When pride still matters

Chapter 486 Adu doesn’t want to be Adu anymore (unity)

The Staples Center was booed loudly, and Los Angeles' dissatisfaction with Ron Artest rose rapidly in a short period of time.

Others are blaming Phil Jackson, who they say killed the Lakers by leaving Artest on the court at the last minute.

"Fortunately, this is just a regular season game. How big of a disaster would it be if this happened in the Finals?" Joe Lago, a well-known writer in Los Angeles, wrote on Twitter.

阿泰斯特酿成的灾难，让詹姆斯的三双和科比的36分5篮板4助攻最终沦为于飞的45分14篮板13助攻的大号三双的背景板。

Moreover, what is even more unacceptable to the James camp is that James's losing streak extended from Cleveland to Los Angeles.

Tonight is the 29th time in six years that James has lost to Yu Fei.

"Because the SuperSonics' lineup is not complete and their inside core Chris Bosh is out due to injury, this defeat is a big blow to the Lakers." Doug Collins said, "Because they are It is the stronger side in terms of absolute strength.”

However, this set of rhetoric used to shape "Tonight's SuperSonics is a David and Goliath victory" was denied by Yu Fei.

"KD's strength is underestimated, which is the reason why the Lakers lost." Yu Fei said, "Their attention is all on me, but after tonight, they probably won't let KD attack so easily again. "

"Are you talking about the last-minute pass?"

Some wondered what he was thinking at the end, but no one said the words.

On the one hand, they will question James' passing choices at critical moments, and on the other hand, they will hype Artest's remarks and portray him as a player who lacks professional qualities.

"So, the question should be - why is he passing the ball?" Yu Feixiao asked, "Is DJ's defense that terrible? Or is he worried about stealing Kobe's limelight? I don't know the answer, you have to do it yourself Go ask him."

The other one is very consistent with the way journalism structures interviews.

Artest was not taking a shower. He put his laptop in the mezzanine to play European and American short movies.

On the screen, a blond MIFL playing a doctor was making out with a bald stud.

"He's in the shower," someone said.

No, Kobe doubted he was thinking about this damn movie during the game.

But the narrative power lies in the hands of the fourth estate.

One is that Artest expressed dissatisfaction with James passing the ball to him at the last moment. The superstar should dominate the game by himself.

When he returned to the locker room, everyone was looking at him.

This sentence has two directions in the ears of reporters.

"Fuck you!!!"

Interestingly, Ron Artest's answer to the last shot was exactly the same as what Yu Fei said.

"Where's Ron?!" Kobe came in, "Where's that bastard?"

Artest doesn't understand the media's twists and turns. He just wants to return to the locker room.

Artest's slow response came from inside.

Kobe's anger could no longer be controlled: "Turn the damn thing off! You stupid pig! Do you know that if you make the last shot, there will be a hundred Julies rushing to jump on you?" On the bed?

Artest's answer was like a button that detonated a nuclear bomb: "But they are not Julie."

Gradually, personnel were in place.

Kobe asked.

"I don't think he can pass the ball," you think? You think he can't, so you weren't ready to catch and shoot from the beginning, which means you weren't ready. In other words, you mean you weren't ready?

The ESPN reporter who interviewed Yu Fei then asked: "This is your 29th consecutive victory against LeBron. Compared with the past 28 wins, is there any difference tonight?"

"Yes, I guess many people will blame Ron for this, but I don't think even Ron himself would have thought that he would be the last choice to take the shot in such a crucial game." Yu Feiguang remembered. This makes me laugh, "You have No. 23 and No. 24, but you let Ron Artest take the last shot at the last moment? What did you expect to get from him?"

This guy just screwed up the most important regular season game of the season, and as an unquestionable war criminal, he was out of the game immediately after the game ended.

"It's not locked."

If he has this concentration on the court
"What are you looking at?" Kobe asked, suppressing his anger.

Kobe opened the door directly, and the scene in front of him made his brain shut down.

"what is this?"

Artest picked up his laptop and walked to the shower room.

Artest didn't seem to hear, he was completely immersed in it.

"There is no difference." Yu Feiyun said calmly and sarcastically, "LeBron just chose to escape when he was faced with a heavy responsibility like he did in the past."

"I was the player with the lowest three-point shooting percentage on the field," Artest said absently. "We didn't have a timeout at the time, and the ball was in LeBron's hands. I didn't think he could pass the ball."

