When pride still matters

Chapter 257 Vietnamese fermented bean curd

When the Bucks end their three-game losing streak in the Western Conference, the February schedule will also be over.

Currently, they have 31 wins and 22 losses, ranking fourth in the Eastern Conference, and their next two opponents are the Lakers and Clippers.

In terms of record, the Lakers and Clippers are both weak teams.

The Lakers currently have only 28 wins and the Clippers have 24 wins. The Clippers can be ignored, but playing against the Lakers is never easy.

The key to this problem naturally lies with Kobe.

Kobe wanted to announce in a direct way that he was ready to take over the Lakers.

He considered that O'Neal's departure would make the team need him to attack the inside more, so he chose to gain weight.

When preseason training camp began, teammates saw a heavily loaded Kobe Bryant weighing nearly 230 pounds (103KG).

Ironically, Kobe's plan failed.

Since Phil Jackson has also left, the Lakers in the new season not only need to adjust their playing style, but also need to find a coach. At first, they wanted to lure Coach K, whom Kobe admired, from Duke to the NBA. But this is not the first time Coach K has had an affair with the NBA. For NCAA practitioners, this is a fixed project that occurs every few years, and the result is nothing more than a salary increase for Old K to stay at Duke.

In the end, Old K did stay in college, so Jim Buss, the actual manager of the Lakers, launched Plan B and signed Rudy Tomjanovich immediately.

The most incredible thing about this decision is that Buss did not communicate with anyone on the team when he signed Tang Shuai. Even Kobe was only a belated observer.

This temporary decision led to Kobe's failure to gain weight.

In Tang Shuai's plan, Kobe will serve more as an arrow for rotating offenses, so he needs to remain light and fast, rather than frequently getting inside like Jordan did.

The Lakers made mistakes again and again and had to play a mediocre game. This is how the Lakers played at the beginning of the 2004-05 season. They took turns breaking through the ball from the outside to create an open shot or a three-pointer from the outside. If it didn't work, they would give it up. Kobe and Odom singles.

After that, there was the Malone teasing Vanessa incident, O'Neal's confrontation with Buss on the eve of the Christmas game, and Kobe Bryant's ankle spraining seriously at the beginning of the new year, and he lost his trust in Tang Shuai while recuperating. He believes that Tang Shuai's coaching ability is lackluster and he is obviously not a good choice to lead the Lakers back to the top.

Tang Shuai, who lost Kobe Bryant's trust, was in a sharp decline with the Lakers and resigned in early February.

For a time, the Lakers were leaderless and chaotic from top to bottom. For a while, they could only let assistant Frank Hamblen serve as the interim coach, and then let the situation continue to deteriorate.

This situation continues to this day. The Bucks came to the Staples Center. Facing the Lakers, who had a disorganized play style, lax discipline, and disunity, Karl gave Yu Fei unlimited freedom: "You can play however you want. , I will tell you if there is any problem after the game."

Yu Fei feels that Karl has changed a lot in recent years.

Back then, Karl was the epitome of over-coaching. He wished he could have an online voice chat with the point guard on the court and control him to play on the spot.

Now Karl rarely pays attention to details. Instead, he puts all the burden on Yu Fei, and is only responsible for timeouts, substitutions, and defensive alignment adjustments.

After possessing everything a big core needs, Yu Fei recalled how the big cores with the ball played in his previous life, and began to imitate them in a decent way.

The first person Yu Fei imitated was Harden. In the game against the Lakers, he called countless pick-and-rolls and used multiple feints to pull back three-pointers.

This night, Yu Fei made an astonishing 14 three-pointers. Although he only hit 5 goals, he made the Lakers extremely afraid.

The Lakers' interim coach Han Bron even adopted a double-teaming tactic against Fei in the second half.

This is because Yu Fei made 9 of 4 three-pointers in the first half, and after being double-teamed in the second half, although he made 5 of 1, the Lakers also paid the price for their defense.

After receiving the pass from Yu Fei, Brent Barry and Mobley punished the Lakers with precise shots.

On the other hand, for the Lakers, Kobe Bryant scored 24 points on 11 of 30 shots, and three of his teammates scored in double figures, but they lost in the end.

The Bucks defeated the Lakers 111-100.

From the data point of view, Kobe's performance is not bad, but this is the biggest difference between the typical contemporary outside star and the ball-carrying core.

When two teams have similar lineups, the team with the ball-carrying core often has a higher lower limit.

Because the core ball-handler can radiate his performance to his teammates, while Kobe, a typical star at the beginning of the century, is obsessed with one-on-one offensive and defensive influence.

When Yu Fei is in good condition, he can protect four with one. On the contrary, if he feels bad, his teammates around him can also have the effect of protecting four with one. No matter whether Kobe is in good or bad shape, he has no direct impact on his teammates. Everyone plays their own role and it all depends on their ability.

This phenomenon made Carl ponder.

A few years ago, he would have appreciated players like Kobe more.

