"Writing a story is like shooting a basketball. You keep making shots, and you keep hitting, and then you continue, and you continue, until you exit the game." ——Author
Dang Lei sometimes thinks how great it would be if his life was just a dream.
When he woke up from the dream and returned to reality, he found that he was actually a normal person.
It can be seen from Dang Lei's surname that he was an orphan and grew up in an orphanage.
Dang Lei had never met his parents. According to Aunt Jiang, who took care of her in the orphanage, she found him at the gate of the orphanage one winter morning in 1989.
At that time, he slept obediently in a bamboo basket covered with cotton wool, his little face turned red from the cold, and he burst into tears when Aunt Jiang picked him up.
There is a note sandwiched in the cotton wool. It is a message from the mother of the child, asking a kindhearted person to raise the child. It is signed "Rui".
Aunt Jiang lamented that this mother was so hard-hearted that she didn't even want her own child, so she named the child "Lei".
At first, people in the orphanage didn't quite understand why such a cute boy was abandoned by his parents. Later they discovered that Dang Lei had severe congenital heart disease.
According to the medical technology at the time and the funding of the welfare home, it was impossible to perform a radical surgery on him. Doctors said he probably wouldn't live past 20.
There are many children with congenital disabilities and defects in welfare homes, and Dang Lei became one of them.
Xiao Danglei knew nothing about this at first. He grew up carefree with his friends in the orphanage.
Until one day he found that some of his friends around him were missing one after another. When he was young, he was so afraid that all the children would be eaten by his aunt, so that for a while he hid when he saw his aunt.
Later, he learned that these healthy little friends had been adopted. They had parents and a family.
And no one would adopt a child with serious congenital diseases like Dang Lei.
Except for having congenital heart disease, Dang Lei is no different from an ordinary child. He goes to school normally and is excellent in all cultural subjects. However, he cannot take physical education classes or participate in strenuous physical activities.
Whenever other children were running and playing on the playground, Dang Lei could only sit in the classroom and watch helplessly.
One time, he couldn't help but chase and fight with the boys in the class. After a while, his heartbeat became chaotic and he couldn't breathe. The teacher was so frightened that he sent him to the hospital.
The doctor told him: "You can no longer do strenuous exercise, otherwise your life will be in danger."
Xiao Danglei asked: "Can I play basketball?"
The doctor smiled and said: "Of course not, basketball is also a strenuous exercise."
Xiao Dang Lei lowered his head. Of course he knew basketball was a strenuous exercise, but he didn't give up and asked the doctor again.
As if it was a joke of fate, he was destined to have no connection with sports, but he happened to meet basketball.
It was the summer of 1997, and the TV station began to broadcast a basketball cartoon about a red-headed boy. In front of the 21-inch color TV donated by caring people, Dang Lei was deeply attracted by the "Slam Dunk" and spent the entire summer vacation.
On the originally white wall of the orphanage, he used a flower ball to smash out a dark patch.
In 1998, the finals between the Bulls and the Jazz were broadcast live on the Central Television. Children from surrounding communities used water margin cards made of raccoon noodles to bet on who would win the championship.
While most people were betting on Jordan, Dang Lei, who took an unusual approach, bet the entire welfare home’s Shuihu Cards (dry noodles given by volunteers), believing that Karl Malone and Stockton’s Jazz would win. .
With Jordan's last vote, all the Water Margin cards in the welfare home were shared by others. Dang Lei spent a summer vacation to win them back in various ways, and even won a lot more and returned them to the home. kid.
In 2001, Wang Zhizhi put on the No. 16 jersey of the Dallas Mavericks and became the first Asian to land in the NBA.
CCTV began to regularly broadcast NBA regular season games every week, especially Dallas Mavericks games.
That year, Dang Lei graduated from elementary school and went to school in a county school ten kilometers away from the welfare home, where he began boarding life. After leaving his aunt and friends in the orphanage and facing the heavy academic life in middle school, he needed a spiritual sustenance.
In 2002, Yao Ming joined the Houston Rockets as the No. 1 pick, bringing the NBA craze in China to its highest peak. Most young people who love basketball have become fans of the Rockets and Yao Ming.
Dang Lei is no exception.
As long as time and conditions permit, Dang Lei will never fail in an NBA game, especially the game between the Rockets and Yao Ming.
