"Nazir, are you sure you were not born in Africa and grew up growing trees..."

"I'm from Chicago! I was born in 1977! I just turned 25!" Muhammad shouted angrily.

Muhammad is so depressed today. Originally, he was the oldest member of the Eagles team. White people don’t say much when they look young. Among black people, he has the oldest face. Even the 29-year-old Ratliff has the same face.

They are all younger than him.

Now Muhammad is even more depressed. A 40-year-old senior has arrived, but he looks older than the 40-year-old senior...

Looking at Kevin Wesley, who is still very active in cutting and grabbing rebounds at the age of 40, the Hawks players are full of admiration. This body is so well maintained. At the age of 40, it looks like he is thirty-five.

Like six years old, although the game is garbage time and the Hornets are sending out a lineup of water cooler managers, Kevin Wesley's enthusiasm is really contagious, mainly because he is a 40-year-old veteran

, which gives people a kind of admiration from the heart.

Since the Hornets' Baron Davis won't return until January, they had a mediocre start, relying solely on Mashburn and David Wesley to support them. They are now ranked ninth in the Eastern Conference.

The Hornets, now called the New Orleans Hornets, are a magical team. They are placed in the Southwest Division of the Western Conference, but they play the Eastern Conference schedule and are ranked in the Eastern Conference.

The league's statement is that the Eastern Conference is preparing to build a new team, which will join the Southeast Division where the Hawks are located as early as 2003 and as late as 2005. Therefore, in order not to have too much impact on the competition system, although New Orleans is divided into the Southwest Division, it will be temporarily divided into the Southwest Division.

Still an Eastern Conference team, the early playoff restructuring is just to allow the teams with better records to have better playoff rankings, and to reduce the inability of strong teams to play against strong teams in the playoffs due to accidents.

Today we play the Hornets back-to-back. If Baron Davis is here, the combination of him and Mashburn will still be very competitive, but now only Mashburn is left. Even though Mashburn does have good physical fitness and excellent skills, but

Still unable to match the ferocious firepower of the entire Eagles team, the Eagles continued their ferocious momentum from the previous game. Jason Terry led his teammates to a 14-9 start, establishing an early advantage.

After the substitutes came on the field, Liu Mang came up with a group of newly formed bench gangsters and quickly opened the point difference to 15 points. After halftime, the Eagles led the Hornets 55-40.

The Hawks are playing hard every game now. Hornets head coach Paul Silas thinks it's better not to play hard against the Hawks. A core player has been injured and Mashburn is a loser, so he might as well forget it.

As a result, the second half of the third quarter became garbage time, with Jason Terry taking Barnes, Prince, Boozer, and Kevin Wesley on the court to play with the opponent's second team.

Kevin Wesley returned to the Eagles after 8 years. When he once again appeared on the court in red and white jerseys at the Eagles' home court, old fans were greeted with tears of excitement.

Speaking of which, Kevin Wesley's dressing style is very cool. Every jersey he wears is very distinctive. He has a blue ribbon tied around his shoulders. He is full of coquettishness and is a standard man with an old heart.

There is no need for the Hornets to fight the Hawks. The gap between fourth and ninth in the Eastern Conference is not big. The Magic in fourth place only have 13 wins and 12 losses. The 76ers in fifth place have 14 wins and 11 losses. The Hornets also have a record of 12 wins and 12 losses.

, stabilize the 50% winning rate, and wait for Baron Davis to catch up after his comeback. Since the Southwest Division and the Southeast Division are next to each other, the Hornets are still playing the Eastern Conference schedule, holding the position of the future Bobcats.

You can compete for fourth place.

In the end, the Eagles defeated the Hornets 109-101 and won two consecutive victories!

After the game on the 23rd, most teams in the league have two to three days of rest. The entire league will not arrange games on Christmas Eve. There will be five Christmas games this year, and the first game is the Eagles at home.

vs. the Houston Rockets.

The second game was Iverson leading the 76ers to challenge the Orlando Magic away from home, a duel between McGrady and Iverson.

The third game was another showdown between the Nets and Celtics. Originally, the match between the Hawks and Nets had a continuity with last season's Eastern Conference Finals, but the Hawks had to play the "Chinese Derby."

