The reporters' curiosity was at full pitch, but Eagle stopped short of saying more and did not take the subject any deeper.
For him, it was enough that the media now knew there was a person named Yang Shuai.
The rest they would dig up themselves, and that would do more for him than anything he could hold forth about at a press conference.
The next day, when Yang Shuai reached the office after class, Cole came to find him.
“Ian Eagle of B Sports wants to do an exclusive interview with you.”
“Me?” Yang Shuai looked astonished. He didn't know any Ian Eagle, but he knew B — one of America's top-tier sports outlets.
“If you agree, I'll set up a time with him.” Cole didn't explain much.
Yang Shuai looked at Cole and saw that his boss's expression wasn't very good.
He thought for a moment, then spoke. “I can do it, but I have one request.”
“A request?” Cole frowned. Yang Shuai was getting a little above himself.
Yang Shuai nodded. “We go together for the interview.”
“I'm afraid I won't be able to handle it on my own,” he added, offering a perfectly reasonable excuse.
But the deeper reason was that he had noticed Cole's mood.
It wasn't hard to understand: Cole himself was still unknown behind the scenes, while his subordinate had stepped into the spotlight first.
Sure enough, the moment Yang Shuai finished speaking, the furrow between Cole's brows smoothed out and a smile spread across his face.
Two days later, in a second-floor meeting room at Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Yang Shuai met Eagle.
Eagle wore a pair of gold-rimmed glasses, and most eye-catching of all was his neatly groomed handlebar mustache — he looked exactly like an old-fashioned English butler or a gentleman out of another era.
Yang Shuai felt he looked familiar. He thought back, and realized this was the official commentator from the game two days ago; because it had been his first nationally televised game, he had taken a curious look or two at the time.
And when Eagle saw Yang Shuai, his eyes went wide. He had never imagined that Yang Shuai was still just a student!
Because he subconsciously assumed that scouting was full-time work, the question of Yang Shuai's identity had never even crossed his mind, and naturally he had never thought to look into it beforehand.
But having discovered this, his interest only grew keener.
After a bit of simple small talk, the camera was set up and the interview began.
Facing a lens for the first time, Yang Shuai was inevitably a little nervous, glancing toward the camera from time to time.
But Eagle was good at drawing people out. The homely small talk not only introduced Yang Shuai but also did a fine job of easing his nerves.
Then Eagle moved to the main subject.
“Hanson, from what I understand, Stephen Curry, Russell Westbrook and Serge Ibaka were all recruited by you?”
Yang Shuai was a little surprised to hear that. After the game that day, Prosser had pulled him aside to talk tactics, so he hadn't seen Eagle interview Curry and the others, and naturally had no idea what they had said.
“I found them,” Yang Shuai nodded. “But the recruiting after that was done by Mr. Cole together with me.”
Eagle's eyes went wide again. He felt exactly as Cole had at first: Yang Shuai might be a student, but he was far too mature to be one.
Especially since he had talked with Curry and the others the day before, and they had never mentioned any Cole.
“How did you find them?” Eagle collected himself and pressed on. “None of them were favored by the media before, especially Ibaka — he wasn't even on the media's radar.”
Eagle's questions were direct and sharp, but Yang Shuai looked entirely at ease, long prepared for this one:
“Between a player who looks certain to succeed and one who looks like a big risk, most people choose the first, because people instinctively avoid risk — the media included. But I prefer to watch the second kind, because it gives you a sense of accomplishment.”
Eagle's mouth curved upward without his noticing; he found Yang Shuai a very interesting person. But he had no intention of letting him off that easily. “Finding talent that low on the radar isn't easy, yet you found three at once. How did you do it?”
Eagle kept digging, but Yang Shuai's answer was, above all, a humblebrag: “I suppose it's probably a kind of talent.”
That finally made Eagle burst out laughing. The answer was not only funny but left him no way to keep pushing.
“Do you know that Prosser mentioned you at the press conference?” He switched to a new topic.
Yang Shuai nodded. Cole had already told him about that, and he truly hadn't expected it at all.
“So you've studied tactics as well?”
“I wouldn't call it study, but knowing tactics is a basic skill for a scout.” For Yang Shuai, his greatest advantage still came from a transmigrator's foresight — basketball tactics, after all, never stopped evolving.
