When pride still matters

Chapter 146 I won’t shake hands with a dying person

Chapter 146 I won’t shake hands with a dying person

With the Bucks having the third-best record in the league heading into Thanksgiving, owner Herb Kerr was so pleased that he invited the entire team to his estate for a Thanksgiving party.

At the party, Kerr thanked everyone on the Bucks team.

Yu Fei was the one who received the most thanks.

This is completely different from last year’s New Year’s Eve in DC.

Although Yu Fei was also a key figure in the Wizards reaching the top four in the Eastern Conference last year, due to the team's unique internal atmosphere, the boss did not thank him grandly.

And Cole obviously thanked Yu Fei as the team's No. 1.

Even Yu Fei's seat is very particular.

In order to avoid direct contact with the boss, most players will sit across from each other, and the boss usually sits next to the head coach and general manager.

However, Yu Fei replaced general manager Wally Walker and sat next to the boss with head coach George Karl.

"Fry, are you still used to living in Milwaukee?" Boss Cole asked with concern.

Yu Fei said calmly: "There's nothing I can't get used to. I feel like I'm already half a Milwaukeean."

"So, you must know what the locals hate the most?" Cole seemed to be looking forward to Yu Fei's answer.

Wisconsin, where Milwaukee is located, is a pure football state, and everyone in the state is a Green Bay Packers fan.

From this point of view, Yu Fei feels that what the locals hate the most is the Packers’ old enemy: “Chicago Bears?”

"Haha!" Cole laughed, "You got half of the answer right."

Correction, it’s half right!
“It’s Chicagoans that locals hate, or all non-Chicagoans in the Midwest hate Chicagoans,” Cole said.

Yu Fei was not interested in the regional conflicts in the Midwest, but he had to listen to what Cole said.

"Because Chicagoans are rude, arrogant, arrogant and show off, in Milwaukee we use FIB to describe Chicago and everyone from Illinois."

Well, according to Yu Fei's understanding, FIB stands for foul language, I stands for Illinois, and what about B?Well, Yu is an elegant and easy-going person, and he guessed that the word B represents should have 7 letters.

It sounds like Chicago, a sin city in Yu Fei's eyes, is to people in the Midwest what New York is to major cities across the United States.

Yu Fei, who grew up in Kent, was indifferent to these things. All he wanted to do was to establish some contact with his boss.

After Thanksgiving, Cole gave Yu Fei a phone number where he could be contacted directly.

"If you have any questions, you can always come to me."

This means that if Yu Fei has any ideas, he can communicate directly with the boss and management, bypassing the coaching staff.

After spending an unhealthy year in DC, Yu Fei finally touched the Jordan-level franchise.

And this is just the beginning.

After Thanksgiving, the Detroit Pistons, the league's best defensive team, ended the Bucks' winning streak at home.

The Bucks were dragged into a defensive battle, and no one found the touch. Yu Fei, the team's top scorer, only scored 16 points.

The two teams scored less than 150 points in total.

"A large number of weak teams give us the illusion that we are very tough. Look at Detroit tonight, this is a tough game!" George Karl praised the Pistons' defense very much.

Then, the Bucks fly to Texas, where they will welcome three consecutive Western Conference visitors, challenging the Rockets, Mavericks and Spurs respectively.

The game between the Bucks and Rockets was highly publicized due to the stunts of Yu Fei and Yao Huang.

Currently, Yu Fei is averaging 25 points, 8 rebounds and 8 assists per game with the Bucks, leading the team to the best record in the Eastern Conference. It can be said that he has already secured the Best of the Month award for November in advance. With the rise of the Bucks' influence, Yu Fei is The appeal of Zhang's business card is also getting stronger and stronger. As a rare Asian star in the North American major leagues, he has a strong minority appeal.

As the most hyped rookie after Shaquille O'Neal, Yao Huang only took three days to enter the state after encountering the low point after his debut, and quickly made Barkley's "impossible to get 19". Points" cursed bankruptcy, so American sports writers tried their best to pursue this foreign genius.

The most intense praise for Yao Shuan came mainly from ESPN's Bill Walton and Ralph Wiley.It goes without saying that Walton loves Yao.As a rare black sports writer, Willie praised Yao to the extent that even the compatriots involved might blush when they saw it.

After Yao Shuan scored 30 points and 19 rebounds against the Lakers in the absence of O'Neal, Willie praised him in the article: "If you haven't heard of him, it means you are a little behind - Yao is already a world celebrity! He is Having fulfilled his mission and already left his mark, redrawing the map of the world for us, depicting the prospect of his eventual domination of the Alliance, the Ming Dynasty will never collapse like the Holy Roman Empire. ——At the end of the story, he will become a modern-day Genghis Khan and LeBron James’ nightmare.”

Looking at Yao Huang, Yu Fei can feel the power of the media more intuitively.

