In Leon's room, the TV was playing the draft convention at Madison Square Garden, and Stern stepped onto the podium to announce the No. 1 pick in this year's draft.

With-the-first-pick-in-2002-NBA-draft，the-Houston-Rockets-select-Yao-Ming-from-ShangHai-China-and-Shanghai-Sharks！ (With the first pick in the 2002 NBA Draft, the Houston Rockets selected Yao Ming from China and the Shanghai Sharks with the first pick!) When Stern read Yao Ming's name, the entire Madison Garden Square was cheering and boiling, and you could feel the warm atmosphere when you sat in front of the TV and watched the live broadcast.

Thus was born the first foreign champion in the history of the NBA, not from Europe, where basketball is the strongest outside of the United States, but from China across the ocean, a world of yellow people ignored by Americans.

At this time, Wang Zhizhi, Schwartz, and Wang Zhizhi's assistant Chen Weiming were also in Leon's room, and they were all doing tentative greetings before, and they focused on the TV after the draft began.

"How does it feel, Wang, your teammate and opponent, Yao Ming has become the champion show. I heard that when you were in China, Yao never won the national victory, and he got his wish after you left. Give your rating. Leon asked Wang Zhizhi a pointed question.

After meeting Wang Zhizhi, he found that this was a shy, introverted big man, which felt a little strange. In fact, those tall giants have somewhat withdrawn personalities, which makes people feel weird, no wonder people say lonely giants.

Then Leon found that Wang Zhizhi's English was not very good, and once Leon spoke with a thick Boston accent and extremely fast speaking speed, Wang Zhizhi would look at Chen Weiming with a blank face, and Chen Weiming would explain to Wang Zhizhi in broken Chinese what Leon had said.

What Leon just said. used a very complex sentence structure, using two definite clauses in a row, and the speed of speech was very fast, which made Wang Zhizhi fall into a state of confusion again, and he had to ask Chen Weiming for help again.

Chen Weiming is not tall, with a delicate appearance, single eyelids, neat short hair, and looks very clean, which is a typical excellent Chinese image in the hearts of Americans. Start by entering Leon's room. He stayed by Wang Zhizhi's side every step of the way and acted as the interpreter of this conversation.

"He asked you, what do you think of Yao Ming, he is an opponent, a teammate, and now he is picked in the first place." Chen Weiming's translation is quite accurate, but his Chinese is really not good, and Wang Zhizhi can only barely understand it.

Wang Zhizhi sat on the sofa and smiled, his smile a little reluctant. Looking at the people who were once left far behind by themselves, now coming to the NBA with a high-profile attitude, but they are on the verge of being abandoned, and they have to endure the torment of choices in a small room. The heart must be mixed.

The camera cuts to Beijing, China, where Mr. Yao is in his room in a foreign correspondents' apartment outside Jianguomen, where N.B.A. officials have set up a makeshift studio. Yao Ming and his parents and Wang Fei, head coach of the Chinese men's national basketball team, sit in front of the camera. When Yao Ming was chosen, he high-fived his father, and his mother's hand was also held with him. Then Wang Fei on the side also shook hands with Yao Ming to celebrate. However, unlike those American stars who burst into tears and hugged their families at every turn, Yao Ming quickly calmed down after a simple celebration, and his mother put her hand on his thigh, as if to signal Yao Ming to calm down.

"It's okay, he's better than me now, he's working hard, and he'll have better development in the future." Wang Zhizhi looked at Yao Ming, who was thousands of miles away and could not be there because of the preparation for the national team competition, and gave his own evaluation.

"He said that Yao is not bad, and there will be good development in the future, but not necessarily as strong as him." Chen Weiming listened to Wang Zhizhi's words and said to Leon at a very fast pace. Obviously, he didn't want Wang Zhizhi's somewhat frustrating words to be heard by potential new owners, and American players should be confident, even in the face of Jordan, they must firmly believe that they are the strongest, so he slightly changed the original meaning of Wang Zhizhi's words.

