Basketball Legend: When Pride Still Matters

Chapter 490: Chapter 338: Good Luck to You

Being selected for the 2007 NBA All-Star Weekend was not something that excited Yu Fei.

Because he should have been there anyway.

Kevin Martin was no longer just a rookie All-Star.

As a “sophomore” in the All-Star team, his goal was to have a bigger presence during the All-Star Game.

Besides Yu Fei and Martin, there were others from the Bucks joining the entertaining weekend activities, George Karl once again became the head coach of the Eastern All-Star Team, LaMarcus Aldridge was selected for the Rookie Challenge, Louis Williams was challenging the Skills Competition again, and Raja Bell, who shot 42% from the three-point line this season, joined the Three-Point Contest.

Apart from the Dunk Contest, the Bucks’ footprints covered all the activities of the All-Star Weekend.

Las Vegas

This year’s NBA All-Star Weekend was held in the city of gambling.

The unique city setting made Yu Fei feel that he could meet his old friend, Michael “Baldy” Jordan, again.

And he was right.

Jordan confirmed his attendance for the 2007 NBA All-Star Weekend, and compared to the past where he only attended as a legendary figure to promote his brand, this year he also became a judge for the Dunk Contest.

Being able to reunite with an “old friend” was a happy occasion in life, so Yu Fei turned down the league-arranged public meeting.

Because, predictably, Jordan would be there.

Yu Fei still remembered what happened last year; the league might think this arrangement had programmatic effects, but he was not interested in serving that role.

Not attending the media public meeting indeed reduced the chances of a conflict with Jordan, but it also gave Jordan the opportunity to speak his mind.

When reporters asked Jordan which young player impressed him, Jordan deliberately avoided mentioning Yu Fei, instead talking about James, Howard, and Wade.

Therefore, when reporters publicly discussed Yu Fei possibly being the greatest small forward of all time, Jordan said, “In my eyes, he’s more like a point guard.”

“Do you think Frye is the best point guard of all time?”

“I really don’t like talking about the greatest of all time,” Jordan said, like a man with principles defending history, “He’s never competed with those guys, how can you say he’s the best? Moreover, historically speaking, Magic Johnson has five championships, Bob Cousy has six, he only has three. I don’t want to talk about ability and eras, you just need to treat it as a simple math problem, you know which number carries more weight.”

When Yu Fei heard Jordan’s words, his first reaction was, “Who is Cousy?”

His second thought was, “When did I become a point guard?”

Well, in the Bucks he acted in the responsibilities of the point guard from the small forward position, if you really stretched it, you could say he was a point guard.

If he was a point guard, then his current honor indeed hadn’t surpassed Magic Johnson’s.

But who was Cousy?

Yu Fei looked up the data and found out Cousy was a player active half a century ago.

Theories of the greatest No. 1 and No. 2 champions were already well-established, so why hadn’t the gold content of championships been redefined? If we don’t deconstruct the value of ancient championships through the lens of modern basketball, on what basis is Baldy the GOAT?

Yu Fei found that this was not an argument unfavorable to him.

Jordan likes math problems? That’s easy.

In his past life, he always saw on the internet people using Horry to argue that Jordan being a champion more times didn’t make him the GOAT, but now that he himself had said it, they couldn’t blame him for playing it out too.

A day later, Yu Fei made an appearance in front of the media.

Reporters, uncomfortable without passing on messages, brought Jordan’s words to him.

Yu Fei sarcastically said, “OK, I accept his logic, but if he says that, then he’s not the greatest shooting guard in history. I can also give you a math problem, from a historical perspective, No. 23 is less than Sam Jones and Frank Ramsey, who respectively won ten and seven championships.”

“10 and 7 are both greater than 6, any problem with that?”

Before the All-Star festivities even officially began, the spat between Yu Fei and Jordan had already set the atmosphere ablaze.

This was the second time since last year that they had used the occasion of the All-Star Weekend for “interaction.”

But as it turned out, Jordan didn’t gain any public opinion advantage from this.

Some people liked watching Yu Fei put Jordan in his place, but there were others who hoped Jordan would give a stronger response.

However, although the two had deep-seated enmity, they were both respectable people who wouldn’t keep bringing each other up all day long.

Yu Fei continued to be a hot topic in Las Vegas for his back and forth with Jordan, while other NBA players wanted to enjoy this rare holiday as much as possible.

Yet, for those stars who were considered to have the potential to reach the top, their off-court life was inevitably affected.

Kobe did not intend to get involved in the feud between Yu Fei and Jordan and did not want to evaluate their historical status.

James said, “I need more information before I can make a judgement about this.”

Why? Is it that difficult?

James added, “Yes, everything I say is based on a broad foundation of information.”

Shaquille O’Neal, who also held deep grudges against Yu Fei while publicly maintaining basic reverence for Jordan, laughed off the reporters’ attempts to drag him down.

His classic straightforward smile seemed to ask, “Do I look like the kind of idiot who steps into traps?”@@novelbin@@

The Eastern Conference Finals loss last season led Shaquille O’Neal to a lot of reflection.

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