When pride still matters

Chapter 359 It’s worth it

Yu Fei knows Durant, but not the current Durant.

Rookie Durant reminded me of the Durant who used trumpets to scold his teammates, had a bad relationship with the media, and blew up all the teams he went to. His self-esteem was both strong and fragile, and he could completely put aside his arrogance and confront fans online. The dark image blurred.

However, Yu Fei doesn't believe that a person can change his temperament drastically without experiencing terrible trauma.

And on the court, opportunities to experience horrific trauma are few and far between.

Judging from Durant's resume, his Thunder career may have been rough, but it will never leave a psychological shadow on him.

Therefore, Yu Fei’s judgment on Durant is that his current image of a good gentleman is part of Nike’s marketing.

Just like Robert Downey Jr. will act like Tony Stark when he attends events on behalf of Marvel. The purpose of this is to make people feel like he stepped out of the movie.

And what about Durant? Nike gave him an endorsement contract second only to James.

Like all supernovas, they need their image.

The main responsibility of the No. 1 position falls on Roy.

The player's personality needs to be designed based on the actual situation, and Nike initially set the image of Durant as a boy next door.

Yu Fei is the chosen one, James is the king, what about Durant? He was widely considered inferior to Oden before entering the NBA, and he is still now. Many people believe that the Sonics gave up on Oden as an accident-level draft failure.

Oden knows that a sunny smile can win the favor of the media, but Durant is still not used to cameras and microphones.

Yu Fei wants to see Durant like that. The current good-guy version of Durant is too boring.

That's it, he's a good guy.

But Yu Fei didn't believe this. He believed that the annoying Durant didn't appear out of thin air. That evil side must have been attached to Durant early on, but he just had no chance to dominate his will.

If we continue to play according to the previous style, others will cooperate obediently with Yu Fei's status, but in this case, it will be difficult to transform in the future.

Facts have proved that the darkened Durant is the strongest Durant. A Durant who has become a public enemy can use the same posture to angrily criticize James twice in the finals. He can defeat and destroy one of the Big Three. Under the circumstances, he performed two historical-level individual performances, but in the end he missed the mark and lost to the championship of the season.

Durant is a good guy.

This is a transformation and a change that has to be made after coming to a new team.

Aside from Tim Duncan, there are few stars who can make this image seem authentic.

He is an excellent combo guard who can dribble across half court and serve as a playmaker. For Fei, this is equivalent to continuing to play his role in Team USA with the SuperSonics.

However, Xiao Du behaved submissively. No matter how much pressure he put on him, he would not get angry. Occasionally he would look like he was going to have an attack, but as long as he took a deep breath, he would swallow the anger.

Yu Fei can only continue to wait. He believes that as long as he works hard, Xiao Du will turn dark sooner or later.

Before entering college, although Durant was also one of the top five high school students in the United States, he was not like Oden who has attracted national attention since he was 15 years old.

That's when they were honest with each other.

He doesn't have to conquer everything with a noble will like Jordan, nor does he have to be a king like James who was born to dominate the court. He also doesn't have Kobe's villainous temperament similar to Yu Fei. He is a person who lacks characteristics. Nike decided to give him an ordinary personality, but such an ordinary personality is extremely rare among superstars.

The core of the ball is essentially a very strong person sucking up the team's statistics to make himself look stronger than he actually is. When the player is in his prime, doing so may result in 1+4 being greater than 5, but once the player gets older Come up, the big-core play style can still maintain the data, but the team's record cannot be guaranteed.

Different from the Bucks period, Yu Fei has transformed from a core player who has exclusive possession of the ball to a small forward with organizational responsibilities.

In early October, Sonics training camp came to an end.

Moreover, it is almost impossible to transform at this time. Because the playing style is fixed and habits are difficult to change, the inertia of the game will make people instinctively reject other playing styles.

Therefore, if you want to change, do it while you are young. Now is the right time.

Like last year, Yu Fei's team was once again scheduled to play preseason games in China.

Also going to China were the Rockets where Yao Huang was and the Pioneers of SpaceX.

It is worth mentioning that after the Trail Blazers selected Yi Kong, many Chinese fans worried whether their innocent and kind-hearted Yi would be led astray by Zach Randolph, a scumbag who could lie about the death of a relative and go to nightclubs to dance. .

This concern is clearly justified.

After selecting Yi, it only took the Blazers' management a week to figure it out.

Their thinking was "We'd better not let Yi and Zach meet."

So Randolph was sent to New York.

Trail Blazers head coach Nate McMillan claimed that Yi's potential is unimaginable and that he is the best young player he has ever seen. They hope that Chinese fans will believe that Yi will become the core of the Trail Blazers' team building.

The Sonics' first opponent in China is the Trail Blazers, where SpaceX is located.

