The NAA season came in two parts. The first half was exhibition play: those results didn't count toward the league standings, but they did factor into the invitations for the NAA tournament. If Wake Forest wanted to get back to the NAA tournament, the outcomes of these "warm-up" games mattered just as much.
When November arrived, Wake Forest University welcomed its first exhibition opponent of the 2006–07 season: the Vanderbilt Commodores.
Vanderbilt played in the SEC and had finished seventh in the conference last season — overall, about on par with Wake Forest.
The game was played on Wake Forest's home floor, and the stands of Veterans Memorial Coliseum sat nearly empty, dotted with only a scattering of spectators.
Exhibitions, being warm-up games, drew little attention. More to the point, the team's miserable showing last season, coupled with an offseason that brought no marquee high school recruits, had kept fan expectations low.
But up in the stands, Yang Shuai's eyes were locked on the court, itching for it to begin.
The feeling was like playing 2K in his past life: after pouring heart and soul into building a roster, the moment had finally come to see what it could do.
Prosser sent out a starting five of Curry, Westbrook, Michael Drum, Kevin Swinton, and Kyle Visser.
Two freshmen and two sophomores among the starters — a lineup brimming with youth.
Vanderbilt, meanwhile, was led by fifth-year senior* Derrick Byars and built around upperclassmen.
This was a matchup of youth against experience.
Vanderbilt won the tip. After a stretch of set movement in the frontcourt, Byars caught the ball on a mismatch against Westbrook.
Byars stood 2.01 meters and played small forward — a massive size advantage in the NAA.
Eyeing Westbrook's boyish face, he chose to put the ball on the floor and drive, certain the bucket was his.
But just as he reached the free-throw line, the ball went light in his hand — Westbrook had stripped it clean away.
To the roar of the home fans, Westbrook dropped his head and bolted, bursting through one Vanderbilt defender after another. Once he hit the frontcourt, a little hop carried him into a layup, and the ball dropped through the hoop.
The first basket of Westbrook's college career had come fast and ferocious.
"Russell doesn't show a trace of stage fright," Cole marveled beside Yang Shuai. Westbrook had made plays like this in practice before, but a real game ran a full notch above a scrimmage.
"He's not the only one." Yang Shuai had noticed Westbrook raise his right hand — the one wearing the wristband — after the basket.
The Demon Deacons had struck first, but Vanderbilt answered right back: Byars ran a screen with his own center and cut into the lane, took a pass from a teammate, faked the help defender Swinton into the air, and finished with a beautiful up-and-under.
His first possession of the game had carried a touch of contempt for the opponent; once he packed that disdain away, his experience came through in full.
As the game settled into half-court play, Curry began working off the ball, running off his teammates' screens.
The ball did eventually find its way to him, but the Commodores switched fast on defense, and Byars pounced right up on him.
Seeing it, Curry gathered the ball, snapped it through his legs, and drove to the right.
He did get past Byars, but the Commodores' defense collapsed quickly. He had barely penetrated the paint before he was trapped from front and back, and even his passing lane toward the strong side was cut off in front of him.
He tried a jump step to manufacture room for a shot, but the opposing center held both arms high and refused to bite on the fake.
Then the whistle blew — a traveling violation on Curry.
And that one possession became the shape of his entire night.
He lost an inbound pass out of bounds. He double-dribbled trying to shake a defender on the perimeter. He had a fast-break pass picked off. He got the ball poked loose on a drive. Under a double team, a pass meant for a teammate struck an opponent's foot. At one point he even slipped and went down just catching the ball.
Confronted with a performance this disastrous, Curry wiped his sweat with a towel during timeouts, not daring to meet his teammates' eyes.
Up in the stands, Yang Shuai had gone quiet too. It wasn't that he hadn't considered Curry might take some time to adjust to the NAA's intensity — he just never imagined the adjustment would go this badly.
By halftime, Curry had scored 6 points — and committed a staggering 9 turnovers.
The Demon Deacons went into the break trailing the Commodores by double digits.
When the teams came back out, Prosser sent the sophomore Harvey Hale out to start in Curry's place.
The Demon Deacons rebuilt from the defensive end, letting stops fuel the offense.
Westbrook took to the system like a fish to water, scoring in transition again and again, and with four minutes left he threw down a fast-break dunk to put his team in front.
The Demon Deacons kept up that surge to the end and held on for a nerve-jangling 67–63 win to open the season.
