybe it was because school was starting tomorrow, giving him that back-to-school vibe?

Or perhaps the thought of focusing a bit more to master the basic courses quickly so he could have more time for training?

Either way, this was a positive development; if he always loathed going to class, he might truly have grade issues a couple of years down the line—he didn't want to keep company with the big-jawed bunch...

The following day, August 12th, Compton High School's fall semester began, and Zhang Yang arrived on time to report to his class.

As the largest public high school in Compton, despite only accommodating grades 9-12, it had a student body surpassing 2000—more than most middle schools with grades 6 to 12 and seven grades.

Zhang Yang's sophomore class alone had more than 600 students, almost reaching the total number of students at his former mid-mountain high school.

There were 14 classes in the sophomore year, divided into A, B, Honor, and regular classes.

A and B classes, each only one class, had no substantial difference, composed of the top academically performing students within the grade, totaling less than 60 students. The best educational resources of the school were concentrated in these two classes.

Regular class students made up over 60% of the total, mostly composed of students with poor grades and little interest in learning.

Honor classes were mostly for students who wanted to study but had average grades, as well as students with various special talents. Students specially recruited for the basketball team, like DeRozan, would be placed in Honor classes, which had significantly better teaching resources than regular classes.

Zhang Yang also thought he'd be in an Honor class, but the original body 'dug a pit' for him with a transcript full of A's and an academic scholarship... The B class homeroom teacher claimed him just before the start of the school year.

He wanted to explode on the spot. In this class, if his grades were just minimally sufficient to meet NCAA participation requirements, wouldn't he rank last? And to slide from nearly all A's to last place, didn't he care about face at all?

He never intended to be outstanding academically, but he didn't plan to stick out like a sore thumb either.

Fortunately, after being able to concentrate on his textbooks the night before, he found the compulsory subjects quite simple—just four of them: English, Mathematics, Science which included a mix of Physics and Chemistry, and Social Studies which was essentially History. None of the subjects were harder than the 3+X in China's high schools; it wouldn't be too difficult to excel in these four subjects.

For the non-compulsory courses, Music and Art, as long as you didn't offend the teachers, you could easily get at least a C; in Physical Education... he was a gifted athlete; one technical training subject, which just needed a driver's license examination after turning 16.

Some elective courses were challenging, and the original body chose difficult literature translation classes to win a scholarship. Zhang Yang wouldn't choose such difficult ones; he planned to seek advice from the seniors on the team to see which courses were easy and not time-consuming, just to scrape together enough credits.

For a sports-talented student focused on basketball, having outstanding grades in the compulsory subjects was sufficient.

...

On the first day of school, there wasn't much to do in the class. The school didn't have an opening ceremony, due to the school anniversary at the end of the month. After the homeroom teacher called the roll and handed out the timetables, that was it; by 10 a.m., classes were dismissed, allowing students to do as they pleased.

As a transfer student, Zhang Yang didn't make any new friends on his first day, except for a couple of girls who exchanged phone numbers and emails with him.

He didn't pay much attention to this. Classmates, after all, would naturally become familiar with each other over time spent at school together. Some classmates could go years without much conversation. There was no need to be too deliberate.

The student identity is quite independent; to the extreme, a student doesn't need any friends to fulfill their basic responsibilities as a student.

He had just left the classroom, ready to wander around the school to feel out the atmosphere of the school after the start of the semester... when he received a text message from DeRozan.

DeRozan got a cellphone from his mother on his 14th birthday, to facilitate making friends and contacting family once he started high school.

Zhang Yang had visited DeRozan's house once; the atmosphere there made him feel quite comfortable. The parents were good people. Although the family wasn't wealthy, they were willing to spend money on DeRozan. He had everything a kid his age could need, provided by his parents in a way that wasn't spoiling him.

Zhang Yang arrived at the Allen Sports Arena and saw that DeRozan had already started his training.

Zhang Yang teased, "DeMar, you're the number one junior high student, right? You shouldn't be this busy today, should you?"

DeRozan responded calmly, "All that stuff is so boring, a waste of time. It's better to train."

Zhang Yang retorted, "I seriously suspect you have a split personality; you're like two different people during games compared to normal."

DeRozan grunted and continued his training.

Zhang Yang also picked up a ball and began to train.

But he hadn't been training long when Johnson came to the court and called him into the office.

Following Johnson, Zhang Yang entered the coaching staff's office, where he was handed a form.

Zhang Yang asked, "Class times for every day? Home time and address... Does the team need this information too?"

Johnson replied, "Reserve team members need to submit this information to us so we can create a specialized training plan for each of you."

"Oh, I see... What? I'm on the reserve team?" Zhang Yang suddenly realized and his eyes widened in shock.

Seeing Zhang Yang's dumbfounded expression, Johnson really wanted to laugh, but he couldn't, not until after the person had left.

