When pride still matters

Chapter 285: The mentality of a seeker (two in one)

What Yu Fei showed Kobe was a comprehensive arsenal of ball-carrying weapons.

The previous step-back jump shot in singles, then the continuous switch of control rhythm and then tearing apart Kobe's defense and entering the basket to score. Then, he shook Kobe and then went to the basket for dunks.

Yu Fei's height and wingspan combined with dribbling and jump shooting make him an undefendable monster in one-on-one situations.

What Kobe showed was the stability of low-post offense at the inside level.

This is also the biggest difference between the No. 24 version of Kobe and the No. 8 version of Kobe.

No. 8 Kobe is more of a comprehensive outside scorer, his style of play is like Jordan, but his offensive options are more like Irving next to James, while No. 24 Kobe is moving closer to Jordan after 1996 in terms of play style and offensive tendencies.

The Bulls had no one inside who could output, so Jordan supported the team's low-post offense as a defender. The current situation of the Lakers is very different from that of the Bulls at that time. After O'Neal left, no one inside them can pose an effective threat. The return of Zen Master allowed them to launch a triangle offense. The basic principle of the triangle offense is to form an offensive formation with a triangle connection, in which the player in the low post is the strong corner.

The Bulls' strong point is Jordan, OK's strong point is O'Neal, and now, Kobe has to serve as this strong point.

Compared with Yu Fei, Kobe is a restricted core player. Although the Lakers can give him unlimited shooting rights, he cannot follow his own preferences.

But in the first few rounds against Yu Fei, Kobe did not live up to the name of Mamba. His shooting accuracy was 100%. He turned around in the low post and stepped in to lick the basket, turned over in the low post and leaned back, and stepped back with his shoulders swaying in the low post. The jump shot and the low post attack he displayed are what Yu Feijin often sees himself in his dreams.

Halfway through the first quarter, Yu Fei took the initiative to ask for the ball in the low post.

Since Yu Fei was guarded by Sasha Vujacic, the biggest loophole on the Lakers' court, the ball was quickly passed to Yu Fei's hands.

According to information from the Bucks, this is the first year that Kobe will play a lot of low-post games, and Phil Jackson’s second entry into the Lakers was at the end of June. In other words, that’s when Kobe began to know that the Lakers would play a triangle offense in the new season. , he has to go to the low post a lot.

After all the calculations, he had less than five months to prepare.

Can you practice low position to this extent in five months?

do not know.

Yu Fei put aside his distracting thoughts, knowing that he could use his body to attack Vujacic, but he deliberately took a step back to force the opponent to defend close. Like Kobe's first goal in the game, he followed the opponent's side and stepped towards the basket. Score by hitting the board with your starting hand.

In the same action, Kobe faced Raja Bell, and Yu Fei fought Vujacic. Although the difficulty was different, Yu Fei still found a rhythm in the process of abusing food.

"Are you imitating me?"

After Kobe came to the frontcourt, he took the initiative to ask.

"What is imitation?" Yu Fei firmly refused to admit it, "Do you have a patent for that action?"

Kobe said playfully: "You really should watch more of Michael's videos."

"I miss No. 8 more and more." Yu Fei said, "No. 24 is so annoying."

The Lakers quickly exposed their problems.

Kobe is very strong, but he can only be as strong as one-on-five when he is in peak condition.

Many times, he also needs his teammates to share the pressure.

But today, the Lakers, who advocate controlling the rhythm, were forced to restrict Smarsh Parker, who likes to shoot and kill birds. Lamar Odom switched back and forth between normal and abnormal modes, and finally chose the abnormal one. that.

These two are the biggest variables in the Lakers team besides Kobe.

When Odom is in good condition, the Lakers can usually play beautiful internal and external connections, but once Odom is out of condition, the Lakers can only count on the outside to break the game roughly.

This not only requires the efforts of Kobe, but also the performance of Smush Parker.

But once Parker plays, it will only make the Bucks, who are accustomed to a fast pace, easy to use, so the Lakers forcefully control the rhythm, leaving Kobe to have to cooperate with others.

This is the biggest problem for the Lakers right now.

Kobe has no helpers who can perform stably.

Yu Fei quickly relieved himself of the pressure of the game, because although Kobe was in good shape tonight, he was not in a state where he could score 40-50 points.

While the Bucks used the iron barrel array to surround Kobe, they asked Bell and Ariza to take turns to come forward to serve.

No matter when, the Bucks can ensure that Kobe has a defensive gate in front of him.

In this case, even Kobe can't change his fate.

After halftime, the Bucks led the Lakers by 59 points 48 to 11.

Kobe tried his best and scored 20 points, 5 rebounds and 2 assists at halftime, but the situation was extremely unfavorable to the Lakers.

As both high school superstars, Kobe was a little envious of Jia Yufei's situation.

