Stephen Curry and Russell Westbrook officially announced their commitment to Wake Forest University, and in NAA news it was a barely noticeable ripple that nobody cared about beyond Wake Forest fans.
On the second floor of Veterans Memorial Coliseum, in a conference room, the Demon Deacons' scouting department was holding its monthly meeting.
Cole summed up the department's work over the past stretch, singling out Yang Shuai's results for particular praise.
Although Curry and Westbrook had yet to play a single game for the Demon Deacons, the scrimmage on their official-visit day had already been enough to set imaginations running.
Then Cole handed a sheet to everyone.
Yang Shuai picked his up out of curiosity. It listed the recruiting status of the other A League teams for the new season so far.
At a glance, UNC and Duke stood head and shoulders above the rest.
Duke University had already landed Gerald Henderson, No. 10 in the class of 2006, along with No. 20 Lance Thomas, No. 25 Brian Zoubek, and No. 28 Jon Scheyer.
The University of North Carolina was even more outrageous: they had recruited No. 3 Brandan Wright, No. 5 Ty Lawson, No. 39 Alex Stepheson, No. 43 Deon Thompson, and No. 79 Will Graves.
The NBA kept competition fair with a salary cap that limited how much each team could spend on players, but no such rule existed in the NAA.
Blue-blood programs that could offer the spotlight held a natural pull on the top high schoolers.
They were like the great sects of a cultivation world, forever taking in disciples of the highest aptitude, and so the sects stood unbowed through the ages.
That was why the A League was recognized as the most fiercely competitive league around — because it held two of these "great sects."
Cole's purpose in handing out the sheet was obvious. Beyond sharing information, he meant to make his scouts feel the pressure.
The end of the season didn't mean the end of a scout's work. On the contrary, with only a handful of high schoolers left unclaimed, the fight over them would only grow fiercer.
When the meeting ended, Cole kept Yang Shuai behind.
He led Yang Shuai to an office.
It sat diagonally across from Cole's. The space wasn't big, but it was fully equipped — computer, VCR, air conditioning, everything.
Then, with Yang Shuai staring at him in confusion, Cole said, "This used to be a storage room. I had someone tidy it up. From now on, it's your office."
Yang Shuai's confusion turned to astonishment on the spot.
He had been in the scouting department for two months, and apart from Cole, the director of scouting, he had never heard of a single scout with his own private office.
Cole was making an exception for him again.
"If you need anything else, just ask me," Cole said, his face all smiles.
"No need — this is already great." Yang Shuai hastily waved him off.
"Don't be in such a hurry to refuse." Cole smiled and patted him on the shoulder. "You've earned every bit of it. You've brought us hope."
With Justin Gray and Eric Williams gone, all five starters from the team that had climbed to the top of the A League had now left the school. The new season ought to have been even more hopeless than this one, but the arrival of Curry and Westbrook had changed all of that.
"I really don't need anything else," Yang Shuai said, shaking his head. What college student got his own private office? He honestly thought it was already more than good enough.
Seeing that, Cole didn't push. He handed Yang Shuai the office keys and the computer's login username and password, then briefed him on the job: "Leave the rest of the recruiting for next season to the others. You can set your sights further out now."
Since Yang Shuai had said there were no suitable targets left for the new season, it was time to send him after the class of 2007, even the class of 2008.
Just as that grad student had said at his interview: in recruiting, the earlier you make contact, the better your chances.
Once Cole had gone, Yang Shuai closed the door, settled back into the soft chair, and drummed his fingers lightly on the armrest.
A tangible reward like this was worth far more than the verbal praise at the meeting.
After a while he sat up and switched on the computer.
Cole's instructions needed doing, but what mattered more right now was how to keep building the team's strength for next season.
He had thought that landing Curry and Westbrook meant Wake Forest could already announce itself with a bang next season.
But once he'd read Cole's sheet, he understood just how ugly the environment they were competing in really was.
Curry and Westbrook alone wouldn't be enough. They needed at least one more piece — a big man who could actually play.
Yang Shuai searched the high school rankings from the major media outlets, hunting for any fish that had slipped through the net.
