The Way of the Center

\u003c"readability-styled"style=":inline;"xmlns=""\u003eLillard was anxiously looking for a vacant parking space in the parking lot of the Moda Center. The city of Portland engenders loathing.

Finally seeing an empty space, Lillard was ecstatic. He slammed the steering wheel, only to find that his Hummer had to move back and forth at least three or four times to park in it.

However, the impatient Lillard moved the car back and forth five times before finally "stuffing" the huge Hummer into the parking space.

Take the key and grab your backpack. Lillard trotted from the parking lot to the elevator with 10 minutes left before the team's new practice day began.

"5...4...3...2...1!" Lillard looked at his watch, which he pushed at the last second before practice. Open the locker room door.

After rushing into the locker room, everyone looked at Lillard in astonishment. Lillard also looked at the locker room in surprise.

Obviously the training is about to start, why are my teammates resting and changing clothes leisurely here?

"What are you doing, Damien? Did you go for a morning run outside the Moda Center like LaMarcus and Ann?" Iguodala asked.

"No... isn't training about to start?"

"It's still half an hour before it starts." Matthews said, pointing to the big clock in the locker room.

Lillard looked at the clock, then at his watch. He can be sure that his watch should have run out of power, causing it to "rest" for half an hour last night.

"Damn! Scared me to death!" Lillard let out a sigh of relief. Being late for training is a taboo for the Trail Blazers. He didn't want to run back and forth on the sidelines alone while his teammates were fighting against training.

Lillard was still in shock, but the door of the locker room behind him was pushed open again.

It goes without saying that the people who came to the locker room at this time must be An Jie and Aldridge who came back from the morning run.

"What's the matter Damien, sweating profusely. Did you also run outside the Moda Center in the morning? Why didn't I see you." Aldridge put his arms around Lillard's shoulders affectionately, while Anjie walked straight When I got to my closet, I seemed to be looking for something.

"The watch is out of power, which made my time just half an hour faster than all of you. I rushed to the locker room from the second floor at the speed of breaking through Westbrook." Lillard took it for himself. made a joke.

The locker room was full of joy and laughter, and it was almost time for the training to start. The players changed their clothes and put on their equipment. A day of training is about to begin, and they will go all out as usual!

At this moment, An Jie seemed to be holding a small red couch and walked to the middle of the dressing room.

The defending champion's locker room leader cleared his throat and began to speak. "guys!"

Suddenly, everyone stopped what they were doing and looked up at An Jie.

"Guys, it's the Lunar New Year in China right now, and I wish you all a happy Chinese New Year and all the best. In China, we have a custom of giving out red envelopes. So today, I'm bringing you a few too."

In fact, the Spring Festival has already gained considerable popularity in the United States. Every Spring Festival, the NBA gathers a wave of stars to shoot commercials with lame "Happy New Year" greetings. Therefore, Lillard and others actually know what a red envelope is.

"The money is not much, mainly to bring some good omens to everyone." After An Jie finished speaking, he began to distribute red envelopes with a smile.

The players of the Trail Blazers, who were full of freshness, were scrambling one after another, and this group of athletes suddenly became aunts scrambling for goods during the supermarket's big promotion.

Some of them excitedly opened the red envelopes, happily showing off the few but sincere banknotes inside.

Some held up the red envelopes and took a selfie with themselves by the way.

for a while,

The whole locker room became noisy. Ricard heard the loud shouts immediately through the door.

"What the hell are you guys doing?" Ricard curiously pushed open the locker room door, but the messy picture inside surprised Ricard.

Seeing that Ricard and Divac were also here, An Jie immediately got rid of the crowd and walked in front of Ricard and Divac with the last two red envelopes.

"Boss, Vlad, the last two are for you."

Ricard looked at the red paper envelope in An Jie's hand, but didn't realize what was going on for a moment.

Divac understood, he accepted the red envelope with a smile, and said Happy New Year to Anjie.

But when Divac opened the red envelope, he found only six dollars inside.

"Hey, I remember Yao Ke said that in China, you have to pay at least ten yuan to get in." Divac joked with An Jie.

"Okay, Vlad, you don't want me to become the second bankrupt Pippen, do you?" An Jie responded humorously to his mentor.

Today is January 30th, the traditional Chinese New Year's Eve and the beginning of the Spring Festival.

Due to the team's excellent record this season and the fact that Anjie didn't have a game during the Spring Festival this year, Anjie decided to do something special in the locker room to relax everyone's tense nerves.

Since defeating the Bobcats after New Year's Day, the Trail Blazers are still making great strides. Although they experienced three back-to-backs in January, although they began to play away games more and more frequently.

But under the leadership of Anjie, the Trail Blazers still achieved 12 wins in 14 games in January. As of the Spring Festival today, the Trail Blazers' record has officially become an excellent 31 wins and 5 losses. There is no doubt that from the beginning of the new season to the present. Whether it is ESPN's strength rankings or other media's strength rankings, the Trail Blazers have always ranked first.

In the NBA's official team record rankings, the Trail Blazers have continued to occupy the top spot until now.

Last season, the Trail Blazers scored 69 wins. So this year, people are discussing whether the Bulls' incredible record of 72 wins will be broken by the Trail Blazers this year.

Of course, there are not so many things to worry about in the current Trail Blazers locker room. Because of Anjie's distribution of red envelopes, the whole locker room was filled with festive atmosphere, and the whole team was in a relaxed state. For a championship-level team, it is more beneficial to relax the nerves than to be tense. Pressure can crush a strong team, but relaxation will not make these self-disciplined teams regress.

A day of training kicked off in this cheerful atmosphere. Ricard's cough is still there, but he is about to quit the habit of yelling. Because of the training of the Trail Blazers, he will always do so that he can't find too many faults.

At night, when An Jie drove back to the door of his house, he couldn't help but took out his mobile phone and took a picture of the door of his house.

Because on the door, he saw a set of couplets that were incompatible with the surrounding small bungalows. It is really strange to combine a Western-style villa with traditional Chinese Spring Festival couplets.

But this sense of disobedience made An Jie feel warm in his heart. He even almost forgot that this was the first time An Jie had a good Spring Festival after working alone abroad for so many years...

"Dad, Mom, I'm back." An Jie walked into the door. Since his parents had lived here for nearly a month, the house was no longer as lifeless as before.

"Come back! Go take a rest first, the dumplings will be ready soon!" An Jie's mother's voice came from the kitchen. At this moment, it seemed that An Jie returned to his childhood, when the three of them were still living in China.

After a while, a large plate of delicious dumplings was brought to An Jie. An Jie didn't drool, but tears kept rolling in his eyes.

If he hadn't held back, two lines of hot tears might have flowed down An Jie's cheeks by now.

From 2008 to 2014, Anjie finally had a serious Spring Festival!

"Dad, Mom..." An Jie raised his head and looked at his parents with a smile. If I didn't look carefully, I didn't realize that the wrinkles on my parents' faces seemed to have really increased a lot.

"What's the matter son?"

"Happy Chinese New Year." An Jie stood up and hugged his parents. His strong arms are already enough for these two older people to rely on at ease.

"Happy Spring Festival."

The temperature in Portland is still very low today, and the heavy snow still makes many roads slow down. It is not an exaggeration to say that this is the coldest winter in Portland in the past five years.

But in this small, usually empty villa, An Jie has spent his warmest winter...

There is no Spring Festival Gala, no overly lively atmosphere, not even fireworks at midnight. But An Jie was already satisfied.