So Kobe angrily came to the shower room and slammed the door.

This made Kobe furious.

For reporters, there are no multiple choice questions.

Although Yu Fei hopes that Durant, who scored 33 points tonight, will share the glory of victory with him.

Kobe roared hysterically.

"Julia Ann's new film." Artest watched it with gusto. "Her look in it is simply crazy!"

Tonight's game had nearly 2000 million viewers at its peak, with hundreds of millions of overseas viewers, and it was at their home court. At the last moment, the Lakers had a chance to win, but Yu Fei blocked him to death. Forget it, Artest, who got an open shot, actually made the stupidest offensive choice.

James listened to Kobe's curse, but he didn't feel relieved at all.

Because of Artest's mistakes, his losing streak continued to increase.

He knew that the outside world would continue to laugh at him about this matter.

And he couldn't stop it.

The only way for this to end is to win.

But they lost, and they still lost because of his passing.

He definitely doesn't regret passing the ball, but he regrets passing it to Artest.

He had already seen that Artest was untrustworthy tonight, but why did he still pass the ball to him?

Of course, James will not accept the outside world's evaluation of him.

But the only reason he could think of to justify his pass selection was that Artest was open.

He has time to hit that open 3-pointer.

As long as he takes action immediately after catching the ball, everyone can accept the result no matter what.

But he insisted on dribbling the ball and missed three shots after the timeout.

This is the ugliest ending.

James blamed Artest's final shot and Jackson's choice.

What's Jackson's reason for keeping Artest on the court? He is tough enough to cause Yu Fei some trouble on the defensive end, but in the end? Yu Fei grabbed an offensive rebound over his head and completed a tip-in for a sure win.

Artest's series of mistakes at the end led to the final defeat.

James forgot that it was he who gave up his position under the basket to block Durant's shot in the final moments, allowing Yu Fei to get stuck in the key position.

This was the foreshadowing of that extra deduction.

But human beings are like this, they can't help but beautify themselves in their memories.

Even though this was a game that had just happened, James still didn't think he had done anything wrong.

If there is a fault, it is everyone else's fault.

Kobe didn't get rid of Yu Fei, and Jackson ran out of timeouts. As a result, he was unable to adjust at the last moment and could only rely on him to make decisions alone, and he made the best decision.

But even genius decisions can produce terrible results if executed by stupid pigs.

Although James has so many opinions about the people around him, he has shown the greatest restraint in front of the media.

"I don't blame anyone, I just blame myself. I didn't play well enough."

This was in response to Artest's performance.

"If I had another chance, I would still pass the ball. Ron is a great player."

This is a common "what will you do if you have another chance to choose" type of question after a critical mistake.

The question that most tugs at James' heartstrings still comes from flying.

A reporter from Seattle relayed what Yu Fei said: "Fry said he didn't know why you were passing the ball. What do you think of his words?"

"This is ridiculous!" James said coldly, "He got 13 assists tonight, but he asked me why I passed the ball?"

In the end, the 29-game losing streak against Fei became James' Achilles' heel.

"Next question."

When you ask a question that leaves people speechless, that's all the person being asked can say.

The Sonics defeated the league's No. 1 Lakers, giving confidence to all those who doubted their ability to defend their title.

Reebok beats Nike again in this war.

But Nike doesn’t seem to be losing either.

Although Kojan was defeated, each performed very well. Although Yu Fei dominated the game, without Durant's explosion in the second half, the SuperSonics would definitely lose.

Cojan's performance was routine for Lynn Memet.

If they lose the game, there's nothing to say. Durant's outburst surprised Memet, especially when Yu Fei went to play the fourth position and let the SuperSonics push Durant to the three position, he thought he had made a mistake.

Have the Sonics woke up? Have they finally realized KD is a natural small forward?
But why would Frye Yu allow such a thing to happen?
Mehmet feels that Yu Fei, as the face of Reebok, will do everything he can to suppress Durant.

So he wanted to know what was going on in the halftime dugout.

After the game, Durant first connected to the TNT studio according to Nike's arrangement and talked with Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith, Charles Barkley and others about "How I stood up in this war." ".

Durant isn't a great storyteller, but the locker-room stories he told in this Wired interview made Memett wary.

"Frye said to me, 'I'll block Ron Artest for you, and you take care of the Lakers.'" Durant did his best to show humor. "You know, I'm not strong enough. Take down the Lakers at once, so we need Frye to complete the final blow."

