When, on the court, the coach on the sidelines asked him to set a pick-and-roll with the ball handler Jack Mason, Jack Mason almost completely ignored the coach’s tactical request. He simply pulled up for a jump shot two steps behind the three-point line, a full eight meters from the basket.

After making this shot, the team’s star player turned his head with a hint of disdain and shrugged at the head coach on the sidelines. At the same time, not far from Jack Mason, Henry Lincoln walked over to the flamboyant team leader with a big smile and a flattering attitude, as if he hadn’t noticed the murderous glares from the other eight players on the court.

Well, what could he do? After all, the Mr. Mason that Henry Lincoln kept mentioning was his boss.

After graduating from high school last year, as a student with terrible grades, Henry Lincoln had no chance of getting into an American university. Even if he had the grades, he couldn’t afford the tuition.

In this situation, thanks to his decent height and looks, Henry Lincoln had already found a job at McDonald’s. But after a chance encounter with Mr. Mason, he caught Mr. Mason’s eye and became Jack Mason’s translator and training partner. It was also his first time getting involved with basketball.

In the US, there are many Chinese people, but few speak Mandarin as well as Henry Lincoln. Even fewer speak standard Mandarin and are also short on money. So, the basketball player named Jack Mason was quite satisfied with Henry Lincoln, offering him a generous annual salary of $15,000. Although this was much less than Utah’s average annual income of $23,000, it was still better and easier than working at McDonald’s. After all, the job was just to be Jack Mason’s assistant, keeping him company while he studied and played basketball.

So, Henry Lincoln was very grateful to Mr. Mason, who gave him his first paycheck. And Mr. Mason was indeed impressive—over the past year, he had dominated all of Utah, not just crushing small school teams, but even recently outplaying the University of Utah’s starting power forward.

Therefore, Henry Lincoln didn’t feel the least bit bad about his flattery. As for the opinions of the other players, he didn’t care—after all, they weren’t the ones paying his salary.

Of course, the reason this lousy school’s lousy team was so fierce and dominant this year, beating every team in Utah except the Utah Jazz, was not just because of their superstar forward Jack Mason, who averaged 18 points, 6 rebounds, and 4 assists per game. They also had another superstar white guard, David Patrous, who averaged 19 points, shot 45% from three, and over 50% from the field.

Today, the reason so many NBA and NCAA scouts—even Jerry Sloan and Rick Majerus—showed up was because of these two. Both were recognized as NCAA-level players, with a real shot at making it to the NBA.

“A coach from a tiny community college wants to show off? He should know his own limits!”

Jack Mason responded positively to Henry Lincoln’s high-five, but the Chinese basketball player kept muttering under his breath. On this lousy team, Henry Lincoln was basically his only friend; everyone else, including the coach, was almost an enemy—especially at this particular time.

After all, these players all wanted to impress big-name coaches like Sloan and Majerus. The coach, of course, had the same idea. Even someone like Henry Lincoln, who didn’t care much about basketball, knew that Jerry Sloan, the famous NBA coach, loved running pick-and-rolls. So it made sense that the coach kept shouting for his players to run pick-and-rolls—he was indirectly showing off to Jerry Sloan how good his team was at it.

But neither Jack Mason nor David Patrous, the team’s two stars, paid him any mind. For them, did a game at this level really need pick-and-rolls? Not at all. They didn’t need any tactical cooperation or support from other players—they could just show off their own talent.

“Heh, that’s right. With Mr. Mason’s skills, there’s no need to mess with that low-level stuff. Look, isn’t that fat guy on the sidelines giving you a big thumbs-up?”

Seeing Jack Mason’s disdain for the head coach, Henry Lincoln grinned and gestured with his mouth. Following Henry Lincoln’s hint, Jack Mason saw the fat guy on the sidelines—whom Henry Lincoln was referring to—looking very pleased with his performance, and he was quite happy about it. After all, he could ignore the head coach of Utah Valley Community College, but he had great respect for the University of Utah’s head coach, who had always appreciated him. Staying in the US wasn’t easy for him. Even though he was a national player from China, Chinese basketball players didn’t make much money at the time. The money he used to pay Henry Lincoln’s salary and his own tuition was actually provided by the University of Utah’s head coach. That was also why he was willing to stay in the US and play these low-level games—because the University of Utah’s head coach had promised him that if he played a year of these “garbage” games and learned English well, he would recruit Jack Mason into the University of Utah.