Chapter 152: The Attention of All
When Yang Mo was riding the team bus to the airport, Lu Xueman called.
Yang Mo saw that it was Lu Xueman calling, and without hesitation, she answered the call: "Hello, Yang Mo, I'm in Miami. I brought my mother and sister here too. Is it okay for me to stay at your house for a while?"
"No problem, of course no problem!" Yang Mo said jokingly, "If my mother-in-law and sister-in-law come, I will definitely welcome them with open arms and feet."
After Yang Mo finished speaking, there was a clear silence for a while, and then Lu Xueman deliberately lowered her voice and said, "You want to die? I just turned on the speaker."
"Ah..." Yang Mo was also embarrassed when he heard this. He could imagine how embarrassed Lu Xueman was. So he cleared his throat and said, "They didn't have any extreme reactions, did they?"
"Not yet." Lu Xueman answered in a low voice, paused for a moment, and suddenly raised her voice and said, "I'm telling you, you must play well, understand? I have accepted several commercial sponsorships for you in the past two days, and I will meet you in Los Angeles next Monday. You have to shoot an advertisement for McDonald's there, and accept interviews from several domestic media. Do you understand?"
Lu Xueman deliberately spoke so loudly about work matters, probably wanting to clarify the relationship in front of her mother and sister.
Yang Mo couldn't help but smile after hearing this, and deliberately teased again: "Are you still afraid that your mother won't agree? Why don't you just obey me? Let's get the marriage certificate and make it a done deal. Will they still hold your hand tightly? Are you willing to live a happy and romantic life with me?!"
After saying this, there was silence again. After a while, a voice came: "Sister, why don't you say anything? Brother-in-law is waiting for your reply." "Yes, Xue Man, I think this boy is very good, and I don't object to you two being together. Look, he gives you a good job and a good salary, and he is also very handsome. I have seen him on TV, and the newspapers say he is a national hero."
When Yang Mo heard this voice, she immediately cried out in her heart, "Lu Xueman, you should at least tell me in advance when you pressed the hands-free button again. You made such a surprise attack. Now it's okay, right? You can't wash it off even if you jump into the Yellow River. The mother-in-law has recognized her son-in-law!"
After a while, Lu Xueman hurriedly said, "That's it for now, I'm hanging up!"
Then there was a busy tone. It was obvious that Lu Xueman was even more embarrassed than Yang Mo. After all, she was facing her mother and sister directly, while Yang Mo at least didn't see them in person through the phone.
Listening to the beeping sound from the phone, the nervous and embarrassed Yang Mo suddenly burst into laughter again, thinking: This is good, at least I've passed the mother-in-law's test. As long as Lu Xueman nods, it will be a done deal, and then... hehehehe!
As soon as Yang Mo had evil thoughts, the hexagram began to emit brilliant light, which seemed to complement each other.
It was already late at night when we arrived in San Antonio by plane. We checked into the hotel for one night and had a game the next day. The long NBA regular season journey is a long battle for the players. One battle after another can easily wear out the players' desire to win.
However, for Yang Mo, his fighting spirit and desire to win will never be consumed by the arduous schedule, but will only become stronger and stronger. His attitude towards every game is to win. He will never give up resistance, let alone take a break.
It's a natural instinct.
However, no matter how strong a person's desire to win is, he cannot change the huge gap in the team's strength.
The passionate Yang Mo finally got frustrated when facing the calm Tim Duncan. Because Duncan's strength was not much worse than Yang Mo's, he could barely hold Yang Mo back on defense with his strength and tonnage advantage. In addition, due to his height limitation, Yang Mo didn't get many points in the restricted area. The rebounds were also suppressed to only seven, although three of them were frontcourt rebounds. However, surprisingly, Yang Mo, who has always been known as a blue-collar laborer, actually scored 31 points. Most of these 31 points came from mid-range back-to-the-basket singles, but all of them were from Robert Horry and Brent Barry.
Thirty-one points set a new personal scoring record for him, but Yang Mo was not happy at all because the team lost.