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"How do you pierce the heart of a city in three seconds? You can find the answer in the Christmas Day game between the Lakers and SuperSonics." - Los Angeles Times

"The grand battle of 44 VS 23 And 24 was ultimately no more than a three-second Ron Artest show." - The New York Times

"Cowardly Brown James chose to pass the ball at the last moment, and the cowardly traitor failed as always." - "Cleveland Honesty"

"Artest's three-pointer was probably the stupidest thing I've ever seen a professional athlete do in a game. Really, 'stupid' is not the right word to describe it. It was self-defeating, It was a shot that basically punished the team and everyone in the arena and made Ron Artest my most hated player in the NBA." - Jack Nicholson

Criticizing Artest for his war crimes tonight has become politically correct in Los Angeles sports.

The topic of James' "handing over" the opportunity to become a hero and the 29-game losing streak against the Flying Tigers gradually disappeared, as if everyone no longer cared about it.

This is a public relations victory for Nike and one of its media tactics.

Because public attention is always limited.

However, saving James's remaining public image is just something Nike has done casually.

They want to know how much buzz Durant's performance in this game created for their company.

Lynn Mermet is pessimistic.

Durant's performance is no less than that of Kobe Bryant of the Lakers.

His performance in the second half was the key to the SuperSonics winning the game. Even Yu Fei praised him in the post-game interview.

Memet originally thought that Yu Fei was broad-minded and didn't mind Durant spreading Nike's influence in Reebok's empire.

Turns out, he was wrong.

The day after the game, in addition to "convicting" Artest, the most enthusiastic thing for the media was to publicize the extent to which Yu Fei's 45+14+13 scores in the Christmas game and playing the fourth position in the second half helped Durant. The rand exploded.

Durant represents the younger generation of the Nike brand. James' market has withered. Unless he can succeed with absolute dominance in the Lakers, Nike is pessimistic about his business prospects.

Once James falls from Nike's facade, his ending will be more tragic than Tiger Woods. Because no matter how many lovers Woods attracts with his adaptive sex addiction, his status as golf's GOAT is unbreakable. Where is James? It only took a short time for him to go from a great business machine to the hometown traitor everyone despises today.

If you succeed, that's it. Once you fail, it will be difficult to turn around.

As long as James falls into hell, Durant will be the one with the best chance of taking over from Kobe among all Nike athletes under the age of 26.

How could they allow their most promising young athletes to look up to another brand of athletes on the team?
Not to mention that like now, using hard power to perform will not win Durant's recognition, but double praise for Fei.

It seems that everything Durant owes to Fei.

On this day, Durant returned to Seattle with the team.

As soon as Durant got off the plane, he received a text message from Memet, asking him to pay attention to tonight's basketball programs on ESPN and TNT.

Durant is in a completely relaxed state.

Although his performance against the Lakers last night was not the best performance of his career, it was enough to become his career masterpiece.

This is the first time he has performed well against a powerful opponent on such a big stage.

32 points and 5 rebounds, although there are no assists, but without his 32 points, there would be no assists in double figures by Yu Fei and Roy, and there would be no victory for the Sonics.

That night, Durant watched ESPN programs first.

He originally thought that ESPN experts would emphasize his contribution in the second half when reviewing last night's game.

Who would have thought that John Hollinger, who created the efficiency rating (PER), said seriously before the review program started: "From the perspective of efficiency value, the Sonics' first success last night was Frye, followed by Brandon Roy.”

Of course someone will ask: "Where is KD?"

"KD was not efficient in the first half and faced off against LeBron in the second half. I think this affected his efficiency. Although he scored second on the team in points, I think he was not as good as Brandon in terms of victory contributions. ” Hollinger emphasized, “My judgment is based on data, because the data speaks for itself.”

Durant was annoyed by Hollinger's words.

Brandon Roy?
Did he score a critical goal in the entire second half?

No, every goal he scores is a simple goal and the rest is a pass.

In this case, how could his efficiency be low?
How can a PER value based on player efficiency distinguish the most valuable player from the second most valuable player on the field?

Is this the famous ESPN expert?

Durant changed the channel disdainfully.

He cut to TNT.

This is one of the main programs of the TNT team "NBA Insider".

Durant believes that the TNT team will give him a fair evaluation, because they not only have former players like Barkley and Smith, but Ernie Johnson is also a fair media person, not to mention, he was connected with them last night .

