no shortcuts in basketball

Chapter 221

Point Guard: Rose, Hinrich, Marquis Teague, Shaun Livingston

Shooting Guards: Jimmy Butler, Randy Foye

Small forward: Xu Yong, Shane Battier, James Ennis

Power forward: David West, Marcus Morris

Center: Kwame Brown, Chris Anderson, Adams, Nazr Mohammed
Foye is the strongest among the three people the Bulls added. The Bulls also used part of the mid-level exception to sign him with a three-year, 3 million contract.

He just turned 30 this year and played for the Jazz last season, averaging 10.8 points and 2 assists per game.

As a combo guard, he can hold the ball, has a certain ability to attack independently, and is accurate in three-pointers. His career three-point shooting rate is close to 38%. Last season with the Jazz, this figure reached 41%.

He mainly plays shooting guard, but with a height of 1 meters and a wingspan of 93 meters, although he is physically strong, the defensive end will be somewhat inadequate when facing tall shooting guards.

Of course, if you want to sign a combo guard of sufficient size for 300 million, just three words are enough.

Speaking of which, Foye still has a certain connection with Xu Yong. If the Wizards had used the No. [-] pick in exchange for him as in history, Xu Yong would not have been able to join the Bulls.

Livingston is the most famous of the three.

He is younger than Foye, only 28 years old this year, 2 meters tall, playing point guard, and was hailed as the "next magician" when he debuted.

Of course, this title is for reference only. After all, Sun Yue was called "Chinese Magician" when he debuted. As long as you are a tall point guard, there is always a magician title that suits you.

And unlike many people's impressions, Livingston was actually relatively poor as a rookie with the No. 4 pick. He had no outside shooting and limited personal offensive ability. He mainly played as a substitute in his first two years as a rookie.

In the third year, he finally got better, and then he suffered a knee injury that was as tragic as a car accident. The scene of his injury was forced to be removed from the shelves because it was defined by YouTube as "extremely likely to cause discomfort to viewers."

"The kneecap was completely dislocated, the lateral meniscus was torn, three of the four major ligaments in the knee were torn, and there was a risk of amputation," that's what happened to him after that serious injury.

Generally speaking, this kind of person must say goodbye to sports, but he recovered with his tenacious will and returned to the NBA again.

However, due to injuries, he did not play many games each season. At the beginning, he played only ten and twenty games, so he continued to wander. He changed 5 teams in 7 years, and he was a standard "tramp". .

There are two reasons why the Bulls are willing to sign him. One is that he has played more than 50 games in the past three seasons and seems to have gotten rid of injuries; the other is that the Bulls currently have no real point guard in the backcourt. He is the best among the players who can earn a minimum salary.

And including Foye, who can play the No. 1 position, the Bulls have as many as five people who can play point guard in the new season. It can be seen that the management is not so optimistic about Rose's injury recovery.

The last one is veteran Nazr Mohammed, whom other teams in the league say is good to use, but will not use him much.

When he was young, he was a top-notch blue-collar player who could play the main role. When he gets older, he is basically a standard veteran, averaging about 10 minutes per game.

However, apart from those 10 minutes, the Bulls signed him more out of consideration for cultivating Adams.

Just like Tony Allen played a big role in Butler's defensive development, Muhammad can also help Adams' development.

It can also be seen from this that the Bulls management attaches great importance to Adams. After all, this is the team's first lottery pick in four years.

But looking at the entire lineup, we can also see the current situation of the Bulls.

With Yao Ming retiring and Rose's injury unclear, the Bulls are no longer in a state where "the championship is in sight and everyone is rushing to shoot".

With declining talent and mostly young players, Xu Yong has a long way to go in the new season.

The Bulls' first day's training session focused on basic training, but there were many things that impressed him deeply on the first day.

One is David West, his mid-range shot is really accurate.

Xu Yong feels that he has basically never missed a shot. The words "mid-range is like drinking water" are the most true portrayal.

The other one is Teague. This guy's shooting is really bad.

This is his second year, and his shooting is even worse than in his rookie season. Compared with his brother, the gap is really not even a tiny bit.

Xu Yong couldn't help but want to ask this guy what he was doing this past summer.

