The visiting team's locker room at the US Airways Center wasn't as bad as the one the Celtics had, but it was by no means good. There were no partitions between the players' seats, just a single row of benches attached to the lockers. During halftime, twenty-odd people rushed back and forth, with jerseys and shoes strewn everywhere. The mess was comparable to a high school locker room.
But everyone was long used to it and went about their own business.
Yao Ming sat down in his spot, next to Kobe, who was getting his legs massaged by a physical therapist.
Typically, rookies were expected to sit next to the team's star player. The polite way to put it was that they were there to "learn from the team leader." The blunt truth was they were there to "serve the team leader."
This was a bit of gossip his translator, Rekton, had shared with him in private.
