When pride still matters

Chapter 134 Frye Yu’s smile

In mid-October, training camp ended, and the Bucks went to Las Vegas to play a few preseason games without stopping.

The preseason was irrelevant, but the Bucks still won it all.

Yu Feichang started the game, but only played less than 20 minutes in each game.

For the Bucks, he is a player who does not need to be tested through preseason games.

What's Yu Fei's only problem?George Karl said: "His ego sometimes makes him keep the ball in his hands, and I tell him he has to make the ball flow and he has to get his teammates involved."

"Then what did he say?"

Karl rolled his eyes: "He said, 'How can I get my teammates involved if I don't have the ball?'"

"Are your differences serious?"

"No, not at all." Carl laughed, "Fry is a funny guy!"

After the preseason, the Bucks returned to their home court for two days of rest.

Then, they flew to Philadelphia on October 10, where their first regular season game started.

Philadelphia is a great place to fly.

Because Iverson had helped Yu Fei promote sneakers several times under the arrangement of Reebok, Philadelphia as a whole and Pennsylvania as a whole were among the best-selling markets for the "Chosen One" series.

Every time he comes to Philadelphia to play a game, Yu Fei is very serious.

It's just that Iverson hasn't been doing well recently.

After last year's "Are we going to talk about training here?" incident, Iverson's reputation reached his personal peak when he led the team to the Finals and was swept by the Lakers, and then began to decline.First, there was the endless drama with Larry Brown, and then there was the negative news off the court. The "attack" during the offseason made him a literal street rat.

Yu Fei could see that Reebok also had a headache for Iverson.

This time in Philadelphia, they actually didn't ask Iverson to help Yu Fei.

After a year of training, Yu Fei was able to handle this kind of thing with ease.

After the event, Yu Fei was signing an autograph for a little girl when he heard the other person say: "Fu Lai, I really like you, can we apply for a deal?"

Yu Fei signed his name skillfully and asked with a smile: "What kind of deal is it?"

"Can we trade Keith Van Horn for you?"

"a bit difficult."

Hearing this, the little girl bit her lower lip in embarrassment, as if she had made up her mind, "Then let's exchange it for AI, okay?"

Look at what you've done, Iverson, even the little girl doesn't want to see you wearing a 76ers jersey anymore!
"Then you have to grow up quickly. When you grow up, you can make this deal."

Yu Fei's approachability is impressive.

Yu Fei off the court didn't look as domineering as the legend said.

This convinced Reebok's staff that as long as his basketball career further develops, it will not be difficult to replace the endangered Iverson and become Reebok's number one basketball player.

As soon as the Reebok event ended, Yu Fei went to meet LeBron James.In addition to game tickets, he also gave James some Bucks jerseys.

"Awesome Fry, I love this!"

"nice! You love it!"

The two chatted for a while, and Yu Fei, who was busy with official duties, took a Reebok car to the 76ers' home court.

Here, Yu Fei met Ray Allen and Devin George.

It feels great to see two people on the team who are more diligent than me.

After practicing for a while, the warm-up time before the game was approaching, and players from both teams arrived at the scene one after another.

20 minutes before the game started, all Bucks players returned to the locker room.

Seeing the stain on the closet, Ray Allen angrily pulled the closet away so he wouldn't have to stare at the stain.

This is another characteristic of Rey-ray that is not common among NBA players: mysophobia.

Travis Knight, who came to the Milwaukee Bucks with Sprewell, was Ray Allen's teammate at the University of Connecticut. He told a story about Allen's mysophobia.He played college sports with Allen, they lived in the same dormitory, and he kept leaving used dishes on the table without washing them.Alan couldn't stand it and warned him that if he didn't wash the dishes, he would put those dishes on his bed.

One day he went back to the dormitory with his girlfriend to have a good time, but found that the bed was full of dishes he had not washed.

"That's a bit too much. Didn't you beat him?" Sprewell asked.

"No, I've been washing dishes every day since then," Knight said.

Yu Fei listened to their gossip without saying a word, silently tied his shoelaces, and waited for Karl to come in and lecture him.

Ten minutes before the start, Karl entered the locker room as usual: "This is our first game of the new season. I want to win. This is not only for myself, but also for yourselves. You should know what is going on in the outside world during this period." Look down on us."

Karl's words caused the Bucks players to fall into brief memories.

The Bucks are the least favored team.

because:

Yu Fei = Nothing without Jordan, seriously overrated
Mason and Sprewell = past their prime
Joel Prazbilla and Dan Gazulic = Overwhelmed
Devin George=The Dynasty’s runaway softie
Michael Reed = "If your team balks at a $300 million salary you know this guy is completely unreliable"

George Karl = the sinner of Team USA, confidant of John Thompson, and the most overrated coach
The only variable is Ray Allen. ESPN's Bill Simmons said that it has been six years since he entered the league in 1996. If he can't evolve in six years, then he will never be able to evolve.An All-Star who shoots accurately, defends well, occasionally dominates games, and scores 20 points per game is unlikely to change the Bucks' predicament.If he only has this level of quality, the Bucks will only be in the first round of the playoffs at best.

Yu Fei, who has been questioned the most, has been indifferent to outside public opinion in the past few months.

Because he knows that Jordan's media power will attack him with all their strength, and they will try every means to let the outside world understand that the Wizards' ability to reach the playoffs last season was entirely due to Jordan's leadership.

The 3/4 season with Jordan is the most important. The 1/4 season led by Yu Fei alone was just eating Jordan's dividends.

This argument, which completely ignores the facts, is not only believed, but the market is booming.

This is the power of the fourth estate.The only thing Yu Fei can do is to achieve results in Milwaukee. Once he achieves results, the media will not feel slapped in the face. They will forget what they have written, support him instead, and then target Jordan.

