The next day, Arizona State University.

The Sundevils' home arena.

It's the summer break, and there are very few students staying in school, and the long summer vacation time for American students varies from school to school.

In mid-to-late June, there were almost no students on Arizona State University, but the Suns stayed on the school for intensive training.

In order to go further next year and find a way to get a better record in PAC-10.

"Whew...... Call...... Call...... Whew......"

At the end of the team's morning of practice, a black player with big eyes was holding his knees and panting, looking quite tired.

He is the absolute core of the current Suns Devils and has the potential to become a legend in school history, and one of last year's rookie of the year candidates named James Harden.

This talented player, although he still needs to be polished on the offensive end, in addition to the extremely precocious foul-making skills, Harden's ball-holding breakthrough, mid-range shooting, back-to-back singles and other skills are not comprehensive enough, and the scoring relies more on making fouls and three-point shots.

However, his defense has been recognized as an NBA-level marker and steal, a style of play that has been compared by many to Eddie House, the first man in school history to win a championship with the Celtics this summer.

When it comes to Harden's basketball journey, it is not a smooth road. When he first entered high school, Harden was already 1.85 meters tall and his arm span was already amazing, but he couldn't dunk yet, so he could only practice three-point shooting and defense.

This style has allowed Harden to find a place on the varsity team in high school, and as he grows in height and matures in his skills, Harden's points per game average is getting higher every year in high school. In his junior and senior years, Harden became the absolute core of the team, leading Lakewood Hadithia High School to a terrifying record of 33-1 and 33-2 respectively, winning the California High School League championship for two consecutive years. Harden himself became one of the All-Stars for high school students in the United States.

Harden's brilliant performance in the last two years of high school made him one of the most high-profile rookies in the United States at the time, but he was not the kind of man who had a ball in hand, but a defensive, three-point shot, sometimes brilliant playmaker, and an unusually sophisticated rhythmic player.

This kind of player does not seem to have a high ceiling in general, but it is very practical and has a good immediacy power. It's just that no one thought that how many years later, this player, who still looks a little young, will actually become the first quartile in the NBA. led the Western powerhouse team to the playoffs, and his popularity remained high.

At that time, along with Harden, there was also a 3-and-D player with this defensive and three-point shooting style, and there was another player in high school basketball.

That person has received less attention than Harden, in the small division, in the small school, the highest personal honor is only the best second team in the country, and the quantile position of the first team is Harden.

In Chen Mu, the timeline where they are. That man is now preparing for his senior season, working hard day in and day out on three-point shooting and defense in the hope of winning the favor of a basketball school, even if he knows that is very little hopeful.

And Arizona State University. Now I'm considering whether I should bring that guy to Arizona as well, and let him use his defense and three-point shooting, as well as his uncanny precocious running skills, to become the right-hand man of this super rookie on the team today. Together, they created the first glory in the history of the Sun Demon.

That man's name was Klay Thompson.

Speaking of Harden, Harden has a fairly brilliant high school career. In the end, an amazing choice was made in the lobbying of many big teams. Among the teams that lobbied him was the University of California, Los Angeles, also known as UCLA. But Harden finally chose to join Arizona State University, which made the Suns almost shout three times.

You know, UCLA is one of the NCAA historical schools, and it is quite a strong presence in the PAC-10 division. Even in the entire history of the NCAA, it is a super-strong that can be counted.

With 11 NCAA titles, including a seven-game winning streak that has never been seen before, UCLA is the Boston Celtics in NCAA history. Between 1971 and 1975, UCLA won 88 consecutive basketball games, which is still the NCAA record.

There is no need to introduce the stars produced by UCLA, as mentioned earlier, Abdul-Jabbar, who holds the single-game scoring record in the PAC-10 division with Eddie House, super interior Bill Wharton, legendary Reggie Miller, and Byron Davis, who has a strong style of play.

In addition, Earl Watson, Matt Barnes, Jordan Farmar and Trevor Ariza are also UCLA players.

When Harden graduated from high school in 2007, UCLA had a very ambitious plan to use this summer's recruitment to bring two super high school rookies to the team for the NCAA title for the next season.

One of them, Harden, failed, and the other was recruited by UCLA as Kevin Love.

Harden and Love formed an inside and outside double star, which was the idea given by UCLA at that time. In addition, Russell Westbrook, a powerful point guard who has been with the team for two years and has gradually shown the potential to become a superstar, is maturing, and what the team needs most is a calm backcourt partner with a reliable three-point shot and outside defense that can calm the pace when Westbrook's mind is overheated.