He dared to fall out with Jordan when he just debuted, and was immediately assigned to Milwaukee. It seemed that the future was not bright, but he found that the Bucks were a team that perfectly matched his personal style. Yu Fei won two consecutive championships as a result, and then experienced a chaos at the Palace of Auburn Hills. Ray Allen was traded. He began to lead the team alone, and then used an astonishing scoring performance to bring the team short of major generals to the Eastern Conference Finals, winning a personal victory. The second MVP trophy.

Yu Fei completed Kobe's eleven-year career in four years.

Now, Yu Fei is about to enter the fifth year of his career. He is averaging a triple-double per game, and the Bucks have built another strong team around him.

How lucky is this man?

Whenever Kobe felt that he should be satisfied with his current situation, Yu Fei would bring him more desire.

In his opinion, Yu Fei's situation is perfect.

He wants to be an MVP, he wants to lead the team to win a championship, and he wants to win more rings than O'Neal, and these are things that this Lakers team cannot give him.

But can he complain?

Of course not, because it was him who drove the Lakers to this point. Making a mess of a championship team and then walking away is not what he would do.

Now that the Lakers dynasty has been turned into ruins by him, it will be rebuilt among the ruins. He is confident that he will lead the Lakers back to the top.

With this thought in mind, Kobe walked into the locker room and listened to Odom complaining that no woman would knock on his door at Milwaukee's away hotel, while Smush Parker complained loudly about the team's slow pace tonight.

"Shut up, Smash, just shut up!" Kobe yelled at Parker angrily, and then looked at Odom, "Lama, if you pay more attention to tonight's game instead of fucking With women, maybe we won’t be so far behind!”

Kobe, who regarded Michael Jordan as a student, never followed his idol in his behavior.

He is not the kind of tyrant who uses verbal violence and mental bullying to push his teammates forward, but when he can't bear it anymore, he is not much different from Jordan.

Yu Fei didn't know what was going on in the visiting team's locker room. He decided to study Kobe's game to improve his low post. His reason was clear, because Jordan had never played in the zone defense era, and his low post footwork might be worth learning. place, but the games in the 90s were different from today's. Instead of learning from the ancients, it is better to be in line with today's people. What's more, can I watch the old game tapes? The resolution was even more difficult to discern than the mosaic that appeared in Matsushima Fengli that Kevin Lin usually watched secretly. It was really hard to see at all.

You know, if you want to find an excuse, any little thing can become an excuse. Da Fei is very restrained if he doesn't use "Danzi's bald head will blind his eyes" as an excuse.

The Bucks were too relaxed in the second half, while the Lakers were even better in terms of offensive and defensive intensity after Kobe Bryant's roar.

While the Lakers spent one quarter catching up, the Bucks were still training their rookies.

Danny Granger had a bad night, sitting out for much of the first half as the team was having a good time.

Now the team wanted him to experience a tailwind game, so he turned the game into a headwind game.

On the defensive end, as the fourth position, Odom took over. As a small-ball power forward, he was very good in college. But in the NBA, when encountering a talented forward like Odom, who has first-class height and ball sense, It's quite a bit worse.

Granger's defense was completely overwhelmed, and he didn't dare to take action on the offensive end.

His teammates passed the ball to him, but he hesitated and missed the shot.

Yu Fei noticed this and continued to pass the ball to him.

"Shoot!"

Granger didn't dare to vote.

In the next round, in the same position, Yu Fei passed the ball again.

"Shoot!"

Granger took a deep breath and took action.

A shooter who doesn't have confidence in himself can't hit any shots.

Granger missed the shot, but felt relieved for a while, because even if it was like this, it wouldn't be the end of the world.

Yu Fei grabbed a long rebound and passed the ball to Granger: "Be decisive and make that damn ball for me!"

Granger made the first shot of the second half.

At that time, the score between the two sides was close, but the situation began to reverse.

Yu Fei changed the situation with 0 shots. Starting from Granger's awakening, the Bucks suddenly rained heavily on the outside, making it difficult for the Lakers to react.

In a few minutes, the Bucks scored five three-pointers in a row, expanding the score to double digits.

Phil Jackson called a timeout, but it was too late.

After the timeout, Smush Parker gave his team a backhand, and the simple breakthrough ball passed to Yu Fei's hands.

Yu Fei, on the other hand, suddenly braked and stopped when he was moving to the frontcourt. He swayed Odom, who was defending, and triggered the opponent's defense, causing a three-point foul and throwing the ball.

“Ugh!!!!”

That was Yu Fei's first goal of the second half, and it was also the goal that killed the game.

This scene made Phil Jackson slightly change his view of Fei.

