When pride still matters

Chapter 255 The Price of Paddling

On the second day of the All-Star Weekend, Yu Fei got up very early.

After breakfast, Yu Fei decided to go to the gym for a walk, and then met Vince Carter who was venting his excess energy.

Seeing Yu Fei, Carter also put down his training, and the two of them found a place to sit down and chat.

"If my deal happened a few months later, maybe we could join forces in Milwaukee." Speaking of this, Carter looked regretful.

Since the Nets have entered reconstruction mode ahead of schedule, Carter has not been traded to the Nets.

The team that got Carter was the Golden State Warriors.

The Warriors are a weak team in the Western Conference. Even if they exchange a bunch of scraps for Carter, they can only reach the level of the playoffs.

After all, the Western Conference is a famous Colosseum. Even if it achieves a 55% winning rate, it will only be on the edge of the playoffs at most.

Yu Fei also felt a little regretful.

In terms of technical style, Carter is not as suitable for him as Ray Allen.

But the two played together in the All-Star Game last year.

There is a tacit understanding between Yu Fei and Carter. Although they are not teammates, every move Carter makes in Yu Fei's eyes is not just a mere body movement.

Yu Fei can judge based on Carter's running rhythm whether the opponent wants a shot or is looking for an opportunity to attack the basket.

This kind of telepathic tacit understanding is far more rare than the adaptation of technical style.

But now, it's too late to say this.

Yu Fei said: "As long as we are still playing, there will always be a chance."

"Are you sure about tonight's three-point contest?"

Carter suddenly asked.

"If you can get a few hot beauties to hold banners to support me, maybe I can win the championship."

Carter smiled: "It's easy. I know a few cheerleaders in Denver."

This made Yu Fei's eyes become evil. Unexpectedly, Carter, a man with thick eyebrows and big eyes, would do this in private, even to the cheerleaders. Is this still a human being?

Yu Fei reminded: "Don't be aggressive."

Carter smiled and said, "Man, I understand what you mean."

That night, the Pepsi Center held various individual events of the All-Star Game.

In the three-point contest, Yu Fei discovered a few acquaintances.

There are former teammate Quentin Richardson, and Joe Johnson, who tried out with the Celtics back then, and then Ray Allen, who was traded to the Kings not long ago. In addition to these three people, The other two are Kyle Korver of the 76ers and Rayan Madnovic of the SuperSonics.

"Rey-ray, are you here to join in the fun?"

Yu Fei said hello to his old teammates.

Ray Allen said seriously: "What's wrong with having fun?"

"Da Fei, I am determined to win this year's three-point contest!" Da Q boasted before the game even started, "It's useless for anyone to come."

Yu Fei looked indifferent, "Then I wish you the championship in advance."

For the audience, the three-point contest is just an appetizer. What everyone is really paying attention to is the slam dunk contest after the three-point contest.

To a certain extent, the dunk contest is the most popular competition during the All-Star Weekend, but this year Carter will not participate, James activated his smart ankle injury, and the famous dunk king Jason Richardson directly blamed James. Richardson refused to participate in the slam dunk contest because he had no opponent, and he would not participate unless James participated.

Therefore, there are no famous dunkers among the participants this year.

Yu Fei looked around the auditorium and finally found Carter's position.

This scumbag who didn't even spare the cheerleading team really kept his word. He found three beauties with bulging fronts and backs to pull a poster of Yu Fei's dunk.

Yu Fei patted Carter's chest from a distance, expressing his gratitude.

"You and Vince have such a good relationship?" Ray Allen asked unexpectedly.

Yu Fei told the truth: "We really get along very well."

Ray Allen looked at Yu Fei and then at Carter in the distance, and inexplicably remembered a sentence - they were just like two peas in a pod.

In terms of popularity, Carter is the top vote-getter in the Eastern Conference, and Yu Fei is second in the Eastern Conference votes. But in terms of reputation, Carter is already a street rat in the fourth power. The way the Raptors traded him was like cutting a piece of rotten meat from his body. Not asking for anything in return, just hoping he disappears.

In fact, Yu Fei did not commit any serious crimes. He only offended Jordan and O'Neal to death. Not long ago, he fired a map cannon on Los Angeles, and then got involved in a brawl in Auburn Hills. Later, he also fought with locks like Sprewell. It’s no big deal that the scumbag fans are bound to sign a 2+1 short contract now. This only allows Nike and the Los Angeles media to try their best to discredit him, and then he also has a tendency to be violent on the court and does not know people well, and finally wants to challenge him. The traditional way professional basketball is run has led to an industry-wide backlash.

Ray Allen suddenly wanted to stay away from Yu Fei to avoid being accidentally injured.

Soon after, the preliminaries of the three-point contest began.

First up is favorite Kyle Korver.

Yu Fei has always been upset that the Bucks missed Korver in the draft.

Because when the draft started, he didn't expect this person at all.

It was also because of the experience of missing Korver that Yu Fei was particularly concerned about the draft, so he was able to find Martin and Ariza in the draft prediction list early this year.

However, Korver did not feel the same feeling tonight that he had in the Rookie Challenge yesterday.

After one round of shooting, he only scored 14 points.

Unless others perform abnormally, they are basically scheduled to be eliminated in the preliminaries.

What Yu Fei didn't expect was that Joe Johnson in the second home game was even more heavyweight. He kept hitting the iron, making people suspect that he might break Jordan's embarrassing record in the three-point contest. In the end, Joe Johnson scored 8 points.