After school at noon, there would be a game broadcast on CCTV. Dang Lei and a group of classmates would go to the canteen in front of the school to watch the TV and buy a bag of 50-cent Mimi shrimp crackers as the shop owner's broadcast fee.
Basketball newspapers and magazines such as "Sports Weekly", "Basketball Pioneer", and "Dunk" have become the best reading materials to relax after boring schoolwork.
At that time, every classmate didn’t have much pocket money, and there was no money left to buy magazines except for meals. So every time there was a new product at the newsstand, Dang Lei would gather everyone to pool their money to buy a copy, and the boys in the class would circulate it.
He was the first to buy, but always the last to read. When it came to his hands, the newly bought magazines and newspapers were as old as being dragged out of a dog hole, but this did not prevent him from reading them with gusto.
The distant and passionate world of basketball across the ocean has become a stage on the other side for teenagers to release their energy and imagination during their monotonous and confused adolescence.
The little Chinese giant wearing the No. 11 jersey carries many beautiful but unrealistic fantasies. Before the two-dimensional paper figures, Korean beautiful girls, and many Japanese teachers occupied the pituitary glands of the teenagers, this 2.26-meter-tall Men tug at the heartstrings of most young people.
Dang Lei was also deeply inspired by Yao Ming's achievements in the United States, and once foolishly believed that the "Ming Dynasty" boasted by the Chinese media would one day come.
The expectations for Yao Ming and the Rockets accompanied Dang Lei through three years of high school, but the Rockets and Yao Ming were eliminated in the first round by the Mavericks and Jazz one after another. The championship is just a distant dream, and the students' dreams of Tsinghua University and Peking University Just as far away.
In 2008, the Rockets won 22 consecutive games in the regular season, but Yao Ming was reimbursed due to injury.
In the Olympics, Yao Ming led the Chinese men's basketball team to the best performance in history at home.
Dang Lei performed exceptionally well in the college entrance examination this year and passed the 985 exam. He left the small county town and went to the provincial capital.
In 2009, the Rockets finally made it past the first round and entered the semifinals against the Lakers. After winning one game first, Yao Ming was reimbursed due to injury.
The great situation was ruined in one moment, leaving Chinese fans with endless regrets.
This year, Dang Lei was just 20 years old, and heart problems began to plague him frequently. He often felt weak, with chest tightness, asthma, and rapid heartbeat.
In 2010, Yao Ming was reimbursed for the season.
Dang Lei overcame health problems with his tenacious willpower, obtained all credits with high grades, received scholarships and student subsidies, and after excluding living expenses, he bought 30 boxes of milk, two boxes of books, and a large box of toys for the children in the orphanage.
Aunt Jiang called and asked him to save more money for his future life. Dang Lei agreed, hung up the phone and placed an order for three basketballs and a simple basket to send back.
He hopes that children who love playing basketball can have real basketballs to play with.
In 2011, Yao Ming appeared on the court for five games and never appeared again. His body no longer supported him in basketball.
In June, the Mavericks defeated the Heat to win the championship, but Wang Zhizhi, No. 16, had already left Dallas.
On July 20, Yao Ming announced his retirement and left the basketball court forever.
When the news popped up in the pop-up window, Dang Lei felt a little tight in his chest. He sat in front of his laptop in a daze for a while.
At the moment, he is playing the basketball game 2K11, which was released in October last year. Unable to play on the court, he can only vent his passion for basketball through games.
In MP mode, he picked a player of his choice and named it after the protagonist Gump in his favorite movie "Forrest Gump" - he envied Gump for being able to run all the time.
Gump is 6 feet 10 inches tall (2.08 meters tall) and is an athletic big man with both strength and flexibility.
He has a square face, a strong body, long arms, and strong legs. He looks like a good player for basketball.
In terms of ability value setting, Dang Lei, who has an initial SP value of 10,000 points, concentrates his limited points on shooting, strength and blocking.
Continuously earning SP points through training and competition, Gump's ability value increased under Dang Lei's distribution, and he successfully grew into a star, superstar, and superstar.
After careful training, Gump is already a perfect center with both offense and defense, accurate shooting, amazing strength, and dual internal and external abilities. He is leading the team towards a dynasty.
The news of Yao Ming's retirement pulled Dang Lei out of the illusory game. A dream about basketball was over, completely over.
