Chapter 2: Not Necessarily
In the days before the official start of school and the team assembly, Xu Ling became the ghost who arrived earliest and left latest in the Texas Tech University basketball arena.
He would practice the most basic dribbling on the empty court, focusing on feeling the unparalleled control of the enlarged palm over the basketball; as well as the new rhythm of lowering the center of gravity after the height increase. Then, he used a large number of jump shots to recalibrate his “sights.” He stood at various familiar shooting spots from his previous life, shooting again and again, carefully experiencing the adjustments needed in exertion and shooting arc due to changes in wingspan and height.
After a few days, a clear, exciting feeling gradually replaced the initial awkwardness.
Xu Ling could feel that he was getting more and more accustomed to this brand new body.
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Since the new century, the outstanding performances of foreign players such as Yao Ming, Nowitzki, Ginobili, Parker and many others have proven that world-class basketball athletes can also be cultivated outside the United States.
The globalization promoted by the NBA since the 1990s has finally taken a key step—globalization of talent selection.
A few years earlier, the NBA’s management even fell into the trap of “foreign monks chant better,” preferring to ignore well-known domestic college athletes and instead select foreign players who looked talented but had completely raw fundamentals, thereby winning one “thank you for your patronage” lottery ticket after another.
The NBA’s draft pool faces the globe, and NCAA recruitment efforts have also begun to shift overseas, especially for mid-tier schools struggling with domestic recruitment.
For example, Xu Ling’s school—Texas Tech University.
TTU’s basketball program is weak, with the best historical achievement being the Sweet Sixteen.
Indiana University’s legendary coach Bob Knight was fired by the school after triggering the zero-tolerance clause by giving a rude student a “etiquette lesson” on campus. Knight took a year off before setting out again, accepting TTU’s invitation to become the head coach of Texas Tech University, and in the past five years, he has reached March Madness three times, entering the Sweet Sixteen in 2005, tying the team’s best historical record.
But that was it.
For TTU, this was a very good achievement.
For Knight, it was not.
For a coach who had won all the honors in campus basketball by the mid-1980s and led the United States team to an Olympic championship, the Sweet Sixteen was bitter.
Knight had to admit that his era was over; he could no longer persuade those teenage geniuses’ parents by saying, “Come to my school, and I’ll make sure your son leaves campus with a degree.”
Because in this era, a “degree” was not important for prospective NBA players; they just wanted to enter the NBA as soon as possible to make big money.
This was a conflict between the old era and the new era.
If Knight stuck to his guns, he could not recruit top players willing to commit to playing three or even four years in college.
Therefore, to solve this stubborn problem, TTU’s recruitment focus had to shift partly overseas.
And that was why Xu Ling and his family chose TTU.
TTU’s academics are at the upper-mid level among U.S. universities, with a legendary mentor like Knight who not only teaches kids to play ball but also how to be a person—and most importantly, if the kid’s grades don’t meet the standard, he can’t play. How great is that? Such a great mentor is worth it, even if there’s a risk of being choked, right?
Another school opening season, after the devastating 2005-06 season, TTU urgently needed to regroup.
“Coach, how are this year’s rookies?”
On the court, a senior veteran doing stretching exercises asked the assistant coach.
“I believe someone in this freshman class will become the team’s future.” The assistant coach’s words lacked much confidence.
The veteran who asked joked, “I hope they have more backbone than last year’s bunch of bastards!”
The topic ended there.
Within TTU, “last year” had become a taboo word.
Soon, the freshmen arrived.
Xu Ling and Roderick Craig were the earliest freshmen to arrive, and right after, they saw someone who looked just like Chandler Bing from the later seasons of Friends, whose image changed drastically due to the actor’s real-life drug use in purple, walking toward them.
He was the assistant coach in charge of TTU’s overseas recruitment, Pat Knight, also the son of head coach Bob Knight.
“You guys look spirited!” Little Knight enthusiastically led them to the veterans doing stretches, “This is our captain, Jarrius Jackson (SG/PG).”
Jackson said nonchalantly, “Just call me JJ.”
“Hello, captain, I’m Roderick Craig from Portola Valley, California; you can call me whatever!” Craig said excitedly, “I have a lot to learn, and I’ll definitely learn well from you all!”
This old black guy was so humble it didn’t seem like him.
Xu Ling quickly rolled his eyes and then said, “I’m Xu Ling, from China; you can call me Eli.”
Jackson replied flatly, “Nice to meet you.”
Clearly, TTU’s current captain was not an enthusiastic person.
Little Knight then said, “You should really learn from JJ, because he’s not only our captain but also the ‘General’s’ proudest disciple in Lubbock, and the best scorer in the Big 12 Conference!”
Little Knight’s flattery made Jackson feel good; he showed no reaction, just a smile.
Craig looked full of admiration, while Xu Ling wondered in his mind: Who is the General?
The doubt flashed for only a moment; Xu Ling’s original memories quickly made him realize who the “General” referred to.
Naturally, it was the NCAA legendary head coach, the vice-GOAT of college basketball history with the second-highest status, Bob Knight: the Puerto Rican prison escape master, donkey hat fashion godfather, flying chair ballistician, warm-up game unilateral ceasefire agreement signer, misogynist philosopher, whipping performance artist, and NCAA fine philanthropist.