Judging from the preseason, McMillan's words were true. Yi played 28 minutes and took 15 shots.

That's a high number of shots for a big man.

But Yi's hidden dangers have been highlighted. Simply put, he doesn't have many offensive skills at the basket and lacks variety. In CBA, you can use your body to attack hard, but in the NBA, there are too many strong men, and they like to get hit when they play like this. But Yi is smart, and it is difficult to hit inside. He can play outside. This is another problem. Yi's outside shooting rate is not ideal.

The SuperSonics, which focused on training, came up with a 12-man rotation and narrowly defeated the Trail Blazers by 3 points.

"He will be very good." Yu Fei responded to the Chinese media's question about Yi's performance, "But he still needs to carefully refine his skills." Then there is the old rival Rockets.

As long as they come to China to play preseason games, the Rockets are basically standard equipment.

After not seeing Yao Huang for a long time, Yu Fei missed him quite a bit, but he didn't expect that this guy had grown noticeably bigger after not seeing him for several months. Looking at his posture, he definitely gained a lot of weight during the offseason.

"Cuna!" Yu Fei greeted in a friendly manner, "Why are you so fat?"

Yao Huang snorted: "This is to become stronger."

"You are strong, can your body bear it?" Yu Fei seemed to see Yao Huang's future, "The season is very long."

Yao Huang said optimistically: "As long as the playing time is controlled, there will be no problem."

The scary thing is that such a weight may far exceed the body's load, so no matter how hard you control your playing time, you will still get injured.

Yu Fei believes that Yao Huang knows this truth.

Although his lower limbs are thick, his feet carry old injuries from his youth team days. Once the injury is repeated, his sports career will be greatly shortened. Doctors know these truths better than Yu Fei. Yao Huang must have received a lot of advice, but he still chose to gain weight just to give it a try.

Everyone takes chances.

In the game that night, Yao Wei really showed his power and was unbeatable inside. Kwame Brown was as powerless as a dwarf behind him.

Since this was a preseason game, Karl did not use the classic Yao-breaking package (passing forward + double-teaming), allowing Yao Shuan to wreak havoc on the basket.

McGrady is also in excellent form. For the SuperSonics, in addition to Yu Fei playing for 30 minutes and competing with McGrady for the entire game, each scoring 30 points, the SuperSonics mainly focused on inspecting players.

China can be said to be the Rockets' second home court. They finally defeated the SuperSonics with a 6-point advantage and won the China game.

But the preseason is irrelevant. No one from either team cares about the outcome. The most important thing is whether the fans are satisfied. There is no doubt that both teams are a feast for the fans. Yao Shuan dominates the inside, and Tracy McGrady and Yu Fei compete against each other. This is worth the ticket price.

After the China game, the Sonics returned to the United States to play two more preseason games, and then concentrated on preparing for the upcoming 2007-08 regular season.

In the first game of the new season, the league thoughtfully arranged for the Sonics to go to Milwaukee to play the opening game.

Yu Fei will receive his fourth championship ring in the first game of the new season.

This is also his first return to Milwaukee since moving to Seattle.

December 2007, 10

There were huge crowds inside and outside the Bradley Center.

No matter where Yu Fei went, someone shouted his name loudly, but no one blamed him for leaving.

Although he is gone, he is still a hero here.

Perhaps it was the emotional overload of reunion after a long separation, but Yu Fei felt that he was more popular than before he left.

Carl explains this phenomenon.

"People start to love you after a loss. They still don't know what they lost."

That night, when the SuperSonics bus arrived outside Bradley Center, thousands of fans gathered nearby and shouted Yu Fei's name.

"Can you believe it? In the past five years, this is the first time I have discovered that there are so many basketball fans in Milwaukee." Yu Fei said calmly, "I hope it is all worth it."

Returning to the former home court, the flag above the arena silently tells the story of what happened here.

Old teammates came forward to pay tribute one after another.

Before the game starts, when the DJ announces the names of the players on both sides, he will cut off the BGM when announcing the visiting team's starting lineup, and deliberately say their names in a bland tone.

Kwame Brown, Brandon Roy, Kevin Durant, Rashard Lewis.

No one deserves to be cheered for.

But before the last name rang, an epic soundtrack sounded.

"Finally, number 44!"

The light fell on Yu Fei, and cheers began to ring out.

"Serving as a striker!"

The DJ's voice was indistinguishable and the place was too noisy.

"From Kent Meridian High School!"

"Fry~~~~~~"

Yu Fei could no longer hear any sound, it was too hot and harsh.

There were so many feelings in his heart.

This is what he left behind, this is what he gave up, nothing can go back, he must look forward, but he hopes that when it is over, he can tell himself that it was worth it.

(End of this chapter)