Yu Fei felt a little regretful. Although this result was bad enough, it was impossible to break Jordan's record.

Then it was Yu's turn to fly out.

Yu Fei's performance was neither good nor bad, scoring 17 points, basically ensuring his qualification to advance to the finals.

After that, it was Teacher Da Q, who scored 14 points like Korver.

Then came the most important figure in the game, Radmanovic contributed 6 points, only one point away from tying Jordan's record.

Then, Ray Allen's touch seemed to be infected by the players, and he scored 13 points.

Ever since, Yu entered the finals as the first place in the preliminaries with a high score of 17 points.

After entering the finals, everyone's touch has recovered a lot. Korver took the lead with 18 points, followed by Big Q's 19 points, followed by Ray Allen's 16 points.

Yu Fei was the last to play. His previous shots were not going well, but for some reason, the Pepsi Center suddenly booed loudly.

Yu Fei, who was about to open up, suddenly entered serious mode. The next two shots were flawless, especially the last corner. He made all the first four shots. On the last ball, he actually used a sideways hook to hook the ball in. The scene The boos were mixed with exclamations and cheers.

"When you see that last ball, you know the fans love Frye for a reason!"

At the award ceremony, when an ESPN reporter asked Yu Fei whether he would participate in the three-point contest next year, he happily joked: "I am 95% sure that I will probably retire from the three-point contest."

I am 95% sure that this meme came from after the Dream Team's defeat in Athens. Duncan returned to the United States for an interview and expressed his dismay at FIBA's stupid referees, so he said: "I am 95% sure that my career in FIBA it's over."

Yu Fei brought a bright spot to the boring three-point contest. The camera followed him to the sidelines. Only then did the audience realize that Carter had prepared a cheerleading team for him. The big poster of Yu Fei looked handsome, and several girls holding the posters They all look sexy and hot.

Mike Breen said: "The relationship between two of the most controversial players in the NBA is unexpectedly harmonious. Is this lucky or unlucky for us?"

The dunk contest that followed had some highlights for Fei, but not many. After all, he was someone who had watched the epic battle between LaVine and Gordon in 2016.

The biggest highlight of the night was Nash's creative alley-oop header to Stoudemire.

However, everyone guessed the wrong protagonist.

Because one of the contestants was a man named Birdman Anderson. He said in an interview before his appearance: "It's time for Birdman to fly!"

Then he kept failing in front of 9 people and a global audience. The scene became too long due to embarrassment. Yu Fei felt that he might have failed ten thousand times (69 times). In the end, he scored points, the lowest in the history of the dunk contest. point.

If you let Golden State LaVine participate, that's the effect.

Oh no, Anderson is indeed a Warriors player now, so this might actually be a legacy.

"This is the reason why I won't participate anymore." Carter said plausibly. "Who was my opponent back then? Steve Francis, T-MAC, who are these people now? They are not worthy of my participation at all!"

Carter did have the right to speak when it came to dunking, and Yu Fei nodded in agreement.

After all the games on the second day were over, Yu Fei and Carter went to an internal party held by the Eastern stars themselves, and then there was another day of activities the next day.

In the All-Star Game that night, everyone looked very tired and unaccustomed to the new ball introduced by the league. This was clearly reflected in the game.

Neither side was interested in defending, nor did they work hard on offense. Yu Fei, who won the three-point contest, had enough excuses to shoot three-pointers from the outside, but his shots were inaccurate.

The most interesting thing is James. As a virgin All-Star, he behaves like the boss of the Eastern Conference Stars.

"Change, Shaquille."

He actually expected O'Neal to switch defenses in the All-Star Game.

Then, he pointed at Carter and said, "You keep an eye on Nash." Then he looked at Yu Fei and said, "Fry, you know Ray Allen best here. You guard him."

"OK"

Yu Fei responded lazily, and then was passed by Ray Allen in one step.

But Ray Allen is also paddling, and after passing people, he doesn't go inside at all, and just jumps behind the ball.

Then he missed the shot.

This is the ugly part of this game. There is almost no defense, but the shooting percentage of both sides is below 50%.

Kobe and O'Neal had no dialogue throughout the game, nor did they have any conflicts that might excite fans.

After James completed a powerful dunk, he remembered that he had just refused to participate in the dunk contest due to an ankle injury, so it was not appropriate to be too active in the All-Star Game.

O'Neal was the only one trying to play a trick. He once held the ball with one hand at the free throw line and put the other hand on his hip, but his fun did not last long.

The most outrageous thing is that Nowitzki was inexplicably more interested in blocking others that night.

Well, the worst defensive guy on the floor is trying to fix things defensively.

Yu Fei, who entered sage mode after winning the three-point contest, paddled throughout the entire race.

This game was neither entertaining nor competitive, so Iverson, who seemed to want to win more, became the man of the match and led the Eastern Stars to defeat the Western Stars, who were even better at blacksmithing.

Iverson also won the AMVP trophy.

After the game, reporters asked Yu Fei: "Why are you struggling so much on the court?"

Yu Fei replied: "I think it's probably because of altitude sickness. Also, the new ball is terrible and everyone is not used to it."

Altitude sickness is an excuse, but it's true that the new ball sucks.

It's just that when you play badly, no matter what you say, it's like an excuse. This may be the most unsightly All-Star game ever.

PS: In the end, about a thousand words were deleted. That part of the content was not suitable for uploading. See the skirt file.

(End of this chapter)