When pride still matters

Chapter 168 Gods never come down to earth

Yu Fei was "stranded" in Washington for half a day.

This is not because he can't bear to leave his mother, but there is one more thing to do.

The anti-Qiao rally outside was in full swing, but Yu Fei invited a guest to dinner at his own Chinese restaurant.

"I really didn't expect you to come." Yu Fei looked at the person in front of him, "After all, everyone said that you are the person least likely to betray Michael in the world."

Tim Grover sat in front of Yu Fei, with an expression of struggle on his face, but soon, the reality that Jordan was about to bid farewell to basketball forever made that emotion disappear.

"Michael will retire sooner or later, but I will continue to work." Grover said rationally, "This is not a betrayal, I am a trainer, and my mission is to provide you with the best quality training..."

Seeing Grover looking like he was trying to convince himself, Yu Fei smiled and said nothing.

When he was still in Washington, he had made Lawson and Grover close.

However, no matter how much Lawson tried to please, Grover always ignored them, as if, as the outside world said, he was the most loyal person to Jordan in the world.

Maybe Grover's loyalty to Jordan is real, but only if Jordan is still playing.

As long as Jordan was playing, Grover was his guy.

If Jordan stopped playing, Grover's loyalty wouldn't be worth a penny to him.In turn, the same goes for Grover.

Trainers need to have players worthy of training in order to reflect their value.

Grover became the most famous trainer in the industry because he helped Jordan achieve dominance. Jordan is gone, but his brand is still there.

Therefore, Yu Fei believed that part of the reason why Grover ignored him in Washington was that he had not proven to be worthy of being assisted at all at that time.

Now, Grover believes that Yu Fei has great potential.

So the day after Jordan suffered the most humiliating night of his career, Grover accepted Yu Fei's invitation.

Yu Fei has no doubts about Grover's professionalism, but he still needs to know whether he still needs him now.

After all, even without Grover, Lawson did a great job.

"Tim, do you think there is anything else you can do for me now?"

"More than you think," Grover said. "I know you train hard, but the people around you don't know what basketball players need most. They just arrange training for you in a formulaic way."

Yu Fei didn't understand this kind of thing, so he could only listen.

"Give me a summer and I'll take your body to a whole different level."

Grover did not say some scientific terms that made Yu Fei confused, nor did he introduce training methods.

He showed absolute confidence.

Because he has a brilliant resume.

Yu Fei did not doubt Grover's training ability. He had accidentally entered the opponent's official website in his previous life, where it was clearly stated that Grover provided training for Jordan, Tracy McGrady in 2000, Kobe Bryant in 2005 and Wade in 2008. Professional training - you know, they all reached the peak of their competitive status after this.

A good trainer can really take a player to a whole new level.

Yu Fei asked: "When can you start working for me?"

"After the regular season is over," Grover said.

Are you going to come to Milwaukee directly after the regular season?Is it too heartless?

Yu Fei is not that "hungry". He doesn't want to make things too ugly, and he doesn't want to make Grover too embarrassed.

"Don't worry." Yu Fei said, "Before the end of this season, you will still be Michael's trainer. This will be good for you and me. You must start and finish everything."

If he joins Yu Fei's team as soon as the regular season ends, Grover will indeed need to bear the pressure from Jordan.

They have been friends for many years, and with Jordan's current feelings about Fei's deep hatred, if Grover turns to Fei's camp, their friendship will be over.

Leaving now is a complete severance, leaving after the end of the season is drawing a clear line.

Same result, but different look and feel.

Grover breathed a sigh of relief.

The matter was settled in this way, and it was smoother than Yu Fei imagined.

In the afternoon, Yu flew to and from the airport and spent a lot of time before returning to Milwaukee.

The aftermath of the battle between the Bucks and the Wizards is still spreading, but Yu Fei no longer cares.

These are collateral damage, the backlash that Jordan deserves after years of controlling the media.

The next day, Yu Fei returned to the team for training.

With five games left in the regular season, the Bucks currently have 59 wins, ranking first in the league, but it is not stable.

The Mavericks, second in the league, have 58 wins.

Since the Mavericks have a direct performance advantage over the Bucks, the Bucks must maintain at least one game lead to secure first place.

The Bucks' attitude towards ranking is to keep it as long as they can, because they have locked in first place in the Eastern Conference. Therefore, as long as they maintain the top three records in the league before the end of the season, they will achieve their goal.

Rather than protecting his ranking, George Karl hopes to use the last few games to test his lineup.

One day later, the Bucks faced the Knicks at home.

Karl believed that the Knicks' starting fourth position Kurt Thomas was no threat to Fei, so he placed Yu Fei at the fourth position.

During the game, Karl was used to fly whenever the Mavericks used Nowitzki.

Yu Fei's shooting performance against the Wizards gave Karl a huge surprise, but against the Knicks, after an inside confrontation, his shooting failed.

They were obviously using him as Nowitzki, but they discovered that Yu Fei was more like Garnett.

He is particularly good at switching defenses and assisting defenses. He is particularly good at defending against small and large players. His back-up play inside is a bit raw, but he has more powerful weak-side ball-holding singles and unstoppable one-stop counterattack fast breaks than the original Garnett.

Yu Fei in the fourth position is easier to grab defensive rebounds in the backcourt, and the frequency of his counterattacks has greatly increased.

After one game, Yu Fei scored 26 points, 14 rebounds, 5 assists and 3 blocks, averaging double figures in rebounds per game. "How do you feel about being the only No. [-] position in the league averaging double figures in rebounds per game?"