Then at the end of the training session, Xu Yong discovered something very interesting. Butler and Foye seemed to get along very well.

Butler's character is actually quite arrogant. He doesn't interact much with anyone else in the team, which makes him a little curious.

In the training session on the second day, Thibodeau directly started half-court and full-court confrontation training.

There are many new players in the team, and it will take a lot of time to adjust and find rotations. He is still a little anxious.

This was also the first time that Xu Yong played the whole game with West, and the feeling after playing was two words: silky smooth.

So silky.

Theoretically, West and Gibson are players with the same style, and Gibson is younger and stronger, but in reality, West is much stronger, and that strength is not only reflected in pick-and-rolls and mid-range shooting. At the technical level, it is also about every detail choice on the field.

West is definitely an underrated player, and is undoubtedly the strongest No. [-] player Xu Yong has played with since he entered the league.

It can be said that after this day's training, Xu Yong's expectations for the new season have suddenly increased.

Of course there are good ones and there are bad ones.

Rose felt very average throughout the game. His shooting still needs time to adjust, and his breakthrough has not yet returned to his pre-injury state.

However, the training camp has just begun after all, and there is still time for Rose to adjust.

……

Time flies so fast, it's already early October, the Bulls' training camp is over, and the preseason journey has begun.

Because they have to examine young players and explore rotations, the Bulls' main players don't play much.

Butler and Adams are the two most outstanding players on the Bulls.

After a summer of training, Butler's personal offensive ability with the ball has improved significantly.

You have to know that last season he was a 3D type who basically didn't hold the ball, but this season his confrontation ability has improved tremendously, and his breakthroughs after holding the ball have become very lethal.

He even has a certain degree of confidence in his mid-range shots.

Thibodeau often laughed heartily on the sidelines during preseason games. Butler's progress made him vaguely see the shadow of Xu Yong.

But after all, Butler has played for the Bulls for two years. Although he has made rapid progress, there are traces to follow, but the newcomer Adams is the real surprise.

Thibodeau has been in the league for so many years, and it's rare to see a rookie as aggressive as Adams.

In fact, let alone Thibodeau, Xu Yong was also surprised by Adams.

This guy didn't have a beard and looked pretty, but when he was fighting on the field, he looked like a gladiator from the Middle Ages.

Or to put it more appropriately, when you watch him play, you feel that this person should not be on the basketball court, but in the Octagon.

His strength, explosiveness, confrontation, you rarely see a white player as strong as him.

And he is also particularly good at grabbing offensive rebounds.

That doesn't just mean that he can get stuck, but that he has a sense of the position of the rebound. He can always successfully judge the landing point of the rebound, or it can be called a rebound sense.

Although as a rookie, his skills may seem rougher than expected, and even the only way to score is to attack the basket, but he is definitely a diamond that can be seen by the naked eye.

But this is actually normal. For a person who only came into contact with American high school basketball in January last year, and then immediately became a lottery pick this year, you can only say that he is very suitable for playing basketball.

After this preseason, the Bulls feel like they have swept away the staleness of last season and are now full of energy.

This is incredible, because championship teams basically don’t have any good draft picks. After losing the ability to compete for the championship, the rebuilding process is very long, just like the Lakers after OK disbanded.

But the Bulls seem to have skipped this most painful period and used their few draft picks to build a new team framework.

Although this new framework still needs time to be tested, it gives people full of expectations.

After the preseason, Xu Yong held another pool barbecue party at his manor.

Because there were so many young people, the atmosphere of the party was much more lively than last time.

Xu Yong sat there, watching a group of young people playing and dancing, and he felt like he was getting old.

Although in fact, his current body is just 24 years old.

After looking at it for a while, he looked away, then took out his mobile phone and browsed the news for a while.

ESPN's strength prediction list for this year is out again.

The Heat are at the top of the list as the defending champions.

The Pacers "no doubt" defeated the Thunder in second place.

The Thunder ranked third and the Mavericks ranked fourth.

These are all "expected".

Then Xu Yong looked all the way down and didn't see the Bulls until No. 12.

The analysis given by ESPN is that Rose's condition in the preseason is very bad, and he is likely to be injured again. The Bulls in the new season will be the season in which Xu Yong leads a group of newcomers.

