When pride still matters

Chapter 492 Frye Yu’s Etiquette Lesson (Unity)

A bigger failure?
When Doug Collins said that closing sentence, James was not far away from him.

For James, tonight's game won't bother him.

Outsiders may never know how significant it was to him to finally defeat Yu Fei when he played against the Sonics for the second time.

They only tell the same old stories.

Yes, defeating Yu Fei is important, but do they really understand the importance of this matter?

That is a curse and nightmare. When you can defeat other people, but are defeated by the same person for a long time, that person will become your inner demon.

James' biggest fear is that he dropped everything and came to Los Angeles to join forces with Kobe. What if he still can't defeat Yu Fei in the end?
That victory allowed him to experience the feeling of defeating Yu Fei.

The most important thing is the first experience.

After the first experience, it will be much easier to handle.

James won't look at tonight's loss to Seattle as another failure.

He knows that the winner between them will ultimately be decided in the playoffs.

Therefore, to him, Collins' words were just a media person taking advantage of the opportunity to create a stunt.

James knew that Collins was Jordan's former coach, and he also knew how superstitious he was about Jordan.

But now, he has drawn a clear line with Jordan.

Because he clearly sided with Yu Fei in the "GAOT" debate.

Whenever he mentioned this person, Jordan had an expression like "I have too many duplicitous villains like Doug Collins around me."

It's not enough for him to betray Jordan, but he also wants to disgust himself?

James walked towards him, "Doug, do you know what true failure is?"

Collins smiled and said: "LeBron, do you have any advice?"

"I know what true failure is," James said.

"You do know," Collins quipped.

Collins' point is, you're a famous loser in sports.

He has a kind of arrogance that comes with media people. Although James's industry status is much higher than him, he is already recognized as a member of the Yu faction.

Therefore, when dealing with James, who is recognized as Yu Fei's enemy, you don't have to care too much about the opponent's face.

However, if your job is to offend others, be prepared to be offended.

James looked at Collins and said hurtfully: "Real failure should accompany a person's life. For example, you, Doug, I guess, until your death, you will never forget that you represented the US team in Munich and lost to the Soviet Union."

For Collins, it definitely hurt.

It was a scar deep inside him. No one on the American team that suffered a crushing defeat in Munich acknowledged they were runners-up, and no one accepted the final silver medal.

James suddenly delivered a critical hit, making Collins furious.

"Who do you think you are!" Collins roared, "What do you think you know! Young man, don't talk about things you don't understand! You are not qualified to evaluate that Olympics! Because you are the one who was removed from the US team, you You have no right to question those warriors who fought for the country while enjoying their success!”

This scene can hardly be called decent.

James doesn't want to publicly quarrel with Collins.

Although his image is already very bad, doing so will only make future image reconstruction projects more difficult.

In time, when he defeats Yu Fei in the playoffs, he hopes people will remember him just like Muhammad Ali, who came back from the ban and became a boxing champion again.

That will be the moment when he makes a comeback.

Until then, he must not leave the impression of disrespecting his predecessors, let alone discuss the shame in the history of American basketball.

He stopped responding to Collins and headed toward the tunnel like he was victorious.

The way the Lakers' third battle with the Sonics ended in this way was by no means something the Lakers could have expected.

They knew they were at a disadvantage in the fourth position, and they also knew that Bosh's comeback would cause them a lot of trouble, but they really didn't expect Bosh to directly play on the court.

Phil Jackson summed it up this way in the locker room: "Chris Bosh outbursts are not going to be the norm in Seattle."

However, Bosh's advantage at the power forward position is already visible to the naked eye.

Kobe couldn't tolerate the game being disrupted like this.

If Bosh hadn't exploded so suddenly, the Lakers would have been under pressure to chase points since the first half, and they couldn't hold back in the second half and collapsed.

"Both Frye and KD are very difficult opponents," Kobe said. "We can't be distracted at the fourth position. We need an influential fourth position."

Jackson also knows this.

The Lakers' inside reserves are seriously unbalanced.

The starting five position is Xiaojia, and the substitute five position is Bynum and Big Z.

This can no longer be summed up by the depth of the bench.

This is a luxury center reserve.

Especially when Jackson plays against strong teams, he has a habit of being rough on Kevin Garfield, which makes Bynum and Big Z look like highly overpriced decorations.

Big Z came to the Lakers with James, and his salary is very low, so he is suitable as a substitute.

Bynum was locked up by the Lakers with a maximum-salary contract, but now he only plays more than ten minutes per game, but he gets a contract similar to that of Cojan and others.

