After several days of fierce away battles, Yang Yiming, who has always been full of physical strength, had post-game cramps. He was a little worried that he had run into what is often referred to as the "rookie wall", so before the team returned to Houston, he booked Nina for a game in advance to help him do a hypnotic massage in Dallas.

The Rockets flew non-stop from Toronto to Dallas and stayed at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel downtown. Nina drove from Houston and set off at noon, a journey of about three and a half hours. The two sides agreed to meet directly in Yang Yiming's hotel room.

1/

Air Canada's nonstop flight was pretty good, with a three-hour flight from Toronto at 11 a.m., and with an hour-long time difference between the two places, it landed in Dallas at exactly 1:30 p.m. local time.

Since returning to the U.S. from Canada is an international voyage, the Rockets' players need to go through immigration procedures. Yang Yiming and Yu Xiaochun are Chinese passport holders, and they have to go through the "alien (non-U.S. citizens and green card holders) lane" when entering the country, and they are separated from their teammates on another road. Due to the cumbersome procedures, there were many people queuing up at the foreigner passage, and they went back and forth several times, and Yang Yiming and Yu Xiaochun had to patiently move slowly with the line towards the entry window.

Just when they were bored, a female uniformed officer who was in charge of maintaining order in front of the entry window walked towards them from the outside of the line, stood beside Yang Yiming, helped him loosen the telescopic barrier used to maintain order, made a gesture of "please come outside", and said, "Please come with me." ”

Yang Yiming didn't know what was going on, looked at the uniformed personnel, and then looked at Yu Xiaochun on the side.

Yu Xiaochun doesn't know what the situation is, it stands to reason that it is not a good thing to be asked out of the list alone. He has heard many stories of compatriots who have entered the country illegally and have been locked up in a small black room at the airport, and at worst, they have to be randomly inspected.

The uniformed personnel saw the meaning of Yang Yiming's eyes, and she pointed at Yu Xiaochun again and asked, "Is this gentleman with you?" ”

Yang Yiming nodded in affirmation.

"Then he'll come with you, window three, please go up directly." The uniformed officers asked Yang Yiming and Yu Xiaochun to walk out of the team, fastened the telescopic isolation belt again, and walked quickly to the isolation belt on the side in front of the entry window, opened a small gap, and signaled the two to go directly to the empty No. 3 window to go through the formalities.

Yang Yiming and Yu Xiaochun suspiciously followed her instructions to the No. 3 window, handed over their passports, and saw a familiar face.

"One Ming!" A fat man squeezed into a work area of less than one square meter and excitedly greeted Yang Yiming. Isn't this the fat officer he met when he first arrived in the United States? The two actually met again.

"Hi there! I didn't expect to meet again! ”

"yes, I just caught a glimpse in the queue that it looked like it was you—you could tell it at first glance. I thought about it again, and it seemed like it was your match with Dallas tomorrow, so I was sure it was you, and I called you straight up. ”

It turned out to be the care of an acquaintance, and it was not to be locked up in a small black room, Yang Yiming's hanging heart finally let go, and a smile appeared on his face: "Thank you, thank you so much." Yes, tomorrow is our race... I don't know what to call you, sir..."

"Well, you don't need to call me sir. Just call me Dave. The fat officer flipped over the other nameplate on his chest, and the name on it was David, Dave was probably the abbreviation of the usual acquaintance. His words were really secret, and while dealing with Yang Yiming's passport and visa information, he talked to him:

"You've really been playing better and better since you came to the United States, all the All-Stars have started, congratulations!"

"Thank you." Yang Yiming recalled the first meeting between the two in mid-October last year, and he really felt a little like a world away. In the past six months, he has experienced so much in the NBA world. Even if you just look at his situation at the airport today, you can't imagine it half a year ago.

"Here, look at the camera." Dave pointed the camera at Yang Yiming's face, and after recording the video data, he motioned for him to press his index finger on a fingerprint collector, and said as if he felt that he had caused trouble, "I'm sorry, you know, formalism." ”

"It's okay, I'm already grateful." Yang Yiming said, of course, that Dave helped him avoid waiting in line.

