play for it

Chapter 16 Before Playing
The next day, two hours before the start of the game, the Spurs' rented bus finally arrived outside the Toyota Center.Their arrival immediately caused a sensation among the media who had been waiting for a long time. The reporters surrounded the bus with their cameras on their shoulders.

Yang Ke and Leonard, who were sitting in the last row of the car, felt flattered. They had never seen such a huge formation, and seeing the madness of the media, they couldn't help swallowing.

"Rookie, you don't have headphones?"

Ginobili, who was sitting in the row in front of them, turned his head and looked at Yang Ke and Leonard curiously, while wearing a pair of wireless bluetooth headsets around his neck.

"Uh, do I have to wear headphones?"

Yang Ke was taken aback. He didn't expect Ginobili to ask this question. Thinking of the past, when watching NBA games, the players all wore earphones. He couldn't help wondering whether the reason for wearing earphones was not so simple, but had other functions. .

"Oh, I brought it."

Leonard on the side reacted, took out a pair of earphones from his backpack, and grinned, revealing two rows of white teeth.

"This……"

Yang Ke was stunned at once, never expecting that Leonard would wear earphones, and he hadn't told himself yet.

"Tsk tsk, rookie, I feel sad for your ears!"

Ginobili looked sympathetic, shook his head and patted Yang Ke's shoulder with his hands.

Then Ginobili stood up, put on the earphones and played the song, and walked down the car. Duncan and Parker didn't come. As the well-deserved leader of the team, he must be the first to get off the car.

When he got off the bus, countless microphones were stretched out in front of him in an instant. Seeing this scene, Ginobili just nodded with a smile.

"Manu, what do you think of today's opponent, the Rockets?"

"The Spurs rested Duncan and Parker today. Do they think they can easily win against the Rockets?"

Faced with all these questions, Ginobili had no intention of answering them. Fortunately, the security personnel of the arena arrived in time, rescued Ginobili from the encirclement, and escorted him to the arena. .

"Oh my god!"

Seeing this scene in the car, Yang Ke cried out in surprise. It turned out that the American media was just as crazy as the Asian ones.

"Outside here are some media reporters with bad records. They tend to exaggerate what you say, and as long as you show a bad expression, they will spare no effort to discredit you, so wearing earphones is the best way to deal with this. the best course of action for the situation."

Leonard smiled, and kindly explained to Yang Ke that he often encountered this situation when participating in NCAA competitions, so he often had headphones in his backpack.

"I'll wipe it, why didn't you tell me!"

Yang Ke had a headache for a while, as if he had already seen his end in this way.

"I thought you knew."

Leonard shrugged, smiling broadly.

Finally, when Yang Ke got out of the car, the media saw that he was not wearing earphones, and they became even crazier, as if seeing a piece of sweet cake.

Finally, when Yang Ke came to the locker room with great effort, he already felt his ears ringing, and his expression was a little dazed.

Seeing Yang Ke like this, Leonard quickly stood up, pulled Yang Ke down and sat down on the stool in front of his locker.

"I'll go, they're all so crazy, how dare they accept interviews in the future."

Yang Ke shook his head, and it took him a long time to come to his senses. His forehead was already covered with cold sweat, and he couldn't help but feel afraid for a while thinking about that group of media reporters.

Tiago Splitter, who was close to the two, listened to Yang Ke's words and explained while changing his shoes: "Yang, in the future, the media reporters who met outside the arena during the game will be ignored, we have to accept It's the media reporters in the player tunnel."

Yang Ke was taken aback. He just passed out and didn't notice at all. He asked blankly: "Is there a media reporter in the player tunnel?"

"Ha ha!"

"My goodness!"

"Is this all right?"

"Yang, with so many people, you just didn't see any of them?"

Everyone in the locker room was stunned for a moment, stopped all movements in their hands, tilted their heads and looked at Yang Ke in disbelief, and then everyone burst into laughter.

"Well, I was a little dizzy just now, so..."

Yang Ke felt a little embarrassed. After what they said, it seemed that he had indeed seen a lot of people in the player tunnel just now.

Hearing what Yang Ke said, Ginobili even teased: "Haha, I think tomorrow's newspaper will have the headline of the confused Spurs rookie..."

This made Yang Ke even more embarrassed, rubbing his nose with his hands, his face blushed slightly, but under their laughter, his body, which was a little stiff due to tension, gradually eased down, the same was true for Leonard, and he was still very nervous. Follow them heartlessly.

Perhaps this is the way the Spurs relax before the game, using laughter and harmless jokes to relieve tension. Yang Ke can imagine that even if there is no such thing as him just now, they will find someone to adjust the atmosphere. The Spurs' sense of humor is in the The whole league is famous.

"Yeah, you're all in a good mood."

At this time, Popovich opened the door with a tactical card and walked in. When he saw the smiling players, he also smiled, and then patted Yang Ke and Leonard:
"You two little guys, the moment you've been dreaming of has arrived! If you fight well, tens of thousands of people outside will praise you to the sky!"

Ginobili and the others laughed. Yang Ke and Leonard didn't speak, but also laughed. Anyway, Popovich was right.

"Okay, for tonight's game, I have no tactical arrangements, you can play freely, and adapt to the game."

Seeing that everyone's emotional adjustment was good, Popovich nodded secretly in his heart, and then moved to the main topic, not long before the start of the game: "Everyone, it's time to go out for the final warm-up, give me your body It's getting hot, I don't want you to get hurt today!"

"Guys, let's go!"

As soon as Popovich finished speaking, Ginobili stood up from his seat, clapped his hands and said, and then everyone followed him out of the locker room.By the time they arrived at the basketball court, there were already sparse spectators sitting in the stands, and the Rockets players had already started shooting to warm up.

Not long after the warm-up ended, the two teams started the game under the introduction of DJ. The starting five of the Spurs were: Tiago Splitter, Richard Jefferson, Manu Ginobili , TJ-Ford, DeJuan-Blair.

The Rockets' starting five are: Luis Scola, Jordan Hill, Chase Budinger, Kyle Lowry, Terrence Williams.

Due to the reason of the preseason, both the DJ and the commentator only introduced the starting players of the two teams, as for the others, they were all mentioned in one stroke.

On the Spurs' bench, Leonard scanned the audience with his eyes, saw a yellow-skinned player on the Rockets' bench, and suddenly shouted with some surprise: "Yang, I seem to be on the Rockets' bench saw your countrymen."

"No way?"

Yang Ke was taken aback. He remembered that Dayao had retired, and there were no Asian players in the Rockets. He quickly withdrew his eyes from watching the game and turned to look at the Rockets' bench.

I did see a yellow-skinned man sitting on the Rockets' bench, but he didn't know him.Yang Ke frowned, and thought about it in his mind. In this year's rookie conference, there seemed to be no Asian players selected except himself.

It seems that it is not a rookie, so it will be...

(End of this chapter)