Game 4 is the Dallas Mavericks vs. Timberwolves at home, a duel between the league's best offensive power forward and the top all-around defensive power forward.

The finale is when the Lakers play the Kings at home, a showdown between the two strongest teams last season.

…

"Wow, uncle, this uncle is much taller than uncle..." Dinah looked at the giant in front of her and couldn't help but exclaimed!

At noon on Christmas Eve, Liu Mang and Dinah were decorating the corridor for Christmas again. Unfortunately, Alexia went back to Apilene County, a two-hour drive from Atlanta, for the holidays this year. It has been a few years.

Alexia, who had not gone home for Christmas Eve, was called back by her parents this time.

It's quite troublesome for Liu Mang and Dinah to get those pendants. The key is to hang things from the ceiling. The ceiling of their apartment is relatively high, 2.8 to 2.9 meters high. Liu Mang has to step on a stool to do it.

Then I saw a little giant walking back and forth in confusion outside the small yard downstairs, as if he was looking for something, and I quickly went to pick him up.

Yao Ming had already obtained the address from Liu Mang, but after taking a taxi to this apartment area, he was confused as to why there were all apartments here. After searching for a long time, there was no villa or anything.

When he saw Liu Mang coming out of the door of an apartment, Yao Ming felt a little incredible. This is a star with the highest endorsement fee in the league after Jordan, but he still lives in an apartment?

Now that we are here, people are still busy decorating for Christmas, and Yao Ming is here to help.

Then Dinah looked at Yao Ming who could put stickers on the ceiling without even stretching his hands, and couldn't help but marvel.

The key is that Yao Ming is thin now and looks taller. Liu Mang is already very tall, 1.93 meters, but Yao Ming is the kind of height who can touch the ceiling without stretching his hands.

This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! "Okay, okay, Dayao, let's go in and sit down." Liu Mang was quite embarrassed. He was a guest and he had to help hang up the decorations, so he quickly took Yao Ming with him.

Went to the living room of the beautiful landlady on the sixth floor. My living room was so small that it was really inconvenient for guests to come.

"It's okay, it's okay. I happened to be okay when I got here, so I came to visit you." Yao Ming said with a smile.

Seeing Yao Ming's huge body sitting on a normal-sized sofa, Liu Mang always felt strange.

It's okay to only be a little over 1.9 meters, but it's really inconvenient for many things like those who are over two meters, one over two meters, or even over two meters like Yao Ming.

Liu Mang was very curious. When smartphones come out in the future, how will Yao Ming use his huge hands?

"Hello, hell, my name is Levia. This is the cake I just bought with Ace this morning. Please try it." Every time Liu Mang's friends come over, Levia seems very enthusiastic.

I took out the coffee and snacks, which are now common items. Now Liu Mang has more and more friends, and they are all football stars.

This time, Levia actually used Chinese. Although the intonation was a bit strange, it was really decent. It was beyond Liu Mang's expectation. It seemed that she usually studied very seriously.

Liu Mang remembered it. It seemed that Alexia would take Dinah directly back to the apartment where he lived after class. She probably talked and contacted her every day.

Yao Ming was surprised when he heard a white beauty speaking Chinese. Is this his sister-in-law? Not bad! She even learned Chinese!

"Thank you, Levia. I'm Yao Ming, just call me Da Yao." Yao Ming quickly thanked him.

"I didn't expect Ace and your family to still live in an apartment, but it feels pretty good here. I'm afraid no reporter would have thought that you still live here. In Houston, I can see reporters' cars on the road every day as soon as I come out of my house.

Yao Ming said and smiled bitterly.

"I have lived here since I first came to the United States to go to college. This apartment belongs to Levia, so I have always lived here." Liu Mang explained.

Liu Mang didn't care so much about where he lived, but Levia felt a little embarrassed by Liu Mang and said: "We are living here for the time being. When the weather gets warmer in a few months, we will sell this place and go to Danbury Manor."

Or if you want to buy a new house in Mount Airy, it will be inconvenient for guests to come here."

"This place is going to be sold? Levia, you didn't tell me!" The apartment is going to be sold? Liu Mang has never heard of it! The rent has just been paid! The new landlord won't raise the price!

