"Knock knock Bai Xiaofei, open the door."

"Who."

"Can't you tell who my voice is?"

The voice outside the door was low and slow.

"Squeak," the door opened, and the old man walked in, wearing a gray baseball cap, white casual clothes, and his hands behind his back, and walked in, the room was very messy, and the cleaned floor was sprinkled with torn confetti, and the old man looked down at the headline of one of the newspapers.

The performance is not good, Bai Xiaofei is a lamb to be slaughtered again!

Bai Xiaofei sat on the edge of the bed, looking at the blue sky outside the window, his eyes were blank, indeed, the overwhelming pressure made the young and fragile Bai Xiaofei unacceptable.

The old man put his hand on Bai Xiaofei's shoulder and said, "What do you want." ”

Bai Xiaofei turned his head, looked at the old man, barely squeezed out a smile at the corner of his mouth, and then shook his head gently, this Bai Xiaofei, who can be said to be able to break and make trouble on weekdays, is like two people.

"It's just a game, so why take it too seriously." The old man was a little unbearable, and comforted him, Bai Xiaofei was directly selected from the first year of CUBA, and he had not even played in the real professional league in China, and it was indeed a little uncomfortable to pull him to the height of the NBA all of a sudden.

"It's not that I take it to heart," Bai Xiaofei said, "but that the people sitting on the sidelines always take it to heart." ”

"What does that have to do with you?" The old man sat down beside Bai Xiaofei lightly and said, "They miss them and talk about them, but this can't interfere with your performance on the court, even if they say that you are worthless, so what?" You're still you, you haven't changed at all, they just eat by writing these things every day, and if you take it to heart, you lose. ”

"That's what I said, but ......" Bai Xiaofei sighed softly, looked at the old man, and said, "Director Fu, I have something I want to tell you, I hope you don't get angry after listening to it." ”

"Say it, but don't say you want to go back to China."

"I don't want to play tomorrow." Bai Xiaofei's mouth gently spit out these words.

Old Fu looked at Bai Xiaofei suspiciously, and said, "You have to understand, if you don't participate in the competition tomorrow for no reason, your contract will be terminated early, so what's the difference between returning to China." ”

Bai Xiaofei lowered his head, his two hands were tightly twisted together, and he didn't speak.

"You know what you're thinking," the old man said softly, "If you don't participate in the competition, no one will point fingers at you, right?" ”

Bai Xiaofei nodded lightly.

"You are wrong, Bai Xiaofei, if you quit at this time, you will change from a Loser to a deserter, for those unpleasant words, it will always exist in the outside world that you are closed, you just choose to listen or not, you just run away, you just pretend not to exist, but in fact."

The old man was silent for a while, then picked up a thick book from his hand and handed it to Bai Xiaofei and said, "This is my gift to you." ”

Bai Xiaofei raised his head and saw the old man's kind eyes like a father, tears swirled in Bai Xiaofei's eyes, Bai Xiaofei quickly blinked his eyes, tried hard to suppress the tears that were about to flow, and then took the book handed over by the old man with both hands.

"The Shawshank Redemption?"

The old man nodded lightly and said, "Nice book, I suggest you take a look, Stephen King's book." ”

"The thing I hate most in my life is reading." Bai Xiaofei casually put the book on the side of his pillow.

"I understand your thoughts, and respect your choice, I suggest that you take a look at this book," the old man put the book back in front of Bai Xiaofei and said, "I suggest you calm down and read this book, this book is just a novel, just telling a story, but the confusion, struggle, hesitation and helplessness you are experiencing now can find the answer in this book." ”

Bai Xiaofei raised his head and looked at the old man's eyes, although the old man was old, his eyes were still very sharp and firm, which made Bai Xiaofei inexplicably muster unprecedented courage.

"This book is mainly about a banker named Andy, who was unjustly imprisoned for an inexplicable murder of his wife, in prison he was inhumanely abused, imprisoned and beaten, but he never gave up his freedom and hope, he spent a full twenty years in prison, he always stuck to his dream, and finally got the freedom he dreamed of, in the last letter, he said a sentence, Hopeisagoodthings, Maybethebestofthings, Andnogoodthingeverdies。 (Hope is a good thing, perhaps the best thing in the world, and these good things never pass away). I hope you can seriously appreciate the meaning of this sentence, and the answer you want is in it. ”

"I don't understand."

"Let you learn English well, if you don't study hard, you will know all day long to eat, eat, eat and wait for you to escape back to China, not to mention the restaurant, even the bun shop will not wait to see you......"

……

The Detroit Pistons have a very long history, the team was founded in 1941 in Fort Wayne, and joined the NBA's predecessor, the BBA, in 1949, and in 1957, the Pistons moved to Detroit and never left the city, a full half century has passed.

As we all know, Detroit is a "blue-collar city", many craftsmen and petty bourgeoisie live here, this urban atmosphere also makes his team's temperament angular, since the team is located in this city, the Pistons' game has been full of fierce muscle confrontation, trash talk, all kinds of humiliation, and even some bad small actions, half a century has passed, the Pistons have changed a group of players, but this tough temperament has been passed down from generation to generation, It finally reached its zenith in the famous, or rather infamous, "Bad Boy Army" of the late nineties.

