1/

"Back in the national team, it's still unknown whether he will be able to start."

"In the national team, you can't lie down and win."

"We'll all be waiting for you on the field!"

Blake Griffin's last three sentences completely cooled the atmosphere in the first class cabin that was quite lively just now. Although there are no Yang Yiming's Rockets teammates such as Harden, Paul, or Gordon in the dream team this time, after all, they have all played in the same NBA arena, and they are more or less one-sided. Even CJ McCollum and Jimmy Butler, who were unconvinced by the loss, hid all their unhappiness in their stomachs because of their face, but Griffin, who was sitting in the last row of the first class cabin, spit out all the suspicions of Stamps' fight.

As soon as Griffin said this, little Thomas and "Buddha" Thompson, who were still chatting energetically just now, suddenly felt bored, Thompson glanced at little Thomas, to the effect of "Don't talk about it yet", and then patted Yang Yiming's shoulder, and let him walk through the passage. Yang Yiming nodded in thanks, and did not respond to Griffin, just dragged his luggage and sat down in the back of the business class seat.

But Griffin's words, although provocative, always appeared in his mind repeatedly when Yang Yiming sat down and the plane took off.

Although he was called up by the national team, but he was selected for the first time, can he really play the main role in the Chinese men's basketball team?

The fiercely competitive red and blue teams will work together against the American men's basketball dream team this time, who doesn't want to use 120% enthusiasm and concentration to perform harder? Among them, the blue team will take a temporary break after the Stankovic Cup, which is their last official match in a short period of time, and the red team will go to Jakarta to participate in the Asian Games, and it is more important to practice for the competition. Between this group of former teammates and opponents who are hungry for opportunities like tigers and wolves, what is his chance?

Even Klay Thompson inadvertently said: "Based on my experience in these trips to China, some Chinese players are very good!" ”

Yang Yiming closed his eyes, and the engines of the plane roared, almost engulfing the group of people flying alone over the Pacific Ocean with the darkness. As if the world was left with him, he couldn't help but ask himself:

Are you really better than all of them?!

2/

In fact, such a question will haunt Yang Yiming's mind for a long time.

It's like the first game of the Chinese men's basketball team in the Asian Games that just ended. Facing the Philippines, the Chinese red team narrowly won 82-80, and the most powerful in the limelight was not the two NBA main players Yang Yiming and Clarkson in the two teams. Yang Yiming's teammate Zhou Qi of the Rockets dominated the whole court, with 25 points, 12 rebounds and 7 hot hats, which were given to the entire Philippine team. Yang Yiming also had a comprehensive performance of 14 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 blocks and 1 steal, and at the last moment he prevented the breakthrough, giving the Philippine point guard who tried to kill the suspense of the game in advance a fatal nail board hat, and then guarded the defensive rebound of the next ball, and instigated Zhao Rui's counterattack to hit the shot to lock up the victory, but compared to the dominance of Zhou Qi's big demon king, Yang Yiming, the NBA champion, seems to be much more "Buddhist".

Even Wang Zhelin, a new player in the CBA, can turn over the river in the Philippine interior line, where there are few people, with 13 points and 7 rebounds, no worse than Yang Yiming. Wang Zhelin and Zhou Qi occupy the inside line, although the strength of the Chinese team's outside guards is average, it seems that the coach and teammates have not yet adapted to the forward play style of Yang Yiming, a 3D player, just use him as an excessive point of the inside and outside line - Yang Yiming's figure and confrontation ability are more than enough to carry the inside line, but the Chinese team already has a higher Zhou Qi and Wang Zhelin, plus Yang Yiming's impression in the NBA's No. 3 position is too impressive, but put him in any other position, as if it is a waste of talent.

In the No. 3 position, Yang Yiming still needs to compete with Ding Yanyuhang, a four-character foreign aid from the CBA, who left the game in the third quarter, and only gave Yang Yiming some opportunities to play at the last moment, otherwise the statistics of this game will only be more ugly.

So even Yang Yiming himself couldn't help but think: Zhou Qi can kill all sides in the FIBA arena, is his strength really below him?

After all, before the start of last season, the Houston Rockets' first choice was Zhou Qi! He's a real second-round rookie (if it weren't for Zhou Qi's mediocre performance in the international competition before the draft...). If there is the dominance of Jakarta this night, it is not impossible for him to jump to the first round! And he is just an alternative for Zhou Qi after he is injured. Maybe that's what life is all about? Or is it just luck? When Zhou Qi returned from recuperating from his injury for most of the season, he found that the Rockets no longer had his position as the "right choice", so they could only go to the development league to fight up and down...

But is Yang Yiming really bigger than Zhou Qi?

He couldn't help but ask himself - was the Rockets' selection of him to fill the vacancy after Zhou Qi's injury really due to competitive factors? Then why is the second round show not him, but Zhou Qi's Great Demon King? If it weren't for the rocket's "insight", where would he be now, and would he be able to make a name for himself and be selected for the national team? What's more, Rocket really didn't have to find another Chinese because he wanted to take care of his influence in China and Asia? Even if they go to the NBA together, if Zhou Qi is healthy, will he be the one who develops the league? At that time, Coach D'Antoni also arranged for Yang Yiming to go to the development league, and also assigned the task of scoring 100 points in 3 games, if he didn't happen to complete...

Yang Yiming really didn't dare to think about it anymore.

Maybe he shouldn't think about it anymore.

Even if it's pure luck, that's part of the basketball world.

After thousands of training sessions, it adds up to a slight competitive advantage, and finally it becomes the so-called luck. Yang Yiming believes this. So he practiced hard – some people said he had a lot of basketball talent, but he wasn't sure it was something he could rely on, so he trained anyway because that's the only way to cash in on that talent. As far as he knows, the talent that comes once in ten or twenty years has not fulfilled expectations, and there will be a few in the NBA every year, and he is an unknown person from the CBA world, and he needs to cherish the hard-won opportunity.

And the most precious self-confidence of the athletes.

Sometimes the opponent is in opposition to me, and the suspense of victory or defeat is maintained on this self-confidence. It's not anyone's skill, it's not anyone's speed, it's not anyone's reputation, it's whose confidence: I have the aura of giving up on me, and the opponent may be timid before fighting.

This has always been Yang Yiming's strength.

He won't lose to anyone.

A game, a few words of denigration from the haters, should not destroy its foundations.

So let's put these self-doubts behind you for now. Let's play the game at hand first. Thinking of this at that time, Yang Yiming's flight arrived at Shenzhen Bao'an Airport - the Chinese men's basketball team was in Jakarta, and it was also going to face its second opponent, Kazakhstan.