He always thought that Yu Fei was a fame and fortune star like Wilt Chamberlain who valued data above all else, so he coerced the team to play around him, concentrating the ball rights in his hands, and arbitrarily controlling the team's data. And keep the most fertile data for yourself, so as to form the appearance of gorgeous data, excellent records, and mediocre teammates.

But tonight, Yu Fei behaved just like the superstar Phil Jackson knew him to be.

It's true that he controls the ball, but it's also true that he is the only one in the Bucks who has enough ability to control the ball. Just when Danny Granger's self-confidence was about to collapse, it was he who stabilized the rookie's mentality and allowed him to continue taking action until he regained his confidence.

Under such circumstances, Yu Fei still had time to imitate Kobe's low post pace.

Phil Jackson could no longer see beyond the surface to see into Yu Fei’s true nature.

Before today, Yu Fei was an arrogant Generation Y in Jackson's eyes.

He is arrogant, has no respect for his predecessors, and no respect for his colleagues. He ignores the rules and even tramples on them. But today, he shows the demeanor of a mature leader and is well aware of his own shortcomings. That intention makes him become The flawless seeker mentality is awe-inspiring.

Four minutes before the end of the fourth quarter, the Bucks led the Lakers by 16 points. The two sides replaced their main players, announcing the arrival of garbage time.

Yu Fei "only" scored 31 points, 12 rebounds and 9 assists tonight, which made the Bucks fans at the scene wail.

There was a deafening chorus of "Please, Fry!"

This is a special phenomenon for the Bucks this season.

Since Yu Fei averages a triple-double every game, many people come to watch the game because they want to see him get a triple-double. Sometimes, even if the Bucks lose, as long as Yu Fei gets a triple-double, the fans will feel satisfied.

But tonight's game against the Lakers was one assist short of a triple-double?

Don’t do this kind of thing! ! !

"You really don't want to fight for a while longer?" Karl couldn't stand it anymore.

"Kobe has left the game." Yu Fei said, "I can't stay on the court to collect statistics. This is respect for him."

Karl didn't expect Yu Fei to respect Kobe so much.

"You're not really a fan of Kobe, are you?" Karl asked in surprise.

Yu Fei looked at him in confusion. Isn't his identity as an eleven-day old Ke Mi public?

"Okay, if we don't want to fight, we won't fight." Karl sighed, "What a pity for the sincerity of the fans."

"Go to hell!" Yu Fei yelled, "I won't brush up data during garbage time just to please them!"

Karl rolled his eyes. As we all know, Da Fei is an unsportsmanlike player. Would he really not play garbage time for the sake of his opponent's face?

There is no way this is possible.

From what Ikar knew about Fei, the only reason he didn't play garbage time was because he was a little tired tonight. After all, he played nearly 39 minutes. For a regular season, it was a lot of consumption. I also blame the Lakers for resisting so fiercely in the second half. What, treating the regular season as the playoffs is crazy.

However, Carl couldn't help but feel happy when he thought that his victory over Phil Jackson was about to be +1.

Well, how can I show my face after the game so that I can appear smart but not lose my dignity?

Karl thought as the garbage time of this game gradually came to an end.

At the end, 111 to 98, the Bucks defeated the Lakers by 13 points and successfully defended their home court.

Yu Fei is in a good mood tonight because he has found a way to start attacking in the low post.

When the reporter put the microphone in front of him and asked him to talk about how to defeat the Lakers, Yu Fei smiled lightly and said: "It's simple, because as a team we are better than the Lakers."

"Why would you sit out when you were one assist away from a triple-double?"

"I'm a Kobe fan, and he was taken off the court, and out of respect for Kobe, I wasn't going to stay on the court, and that's why."

Unless he meets an opponent, Yu Fei will no longer say anything unscrupulous during interviews.

For journalists, this is a shame.

Another outspoken young man who dared to love, hate and speak his mind was thrown into the big dye vat of professional basketball and began to systematically talk nonsense like a mature person.

On the contrary, Yu Fei's coach seems to have never matured.

Every time George Karl defeated Phil Jackson's team, he acted as excited and excited as if he had reached the great harmony of life with his lover for the first time in his youth.

"I told you, we are going to win, this is our Milwaukee Bucks, you better give us more respect!"

"Danny Granger was unstoppable tonight. Did you see his shot? This kid can really hit the ball!"

"Frye?" Karl loses his mind whenever the question involves Big Fly. "In my mind, he has booked the best player in history. I tell you, Frye is the best player of all time at 19 years old and 20 years old." Players, 21-year-old players, 22-year-old players, 23-year-old players, if you don’t agree, then you don’t understand basketball! As long as he can maintain this trend until he is 30 years old, he is a well-deserved GOAT!”

Yu Fei considered himself a thick-skinned person, but when he heard Karl bragging about himself like this on the spot, he couldn't help but cover his eyes with his hands and lowered his head slightly, as if he didn't know how to face it.

