Chapter 632: Chapter 195: Outstanding Utility Player (Part 2)
This is a swingman who, as he got older, primarily played as a power forward. Despite the Lakers already having 12 players and plenty of frontcourt players, he still chose to sign with the Lakers at such a low salary... No one seemed to find this news strange.
After signing the veteran inside substitute, the general consensus was that the Lakers would look for a veteran on the outside as well. However, the Lakers only signed Lumir Robinson, the 10th pick of 1990, with a contract totaling $164,000 USD with only $32,000 USD guaranteed, and then shifted their focus to signing players for training camp contracts...
...
Once the 12-man roster was complete and the remaining scenes of Ultraman were reshot, Zhang Hao fully immersed himself in an undisturbed training mode.
He didn’t even bother about who the Lakers might recruit next.
It would definitely be signing veteran players to prevent injuries, there were no other options.
However, this was also the biggest problem with the superteams of this era. The Lakers weren’t a team of young stars in their prime who decided to join forces. Only Barkley, at 34, joined proactively. O’Neal and Kenny Anderson were brought back by the Lakers with sky-high contracts and the allure of Los Angeles, or through quality trades.
Their biggest issue may not be a matter of cohesion or internal strife but the risk of injuries.
Yet the other signed players were also mostly veterans. To sign reliable players, they certainly had to sign experienced veterans...
Of course, there was an advantage that made them overlook all shortcomings—strength!
In an uninterrupted training mode, Zhang Hao found himself in last summer’s groove; training was very smooth, even better than last year.
Last year was mostly about self-exploration, but this year was different. He had played for a year, knew what he urgently needed to improve, understood which aspects of his game would most benefit from reinforcement given the current lineup, and had sought many people to learn what he wanted...
Kenny Anderson always thought of himself as a genius, a talent who made All-Star starter at just 23 in his junior year.
But seeing Zhang Hao’s progress in self-directed training and his capacity to adjust, as well as his resilience after shooting sessions, training three hours each morning and afternoon for several days straight like it was nothing... Kenny Anderson and Jason Williams trained every morning, but rested in the afternoons and would take whole days off once in a while.
On September 3rd, Zhang Hao’s seclusion finally ended, not by choice, but because of tools... no, because diligent worker Pelinka brought good news!
...
"Aix, it’s done! According to your request, I found many university students studying computers to finally get what you wanted done! It’s really cool, I can send a message, and the other person receives it immediately without having to refresh like in emails. So cool, Aix, how did you come up with this..." Pelinka was beyond excited! He felt like he had accomplished something groundbreaking.
This time, Pelinka didn’t bring something related to basketball, but rather something Zhang Hao had discussed with him before the off-season—an instant messaging software.
In mid-June, Microsoft released the beta version of win95-OSR2, domestically known as win97. Zhang Hao called Microsoft and received the beta qualification. It felt similar to the systems used at the beginning of the new century in China, which gave him this idea.
When asked how he thought of it, Zhang Hao replied, "Don’t you think chatting online is too cumbersome? The internet is developing so fast, soon the speed will be faster, computers will be better, the future is the era of the internet, I want to create something that facilitates communication."
To be honest, Zhang Hao genuinely wanted to chat online, but with no chat software available, he asked Pelinka to gather a group of students to create one.
And it actually worked!
It’s actually quite simple; current computers are capable of achieving it, just no one thought of it.
Hearing Zhang Hao’s words, Pelinka was astonished: "Aix, you also know about computers? Then what should we do next? How do we get more people to use this?"
"I don’t know much about computers. As for your question on what to do, I haven’t figured that out just yet. How to get more people to use it... I don’t know either."
"Uh..." Pelinka was a bit dizzy, "Then why did we make it? Aix, you really don’t know computers?"
"I know how to use them, but I don’t know computers. I just thought of making this. But it doesn’t matter, we can find knowledgeable people to form a team to continue developing it. We’re not good at operations, we can find someone who is to run it for us. I may not understand... but I have money!"
At this moment, Pelinka once again felt that Zhang Hao, this 19-year-old genius, was truly remarkable, yet at the same time, he felt Zhang Hao really needed a good talking to!
Just as Pelinka was grappling with how infuriating yet impressive Zhang Hao was, he suddenly heard Zhang Hao say, "Rob, this time, work together with me!"
"Work together?" Pelinka didn’t know how the topic suddenly turned to collaboration.
Such a diligent worker, Zhang Hao definitely didn’t want to miss out.
After thinking for a moment, Zhang Hao said, "I plan to invest, you find someone to be the legal person or do it yourself. I’ll provide the funds, give you a percentage of the shares, and you can set up an internet company."
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