When pride still matters

Chapter 284 When Kobe had a sense of humor

The Bucks entered the final month of 9 with a 4-2005 record.

On the first day of December, Yu Fei proposed to George Karl the idea of ​​increasing the post offense.

Carr believes this is unnecessary.

With the Bucks' current system, holding the ball in front of the basket can solve most of the problems. As for those small problems, they should not be dealt with by flying. After all, no player can do everything.

"But I can't stop playing in the low post forever," Yu Fei said. "I want to become more comprehensive."

Carl had no choice but to do as Yu Fei wished.

The first game of the new moon was against his old team, the Wizards. This was not a suitable opponent to hone his low-post skills, because the Wizards have a good average height.

The shortest player in the starting lineup is Arenas, who is 191 centimeters tall, and the rest are all over two meters tall.

Yu Fei devoted himself to finding Arenas' misplaced back-up play. After all, it was just the beginning, so he had to find the easiest one to play.

However, after the Wizards suffered a few losses, they no longer gave Yu Fei a chance to attack Arenas alone in the low post.

They began to double-team Yu Fei.

Yu Fei was double-teamed, passed the ball at will, assisted in double figures again, and easily defeated the Wizards in the away game.

Two days later, against the Magic, Yu Fei tried several more post-ups, but the effect was not good.

This reminded him of when he was in high school, when he played center and practiced post-up play and low-post footwork. But after entering the NBA, he was very successful in winging and guarding. Not only did he become the best swingman in the NBA, he also became the best swingman in the NBA. He has almost forgotten the low post steps he practiced when playing center.

Yu Fei's current low-post offense is very rough. The only way to reliably defeat his opponent is to hit the big one and hit the small one. When encountering a bigger player, he basically relies on hitting a few times to turn over.

Seeing that the effect was not good, Yu Fei gave up the low position on the spot and used his own method to defeat the magic.

As for low-post offense, you have to hire someone for special training, study videos of footwork masters, and then combine training with actual combat to accumulate experience.

He can spend five years developing his shot, and then he can spend another five years studying low-post offense.

Then, the time came on December 12th.

The Bucks are back at home, and they are about to welcome the league's most trafficked team, the Los Angeles Lakers, at their Bradley Center.

After a losing season, the Lakers need a fresh start.

So, after the end of last season, they shockingly invited back Phil Jackson, who was incompatible with Kobe Bryant.

This is a big event that no one could foresee, because the conflict between Jackson and Kobe is no less than that of O'Neal.

In the OK era, Jackson was a recognized supporter of O'Neal, and there was a clear difference in the way the two were coached. This was directly reflected in two things. It was understandable for O'Neal to be lazy, but it was unacceptable for Kobe to be selfish. During those years, Jackson repeatedly asked the team to trade Kobe. After the disintegration of F4, during a short break, he wrote a book called "The Last Season: A Team in Search of its Soul" (published in China). The book made an extremely sharp evaluation of Kobe.

The famous story about Jackson taking Kobe to have dinner with Jordan, and then Kobe threatening to beat Jordan in a one-on-one came from it.

Anyone who doesn't know much about Kobe will be quite prejudiced against him after reading that book.

No matter how you look at it, there is no room for relaxation in the relationship between the two.

However, according to Charlie Rosen, a close friend of Phil Jackson, the Lakers sat down Kobe and Jackson for a while before making this decision, and it was done.

Few people know the specific content of this meeting. The only thing that is certain is that the two sides have at least reached a consensus: From now on, Phil Jackson can no longer attack Kobe Bryant in the media as he did in the past.

After signing back Jackson, the Lakers wanted to make a difference in the free market, but lost to the Bucks in the battle for Kwame Brown. Then they made a maximum salary offer for restricted free agent Tyson Chandler, but the Bulls matched it. .

Over and over again, the Lakers, who were in urgent need of reinforcements, repeatedly downgraded their needs. In the end, they signed back the mediocre Tony Barty with only a three-year, $3 million contract.

Just like what happened to Yu Fei in his previous life, the Lakers, which lacked the most talent since the new century, officially started the 2005-06 season.

The first leader, Kobe Bryant, failed to prove himself last season. The second leader, Lamar Odom, is suspected of having mental problems, but he is still a quasi-star player. Caron Butler missed the season due to injury, so the third leader suddenly Demoted to future CBA star Smarsh Parker.

This gave Kobe a chance to unleash his true nature.

In the past month, Kobe averaged 29.2 shots per game, scoring 33.5 points, 4.8 rebounds and 3.9 assists.

Tonight, when Kobe Bryant walked into the Bradley Center, Yu Fei took the initiative to say hello: "Should I call you the Black Mamba, or something?"

In fact, Kobe never publicly announced that his new nickname was the Black Mamba.

"Mamba" is what Kobe's inner circle calls him. But for some reason, it was spread, and when people asked Kobe about the meaning of this nickname, Kobe explained without hesitation: "The Black Mamba can continuously hit his prey with an accuracy of 99% at maximum speed. .This is the accuracy I want. Due to the lack of systematic training in the past two years, I went into battle with a rusty butter knife. Although I did what I was supposed to do, I was just fighting for survival. .”

Yu Fei in his previous life liked this nickname. It sounds cool, doesn’t it?

But now, he couldn't evaluate it.

