The Dream Team's last warm-up match was played in Paris, but against Australia instead of France.

Although the Australian team is far inferior to the United States, they turned the game into a jungle hand-to-hand fight with their rugged style of play, making the star-studded Dream Team feel like they are in the finals to tie seven.

In the end, they only won by 11 points.

ESPN reporter Chris Sheridan, a longtime covering Team USA, wrote after the game: "If you think Frye Yu's team has booked BJ's gold medal, this game will wake you up from your sweet dreams. ”

The Australians proved that FIBA is another dimension of basketball, not necessarily better than the NBA, but no less challenging.

On August 6, the U.S. team officially departed for China.

Three days later, the U.S. team's first game in the group stage of the Olympics was the host Chinese team.

Outside the airport, there were countless fans who had been waiting for hours, showing fanatical emotion at the moment when Yu Fei and his teammates appeared.

This has overwhelmed some American players who have never been to China.

Yu Fei's popularity in China is astonishing.

More than half of the thousands of fans outside the airport, wearing Bucks or SuperSonics No. 44 jerseys, shouted "Fry" in the hope of getting attention.

Jerry Colangelo, the director of the U.S. Basketball Association and the leader of the U.S. team, led the team to China a few years ago, and he knows that Yu Fei's influence on the country goes beyond that of the average NBA star.

But the heat they felt in BJ today completely surpassed their previous perceptions.

Wherever Yu Fei appears, there will be crowds.

Su Yu, a well-known Chinese basketball media personality, explained this phenomenon: "Frye is to the yellow race in the basketball world what Liu Xiang is to the track and field world, they all surpass people's perception of the yellow race with their outstanding strength. At the same time, Frye has a lot of respect for overseas fans, especially Asian fans, mainly Chinese fans, and every year he returns to stay with the fans for half a month, and everyone who comes into contact with him is full of praise for him. This year, however, there has been a disconnected growth in this popularity. In his personal name (sponsored by Reebok), Frye saved many people on the day of the 512 earthquake at the National Games in Sichuan. Since then, he has been more than just an athlete in China. He's the savior of Team Seattle and Team America, but here, in a sense, he's also a savior. ”

There were too many people with mobile phones and digital cameras at the scene, and some people ventured to climb the sharp fence in order to see Yu Fei up close.

"Dude, be careful."

Yu Fei said far away to a person who had climbed to the top.

The other party shouted, but the kind-hearted Yu Fei didn't expect that his active reaction would be exchanged for more people trying to take risks.

When he arrived outside the airport, dozens of media outlets from all over China put microphones in his face.

'I can really understand the love of the fans, but I don't want them to risk injury.' Yu Fei said half-jokingly and half-seriously, "I remembered what each of them looked like, and in order to 'punish' them, I would not sign autographs for them during the Olympics." ”

In addition to Yu Fei, Kobe Bryant was also warmly welcomed.

A fact that is beyond the common sense of Americans is that in China, Yu Fei is the most popular of all sports stars, and the second place is not Yao Shu and Liu Xiang, but Kobe Bryant. Of course, this ranking comes mainly from young fans who are active on the Internet and in reality.

They support Yao Shu but do not appreciate Yao Shu, mainly because Yao Shu's ghostly height makes it difficult for fans to "substitute", and secondly, Yao Shu lacks the personality of a so-called foreign star. Yao Shu's "sense of humor" praised in the United States is too "elegant and easy-going" in the eyes of domestic fans, why can't he be an opponent in front of the media like Da Fei? Why can't you do an impromptu "Kobe kiss my fart" like O'Neal did while attending an event?

A female fan broke down and cried on the spot when she got Kobe's autograph, making Kobe Bryant think she had done something wrong.

"Kobe, you're such a nice guy, I didn't sign anyone's autograph today because I don't know any of them climbed the fence to see me."

Yu Fei teased Kobe Bryant on the bus to the Olympic Village.

Kobe Bryant asked rhetorically, "Didn't you say you remembered what everyone looked like?" ”

"You believe it?"

“.”

Kwame Brown proudly said on the bus that he saw 13 fans wearing Wizards No. 5 and Supersonic No. 45.

The former is his jersey number with the Wizards, and the latter is his jersey number with the HyperSonics.

"Merlot, my popularity in China seems to be higher than yours." Brown laughed.