"Although Chicago's new players performed well in the preseason, Chicago is no longer a championship contending team and it may be difficult for them to enter the top half."

Xu Yong smiled and put down his phone. The team members' carnival continued, and at this time, he saw Butler and Foye talking very deeply.

This further aroused his curiosity.

When Butler came over, he asked Butler to sit next to him, and then subconsciously asked.

As Butler told the story, he unconsciously looked at Foye, in awe of this player who didn't have much impression on him.

Butler's childhood experience was tragic enough, but he was lucky enough to meet the Leslies and join a kind-hearted family that made his life stable.

But Foye's experience was even worse than Butler's. When he was five years old, his father had a car accident, his mother abandoned him and ran away from home, leaving him an orphan.

In a true sense, he made it to the NCAA and then the NBA entirely by eating a lot of food.

This also explains why Butler and Foye have such a good rapport.

Common hobbies can allow two people to have common topics, and similar experiences can allow two people to resonate.

But this is not the fundamental reason why Butler looks at Foye differently. After all, in America, there are not a few people, especially black people, who have had their experience.

What really makes Butler look at him differently, and even admire him, is that Foye is a "mirror man".

This is a word that sounds a bit strange. It refers to people whose body organs are mirror images of normal people (the heart, liver and spleen of normal people are all on the left side of the body, while they are all on the right side). It appears The probability is one in a million.

Foye was diagnosed with pneumonia when he was seven years old.

This is by no means a matter of luck, as the survival probability of such people is very low.

But Foye was stunned to enter the NBA by force due to the dual experience of eating a lot of food and being a mirror-faced man.

How can such a person not be respected?

And one thing Xu Yong can be sure of is that Foye can help the team in the new season.

This kind of player lacks neither fighting spirit nor psychological quality, all he lacks is a stage.

At the end of the party, two rookies, Adams and Ennis, were asked by Xu Yong to go to the garage and bring two large boxes of gifts.

This is a gift Xu Yong gave to everyone before the game started.

Those are AJ's new "Satan.Xu" second-generation sneakers this summer.

During the preseason, he asked Butler to tally everyone's shoe sizes, and he signed every pair of shoes.

This time it wasn't just Anderson who was excited, Adams and the others were also very excited.

Young people definitely love sneakers more than old players. STX is the most popular style of sneakers on the market now, and it is autographed. This shoe definitely needs to be framed and collected.

"Let's have a big fight, guys." Xu Yong finally picked up the wine glass from the table and raised it high.

The Bulls, who were ranked eighth last time, directly won the championship. This time, they don't know where they will go in the end.

"Have a blast!"

What responded to him was the cheers of a crowd of young people.

Young people are full of energy.

……

The Bulls' opponent in the opening game is the Heat.

This year Stern finally let James go and pursued another set of topics.

The Bulls and Heat, although James is no longer with the Heat, the Heat ended the Bulls' dynasty in the Eastern Conference Finals last season, and their feud continues.

This game has attracted a lot of attention. In addition to the grievances between the two teams, Rose's comeback is also a highlight.

Of course, the James fans are also paying close attention to this game.

The Pacers are making a comeback this season, and the Heat are their biggest opponent. At the same time, they also want to see the Bulls make a fool of themselves. After all, James is where he is today thanks to the Bulls.

Before the game started, there was the Heat's championship award ceremony.

It is worth mentioning that although Riley used his own ability to retain Haslem, Haslem was suspended for [-] games by the Heat and he did not attend the award ceremony.

When Xu Yong saw this, he couldn't help but sigh: Love Melica, the kingdom of the Jews.

The Heat raised their second championship banner in team history.

Xu Yong looked at the flag with firm eyes.

Dynasty, what he lost will definitely be regained.

After the opening ceremony, the two sides kicked off.

Heat: Chalmers, Wade, Granger, Bosh, Hibbert;

The Heat's biggest reinforcement this past summer was to use their mid-level mid-level team to sign Devin Harris to relieve the pressure on the back line.

Although the team won the championship last season, Wade's consumption was not small. Riley is obviously doing early protection in the new season.

In addition, the Heat also signed Michael Beasley, Rashard Lewis, Greg Oden and many other players who came to vote.