Harden was originally their best choice, in order to recruit Harden, UCLA even moved out Harden's idol - Jason Cappono to lobby Harden (yes, yes, the bearded idol is Capono), but Harden refused, for the same reason as the lost man Mitsui Beast in a famous anime:

"Coach Scott Pera is there, I'll go!"

Harden followed his high school mentor to the Sun Demon and Arizona State University. UCLA, which lost Harden, stopped FINAL4 for two consecutive years, and in the summer of the same year, UCLA's inner and outer cores were disheartened and chose to end their studies and enter the NBA.

The team that beat them, the University of Memphis, was dominated by a backcourt pair, scoring guard Chris Douglas Roberts, and point guard Derrick Rose.

Fate, sometimes it's really weird, isn't it?

"That's it for this morning's training, but please don't leave yet."

At the end of the training, the Sun Devils players were all sweating profusely, eager to take a cold shower and go home happily. But Assistant Coach Pera's words made everyone stop and complain.

"Today we have a legend in school history who took time out of his busy schedule to mentor us. This is a very rare opportunity, and you must take advantage of it. Pera glanced a few more times in the direction of his disciple Harden, intentionally or unintentionally: "Especially our outside scorer, we have to learn from the experience." ”

A legend in school history?

The players looked at each other one by one, and they couldn't quite guess who it would be, the strength of the Sun Demon was not a strong team in PAC-10, and there were only a handful of legends in school history, could it be......

"Now let's invite Eddie House, the all-time scoring champion of the Suns and the guard of this year's NBA championship team!"

As soon as Pera introduced, House was stunned and shuffled in from outside the door.

"House!"

Although House is not a big star in the NBA, he is definitely a legend in the history of the Suns. And seeing NBA players in the school basketball hall, no matter who comes, will make these kids who love basketball excited.

Harden's eyes lit up and he stared at House for a long time, as if he wasn't sure if he was dreaming.

"Not bad, good spirits, keep up the good work!"

House was a bit of a big guy, shook hands with the excited junior students, walked over like a big star all the way, looked a few more times when passing by Harden's side, nodded heavily, reached out and patted Harden's shoulder and said: "You played very well, you have my style!" ”

Outside the gymnasium, a big yellow-skinned man with black lines was about to faint when he heard House's words.

People will be more big stars than you in the future, dear!

"The opportunity is rare, is there anything you want to go it alone?"

House has always said whatever comes to mind, without the slightest taboo, as soon as he came up, he began to take off his coat, looked at the players and said, "Who will be the first?" ”

On the side, Harden just wanted to raise his hand, but he saw House stretching out his hand and pointing in his direction, and he felt a burst of excitement in his heart, thinking that he was going to be directly named by the legend of school history.

As a result, House spoke, and Harden passed out.

"That white guy looks pretty energetic! Come on, have two hands with me~"

Where House stretched out his hand to point, a white man with a not very good-looking face was standing with his hands folded in front of his chest, and after being hit by House, he looked left and right, and after making sure that it was himself, he walked forward tremblingly in the laughter of everyone.

Pete, the backcourt player at the end of the Suns Devils' bench, is said to have some power at home, otherwise with his ability, it is actually a bit reluctant to enter the varsity team.

This Pete's popularity in the team is not good, especially with the black players, and no one is pleasing to anyone.

It is said that in the first round of this year's NBA playoffs, Pitt also had a conflict with an Asian girl in the basketball club center, and after that, he and his group of fox friends blatantly excluded and bullied the Chinese in school.

It's a pity that there are no Chinese in the Sun Demon School team, otherwise with Pete's character of bullying the weak and afraid of the hard, if there is a Chinese in the team who can suppress him, he will not dare to be so arrogant.

Black people are happier, and in the same position, Harden is a purebred black man.

At this time, Pete was named by the school history legend to come alone, and the school history legend is also a black man, this result naturally made the black players in the team a little excited. Not only because you can see the skills of the NBA champion team's guards up close, but also because you can see Pete make a fool of himself, which is really killing two birds with one stone.

However, they didn't know that this was not the biggest surprise of today's training...... (To be continued.) )

PS: It's not black or blowing, the strength of the beard is still there, if you defend with all your heart, it's actually not a colander