Leon just smiled when he heard this, didn't care about Chen Weiming's tricks, and then said: "Do you know what people say about you and Yao in your country now? Do you know how much impact your choice to stay in the U.S. will have on your life? I think you've read that fax, and if you want everything to get back to normal, then I advise you to go back, go back to your hometown, solve your problems in China, and play well with the Celtics next season. ”

Listening to Leon's words, Chen Weiming's brows tightened, he knew that the highlight of this meeting was coming, as Wang Zhizhi's assistant and translator, he had already shirked a lot of persuasion for him as Wang Zhizhi, including many contacts from China, Chen Weiming blocked them one by one from Wang Zhizhi's body. This time he decided to repeat the old trick, using the language barrier to refer to the deer as a horse.

"Now there is a lot of talk in China about you and Yao... Some of the comments are not very good for you, and the ones about Yao are a little better. He thinks you should go back and deal with this kind of thing, and then go back to the United States to play. Chen Weiming's translation actually has no problem with the meaning, but the feeling of saying it is completely different.

Wang Zhizhi turned his face when he heard this, and said coldly: "What are you going back for?" If there's anything to solve, I just want to play well, and as long as I play, any comments are. ”

"He said he didn't want to go back, as long as he played well in the United States and played well, he didn't care about the rumors." Chen Wei spread his hands towards Leon and said to Leon with a very helpless expression.

Leon snorted coldly, he turned off the TV, walked to the window, opened the curtains, and the bustling night view of New York City outside the window was dazzling and charming, and he opened the window a little bit to let the evening breeze in. He took out another cigar from his pocket, "Cleopatra", lit it slowly with a long stick match, and took a hard sip. Leon looked a little less evil and a little more upright because he had cut off his long hair, but when he smoked his cigar, the yin air on his body was like Auerbach's vigorous catharsis.

He pointed at Wang Zhizhi with a cigar, and then said to Wang Zhizhi in a mouthful of Chinese Mandarin: "Comrade Wang Zhizhi, I heard that the Chinese pay attention to the return of leaves to their roots, and there is a saying that wealth and nobility do not return to their hometowns like brocade clothes at night. Chinese people have a deep affection for their homeland, and the desire and expectation of a wandering person to return to their hometown is often the driving force that supports them to go on. The United States is a country of immigrants, and an American cannot experience this kind of cultural feelings, but you are not an American, you are a Chinese. You have to think about not only basketball, but also your parents, your lover, your hometown, your home country. I don't want the players who play for the Celtics next season to be a shell without a spiritual belonging, and I don't want the Celtics, the team with the oldest culture in the United States, to lose the world's largest market and not get any live broadcasts because of you. Including the confrontation between you and Yao Ming! So, whether it's for your personal emotions or for the team's interests, you should go back and go back and solve the problem. As for your development in the NBA, I promise you that I will give you enough opportunities, provided that you work hard and listen to me. This is your last chance, Dazhi. ”

When Leon finished speaking, the whole room seemed to freeze, Schwartz, who had not spoken and watched the play from beginning to end, was stunned, and Chen Weiming's eyes widened with horror. Wang Zhizhi was also stunned at first, when he found that he could understand every word Leon said, and the more he went on, the more solemn and anxious the expression on his face became, and when Leon said "This is your last chance, Dazhi", Wang Zhizhi completely collapsed, he buried his head between his legs, grabbed his hair with both hands, and this life of "betrayal" of everyone for months made him fall into a huge struggle of isolation and hesitation.

Chen Weiming and his wife were his only straw, especially Chen Weiming, who could speak some Chinese. When he saw Leon's fax in Chinese that day, he was moved, but after meeting Fox Leon, he found that it was still an English-speaking American, and he thought that the fax was just a Chinese student he asked to study in Boston to translate, after all, there are too many famous universities in Boston.

However, when Leon knocked on his heart with an authentic Chinese dialect and words that fit the psychology of the Chinese, the little spiritual wall he maintained because of his stubbornness and gentleness was broken.

Leon stepped forward, grabbed Wang Zhizhi's shoulder and said, "Go home, big boy." (To be continued.) )