But now, he only feels that Kobe's playing style is inefficient and his game thinking is rigid, and he has insufficient influence on the team.

He didn't know if he was successfully "tamed" by Yu Fei.

"14 three-pointers in a single game." Karl teased Yu Fei and said, "If you play under Larry (Brown), you will be locked on the bench because of taking so many three-pointers."

Yu Fei said: "So I will never play for him."

"Good shot," Carl said approvingly, "keep it up."

Afterwards, Yu Fei went to the media interview room.

44 points, 11 rebounds and 9 assists, these are the statistics Yu Fei handed over that night. “What makes you always bring your best performance to the Lakers?”

"What are you talking about?" Yu Fei retorted, "Everyone wants to perform their best in the game. If I always perform well against the Lakers, then it means that the Lakers are a great team. They bring out all the potential in me.”

Another Los Angeles reporter asked: "Will you take back those superficial comments you made about LA?"

Yu Fei remembered that the only map attack he made against Los Angeles was that this city was the most stingy city in the world.

It's been so long, but they still can't forget it. Isn't this just right?

"I think your question just proves that my evaluation is accurate." Yu Fei said, "Since it is accurate, there is no need to take it back."

After the interview, Yu Fei met Kobe on his way back to the locker room.

"You played well tonight, it's my turn next time." Kobe said.

Although Kobe was thinking about the next match between the two sides, the burly men around him still made him tense up.

Since last season, Kobe has been followed by a whole team of bodyguards wherever he goes.

That includes when he's in and out of the team's locker room.

In this case, Yu Fei didn't know how Kobe could bridge the gap between himself and his teammates.

"Why don't you speak?"

Seeing Yu Fei's silence, Kobe asked.

"I originally wanted to see you in the finals, but thinking about it is too hypocritical. You can't make it to the finals this year." Yu Fei smiled and said, "See you next year."

Kobe asked back: "How are you sure we can't make it to the finals, and how are you sure you can make it?"

In Kobe's view, the Bucks after the battle at the Palace of Auburn Hills obviously have no confidence to enter the finals.

"Because a team with 32 wins definitely has a better chance of entering the finals than a team with 28 wins." Yu Fei decided to leave, but in the end he did not forget to say to Kobe, "I'm sorry for what happened to your family recently."

This is the news Yu Fei heard from Trem. His agent never forgets Kobe. Of course, this is also related to Kobe's family.

Kobe's family approved of Tralem, and letting Tralem become Kobe's agent again was one of the conditions for their reconciliation with Kobe - you know this can't happen - and then Tralem also left Kobe's home. People learned that Vanessa suffered a miscarriage at the beginning of the year.

Kobe didn't expect Yu Fei to express his greetings.

The reason he came to say hello was that Yu Fei claimed to be his fan.

You know, even though he is a crazy Jordan fan, after he became famous, he tried his best to avoid being regarded as a Jordan fan, but Yu Fei did not shy away from this matter.

In response, Kobe just said: "It's in the past and I will look forward to it."

"So, goodbye."

Yu Fei returned to the locker room, packed his things and went outside Staples Center, got on the team bus and returned to the hotel.

Because they have to play the Clippers here in two days, the Bucks stayed in Los Angeles.

The next day, Yu Fei woke up early just like in Milwaukee and watched the Los Angeles media rave about his team.

The Los Angeles media compared the Lakers to the NBA's Yankees, and the Bucks to the NBA's Vietnam team.

And, here’s the explanation for this strange metaphor.

Vietnam (Bucks), a small country, became known to the world during the war against France and the United States in the last century, and then disappeared for most of that time. The Lakers are the United States, representing the most money, the most powerful weapons, and basically never failing, so people (Yu Fei) hate the United States, just like some people (Yu Fei) hate the Lakers, mainly because they want to be in the United States (The Lakers) were born so that they could cheer for the real overlords and winners instead of making violent comments like they do now.

Finally, the media also cursed: "You know, Vietnam (Bucks) will celebrate for a while after defeating the United States (Lakers), and then fade out of people's sight, continue to hate the United States (Lakers), and miss the past victories, and then concentrate on Making shoes for Nike (implying that Yu Fei will move to the Lakers like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in the future)."

To be honest, articles like this don't make Yu Fei angry.

Because this is more like a job than a taunt.

After that, the Bucks played against the Clippers away from home.

Yu Fei continued his hot streak against the Lakers and once again took 14 three-pointers. But tonight, his touch was even better, hitting 7 three-pointers in the game. Coupled with unsolvable breakthroughs, he faced the Clippers' hip-drawing Defensively, he scored a season-high 57 points, 8 rebounds and 7 assists, leading the team to a winning streak.

"Stop talking about Frye, the contemporary magician. He is a combination of a magician and the legend of Larry!"

That night, Yu Fei refused the post-match interview.

The reason is:

"Our Milwaukee Vietnamese team still has to make shoes for Nike, so I won't accompany you. If you have any questions, just go and interview the two Americans who were captured by the Vietnamese team."

(End of this chapter)