"What's polite, it's rare to meet a celebrity like you." Dave smiled, put his hand on his round double chin, and said in a low voice, "You know, in fact, we all have the right to adjust the order of inspection, but American citizens don't dare to let celebrities pass through the border first, for fear that someone else will complain." I'm much better here..."

"I see." Yang Yiming gave Dave a knowing look.

"Come on, it's all done." Dave handed out the processed passport from the window and motioned for Koharu to step forward, "Come on, Texas may depend on you in this year's playoffs." ”

"Good luck to us." Yang Yiming knew that he was referring to Team Rocket, and nodded vigorously.

2/

After completing the customs clearance quickly, Yang Yiming, Yu Xiaochun and the large army of Team Rocket converged, rushed to the hotel, and settled down in advance. At 2:30 p.m., Nina should still have an hour to arrive. In the room, Yang Yiming chatted with Yu Xiaochun worriedly about his post-race cramps the day before.

"Do you think I'm going to hit the rookie wall?"

"Rookie Wall? Just one leg cramp, what's all the fuss about. ”

"But I've never had cramps before – no matter how intense the training matches – I'm still a little worried, I've been so tired lately, especially this away round."

"That's why Coach D'Antoni told you to keep your head down." Yu Xiaochun took out a can of Coke Zero from the hotel's Xiaoice box, opened the pull ring, and drank Erlang's legs on the sofa chair while drinking, "Plus we don't still have Nina, there is still an hour, and she will be almost there." Let her do a 'deep' hypnomassage treatment for you, and I guess you will be looking like new in no time. ”

"But will it be like Nina described Cousins' injury..."Yang Yiming was still worried.

"What does that mean?"

"Do you remember, when Nina said that if an illness was beyond the level of mental strength that could be overcome, there was nothing she could do. I'm afraid that if I unknowingly overdraw too much physical strength and it will be difficult to return, she won't be able to help. ”

"But Yiming, do you really feel that your body can't support it?"

"Not really... But I'm afraid that yesterday's sudden cramp was a sign... What if it's the mysterious 'rookie wall' they often talk about. ”

Yu Xiaochun finally understood that Yang Yiming was worried that he still encountered the legendary rookie wall. He craned his neck and drank half a can of Coke, rolled his eyes, and said, "There's really no evidence to support the rookie wall..."

"Oh...?"

Yu Xiaochun made a gesture and motioned to Yang Yiming to finish his speech: "Many people think that some excellent rookies perform very impressively at the beginning of the season, but after January or even February, there will be a sudden cliff-like decline. They attributed this phenomenon to the rookie wall, saying that the number and intensity of college games were not as good as those of the NBA, and that the rookies were drained of their stamina in January and February, so they couldn't keep up with all aspects of performance. In fact, according to my survey, there has been no clear research on the relationship between performance and physical strength, but there are data reports that show that the performance of most rookies after the first season and the New Year is stable and rising, but people see a few rookies who have fallen off a cliff, and they subconsciously think of the 'rookie wall'. But to be honest, the decline in performance is also entirely due to the fact that the competition in the NBA as a whole in the second half of the season is more intense, with every team competing for the spot, and the style of play of a rookie should be figured out by each team at this time. The field was specifically targeted, and the rookies lacked flexible means, so it was naturally not as beautiful as it was at the beginning. ”

"Yes." After Yang Yiming listened to Yu Xiaochun's tirade, his expression changed from suspicion at the beginning to some belief.

Yu Xiaochun knew that his theoretical knowledge of basketball still had some deterrent effect on Yang Yiming, and hurriedly struck while the iron was hot: "Of course it is." For example, Tatum this season, your lifelong enemy. His recent three-point shooting percentage has dropped a lot, and others think he is a rookie wall, but in fact, looking at his college shooting statistics, he has just dropped back to the average. Plus he's famous now, but he doesn't have as many open shots as he had at the beginning of the season..."

"Okay." Yang Yiming nodded thoughtfully.

"Anyway, don't think about it, let's wait for Nina to come. If the rookie wall is not the rookie wall, don't you still have to continue to play basketball. ”

"Well, maybe it's just me worrying about it. Then let's wait for her to come. ”

Yang Yiming finally stretched his brows, fell into the soft Simmons bed in the hotel, and fell asleep.