"Please take this as a warning. Position [-] only needs to grab six or seven rebounds a game. Any more will overflow."

This game proved that if the opponent's fourth position is not strong, Yu Fei can indeed play the fourth position.

However, Karl still wants to see if Yu Fei can maintain shooting stability under high pressure.

But the idea was dissuaded by assistant coach Ron Adams.

"We will have plenty of time to test Frye's skills in the future. The most important thing now is to prepare the team for the upcoming playoffs."

Adams' suggestion spoke to Karl's heart.

The experiment was stopped, and in the next few games, the Bucks played with the standard starting lineup.

Yu Fei's rebounds per game also dropped from 10 to 9.

The suspense of being number one in the league was quickly ended by the Mavericks themselves.

In the last five games, the Mavericks overturned consecutively. First, they were defeated by the Suns at home, and then they were in a stalemate with the veteran Jazz on the road. In the last half minute, John Stockton sealed his throat with a sword.

Although the Mavericks won the next three games, in the end, their record stayed at 61 wins, while the Bucks, who had four wins and one loss in the last five games, ranked first in the league with a record of 1 wins and 63 losses.

This is a game-changing moment for the league.

Ever since Jordan retired, Eastern Conference teams have always been at a disadvantage in the playoff race.This disadvantage is often reflected in the regular season.

Since the new century, the most anticipated team is the Magic team of Tracy McGrady and Hill.They are widely regarded as the most talented Eastern Conference team since the 95 Magic.

However, a healthy Hill has become a mythical figure.

The helpless McGrady finally made the "Ultimate Magic" become a mirror image.

It seems like a curse.

In competitive sports, any team with an "invincible upper limit" will inevitably fall to an unimaginable lower limit.

As a suddenly rising Eastern Conference team, the Bucks improved their record from 40 wins to 63 wins after splitting up the Eastern Conference Finals lineup.

Yu Fei went from Rookie of the Year to Best of the Year.

In the second season of his career, Yu Fei played a full season, averaging 26 points, 9.8 rebounds, 8.4 assists, 1 steal and 1 block per game. Not only did he complete the full coverage of his outstanding rookie season, but he also became the rare leader in the league in three basic statistics. The team's super all-around player.

Now, observers no longer compare Yu Fei to the magician.

Because from a data perspective, the second-year Magic, who was constrained by injuries and team tactics, is "unqualified" to be compared with Yu Fei on the same level.

So ambitious experts gave Yu Fei the ultimate template for an all-around player: Oscar Robertson and Larry Bird.

The conclusion is that he can't compare to Big O, who averaged a triple-double per game as a sophomore, and Bird has his own advantages and disadvantages.But second-year Bird led his team to win the championship, and Yu still needs to work hard.

At the end of the regular season, the first round matchups of the playoffs were also announced.

The Bucks, ranked first in the Eastern Conference, will face the Magic, ranked eighth in the Eastern Conference, in the first round.

One obvious difference between this year's first round and previous years is that the league officially changed the first round format to a best-of-seven game system.

Facing the Magic, a team with a ceiling that is rapidly declining, Yu Fei has special emotions. In the first game he played as a starter for the Wizards, his opponent was the Magic.

In this playoff encounter, the Magic are no longer the coveted team of the future.

Tracy McGrady is also destined to not have the opportunity to say that famous line in this series like he did in his previous life.

However, someone will speak for him.

In the first game of the playoffs, Tracy McGrady came down from heaven and scored 45 points, but only one other player in the Magic scored in double figures.

Although no one in the Bucks matched Tracy McGrady's offensive firepower, Yu Fei, Ray Allen and Sprewell scored 88 points together, and the Magic lost the first game without any suspense.

次战，麦迪天神再下凡，砍下46分5篮板1助攻，然而对面的于飞以30+10+14的三双帮助球队打出无解的攻势。

Six Bucks scored in double figures, and McGrady was the only player in the Magic to score in double figures.

In the subsequent third game, the gods were tired and stopped descending. Yu Fei finally restrained McGrady and defeated his opponent with 29 points, 8 rebounds and 6 assists.

The magic army was defeated like a mountain.

After the game, Yu Fei told reporters: "I don't like the current first-round format."

"Why?"

"You know, last year, we would have advanced to the second round."

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"Is Jerry Krause's departure a sign of MJ's return?" - "Chicago Tribune"

"LeBron James turns down $[-] million from Reebok, strikes deal with Nike." - Cleveland Beacon

"Welcome to MVP Mock Predictions, where based on performance, impact on the team, and feedback on and off the court, we believe Frye Yu will edge out Tim Duncan and Jason Kidd to become the youngest MVP in NBA history. Regular season MVP." --ESPN News Flash

"Hey Frye, I'm married to a huge sports fan. In fact, he's a huge Jordan fan and I have to hide from him that I'm a fan of yours. Do you have any advice for me?" — —Diane May, New York, NY

"I have nothing to say. I look forward to your call after the divorce."

"I curse you, you ungrateful bastard, MJ will never forgive you for what you did in DC, you damn @￥#!@￥" - Dave V, Inglewood, Chicago

"Don't be surprised, every episode of our program will witness the charming moments of MJ's crazy patients."

"Fry, when my wife and I are having sex, it bothers me so much that she keeps screaming your name at the most critical moments. Can you help me?" - Tom Bronk, Milwaukee, saint francis

"Yes, these are my fans."

——Yu Fei Radio: "Conversation with the Chosen One"

(End of this chapter)