“Then how did you find tactics that suit the team?” Eagle thought Yang Shuai was refreshingly modest.
“I watched a lot of tape of weak NAA teams beating strong ones, and I found that, rather than trying to out-scheme them in the half-court game, they mostly looked for ways to pull the game out of the half-court altogether. The talent gap is right there, after all — it's very hard to beat someone better than you in the half-court.” He added, “And our team is very young, and it puts a great deal into defense.”
Eagle's face showed little change, but inside him a storm was raging.
Every point of Yang Shuai's analysis struck a vital spot. Now he understood why Prosser had pulled that stunt — because Yang Shuai was... a genius!
Genius wasn't a word reserved for players. Yang Shuai's ability to pinpoint and recruit three undervalued talents, together with his grasp and analysis of tactics, made him ideal material for a future NAA head coach!
The youngest head coach in NAA history?
It was not entirely impossible. Like Zhang Xue's story, this interview with Yang Shuai would be one of the most important decisions of his career as a journalist.
After the interview ended, Eagle's attitude toward Yang Shuai was noticeably warmer, even a little familiar, and before leaving he made a point of handing over his card, saying he would come interview him again when he had the chance.
Once Eagle had finally gone, Cole came over smiling and put a hand on Yang Shuai's shoulder. “A new barbecue place just opened nearby. Want to go try it? My treat.”
The very day after Yang Shuai's interview, B rushed out a documentary of the exclusive, and The Associated Press followed with a dedicated feature on the documentary, setting off a vigorous reaction.
Curiosity is human instinct; people always delight in digging out the truth behind a story.
A college student becoming a regional scout, praised by a head coach — even his yellow skin became a talking point at this moment.
And with that, Yang Shuai began to have some popularity.
The clearest sign of it was the markedly increased attention he drew at school: classmates would gather around him to chat before class, and notes even turned up in his backpack from female classmates inviting him to their homes that weekend to “discuss life.” They were curious about Yang Shuai's story and wanted a deeper exchange.
But Yang Shuai had no time to deal with any of that just then, because that very day, after practice ended, Curry came looking for him too.
“Do you have time to come to my house for a meal this weekend? My dad wants to meet you.”
Curry's father was Dell Curry.
Back when he had been recruiting Curry, Yang Shuai had worried that this NBA veteran might come out against it, but in the end that hadn't happened; now that he was being invited, he had no reason to refuse.
The Currys' home wasn't in Charlotte proper but in Waxhaw, a satellite town south of the city.
Dell Curry looked far sturdier than Yang Shuai had expected — after all, he had only retired three or four years ago, and a professional player at that stage should still be keeping up with his training.
“Welcome, the NAA's Jerry West.” Dell Curry's opening line left Yang Shuai somewhat overwhelmed.
The AP feature had described Yang Shuai as “a man who might one day become the NAA's Jerry West,” and Dell Curry had simply stripped away both premises, “one day” and “might.”
Curry's mother, Sonya, cooked them North Carolina fried oysters. The cornmeal coating had fried to a crisp golden brown, while the oysters inside still held the seawater's sweetness and tenderness — delicious.
“Hanson, thank you for what you did for Stephen.” Once they had sat down and begun eating, Dell Curry raised his glass and thanked Yang Shuai directly.
“It's what I should have done.” Everything Yang Shuai had done for Curry had begun from his own interests; it was only that afterward, events had formed a virtuous cycle.
“Have you thought about what you'll do later? Stay on in the NAA as a scout?” Dell Curry asked after setting down his glass.
“I haven't decided yet. Right now I'm only thinking about how to get Wake Forest University into the NAA tournament, and how to go further in March.” Of course Yang Shuai would not lightly reveal his true thoughts, though what he said was also the necessary condition for reaching that goal.
Dell Curry looked at Yang Shuai with a smile, as if hoping to catch his real thoughts in his expression.
In the end he smiled, picked up his fork and put another oyster in his mouth.
Yang Shuai thought the subject had been skipped over, but just as he too lowered his head to eat, Dell Curry suddenly spoke again: “Have you ever thought about going to the NBA?”
Chapter 20