Milwaukee's media is not comparable to Houston's, and Reebok's publicity machine is not comparable to the Nike currently represented by Yao Shuan⑴.

⑴After his rookie season, Yao switched to Reebok
One beautiful game can put Yao Huang on the shoulders of the gods. This is not a good thing for him who is just starting out. Many people will collapse under this pressure.

But when Yu Fei met Yao Huang at the Rockets' home court, he felt that he was not under any pressure from the outside world.

Of course, this may have something to do with his poor English now.

Yu Fei's most intuitive impression of him was the terrifying thickness of his lower limbs, which allowed him to stay firmly stuck in the low position.The downside is that his lateral speed will also be affected. In other words, it is difficult for him to defend pick-and-rolls.But it doesn't matter, the pick-and-roll is only a small part of professional basketball today.

Before the game against the Rockets, Yu Fei spat trash talk at Yao Quan in Chinese: "I'm going to dunk on your head."

Yao Huang was first surprised by Fei's fluency in Chinese, and then responded: "It's not that easy."

As a result, this was Yu Fei's strategic fraud.

He never attempted a positional breakthrough dunk in the entire game. Every time he broke in, he passed the ball outward, which worked.

The Bucks are raining three-pointers from the outside. Because they have many shooters, their scoring power is very powerful.

When the Bucks feel hot on the outside, it's often difficult for them to lose.

106 is better than 88
The Bucks easily defeated the Rockets on the road, and Yu Fei became the best player in the game with 22 points, 7 rebounds and 11 assists.

There were many Chinese reporters at the post-game press conference, and they kept asking Yao Huang questions. It was quite similar to the situation when he was in Washington. After every game, someone would ask the Wizards players, "What did you provide to Michael on the court tonight?" What kind of help” feels like.

The most typical question of the night was this: "Yu, Yao Wei contributed 3 blocks tonight, what do you think of his defense?"

Yu Fei replied: "It feels very oppressive."

On that day, the headline of the sports section of Jiulang News was: "Yao's Hot Pot Restaurant opened three times, and Yu Fulai was suffocated!"

At the end of November, Yu Fei beat Tracy McGrady and was elected the Eastern Conference Player of the Month.

In the Western Conference, it was rare for three people to be elected as the best player of the month at the same time.All three came from the same team - Michael Finley, Dirk Nowitzki and Steve Nash.Under their leadership, the Mavericks created a dream start with 1996 consecutive victories. They are currently ranked first in the league and are the first team since the Chicago Bulls' 72-win record in 72 that people think they may have the hope of breaking. A team with a [-]-win record.

Unfortunately, in the first game of December, the Bucks will challenge the Mavericks in Dallas.

The Bucks, who had just won the victory over the Rockets, did not find the feeling in the away game in Dallas. Yu Fei scored 30 points, Ray Allen scored 25 points, and then Sprewell scored 16 points. The Bucks were the only ones. Three people scored in double figures.Their offensive threat did not radiate to their teammates, but the Mavericks had Nowitzki score 40 points, Finley scored 24 points, and Nash sent 17 assists.

This offensive battle collapsed because the Bucks' shooting touch failed to last throughout the game.

The Mavericks won fifteen consecutive games.

Yu Fei proposed to George Karl for the first time after the game that the 5 OUT system should be incorporated into the team's regular system.

The result was a sentence from George Carl: "Don't be stupid, that's not realistic at all."

"Why?" Yu Fei wanted an explanation.

Karl said: "Fry, formulating tactics is not as simple as you think. The responsibility for losing tonight is not yours, and you don't need to think too much. I will take care of it. You just need to be a stupid basketball player who goes all out." "

Stupid basketball player, Yu Fei couldn't believe he really said such a thing.

On December 12, the Bucks came to San Antonio to challenge the Spurs, who ranked first in the league in offensive and defensive strength, back-to-back.

As a result, the offense was still suffocated and the inside line was blown away.

Karl criticized Ray Allen after the game for not taking responsibility, and Yu Fei figured out what Karl was thinking.

If the opponent has inside superstars like Nowitzki and Duncan with strong single-line explosive ability, he will not let Laettner play as a center to play 5 OUT.

On the contrary, if the opponent is not strong, he is very willing to test 5 OUT in the game.

For Fei, this is purely a matter of giving up the basics.

The reason he wants to play 5 OUT is that this style of play can completely disrupt the pivot role of Duncan and other insiders as defensive pillars on the offensive end. Whether 5 OUT is strong or not only depends on two things, whether the ball handler is strong and whether the outside shot is accurate. With strong ball handlers, there is a foundation for 5 OUT. Once the five-out lineup finds the touch, no matter who comes, They will all be shot.

This is the real reason for the imbalance of offense and defense in the small ball era.