He had thought of Curry and Westbrook before because they were famous, but there were others — smaller names he had never paid attention to.
He squinted and combed carefully through the list, and sure enough, he found one.
JaVale McGee, ranked 128th.
McGee was said to be a superstar from the neck down, and people had tagged him with the street nickname "Olajugee."
Yang Shuai had no idea why the kid had never become a four-star recruit, but he was surely good enough.
He got up and went to Cole's office.
But after they talked it over, he learned that McGee had already announced his commitment to the University of Nevada, all the way back in November of last year.
"Big men usually commit earlier. You should be focusing on the big men in the class of 2007 first."
Cole's words gave Yang Shuai an idea.
Big men were hot commodities in this era. Even those whose rankings were low for whatever reason could still send every major college scrambling after them.
It looked like finding the player he wanted on American soil was going to be very difficult.
If not at home, then what about overseas?
At the thought, Yang Shuai called the scout in charge of overseas players on the spot, and with Cole smoothing the way, he got the overseas player files out of him.
But back in his office, he frowned his way through the file and still came up empty.
Here, the difference between eras has to be mentioned.
In the era Yang Shuai had crossed over from, the NAA, to boost its competitiveness, not only allowed players to sign endorsement deals on their likenesses but had also loosened its eligibility review — anyone who hadn't played in the NBA could join the NAA.
That let many players with professional experience enter the NAA, and it even produced the extreme case of players drafted by the NBA coming back to play in the NAA.
But all of that was forbidden in this era. Under rules introduced in 2002, overseas players' professional records were strictly regulated: one year in a professional league meant a one-year sit-out, and anyone with two years or more was flatly barred from being recruited.
If not for that rule, Yang Shuai would have had Yi Jianlian in his plans long ago.
Yi Jianlian was a mobile big man with real shooting range, a perfect partner for Curry and Westbrook.
And if Yi could join the NAA and get a year's head start adapting to American basketball, it would be good for his own development too.
But because of that rule, Yi Jianlian was off the table entirely, and even the file he'd obtained held nothing but names he had never heard of.
Overseas, the good young prospects were generally snapped up into professional clubs' youth systems the moment they showed any talent. The ones the NAA could still scout were, to put it bluntly, the leftovers.
Yang Shuai leaned back into the chair again, fingers drumming the armrest — noticeably harder now.
The domestic big men had long since been snatched up, and overseas players were hemmed in by the rules. Every road was blocked. All he could do, it seemed, was what Cole had said: fix his eyes on the future.
The trouble was, that future was riddled with uncertainty.
Take Westbrook alone: with his chance coming earlier at Wake Forest, he could very well declare for the draft straight out of his freshman year.
Players short on elite talent need team results to lift their draft stock; the highly talented mostly just need a stage.
After a while, Yang Shuai woke the computer again.
If nothing else worked, there was only the dumbest method left.
He logged onto FIBA and started searching for information on youth-team competitions.
Unfortunately, information was hard to come by in this era. Even when he found a competition, he could only request rosters from the organizing committee by phone, and they would have to email them over.
It wasn't something that could be done in a short time. But fortunately the NAA season didn't start until November, and team practices generally didn't begin until September — he still had plenty of time.
In the stretch that followed, Yang Shuai went to class and waited for the emails to trickle in.
In the blink of an eye it was May. One day, just like always, Yang Shuai finished class, went to his office, and opened his email out of habit.
It was a roster from the African Youth Championship. His eyes raced down it, ten lines at a glance.
Nearly two months without a single gain had left him with little hope.
But as his gaze swept across a line in the middle, he suddenly caught something.
He scrolled back and searched carefully, squinting, until at last he found the name that had snagged his attention.
The moment he saw it clearly, he slammed a hand on the desk in excitement and shot up out of his chair.
"What happened?"
Cole came to Yang Shuai's office at the noise.
"I found him!"
Yang Shuai was thrilled. Two months of waiting, and at the very last moment there was finally a result.
"Who?" Cole was utterly baffled.
Yang Shuai waved Cole over to the computer and pointed at one unremarkable name in the vast stretch of the roster:
"Serge Ibaka!"
Chapter 10