When pride still matters

Chapter 112 The days without Jordan

The moment Yu Fei openly expressed to Jordan that he wanted to seize power, the atmosphere in the locker room was dead silent.

No one, including Richard Hamilton, made a sound and everyone pretended not to hear.

Jordan, on the other hand, just looked at Yu Fei coldly and walked away.

There was nothing left to say between them.

Currently, the Wizards have 29 wins and 31 losses, ranking ninth in the Eastern Conference.

However, there is no gap in wins between them and the Raptors, who are eighth in the Eastern Conference, and the Pacers, who are seventh in the Eastern Conference. The records of the three teams are the same, and they are only ranked ninth because of the relationship between wins and losses.

More than half a month ago, the Wizards were still one of the top four teams in the Eastern Conference. However, after the All-Star Weekend, Yu Fei suffered from the flu (his condition declined slightly after his comeback) and Jordan stubbornly fought against it after his injury worsened. He spent a lot of playing time. A large number of shots have caused the Wizards to continue to lose, and now they are back to the ranks that need to work hard to qualify for the playoffs.

Jordan's season-ending injury left the team with a starting position and more than 38 minutes of playing time per game.

Richard Hamilton is the one who has benefited the most from this. He no longer has to sacrifice himself to play the third position for Jordan.

Then, Tyrone Naseby, who is Jordan's loyal licker but is often verbally ridiculed by the former, will also have a greatly increased playing time.

One of the biggest changes for the Wizards is that Yu Fei returned from the first position to the third position.

This is what he asked for himself.

Although it is great to hold the ball as the No. [-] position, it also consumes a lot of physical energy. Now that Jordan is retired, they can freely play fast-paced basketball. In this way, he can play better at the No. [-] position, because the Wizards There is Tyronn Lue's American sports car in the No. [-] position.

After Jordan's retirement, it stands to reason that the Wizards' boss should be Richard Hamilton.

But everyone knows what Yu Fei said before Jordan left.

Go in peace, I will complete your unfinished business.

I swear, I'm going to lead them to the playoffs.

At that point, the team no longer belongs to you.

So, who will it belong to?

Whether it belongs to Yu Fei or not, everyone doesn't know, but it certainly does not belong to Hamilton who never dared to disobey Jordan.

This is also the reason for the weird atmosphere between Yu Fei and Hamilton.

Although Doug Collins was worried about Jordan's health, he also felt indescribably relaxed.

Suddenly, the shackles on his body disappeared.

He seemed to regain the full authority of the head coach, and then, just two days later, he knew that his troubles had just begun.

The opponent for the Wizards' first game without Joe was the Orlando Magic.

The Magic are currently only one game ahead of the Wizards. If they lose this game, they will fall directly to eighth in the Eastern Conference based on the outcome.

It can be said that the two sides are real competitors.

Yu Fei defeated Mike Miller and Pat Garrity, but Hamilton was completely crushed by McGrady.

In other words, McGrady crushed everyone on the Wizards.

Recognized as the best player in the Eastern Conference and the only perimeter player in the top five in the league, McGrady scored 50 points, 10 rebounds and 3 assists in this game, shooting 66% from the field.

To the world, he was like a younger version of Jordan, but without enough help.

But what does that matter?It will be difficult for Jordan to lead the team beyond the second round before his helpers grow up. McGrady is young enough. As long as he is patient, helpers will arrive sooner or later.sooner or later.

Yu Fei, who scored 21 points, 8 rebounds and 5 assists, found coach Collins after the game: "I think Kwame should be in the starting lineup."

Jordan is reimbursed, but does this mean that Yu Fei will become what Collins imagined?
No, when Jordan is gone, he will become the new Jordan.

"Kwame isn't ready," Collins said.

"If we don't let him play, he will never be ready." Yu Fei said, "Our interior has no energy, and no one can provide sufficient energy and athleticism like Kwame."

Collins asked rhetorically: "What if he doesn't perform well after starting?"

"Then he should be allowed to play games. Only games can make people grow. He is the No. [-] pick, why not give him a chance to make mistakes on the court?" Now Yu Fei is like an evil tiger, and Collins is in his There was no awe of the coach's authority visible on his face.

This is a man who dared to openly break with Jordan when he was at his strongest. When Jordan fell due to injury, could Collins expect this young man under the age of 20 to suddenly become an obedient and sensible player?

Collins could only take a step back: "I will consider your suggestion."

This sentence already made it clear that he was ready to do this.

But Yu Fei didn't like this vague statement. He emphasized: "It's not about considering it, it's about what we have to do."

Collins looked at Yu Fei and felt weak in his heart.

"No problem," he gave up resistance, "You can do whatever you want."

Really?Then I want to organize the dog's retirement ceremony, can I?Even though he was getting ready for surgery, I felt like both of those things could happen at the same time.Yu Fei nodded with a smile on his face and said, "You are indeed the most enlightened coach in the league."

Doug Collins, who felt he was the humblest head coach ever, said sarcastically: "You're also the most disciplined rookie in the league."