As long as the shot is open, even if the opponent puts the five best defensive players in the league together, they will lose sight of one thing.

However, Karl's stubborn conservative thinking has been formed for a long time and is also the mainstream thinking of the league. Yu Fei will not naively think that if Karl sees the advantages of the five-out lineup, the other party will fully accept it.

This takes time.If time can't change Karl's concept, Yu Fei will forcefully change it.

The Bucks retreated from Texas with a record of 1 win and 2 losses, but their destination was not Milwaukee, but Washington.

This is the last stop of their road trip.

12 April

The Bucks will face the Wizards for the first time this season in Washington.

Different from the strong dialogue between the Spurs and the Mavericks, and different from the Rockets' focus battle where the gimmick outweighs the actual significance, the Bucks vs. the Wizards, Yu Fei vs. Jordan, the latter factor is enough for the media to prepare for this game half a month in advance. Build momentum.

At the airport, Yu Fei saw many familiar faces from last season.

They are all local media in Washington. Yu Fei would be interviewed by them every time he traveled with the team to an away game last season.

However, this time, they came to Yu Fei with a sour mood.

"Fry, how does it feel to be back in DC?"

"It's not going back, it's coming. This is no longer my home court." "But... your mother still lives in DC."

"Does it matter? I live in Milwaukee and I came to Washington today to represent the Bucks and that's it."

“Do you have anything to say to the Washington fans?”

"The Wizards are definitely better without me than before. Please continue to support the Wizards."

Those present were all reporters who had followed Yu Fei's rookie season. They knew that Yu Fei would not let go of this opportunity to rub salt into the wound.

After that, Yu Fei took Lawson and Clark back home to stay with his mother for a while, and then checked in at the hotel.

In the evening, Yu Fei and Lawson set out for the MCI Center, the home of the Wizards.

"Do you miss it?"

When arriving at Chinatown outside the MCI Center, Lawson asked with a smile.

"If you're referring to the days when I trained here after the draft... well, of course, it's worth remembering."

"What if it's your rookie season?"

Then, Yu Fei looked at assistant Clark, who was from Boston, and said, "Alex, do you miss the days when the Red Sox had Roger Clemens?"

"No! Fuck Roger Clemens!" Clark yelled as if he had PTSD.

Currently, the Bucks have 13 wins and 4 losses, ranking first in the Eastern Conference, while the Wizards have 8 wins and 9 losses, ranking eighth in the Eastern Conference.

If Jordan's so-called escape from the slump put the Wizards in the playoff ranks, they have now succeeded.

But it is a pity that Jordan made it clear at the beginning that the Wizards who got out of the slump would be better than the Bucks.

If the Bucks are the target, the Wizards' current situation would be difficult to satisfy.

However, Jordan is still very confident, and his team has repeatedly reiterated that the Wizards' goal this year is not just to qualify for the "playoff experience" like last year.

Under Jordan's influence, the media began to describe the Wizards' playoff prospects.

As if making the playoffs two years in a row was the most basic thing.

However, all teams that have played against the Wizards know that even if they enter the playoffs, they will not break through the first round.

So why does a team with a ceiling of first-round caliber attract so much attention?
This is a legitimate question.The more important question is why should fans care?Who on earth enjoys watching the Wizards limp into the playoffs, only to be eliminated in the first round?What glory is there in this?
The answer is simple, the media gushes about the Wizards' playoff possibilities simply because Jordan insists that the Wizards have only made the playoffs twice in the past 15 years, so as long as the Wizards make it again under him In the playoffs, it can be seen that his comeback has indeed reversed the team's predicament.

In fact, this makes no sense, but if a sports superstar who can dominate public opinion uses media power to promote such a concept for a long time, then it will become mainstream knowledge and standards.

Namely: making the playoffs means the Wizards have achieved great success under Jordan's leadership.

Although the future of the season is unclear, certain statistics still foreshadowed Jordan's ending in Washington.

According to the "Washington Post" report, the Wizards sold 1 season tickets last season (sold out), and sold [-] season tickets this season. The Wizards are not fully qualified in the local area. That's still a staggering number for an attractive team, but by Jordan's standards, it's substandard.

Two thousand unsold season tickets represent two thousand middle-class fans who no longer find Jordan attractive.

According to the cockroach theory, the 2000 people who gave up renewing their season tickets hide a bigger secret - if there are 2000 people in Washington who feel that Jordan is no longer attractive, then if this is expanded to the United States, there will be another How big a number?

Before the show started, Yu Fei met his old friends.

Kwame Brown, Jasidi White, Bobby Simmons and Doug Collins.

"The boss has done so much for you, what are you going to do to repay him tonight?"

Kwame Brown seemed very eager to see Yu Fei on the court to settle Jordan's sins.

It's no wonder that he was the No. 18 pick and averaged less than [-] minutes per game in his rookie season.

