On December 3, 2013, the league's young rookie Phoenix Suns were slaughtered by the old and spicy Western giants Memphis Grizzlies, Li Mojie faced one of the five Tigers of the Pistons, 33-year-old Tyshawn Prince staged a good iron show, Li Mojie still remembers the kind of defensive players always stick to you, small actions are constantly but not foul, and shooting is always interfered with what it feels like.

Anyway, that game was the worst game played by Li Mojie since joining the NBA, shooting 7 of 20 shots in the game, 1 of 4 three-pointers, and scoring 16 points, 5 assists, 5 rebounds and 4 turnovers.

The next day, the Suns rushed to Space City before they could catch their breath to challenge the Houston Rockets, who acquired heavyweight Howard in the transfer market this offseason.

Rockets starting five: PG: Patrick Beverley (6'1"), SG: James Harden (6'5"), SF: Francesca Garcia (6'7"), PF: Terrence Jones (6'9"), C: Dwight Howard (6'11)

Suns starting five: PG: Eric Bledsoe (6'1"), SG: PJ Tucker (6'6"), SF: Li Mojie (6'8"), PF: Marcus Morris (6'9"), C: Channing Fry (6'11")

The highly anticipated Chinese derby didn't take place, with the Rockets' Jeremy Lin sitting in the stands due to injury. The Suns' Bledsoe chose to return early and returned to the starting lineup. Although Bledsoe was injured for more than a week, the team's record was not greatly affected, and Ramon Sessions also took his place well, so Bledsoe was not willing to let him finally get the position to be occupied, last season he was just an unremarkable small role on the Clippers bench, and he could only compete for a small amount of playing time with the players at the water cooler when Paul was resting, and now he has not only become the starting point guard of the Suns, has gradually become the 3-in-command, or even the 2-in-command of the Suns, so he can't hold back anymore and chooses to make an early comeback.

This is also a common occurrence in the NBA, and neither the contract sponsor nor the player's own career will allow you to slowly recover from your injury and come back. After all, when you're injured, there are countless people in the NBA who want to grab your spot, and there is so much talent and talent here that you can disappear into the league if you're not careful.

At this time, Li Mojie didn't know what Bledsoe next to him thought, he was looking at the Rockets emblem in the Toyota Center Arena. The entire emblem uses a unique font to highlight a special theme, which is reflected in letters, with a carefully processed "R" in the middle, like a slowly rising rocket. On the left is the word "HOUSTON" and on the right is "ROCKETS", all in red.

"This is where Yao Mai's group fought back then!" Li Mojie muttered.

"Huh?" Bledsoe listened to Li Mojie's murmur beside him, and asked with a strange tilt. This is Li Mojie's mentality that he doesn't understand, and he also doesn't understand the "rocket complex" of Li Mojie's soul.

In China, the Rockets are truly unique!

In 2002, Yao Ming logged in to the NBA as the champion, which opened a new historical era of Chinese basketball, and the "rocket complex" in the hearts of fans also kicked off. Since then, out of their ardent expectations for Yao Ming, who is also Chinese, fans expect him to play our Chinese people's hard work and self-confidence on the big stage of the NBA, which has prompted people to understand that the Houston Rockets, a team that is not outstanding among the 30 teams in the NBA, and also promoted the development of the "Rocket Complex".

In fact, to be honest, the Rockets' tactical play at that time was not good-looking, and it was not the top team in the league. But it is precisely because of the strong sense of national identity in the hearts of the Chinese people that the identification with Team Rocket has been continuously strengthened.

But at the same time, it is also because of Yao Ming's own wonderful performance in the NBA that fans consciously contribute to this complex, and it is difficult to form this complex if you are just a water cooler player. Then it analyzes why fans have not formed a Nuggets complex, Spurs complex, Mavericks complex, and Bucks complex......

Today, Yao Ming has been retired for more than two years, and Francis, Mobley, and Maddie are long out of the league; Batyr and Hayes also went their separate ways; Artest has also been renamed Ci Shiping; Brooks went around and went back to the Rockets, along with Murray and Alexander, who we still have a little bit of an impression of...... The head coach has also changed from Tomjanovic to Van Gundy to Adelman and now McHale, and the entire Rockets have also transformed from a team that attacks in the halfcourt to a bombardment team, and the defense that they are famous for is gone. Even the team uniforms in memory are "unrecognizable".

But the only thing that seems to remain the same is that every time we play, we seem to unconsciously look at the game with or without the Rockets, and ask the friends around us who are watching the game: "What is the Rockets in the league, and what good players have they won this year?" ”

In fact, we can't find a reason why we love the Rockets more than any other team, star? Record? Scene? None of them seem to convince anyone, even ourselves. With Yao Ming's departure, the sense of national identity in my heart has long been gone, if there is the only reason to like rockets, it may be the invisible and intangible, "rocket complex", that is the best era for us to watch football.

For the Chinese audience, there is no doubt that this is a high-profile match. Half an hour before the start of the game, countless spectators chose to crouch silently in front of the TV and computer screens.

"Director Zhang, what do you think of this game?" Teacher Su Qun asked before the game.

"Hey, I'm going to talk less today, after all, the station has invited us a heavyweight guest, I think everyone already knows before the game, right?" Director Zhang said with a smile.

"Hello everyone, I'm Yao Ming." Yao Ming, dressed in a suit and leather shoes, sat on the commentary seat and waved his hand to say hello to the audience.

"Da Yao, rare guests, it's rare to invite you over today, and the audience wants to hear you say a few more words." Teacher Su Qun said with a smile.

"I don't dare to do this." Yao Ming waved his hand modestly and said.

"Hey, what's this, the audience is tired of watching the two of us every day, and the fans in front of the TV must be very entangled in who to support now. Tell me about it, the Suns are playing against your home team today! After all, Coach Zhang is a veteran of the men's basketball team, and he waved his hand.

"Well, then I'll tell you what I think, the pre-game record of the Suns is 13-5, the Rockets have one more round of 13-6, and the Suns are just in fourth place ahead of the Rockets." Yao Ming squatted for a while and said again: "In terms of pre-game records, the Suns have an advantage, but in terms of position, Howard is a very difficult point for the Suns to deal with, after all, although the state of the Warcraft declined last season, he is still one of the league's centers, and as we all know, the Suns' center has always been a shortcoming for them, so it depends on whether the Suns can handle this today." ”

Well, that's a real hard point to deal with, and we can look at the stats, the Suns are averaging only 41.4 rebounds per game so far, and that's even behind the bottom three in the West, the Jazz, the Kings, and the Pelicans. In a single game, the Suns can let opponents grab an average of 45.3 rebounds per game, so it is not difficult to see that the disadvantage of fighting for rebounds has become one of the obstacles that hinder the team's progress. Teacher Su Qun opened his mouth to the data.

"Anyway, the game is only known when you play, and this is the charm of basketball games and sports competitions!" Director Zhang concluded.