What exactly did an NBA star accused of sexual assault want when he decided to adopt the name of a 13-foot-long snake as his nickname? This is funny, because the snake can easily conjure up some sexual metaphors, and such associations are strongly rejected by Kobe's camp.

However, Kobe can even reconcile with Phil Jackson, so what’s the big deal with such a nickname? From Yu Fei's point of view, the reconciliation between the two is as difficult as the reunion between Huang Baoqiang and his ex-wife.

In response to Fei's greetings, Kobe replied: "You can call me whatever you want, but I would like to know what I should call you? Ambassador of prohibition? Big O? Or Mr. Triple Double?" Seeing that Kobe finally found the past two Something that had disappeared from him over the years - a sense of humor - as an eleven-day old Ke Mi, Yu Fei was happy for him.

"Just call me Frye." Yu Fei said.

Kobe asked: "The kid who took the ABCD MVP from me with his own hands?"

"Yes, that's Fry."

"If you were that Frye," Bryant said, "I think he would call me Kobe."

Hearing this, both of them laughed, but just as he flew back to the backcourt to shoot, his mind switched from greeting Kobe to how to limit Kobe's offense.

If he remembers correctly, this season was Kobe's offensive explosive season. He scored 50 consecutive points, scored more points in three quarters than the entire Mavericks team, and 81 points in a single game all came from this season.

Yu Fei only hopes that the Bucks will not become part of the above-mentioned records.

This requirement shouldn’t be high, right?

After the warm-up, both teams started playing.

On the Lakers side, Kobe and Odom are flanked by Parker, Vujacic and Tony Barty.

Except for Kobe, there is no stable strong point.

But Kobe is a strong point, and the Bucks have enough manpower to compete with him.

As long as Kobe's offense is extinguished, winning will not be difficult for the Bucks.

With a jump ball at the beginning, Batty, who had the height advantage, won the first opportunity for the Lakers. Smarsh Parker, like a stalled express train, rushed to the basket for a fast break.

Kwame Brown reacted and took the shot directly.

Yu Fei grabbed the rebound, and the Bucks' fast break came to the frontcourt like lightning, without giving the Lakers any time to react. Yu Fei passed to the left to Martin who was following up, and the latter hit a chasing three-pointer in the center of the basket.

"Smarsh is already fast, but Frye is faster than him, and the Bucks' offense is very organized."

The commentator's explanation directly distinguished the difference between fast and fast.

Phil Jackson whistled, telling the Lakers to slow down the tempo.

There is a consensus within the league that the 2002-2004 Bucks are a crude version of the SSLO Suns. But as the Suns lost in the playoffs, experts changed their minds and said that the Suns were the rough ones. Because although the Suns' fast offense worked in the regular season, in the playoffs, they lacked defense and rebounding, which are the Bucks' strengths.

The Bucks' speed is completely different from the Suns' speed. The latter is the overall style of the team, while the former is attributed to Yu Fei.

The biggest feature of the two teams is that the average time spent in the offensive round is less than 17 seconds.

Any team that tries to play with them at this pace will be slaughtered; any team that fails to stop them from playing at this pace will have no chance of winning against them; only the team that breaks their offensive rhythm will win. Only then can you be qualified to win.

Jackson knew this and reminded the team.

But Smarsh Parker is a person who can only play fast but not slow. If he can't play fast, he can only disappear on the court and wait for the defensive round.

Jackson, who hopes to avoid the team being stuck in a situation where Kobe is one against four, has to accept that Kobe will have a lot of isolation opportunities tonight.

Want to control the pace? It's very simple, let people run tactics, open up the position, clear one side, and give Kobe the stage and time.

With the last ten seconds left in the attack time, Kobe took the ball from the right waist and hit Laga Bell with his back. He first relied on the ball, then turned around and raised the ball, picked up Bell, stepped forward, and scored on the board.

3 is better than 2

In Yu Fei's eyes, Kobe's figure inexplicably overlapped with an old friend from the Wizards wearing No. 23.

This made Yu Fei feel ironic. He had worked with Jordan for a year, but he did not learn a single move from Jordan in low-post offense because he did not need to play in the low-post at that time. Moreover, as the relationship between the two quickly deteriorated, It is even less possible for him to imitate, learn, or even ask Jordan for advice.

But now, he suddenly discovered that if he wanted to get started in attacking in the low post, imitating Jordan like Kobe might be a shortcut.

It was like running to half court and seeing Kobe guarding him in person. He thought again, why should I imitate Jordan? As an 11-day veteran Kobe, isn’t it good to imitate Kobe? Isn’t he more beautiful than Jordan?

"Kobe, how can I improve my post game?"

Remember, Kobe has found his sense of humor. He knew how to answer something that would piss off Yu Fei.

"Why ask me?" Kobe said jokingly, "You will know if you look back at the game videos in DC."

What a good answer, Da Fei's face was pulled, and he immediately launched a fierce attack.

Although Kobe Bryant, who was at the peak of his offense and defense, kept his position, Yu Fei was no longer the rookie who couldn't carry out personal offense without getting rid of him.

Yu Fei stormed to the free throw line, suddenly stepped back, suddenly opened up with Kobe Bryant, and collected the ball for a jumper.

5 is better than 2

"You know," Yu Fei said, "I will not let go of any bastard who mentions that person in front of me."

Kobe said "Huh huh", indifferent to Fei's harsh words.

(End of this chapter)