Wayne hadn't decided whether or not he was going to participate in the draft, and he fell asleep in his bed exhausted.

By the time he opened his eyes again, it was the day of the opening game of the NCAA Big Twelve Conference in the 03-04 season.

Wayne didn't really sleep well all night because he was a little too excited!

He woke up three or four times in the middle of sleep, not by being woken up, but by his own sudden awakening.

Every time he woke up and looked at the clock and found that it was still early in the morning, Wayne was very disappointed.

When a person is extremely excited about what will happen the next day, he will enter such a state of excitement that he can't sleep.

Even if I fall asleep, I sleep very lightly, my mind is still active, and I wish I could see the next day's sun as soon as I open my eyes.

And this time after waking up, Wayne really saw the sun.

He sat up from his bed and looked at the date on his brick Nokia.

Sunday, 2 November 2003.

That's right, this time it's not a dream.

Wayne's long-awaited day has finally arrived!

"If you're going to be in the draft, you can't afford to lose from the first game." Wayne clapped his hands and cheered himself on.

One thing that must be admitted is that Wayne was not a very motivated person in his previous life.

When he was studying, he was ordinary, and after work, the work of 996 every day also wore out his enthusiasm.

He felt like he was repeating each day, and he could see the head at a glance. Over time, I didn't know what motivation was.

But today, Wayne's enthusiasm is high.

In the past time, Wayne has always been able to find a new purpose to push himself to work hard.

This time, the goal is to make it to the first round!

Either way, Wayne had to try it first.

Unlike the NBA, the NCAA has at least 82 games in a season. Counting the playoffs, it is even more likely to play hundreds of games.

With so many games, there are naturally more opportunities to perform. And even if one or two of them don't perform well, it doesn't seem to hurt.

But the NCAA is completely different, like Wayne's Big 12 League, which only has 35 regular season games in a season.

The final tournament, the playoffs of the Big Twelve League, has a total of four rounds, and it is still a single-elimination system.

Once you're in March Madness, you'll only need to play six games at the end.

What's more, not everyone makes it to the end.

Therefore, if Wayne wants to rush from a small transparent to the first round of the draft, he can only seize this opportunity to play less than 50 games.

Without an American high school basketball background and a sparse freshman year, he only had the opportunity to prove himself to the NBA in less than 50 games this season.

I have to say that it is very difficult to hit the first round.

If Wayne can't put up a very impressive performance, it will be difficult to convince the NBA team to draft him in the first round.

Therefore, Wayne did not dare to delay.

From the opening game, you have to take out everything you can show.

Thinking of this, Wayne prepared to put down his brick Nokia, ready to wash up and go straight to the arena.

But just as he was about to put his phone on the bed, Nokia sent an extremely retro text message tone.

Wayne picked it up and saw that it was a text message from home.

"Today's opener, right? It's a good fight, don't be nervous. When the coach moves you to the starting line-up, it's a sign of recognition. Listen to the coach's instructions and pass the ball to your teammates. Yes, remember to protect yourself.

In two days, I will ask Uncle Liu from your newspaper to collect your news, and your mother is now all over the house with the silhouettes of your American newspapers. Play well at that end, the phone will call again next time, international calls are too expensive. Let's go to bed first, it's still the middle of the night, waiting for your good news. ”

Although Wayne has not met his "parents" yet, he can't talk about their deep affection for them.

But seeing the text messages on this small screen, looking at the simple and unpretentious sentences with their own dialect voices, Wayne still felt warm in his heart.

In the hometown on the other side of the ocean, there are still people waiting for their good news!

Tonight, it will have to take off anyway!

※※※

"Chinese journalists?" Old Sutton looked at Sean in front of him, with a little surprise in his eyes.

"That's right, they'd like to be able to meet Wayne before the game starts, and they want your permission." Sean shrugged, why wasn't he surprised?

Chinese journalists are in the NCAA, which is a rarity.

Last summer, Yao Ming entered the NBA as a top pick, opening up the basketball bridge between China and the United States.

So far, more and more Chinese fans and reporters have poured into the NBA arena.

But the NCAA has not been affected, and now Chinese fans' understanding of the NCAA is almost blank.

This is mainly because none of the Chinese players who have played in the NCAA have made any achievements, so there is not much attention in China, so it is impossible for Chinese journalists to appear on the college court.

Originally, the NCAA was only relatively popular in the United States, after all, only local schools will have local fans and alumni to attract fans.

When going abroad, without this regional factor and the feelings of his alma mater, the popularity of the NCAA really cannot be compared with the NBA.

Sutton had been in college basketball for so many years, and it was the first time he had encountered a Chinese journalist to cover such a thing.

That's right, although Wayne played for the Cowboys for a year last season, let alone Chinese reporters, even Sutton, a Chinese student who came to watch the game, didn't see a few.

Maybe many people don't even know that the cowboys also have a Chinese student.

Can this year ......

"Is that an exaggeration? Wei only played four warm-up games, and there were already Chinese reporters who were already attracted to it? ”

"Well, since Yao entered the league last season, there have been more and more Chinese basketball reporters coming to the United States. I reckon they can't wait to find the next Yao in college. ”

"Really...... Exaggeration. Tell them to come to the players' tunnel before the game starts. When the team enters, they can meet Wei. But they can't go into the dressing room to shoot or ask tactical questions. ”

Sutton shook his head, is this the market effect of Chinese players?

Wayne is just an NCAA player who has played four good games, and he has already been able to attract Chinese reporters to come and interview.

He really can't imagine how much dividends the Chinese market has eaten from the mosaic team with Yao Ming.

The other teams are probably red-eyed.

They never imagined that in addition to the fact that Chinese players can play ball, the economic value generated by them is also immeasurable.

