Basketball Legend: When Pride Still Matters

Chapter 501: Chapter 344 The World’s First Class

Before time-traveling, Yu Fei’s limited understanding of the 2007 NBA Playoffs was that the Spurs had made it into the finals, where Duncan had executed the “Duncan Formula” by “shaving James’s head at 30,” and even left behind a classic piece of trash talk.

Clearly, shaving James’s head was no longer a mark of honor for Duncan.

Because Yu Fei, who had never lost to James in his career to date, was maintaining a streak of 24 consecutive wins (regular season + playoffs) against the latter.

In the face of such an overwhelming win rate, everyone who tried to discuss the two heroes would shut up.

After the lottery draft was over, Yu Fei waited peacefully for the finals to arrive.

Though Duncan was strong, he surely wasn’t as dominant as he was in 2003, both offensively and defensively.

The current Spurs were also not as good as the Spurs of the past, though they still broke through the encirclement of the Suns, they encountered trouble against the Jazz, laboring through six games before a victor was decided.

Jason Kidd was clearly aging, and moreover, his conflict with Popovich had become unmanageable.

Before this year’s trade deadline, the Spurs had tried to trade Kidd but didn’t go through with it as they didn’t receive a decent offer.

The internally unstable Spurs stumbled in the playoffs, with almost no one expecting them to beat the Mavericks. As a result, the Mavericks, perhaps after studying the Bucks’ games in advance and feeling they might not win, sent their heads on a platter to the Warriors and stepped out of the finals.

From the first round to the finals, the Spurs had to play at least six games in every round.

What supported them were Duncan and Ginobili, who both averaged nearly 40 minutes on the court, and Luol Deng, the “British Jordan,” who averaged 19 points.

Kidd, with deep conflicts with the coaching staff, did not fall short in his stats, leading the playoffs in assists with nearly a triple-double average of 11 points, 8 rebounds, and 11 assists per game.

However, Kidd’s weakness in personal offense meant that his playmaking greatly relied on his teammates’ ability to finish.

While his versatility could help the team in many ways, for the Spurs, who already played a logical style of basketball, a player that could make them more logical didn’t bring a substantive improvement.

Therefore, even before the finals started, the outside world was actively promoting the news that the Bucks were about to claim the championship.

Some basketball experts began to discuss whether a team with four championships in five years could be called a dynasty.

Then, the Bucks, who had achieved twelve consecutive playoff wins, faced Kidd on their home court for the dumpling night.

When Kidd made 6 out of 9 three-pointers, the Spurs found no adversaries.

109 to 102

The Spurs surprisingly broke the Bucks’ undefeated streak.

“The decision to let Jason Kidd beat us with his shooting was mine,” George Karl said. “I take full responsibility.”

Yu Fei believed that the reason for the loss was not Kidd’s 6 out of 9 three-pointers, but the Bucks’ team three-point shooting percentage of less than 30%.

In the following Game 2, Yu Fei gave it his all, forgoing the love of outside shooting, and by singling out Luol Deng, he shattered the Spurs’ wings.

At the same time, Kevin Martin’s tried-and-true drawing-foul tactic caused the Spurs’ interior to face a foul crisis.

In the second half, as soon as the Bucks’ outside shooting caught fire, the suspense of the game instantly vanished.

It was an instant collapse, which was also the reason why the Bucks appeared unique in the playoffs.

They possessed the firepower of small-ball in the Big Ball Era, which was a frightening transformation.

What was so terrifying about this transformation?

Because it was replicable.

Since the NBA epochally introduced the 24-second shot clock, there had been no fundamental change in basketball. The old adage that “he who owns the giants rules the world” had been passed down for half a century, with only Jordan’s Bulls consistently succeeding without a great center, due to traditionalists’ disdain for the three-point shot and the natural size of the court favoring tall players.

Therefore, whether you’re playing UCLA offense, Triangle Offense, or Princeton offense, you need certain uniquely skilled superstars.

Small-ball doesn’t require these; as long as you have an above-average point guard, equip him with a lot of shooters and versatile wings who can double as forwards and big men, you can play small-ball.

That’s why the Warriors would completely change basketball.

Other teams would defend against it, learn from it, eventually become it, and try to surpass it.

The Bucks brought this moment forward by nearly ten years.

Now, the debate surrounding the Bucks’ small-ball success was divided into two camps: one still held to the heroic epic view that the Bucks’ small-ball thrived because of Yu Fei’s presence and would collapse without him, while the other believed that the core of small-ball could only decide its ceiling but not affect its very high floor.

But no matter what, it did not affect the Spurs’ rout.

Even if they did their best in areas they were good at, once the Bucks caught fire, the situation was hard to reverse.

