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After digesting for a while, the two continued their training.

DeRozan taught with even more care and spoke in a gentler tone, having been treated to food.

Zhang Yang was somewhat puzzled by the sudden change in attitude—it was just a bit too abrupt... And then he thought of the player known by the nickname 'snake'.

After a while, DeRozan felt it was time to up the ante, went to the security room to borrow a chair, placed it under the basket as an obstacle, and had Zhang Yang practice his moves to avoid the chair while attacking the basket, particularly in a range where his shots could be disturbed.

Zhang Yang never thought he'd see the day when he'd be training with a chair, had he wronged Lian Mei?

Look, even the traditional shooting guard practitioners use chairs during training.

Like the day before, Zhang Yang trained in the morning and evening, helped out at home at noon, and rested in the afternoon by watching videos and reading books—a similar duration of training as the previous day.

Today, the total shooting value gained was not as much as yesterday, only 316 points, and the rate of shooting value gain per unit time was even less than last night.

However, today's training was tougher than yesterday's, so getting over 300 was already pretty good.

The night passed without incident, and the next morning, Zhang Yang continued his routine of taking his food container to the park—having a dad who could cook was truly a blessing.

He hadn't been training in the park for long when something unexpected happened—just at 6:30 am, DeRozan arrived!

And like when he first arrived yesterday, his expression was very sour, and his teaching attitude extremely poor... no, even worse than yesterday!

It wasn't until 7:30, after breakfast, that DeRozan started to speak normally.

In Zhang Yang's view, this guy was somewhat neurotic, with sporadic mood swings.

He didn't care, though—whatever will be, will be, as things always returned to normal.

Thanks to his handy dad for his good cooking skills!

He also didn't expect that his recognition of his parents would be enhanced on the basketball court, a rather subtle feeling...

Another day passed, and on July 21st, Zhang Yang got up early for the fourth consecutive day to practice basketball.

When he arrived at the park's basketball court, he saw a figure practicing fadeaway jump shots...(눈‸눈)

Zhang Yang's confusion from the past two days was suddenly cleared up.

He really hadn't expected it to be for this reason...

Zhang Yang walked over to the edge of the court, DeRozan paused his training, and looked at Zhang Yang with an obviously proud expression.

Zhang Yang asked, "Why so early today? What time did you get here?"

DeRozan replied, "6 am, not that early. The sky was already bright. I didn't intend to arrive earlier than you; I just woke up early today."

Zhang Yang's mouth twitched as he said, "DeMar, have you ever seen Hidden Mountain at four in the morning?"

That early? DeRozan asked in disbelief, "Have you?"

"I haven't either. I can't get up at 4 am. Starting tomorrow, if we are to train in the mornings, let's both get here by 6:30."

Zhang Yang was scared and quickly made things clear, in case DeRozan really came over at 4 am. Then would he follow or not?

If he didn't, it seemed like a loss of face.

Unspoken, it's true, snake-like players are so rolled up!

No wonder snake-like players are the most likely to succeed among the 'next in line' superstars.

Of course, this 'success' doesn't mean becoming the first man in the league.

Comparing the future DeRozan with James or Curry, he definitely wasn't that impressive.

But compared to the vast majority of athletes, DeRozan was definitely a standout, earning hundreds of millions of US dollars over a career spanning a decade and making a class leap.

DeRozan was relieved, he didn't want to wake up any earlier either; before, he used to wake up at 7 am, have breakfast, jog over, and start training. Today he was up by 5:30 am.

He did all of this not for anything else, but because he didn't want to lose in any aspect.

After chatting idly for a while, the two started training.

DeRozan observed Zhang Yang practicing several sets of layups, corrected some details, and then went to practice on his own.

His fundamentals, personal abilities, vision, and judgment were strong, but only among peers. With just layups, the past three days and five training sessions had pretty much covered everything.

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He had thought he'd have to teach for a longer time; when his middle school coach corrected his bad layup habits, it took about a week.

