Chapter Ninety-Four: Glory Is Meant to Be Shared

“Lao Cai, are your family coming?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t told them yet. I’ll talk to them when I get home tonight, but it’s not certain. They know I’ve been playing basketball, but they don’t know we’re actually going to be in a competition.”

When Wang Lei told everyone that the players’ parents were invited to come watch, the reactions were sharply divided.

Players like Tuergon and the others who were from the frontier region or nearby were quite excited. After all, their families had never been very supportive of their playing ball before. With the two-thousand-yuan subsidy and the matches taking place on the weekend, if the trip wasn’t too far, it would be easy enough for their families to come. Maybe, after watching the game, they would support their sons’ choice.

But people like Cai Aihong and Sun Dexun were rather torn. To be honest, they were now more or less completely devoted to basketball and had put their studies aside, something they had certainly been keeping from their families. If they invited their relatives to come now, wouldn’t the truth come out?

So when Ha Wule saw Cai Aihong and the others looking troubled, he immediately asked. He had assumed it was because their families lived far away and that two thousand yuan probably would not be enough for the trip.

“I think you should just tell your families outright. What’s the big deal? We’re playing at a professional level, and we’re doing so well now. Maybe if we make it to the final later on, the whole country will be watching live. Then what are you going to say? Rather than causing trouble then, you might as well say it now. Ask your fathers and mothers to come see for themselves. As long as we play well, I’m sure they won’t object too much, right?”

Aili Maihaiti, who had been keeping an eye on the players’ condition the whole time, stepped into the conversation at just the right moment. Though he was officially the team nutritionist, he was not much older than the young players, and he always carried himself with such quiet steadiness that he got along well with everyone. His words therefore carried real weight.

“Aili’s right. Right now, winning games is victory. What’s the point of winning and still hiding things? You all should tell your families as soon as possible. And don’t worry about accommodation when they come—I’ll take care of that.”

Ha Wule usually looked clumsy and impulsive, but at this moment he was remarkably generous.

“Damn, do you think I’d let you pay for our lodging? We’re going to the People’s Arena to play, and there are plenty of hotels around there. Don’t worry about that.”

Cai Aihong had finally come around as well. He also felt that keeping it hidden like this was not a solution. Although Wang Lei’s identity had already been revealed to his family during the New Year, Cai Aihong had never told them that he was now traveling all over the country to play in tournaments. Hearing Ha Wule’s words, he also felt that although he was from out of town, he should not make too much trouble for the local players.

“You don’t need to worry about lodging. The team will arrange everything for you. What you need to do now is contact your families as soon as possible. It’s best to be direct. Brother Lei’s idea is actually a very good one. When the team wins glory, you can share it together. So when you win glory yourselves, who are you going to share it with? You can’t really wait until the final before telling your families, can you? Put all those worries aside and focus on training and games. Logistics is our responsibility. All you need to do is train and play seriously.”

It had to be said that Aili Maihaiti had truly helped Wang Lei a great deal. This thoughtful young Uighur had contributed so much to the team. Though some of his efforts were not obvious, Wang Lei knew that at least half of the reason his work had progressed so smoothly was due to Aili Maihaiti and Xue Yongjiang.

In fact, it had been Aili Maihaiti who gave Wang Lei the idea of inviting the players’ families to watch a match. Wang Lei had always told every member of the coaching staff to pay close attention to the players’ mental states. In his view, every player was a living person, not a machine that only knew how to compete. If he wanted them to take initiative and fully realize their potential, then he had to remove all their worries first.

When Aili first came to work here, his family had not thought much of it. Fortunately, it was a formal, stable job. But once they learned that the team their child was on had now made a name for itself, their attitude changed completely. Aili’s father especially was always telling his friends how outstanding his son was, how the provincial youth team his son played for was this and that, though in truth he had never even watched a single game.

By putting himself in another’s shoes, Aili realized that the players would also want the honors they earned to be known by more of their relatives, which was why he gave Wang Lei the reminder during training.

Wang Lei thought the suggestion was excellent. Although the team was still in its early days, inviting the players’ families to watch a match was indeed necessary. As for those from outside the region, that was another matter, but many local players’ families were very eager to come see their children play at least once.

In the previous game against the Ningliao Provincial Youth Team, Wang Zhaohui’s family had come all the way from their district to the capital to watch. Wang Zhaohui had even collected all of his teammates’ away-game tickets from the team.

Three days later, on the last weekend of April, the Frontier Youth Team迎来了 its first home game. Their opponents were the Mongolia Special Administrative Region Youth Team.

This was not a particularly strong opponent. Although the Mongolia Special Administrative Region had produced quite a few outstanding talents for the nation’s basketball scene, its local conditions were similar to those of Frontier Province: vast land, sparse population. So although talented athletes did emerge there, the local sports infrastructure had not developed all that well.

Not many of the Frontier Youth Team players’ families came. Many players were accompanied only by their fathers. Among the local players, however, not only had parents come, but some had even brought friends. Many of them had bought their own tickets to watch the game. In Ha Wule’s case, many of his middle school classmates had come, and his father, who was in business, had even ordered a huge banner made for his son. It was only because Ha Wule fought tooth and nail against it that the banner was not brought along.

Although the Mongolia Youth Team was not a powerhouse, it had a very distinctive style. If the style currently popular in the republic, and indeed around the world, was an inside-and-outside approach centered on the paint and supported by the perimeter, then the Mongolia Youth Team played a purely high-and-loose, aerial game. That was obvious from their roster. Although they had won only one of their first two games, the fact that even their point guard stood nearly two meters tall was indeed a major advantage in youth competition.

But Wang Lei was not very worried about this opponent. Such a tall lineup from the Mongolia Youth Team might still be able to give other provincial teams a fight, but against the Frontier Youth Team’s current style, it would be completely neutralized. Their players certainly had excellent height, but their athletic ability was nothing special. It was like a cyclist running into a motorcyclist—the outcome was easy to imagine.