October 27, 2017.

The night before, the Houston Rockets had just won 105-104 against the Philadelphia 76ers.

In that game, Chinese player Yang Yiming exploded, scoring 21 points and 7 rebounds. On top of that, he made a buzzer-beating three-pointer.

Straddling three time zones, the American continent is dark at night, and after a long day of hustle and bustle, it also begins to sleep.

On the other side of the ocean, the sun has just risen, and the dream has just woken up.

1/

Altay City, Xinjiang, China.

"Are you watching the game?!" Ding Dong, Abdul Salamu received a new WeChat message on his mobile phone.

It was sent by his teammates in the Xinjiang team, "Look. His answer was succinct.

"It's awesome." “

"That kind of lore ball - it's cool to watch."

Two new messages from teammates followed, followed by three arms raised and muscle pops at the end.

Abdul Salamu replied to his three cool smiling faces in sunglasses.

"After watching these games, I can't wait for the CBA to start." Teammates are clearly talking about Yang's recent stellar performance with the Houston Rockets.

"Hmm. We played against him at the National Games. In that game, the Xinjiang team defeated Yang Yiming's Beijing team and advanced to the semifinals.

"yes, I didn't think he was as good as he is now." The teammates are telling the truth, in the men's basketball game of the Tianjin National Games this summer, Abdul Salamu is the rookie with the most attention.

"So maybe one day we'll be called to the NBA." Abdul Salamu replied with a laughing and crying emoji. Although he said so, he actually noticed Yang Yiming when he was fighting. Like him, he is a 96-year-old player, Yang Yiming is only ten days older than himself, but compared with all players of the same age, Abdul Salamu can clearly feel the difference in the other party.

"You can do it. It's up to you. ”

Or that emoji with arms raised and muscles popping out.

Abdul Salamu made a few replies on his mobile phone, but he always felt that it was inappropriate, so he deleted them all. After sending only a smiling expression in the end, he simply put down his phone, pushed the door and walked out of the room.

This old house in his hometown, across the street is the Altay No. 2 Senior High School he once studied, although it is more than nine o'clock Beijing time, but this small frontier city is still just dawn, the haze of the sky is white, and the school is quiet. In northern Xinjiang in October, the temperature is already very low, and when you walk on the street, you can breathe out a white fog. There are several basketball hoops on the school's playground, which are reflected in the Altai Mountains to the north, and the trees on the foothills transition from the yellow of the fallen leaves in the lower places to the dark green of the highland vegetation in the high places, until they are finally hidden in the clouds.

In the past, when he was playing basketball on campus, he often looked up at the distant mountains. On the other side of the mountain, it is said that there is another world. Kazakhstan, Russia, Mongolia, from west to east, seem to be far away, and they all seem to be within reach.

Maybe one day, basketball will take me to these new worlds. At that time, the teenagers who practiced often said this to themselves.

And this teenager has grown up at this time. The dream of the year seems to be closer with the incredible lore of the competitor.

"Is it Abdul Salamu? Woke up so early? The old man who was the school janitor greeted him.

"Well, get up and run."

He smiled and nodded in response, pulling out his hands in his trouser pockets, wrapping them around his mouth and exhaling a hot breath before running towards the empty playground.

2/

Yuzhong District, Chongqing.

Even though the weather had cooled down at the end of October, it was still very hot and humid in the mountains at two or three o'clock in the afternoon. The promenade along the mountain, which is next to a few simple houses, is rarely moved, and people stay at home to escape the heat.

Only at the bottom of the trail was a man in his fifties who stayed outside. He didn't seem to be afraid of the heat at all, and he was holding the basketball hoop with both hands and doing pull-ups.

"Lao Yang, I have your phone!"

The high-decibel call from the kiosk at the top broke the silence.

"Who called?" Lao Yang replied to the voice, but the movements of his hands did not stop, his breathing was steady, full of energy, and seemed to be completely unaffected.

"I'm still interviewing you."

"Forget it, you just say that I don't want to be interviewed."

"They said that Xiao Ming seemed to be playing well."

The two voices went up and down, and at this time, Lao Yang stopped replying.

"Scored a goal or something." The voice on the mountain is still persistent, but the people below the mountain seem to be deaf to it, only concentrating on doing pull-ups.

"Old Yang?"

"Huh?"

"They said it was CCTV."

Lao Yang finally stopped. He adjusted his breathing and listened.

"They said they were going to do an interview with you – ask you how to train with Xiaoming."

Lao Yang let go of his hand and fell off the basketball hoop.

3/

In the evening, in the suburbs of Beijing, at the gate of the Beijing Enterprises Men's Basketball Training Base on the shore of Yanxi Lake.

