Basketball Legend: When Pride Still Matters

Chapter 485: Chapter 335 Chinese People Also Buy Shoes

On Media Day, Yu Fei faced a barrage of interviews, answering numerous questions related to Seattle.

However, the reporters found that although Yu Fei eagerly discussed Seattle, his answers to the most pressing question—”Whether he would return to his hometown”—were decidedly vague.

He did not express a firm belief to the public that “I must go back there to rescue my hometown team.”

This, to some extent, eased the minds of the Bucks’ management.

But for true peace of mind, Yu Fei should sign another contract with them.

Even another 2+1 short-term deal would be an improvement over the current situation.

Connected closely to Yu Fei, Marc Stein sought exclusive information and privately asked him, “Frye, will you go back? No matter what your answer is, I won’t include it in my article.”

Yu Fei trusted Stein, but he didn’t want to make a decision just yet.

Because the season hadn’t started, his primary goal was still to lead the Bucks to their fourth championship in five years.

As long as he won this championship, he could face any decision with a clear conscience.

“Just give me some more time,”

Yu Fei said to Stein.

At the end of Media Day, the entire Bucks team donned the new jerseys for the upcoming season, a black and green city edition unlike the traditional Bucks green. The jersey’s most distinctive feature was the four stars on the chest area, representing the four championships in Bucks history.

“How confident are you all in defending the championship?”

That day, a reporter from New York asked George Karl.

Karl confidently replied, “100% confidence.”

The external world couldn’t understand Karl’s confidence in the team, but those familiar with NBA’s recent situation knew that there had been no mega trades in the off-season that affected the league’s landscape.

The Bucks had traded Pachulia and Ariza for the second draft pick.

Though Ariza and Pachulia were both part of the Bucks’ main rotation last season, their departures weren’t expected to affect the team’s strength, as Aldridge would replace Pachulia and Sprewell would fill in for Ariza. Even if The Madman couldn’t fully cover the gap left by Ariza, the Bucks’ overflowing talent meant someone else would step up to the task.

Most crucially, younger players like Kevin Martin and Danny Granger had made noticeable progress.

The Bucks for the new season were stronger, not weaker, than the previous one.

It was Yu Fei, however, who needed to adjust his play style according to his teammates’ increased capabilities.

After the first preseason game, the Bucks thrashed the Hornets 133 to 108.

From that single game, Yu Fei knew that averaging a triple-double was no longer sustainable.

Last season only Martin could help him distribute the ball, but now, Aldridge needed the ball to grow, Granger needed it to hone his offense, and Martin’s demand for the ball had also increased.

Yu Fei could maintain his hold on the ball to preserve the myth of averaging a triple-double, but then his rapidly improving young teammates would become pigeonholed.

After several preseason games, Yu Fei felt he had changed.

Before he cared only about his own enjoyment, but now he actually cared about the growth of the youngsters?

He hadn’t even decided to leave, yet he was already experiencing the mindset of “doing what I can for you before I go.”

Big Fei is not some do-gooder!

No, these stats need to be buffed!

In the opening game of the season against the Detroit Pistons, right after receiving his ring, Yu Fei kicked into slaughter mode, nailing a near triple-double of 21+7+7 by halftime. But in the second half, the fumbling Aldridge got on his nerves.

“What are you hesitating about?”

“Get the ball and play, if you can’t score, then pass, what are you dazing off for?”

“Can you play or not? Rookie? Can you still play?”

Aldridge’s debut was dismal—and to be fair, it couldn’t all be blamed on him; who could he face but Rasheed Wallace?

But Yu Fei’s demands on him were extraordinarily high.

In his debut, Aldridge didn’t score, only grabbing three rebounds, along with two turnovers and three fouls.

Yu Fei, who had been devouring stats in the first half, seemed to lose his appetite in the second, ending the game with only 32 points, 10 rebounds, and 9 assists.

The slump was solely Aldridge’s—other Bucks were not disheartened, with Martin scoring 25 points, and Granger, as sixth man, adding another 20 points.

Apart from letting The Roaring Celestial bully the rookie, the Pistons had no advantages at any point.

“Detroit without Big Ben is too weak,” said Yu Fei. “I miss Big Ben; he at least could have added some suspense to the game.”

Yu Fei’s comment seemed to be mocking the opposition, but he was actually trying to help Aldridge save face.

Because during the game, Rasheed Wallace had taunted him, saying, “You think you’re worthy of being the second pick?”

Those unaware of the context naturally blamed Yu Fei for the comment.

But Detroit was already one of the cities in the United States where public sentiment against Yu Fei was the worst, so a few more or fewer haters didn’t make a difference to him.

Back in the locker room, seeing Aldridge was a bit disturbed after the rough game, Yu Fei said, “Relax, this is just the first game of your professional career; everyone has to start somewhere.”

Aldridge asked, “You didn’t score in your debut either?”

“Pretty much,” Yu Fei thought for a moment. “My first game was against New York. I didn’t perform well, but luck was on my side, and I accidentally made a last-second shot. Yeah.”

Upon hearing this, Sprewell, one of the victims from that time, commented, “Ah, I should have strangled him back then. That way he would’ve spared a lot of people a lot of trouble.”

Many things really are scary when you start comparing. Look at others, then look at yourself.

Aldridge became increasingly introverted.@@novelbin@@

“All right, I didn’t ask you to compare yourself with me,” Yu Fei continued to console him. “You know about Houston’s Yao, right?”