Westbrook finished with a game-high 22 points. Kyle Visser, the team's only fourth-year senior at 2.11 meters, posted a double-double with 14 points and 11 rebounds. Curry scored 10 — and committed 13 turnovers.
Games in the exhibition stage normally barely register, but this one landed squarely on The Associated Press, the biggest wire service in the country.
Not a story about Wake Forest's season-opening win. Not a story about Westbrook's sensational debut. The headline read: Stephen Curry, "Famous in a Single Game."
When Curry had announced his commitment to Wake Forest, nobody had paid attention — beyond being the son of a former pro player, he was just a three-star high school recruit.
But once Curry put on a performance this wretched, the media found their angle in an instant.
The old story came to light — how Duke, UNC, and Virginia Tech had all politely turned him away — and the elite programs' cold-eyed verdict that Curry couldn't play NAA basketball was proven ruthlessly accurate.
"The only thing Stephen Curry should be thankful for is how empty the arena was."
The article's closing line was an arrow straight through the heart.
Media coverage has always catered to its audience, and beyond inspiring underdog stories, readers love a chance to stomp on someone who's already down.
For Curry, though, this kind of coverage was all but devastating.
At practice the next day, Curry moved through it like a man who had lost his soul.
Yang Shuai sat at the sideline, and even from a distance he could feel the despair radiating off Curry.
The whole world had written him off — and he hadn't come through either.
Worse still, apart from Westbrook going over to say a few words to him, the teammates who had once affectionately called him "Chef" barely exchanged a word with him.
Basketball could be that cruel sometimes: if you wanted real respect, you had to earn it on the court.
Come the full-court scrimmage, Prosser even pulled Curry from the starting unit altogether.
What Cole had said was right: Prosser was a coach who prized defense, and if Curry couldn't even provide the team any offense, what reason was there to keep him in the starting lineup?
"Coffee together?" After practice, Yang Shuai sought Curry out.
At the sight of him, Curry's eyes darted away, his whole body itching to bolt.
Yang Shuai had overridden everyone to bring him to Wake Forest, and in the end he had let Yang Shuai down.
"What, got a date with a girl tonight?"
Yang Shuai's smiling follow-up only made Curry shake his head in a hurry.
"Come on, Chef. My treat." Even as he spoke, Yang Shuai had already draped an arm over Curry's shoulder and was steering him toward the door.
Curry stayed silent the whole way there. Only at the coffee shop, after he had swallowed a mouthful of coffee, did he speak, head lowered: "Maybe they're right. Maybe I really can't play NAA basketball."
Yang Shuai studied him. In all the time he had known Curry, this was the first time he'd seen him this crushed. With how fierce Curry's competitive fire burned, it wasn't hard to imagine how hard the blow had landed.
"Hey — Stephen!" Yang Shuai put real volume behind it, and when Curry lifted his head, he fixed him with a dead-serious gaze. "Never — absolutely never — say that again!"
Curry stared at him, stunned.
Yang Shuai tipped some sugar into Curry's cup and gestured for him to keep drinking. "Life is like coffee. The first sip might be bitter, but it won't stay bitter forever."
The philosophizing left Curry deep in thought.
Yang Shuai picked up his own cup, clinked it against Curry's, and went on. "This isn't the end of the world. You just had one bad game."
Curry managed a self-mocking, bitter little smile. Then he looked at Yang Shuai, earnest now. "Why are you so sure I can make it?"
"Why?" Yang Shuai looked at him.
Curry nodded, dead serious.
It was a fair question. A rookie nobody believed could play professionally, who had committed 13 turnovers in his very first game, a man who had lost faith even in himself — why did Yang Shuai believe so unshakably?
"Because you're Stephen Curry." Yang Shuai gave his answer in a completely sincere tone.
And of course, it was what he truly believed.
If he weren't a transmigrator, he honestly wouldn't have believed Curry could make it either.
After all, plenty of players had more talent than Curry and put up better numbers, but most of them ended up as mere passers-by in the NAA, never getting anywhere near the NBA.
Curry's chest trembled, and an unbidden warmth swept through his whole body.
What could be more moving than this: the entire world doubting you, yet someone still believing in you, honestly, from the heart?
He let out a long breath, lifted the coffee in front of him, and took another sip.
Whether it was the sugar Yang Shuai had added or something else entirely — this sip, it truly wasn't bitter anymore.
* Under current rules, an NAA transfer must serve a one-year sit-out: the player cannot take the court for a year after transferring, and that year does not count toward his career statistics — which is how a player can spend five years at a university.
Chapter 12