Champion, please stay!

Chapter 131, Page 129: A Little Bit of Everyday Life
Yi Shui went back to school for a day, and in the afternoon played a game of ball with the younger students on the school team.

Yad, that bastard, took advantage of the situation and went to the basketball club manager to ask to use the home arena.

The city is right next to New York, but it doesn't host as many events as the capitals of major states. After the NCAA goes into winter break, the main revenue of Harry Gamper Arena comes from ticket sales for the use of sports facilities. It's been empty these past few days. When the executives in charge of the operation of Harry Gamper Arena heard that Yi Shui wanted to borrow the arena, they naturally agreed.

The last time a college player left school as well as Yi Shui was in 1997.

Moreover, the one was in the remote city of San Antonio, while Yi Shui was in New York. Even though his performance on the field and his team's record were inferior to the one he was referring to, his influence was much greater than that one's.

Last month, Yi Shui's jersey was retired, and a nationally televised event was added... Even donations for international student recruitment increased because of Yi Shui.

Yi Shui had naturally heard about these things, which is why he let Ya De do as he pleased.

The younger students invited female students from within the school and the neighboring art college, wanting to impress them, so of course he had to support them.

There might be negative news about him, but he doesn't care. He doesn't want to create a so-called perfect persona. Those who are good at pretending can't pretend forever, and he certainly can't either, so he might as well not pretend.

This is the second time Yi Shui has come to this stadium since the qualifying stage of the third season. The last time was when the school team's championship flag was raised and his jersey was retired.

As Yi Shui left after playing against the junior school team, he glanced at the number 13 jersey floating in the air. He wondered when he would be able to come back here again.

Yad is about to graduate and is already considering whether to participate in the talent show or go home to start a business.

Robinson and Thabeet are also preparing to enter the draft early.

Many of my teammates from last season have graduated or left the team, and there will be even more after this season ends.

Calhoun, who has won his third title, is already preparing for retirement, and it seems that he only has 3 years left on his contract.

Now over 50, Clark is finding it increasingly difficult to manage the training of a team and is preparing to switch to personal coaching...

Yi Shui recalled that after the championship parade last season, his teammates all agreed to get together often, but so much time has passed, and only Yad and Robinson occasionally invite him or come to New York to see him. No one else has taken the initiative to contact him... Of course, he hasn't taken the initiative to contact them either.

In other words, you can chat for ages with those two guys without any purpose or specific topic, whereas you might not be able to have a proper conversation with other people even when you're sitting together.

The nostalgia for one's alma mater is never about the school itself, but about the people who lived there.

Yi Shui attended a party that evening, but didn't stay long. He sat for a while, paid the bill, and left. Playing with this group of people was like going out with elementary school students—it was boring. He couldn't even touch a drop of alcohol... It was mainly his own fault; his arrival brought the paparazzi to the school.

...

After a day of rest, the sudden bout of sentimentality subsided, and on Christmas Eve, the 24th, Yi Shui got up early to prepare for training.

When he arrived at the stadium, his mother called him after finishing her evening self-study class to wish him a Merry Christmas Eve and ask if he had eaten an apple.

He thought his parents were becoming more and more fashionable. In his memory from his 'past life', it seemed that these past few years were the most popular time for Chinese-style Western holidays. He listened to his mother and went to the fruit shop to buy an apple after training at noon, which was his way of celebrating the holiday.

When we talked on the phone before, his parents told him that they had bought a big house in the county town, which was being renovated in a European style. They had also bought a car; his father had sold his electric scooter and bought a very ordinary car to avoid being too conspicuous at school. But his father specially bought his mother a luxury car to drive privately, so that his mother would have face among her best friends.

In my memory, his mother was quite concerned about appearances when she was young and liked fashionable things, but after he was born, she started to save money, which was also related to his father's rigid and serious personality.

However, his father is not inflexible; otherwise, he wouldn't have agreed to let him study in the United States back then. Now that he has money, although he still lives a hard life, he won't mistreat his wife.

After a day of training, Yi Shui had dinner and returned to her apartment, where she routinely browsed the news. The hottest topic in the sports world right now was naturally tomorrow's Christmas Day game; the Yellow-Green battle and the clash between the two prodigies from the 03 draft class basically dominated the headlines on major websites.

The topic of the 'Chinese Derby' is only really popular in Chinese communities in the United States.

Even the pre-game summaries from each team generated more buzz across the US than the Christmas Day game between the Knicks and the Rockets.

But it's different in New York and the surrounding 'urban-rural fringe' areas. Yi Shui saw that the local fan forums were constantly being updated with new posts, and the level of activity was even higher than when they played the Cavaliers a while ago!
Before the season started, when the schedule was first announced, Yi Shui saw New York fans discussing it on the news.

The last time the Knicks played in a Christmas Day game was in the 00-01 season. At that time, the Knicks were a top-four team in the Eastern Conference, having reached the Eastern Conference Finals the previous season and the NBA Finals the season before that.

Since then, the Knicks have missed seven consecutive Christmas Day games, making them the team with the longest consecutive Christmas Day absences among major city teams.

就连公牛队，03-04赛季有了崛起的苗头后，04-05赛季就登上了圣诞大战舞台，06-07赛季季后赛首轮横扫卫冕冠军热火队后，07-08赛季又再一次登上圣诞大战舞台。

The schedule was announced before the season started, so it's definitely not because of their performance on the court after getting the number one draft pick last season that they were given Christmas Day games.

The fans attributed all the credit to Yi Shui!

Having never played a single NBA game, yet being scheduled for a Christmas Day game, has further elevated Yi Shui's standing among New York fans!
...

After two days of rest, December 25th arrived, and Christmas was here.

During the morning training session, Yi Shui sensed that his teammates were exceptionally excited.

After all, apart from Duhon, no one else has ever played in a Christmas game. For most players, the opportunity to play in a Christmas game may not come even once in their entire career.

This training session only included one targeted offensive drill and half a defensive drill. This is where D'Antoni's team's strength lies: they focus on a system. Once the system is built, it's easy to adjust the details.

Cheeks, who was in charge of defense, was not a 'perfectionist'. The management, head coach, and star player did not have high demands, and he would not make high demands either. He just needed to meet the assigned tasks and the needs of the star player.

Around 11 a.m., Yi Shui, the elementary school student, and Chalmers were getting ready to go out for lunch. They were going to have a good meal for Christmas, so they skipped the nutritious lunch. Just then, Yao Ming called, saying that he had arrived at Madison Square Garden and invited him to lunch.

Yesterday was Christmas Eve, and Yao Ming only flew over from Houston with the team this morning. It wasn't just his team; other teams playing on Christmas Day also basically flew over from their home cities on the same day... except for the Celtics, who are too far away and it takes more than five hours to fly there.

Pierce once complained about why the Lakers always played away games during Christmas... They didn't seem to consider themselves Los Angeles locals at all.

Yi Shui had already made plans with Curry and Chalmers, but he hadn't seen Yao Ming in a long time, so he brought the two of them along.

Yi Shui underestimated Yao Ming's influence among the players; his two teammates were very excited to hear that they could have dinner with Yao Ming.

During the Olympics, Curry and Chalmers met Yao Ming, but they didn't really talk to him. They just exchanged greetings when they visited him at the Wukesong Arena.

Yi Shui arrived at the parking lot with his two underlings and met Yao Ming, who was waiting there.

Yao Ming's first words upon seeing Yi Shui were: "Damn... Yi, you've really grown into a center!"

"No, I didn't! Don't talk nonsense! I'm just a swingman!"

(End of this chapter)