Who doesn’t? Aldridge nodded.

“He flopped his debut just like you,” said Yu Fei. “And what happened? That rookie season he climbed all over Miami’s Big Fatty and started in the All-Star game. So, a rough start isn’t a big deal.”

Aldridge felt even more dejected: “I don’t have 1.3 billion people voting for me.”

“Then why the hell are you acting like some kind of depressed person here?” Yu Fei threatened. “If you continue to play this crappy…”

Kwame Brown jumped in: “Trade him to the Clippers!”

“No,” Yu Fei said. “If you can’t adapt to the NBA’s intensity, you should spend some time in the development league.”

With that said, Yu Fei gave Brown a glare, “Always talking about trading people to the Clippers, what do you think the Clippers are? A garbage dump? Can’t you have a little patience with the rookies, and not be an asshole like that bald donkey from Charlotte!”

Brown thought about it; it wasn’t really himself who had been putting so much pressure on Aldridge on the court, was it?

Entering November, the Bucks struggled for a while.

Because Yu Fei wanted to distribute some of the ball possession to his teammates, then he found out that the Bucks had already taken his shape.

The young players indeed needed ball possession for growth, but it had to be fed to them by him.

Simply giving them the ball to play freely, only Martin and Granger could handle it, Lou Williams also showed potential to handle ball possession, but everyone else’s performance was less than satisfactory.

This led to a classic situation, when Yu Fei was on the court, the Bucks were undoubtedly the strongest team in the league.

Once he sat down to rest, the team would start playing wildly, not exactly weak, but in all aspects not looking like a championship-contending team should.

Big-core dependency syndrome significantly emerged.

To cure such a stubborn issue, there was only one way, to completely remove the big core, and then they could start anew, establishing their own system.

This gave Yu Fei some other ideas about his style of play.

One-star four-shooters and 5 OUT was essentially a play style that used shooters to stretch the court and simplify offensive tactics and choices, making the game simpler.

This play style placed extremely high demands on the core, and for the shooters, all they needed to do was to move and shoot.

In the past few years, this had been the Bucks’ signature.

They had gotten used to playing this way, and that’s why it was hard for them to change during the Yu Fei era.

Even if Yu Fei wanted to change, the reality did not allow it, and he had to ‘reluctantly’ revert to his nature, continuing to be his big-core and ball-dominant self, sucking his teammates’ blood ruthlessly.

But, the blood was not sucked in vain, as Yu Fei put up comprehensive stats, although his personal offensive load significantly decreased.

The season before last, he averaged 36 points per game, last season, he averaged 33 points per game, and so far this season, he’s averaging only 27 points per game.

Conversely, Kevin Martin’s average rose from 18 points to 22 points per game, sixth man Danny Granger’s average increased from 9 points to 15 points per game.

As star players rise, the stats for role players decline.

Players like Bell and Sprewell saw their points slightly decrease, but this was an acceptable situation.

By the end of November, the Bucks had a 13-game winning streak, undefeated so far this season, with Yu Fei returning to the ranks of averaging a triple-double, and leading the league with an astonishing average of 13 assists per game.

In the last battle of November, the Suns handed the Bucks their first defeat of the season.

Both sides launched an offensive battle, with the Suns having the hotter hand and narrowly defeating the Bucks 131 to 127, ending the defending champions’ winning streak.

Yu Fei had his worst performance of the season so far, going 8 for 21 from the field and scoring 25 points, 10 rebounds, and 14 assists with the help of free throws.

To Yu Fei’s surprise, there were many human rights activists in the Suns’ home court, revolving around many political issues he was not interested in, which even affected that evening’s press conference.

“Frye, will you join ‘Dream for Darfur’?”

“What is that?”

“A non-profit organization aimed at pressuring the old Chinese about human rights issues.”

“You know, I go to China every year, the people there are very nice, and they speak so nicely, and you want me to pressure them?”

“No, I mean, the old Chinese against Sudan…”

“Alright, I’m not interested in this.”

“Frye, there is a genocide happening in Darfur…”

Yu Fei laughed: “You know, Chinese people buy shoes too.”

“Do you have no conscience at all?!!!!!”

“I really don’t have that thing.”

The human rights reporter’s blood pressure rose rapidly, but he was powerless. Yu Fei was America’s most controversial sports megastar, it seemed he didn’t care about his reputation, nor about the universal values founded on American spirit; he only cared about himself.

However, the same issue would trouble Kobe, trouble James, and trouble any other renowned NBA players unless they, like Yu Fei, considered themselves conscienceless, or the media in their area was underdeveloped, otherwise, these were the issues they would have to face.

The next day, many human rights reporters started questioning Yu Fei’s character, which was both amusing and ridiculous.

Did Yu Fei’s character really need questioning? Those who disliked him had already dehumanized him; are you questioning his character? Don’t you think this person has any character to speak of?

Being infamous had its benefits; after feeding the human rights reporters some bullshit face to face, no one brought up the Darfur issue to ask for Yu Fei’s opinion anymore.

PS: You guys who have read the old book should know this history. In this book, I won’t dwell on this segment; at most, it’ll just be a minor detail within the secondary plot. Mentioning this is only because it’s unavoidable when writing about this time period, just like it’s impossible to overlook Trump’s tweets when writing about the year 2020. Because it was a major event of that time.

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