Today, Watanabe still cannot forget those harsh mocking laughter. When he said his dream was to enter the NBA, everyone responded the same way: laughing.

“Your dream is impossible. You are a Japanese.”

Is the dream laughed at by the World doomed to fail to come true? Watanabe Xiong has already given the answer.

On November 21, Beijing time, he defeated the grizzly bear in the first world war basketable Nets 127-115. Watanabe Xiong staged the drama of “The old master of the blade”. He made 6 shots in 25 minutes on the bench, among them, 16 points, 3 rebounds and 3 assists were scored in 6 shots and 4 shots.

In the fourth section, when the two sides clenched and compared, Watanabe Xiong poured a wave of three-point rain to make the grizzly bear lose the ability to resist. He only took less than 4 minutes to cast four three points, basketable nets changed from 5 points ahead to 14 points ahead, locking the victory.

This is the first time in Watanabe’s career that Xiong Tai scored in the fourth consecutive match. After this battle, Watanabe’s three-pointer data changed to 24 out of 42 shots, with a hit rate of 57.1 percent, ranking first in the league over Nuggets defender pop. He hit 16 points in the bottom corner with a hit rate of 76.2 percent, hit the second in the league in the bottom corner, and hit the third in the bottom corner with a hit rate of 70 percent.

Four years ago, Watanabe was one of the players with the lowest three-point shooting rate in the league, with a total of 16 shots and 2 shots in 15 games, with a shooting rate of 12.5 percent, the player who has shot at least 10 times and three points in the season ranks the 10th in the bottom.

Watanabe hero seems to be a character coming out of inspirational animation. He can step by step from falling talent shows and marginal people to become a member of the basketable Nets rotation lineup, relying on nothing more than strong faith.

In 2021 and 2022, Watanabe Xiong wrote an article in the player forum twice. At present, many materials about Watanabe Xiong were from those two personal letters. In those two personal letters, Watanabe used too little ink to recall the bitter days of the past. He was unwilling to gain sympathy by selling misfortunes, he was more willing to use his phased success at that time (once signing a formal contract with the Raptors, once signing basketable nets) to spread positive energy and inspire those younger generations like him.

Only he knew how much hardship Watanabe went through.

Watanabe Xiong was born in a basketball family. His father was a Japanese professional player and his mother was elected to Japan women’s basketball. In Japan, the status of basketball is not high. Watanabe Xiong once said: “In Japan, baseball is the first sport, followed by football, and then basketball. Not many people care about basketball.” However, the Japanese sports reporter corrected that Watanabe’s words raised the status of basketball in Japan. In fact, the popularity of basketball is even worse than that of tennis and sumo wrestling, in addition, at that time, Japan’s domestic basketball league was not mature, so practicing basketball was not a good way out.

Watanabe Xiong started the road of basketball under such a background. He grew up rapidly under the careful guidance of his parents. He led the team to the finals in high school and entered the Japan national team training at the age of 16. At that time, Watanabe Xiong had the idea of going to the United States to impact the NCAA level 1 league.

Many chicken soup literature like to describe his ambition with “Watanabe Xiong dreamed of playing NBA since childhood”, but in fact, at least when he graduated from high school, Watanabe Xiong’s ambition was just to play NCAA level 1 league, even this dream was described by himself as “a little out of reach.

Because Watanabe was too thin at that time, when his father operated Watanabe Xiong into high school in the United States through the relationship between coach Tang Baker, people who met him thought that he should not attack NBA, even playing NCAA level 1 League is difficult. Moreover, Watanabe’s level of English at that time was limited to saying “Yes”, “No” and self-introduction. Language pass was a difficult level to pass.

Glory lies in the process of striving to reach the goal, not necessarily the result of reaching the goal. Watanabe’s hero survived the most difficult stage with faith. At St. Thomas Moore College, Watanabe Xiong won the trust of coaches and teammates. In the 2013-14 season, Watanabe Xiong helped the team win 26 wins and 8 losses. In one of the Games, due to the team’s main scorer, passkar was injured and could not play. Watanabe Xiong took over the attack and scored 25 points in the game, 16 rebounds and 9 assists. However, when the coach encouraged Watanabe to release his talent like this after the game, Watanabe’s response was only a “thank you coach”, and there was no statement to shoulder the team.