Anthony gave him a blank look, "Is it possible that they can't afford to buy Da Fei's jersey, so buy yours to make do?" ”

"Fart!" Brown said eloquently, "My jerseys are more expensive than Big Fly!" ”

Yu Fei's assistant Lin Kaiwen joked: "That's because you don't sell your jerseys here at all, and they have to buy them from abroad." ”

"What a fan." Brown said movingly, "They can even ignore the 1-7 exchange rate for me, and for this, I will dunk on Yao Shu in the game against the Chinese team on Sunday!" ”

Kwame Brown, like Eddie Curry, is basically Yao Shu's star rage in the NBA. Especially Brown, an offense like him is not good, and the single defense on the defensive end is a bit of a foundation, but the main function is the interior line of the assistant defense, and he is often beaten ugly when encountering an indiscriminate low-post killer like Yao Shu.

Every time he met Yao Shu in the NBA, Brown had to be beaten to the ground.

He said that he would teach Yao Shu a lesson on Sunday, and Yu Fei could already foresee the picture of him being beaten.

In FIBA games, Yao Shu will be even more puzzled.

Subsequently, George Carr lamented the changes in China.

Karl has led the team to China a few preseason games in the past, but that wasn't his first time in China.

On the bus, Carr talked about his first visit to China, in 1973, the first year after Nixon's visit.

"Everything looked very primitive back then, but today, it's changed so much." Carl lamented the progress of urbanization in China.

The tour leader, Colangelo, like other foreigners who came to China, complained about the smog. "If only the sky were a little brighter."

Afterwards, the U.S. team entered the Olympic Village for a tour.

Yu Fei walked around and went to find Yao Shu.

At this moment, Yao Shu, as China's standard-bearer, is nervously preparing.

Yu Fei's arrival gave him a little leisure time to empty his brain.

"How's your recovery?" Yu Fei asked.

"Six successes." Yao Shu provoked, "It's enough to cover you a few times on Sunday." ”

"Only six successes?" Yu Fei sold Brown with a smile, "It seems that Kwamei may really ride on your head at that time." ”

"You mean Kwame Brown?"

Yu Fei joked: "Don't call the league's No. 1 center by his full name." ”

There is a sentence that Yao Shu doesn't know whether to say or not, is American basketball really bad? When he watched the Olympics as a child, what kind of center did he have in the United States? Ewing, Robinson, Olajuwon, O'Neal, all ruthless. What is it now? Howard, who started the game, is okay, and the substitute is directly Kwame Brown? Can't the United States find another center who is tall enough to be able to defend and eat cakes, and has not a lot of hands?

Half an hour later, Yu Fei took his leave.

Because Yao Shu is really busy now.

Before the opening of the Olympic Games, Yu Fei was not idle, and the sponsors behind him would not let him be idle.

In order to amplify Yu Fei's pro-people image, Reebok arranged an event at Beijing Sports University, allowing workers involved in the construction of the Bird's Nest to come to the scene to watch Yu Fei play a short exhibition match.

One of them, a construction worker named Tang Yonggang, was one of the lucky spectators, and he will be able to watch the opening ceremony of the Olympics tomorrow.

But in the end, Tang Yonggang wanted to exchange the tickets for the opening ceremony for cash, and he wanted to go home and watch the opening ceremony on TV with his family.

This made Yu Fei sit down and chat with him for a while. Tang Yonggang left his hometown a decade ago to be part of one of the greatest migrations in history, a continuous flow of rural to urban areas in China – 120 million people to this day, and the number is growing. Since he started coming to BJ to work on the construction of the gymnasium, he has only been home twice to see his wife and children, but he thinks it's worth it because he can send 7,000 dollars a year to his family.

"Don't look at you big stars playing on the court, but if it weren't for workers like me, you wouldn't be able to use such a good stadium." Yu Fei is a cultural superstar in China, but Tang Yonggang knows nothing about him, and he proudly says, "So, I'm also part of the Olympics, and watching it at home is not much different from watching it in person, come on, I'll cheer you on in front of the TV." ”

That night, Yu Fei returned to the hotel in a trance, and the shopping mall opposite had mistakenly translated "One World, One Dream" into English as "One World, One Shopping Paradise".

When Kwame Brown and the others came back from shopping and went into the mall to make some purchases, the owner spoke broken English.

However, it can be seen that he is very confident and proud.

"Da Fei, what does 'jah yoh' mean? A lot of Chinese say this to me. Brown asked.

Yu Fei smiled: "It means that you can behave well on Sunday." ”

August 8th

Yu Fei woke up and opened the window, the sky of BJ today was exceptionally clear, and then, he found that there was a person on the opposite side shouting: "Come on, Fry!" ”

"Come on, too!" Yu Fei responded.

He squinted his eyes and knew from the bottom of his heart that from today onwards, until many years from now, BJ and China will be as bright as they are today.

(End of chapter)