When Shan He saw Wang Yi write those four words, he gave a slight shudder. They had clearly struck a chord.
As he took the basketball Wang Yi handed him, he looked at Wang Yi.
After a few seconds of silence, he said, "Thanks, Brother Yi!"
With that, he hugged the basketball and turned to leave.
Back on the other half of the court, he put the ball in his backpack, took off his down jacket, and began loosening up his wrists and ankles before stretching.
After completing all of that without missing a step, he began jogging around that half of the court.
After a few laps, he stretched again. Once he had finished the whole routine, he started practicing layups.
Wang Yi nodded to himself again.
The little guy knew that details often made the difference between success and failure. His talent and hard work hadn't made him overlook them.
Things like loosening up your wrists and ankles and stretching might seem trivial.
But those little things could often reduce the risk of injury, especially in winter. When the temperature was too low, the muscles around people's wrists and ankles were stiff. If they didn't warm up and went straight into strenuous exercise, they could easily get hurt.
From that alone, Wang Yi could tell that the little guy loved basketball from the bottom of his heart.
And just now, Wang Yi had also seen a hint of determination in his eyes.
Clearly, with Wang Yi watching from the sidelines, this kid—as someone who loved basketball, and whose career had only five or six years left—would do everything he could to show off his basketball talent and skills.
At 11:30, the coaches, Team Leader, and players from Yude Middle School arrived.
Their coach was a bespectacled, refined-looking middle-aged