The first shooting event was stationary three-point shooting — from one corner to the opposite corner, five spots, five balls from each spot, twenty-five shots in all.
This was Curry's strongest event, yet his first two three-point attempts both missed.
His release looked noticeably tight.
Yang Shuai's words had had an effect, but Curry was still green, and on a stage this big it was hard for him to relax completely.
Then, on the third ball, he dropped in a pure swish.
Then came the second, and the third.
Curry finished the first spot 3 of 5.
And as the makes piled up, his body finally loosened.
At the second spot he went five for five, and with his first two shots from the third, he ran off ten straight makes!
Now it was the Demon Deacons players' turn to look at him with new eyes.
Granted, compared with a three-point contest, this tryout shooting was relatively easy since it wasn't timed — but the mental pressure was every bit as great.
A showing like this proved not only Curry's shooting touch, but his mental toughness as well.
Curry finished 21 of 25, drawing a round of cheers from those on hand.
In the off-the-dribble shooting drill that followed, Curry was just as impressive.
He and Smith ended the first stage of the tryout as its two most memorable players.
When the non-contact tryout ended, Cole came over to Yang Shuai. "If he plays well in the contact tryout, I'll persuade Skip to offer him a scholarship."
In theory there was no cap on an NAA team's roster size, but the scholarships each school could offer were limited.
In a sense, getting a scholarship was a guarantee of your standing with the team.
The contact tryout had only one event: five-on-five, full court, lasting one NAA period — twenty minutes.
Since not enough high schoolers had shown up to try out, Prosser had Demon Deacons players fill out the sides, splitting them into Teams A and B, seven players to a side.
And when he assigned personnel, he deliberately put Smith and Curry on different teams.
Curry took the floor as Team B's starting point guard, and Yang Shuai watched him now with far more gravity than before.
Just as he had told Curry, the non-contact tryout was only the appetizer; what would truly decide things was the contact tryout.
If Curry wanted the scholarship — let alone Prosser's trust — these twenty minutes would be everything.
A whistle blew from the sideline, and the contact tryout was underway.
Smith struck first, using his speed to drive straight into the paint, drawing the help defense, and feeding a teammate for a layup.
And on defense he showed his energy there too, shadowing Curry every step.
With him leading the way, Team A quickly seized control, and by the eight-minute mark they led 11–4.
With the NAA's 35-second limit on each possession, a score like that said Team A had utterly smothered Team B.
Curry was subbed out to rest at that point. He had taken only one shot, scored nothing, and thrown two passes away.
"Anyone else on your list?" Cole turned to Yang Shuai. However well Curry had shot in the drills, if he couldn't produce it in a game, it amounted to nothing.
Or rather, if contact at this level alone was enough to shut Curry down, then clearly he couldn't handle the intensity of A League basketball.
Yang Shuai nodded — then added with a smile, "The game isn't over yet."
Cole looked at him. Yang Shuai was every bit as confident as ever.
He meant to say something, but in the end only shook his head helplessly.
To him, Yang Shuai was by now a man who wouldn't quit until the proof hit him in the face.
Yang Shuai paid Cole's reaction little mind. He turned and walked to the bench, reached out and patted Curry, who sat there blankly, and when Curry looked up, he said, "Play more selfishly out there."
He didn't encourage Curry the way he had before, because this was barely about mindset anymore — it was a question of choices.
At his current height, point guard was the only position Curry could play even in the NAA, and perhaps to prove he could play it well, he was visibly smothering his own scoring instinct and trying to run the team instead.
Only, it was obvious that wasn't what he was good at just yet.
"Believe in yourself. You're no worse than anyone." When he saw the confusion still in Curry's eyes, Yang Shuai added, dead serious.
The scene struck a chord of déjà vu, and Curry froze — then, coming back to himself, nodded hard.
Four more minutes passed. At the twelve-minute mark the score stood at 20–10, and a double-digit gap in this era's NAA meant the game was as good as decided.
And right then, Curry checked back in.
His return drew hardly a glance; even Prosser's attention had been pulled completely away by Smith.
Smith had only 4 points to show so far, but 5 assists and 2 steals — a point guard who could both run an offense and defend was exactly Prosser's favorite kind.
