When pride still matters

Chapter 157 The commanding heights of justice
After the All-Star weekend, the Bucks' originally neat lineup suffered injuries.

Anthony Mason sprained his thigh in his first game back from vacation and will be sidelined for 2-4 weeks.

No one originally cared about the hole in the fourth position, because Mason, who was forced to be a good guy, was already doing some less eye-catching things.

The Bucks' biggest weakness is the inside line. With Mason around, as long as they don't encounter star insiders, the overall situation is pretty good.Mason is suddenly gone. Gadzulic at the center position has nothing but athleticism, and no one can replace Mason at the power forward position.

When the Bucks were double-killed by the Mavericks and then lost for the first time in a row at the hands of the Pacers' Jermaine O'Neal, who scored 40 points and 12 rebounds, George Karl pushed rookie Lonnie Banisk out. .

As a result, Baniske, who had a strong body, simply did not have the ability to start for a strong team in the playoffs. After two consecutive games of poor performance, he was abandoned.

Karl gritted his teeth and started to mess around, playing X offense throughout the game, and then complained that his general manager was paid to do nothing: "I have been emphasizing that we have problems inside, but we don't have any reinforcements."

"Are we going to expect Anthony Mason to guard every big man? That's impossible!"

Before the trade deadline arrives, the Bucks still have opportunities to strengthen.

Determined to see things through, the Cleveland Cavaliers released a disgruntled veteran from prison.

This veteran is called Tyrone Hill PF. His resume is nothing surprising. He entered the league in 1990 and was selected as an All-Star in the 1994-95 season. It can be said that there is no such person in other times.

He is the kind of guy who has quality but will be quickly forgotten as soon as he retires.

Now, the 35-year-old Tyrone Hill is at the end of his career. He does not want to wait for a new star to arrive in the Cavaliers, so he has expressed his desire to leave the team.

The knight agreed.

For a time, Tyrone Hill became the target of competition from strong teams.

The team that needs him the most is naturally the Milwaukee Bucks, who are crazy about strengthening the inside.

General manager Larry Harris showed his sincerity.

He promised that Hill would get at least 20 minutes of playing time and, if he wanted, he could play until retirement in Milwaukee.At the same time, the Bucks are willing to provide him with a job after he retires.

The Bucks, ranked No. [-] in the Eastern Conference, have struggled to recruit a veteran with plenty of talent.

As a result, Tyrone Hill made a puzzling request to Harris: "I can go to Milwaukee, but only if Frye Yu commits to me."

Harris wondered, What was Frye promising?
Hill said directly: "When I was playing in the NBA, Frye was still wearing crotchless pants. I have heard his stories and played against him. He needs to promise me that if I go to Milwaukee, he will respect me."

Harris's expression was extremely exciting. He did not expect that Yu Fei would become an obstacle to recruitment.

But if you think about it carefully, since Yu Fei and Jordan turned against each other, the latter's media friends have constantly conveyed a message to the outside world: Yu Fei is a bastard, he does not respect veterans, and he likes to bully veterans.
Over time, people began to believe it.

No matter how Yu Fei's team refutes, the case of Yu Fei punching Jordan and kicking O'Neal is there.

He treats Jordan and O'Neal like this. Will other veterans who have no status in the world really be treated as human beings in front of him?
However, if Yu Fei was really that kind of person, the Bucks would never have the record they have today.

"I assure you, Frye is not the man he is rumored to be."

Hill struggled for a few days, and finally chose the Bucks between the 76ers and the Bucks.

Without him, the Bucks currently have 43 wins and 13 losses, ranking first in the Eastern Conference and second in the league (one game behind the Mavericks, but because they were double-killed by the Mavericks, they need to win two more games to overtake).

The arrival of Tyrone Hill gives the Bucks a second veteran with experience and immediate ability at the fourth position.

In this way, even if Mason is injured, there will be no situation where no one is available.

Afterwards, Mason returned, and the fully staffed Bucks were eager to enter the playoffs with the league's best record.

In March, the first opponent the Bucks faced was the Los Angeles Lakers, who had a lot of grudges with them.

When it comes to history, the feud between the Bucks and Lakers can be traced back to the 70s. As for the new century, there is basically no chance for the two sides to have a grudge.

Their only grudge is between Fei and O'Neal.

As representatives of their respective teams, the grievances between Yu Fei and O'Neal are basically equivalent to the grievances between the Bucks and the Lakers.

Since O'Neal's racist attack on Yao Huang was easily exposed, Yu Fei has become more critical of him.

O'Neill was also extremely dissatisfied with Fei's behavior of "fanning the flames" in that incident.

This can be seen from the pre-match interviews between the two.

ABC's frontline reporter asked Yu Fei: "Do you think Shaquille O'Neal will become a problem for you?"

"The strength of the Lakers has nothing to do with him." Yu Fei said, "If Kobe hadn't averaged 40 points per game last month, the Lakers might not be in the playoffs now⑴."