Phil Jackson, who was next door, heard Karl's speech.

Of course he knew that Karl was secretly saying, "The ones I coach are the best in history, not those coached by Phil Jackson."

Jackson wasn't angry, he wouldn't be angry about something like this.

However, this incident did remind him of an old incident.

In the 2004 All-Star Game, Yu Fei stole O'Neal's limelight and was elected that year's AMVP. Moreover, in order to mock O'Neal for saying he was "the most dominant player in history," he told reporters that he was "the most attractive player in history." force".

Maybe Yu Fei will deny it in every possible way, but Jackson can responsibly say that this is a Michael Jordan-like moment and speech.

Looking at Yu Fei's growth curve in the past few years, Jackson agreed that this person has the potential to become the GOAT.

However, what he is more concerned about is the difference between Yu Fei and Kobe, who is also a high school superstar.

Yu Fei did what Jordan did in the name of opposing Mike, and Kobe has been dubbed Jordan's successor since his debut.

This cursed title destined Kobe to be compared with Jordan throughout his career.

Tonight, Kobe Bryant scored a game-high 42 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists. In his own field, he has achieved the ultimate.

But Yu Fei was not even interested in a head-on confrontation. He just called on the rookie players to shoot, and then really awakened the rookies, and used this to drive the Bucks' shooters, defeating the Lakers within minutes.

Jackson had to admit Carr's point.

The Bucks may be playing basketball of the future.

No matter how powerful Kobe is as an individual, he is powerless when facing Yu Fei who can drive the power of five people.

At the post-game press conference, Kobe felt familiar with what was happening in front of him.

"Kobe, what do you think of this game? Where do you think you lost?"

"Are you going to have a complete game like Frye?"

"How do you think playing against Frye will help you?"

"Fry said he refused to play in garbage time as a tribute to you, what do you have to say about that?"

When a person becomes better and better, those who carry the same characteristics as him will be affected.

In ordinary people's homes, the direct manifestation of this kind of case is "other people's children."

For high school players in the professional basketball world at the end of 2005, all problems were related to Frye Yu.

"No, I won't be like Frye." Kobe said with a smile, "I never will."

Kobe is no longer a young man in his early twenties. He has passed that stage. The drastic changes in the summer of 2003 made him care about his image more than ever before.

"Even if it makes you completely defeated?"

"Yes, I am who I am." Kobe deceived himself and said, "I have my own standards, which will not be shaken by anyone."

But Kobe has never been himself. He grew up in the peak years of No. 23. He has dreamed of becoming No. 23 since he was a child. His perfectionist nature makes him strive for excellence, but imitating No. 23 will eventually make him blur his own identity. Style was eventually swallowed up by the shadow of No. 23.

You can see Kobe's honesty about this in "The Last Dance," but there's no shame in that, because No. 23 is the benchmark of greatness, and all the successors have fallen. Penny, Hill and Tracy McGrady, none of them can reach that height. Only Kobe is left, the only Kobe, the ultimate Kobe. He is the back of that era that is rushing away rapidly, and is the last ray left on the basketball court on the 23rd. Light.

That night, Yu Fei invited Kobe out for a late-night snack.

Kobe agreed.

This meal is their last meal of the day. As athletes, eating small meals often is a basic operation, especially on competition nights. You have to replenish them after playing, otherwise the scale will definitely fall off when you wake up the next day.

Yu Fei and Kobe discussed more about low post offense.

Different from Kobe's attitude of joking about Jordan during the game, Kobe was more rigorous and serious when meeting in private.

"I think there are only three people whose footsteps are worthy of careful study," Kobe said. "MJ, Kevin McHale and Hakeem during the Wizards era."

Kevin McHale is a bit too old for Fly.

Olajuwon can learn, but he will have to wait until the offseason.

Moreover, these two are both insiders. The low-post offense of the inside and the rhythm of the outside are different. They can only be learned from, not imitated.

Therefore, after going round and round, Teacher Dadan is a name that cannot be avoided.

That night, when Yu Fei returned home, he asked Lin Kaiwen to find himself a video of the Wizards Jordan game.

It happened that Lin Kaiwen was looking for a Wizards game in the 2001-02 season, and Yu Fei was also present in that game.

After watching it for only a short while, Yu Fei took out the video, put it in the trash can, and then had someone clean it up.

Although Yu Fei has completed his revenge against Jordan, he still can't watch a bit of this video, because the more he watches, the memories of the Wizards period will come to his mind, and his dislike for Jordan will increase, but the opponent no longer plays basketball. Why are you thinking about an old bald donkey who doesn't play ball?

Still have to compare subjects, Kobe is the most awesome.

PS: This chapter was written in one go. I originally wanted to split it into two chapters, but after reviewing it, I felt that it would be more coherent when read together, so I posted it in one chapter.

(End of this chapter)