But just when nobody was watching, Curry, moments after checking in, buried a transition three on the fast break.
The shot itself was so sudden that everyone in the gym's eyes lit up.
For a transition three is not merely a matter of accuracy. It places enormous demands on shooting rhythm, body control, and how fast you can gather the ball into your shot.
You have to stop on a dime at full sprint, gather the ball into your shooting motion in the same instant, use a strong core to keep your body from pitching forward or swaying side to side, and only then release the shot.
To pull off that kind of shot and make it said plenty about Curry's three-point shooting.
And with that three in, Curry's whole bearing changed.
On the very next possession he called for a pick-and-roll with a hand signal of his own, and the instant the screen was set, he decisively fired another three.
Team A's man inside was a Demon Deacon, and with an NAA player's quickness, the moment he saw Smith taken out by the screen he switched out at once.
He was still a beat too late — Curry's release was simply too fast!
The ball sailed over the defender's head, and the net snapped with another crisp swish.
Back-to-back threes from Curry!
"What did you say to him?" Cole turned to Yang Shuai, astonishment all over his face. This was a different Curry from the one before.
"Nothing much. I just told him to be himself," Yang Shuai said, as if it were nothing.
He had never doubted Curry's ability. He had only worried that Curry wouldn't be able to show it.
At the very start, Curry had been nervous; just now, he had been thinking too much. But now, Curry was plainly in the zone.
After those consecutive threes, Team A's defense changed too.
Smith began picking Curry up early, and once Curry reached the frontcourt, Team A flat-out double-teamed him.
Curry was forced to give the ball up sooner than he wanted.
But after he hit those consecutive threes, his teammates' trust in him had visibly grown.
When he gave up the ball and drifted to the weak side, the weak-side teammate immediately set a screen for him up at the top.
And here Curry showed his gift for moving without the ball: seeing the defender switch, he reversed his cut straight back to the left wing.
The pretty cut shook off the defense, the pass came quickly, and he got the three away again just before the help defender arrived.
Swish!
The crisp snap of the net rang out once more.
Three straight threes from Curry!!
After he landed, Curry clenched both fists, flexed his arms, and let out a roar.
Through those first eight minutes he had believed he'd wrecked his tryout — until Yang Shuai's words jolted him awake.
He had come to try out for Wake Forest not only to join the team and get his chance to beat, face to face, the schools that looked down on him. More than that, he meant to lead this team back to the tournament and prove what he could do. That was the engine that kept him grinding: a son of a star who wanted for nothing, yet refused to coast.
The more others wrote him off for his body, the more he burned to prove them wrong — just as Yang Shuai had said, he was no worse than anyone!
Smith, whose thunder had been stolen outright, went straight at Curry looking for an answer, but Curry showed real lateral quickness — he stayed with Smith stride for stride, and at the instant Smith rose for the layup, he reached in and stripped the ball clean!
Team B turned the steal straight into a fast break and took the lead.
Now it wasn't just Yang Shuai and Cole — everyone present, Prosser included, was stunned.
Inside that slight frame of Curry's, an enormous energy had been hiding.
And to erase a 10-point deficit in barely three minutes — that was a rarity in NAA play.
Once Curry got going, the game flipped completely.
Team A had poured so much defense into containing Curry that the price was losing their grip on everyone else on Team B.
And now Smith's weakness came to light as well.
He could still break down the defense with his speed, but his finishing wasn't good enough, and he had no way to swing a game by himself the way Curry was doing.
In the end, Team B completed the comeback from as many as 10 points down and beat Team A, 29–24.
Of the two most watched high schoolers on the floor, Smith finished with 4 points and 6 assists; Curry had 15 points and 2 assists.
After the game, Curry soaked up the mob of teammates and their cheers.
It was only a tryout game, but a comeback from the brink always sets the blood racing.
Cole clapped Yang Shuai on the shoulder and gave him a look of unmistakable approval, then walked over to Prosser, his face alight.
The facts had proved it: Curry really had been underrated — by everyone, Cole himself included.
Curry had proved his ability. And Yang Shuai had proved that his eye for talent was truly one of a kind.
Chapter 4