The Lakers are not afraid of spending money, but after winning a game with the SuperSonics' advantage at the fourth position, Kobe's desire for the team to use Bynum as the subject of the transaction to strengthen the fourth position increased.

But everyone on the team knows that whether Bynum can go to the trading table depends on the person in charge of the management, the junior owner Jim Buss.

Every time Bass Jr. sees Bynum, just like Cao Cao in "The New Three Kingdoms" seeing Zhao Yun in Changbanpo, he can't help but express "I love him to death".

It’s no wonder that Bynum is young and talented, while Kobe is already in his thirties. It’s hard to say whether James, an outsider, will take root in Los Angeles. Buss, who has not yet secured his position, will not easily trade Bynum. Mu.

The problem is there, everyone knows what the right choice is, even Bynum wants to be traded.

But it's always a problem.

No one can give Kobe a definite answer.

"Kobe, where are you going?"

“Talk to the fucking media!”

Bryant replied angrily.

James still sat calmly until Big Z asked: "Aren't you going?"

"There's no rush." ​​James said, "Wait a moment."

James has a habit of being the last to go to the media room for interviews after every game. This habit made him offend many reporters.

Reporters think he likes to show off too much, and for James, this is what he wants.

Deep in his heart, he has a need, or in other words, every person who has been abandoned by a loved one has a need that is never expressed but unreserved.

He longs to be needed.

But when those who desire him cannot satisfy his ambition, he will also use this group as fuel and become the smoke of the "special live program".

However, when he brings this behavior to the Lakers, it is usually interpreted maliciously by those who are interested.

You can obviously go to the media room before Kobe or with Kobe, but you have to wait until the end every time to attend.

Do you want to use this kind of action to show that you are the most important player for the Lakers?

Fortunately, Kobe is not sensitive to this kind of thing.

He is only sensitive to one thing.

Coming to the media interview room, Kobe heard the reporter relaying Yu Fei's evaluation of tonight's game.

"Frye said you were negatively influenced by LeBron."

"ridiculous."

"He thinks you're not the kind of person who gives up when you're 20 points behind, but after LeBron arrived, you lost the courage to fight back in desperate situations. He thought..."

Kobe looked at the reporter coldly: "Keep talking."

"He thinks you've become a LeBron-style softie," the reporter asked. "Do you have any response to that?"

Kobe laughed angrily: "Is he angry because I didn't work as hard as he did to score 64 points but still lost? Whatever he says, I don't care about his evaluation, if he thinks he can win against me in just one game I point my finger, let’s wait and see! I’m waiting for him in the playoffs!”

Although Kobe kept saying "I don't care about his evaluation," reporters at the scene could see that Yu Fei's evaluation angered him.

His lips were trembling as he responded.

Kobe didn't even help retort that LeBron was not a softie. How angry do you think he had to be?
Wait... maybe that's how Kobe views LeBron?

You see, they rarely attend press conferences at the same time.

Doesn't this mean something?

Anyway, tonight passed.

Since the SuperSonics are in a different division (Northwest) and the Lakers (Pacific), the two teams only play three regular season games each season. Therefore, this game is their final match in the regular season.

If we still want to meet, we can only meet in the playoffs.

There is no doubt that the two teams can meet in the playoffs.

The Sonics bid farewell to the Lakers with a record of two wins and one loss.

The All-Star Weekend is approaching, and some teams have a sense of urgency while others are very relaxed.

There are also some teams that are preparing to fail.

Such as the Denver Nuggets.

After the Nuggets traded Billups from the Pistons, they wanted the veteran to lead Anthony. Unexpectedly, James' "decision" severely stimulated the young star's vanity.

Although "The Decision" seems to have a tendency to live in infamy, that's what Anthony is after.

Whether it's good fame or notoriety, as long as he becomes famous, in the Nuggets, he will only become a scoring maniac forgotten by the fans, which is not what he wants.

During a previous match against the Sonics, Anthony took the opportunity to ask Yu Fei for advice, and the advice he received was to "run away quickly."

This suggestion is consistent with Anthony's ideas.

If the external environment does not change so much, Anthony may still wait and see for a year or two to see if the Nuggets are worth it. Now, he wants to decide his future like James, so he asked his agent to apply for a trade to the management, and also Specify the requirement: I won’t go if it’s not a big city. After such a commotion, he did not forget to let the outside world know: "Frye showed me that a person who can control the future can achieve great things!"

