July 4th.

America's National Day.

Because of the big turmoil in the NBA transfer market led by LeBron James, Yang Yiming ended his vacation early and returned to the United States.

He rushed to Austin first, where he was invited to a backyard barbecue party at the Texas governor's mansion. As a "representative of the Chinese in the United States", he was dragged to exchange a few words with a number of entrepreneurs who were worried about the US-China trade war - Texas is a major manufacturing and agricultural state in the United States, and the trade war has had a great impact on many local enterprises and Chinese companies that do business with them - but it is a pity that Yang Yiming's role is more formal than substantial, and he can't help much, so he rushes to the next stop to participate in the evening fireworks display of the Houston city government.

It is also Yang Yiming's real interest in the National Day activities.

Because of this event of the Houston City Hall, it was arranged on the roof of the city hall building, and celebrities from all walks of life in the space city were invited to enjoy the National Day fireworks display in the form of a cocktail party.

Yang Yiming's teammates on the Rockets, as city heroes who have just won the O'Brien Cup for Houston for the first time in nearly 20 years, are also all invited.

The reception began at eight o'clock, with a speech by Mr. Mayor in the middle, and the fireworks display started on time at half past nine and lasted for 20 minutes. Then, as is customary for the American people, live bands will join in the performance, and the crepe drinking party will become a big party of drinking and dancing.

It's a bit like the celebration banquet after the NBA awards ceremony that Yang Yiming just attended recently.

It's just that at that celebration, almost all of the basketball players present were as tall as Yang Yiming, and he was mixed in and didn't look abrupt at all. But tonight's banquet is undoubtedly the Houston Rockets players, and everyone has nowhere to hide as long as they attend.

Just to achieve Yang Yiming's wish:

He wanted to take this opportunity to secretly observe the movements of his teammates.

Whoever came, who asked for leave and was absent, and who signed up for the no-show.

Houston native Gerard Green was certainly in attendance. He took his wife and arrived at the scene early. Although his head was still the unruly hairstyle of Cornfield, Green changed into a gray evening dress, tied a bow tie, and hugged his wife, and the gangster shooter on the court was suddenly like two people. Green, who joined as a free agent midway through last season, was re-taken in by his hometown team after a few years of unemployment, and successfully transformed from a hot dunk king to a drifting three-point shooter on the court, enriching the Rockets' firepower from the outside. Green has relied on unreasonable pulls to help the Rockets chase points countless times, and finally won the championship with the team, which is undoubtedly a good story of a prodigal son.

He's rediscovered himself on the court in Houston, with his family on the court, and looks like he's likely to stay next season.

They were followed by a trio of Ryan Anderson, Nene and PJ Tucker. Nene is the oldest of the three, PJ Tucker has the highest trade value, and only Ryan Anderson is in the most awkward position. He was nearly dropped by Coach Mike D'Antoni throughout the playoffs, early because of his injury and later because of his much-criticized defensive prowess. Anderson's annual salary of more than 10 million limits the possibility of him being traded, but if the Rockets want to make room to renew the contract of the growing young center Capela with a high salary, Anderson's contract may be the first to be considered...

However, as the only white man on the entire team, Ryan Anderson has already developed survival tricks to deal with all kinds of centaurs. Tonight's cocktail party, Anderson, in a suit and leather shoes, looks like an experienced politician, pushing his glass and changing glasses, as if he doesn't have to worry about his future.

Chris Paul then appeared, causing a small commotion.

Paul is the president of the NBA Players' Union, and he is already familiar with the situation of drinking parties, plus he has the first impression of a gentleman - only Paul's opponents on the court know how ruthless and cunning he is to play! - Everyone wants to have a chat with CP3. Paul is not very tall at 1.8 meters, and he can walk in the crowd to meet the level of guests; He smiled politely and politely, and he didn't have the slightest hint of superstar style.

Thanks to Paul.

Without him, it is estimated that Houston would not even be able to see the edge of the championship trophy. Turning the tide many times, Paul achieved the rocket and completed his own redemption.

Yang Yiming and the guests present probably all had the same idea. Paul's salary is not low, but most likely he will stay in Houston for the 18-19 season.

The road to defending the title of the Rockets undoubtedly requires such an experienced helmsman.

Speaking of helmsmen, Derrick Rose happens to be the next Rockets player to take to the floor. He was a player that Yang Yiming lobbied before the All-Star break last season. At the time, Rose was barely playing in Cleveland, and it was hard to imagine that the youngest MVP would face the end of his career at the age of 30. The roses that came to Houston seemed to bloom for the second spring, and with Nina's recovery from treatment and the arrangement of the Rockets team, Rose at least played the happy basketball that he had not seen for a long time.

Although he played as little as Ryan Anderson in the playoffs, Yang Yiming can at least see that Rose has lost the anxiety of previous seasons.

He finally no longer needs to prove himself...

Ross arrived, wearing a short braid, a suit and tie shirt, smiling and showing teeth, and greeting everyone. He no longer seemed to have the tense mental state of Cleveland or New York, gritting his teeth like a fighter ready to punch. Yang Yiming didn't know if this compromise was a kind of fateful helplessness, but at least he knew that only in this way would he have the opportunity to play basketball with Rose for a longer time, even if the latter's appearance time would be shorter and shorter...

Yang Yiming was thinking about it, when the noisy rooftop suddenly fell silent. He turned his head to see that the spotlight was on the podium in the center of the front, and it turned out that Mr. Mayor of Houston was about to take the stage to give a speech on National Day.

Yang Yiming moved a few steps through the crowd, approached Derrick Rose, who had just arrived, and said hello. The two were listening together in the back row, and Yang Yiming happened to look left and right back and forth, and found that there were still a few familiar teammates missing.

Luke Bamot didn't come, but he should have gone back to his hometown in Africa, Yang Yiming seemed to have heard Meritis say: "After all, he is the son of an African chief, and he goes back every summer, maybe he still has government affairs to take care of." ”

Why didn't Eric Gordon come? Yang Yiming took out his mobile phone and sent a message to Gordon to ask. The latter immediately sent him a reply — a selfie of Gordon shirtless surrounded by two beautiful women, with a beach in the background. Judging from the time of the photo, it is also daytime, and it is obvious that he is not in the same time zone as Yang Yiming.

There is only one word in the caption of the photo: VACATION!! (Vacation!) ）

- Okay, Gordon, just looking at his reply doesn't seem to be taking basketball to heart. Yang Yiming decided to ignore him and continued to look.

Clint Capela wasn't in the crowd. Yang Yiming looked around again, why didn't James Harden see it.

After Mr. Mayor's speech, at 21:30, Houston's National Day fireworks display began on time. The first three beams of red, blue and white rushed into the night sky, which was the color of the flag of the American Republic. The crowd burst into flames and let out a burst of exclamation.

Yang Yiming laughed secretly in his heart, the American people are inevitably a little too ignorant, just a few fireworks, don't make such a fuss.

Unexpectedly, the flames in the sky faded, black reoccupied the theme, and the exclamations of the crowd did not stop. Yang Yiming looked down and found that everyone's exclamation was not actually a fireworks show, but just won the double MVP of the regular season and the finals, the absolute core of Houston, James Harden came.