“……”

Catherine felt a little defeated and realized that this rookie in front of her wasn't new at all, but so old that she couldn't even take a bite.

After asking a few hurried questions, the interview came to an end.

Tang Tian turned and walked towards the locker room, then noticed Ginobili standing in the tunnel waiting for him.

A trace of doubt flashed in his eyes.

"I thought you went on a date with Christine." Ginobili said with a smirk.

"...Are you talking about that female reporter just now?" Tang Tian replied speechlessly. That female reporter looked like she was almost forty.

Ginobili nodded with a smile.

"Manu, she's almost old enough to be my aunt." Tang Tian rolled his eyes at Ginobili.

"Who knows? Maybe you're into that kind of thing? I haven't heard of you having any scandals." Ginobili continued.

You're the one who's into that kind of thing! You were born to be into that kind of thing!

Tang Tian almost shouted it out, but Ginobili was already married and in his thirties, so he was probably into that kind of thing...

He could only smile helplessly.

The two walked to the locker room door. Tang Tian was about to push the door open when he suddenly noticed Ginobili inadvertently distancing himself from him.

"Manu, let me see how your hand is." Tang Tian said, pulling Ginobili over and pushing the door open.

"Champagne!"

Green's shout came from inside, followed by champagne being sprayed in their faces.

Tang Tian dodged to the side in advance, while Ginobili got a face full...

Green was stunned after spraying. This… wasn't quite the script they had planned!

"Danny!" Ginobili "flew into a rage" and chased after Green.

"I didn't see you! I didn't see you!" Green was chased by Ginobili all over the locker room, and the locker room was immediately in chaos.

Green was finally chased out of the locker room, and Ginobili finally "let it go."

He grabbed a towel and wiped his face, then Ginobili sat down next to Tang Tian.

"How did you guess?" He had chased Green purely for fun, but couldn't help but ask out of curiosity after sitting down.

"I experienced it in college." Tang Tian replied.

"Well, that must have been exciting."

There was a hint of envy in Ginobili's voice.

Like most overseas players, he had entered the professional league early after finishing high school and didn't know what college basketball was like.

Tang Tian nodded with a smile. It had been almost a year since UConn won the championship, but he could still feel that youthful sweetness when he recalled it.

"I'm going to take a shower." Tang Tian saw Leonard coming out and walked in with a bath towel.

After Leonard came out, he walked to the locker and prepared to change clothes.

His locker was next to Tang Tian's.

"Kawhi, you have to thank Tang." Ginobili suddenly said at this time.

Leonard looked at Ginobili in confusion.

"Don't think that letting you defend LeBron is targeting you. What he said was actually helping you. You need that kind of opportunity." Ginobili continued.

Leonard paused, then nodded.

Although his facial expression didn't show any change, it could be seen from his reaction that his thoughts had changed somewhat.

Tang Tian came out after showering. Most of his teammates had already left. Leonard was wearing the Beats headphones that Ginobili had given him for Christmas, listening to music and resting.

"Going to get a haircut?"

Tang Tian patted Leonard on the shoulder and spoke after he took off his headphones.

Leonard nodded, then put away his headphones.

Although he didn't like to talk much, he was still responsive to Tang Tian's requests.

……

The Thunder had just finished their game against the Lakers. Durant had a poor shooting night, making only 8 of 25 shots for 25 points, and the Thunder lost to their opponents.

The atmosphere in the locker room after the game was a bit沉闷 (chen men – gloomy).

Durant was on his phone, scrolling through Twitter.

"Tang scored more points tonight than Kevin Durant." Someone said in the comments section of his tweet.

Durant went to check the game stats, and after looking at Tang Tian's numbers, he switched back to his Twitter.

"Go cool off somewhere else." He directly怼 (dui – rebutted) in the comments section.

"Oh, are you恼羞成怒 (nao xiu cheng nu – flew into a rage out of humiliation)? You performed worse than a rookie?" This person was a professional喷子 (pen zi – hater).

"Go to an eye hospital! Only idiots would judge based on one game. You're the typical loser in life. Get off my Twitter."

Durant started a passionate互喷 (hu pen – flame war) mode.

Westbrook came out after showering and saw Durant looking fierce, typing rapidly on his phone. He walked over and sat down next to him.

"Damn it!"

Just as he sat down, Durant suddenly angrily picked up his phone and threw it out.

"Bang!"

The phone smashed into the locker and shattered into pieces.

The teammates in the locker room were startled and looked at each other, not knowing what had happened.

"Kevin, calm down. We'll prove ourselves in the next game."

Seeing Durant's reaction was even more explosive than his own, Westbrook restrained his衝動 (chong dong – impulse) and played the role of comforting his teammate.

"Yes, we will. I'll beat him to a pulp." Durant said through gritted teeth.

"Him? Who?" Westbrook realized that they didn't seem to be talking about the same thing.

"It's nothing, I'm leaving." Durant didn't even bother to pick up his phone. He simply slung his backpack over his shoulder and got up to leave the locker room.

Looking at Durant's back, Westbrook couldn't help but shake his head.

After losing to the Mavericks in the Western Conference Finals last year, Durant had become much more sensitive than before, and the two of them didn't talk about everything like they used to.

……

Tang Tian and Leonard went to the barbershop for the second time.

"Treatment?" The barber asked.

Leonard nodded.

"No, I want a haircut, a buzz cut." Tang Tian said directly.

Getting a hairstyle before hadn't stopped Duncan from touching his head, so he'd get a buzz cut. A buzz cut would feel prickly no matter how you touched it, so that should work.

The barbershop didn't ask too much. It was common for NBA players to change their hairstyles.

While he was getting his hair cut, a portly middle-aged man suddenly walked in.

"Kawhi, you're here." The middle-aged man walked straight to Leonard after entering.

Tang Tian looked at the middle-aged man curiously.

"Dennis, what are you doing here?" Leonard said.

Tang Tian noticed at this time that, unlike his usual cold expression, he seemed to be showing emotion.

"You played well tonight. Your mom cooked something good for you to eat when you get back." The middle-aged man said with a smile.

"You don't have to come over, you can just call." Leonard seemed like a real person at this moment.

Tang Tian was really curious about the middle-aged man at this point.

The two chatted for a while. After the middle-aged man told him to go back early, he turned and left first.

"Who is he?" After the middle-aged man left, Tang Tian couldn't help but ask curiously.

"My uncle." Leonard hesitated for a moment, but still said.