On the eve of Wen Hao's playoff debut, he was so excited that he didn't sleep. At three o'clock in the morning, he arrived at the Toyota Center training complex, the home of the Rockets, and he was about to start practice.

When Wen Hao walked through the brightly lit streets and came to the training hall of the Toyota Center, the security personnel of the training hall were stunned for a moment when they saw Wen Hao, and then they understood, and said with a smile: "Wen Hao, the game with the sun is about to start, you must take care of your body." ”

"Hmm." Wen Hao replied, and quickly walked towards the training hall.

There was more than one training hall in each arena, and Wen Hao walked towards the No. 5 training hall that he usually liked the most. But when they got to the door, through the crack in the door, a light came out. Wen Hao was stunned, it's so late, or so early, who is training here?

In confusion, he pushed open the door and saw a tall figure practicing his steps under the basket. The only sound in the empty arena was the "squeak" of his sneakers rubbing against the floor, which sounded extremely loud at this time.

This person is none other than Da Yao. Da Yao heard the sound of the door opening, turned his head, and saw that it was Wen Hao, laughed twice, and said, "It turned out to be Wen Hao." ”

Wen Hao said with some surprise: "Da Yao, I thought I was the earliest, but I didn't expect you to be earlier than me." ”

Da Yao continued to do his footwork exercises, and said, "I can't sleep, I came here at eleven o'clock last night." ”

"Whew." Wen Hao exhaled in surprise: "It seems that we are all the same, the playoffs are coming, and I can't sleep with excitement." But I don't understand, it's my first time in the playoffs, and it's understandable that I'm so excited that I can't sleep, but Da Yao, you've been in the playoffs a few times before, are you still so excited? ”

Da Yao seemed to be reminded of the sad past, and there was a look of pain in his eyes, and he said, "I've participated in it a few times before, but it's basically a round of tours. Now it's my first playoff game since I came back, and the excitement is inevitable. And you know, now that I'm in my thirties, a tall center like me will generally have a shorter career than players in other positions, which means that I will retire in a few years, and if I don't take advantage of these years to win a championship, I will regret it for the rest of my life. So when the playoffs come, of course I'm excited and a little apprehensive. ”

After listening to this, Wen Hao understood Da Yao's intentions. He thought for a moment, raised his head and said to Da Yao: "Da Yao, I can't say that I will definitely help you win the championship, but I can guarantee that I will do my best to help you, and of course help me win the championship myself." ”

"Well, I believe." Da Yao said, "Let's let our Chinese pair shine brilliantly in the playoffs." ”

Wen Hao nodded, and suddenly said out of bounds: "Da Yao, you are like a poet." ”

"Uh......" Da Yao didn't react for a while.

When Wen Hao and Da Yao trained until eight o'clock in the morning, the other players of the Rockets also came. They all came an hour or two earlier than usual, and it turned out that everyone hadn't slept well last night.

After two hours of training, McHale had the players do just some fitness workouts before disbanding and going to rest.

Wen Hao said goodbye to everyone, returned to his residence, turned on the phone, and saw a message sent by Yu Song: Wen Hao, "Sports Illustrated" wants you to shoot the cover, you can have time whenever you have time.

When Wen Hao saw this information, he was pleasantly surprised. Sports Illustrated is the number one sports weekly in the United States, with more than 23 million readers per week and 8 million subscribers in the United States. And those who can be on the cover of "Sports Illustrated" are sports figures or teams with absolute popularity and influence. In the American sports world, a player's popularity is measured by whether he or she can appear in Sports Illustrated and the number of times he has appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated.

To a certain extent, being on the cover of Sports Illustrated is an absolute recognition of a player. For example, Jordan has appeared on the cover 50 times, James has also appeared on the cover 20 times, and Yao Ming has also appeared on the cover of "Sports Illustrated" 3 times.

Now "Sports Illustrated" asked himself to shoot the cover, which shows that he has been recognized.

Thinking of this, Wen Hao replied with a text message: Wait for the first round of the playoffs to be played. I'm not afraid of the cover curse.

(I'll talk about the cover curse in more detail when I take the cover photo, but if I write this now, these chapters will be a bit too long, and book lovers should want to read the playoff chapters sooner.) ）

After sending the text message, Wen Hao turned off his mobile phone, thinking about taking the cover photo, and his heart was already open. If a player can be on the cover of "Sports Illustrated", it is in the same way as those who can be on the cover of "Time", which has been recognized by the world and has great influence. If I can go to "Sports Illustrated" once in my life, I will be content.

It's so beautiful in my heart, and the excitement for the playoffs is actually diluted a little. So Wen Hao fell asleep unconsciously.