"Haha, then we are really golden partners!"

Subsequently, the Wizards ushered in their fourth meeting with the Celtics.

Tonight, Kwame Brown is in the lineup.

Doug Collins said in a pre-game interview: "Michael's injury has a great impact on us. Now we have to try to find other winning strategies. I will consider all combinations and everyone has a chance."

In order to make Brown's starting lineup look worthy of his name, Yu Fei will call Brown to come out for a pick-and-roll every time he gets the ball tonight.

Celtics center Vitali Potapenko and power forward Antoine Walker each have their own defensive problems, and guarding the pick-and-roll is one of their weaknesses.

Brown reaps rewards every time he goes down the pick-and-roll.

Yu Fei's leadership began to show.

When Jordan was here, although Yu Fei was at odds with him, he still had to play around the opponent. Unless Jordan played particularly poorly and his shooting percentage was not high, he would completely ignore the opponent.

But now, with Jordan gone, Yu Fei has become the loudest person on the court.

Richard Hamilton is a player who only knows how to attack and doesn't like confrontation on defense.This kind of person may be a sharp knife on the offensive end, but he cannot be a leader on the court.

The so-called leader is either irreplaceable on the offensive end like Iverson, or as overwhelming as Ben Wallace on the defensive end. When he reaches the extreme, he can also dominate the offense and defense like Duncan. Hamilton's own qualities are not inherently good. Meet the standards of a leader.

He claimed to be the leader of the "new heroes", but after most of the season, this title existed in name only. The real leader of the young players was Yu Fei.

With Jordan retiring for the season, Yu Fei is becoming the team's new leader.

Yu Fei allowed Brown to score consecutive points by feeding him cakes, and loudly corrected Tyronn Lue's game habits that were distorted by Jordan on the court.

Speed ​​itself is the biggest advantage of Coach Lu. Before joining the Wizards, Collins also convinced Coach Lu that he would play a fast-paced offense in the Wizards.But after Jordan came back, in order to adapt to his playing habits, the Wizards were forced to play a slow-paced game.

Moreover, Collins is the kind of coach who likes to coach point guards from the sidelines, and this external interference also has an impact.

Director Lu suddenly came to basketball hell.

When the Celtics hit the ground running in the game, when the Celtics completed the position battle but failed to retreat in time, Yu Fei hoped that the team could seize these opportunities to carry out fast breaks.

Director Lu has been tortured by Jordan for too long and seems to have lost this instinct.

So during a timeout, Yu Fei walked up to Coach Lu and said: "Tailun, you should be yourself on the court! Don't listen to what people outside the court say, know what you can do. Don't slow down, do your best. Run as fast as you can! Don’t let others affect your judgment. Now we have to play our own game. It’s time to overthrow the old man’s rule!”

99 is better than 91
The Wizards ended their four-game losing streak. Yu Fei scored 17 points, 11 rebounds and 14 assists. This was his sixth triple-double in his rookie season.

Kwame Brown is undoubtedly the biggest beneficiary of Yu Fei's triple-double.

Half of Yu Fei's assists came from Brown.

With 18 points and 6 rebounds, Brown reached a new scoring high.

"I have to thank Fulai, without him I wouldn't have scored so many points! He is my forever brother, and we will enter the playoffs together."

What about Michael?

"I wish him a long life."

Brown's expression and tone basically expressed his dissatisfaction with Jordan.

Yu Fei really wanted to criticize him, how could he express his feelings directly to the media?
Look at the speeches of other "new outstanding leaders".

"We all wish Michael could be here, we really need him." Good, it's time for Collins to play you at the one-and-three position, "but you know, we're a young team, five. Years later, we're still here, and Michael, you know. We all know this, and so, in the time that Michael is gone, we need to grow, and we should grow, not just for ourselves, but for team."

If Yu Fei said this, Jordan would be very happy.

But Yu Fei never will.

Moreover, no matter how well Hamilton pretended, his true thoughts were exposed because of his last sentence: "I'm proud of the fact that we (won this race) without Michael, we proved ourselves."

That night, Yu Fei was absent from the post-game press conference because he accepted an exclusive interview with ESPN columnist and NBA 50 superstar Bill Walton.

Walton has been working in the media since retiring from the Celtics in the late 80s. Although he has a stutter, his exaggerated and gorgeous on-court metaphors are a beautiful shadow in NBA games.

Moreover, Walton doesn't ask a lot of questions about Jordan like other reporters.

He knew Jordan's question was the most important, so he prepared only one and left it until the end.

The question is this: "If Michael retires, do you think playing with him for most of the season is memorable?"

"Of course, because everything is memorable, even if you stepped in a piece of dog poop on the side of the road today, you will remember it and we want to make sure we don't make the same mistake again."

Yu Fei answered several sentences, none of which seemed to have any substance, but both Wharton and the audience discovered a problem.

Yu Fei compares Jordan with shit?
Um.
(End of this chapter)