The Heat's lineup is stable, and it can be seen from ESPN's predictions that they are optimistic about defending the title.

Bulls: Rose, Butler, Xu Yong, West, Brown.

Brown jumped to get the ball for the Bulls, and the new season officially kicked off.

The Bulls' first attack revolved around Xu Yong. The Bulls now belong entirely to Xu Yong.

However, Xu Yong held the ball and looked for Rose's opportunity.

Last season's experience shows that he alone is not enough, and Butler has not yet developed his organizational skills. Helping Rose find his form is a must.

Rose used West's cover to break through, and Xu Yong successfully fed the ball in.

Rose faced Bosh and got a very good opportunity to play small and big.

He accelerated past Bosh's underhand layup, but missed the basket due to Bosh's interference.

Bosh protected the defensive rebound, the Heat counterattacked defensively, and Wade broke through Butler's trail for a layup.

A very similar round to last season's Eastern Conference Finals.

But this time Butler provided a stronger confrontation, forcing Wade to devote more energy to deal with it.

In the end, Wade was forced to use the lever to make a difficult shot against the basket. The ball spun around the rim and then slipped in.

Butler couldn't help but shook his head when he saw the ball go in.

Xu Yong went over and touched his head.

Although Butler still failed to guard Wade's fast break in the end, he could clearly feel the improvement in his defensive ability.

You must know that in the same round last season, Wade ate Butler alive.

Continuing the Bulls' offensive round, Xu Yong was still giving Rose the ball.

This time Bosh shrank early, and Rose's cut didn't even get the same chance as in the last round. He was forced to move to the weak side three-point line.

But at this time, West made a move. When Rose moved, he did not stay in place, but quickly moved to the basket.

After seeing this, Xu Yong gave up the singles with the ball and quickly stuffed the ball in.

The big player under the basket plays the small player.

Chalmers certainly didn't sit still, but when he tried to stop him, he discovered that West's power was much greater than he thought.

West knocked Chalmers away and easily put the ball into the basket.

Xu Yong smiled and high-fived West while retreating.

He agreed with some parts of ESPN's analysis, such as Rose's comeback state being average and this Bulls team being dominated by young people.

But their biggest omission is West.

Maybe a 33-year-old veteran doesn't play a big role in their eyes, but in fact, he has been underestimated.

The round just now was exactly what he said before about West's detailed choices on the court. He would appear in the most suitable position.

In the Heat's position battle, Wade scored another goal against Brown's throw.

Brown put a lot of pressure on this ball, but Wade still threw the ball in while his body was off balance.

Xu Yong murmured in his heart as he watched.

You poured champagne on your knees last season, but is your condition not diminished at all?

Because Wade's state after leaving James from 2012 to 2014 was an event that never happened in history, Xu Yong really didn't expect it.It can only be said that he has experienced a historical hypothesis. During the Big Three period, Wade was miserably cheated by James.

The Heat are in this state and indeed have the momentum to defend their title.

When he returned to the frontcourt to receive the ball, Xu Yong did not continue to play the ball for Rose, but directly called Brown to play a pick-and-roll.

Rose's condition does not happen overnight, and what is more important now is to win this game to boost morale.

Brown's pick-and-roll was still solid. Xu Yong passed Hibbert and went to the basket, and Bosh was forced to shrink to the basket.

At this moment, Xu Yong suddenly turned around and knocked the ball to West, who had moved 17 feet away.

Show up, 17-foot assassin!

West caught the ball, stood on tiptoes, and shot from mid-range.

"Shh!"

With a crisp sound, two points were secured.

There was a commotion at the scene.

No one expected that West would score the Bulls' first 4 points.

And West's movement is so... magical.

Yes, that's the word. Although he is older, he is always in an attacking position on the court.

Xu Yong retreated and high-fived West.

It's a bit strange to say that even including training camp, he and West have only been working together for two months, but there is an inexplicable sense of tacit understanding.

It can only be described as a natural tacit understanding between people with high golf quotient.

After the Heat advanced to the frontcourt, Wade stopped holding the ball, and Bosh held the ball in the high post to provide support.