Johnson, trying to keep a straight face, asked, "You don't want to join the reserve team? I can remove your name from the list if that's the case."

Zhang Yang quickly responded, "No! I want to join! It's just a bit sudden... Am I going to start playing in matches this weekend?"

Johnson said, "Yes, the Southern California High School League's third district warm-up matches start this weekend. Get ready for it, and make sure to hand in the information form by 6 p.m. tonight. I'll be here until then."

Zhang Yang acknowledged and left the office, feeling both excited and a bit worried.

Joining the reserve team directly was great, but it had thrown off his original plan.

He had learned about the team's season plan from Thomas. The high school league in California was rather complicated. Just in Southern California alone, there were hundreds of CIF schools, and a multitude of leagues — from the large Southern California League, which is only second to the first division, to smaller county or even city competitions... The coaches' hair loss wasn't for no reason.

Of their three teams, only the varsity team didn't need to worry about the season schedule; their warm-up matches for the CIF first division began in mid-September.

The freshman and reserve teams, however, had to decide which leagues to join based on decisions made by the coaching staff.

This season, the freshman team had registered for the Los Angeles County High School League, with the official 10-player roster determined at the beginning of October and the new season starting in mid-October.

Originally, Zhang Yang planned to train hard for a month to get into the freshman team and then aim to join the reserve team mid-season.

Now that he was directly on the reserve team, his time to prepare through hard training was gone.

Perhaps because they had acquired the super-talented DeRozan, the coaching staff was taking a wild approach this year by letting the reserve team join the Southern California League, which was just below the first division.

Normally, teams that participated in this league were the strongest from non-first division schools. While it wasn't unheard of for a first division school's reserve team to join this league, it was rare.

The primary teams of non-first division schools definitely weren't as strong as the varsity teams of first division schools, but their players were older, mostly 11th and 12th graders, whereas first division reserve teams were usually 9th and 10th graders.

However, after carefully considering the structure of the Southern California League, Zhang Yang felt that perhaps joining the reserve team for this league would be better than playing in the Los Angeles County League with the freshman team.

The Southern California League was very 'traditional' with an extremely long schedule, lasting six and a half months from mid-August to the end of February, but including only just over 30 games with the warm-up matches, league, and championship games combined.

This schedule allowed high school players ample time to train and prepare after each game.

The reason it's called 'traditional' is because many high school leagues have become 'non-traditional,' mainly the top leagues in various states.

In the mid to late 90s, after Garnett, Kobe, and McGrady and their peers skipped college to go directly to the NBA and succeeded, the attention paid to high school basketball increased substantially, even boosting tourism, and as a result, municipal investments in high school basketball went up.

By 2001, when the NBA saw its first high school draftee selected as the number one overall pick, the situation had become unstoppable. Major leagues began modifying their schedules, significantly increasing the number of games.

For example, in CIF first division games, the number of league matches jumped from 24 to 36, an increase of 50%. Add to that around 10 warm-up games and up to 5 championship tournament games, and a team could end up playing as many as 50 matches in five and half months.

The Los Angeles County League was also 'non-traditional,' likely because the schools were close together, with about 10 games scheduled each month.

Zhang Yang pondered as he walked onto the training court, heading to the half-court next to DeRozan.

Seeing Zhang Yang distracted, DeRozan asked, "What did the coach talk to you about?"

Zhang Yang replied, "He informed me that I've been selected for the reserve team and that I'll be participating in matches this weekend."

DeRozan's eyes lit up as he said excitedly, "Oh? That's great, playing in matches with you, I won't have to worry about not having someone to catch my passes."

Seeing DeRozan so excited, Zhang Yang suddenly felt enlightened.

What was there to worry about? Isn't he just concerned about lacking playing time and shooting opportunities in the reserve team due to insufficient skills? With a solid player like DeRozan by his side, these worries were unfounded.

DeRozan, excited, pulled Zhang Yang to start practicing plays for two-man drills, and Zhang Yang was more than willing, as he was the one to receive the ball and shoot. Working on their coordination didn't get in the way of practicing his layups and shots.

After about half an hour of practice, as it neared noon, they decided to grab a couple of burgers before continuing their training. Just as they were about to go to the restroom to clean up, a kid with hair as dark as charcoal rushed onto the court and approached DeRozan.

Tatum said, "DeMar, let's play one-on-one! This time the winner will definitely be me!"

DeRozan ignored him and walked away, to which Tatum retorted, "What's the matter? You scared?"

DeRozan stopped in his tracks and said to Zhang Yang, "Jack, toss me a ball!"

Zhang Yang thought, "..."

He now understood what Johnson meant yesterday by 'Carmelo would not be easily knocked down.'

Maybe Tatum really would become DeRozan's 'court shadow' during his high school years.

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