However, seeing Wayne's popularity soar into the sky like a mosaic in his ass, Sutton was still very pleased.

He believes that after this season, Wayne's popularity will rise to a higher level.

In the afternoon, when Wayne arrived in the locker room, every teammate had seriousness written all over their faces.

Wayne himself is the same, although Wayne played well in the previous four warm-up games, but as a veteran fan in his previous life, Wayne still knew the huge difference between the warm-up game and the regular season.

It's like you can't compare the intensity of an NBA preseason game to a real regular season.

What's more, the Cowboys' opener opponent, the University of Colorado Boulder's Buffaloes, is not a belly team.

Since breeding Billups, the Buffaloes have had a reputation in the Big Twelve League.

This season, they will also have the opportunity to develop a first-round rookie, David Brown. Harrison.

David. Harrison was already a star player in high school, and was ranked 13th in the nation at the time, making him a veritable five-star high school student.

After entering college, Harrison established himself in the Big Twelve League with his strong body and superb low-post offensive skills.

With a height of 2.13 meters and a body weighing 112 kilograms, he is invincible in the penalty area.

This body is considered strong in the NBA, let alone in the college arena.

Last season, Harrison averaged 15.3 points, 8.2 rebounds and 1.3 blocks per game and was named to the Big 12 First Team.

In other words, you can understand that he is the number one center in the Big Twelve League!

Currently, Harrison's draft pick prediction is between the first and last stages of the second round.

This kind of meat shield blue-collar center is still quite popular in this era.

What's more, compared to other blue-collar workers, Harrison also has a good low-post offensive skills.

Such an opponent is much stronger than the four in the warm-up game.

Today is the opener again, and it is at home again, and the Cowboys players naturally don't want to lose.

So as soon as I entered the locker room, this serious atmosphere before the big war came to my face.

Even the always calm old Sutton frowned tightly at this time. Harrison is indeed a big problem for the Cowboys.

His tough defensive ability in the penalty area is bound to contain Tony. The impact of Allen and Graham.

On the offensive end, Holmes also struggled to defend Harrison, who was a full lap older than him.

At this point, Sutton's eyes fell on Wayne.

On the surface, the emaciated Wayne is even less likely to compete with Harrison. But Sutton had a plan at this time, and in that plan, Wayne was precisely the key to containing Harrison.

Of course, that's a last resort. Until then, Sutton wanted to see if Harrison was that much of a threat.

Sutton didn't say much to motivate the players in the dressing room afterwards, and the players themselves were nervous enough in this game.

If you make the atmosphere too tense, you won't be able to gain more than you gain.

So, after talking about some basic tactics, Sutton called the players to warm up on the pitch.

Wayne wore his No. 11 jersey and jumped twice. He was about to go out, but was grabbed by old Sutton.

"Coach?"

"Wei, there are two reporters from your home country in the players' tunnel who want to meet you, you can talk to them first and then go to warm up."

"Chinese journalists?" Wayne was still a little flattered when he heard it, his own affairs spread to China so quickly?

This was 2003, when the Internet was not very developed.

After all, even in the era of developed networks in the future, NCAA has not been able to become popular in China.

His appearance will not change the influence of the NCAA in China......

Wayne tidied up his jersey and walked out of the locker room.

It's the first time I've been interviewed by reporters in my life, so I can't make my image better.

Wayne was still curious about what kind of reporter it was, but as soon as he stepped out of the locker room door, Wayne saw two familiar faces.

"Hey, Wayne, hello!" Not far away, a plainly dressed man waved at Wayne and spoke a friendly Chinese language.

Beside him, a man in a suit, but a younger one, smiled at Wayne honestly.

Wayne looked at them and smiled.

This is not Zhang Dao and Yu Jia.

Unexpectedly, it was these two old acquaintances.

"Ouch, this young man, this height, this body. You see, it's less, how good this condition is. As soon as Director Zhang spoke, Wayne felt that he had the flavor of Wei Ping's quotations.

"Oh, let me introduce Ah Xiaowei, I'm Zhang Weiping, this is Yu Jia next to me, we ......"

"I know you two, I've heard your commentary." Wayne waved his hand, you two were all too familiar.

Especially Director Zhang, Wei Ping's quotations Wayne can recite it upside down!

"Hahaha, I didn't expect you to also pay attention to domestic NBA broadcasts. Xiao Wei, before the game starts, let's ask you a few simple questions. When the game is over, we'll talk about it alone. ”

"No problem, you guys came all the way from afar, ...... tonight" Wayne remembered the bearded man who hit him before, and said that he would go to his place to eat and give a 5% discount, "Let's find a place to eat and talk tonight." ”

"It's okay to eat, but we'll have to invite you, after all, you're not a professional footballer, hahahaha. Let's ask you a few questions first, Wayne, the center of the opposing team in today's game can basically be said to be the top 40 players in the draft. ”

"He's basically a future NBA player. So, what do you think are your chances of winning today? ”

Although I have seen some reports about Wayne in the country, I have heard some exaggerated rumors.

But what Wayne's true level is, Zhang Weiping and Yu Jia don't know anything.

So they wanted to use this question to test whether Wayne had the confidence to play in the NBA.

As a result, Wayne's answer was calm.

"What are the odds? Well...... I didn't think I'd lose. ”

Zhang Weiping: ???

So arrogant?

Wayne's answer was surprisingly crisp.

"Anyway, let's watch the game first, and I should go out and warm up. After the game, let's talk slowly. ”

Wayne smiled and waved goodbye to the two of them, then trotted out of the players' tunnel.

The moment he ran out, the cheers on the scene doubled.

Director Zhang and Yu Jia looked at each other.

When they first saw the report about Wayne, they thought it was an exaggeration.

But now they feel ......

Wayne may be more powerful than they think.