Entering the second year of his career, Brown still doesn't have enough playing time with the Wizards.

Although there has been a slight increase compared to his rookie season - his average playing time has reached 22 minutes per game - it is still pitiful for a No. [-] pick.

Yu Fei said: "I will give him a home run."

Kwame Brown made a wish: "I hope that's a walk-off home run."

Unfortunately, this is just a hope after all.

It is impossible for Yu Fei to retire Jordan tonight.

Finally, Yu Fei and Collins met.

Collins looked at him with a complicated expression, "Be nice to Michael."

"Don't worry, we still have a few regular season games to play." Yu Fei said with a kind expression but a fierce tone, "Before he retires, I will give him a royal-level full-body package."

Then the two protagonists of the night met at midfield representing their respective teams.

As the main bargaining chip used by the Bucks to trade Yu Fei, Sam Cassell is also looking forward to this game. He has no good impression of Fei because when the two teams last played against each other last season, this impolite young man repeatedly Talk trash about his appearance.

"Hey, bastard, come and shake your hand." It seems that no one has told Cassel that when he smiles, it is also the time when his face, which is outstanding in the ugly category, is most vividly displayed.

, "I'm going to kick your ass tonight!"

Yu Fei glanced at Cassel, then turned his attention back to Jordan: "I don't shake hands with dead people."

"Of course," Yu Fei smiled sarcastically, "I won't shake hands with a dying person."

"What did you say?"

Cassell was furious.

Although his head is as bald as Jordan's and he doesn't seem to have any hair to explode, Yu Fei did create a lot of tension between the two sides before the game even started.

After all the pre-match ceremonies were over, Yu Fei couldn't wait to run into the stadium.

As he walked toward Jordan, ABC commentator Brad Nessler was surprised: "Frye's starting position tonight will be shooting guard?!"

Nessler's partner and ESPN contract writer Bill Walton laughed: "Wow, this is really hostile. We haven't seen such hostility since Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier." It’s a duel between each other!”

New viewers are still puzzled by Wharton's outrageously exaggerated metaphors, while old viewers are used to Wharton's exuberance.

"How many times have you guarded me during training?"

A jump ball was imminent between the two sides, Jordan said sarcastically.

"For a guy whose shooting percentage is only 40%, does it matter how well he plays in training?" Yu Fei said sarcastically.

The referee then threw the ball into the air.

The Bucks' starting center Dan Gazulic can be said to be neither good at this nor good at that, but there is one thing about him that is recognized as good, and that is his jumping ability.

"boom!"

This is why he won the jump ball so many times.

Sprewell, who temporarily moved to the third position tonight, received the ball and passed it to Yu Fei immediately.

Yu Fei directly accelerated his dribbling. Jordan originally wanted to block it, but was directly pushed away by the former. After that, the outside line was lost.

Yu Fei rushed to the basket, and Cassel, who was resentful of him, wanted to cause an offensive foul, but his legs and feet were too slow and he had no time to stand firm.

A moment's delay may have dire consequences that are irreversible.

Yu Fei took off in the penalty area like a bird of prey, smashing through a paper wall, knocking Cassel out of bounds from the basket, grabbing the ball with his right hand and pulling out a terrifying arc.Washingtonians at the scene will not be unfamiliar with it. The huge tomahawk dunk is Yu Fei's signature trick.

BOOM!!!!!
The scythe of death violently swung down, taking away the destined two points.

"Beep!!!"

Cassel, who tried to make an offensive foul but failed, was instead charged with a defensive foul. Yu Fei's dunk was not only effective, but also resulted in an additional penalty.

"This is a foul, the Chinaman hit someone with the ball!" Cassel sat on the ground and roared.

"Shut up, you ugly guy," Yu Fei mocked, "Don't you think you've lost enough face in this round?"

Cassel was furious and wanted to do something but was stopped by his teammates.

Although Yu Fei angered Cassel, there was someone else he really wanted to target. When he walked to the free throw line, he glanced at Jordan.

He will play a game with a sense of enjoyment.

He hoped that, at the end of the game, Jordan enjoyed it as much as he did.

Enjoying the game, isn't this the noblest sportsmanship?

Thinking of this, the Chosen One couldn't help but feel proud of himself.

"Shh!"

Very good, even the extra penalty was scored.

But this is far from enough.

⑵ Roger Clemens is a superstar pitcher in MLB. I won’t tell you what he did to Boston. For example, Boston people hate him just like Liaoning fans, XJ fans and former Guangdong fans hate Zhou Qi. .Everyone who understands understands, but for those who don’t understand, here is an example, just like the little knight hates Scout.Still do not know? OK, one last example: Just like the Cavaliers fans who witnessed James' decision to broadcast the game and the Thunder fans who watched Durant take the hardest road.

(End of this chapter)

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