However, the Bulls were very defensive after scoring consecutive goals, and the Heat could not find a chance to open up a single to Bosh.

Bosh chose to play in a post-up position because he had an advantage in height.

But after two hits, West was as motionless as a wall. His strength was more than enough to fight against Bosh.

Upon seeing this, Bosh turned around and broke through to the basket.

But West anticipated his attack and blocked his position in advance, forcing his turning angle.

This time Bosh was blocked from stopping the ball.

Of course, the Dragon King was more than that, he turned around and shot in the opposite direction.

As a floor player, West can't interfere with this kind of ball, especially since he has reached this age. He can only put his hands up to exert as much pressure as possible.

"when!"

Bosh's ball missed the basket.

After being blocked by West for two consecutive offensive attempts, he had a chance, but it was not easy to hit.

West successfully protected the rebound and threw the ball directly to Rose on the outside.

Rose finally found an opportunity, accelerated the fast break, and got his first point of the season away from Chalmers' layup.

The scene was restless.

Xu Yong still failed to score a point, but the Bulls actually started the game in a stalemate with the Heat.

Now all Miami fans have questions in their heads. Is this Bulls team really as weak as ESPN said?

Just as they were thinking about it, after Granger scored a goal, they turned around and Xu Yong and West played a pick-and-roll and broke through the basket and dunked with both hands.

After completing the dunk, Xu Yong took a long breath.

comfortable.

West's seemingly ubiquitous figure forced the Heat to focus on him, and with this attention, he got a different breakthrough space.

This is different from Yi Jianlian's style of playing at the top of the arc at the fifth position, but the effect is the same.

About eight minutes into the first quarter, the score was tied at 8.

If the opening stalemate might have been a bit lucky, then the Bulls' performance in this quarter really showed their strength.

Although the lineup is younger, their strength is obviously stronger than at the beginning of last season.

At this time, Xu Yong was also replaced by Thibodeau and took a rest.

Rose, Butler, Battier, Morris Jr., Anderson.

Thibodeau played three substitutes at once, and three shooting points, obviously trying to take the opportunity to find Rose's form.

In fact, this is indeed the case. In the next four minutes, the Bulls' tactics revolved around Rose.

He is truly in love with Rose.

However, the effect of this section is not good, and Rose is indeed a bit immobile.

Xu Yong couldn't help but sigh off the court at this time, Ross really couldn't go back.

At the beginning of the second quarter, Rose also came off the court to rest.

Hinrich, Foye, Butler, Battier, Anderson.

At the beginning of the season, Thibodeau was still exploring the lineup, and the rotation range was relatively wide.

But looking at the lineup on the field, Xu Yongyong couldn't help but feel happy.

Because he found that everyone else was up and down, but Butler was not. This clearly meant that he had succeeded him as the number one player.

But this is definitely a good thing. Thibodeau's team values ​​you.

Young people will grow up if they are not scrapped by being fucked.

Then Butler broke through Brewer for a layup in the first possession of the second quarter and caused a foul.

Then he made two free throws despite the boos of the fans at the scene.

And back on the defensive end, he directly blocked Ray Allen's tactical off-ball three-pointer.

If it wasn't obvious when defending against Wade earlier, then it will be obvious now that he has switched to Ray Allen as a reference.

Butler's ability to get around screens and read defenses has improved greatly compared to last season.

To put it more accurately, Butler this season is already a player who can compete at the defensive level.

And his progress seemed to go far beyond that. After breaking through on the offensive end to attract a double attack, he decisively passed the ball to Foye.

Although the ball was actually passed a bit late, it can be seen that he still has room for improvement in terms of organization, but this just gave Foye a chance to show off.

He made a fake shot to shake off Williams, who was already rushing towards him, and then fired a three-pointer with the knife in his hand.

After Foye scored, he high-fived Butler on defense. The two had a close relationship off the court and were very friendly on the court.

The Bulls beat the Heat 5-0 at the beginning of the second quarter.

Spoelstra was a little confused.

The Bulls are indeed a team dominated by young people, but these young people really have something!

……

In a fierce battle in the final four quarters, the Heat narrowly defeated the Bulls 110-106.