When I woke up, it was already five o'clock in the afternoon. Although he didn't sleep all night, and now he only slept for five hours, Wen Hao's spirit is excellent, and he can best describe his state at this time with a refreshed mind. I rummaged through the fridge and ate something casually.

Although Wen Hao's current state is logically enough to be qualified as a special nutritionist, Wen Hao still likes to eat his own. If you have to plan when you eat and what you eat, it will be too unpleasant.

After eating, Wen Hao walked to the Toyota Center. The game was scheduled to start at eight o'clock in the evening, and Wen Hao was not in a hurry.

When I came to the training gym, the Rockets players were already there. Each person is practicing passing or dribbling or shooting or breaking through according to his own situation. But Wen Hao didn't practice at this time, he was meditating.

That's right, meditation. This is a method he saw in a magazine, and if you can meditate and get your mind into an ethereal state before the competition, it will have a very positive effect on the mental state of the competition.

McHale and several assistant coaches saw that Wen Hao was not practicing, and although they were puzzled, they did not come over to interfere with Wen Hao. Having been a head coach for many years, they are no stranger to the various adjustments to the players before the game.

Finally, at 7:30 p.m., the players from both sides entered the stadium to warm up, and some of the early spectators had already entered the stadium.

In this game, Yu Song and Harper both bought tickets to enter the stadium to cheer for Moon Hao, while Elena and Anne also entered the stadium from different entrances.

In the "38th Block", although Carter Jr. was not able to go to the stadium to cheer for Wen Hao in person, he invited a group of friends to his home to watch the game. Carter Jr.'s mother smiled with relief when she saw the children who had been invited by Carter Jr. All the while, Carter Jr. was often bullied, and his surname became withdrawn. But since becoming friends with Wen Hao, Little Carter's surname has become much more cheerful, and he has slowly made a few friends, although not much, but it is still much better than before.

These changes in Little Carter were all brought about by Wen Hao, so in the depths of Little Carter's mother's inner line, he was very grateful to Wen Hao. It's just that I didn't have the opportunity to thank Wen Hao in person.

In Wen Hao's hometown, although it is spring at this time. When the green wheat seedlings in the fields were growing, the villagers needed to remove the weeds, but a large number of villagers did not go to the fields. Because there is an important match for Wen Hao today.

Since Wen Hao officially signed a contract with Team Rocket, more and more villagers have been influenced by Wen's father and have begun to watch Wen Hao's game. Today's game is said to be a very important game, so the villagers gathered at Wen Hao's house. The room of less than 20 square meters was so crowded that there was no room for anyone at all.

Seeing this, Father Wen went to the courtyard like a TV and put it on a table. In this way, their yard is enough to stand nearly a hundred people.

At eight o'clock in Houston time, the game between the two sides finally began. McHale fielded the Rockets' starting lineup: center Da Yao, power forward Howard, small forward Parsons, shooting guard Harden, and point guard Beverley.

Because the playoffs are defense-oriented, McHale put Beverley, who is good at defense, into the starting lineup. Wen Hao and Jeremy Lin, who had better offense, did not make the starting list.

TNT's commentators are already busy at this point, and the former legendary shooter Reggie? Miller said: "In today's game, it looks like the Rockets have a good chance of winning. The Rockets are first in the West, and the Suns are only eighth. And regardless of the ranking, only in terms of strength, the Rockets also have an absolute advantage. The only weakness may be their number one. There is no shortage of attackers in the No. 1 position, but only Beverley is up to par defensively. However, other points can make up for the lack of the No. 1 position, so in this game, I am optimistic about the Rockets. ”

Another TNT commentator, Charles? Barkley said: "I'm the opposite of you, I'm bullish on the Suns. ”

(Note: It has been written before that these two people are ESPN, which is a clerical error by the author.) Actually, they are all TNT commentators. ）

Barkley has always been known for his big mouth, and it wasn't a surprise to Miller that he could say such a thing.

Barkley continued: "The Suns' point guard Dragic is a very well-rounded point guard, with good jumping, speed, and good close defense, and I think he can beat the Rockets' point guard. And the point guard is the engine of a team, and the engine is blown up, so how can you win? ”

Miller pursed his lips and said, "You are a retired player of the Suns, of course you say that the Suns are good, can you be objective?" ”

"I've become very objective." Barkley said with a smile.

As he spoke, the Rockets and Suns players were already in the center circle and they started jumping the ball.

Although Wen Hao could only sit on the bench as a spectator, he was not in a hurry. He knew that his chance to perform would come.

In his mind, he remembered the man a few days ago, and that man's ever-changing and powerful attack. (To be continued.) )