Those wonderful bubbles that once supported his spiritual world were burst at this moment. Yao Ming, who was only 31 years old and still at his peak center age, left the basketball stage.
The Yao-Mai combination, the championship, and the Ming Dynasty are just beautiful fantasies spun by fans with enthusiasm, like the scorching heat of midsummer that dissipates completely after a heavy rain.
Dang Lei quit the game, closed his laptop, and decided to go out for some fresh air. His chest was so tight.
Now is the summer vacation. Instead of going back to the orphanage, Dang Lei stays in school as a tutor to earn some living expenses. The campus is empty except for the lush sycamore trees on both sides of the road that rustle in the evening breeze.
After walking a few steps out of the dormitory, we arrived near the basketball court. In the past, every time I passed by here, there were many students playing basketball day and night. The sound of banging and banging was endless and it was very lively.
It's quiet here tonight. No one is playing basketball on the five basketball courts and ten basketball hoops. It's really surprising.
Although the students have all gone home during the summer vacation, there are also many people who stay in school like Dang Lei, as well as people from other schools who come to the school to play ball. There will be many people here until the lights go out at ten o'clock in the evening.
What's going on today? It was not yet eight o'clock and there was no one there.
Dang Lei looked at the deserted court and saw a brown basketball placed under the basket on the south side of Court No. 2.
It is placed in a reasonable collision zone in the semicircle directly under the basket. It is just right and impartial. It seems that someone put it in that position intentionally.
Dang Lei looked around, but there was no one nearby. An impulse suddenly surged in his heart. The basketball seemed to be calling him, calling him to go over and pick it up.
Due to physical reasons, Dang Lei was unable to play on the court. As a child, he would occasionally find an empty court alone with the ball and play shooting games under the basket.
One unique thing that distinguishes basketball from other ball sports is that you don’t have to join a team. You can enjoy this sport alone. You can spend hours dribbling, shooting, picking up and shooting under the basket. , until it gets dark and the basket cannot be seen clearly.
However, the school's stadium was always occupied, and there was almost no free time. Dang Lei did not want people to know about his physical shortcomings, and he always stayed away from sports activities.
The court was rarely empty at this moment, and there was a ball under the basket. He clenched his fist and walked through the wire fence to Court No. 2. The lights of the court illuminated the field brightly. He seemed to have stepped from the dark auditorium onto the shining stadium. On the stage, the eyes of many fans were hidden in the dark night surrounding it.
Standing directly under the basket and looking up, Dang Lei felt that the hoop was very low and very large, as if he could reach it with just one hand.
Picking up the ball, the brown basketball leather has black "Wilson" printed on it. It is a relatively rare Wilson basketball.
The official ball of the NBA is Spalding. Most of the products sold in sports equipment stores are Spalding or Spalding imitations. Wilson, the official ball of the NBA before 1984, is not well-known in China, and the people who use it are not much.
He weighed the ball in his hand. It was a little heavy. He took two steps back and threw the ball towards the basket. Dang Lei's shooting posture was very standard. This was the result of practicing with his bare hands again and again. The ball also entered the basket hollowly and passed through the basket. The Nets made a refreshing "swish" sound.
"Huh~"
Dang Lei breathed a sigh of relief and felt that the dullness in his chest was much better. It felt great to score a goal.
He picked up the ball, dribbled it twice, took a few steps back, shot again from a little further away, and the ball hit the backboard and bounced into the basket.
His touch was very good tonight. He has basketball talent, his shooting hand is soft and perfect, and his body exerts force in a coordinated manner.
He slowly increased his speed and got farther and farther away from the basket. He could still hit the ball until he was outside the three-point line.
With his talent, although he can't play professionally, if he studies hard and practices hard, he can still become a folk master at the community golf course.
But life played too many tricks on him, giving him life but taking away his health. He faced everything with an optimistic and open-minded attitude, and worked hard to overcome everything, but he knew in his heart that what this body left to him was Time was running out, and he felt it.
Just when he missed a long three-pointer and tried to pick it up, he suddenly became difficult to breathe.
There was severe pain in his chest, as if a hand was twisting his heart. The tightness in his chest was getting stronger and stronger, and he felt like he couldn't breathe enough.
His hands and feet began to become numb, everything around him became blurry, and the bright lights suddenly went out.
The last thing that appeared in front of him was a dark sky with two moons hanging in the sky.
"I...if I were dreaming...it would...be wonderful..."
