Everything is moving in a good direction and the players are eager for the upcoming tournament.

Two days before the tournament begins, the players prepare to leave for Philadelphia, where their first stage of the game will be played at the Wachovia Center, the home of the Digital Man team.

However, just as the team members got on the bus to go to the airport, Sandek made a sudden announcement.

"DeMar is not coming with us to Philadelphia. He's having some issues at home."

When this was announced, all the team members were stunned.

Although DeRozan is only a freshman, he is the team's third-leading scorer after Harden and Xu Yong.

And more importantly, the Devils' rotation is very tight now, and the sudden loss of such a strong scoring point will have a huge impact on their strength.

Xu Yong and Harden looked at each other and shook their heads.

During the morning training session, DeRozan was still chatting with them about the game. In the afternoon, there was no sign of anything unusual with DeRozan.

It seemed that something happened very suddenly, so much so that DeRozan didn't have time to tell them and only had time to say hello to Sandek.

However, Xu Yong noticed that Harden looked very worried.

After the car started, Harden couldn't help but take out his cell phone and call DeRozan.

But the line was busy, so he had to put down the phone.

"Can't you put family matters aside for a while? What will happen to the team if you leave at this time?"

"That's right. The tournament is coming up soon. How dare they call even though they knew the situation."

"Well, maybe there was some unexpected situation. Don't you know about Demar after being together for so long?"

The teammates in the back row were talking.

Originally the time, location and people were all right, but now one of the main players is missing. It would be hard for anyone to remain calm.

"Shut up!" But at this moment, Harden suddenly stood up and shouted directly at his teammates behind him.

This made everyone behind him stunned.

At first, only the team's two bench players were discussing the issue, but in the end, it was Ayers who persuaded them.

And more importantly, Harden is usually gentle in character, and this is the first time they have seen Harden get so angry.

The atmosphere in the bus suddenly became very tense.

Fortunately, Harden didn't say anything else. After scolding, he sat down again and continued to try to call DeRozan, but the phone on the other end was turned off.

Xu Yong was also a little worried at this time, because of Harden's reaction, he really didn't think something unexpected had happened in DeRozan's family.

Harden finally sent a message to DeRozan and put his phone away.

"Don't worry, DeMar's phone may just be out of battery." Xu Yong persuaded.

Harden nodded and turned his head to the window.

There was no conversation all the way until the plane landed in Philadelphia. Harden turned on his phone and received a call back from DeRozan.

After the call, Harden breathed a sigh of relief.

"What happened to DeMar?" Xu Yong also asked at this time.

"Xu, can you imagine the pressure of life a person has to face every day when his father suffers from severe kidney disease and his mother suffers from lupus erythematosus?" Harden did not answer Xu Yong, but asked him a question in return.

Xu Yong was stunned. Of course he could tell that what Harden was talking about was the situation at DeRozan's home.

Then he shook his head. He was born into a happy basketball family. He might have heard of families like DeRozan's, but he really couldn't empathize with them.

However, he somewhat understood why DeRozan became depressed later and why he now looked brighter than he imagined.

If you can't try to stay optimistic in this environment, it's easy to become depressed and then go to extremes.

"DeMar originally wanted to go to the University of Southern California, which is only a 20-minute drive from Compton, making it convenient for him to go home and take care of his parents." At this time, they had already boarded the bus to the hotel, and Harden continued after sitting down.

The carriage was exceptionally quiet at this time. Not only Xu Yong was listening, but other teammates on the team were also listening.

DeRozan has never told anyone about his family.

"But Aunt Diane, DeMar's mother, told DeMar to make his own choice. After watching our game against UCLA last year, DeMar went back and shared his feelings with her for an hour. She could feel DeMar's expectations."

Xu Yong nodded. This was the reason why DeRozan chose to come to Arizona State University.

"Aunt Diane was in the hospital, but she didn't tell DeMar. Her condition suddenly worsened, so her aunt called DeMar." Harden went on to explain why DeMar left so suddenly.

At this time, in the back row, the two bench players who had been talking before lowered their heads unconsciously, and Ayers was also ashamed.

Harden and DeRozan are childhood friends, and knowing DeRozan's family background, Harden was so emotional when he heard that "an accident had occurred."

"Relax, everything will be fine." Xu Yong comforted.

Harden nodded. DeRozan had just called him to let him know that he was safe.

On the second day of training, Sandek made major adjustments to the rotation and also made changes in tactics.

DeRozan's absence has a huge impact on the Devils.

Especially since the game is tomorrow, they only have one day to adjust.

Although the players could understand it psychologically after listening to Harden's story yesterday, the incident happened too suddenly and the decline in morale was hard to avoid.

After finishing training and returning to the locker room, Xu Yong knew what he should say as captain.

It would be a regret for all of them if they were upset due to morale issues.

When Xu Yong stood up and seemed to have something to say, the originally noisy locker room suddenly became quiet.

"Guys, I know DeMar's sudden absence has a great impact on the team, but I believe he will come back after he has dealt with things. You have been with DeMar for a season, and you believe it too, right?" Xu Yong looked around and asked.

The players nodded one after another. DeRozan gave them the impression that he was as easy to get along with as Harden and as sunny as Xu Yong.

"So this incident doesn't bring us any trouble. On the contrary, it gives us one more reason to win. Before DeMar comes back, we have to keep winning, always." Xu Yong added with an emphasis.

The journey of basketball will not always be smooth sailing. Sudden situations, injuries, conflicts, etc. are all part of this journey.

He was able to understand this because in the story about Jordan he had read, when Pippen, the second-in-command, only scored 8 points in the whole game and when Jordan himself was suffering from the flu, Jordan still led the team to victory in the end.

And he was able to say such things because he himself had been part of this situation in his previous life.

So when they encounter this situation, all they have to do is face it and overcome it.

The tournament will last more than twenty days, so they just assumed that DeRozan was injured and needed to miss some time.

What they have to do is not be eliminated before DeRozan returns from injury.

Upon hearing this, Harden stood up, held out his hand, and said, "For DeMar."

Seeing this, the other team members also put their hands up.

"For DeMar!"

The uniform shouts echoed throughout the locker room.