Although they won the game, they did not have any advantage on the field. In addition to allowing Xu Yong to score 34 points, they allowed David West to get 21 points and 7 rebounds. The latter even overshadowed Bosh. , and Butler had 17 points and 5 rebounds, Foye had 13 points, all of which exceeded their expectations.

If Rose had played a little more normally, the Bulls would have won this game with a high probability.

It's hard to imagine that this is a team that just failed in its dynasty.

So a very interesting thing after the game is that the James fans were surprisingly quiet on social media. They didn't even mock the Heat for their poor performance.

Because you are like this with the Bulls. After a new wave of young people, you still have such fighting ability!

If we encounter this later, it will really be a disaster.

After all, although they have formed a new version of the plus Big Three, James, Paul, and even Bynum are all defeated by the Bulls.

……

After the game, Xu Yong and West attended the press conference with Thibodeau.

West, the new player, performed impeccably, and Xu Yong also performed normally. The reporters naturally turned their questions to Rose.

罗斯今晚13投5中，只拿到了12分3助攻，还出现了3次失误。

The question was asked by Windhorst, an old acquaintance of ESPN. After being rubbed against Xu Yong for several years, he finally made some progress. This time he neither asked Xu Yong nor Thibodeau, but targeted the question. The newcomer, West, looked kind-hearted.

"D.rose's state is worrying. If the championship is set as the goal, do you think trading is a better option?" Windhorst's question was also quite explicit.

West was indeed new here, and he didn't know much about Windhorst, having played in the Western Conference all year round. He was a little caught off guard when faced with such questions, but after thinking for a while, his answer seemed very interesting.

"I think if we set the championship as our goal, we can't do without D.rose."

These words directly burned out Windhorst's CPU.

Xu Yong couldn't help laughing when he heard this.

West's words were actually a dialectical answer, but one thing he said was correct, and the other was that he did answer the question.

However, Windhorst obviously would not give up easily. He then asked: "What I mean is trade. Use D.rose to trade for players who are more helpful to the team."

"I don't think we need to trade. D.rose has helped the team win the championship in two of the past three seasons. He is part of the championship formula. All we need is to help him get back to form."

West's answer at this time made other reporters couldn't help but marvel. West had been playing for the Hornets, which was not highly exposed, and they only now discovered that this person has such excellent coping skills.

Xu Yong couldn't help but stretched out his hand to applaud, and then took the microphone to make a follow-up: "I don't think all players are like the people you know, who choose to abandon their teammates when they are injured or in poor condition."

At this time, the other reporters couldn't help laughing and reached out to applaud.

It is self-evident who Windhorst, James’s royal reporter, knows.

After the press conference was over, Xu Yong and West left together. He couldn't help but give West a thumbs up.

The bookishness he felt during the negotiation last time, he felt again tonight.

"Are you free tomorrow? Last time you invited me to the manor for a party. As a return gift, I would like to invite you to my home." West took the initiative to invite him at this time.

Xu Yong did not expect West to make such an invitation, because it was not the first time he had hosted a party, but combined twice, West was the first teammate to return the invitation to him, instead of taking it as a matter of course.

"My pleasure." Xu Yong replied with a smile.

……

The next evening, Xu Yong took a bottle of red wine from the window and went to West's house.

He is not as elegant as the king. A basketball player still knows how to taste wine, but he only needs to know one thing. The more expensive the red wine, the more advanced it must be.

West already had a family and a career. After he signed with the Bulls, he brought his family directly with him.

When Xu Yong arrived, he saw West playing with his two children in the yard on the first floor.

Seeing Xu Yong coming, West also introduced the two children enthusiastically.

"This is my son, David, and this is my daughter, Darcia."

Many Americans like to name their sons the same as themselves.

This habit originated from the British royal family. Americans are descendants of the British, so some more traditional people will name them like this.

For example, Kenyon Martin's son is also named Kenyon Martin, but he is actually distinguished by his middle name.

For example, David West's son's full name is actually David Benjamin West.

"Welcome, handsome uncle." His daughter is still young, but she speaks very nicely.

After playing with the children outside the door for a while, West took Xu Yong to his study room on the second floor.

It was a real study. When Xu Yong saw the books in that room, he probably understood why he had always felt bookish from West before.