"Hello Stephen! Can it take a few minutes of your time?" several reporters who had been waiting for a long time stopped Marbury, who was about to drive away from the base after a day's training.

"What is your assessment of your former teammates, Yuris Yang, Yang Yiming's performance today?" Seeing Marbury park the car and lower the window, the reporters hurriedly opened their mouths to ask questions.

"Yiming is very powerful." "Political Commissar Ma", an honorary citizen who has lived in Beijing for many years, has no problem reciting the name of Yang Yiming, who is awkward to most foreigners, "I have always been very optimistic about this young man. I think he's going to make a big difference in the NBA. ”

"Who do you think Yang Yiming's template will be?" The discussion of templates seems to have become a hot topic on the lips of Chinese basketball reporters in recent years, but it has to be said that labeling a rookie player who has entered the league as a senior star does help to understand their technical characteristics more quickly.

"Then you don't need to ask! Me. Marbury suddenly burst out a sentence in Beijing dialect, pointing to his chest with his thumb, holding the steering wheel and wearing sunglasses, with a smug and arrogant expression.

"But..."

The reporters were all surprised, and Marbury, who had succeeded in the troublemaker, was even more proud, and he changed back to his native English and said, "Just kidding, just kidding." But that's a really good question..."

The reporters leaned in a few minutes and waited earnestly for the NBA's fourth-ranked rookie. Marbury took off his sunglasses, thought about it carefully, and replied seriously, "What I admire most about Yang Yiming is actually his basketball quotient. He doesn't get much of a chance or exercise on the field, but he always seems to be able to make the most reasonable judgment compared to his peers. It's not easy... I think he's physical, a lot like Dr. J – it's his personal idol, I know. But if he practices shooting more, or gets stronger, he can become a player like Durant or James. But to be honest, I believe he can make the right choice himself, and I don't want any template to hold him back. ”

Durant and James?

The reporters were even more surprised at this time, and two of them also took out their notepads and wrote a few strokes, as if it was not enough to record this judgment with a voice recorder!

Seeing that no one asked for a while, Marbury gently clicked the accelerator, the car's automatic start-stop function worked, and the engine started running again.

"Stephen, last question!"

"Huh?"

Although the man in front of him, who is over 40 years old, still has faded tattoos on the back of his hands and neck that cannot be hidden, his eyes waiting for the reporter's questions are extremely gentle and patient, as if he is looking at a younger child. The shadow of the thorny boy when he first entered the alliance was like a world away from him.

"Do you have any suggestions for Yang Yiming?"

"Yes," Marbury said after a moment's thought, putting on his sunglasses again, and looking at the red sun setting in the distance, "when the body is tired, when you are knocked down by the rookie wall, when you feel fear, at least keep it forever—"

"Clear mind."

Tuk tuk, he poked his finger in the head, and drove away into the sunset.

4/

"The Rockets' recruitment, Yang Yiming, a player from China, scored three points in the final moments of the game yesterday, pushing the Rockets' catch-up plan to the climax. He's had such a sharp performance, but not many people really understand his character, the other side of him off the basketball court. In order to answer this question, we went to the home of José Rodriguez, who has been with Yang Yiming day and night for the past few days, and asked him to help us introduce this new face of China. Amy, the team team's social media cameraman, woke up the door to Jose's house after a long opening monologue.

José, who had received the interview notice early, quickly opened the door.

“Amy！”

"Hello Jose, good morning! We heard that you have been with Yang Yiming as a driver since his flight landed. He had such a highlight last night, can you help introduce him to our fans on social media? ”

Amy smiled and spat out another introduction.

"Correctionally, it's not the driver - I'm very close friends with Yuris in private."

"Huh?" Faced with this answer to play on the spot, the host was a little surprised.

"That's right." José affirmed, "And together we came up with a new name for him." Very domineering nickname. ”

"What's the nickname?" This topic is clearly of great interest.

"Dr. Yang, who can you think of with that name?"

"Doctor... Dr. J?! Amy's eyes lit up.

"You guessed it!" José snapped his fingers triumphantly.

"Indeed, the English name of Yiming and Dr. J Julius Owen's, it's funny..."

"And his last name, Yang, is the same as the English word for Young, which just means that he could become the next player like Dr. J." Then Amy's associations, Jose explained.

"Dear Houston Rockets fans, Dr. Yang, our Chinese star, are you ready to shout his name on the court?"

After Amy finished broadcasting the above paragraph, she put the microphone in front of José and motioned for him to add. He pointed to the camera and shouted Yang Yiming's name in an incendiary manner: "Dr. Yuris Yang, down here is your-"

"Show time!"