But with Zhang Yang, it was basically sorted out in two and a half days.

DeRozan was younger then, and didn't have Zhang Yang's level of focus or effort, but his fundamentals were much better... He felt an inexplicable pressure.

Even though the newfound friend before his eyes was still so weak.

Yes, he had come to see Zhang Yang as a friend, but that had only started this morning.

He hadn't regarded Zhang Yang as a friend from the beginning, just as someone he met at the basketball court while spending the summer at his grandma's.

But Zhang Yang's training sessions had shown DeRozan how much this guy truly loved basketball and was willing to work for it, making DeRozan willing to befriend him.

The more seriously he taught, the more it was because Zhang Yang trained harder.

A snake-like player's trademark characteristic—liking or disliking other players not based on their skill level, but on whether they worked hard... Of course, it didn't exclude the possibility he was in a good mood because he arrived earlier than Zhang Yang today.

After 'slacking off' for over two days, DeRozan felt he had to work harder.

Although he didn't think it possible, it would be utterly embarrassing if he were surpassed by this friend who only started practicing basketball when he nearly reached 10th grade.

...

A few days later, at 7:50 PM on July 25th, Zhang Yang's eighth day of training ended.

In these eight days, DeRozan trained with him every evening; mornings were less certain, including this morning, making it three days DeRozan hadn't shown up.

Zhang Yang summoned the door and calculated his Shooting Value for the day—612 points, dozens more than yesterday's 556 points, reaching a new high.

His training wasn't just simply rushing in for layups; if that had been the case, today's five-hour session would have seen him making at least two or three hundred more baskets, right?

Three-step layups, spin layups, baseline turnaround layups, jump stop layups... each time he shot, he tried his best to include these fundamental movements.

Though he obtained fewer Shooting Values, he felt it was worth it. Since he wanted to walk this path, he couldn't skimp on laying a solid foundation.

After several days of training, he was able to go for layups without deliberately controlling his movements and could start focusing on accuracy. His progress was faster than he had anticipated.

In eight days, he had accumulated 3537 Shooting Value points. School would start on August 11th, and the school team would begin its internal recruitment after school started. There was definitely enough time to complete his task—it was just uncertain how long that 'experience' would take. However, he wasn't fretting about it since he didn't know what the 'experience' really implied. He'd focus on completing the task first.

Zhang Yang was preparing to say goodbye to DeRozan and leave, but noticed DeRozan looking as if he had more to say.

Zhang Yang asked, "What's wrong, DeMar? Did you get too mischievous and your grandma kicked you out? Don't worry, we have a spare room at my place. You can stay with us."

DeRozan bristled immediately: "You're the one who got kicked out of your house!"

After shouting that, DeRozan seemed to let go of his hesitations and said, "This morning when I came here, I ran into some annoying guys."

Zhang Yang: "You came in the morning? Weren't you supposed to help your uncle sort the newspapers?"

DeRozan: "I came at half-past ten, by which time you'd gone home... They provoked me, and I couldn't hold back, so I agreed to play a match against them."

"You can't beat them? Are they even better than you?" Zhang Yang was curious.

"They are a few years older than me, but I am definitely better than them," DeRozan stated confidently, "it's just that I am one teammate short..."

Zhang Yang thumped his chest and said, "So you need my help? Why be so formal with me? If you need me, I'm there!"

DeRozan hesitated slightly: "Although they aren't that great, they are a few years older than us..."

Zhang Yang was nonchalant: "With my skills, afraid of losing? But wouldn't it be even more awesome if we won?"

DeRozan couldn't hold back: "Winning would be great, but I don't have much confidence with you on the team."

Zhang Yang looked at DeRozan with a mix of reproach and pleading. Could he be a bit more tactful?

That really hurt!

Suddenly, something occurred to him, and he asked, "They are three? Who is the third person on our side, besides you and me?"

...

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