Although the Pistons have a very long history, the first championship in the team's history was in the 1988-1989 season, a year in which three figures have to be mentioned, the first person is Isaiah Thomas, the team's second pick in 1981. In the season before the Pistons selected Thomas, the Pistons only achieved a 21-61 record, which was not only the second worst record in the league at the time, but the Pistons were also one of the few teams in the league at that time that no player averaged more than 20 points per game, but when the Pistons selected Thomas this season, the team's face changed, and 39 wins were won that season, and Thomas, who was still a rookie this year, averaged 17 points per game and handed out nearly 8 assists. He also made 150 steals and began the first time that Thomas was named an All-Star in a row of 12 times, averaging more than 20 points per game from 1982-83 to 1986-87. In 1984-85, he averaged 13.9 assists per game, which was the NBA's record for assists per season at the time, until Stockton broke the record with 14.5 assists per game in 1989-90. He was named to the NBA First Team for three years, from 1983-84 to 1985-86.

In the 1988-89 season, the Pistons led the league with a 63-19 record. The Pistons traded Dantley for Thomas's good friend from the Dallas Mavericks in the middle of the season. Aguilli, the trade, despite its controversy, has added to the Pistons' offensive firepower. Seven Pistons are averaging more than 13.5 points per game, thanks to Thomas' selfless and intelligent playmaking. The bad boys managed to break through the playoff hurdles, sweeping the Celtics in three games and the Bucks in four games to reach the Eastern Conference Finals against the Chicago Bulls. Despite the Bulls' Michael? Jordan played well, and the Detroit still ended the battle after six games and met the Lakers in the NBA Finals. The Lakers, despite dominating the league for the past decade, are ill-prepared for this series: 42-year-old Karim? Abdul-Jabbar is inefficient, while the two defenders "Magic" Johnson and Byron? Scott has been affected by hamstring injuries. The unstoppable Pistons swept the Lakers to claim their first NBA championship in history.

Midway through the 1989-90 season, they went on a 25-1 shockwave and ended the regular season with a 59-23 run. He averaged 27.6 points and 7.0 assists per game against the Portland Trail Blazers. They eventually won the NBA championship again, becoming the first team to win two consecutive championships since the Celtics in 1968-69 and the sixth team in history to do so. Thomas was named the MVP of the Finals.

The second character that must be said is Bill Ranbir, at that time, as long as he was mentioned, most of the players in the entire league hated it, look at the title given to Ranbier by others, the roughest player in history, the dirtiest player in history, under the training of Ranbir, the Pistons became a feared "bad boy army" in the late nineties, and Ranbier is the worst Bradboy in the bad boy army, Even Rodman, the weirdest big man in NBA history, was submissive to Ranbir and bowed to his door.

About his despicable behavior on the court, I won't go into detail, all in all, Ranbier boxing, elbow strikes, knee kills, giant palm slaps and other martial arts actions into the NBA, creating a precedent for "fighting basketball", and became a generation of grandmasters, at that time, people who wanted to beat him could line up to circle the earth, but aside from these factors, Ranbier is indeed a good center, averaging close to 14+10 data per game, and 17+13 data at his peak, deterrent enough on the defensive end, and can shoot three-pointers on the offensive end, once made seven three-pointers in one game...... Ranbir is a four-time All-Star, a one-time rebounding champion, wears two championship rings, and has an N0.1 rebounding count in Pistons history, which is also the fifth-highest total scoring player in Pistons history......

The third figure is Joe Dumas, he is a low-key player, he was selected as an All-Star in his fourth year in the league, before Dumas came to the Pistons, the Pistons already had a superstar, that is Isaiah Thomas, but it is clear that to win a championship, the strength of one person is not enough, so, Dumas came.

From Dumas coming to the league in 1985 to the Pistons' first championship in 1989, Dumas averaged 9.4 points, 11.8 points, 14.2 points and 17.2 points per game every year, he not only played more and more offensive roles in the game, but also his defense was steadily improving, in the playoffs of the Pistons' first championship, it was Dumas who directly defended Jordan, although it could not completely limit Jordan, but it also made the basketball god's playoff journey the worst in all his series. In the late Dumas period, the Pistons' strength gradually weakened, Thomas, Ranbir gradually aged, until retirement, meritorious coach Chuck Daley resigned, the Pistons fell into a new round of trough, and at the same time new players Grant Hill, Allen Houston, Lynch Hunter joined, Dumas took on the task of training newcomers on the right, after the end of the 1999 season, Dumas announced his retirement, in his 14 years with the Pistons, a total of 1,018 appearances, 990 three-pointers, all team history, He also ranks second in total points (16,401), assists (4,612), interceptions (902), and minutes played (35,139 minutes). Thomas), arguably one of the greatest Pistons players in history.

After that, the Pistons began a full-court revival, and the first player to look forward to was Grant Hill, who was picked up by the Pistons with the third pick in the first round in the 1994 draft, and Hill lived up to expectations. In his first year as a rookie, he averaged 19.9 points, 6.4 rebounds, 5.0 assists and 1.7 steals per game, sharing the Rookie of the Year trophy with Jason Kidd, who was also doing well. O'Neal, who was also the first player in the big four professional sports in North America to become the all-star ticket king as a rookie.

The following year, Hill once again averaged 20.2 points, 9.8 rebounds, 6.9 assists and 1.2 steals per game to Michael Jordan, once again called the All-Star vote king, the next seven seasons, Hill achieved countless honors, but just couldn't lead the team to a step closer in the playoffs, in the 1990-2000 season, the team management finally lost patience and traded Hill to the Magic in exchange for a large number of role players, and among these role players at that time, one person became the pillar of the Pistons' revival, and that person was Ben Wallace.