"Don't worry, one room in the new house is yours!" Levia rolled her eyes at Liu Mang. Didn't she know what Liu Mang was thinking? Come to think of it, Levia was still a little depressed like a little woman.

Hearing this, Liu Mang felt relieved, that's it! Live in a villa! Liu Mang thought about it, and it seemed that except for the more than a month of training in Los Angeles, he seemed to have never lived in a villa at other times, that kind of feeling of being alone.

It's really good. We must discuss it when the time comes and buy one with a basketball court and gym.

"Dayao, are you used to playing in the NBA?" Liu Mang asked.

"It's great. The Rockets are very good. As you said, Francis is a good person." Yao Ming feels that he is quite lucky. If he went to the dire straits of the Knicks, he would probably be ostracized to death.

"By the way," Liu Mang suddenly thought, "Dayao, why didn't your Ye Li come?"

Dayao was still young. Hearing Liu Mang say this, his face turned red and he quickly said: "Ye Li and I are just ordinary friends. He is still playing WCBA, so how can he come to see me play."

WCBA is a women's basketball league established in the summer of 2001. In the summer of 2002, it was renamed WCBA based on the WNBA in the United States. The competition system is similar to the WNBA, but teams that have not made the playoffs will be promoted and relegated to the women's basketball league champions and runners-up.

Contest.

"Yeli?" Levia asked curiously as she had never heard of this name.

"She's Yao's girlfriend, her surname is Ye, and her given name is Li, Ye Zi." Liu Mang explained to Levia, who had learned some Chinese.

"Ye Li and I are just ordinary friends." Dayao, a huge man with a red face, explained weakly, looking inexplicably cute.

"Oh? Really? Dayao, although I don't know Ye Li, but she is also a basketball player. She should be able to watch NBA news. When I was interviewed, I said that you brought an American girlfriend to my house..."

Liu Mang said with a bad smile.

"No, no, no... we haven't even seen each other yet. If you say this, she will probably stop answering my phone!" Yao Ming quickly begged for mercy.

Liu Mang and Yao Ming spoke a little too fast, and Levia couldn't quite understand them. But with the guests around, Levia looked quite ladylike, so she just sat next to them and said nothing.

But Dinah couldn't help it any longer. She came to Liu Mang's side, got out from under Liu Mang's arm, and stretched out her hand towards Yao Ming: "Hello, Uncle Yao, I'm Dinah. Congratulations on getting rich. Here's the red envelope!"

Seeing that although Dinah's speaking speed was a little slower, her pronunciation in Chinese was more standard. The key was that she spoke more standardizedly when asking for red envelopes. Liu Mang covered his forehead in pain. This little loli was embarrassed again!

Yao Ming was stunned. The American girl who spoke Chinese did not surprise him. The key was that she wanted red envelopes! This is not the Chinese New Year... Wait, Yao Ming remembered, it seems that today is indeed the American New Year...

Yao Ming took out his wallet. Fortunately, there were more than five thousand US dollars in it. It was not too small and not embarrassing. He took it all out and handed it to Dinah: "Hello Dinah, thank you for your blessing."

At this time, there are very few people in China who actually give out red envelopes. They all give money directly. A lot of traditional culture has been slowly lost since the reform and opening up, and it is not as valued as Chinatowns in many foreign countries.

Looking at the money handed over by Yao Ming, Dinah felt very strange and emphasized: "Uncle Yao, Dinah wants a red envelope!"

Seeing Yao Ming stretching out his hand in astonishment and feeling embarrassed, Liu Mang quickly said: "Yao, just go back and find a piece of red paper and wrap it with $10."

Yao Ming was so embarrassed, it turned out that he really wanted a "red envelope"!

This chapter is not over, please click on the next page to continue reading!...

…

Yao Ming had lunch at Liu Mang's house. Of course, he still asked the restaurant to deliver it. Alexia was not here and this group of people had no ability to survive. He could ask Liu Mang to cook, but he found it troublesome.

After having a meal and chatting for a while, Yao Ming went back to the hotel.

The Eagles also have a day off today. After all, it’s Christmas Eve. The training is too inhumane. Liu Mang cleared the dining table and then took Dinah to watch TV together.

Watching sports news.
To be continued...