When everyone is reminded of the underestimation, contempt and ridicule from the outside world, Carl does not need to fight to get a group of fighters full of fighting spirit.

The Bucks players ran out of the tunnel, and Yu Fei walked across half court to say hello to Iverson.

"How have you been lately?" Yu Fei asked knowingly.

Iverson didn't smile, "Not at all."

"I'm sorry, AI."

In fact, does Yu Fei really feel sorry for Iverson?
It's possible to feel sorry for the Allen Iverson who helped him out at a Reebok event, but it's completely impossible to feel sorry for the scumbag who chased his wife to a friend's house with a gun and beat her to a pulp.

After a few minutes, the game started.

George Karl was quite bold and put together a large lineup without a traditional point guard, starting with Yu Fei, Sprewell, Ray Allen, Mason and Dan Gazulic.

In this lineup, Yu Fei, Sprewell and Allen can take turns as point guards.

From the outside, the 76ers are still the same tough team that fought their way through the Eastern Conference in 2001. The defense of Iverson, Snow and McGee is indeed full of pressure and very aggressive.

But the reason why that 76ers team could threaten the opponent's perimeter like a mad dog was because Dikembe Mutombo, the greatest rim protector since the 90s, stood inside.

And now Mutombo is no longer in Philadelphia.

In the biggest trade Larry Brown made this offseason, he traded Mutombo to the New Jersey Nets for Keith Van Horn.

How to put it, this deal is basically like Xu Zheng "optimizing" Wang Baoqiang into Bao Beier in "囧".

The popularity gap between Wang and Bao is like the defensive gap between Mutombo and Van Horn, which cannot be described by any numerical value.

This is a two-dimensional thing.

Maybe Larry Brown is fed up with their inability to attack inside, but if that's the case, then selecting someone who can't handle the pressure next to Kidd and Kenyon Martin will be a big problem for the league's top thug (Iverson). ) perform well around you?How did Brown convince himself?How could he convince himself that the bullet Iverson didn't shoot at his wife would not hit Van Horn in the future?
That's not what the Bucks care about.

Yu Fei breaks through with the ball, calls pick-and-rolls, cuts to the basket to steal points, and defends and counterattacks on fast breaks. Just because there is no protection from Mutombo on the inside, the 76ers' oppressive outside line has become looser.

Because they only had to worry about perimeter defense before, now they have to worry a lot, because if the perimeter is lost, Van Horn can't help them protect the basket.

As a result, the result was that the defensive system that Larry Brown had long tailor-made for Iverson collapsed.

Van Horn's offense was completely unable to offset the holes on the defensive end.

于飞在29分钟内砍下27分9篮板5助攻，在距离比赛结束还有6分钟的时候下场休息。

George Karl personally handed him the towel and said, "Holding the ball too long, sophomore!"

"Does this have any impact, George?" Yu Fei glanced at the score, "We won by a big margin."

Karl had nothing to say. He didn't like Yu Fei's all-powerful ball-holding style, but he could also clearly feel that Yu Fei's style of play and the shooting threats of Ray Allen, Sprewell and others created A wonderful chemical reaction.

Whenever Yu Fei calls on any of them to play pick-and-rolls, the 76ers will ignore the other.

This is a bit subversive for Karl, who always likes to see all five players involved in the offense.

This is a coincidence.

Carl thought so.

There was no suspense in the last 6 minutes. The Bucks' substitutes maintained the lead in the face of the 76ers whose morale plummeted, and finally defeated their opponents with a score of 111 to 93.

Post-match interview
"All the smears, all the underestimations, all the criticisms are our motivation. This game is dedicated to all the critics!" - George Karl talking about the big win in his debut.

"Frye is very comfortable. He is really comfortable. He is a natural basketball player. He integrated into us almost immediately. Look at his statistics tonight. He seems to have 30 points, 10 rebounds and 5 assists? But I don't think so. He didn’t feel like anything was difficult for him, that’s what I said, he was very comfortable.” - George Karl commented on Yu Fei’s Bucks debut.

"The topic of boss is boring. We are all focused on the game and no one cares about it." - Ray Allen responded to a question about his status within the Bucks.

"I'm uncomfortable, this is not my rhythm, I'm still looking for a feeling." - Latrell Sprewell talks about his sluggish performance.

"We need a lot of structural changes, we need complex rebuilding, it's not something that can be done in a day, we need time, we need a lot of time, and we'll be fine." - Larry Brown on the consequences of two consecutive losses Impact.

"I'm playing hard on the court, why do you only care about my private matters? Damn it, that's my private matter! I won't let you continue to pry into my privacy!" - Allen Iverson when asked about his wife Emotional breakdown during problems.

"Frye, how would you rate your debut with the Bucks?"

"Grading is your business."

"Is this your response to outside doubts?"

"There are too many things I need to respond to, right?"

"What do you think of the Wizards-Bucks trade?"

"Is there a Wizards game tonight? Did they win?"

"They lost."

"That's okay, hahaha."

——Yu Fei’s post-game interview.

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"His first show failed, is Yao Wei overrated?" - ESPN News Express

"MJ only scored 8 points as a substitute. Has his period of great decline arrived?" - "Toronto Times"

"T-Mac revealed that he almost opted for season-ending back surgery last summer. He said the pain from two herniated discs was unbearable." - "Orlando Sentinel"

"The excellent debut did not make Frye Yu complacent, but his tense face relaxed the moment he heard that the Wizards lost. Maybe he didn't admit it, but we believe that he hated DC from the bottom of his heart. Everything.” —The Washington Times

(End of this chapter)