Most of the Miami media reports on this game used the title "An Honorable Defeat". After all, this was a team without Dwyane Wade, and it was very rare for Yang Mo to lead the team to the last three minutes without collapsing.
After the game, Tim Duncan also told reporters: "Young will become a very good scorer and rebounder. His inside positioning and defensive skills are impressive. His mid-range back-to-the-basket jumper almost took away the victory of the game. If he can improve his dribbling ability, he will be the second Charles Barkley. I am optimistic about his future."
Tim Duncan almost never praises rookie players, so his praise is very convincing.
But despite this, those commentators who like to criticize Yang Mo were still collectively excited. They used all kinds of negative words to describe the Heat's defeat. They also criticized Yang Mo's selfishness on the court and seized on his 11-for-27 shooting rate to criticize him to death.
In response, Yang Mo simply said: "I won't lose the next game again."
Not losing again means winning.
The Heat's next game is the world-renowned China Derby, an away game against the Houston Rockets, with China's Yang Mo facing off against China's Yao Ming.
This game was hyped up a week ago in China. Almost all sports channels were previewing the match, and all Chinese basketball fans were looking forward to it. Many schools and companies received the most leave requests since the start of the game. Although everyone had different reasons for their leave, it was almost certain that more than 70% of them were for this game. Some enlightened companies even announced a morning break, and employees were asked to come back to work after the game.
It can be said that this time the Chinese Derby has received unprecedented attention.
Because the status of the two sides in the previous Chinese Derby was too unequal. At that time, Wang Zhizhi and Daba were both substitutes among substitutes. It was amazing if they could play for five or six minutes in a game. Fans had to use a magnifying glass to find their figures on TV. In the past two years, Yi Jianlian was still too weak against Yao Ming. Although he was the main player, he was not the core who could control the team.
And now, Chinese fans have finally won a derby battle in which two players are core players of each other's teams.
The Heat injured Wade, and Yang Mo quickly took over, establishing an unbreakable core position in one game. The Rockets' McGrady also announced that he would be out for the season two weeks ago, and now Yao Ming is leading the team alone. So, this is a real derby battle!
Yang Mo declared before the game that he would not lose. When Yao Ming heard this, the always honest Yao Ming said something ruthless: "He doesn't want to lose, and Houston will never let anyone take away the victory easily!"
The conversation immediately became tense, and everyone's attention quickly soared. In the minds of Chinese basketball fans, this game has become a must-see TV program even more than the Spring Festival Gala.
At the same time, another piece of news also excited the Korean people.
The Rockets spent a lot of money to invite Girls' Generation as the opening guests. When the news reached South Korea, Korean fans were completely excited. They have been looking forward to the reunion of the national son-in-law and Jessica. Now they finally have the opportunity to see them appear on the same screen on TV. How can they not be ecstatic?
The Rockets made such a move to please the fans, of course, in order to attract more fans and create hype through this game. After McGrady announced that he was out for the season, the market was in a slump and media attention was reduced. Now, they can finally promote the game properly. With the gimmick of the derby battle and the opening of Girls' Generation, Houston will once again occupy the front page headlines of hundreds of sports and entertainment news around the world.
Regardless of the outcome of this game, the Rockets' owner has already made a profit. They are now attracting more attention than last year's yellow-green finals. In Asia, at least more than 800 million people are watching and discussing this game, and the United States has also set off a wave of enthusiasm. After all, Yang Mo is the most controversial NBA star recently.
The Rockets boss didn't lose, but Yang Mo only thought about winning. Now that he had said it, he had to do it.
This made Michael Beasley miserable. He was constantly used as an opponent to practice Yang Mo's post-up singles. Whether it was the hotel corridor or the team's stadium, as long as there was more than three square meters of open space, Yang Mo would call him out to practice moves, which made him miserable.
On the morning before the game started, Yang Mo received a call from Jessica, who invited Yang Mo to have Chinese food as an apology for leading reporters into her house.
Yang Mo didn't want to go at first because he wanted to practice more post-up play, but after Jessica's repeated requests, he agreed.