Even if they used the combination of Bowen and Duncan to lock down Yu Fei’s offense, the Bucks could still have Martin and Granger beat them.

That night, at the Bradley Center, Yu Fei saw many signs saying “Frye, one more year.”

The news that Yu Fei might leave had been circulating all season, and the Bucks’ fans were anxious and helpless.

Yu Fei saw those signs, and it was impossible for him not to be moved, but it was only after he left the arena that he started to wonder, could this have been his last game at the Bradley Center?

Although they were 1-1 at home, losing the home-court advantage in the finals, he believed the first game’s loss was an accident, and they had a chance to win three straight away games, directly lifting the trophy in San Antonio.

Media Interview Room

Reporters brought up the perennial questions.

“You’re about to play three consecutive games in San Antonio, does that make you nervous?”

“No,” Yu Fei said, “We’ll win three in a row on the road, and then bring the championship trophy home.”

As it turned out, Yu Fei’s words were not empty talk.

No home-court advantage? As long as they started winning in San Antonio, home-court advantage would come back to them.

In Game 3 of the finals, Yu Fei truly made the San Antonio People feel powerless.

Bowen, who could guard anyone in the Western, took advantage of home court but was overwhelmed by Yu Fei’s pick-and-roll, targeted switch calling, ball penetrating, and back-to-the-basket play.

Yu Fei scored 22 points in the first half, 36 by the end of the third quarter, and in the fourth quarter, Bowen could only use fouls to stop Yu Fei’s drives, only Duncan’s double teams could limit Yu Fei’s back play, and only frequent traps could ensure the defense wasn’t broken by Yu Fei-directed pick-and-roll offense.

But if you let Duncan defend, that self-proclaimed Eastern Conference’s No. 1 center in the Bucks would start to perform his classic act, scoring easily and muttering about blowing up the best power forward in history.

If they trapped on the perimeter early, Yu Fei’s passing could mobilize Martin and Granger.

How many times could Bowen, who could only control the fouls, commit?

Yu Fei, who had 36 points in the first three quarters, scored only 6 points in the fourth, but finished the game with 42 points, 11 rebounds, and 14 assists.

The Spurs, who could still hold on in the first three quarters, collapsed in the fourth.

Duncan’s 32 points and 18 rebounds were in vain, and Ginobili and Luol Deng’s 20 points each were also for nothing.

Popovich helplessly watched the score, knowing they hadn’t made obvious mistakes, but they simply couldn’t beat them.

Bowen’s perimeter defense and Duncan’s basket protection seemed like outdated arrangements against someone like Yu Fei.

To contain Yu Fei, they needed not only Bowen and Duncan but also more than two versatile wings who could switch indefinitely, but they didn’t have such a setup, Duncan was too tall, and Ginobili had some tricks on the defensive end but they were of little use.

And this was just the basic configuration to limit Yu Fei, even if they tried their hardest to choke Yu Fei’s offense, they still had to face the challenge of Martin, Granger, and the others.

Popovich was not a man who resisted change.

When they faced the Bucks in the finals in 2003, he could feel that his arrangements were sloppy compared to the opponent’s offense.@@novelbin@@

Unexpectedly, four years later, the Bucks had completely become another team, resembling the Suns, the Golden State Warriors, and the Mavericks under Nelson’s era, but the Spurs could beat those teams, they just couldn’t beat the Bucks.

Popovich once scorned those claims that “the Bucks represented the next stage of basketball,” but now the facts were in front of him.

The Bucks’ system was ahead of its time, and if other teams didn’t want to continue being dimensionally reduced in this way, they had to either find their flaws or learn their playstyle.

But the Bucks’ dominance had lasted for years, where were the flaws to speak of? The well-known weakness in the interior seemed to have been resolved with their fierce help defense.

In the end, Popovich’s gaze landed on the Bucks’ No. 44.

That controversial figure, that villain, that bastard, that conscienceless and sportsmanship-lacking demon, why was it such a person who spurred the revolution in basketball?

A few years ago, when the Spurs lost to the Bucks in the finals, Popovich could confidently tell others that even if they lost, Duncan was the best player of the series. But now, he would not say the same.

Whether he liked it or not, it was an acknowledged fact—Frye Yu had become the world’s best.

PS: I intended to end the finals in one chapter, but last night while writing halfway through, I got a backache and went to bed. Then, checking my phone, I saw in the chat history that a Spurs fan said, “The Spurs won’t end in one chapter, right? Isn’t that too face-losing?” As you know, I’ve been a Spurs fan for eleven days, so I decided to go to bed, and in doing so, the Spurs wouldn’t be finished off in one chapter.

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