When pride still matters

Chapter 307 Battle of Brothers

Yu Fei's third MVP came earlier than any other MVP in previous years.

But this time, there was no controversy.

In terms of votes, Yu Fei ranked first in the break, then Nash ranked second, and James ranked third.

However, given the absolute statistical advantage, being voted second cannot be considered an honor.

Nike's publicity machine went down for a while after experiencing the impact of the MVP news, and then went into full gear to promote James. However, no matter how much they promoted LeBron's first playoff performance as better than Frye's, they could not arouse Splash.

Because the reality before us is that Yu Fei is only 2 years older than James, but his resume includes two championships and three MVP trophies.

Even though the gap is huge, Nike still has not given up its efforts.

In the public opinion battle between the Chosen One and the King, Nike went all out.

In the end, it was Bill Simmons' article that kept James relevant in this losing game.

Simmons wrote in the article:

"LeBron has successfully answered in five games, 'Will he improve his performance when it matters?' ", "Can he play a key role at critical moments? ” and “Will he get the same respect from referees as Jordan did?” and "Whether he bites his nails more than any other NBA star in history combined in the playoffs, that if no one stops him, he might develop some kind of rare oral basketball Herpes? "Those few questions. Just an artist's offensive performance. Like Bo Jackson in the late '80s, he has no ceiling. If you step out of the time machine and tell me, LeBron averaged 2011 points, 45 rebounds and 15 assists, I will completely believe what you say."

As the most influential sports writer in the basketball world, Simmons' article successfully added a ray of light to James' first-round performance, leading some people to believe that it was better than when Yu Fei single-handedly led the Wizards to the playoffs and then was eliminated. An even greater performance by the Nets in their first-round elimination.

However, no matter how the publicity machine works, players must ultimately answer everything with their performance on the court.

5 April

Yu Fei woke up from bed, and he was not in a good mood.

Because just last night, he and Christina Hendricks split amicably.

This is a normal result. A woman who seeks a lifelong contract and a man who only wants a 2+1 short-term contract are destined to never reach the end.

Yu Fei was eating a nutritious meal that was hard to swallow, and heard Lawson say: "You know what day tonight is, right?"

"It's the anniversary of my return to being single." Yu Fei laughed at himself, "I'm going to hold a big bachelor party."

Lawson smiled and said, "Isn't this great? You can go find Sharapova openly."

"She's too young." Yu Fei has forgotten how powerful the Crazy Horse Show is, "She's only suitable for snacks."

Lawson said: "I'm only a few years younger than you."

"Hmm?" Yu Fei blinked pointedly.

Only then did Lawson understand where the little finger was.

Later, Kevin Lin on the side talked about recent hot topics.

Yu Fei listened casually, eating at the same frequency like a robot. He suddenly missed Christina's fierceness. He wanted to have a pork chop meal tonight, if he could beat the Cavaliers as an appetizer. marvelous.

The Bucks-Cavaliers game was already heavily hyped before it even started.

This is a head-to-head conversation between two of the most trafficked players in the league.

The league needs this kind of gimmick, and Nike needs James to prove on such a major stage that he is enough to be alongside Yu Fei.

Where is Yu Fei? As a "victim" of bundled propaganda, he wanted no part of it.

But Reebok would say: No, you think.

Reebok's senior management deeply resented the alliance and Nike's approach of tying Yu Fei's promotion to publicity. However, the traffic and hype brought by these two parties made Reebok willing to add fuel to the fire behind the scenes.

As long as Yu Fei wins the competition, all the current publicity and hype will be gained by him alone.

Bradley Center

Yu Fei had a pre-game duel with Ariza as usual.

"Fry, just focus on scoring tonight, I'll take care of LeBron."

Ariza said confidently.

Yu Fei quickly ripped open his defense, hit high and scored a layup.

"You'd better see when you can play first."

Yu Fei appreciates Ariza's defense, but expecting him to guard Xiao Zhan is overthinking.

The overhand restriction restrains the defender. In this case, it is already very difficult to prevent his breakthrough. Now that Xiao Zhan has developed the crab dribbling, he is invincible in terms of one-on-one breakthrough.

After the Cavaliers entered the court, James first congratulated Yu Fei, "Fry, congratulations on winning the MVP."

Yu Fei smiled and said, "Congratulations on entering the second round."

James said jokingly: "I want to go to the third round now."

"This requires you to work a hundred times harder." Yu Fei said, "Come on."

Then, James discovered that Yu Fei's girlfriend was not there, "Where's Christina? Savannah likes her Christmas gift very much. The snacks inside are delicious."

"Oh, you just like it."

Yu Fei didn't tell James the answer because there was no need.

The game was about to begin and he didn't want to be distracted by anything.