⑴ 2003年二月，科比场均出手29球，得到40分4篮板3助攻，带队单月11胜3负但无缘月最佳（西部当月最佳是加内特，场均28分14篮板7助攻）。

The ABC reporter became a messenger, and Yu Fei's evaluation was brought to O'Neill intact.

O'Neal was like a defender of NBA tradition: "I'm not surprised, really. I knew that guy would say that. If he doesn't respect MJ, then he doesn't respect anyone. I'll let him know, Speaking in the NBA requires strength, and he doesn't have the strength to say whatever he wants."

Bradley Center
This is one of O'Neal's most hated away games. It's old and dilapidated. It would be even more unthinkable to play here in the winter.At a time when arenas across the league are using advanced heating systems, the Bradley Center still uses a type of cold coal that is no longer produced in most areas for heating.As for the effect, don’t think about it, it’s always been bad.

Today, Lakers coach Phil Jackson missed the game due to kidney stones, so the coaching task fell to the assistant coach.

Frank Hamblen, the interim coach, did not ask for details of the game. He only said to Kobe: "No matter what, you can't take more than 30 shots tonight."

Kobe enjoyed the privilege of having his coach ask, rather than order, him to control the number of shots he took.

In fact, because O'Neal smartly postponed the toe surgery until the start of the season, Kobe received a lot of ball rights at the beginning of the season. Although he did not play well at the time, the ball rights had inertia.If Kobe starts the season averaging 25 shots per game, then as the season progresses, his number of shots will only increase, not decrease.

As a result, everyone can see that Kobe averaged 29 points on 40 shots per game in a single month.

It can be said that Kobe is now the boss of the Lakers.

But he still needs to prove himself. The Lakers have only one standard for the boss, and that is to win the championship.

Only by winning the championship can Kobe's position be justified.

"Let's go say hello." Kobe looked at No. 44 not far away.

O'Neal stayed in the backcourt. He was not interested in saying hello to Yu Fei, let alone standing next to Kobe and acting as if he was really a dick.

In the end, only Kobe came to the midfield to meet Yu Fei and Ray Allen.

"how have you been?"

"Fortunately."

Yu Fei and Kobe briefly exchanged greetings, but Ray Allen seemed more distant, shook hands and left.

Returning to his own position, George Karl warned Yu Fei: "I know there is a grudge between you and Shaq, but you must control your emotions."

Yu Fei nodded and said, "I can control my emotions, but it's not necessary."

The most helpless thing about Karl about Fei is that when this young man wants to do something stupid, he can't control him at all.

"If you go too far and get ejected, we may lose to the Lakers. Do you want to lose?" Karl said the stakes.

Yu Fei thought he had misunderstood him.

Who said playing with emotion will get you ejected?He's not Rasheed Wallace.Even Rasheed Wallace will improve. For example, two years ago, he scored 41 Ts in one season. Now, halfway through the season, he has not yet accumulated 20 Ts. What a significant improvement!
With a jump ball at the beginning, Gazulic won the ball for the Bucks.

Yu Fei dribbled the ball and fed one to Sprewell next to him.

Sprewell catches and shoots.

He didn't score, but O'Neal didn't get stuck at all, and actually allowed Gazulic to grab an offensive rebound in front of him and score a putback dunk.

2 is better than 0
Then, the Lakers demonstrated one of their most classic pictures of the season.

O'Neal got stuck in the low post, but his teammates didn't respond immediately.

Fisher gave the ball back to Kobe.

Kobe glanced at O'Neal and felt that he was more confident in pulling up a three-pointer against Ray Allen's defense than giving the ball to O'Neal.

Those who play inside can't see this. Fortunately, Yu Fei doesn't play inside now.

In this round, Sprewell controlled the ball for the Bucks, and Yu Fei pulled away from the left. He wanted to take the ball and name O'Neal, but it was not time yet.

Sprewell passed the ball to Ray Allen.

Ray Allen used an uncomfortable position to shoot under Kobe's strict guard.

It's difficult to score that kind of ball, but O'Neal didn't know whether he was deliberately passive or lazy, but he didn't get stuck.

That led to Dan Gazulic grabbing his second offensive rebound.

The moment Gazulic grabbed the rebound, Yu Fei cut in from the weak side.

Gazulic, who got the offensive rebound, had difficulty launching an offensive due to his poor position, but when he saw Yu Fei running in at full speed, he threw the ball over without thinking much.

Yu Fei caught the ball and took off without wasting any time. He came like lightning and was so fast that O'Neal couldn't even react.

In just a blink of an eye, Yu Fei pushed forward with his right leg, knocked away O'Neal's body, and completed a hard dunk.

The Bradley Center was filled with joy, and people could no longer remember who the last Bucks player was who was so entertaining to watch.

O'Neal roared at the referee: "Didn't you fucking see him get on the kick?"

"Shut up!" Yu Fei said to O'Neill from the commanding heights of absolute justice, "You racist bastard has no right to complain!"

(End of this chapter)