Then came the meeting between freshmen and veterans.
Besides the captain Jackson who had already greeted them, TTU had one more senior, expected to be the team’s main inside rotation for the new season, Darryl Dora （C/PF）. Then sophomores—only two again—from Arizona white center Damir Suljagic （C） and the team’s second-leading scorer Martin Zeno （SG）. Finally, the sophomores, also only two on the team: Dane Alan Voskuil （SG） and white forward Michael Prince.
What on earth happened to this team? Why is the roster structure so unhealthy?
Although the basketball gap between China and the U.S. is huge, campus basketball team building boils down to this: senior cores, junior mainstays, sophomore potentials, freshman fresh blood.
Usually, upperclassmen occupy most of the starting spots.
Only schools with extremely high recruitment quality like Kentucky, Kansas, Duke would heavily use freshmen.
For a team like TTU that targets March Madness every year, it’s normal for upperclassmen to carry the load, but the sophomore class as the team’s future should normally make up 1/3 of the roster for developing future cores—yet TTU’s this year is almost “wasted,” with only two players.
With such a top-heavy roster structure, once injuries or non-combat reductions hit, the team would face a dilemma of having no one available.
Clearly, the coaching staff recognized this hidden danger, so TTU recruited seven freshmen this year.
However, after mutual introductions, Xu Ling found that this class didn’t seem to have anyone particularly useful.
The most direct evidence was that, excluding the two from junior colleges and Xu Ling the international student, none of the other three domestic U.S. freshmen made the 2006 All-American Top 100 high schoolers.
In other words, there wasn’t even a nominal four-star high schooler in their batch.
It seemed that Bob Knight’s brand no longer held appeal for today’s players.
Formal training soon began; all players, led by the assistant coach, undertook TTU’s most famous conditioning project—the “Inferno Circuit” （Inferno Circuit）. Said to have been brought by Bob Knight from Indiana University, it includes full-court sprint shuttles, quick lateral defensive slides, dribble sprints—guards have specialized dribbling training, bigs add strength training—cycling 1-3 sets.
The veterans barely held on; the freshmen suffered miserably.
Xu Ling originally had full confidence; the university from his previous life, though with somewhat inferior student sources compared to top schools, relied on devilish training to reach nationals every year—his stamina was absolutely no problem.
Yes, he had no problem, but Xu Ling’s original body did.
After one “Inferno Circuit,” Xu Ling was nearly exhausted, like Yuyama Yuu challenging ten female teachers to climax without rest.
The other freshmen weren’t much better; the only one standing steady was Roderick Craig, but not because of good stamina—he was carrying some injuries and couldn’t go all out.
The coaching staff didn’t disclose what the injury was.
Then, Bob Knight walked into the arena; as rumored, he wore his unchanging sweater regardless of season. Though in his twilight years, he was still sturdy, with white hair combed meticulously, eyes flashing with sharp insight.
“Kids, forgive my bluntness,” Knight said coldly, “You are the worst! The worst! The fucking worst freshmen in TTU history!”
“Not necessarily.”
Knight strode toward Xu Ling, almost nose-to-nose, roaring: “You—what—did—you—say?!!!”
Xu Ling didn’t retreat an inch, calmly meeting Knight’s fiery gaze, repeating: “We are not necessarily the worst, coach.”
“Oh?” Knight laughed in extreme anger, his voice even icier, “Why? You think you’re more qualified than me to judge players’ levels?”
“No.” Xu Ling shook his head, speaking with certainty, “Just because you haven’t even seen any of us play a game yet and already passed judgment. That doesn’t seem like the judgment of a great coach.”
“Give us a chance, coach. Give us a chance in training to prove you’re not wrong. Otherwise, you’re not cursing us—you’re cursing yourself and TTU’s recruitment.” Ignoring Knight’s increasingly icy expression, Xu Ling continued, “You and your team recruited us ‘worst’ players.”
In an instant, the arena fell silent. Veteran JJ Jackson’s face showed genuine surprise for the first time, not mockery.
Knight stared deadly at Xu Ling, his gaze as if to devour him alive. Though only seconds passed, it felt like years.
Suddenly, the fury on Knight’s face receded like the tide, and a sentence squeezed through his teeth: “Very well. Rookie, you better pray your ball skills are half as good as your mouth.”
With that, this NCAA tyrant turned and bellowed at the whole team: “What the fuck are you staring at! Back to training! I’ll see if there’s anyone among you damn freshmen who isn’t the ‘worst’!”
⑴ Wanted in the 1970s for assaulting a cop in Puerto Rico.
⑵ To humiliate rival Purdue University, he brought a donkey to a TV show and put a Purdue hat on it.
⑶ Everyone should know about throwing a chair during the 1984-85 season game.
⑷ Led his home team in a warm-up game against the Soviet men’s basketball team but got ejected by a referee he had a grudge against, then took the team off the court in protest.
⑸ The above are only some of his publicly recorded exploits.
For some reason, the part in this chapter where Knight blows the pig trotter’s hairdryer was censored when released; now corrected.