A few minutes before the game, the commentators and commentators on major TV stations analyzed the comparison between the two teams in detail, especially the comparison between Yu Fei and James.

Although they say a lot of words, as long as you listen carefully, you can know what they want to express. The Bucks will win easily.

But LeBron James will definitely perform brilliantly in front of Yu Fei. This is the first step for him to achieve greatness. He will first perform brilliantly in front of the legend and sow the seeds of victory. A few years later, he will defeat Yu Fei. , personally collect the fruits of victory.

At the beginning, the Cavaliers got the ball.

James took a few dribbles and passed the ball to Larry Hughes.

Hughes singled out Martin on the weak side and seemed to be in a hurry, but Martin was even more confused. After all, he was not a second-year player who was good at defense. He was targeted right away, and his defense quickly gave his opponent a chance.

Hughes scored on a jumper in front of Martin.

0 is better than 2

As before, Yu Fei came up and fed Kwame Brown cakes first, encouraging him to defend well and protect rebounds.

Brown likes Yu Fei's passing. For some reason, he tends to let go when receiving the ball from others, but the ball given by Da Fei is always just right.

For this ball, Yu Fei instructed Brown to fake a pass. The Cavaliers' defensive discipline was still at the same level as against the Wizards in the first round. There was almost no response between them. Brown easily ran out of the opportunity and Yu Fei waved the ball.

Brown dunks with an alley-oop.

Seeing that the Cavaliers' defense was so lax, Yu Fei felt that tonight was a good time to score points.

With the next ball, James failed to break through, allowing Bell to predict the breakthrough position, but his body was already moving forward and could not stop, so he hit Bell like a car causing an accident.

No matter what the standard is, this is an offensive foul.

But the king's foul play is not the same as that of the common people.

Bell could only watch helplessly as he knocked himself away and then missed a jumper on the spot.

Bell, who was angry, mocked: "I just made the shot if I changed to Da Fei."

James usually doesn't talk trash to others on the court. At most, he glares at his opponents after dunking. This not only shows his quality, but also shows his dominance as a king. But if someone wants to talk about Yu Fei, he is inexplicably so. The urge to talk back.

"He is the MVP after all." James said modestly.

"What does MVP have to do with shooting?" Bell said rudely, "You can never fucking beat Da Fei!"

For this kind of veteran who gets angry when a young man knocks him away, Yu Fei's approach is to pass him a ball to calm him down.

Bell, who was furious, missed a three-pointer. Fortunately, the long rebound was collected by Yu Fei, and the Cavaliers did not guard against this.

After getting the rebound, Yu Fei was in an open position. He raised his hand and shot a long two-pointer.

"Shh!"

This goal fulfilled Bell's trash talk.

Look, Da Fei Lai really came in.

Even though Bell didn't add trash talk and Yu Fei silently retreated after shooting, this scene clearly caused James' mentality to fluctuate.

"Give me the ball!"

According to the rhythm, it should be Larry Hughes who dribbled the ball across half court, but James wanted to take the ball away as soon as he came up, and quickly moved forward, reaching the frontcourt within five seconds, and accelerated from the left side of the three-point line.

Facing the Zhan tank at full power, even though Bell judged the position in advance, his body flew away as soon as he touched it. This time, the referee did not call a defensive foul, which shows the consistency of the game scale.

The moment Bell collapsed as the first line of defense, the Bucks did not immediately form a second line of defense.

James drove to the basket, jumped into the air and collided with Kwame Brown, but kept his body steady like nothing happened and scored a layup with his right hand.

4 is better than 4

James, who felt he had regained his place, gave Brown a habitual look of contempt.

"Da Fei, take care of your little brother." Brown said when serving.

Yu Fei asked: "How do you want me to control it?"

"Tell him to look less at me. I am the No. 1 center in the Eastern Conference. How can he disrespect me so much?" Brown asked confidently.

There are too many flaws, and Yu Fei doesn't know how to complain.

After receiving the serve, Yu Fei decided to do something to bring the game to a new stage.

His first step was to call Bell for a pick-and-roll, allowing James to switch defense in front of him.

"Bron, as a commemoration of our first meeting in the playoffs, I decided to score 50 points tonight." As soon as Yu Fei finished speaking, he did not make any other moves, but just hit James' head with a high shot. A difficult outside three-pointer flew out of James' head. His mind was blank. Before he could recover from the trash talk, the ball flew into his own basket.

"Shuh!!!"

"You have no objection?"

Yu Fei asked.

It's like asking someone if I can slap you and then slap you in the face without waiting for an answer.

After slapping him, he asked again, "Are you not angry?"

A kind of flame that belongs to competition but is not purely competition burns in James's heart. He has been waiting for three years, just to prove himself on such a stage?

"I have no objection." James said solemnly, "Because I will get 60 points."

(End of this chapter)