Is it not confident? Not really. Watanabe Xiong is just like many Asians, born introverted and not open-minded. He cares about every teammate and plays selflessly. Most of the time, coaches and teammates have to force him to release his talent. When Watanabe became famous in America, Japanese media called him “The Chosen One” and compared him with LeBlanc James.

For these gimmicks, Watanabe’s attitude is: “I don’t feel any pressure, I can only control what I can control. I know they call me “the son of heaven”. This nickname is too exaggerated, but I can’t interfere with what the media say.”

In the summer of 2014, Watanabe Xiong was named a Samsung high school student, and no NCAA first-class league team offered him a scholarship. Fortunately, Watanabe Xiong met a noble man. James Cosgrave, who coached Trinity College, a third-level league team, recommended him to George Washington University coach Mike lorergan. At George Washington University, Watanabe Xiong gradually attracted the attention of scouts. In four years, he had been able to contribute 16.3 points plus 6.1 rebounds in the fourth year, with a three-point hit rate.

Watanabe Xiong’s university ended in a tragic battle with St. Louis University. 8 minutes before the game ended, George Washington University was 2 points behind. Watanabe Xiong fought back after stealing. He accidentally sprained his ankle after fighting against the defender. Watanabe Xiong limped to the player’s passage. He accepted the examination and tried to return to the match after being bandaged. However, he could not complete the running and jumping movements and could only withdraw from the match. After the game, Watanabe Xiong was interviewed with tears in his eyes.

In 2018, Watanabe Xiong participated in the NBA draft, and the result was naturally unsuccessful. However, the course of the onslaught NBA more than 4 years after Watanabe’s hero is worth studying by every little person. He is a model for little people to hit NBA. If two words are used to summarize, it is “positive” and “persistence”.

Many players who aim to impact NBA have been satisfied with playing a summer league, and Watanabe hero has more ambitious goals. In the 2018 summer league, Watanabe Xiong participated in the Las Vegas Summer League on behalf of basketable nets. He averaged 9.4 points and 4.2 rebounds. If Watanabe was too willing, he could have returned to Japan after playing the Summer League and signed a contract with good annual salary and high security to play the National League, but Watanabe chose to take a more difficult road, even if the road ahead is full of unknown.

“Playing summer league is very good, it is a great experience for me, but after all, it is only summer league, and my ambition is not here,” Watanabe said.

When Watanabe Xiong got a two-way contract from the grizzly bear and was demoted to the Development Alliance. Later, when he signed a two-way contract with the Raptors at first, Watanabe Xiong’s attitude was: “I am still not satisfied, I just want to keep working hard. I want to prove that I have the ability to play NBA. I know that I can get a formal contract in the end.”

On April 18, 2021, Watanabe Xiong finally achieved his goal. His two-way contract with Raptors was converted into a standard contract. Although the season was coming to an end at that time, it was still a huge affirmation for Watanabe Xiong, he won the approval of naus and Lowry with his hard work. These approvals were obtained by Watanabe Xiong at the risk of being separated by his opponent and being injured by collision with his opponent.

“I know that if I am separated, I will become a laughing stock, and I will become famous in a very shameful way. However, I have no choice but to rush up and stop the opponent from attacking. I would rather be separated by the opponent than let the opponent get two points easily.”

This attitude of the outlaw is also a strong belief, which makes Watanabe hero have a life goal. This belief is to his spirit just like oxygen to the human body.

So, is the dream laughed at by the World destined not to come true? Watanabe Xiong has already given the answer with his experience. He hopes that more generations will break through the so-called fate cage like him. He wants to be an example for other Dreamers.

“When I once said my dream of entering NBA, what I got was ridicule. But I hope my experience in NBA can inspire children and make them feel that Watanabe Xiong can play NBA, so can they. I hope more children will speak out their dreams of playing NBA bravely.”

“Because, this is possible, everything is possible.”