After sitting down, Xu Yong handed over the red wine he brought.

"You don't have to be so polite. It's an honor for you to be my guest." West was really humble, although Xu Yong felt that he was a little too polite to him.

"Is this Amarone?" Then after taking a look at the red wine, he couldn't help but exclaim. This is the most famous red wine in Italy. This bottle is a new model in 2012 and is worth more than [-] US dollars. .

"This was given to me by the sponsor, so it's free." Xu Yong said with a smile.

He is very popular in Europe. This sponsor had previously invited him to a winery in Tuscany for a wine tasting but he did not have time to go, so he gave some as a gift.

West couldn't help laughing when he heard this.

People with real status don't even have to go out to get things themselves, others will deliver them to their door.

"Honey, can you help me?" At this moment, West's wife's voice came from downstairs.

West apologized, then stood up and left the study.

Xu Yong waited for a while but didn't see West come back, so he got up and walked to the bookshelf.

As a player, he knows that he is already busy enough in training, so even if he likes to read books, he doesn't have much.

But West's bookishness was indeed something he had never seen before, and curiosity was inevitable.

He glanced at the names on the side of some books.

"The World as Will and Representation", "Being and Nothingness", "Thus Spoke Zarathustra"...

After reading it for a while, he nodded, because the title looked like a philosophy book.

He is a golfer, so he cannot be said to be inexperienced in this kind of thing, he can only be said to be completely ignorant.

But at this moment, he seemed to understand why he could say such dialectical thinking at the press conference.

He moved to the bookshelf on the other side and was stunned.

"Twilight in the Forbidden City", "The Opium War", "Modern Chinese History: China's Struggle", "Scholars and Chinese Culture"...

He had never heard of any of the names of these books before, but looking at the names, he knew they were related to Chinese history.

He took out the book "Twilight in the Forbidden City", sat down and started reading.

The author of this book is Johnston. At first he thought he was Chinese, but after reading the content, he found out that his real name was Reginald Fleming Johnston, an Englishman and Puyi's teacher.

The content of this book is to tell about his experience as an imperial teacher, and then to express his political restoration ideas and the basic ideas of cultural conservatism.

This kind of book would probably be difficult for a Chinese person to read, let alone a foreigner.

Because if you don’t have a true understanding of that period of history, you won’t be able to resonate with it.

"Sorry." Just then West came back.

"Do you see this?" Xu Yong put down the book in his hand and asked in surprise.

West smiled and nodded: "Johnston has lived in China for 34 years. He knew China very well at that time. This book is very valuable."

After saying this, Xu Yong could basically confirm that West actually read it, instead of looking at the character design on the first page like others did.

After confirming this, he instantly felt that the distance between himself and West had become much closer.

After all, it is so rare to meet a colleague in a foreign country who is interested in the history of his country.

Especially, you all play basketball.

"Are you interested in Chinese history?" he then asked.

"I'm interested in history, but you know..." West said, already sitting down and spreading his hands helplessly.

Well, Amelica doesn’t have much history, and the history is really very simple. To summarize, the British and the French fought on this land, and then the British won and killed all the natives and established the The current country then began to resell arms and immigrate.

"To be honest, I envy your country. It has a history of 5000 years and is very splendid." West continued with emotion.

"I'm surprised." Xu Yong told the truth.

"'Lake history as a mirror to know the rise and fall'. Reading history allows me to better understand the truth of things, such as China. I know China's history, including what happened in the past 100 years, so I have no doubt that China will rise again." Weiss Te Ye and Xu Yongla started talking.

The way Xu Yong looked at West was even more different at this time, because West was no longer interested, but really understood and even agreed with him.

The two people continued to chat along this topic.

Although it sounds strange to say it, he is indeed talking seriously about Chinese history and development with an American.

Just then, West's wife came to the room and told them they could go to dinner.

The two of them stood up one after another, and Xu Yong also put the book back on the shelf.

"I have always wanted to go to China, because I know more about it now from books." West couldn't help but said when he was going out.

"I think I can be a guide next summer." Xu Yong said with a smile.

He felt at the moment that this was the most meaningful meal he had ever had, because it was more than just a deepening of the relationship with his teammates.

(End of this chapter)