Just for this reason, they have to say good things about themselves.

"Ron Artest moment aside, what do you think was the key to the Sonics' win last night?"

Ernie Johnson asked the other three members of the Heavenly Group.

Brent Barry said of course: "Fry."

"What about Frye?" Johnson added.

"KD." Kenny Smith's words made Durant frown. "Most of his points were scored in the second half. This is a key performance that cannot be underestimated."

Johnson turned to Barkley, "Chuck, what do you think?"

In the TNT team, everyone has their own role.

The GOAT debate last season became a hot topic. Barkley was Jordan's defender and Barry was Yu Fei's defender.

At this time, Barkley suddenly gave Barry a small look: "I want to hear what Brent has to say first."

"So, Brent."

"Kenny's words make sense. KD's scoring is the key to winning for the Sonics." The basic starting point of the debate is to agree with some of the other party's views and then throw out his own objections. Barry knows this well, "But I think , the key to winning is Frye, followed by Brandon Roy. He and Frye got a total of 24 assists. It can be said that they are the brains and decision-makers of the Sonics. Although KD scored 32 points, He has no assists. He is a pure scorer, but his opportunity in the second half should have belonged to Frye, right? KD said last night that Frye would help him stop Ron Artest. Should Frye deal with Artest? This is not a mandatory question. In other words, Frye can not give up the third position and let him get the points scored by KD. Lay might end up with 50-60 points and Seattle's victory is still guaranteed."

"In my opinion, this is why Frye will definitely surpass No. 23. He is willing to sacrifice a great night to achieve young players. He is like a beacon for KD, pointing the way forward for KD, but without Bran Den Roy, Frye is definitely going to play the one position, so that magical second half that we saw wouldn't happen, so I think Brandon is the second key to the Sonics winning."

"I object!" Barkley shouted, "This man announced that Frye is the GOAT again in an unrelated topic!"

Barry asked: "Isn't Frye the GOAT?"

"Michael is the coolest!!!"

Barkley did not discuss it. He distorted the topic, completely disrupted the topic, and turned the review program into a GOAT debate show.

Durant was furious.

He couldn't understand why he became Frye's sacrifice when he performed well at the third position?

Why are these people so eager to give credit to Yu Fei when he plays a good game?

It's like he can't eat without Yu Fei!
Durant didn't know if there was a problem with his cognition or if something was wrong with the world.

He turned off the TV and began frantically searching online for post-game articles about last night's game.

The result left him despairing.

Whether it's ESPN, other sports websites, or major mainstream media newspapers, everyone pays more attention to Artest's mistakes and Yu Fei's big triple-double.

His 32 points and 5 rebounds? Mentioned slightly.

But it was mainly mentioned in the narrative that "Frye's initiative to play the four position provided the perfect preparation for Kevin Durant's outstanding performance in the second half."

Everyone who only reads the post-game articles but not the game will think that he scored 32 points while holding Yu Fei's thigh.

No one feels he is the key factor.

The huge gap between being proud of himself but not receiving any recognition made Durant irritable and restless.

He took to Twitter in a desperate attempt to find someone to speak for him.

Only Bill Simmons tweeted: "Did no one realize KD had a great game last night?"

He clicked in, intending to leave a humble reply, but saw that the reply that received the most support read: "If Frye and Brandon hadn't contained the Lakers' defense inside and outside, KD wouldn't have been able to perform like this! "

Durant wanted to reply to him: "You idiot, you don't understand anything. Stop watching the game and go eat shit!"

But he knew he couldn't do this.

Because neither "Adu next door" nor the furious Durant is allowed to speak harshly to the fans.

How great would it be if I could not be myself at certain times?
Durant's heart suddenly moved.

Why not? On the Internet, anything is possible.

Something stirred in Durant's heart until he saw Kwame Brown's tweet about last night's game.

"Easy! The SuperSonics defeated the Lakers under my leadership. It was as easy as flushing away a piece of shit. Stop saying they can stop us, they can't! #HistoryFirstInside#Empire's Gods pull"

What qualifications do you, an arrogant man who doesn't even have the right to stay on the court at a critical moment, to say these things here? Do you deserve it? ! ! !
Kevin Durant decided in that moment that if he couldn't tell the truth, if he couldn't say what he wanted to say, if this man couldn't be Durant, then he wasn't, as long as it could be on the Internet Say all the dark words hidden in his heart. He can be anyone.

(End of this chapter)