Chapter 144: The Opening (Part Two)

Hawule firmly planted his feet, spreading his arms as wide as possible to maximize his defensive stance while anchoring himself to the floor to prevent Robert Lee of the North American Youth Team from shoving him aside.

From the very beginning of the match, the battle between the two unusually matched interior players was fierce. Robert Lee leveraged his explosiveness and back-to-the-basket scoring skills to display his offensive prowess, while Hawule, though less flashy than Robert Lee, used his robust physique and acute sense for rebounding to become the fundamental catalyst for the Xinjiang Youth Team in both defense and offense.

More than six minutes into the game, the North American Youth Team relied on their aggressive offense to score 18 points, while the Xinjiang Youth Team showed no weakness whatsoever, putting up 16 points. The two teams were virtually neck and neck.

Hawule’s sudden outburst was something Gao Ming, the head coach of the North American Youth Team, had not anticipated. In his original game plan, his team was supposed to hold an absolute advantage in rebounding. Based on data from teams that had previously played against North American youth squads, domestic players lacked a clear understanding of rebounding fundamentals; tall players lacked the awareness to box out and protect space for their teammates, while smaller players lacked the instinct to chase down and judge the trajectory of missed shots.

Gao Ming never expected that this unassuming, short center with terrible statistics on the Xinjiang Youth Team would possess such sharp rebounding instincts. Although Hawule’s explosiveness and vertical leap were ordinary, he seemed to instinctively know how to establish proper position, and his judgment of the ball's trajectory was exceptionally precise. This prevented the Xinjiang Youth Team from falling behind the North American Youth Team in the rebounding department.

Guaranteed by those rebounds, and combined with the efficient offensive coordination of Turgun and Cai Aihong, the Xinjiang Youth Team tightly clung to the score, completely shattering Gao Ming’s plan to widen the gap right from the opening whistle and then steadily slow down the tempo.

Robert Lee had already accumulated 8 points, repeatedly succeeding on offense thanks to his exceptional post-up skills. However, Robert, who had found the previous stretch of the game quite effortless, was now beginning to feel a hint of fatigue—something rarely experienced before. The Xinjiang Youth Team player with the Central Asian facial features, who had been tangling with him constantly, made Robert feel as though he was wrestling with a stubborn wild bull.

After scoring another two points to bring his team's total to twenty, Robert retreated down the court and sneered at Hawule, "Hey, man, you can't guard me. You're as slow as a cow."

Accustomed to the rhythm of North American basketball, Robert instinctively resorted to trash-talking in English once his full focus returned to the game. He felt it made him look cool, just like a true professional superstar.

"Speak human. I don't understand bird language."

To the smug Robert Lee's utter astonishment, his opponent's response hit him like a swallowed fly—he simply didn't understand a single word.

In truth, Hawule hadn't understood what Robert Lee was saying. He had studied English, but as an ethnic minority student, mastering Mandarin to such a fluent level was already a remarkable achievement; studying English simultaneously was simply out of the question. Therefore, the only English Hawule could comprehend consisted of the most basic phrases, and Robert's habitual inclusion of American slang made it completely incomprehensible to him. Yet, Hawule sensed the mockery in the other player's doltish expression and bluntly fired back anyway.

The fierce competition on the court did little to diminish the mutual respect shared between the two young head coaches on the sidelines. Although Wang Lei and Gao Ming did not exchange many words, they secretly admired each other.

In Wang Lei’s view, Gao Ming’s cultivation of the North American Youth Team was an extreme success. Compared to domestic teams, the North American Youth Team had been formed a full three months later, and their training camp lasted a mere month. Yet, through that single month of training, Gao Ming had managed to ignite such formidable combat effectiveness in a team composed of collegiate players, which spoke volumes about his caliber. What intrigued Wang Lei even more was Gao Ming’s tactical selection. Normally, conventional wisdom dictated that teams first selected inside players and built their tactics around a towering center. Gao Ming’s brilliance lay in choosing Robert Lee—who stood under two meters tall—as the team's starting center, an absolute rarity among mainstream coaches.

Meanwhile, from Gao Ming’s perspective, Wang Lei was even more exceptional than himself—younger and far more legendary.

After familiarizing himself with all aspects of the Xinjiang Youth Team, Gao Ming had developed a profound interest in Wang Lei, a young head coach shrouded in a legendary aura.

Setting aside the achievements Wang Lei had earned in fields outside of basketball, simply leading a team that had never competed in any genuine official tournaments all the way to the finals of the National Games Youth Group was a monumental feat.

Gao Ming felt that if he were put in charge of the Xinjiang Youth Team, he likely wouldn't even have the courage to take the job.

Gao Ming found the tactical sophistication of the Xinjiang Youth Team astonishing. He had never witnessed a team so liberated yet simultaneously so disciplined. Freedom and execution seemed like two completely contradictory terms, yet they manifested harmoniously within the Xinjiang Youth Team.

What impressed Gao Ming the most about Wang Lei was how he managed to discover such a group of high-potential youngsters in the Xinjiang Youth Team within such a short timeframe. Putting everything else aside, Turgun alone made Gao Ming's mouth water. The ball-handling feel displayed by this player was unlike anything Gao Ming had ever seen in his life, leading him to wonder if even some top-tier NBA superstars possessed ball-handling skills as exquisite as Turgun's.

As the first quarter neared its end, both teams began rotating their lineups, yet the score remained tightly contested. The fast-paced game compelled both the spectators on the sidelines and the audience in front of their televisions to cheer in admiration. Compared to many domestic professional games, these two youth teams played with greater aesthetic appeal and excitement. While turnovers occurred, the youthful vigor was something many senior teams lacked.

Wang Lei chose not to substitute Turgun, opting instead to rest other players while letting Turgun and Hawule anchor the floor. On the other side, Gao Ming made a much bolder move, substituting five players at once—the depth of the North American Youth Team's bench was something the Xinjiang Youth Team could not match.

At the end of the first quarter, the scoreboard stood at a 29-all tie, with Turgun draining a buzzer-beating three-pointer just before the clock expired, thrilling the fans watching from the sidelines.

As the second quarter commenced, the Xinjiang Youth Team began to fall behind as their opponents steadily widened the gap, courtesy of the exceptionally athletic and skilled players sitting on the North American Youth Team's bench.