Nuggets fans: Frye???
Nuggets management: Frye! ! !

This makes people sit at home and the pot comes from heaven.

Kwame Brown was on the front line of eating melons and quickly forwarded Anthony's words: "What happened, Melo?"

Anthony responded: "Brother, I want to control my own destiny like Frye."

Brown replied cheerfully: "Okay, these are the people in our Yehai Major League, and I support you!"

Nuggets fans and media began to blame Yu Fei for Anthony's disloyalty.

Those sunspots who had been looking for Yu Fei's flaws swarmed over.

They pointed out a series of negative impacts that Yu Fei, as the pioneer of short-term contracts, had on the league. Combined with the changes in Anton, they came to a conclusion: people who get close to Yu Fei will eventually become people like Yu Fei, and Anthony is Classic example.

This is a public opinion raid.

After Yu Fei's fans and media friends reacted, a fierce online debate was inevitable.

Since the matter got so big, even Yu Fei took to Twitter to explain that he had no direct influence on Anthony's decision.

Yu Fei emphasized that he and Anthony would hang out together during their time with the national team and that their main connection was off the court.

As for the court, he and Anthony really don't have a close relationship.

In any case, Yu Fei is destined to have something to do with this matter.

After trying to persuade Anthony to no avail, the Nuggets management had no choice but to reluctantly put him on the shelf.

The ripple effects of Anthony going from unacceptable player to tradable commodity are unimaginable.

Because if the Nuggets are determined to be bad, there are many players in their lineup who can become reinforcements for the playoff team.

The Spurs are interested in Billups.

Lakers interested in Kenyon Martin.

Most teams are interested in Anthony, but the problem is that he won't go to other than big cities, so the options are much smaller.

In addition to the three star players, the Nuggets also have powerful role players such as Nene and Aaron Aflorola.

If the Nuggets are determined to rebuild, they have the resources to make many ball improvements.

SuperSonics is eager to see through.

They are very interested in bringing in Chauncey Billups, even if they pay a few first-round picks.

But the Nuggets determined that Anthony's entire incident was influenced by Yu Fei. How could this business be negotiated?

If you really want to trade, you have to bleed a lot. In that case, in order to get Billups, your own vitality will be damaged and the foundation of the championship will be damaged, which will be more than the gain is worth the loss.

Therefore, the Sonics can only watch helplessly as the Nuggets Supermarket opens.

Presti only made symbolic contact with relevant people in the Nuggets before giving up further action.

At this time, all teams in the league were in turmoil.

Except for a few championship teams, the remaining teams are confused about the future of the season.

Because it is difficult for them to compete with the SuperSonics and Lakers, and they are not willing to fail.

Some teams are treading water while others refuse to maintain the status quo.

There are also teams like the Wizards, which forced the restart button due to the self-destruction of their core. Tony Parker's deal has not yet been finalized. Now that Anthony has entered the market, the situation will surely become even more chaotic.

The Sonics chose stability.

Don't pursue star players on the market, and wait for the trade deadline to look for opportunities to steal chickens. If that doesn't work, there is another way to pick up leaks in the free market.

The strength of the Big Three lineup of Yu Fei, Bosh, and Durant was proven in three games against the Lakers.

What the Sonics have to do now is to keep calm and wait for Roy to come back.

With no trade planned, the Sonics focused on the game.

Since the Lakers were upset by the Rockets after losing to the SuperSonics, their record is now the same as the SuperSonics.

As the Sonics won two games against the Lakers, the Sonics returned to the top spot in the league.

They hope to maintain their No. 1 spot heading into the All-Star break.

The Lakers couldn't hold back after losing to the Rockets.

Because they didn't lose to Yao Huang or supernova Harden, it was Luis Scola who defeated them.

Scola seized on the Lakers' weakness at the fourth position and unleashed his FIBA ​​offensive power, scoring an NBA career-high 36 points and 7 rebounds, causing the Lakers to lose in an away game.

The Lakers can accept that you can stalemate with him or even defeat him when you are in excellent condition, but they cannot tolerate the Rockets taking advantage of the weakness of the fourth position like the Sonics did.

If the Rockets can do this, and other teams can follow suit, can the Lakers still be considered a lone championship contender?
Jerry Buss, who usually does nothing, gave the Lakers senior management an order: "Reinforce the fourth position at all costs."

From that day on, Bynum, Buss' treasure, was put on the shelf, and the Lakers and Nuggets made substantial progress in the deal for Kenyon Martin.

On February 2th, the SuperSonics faced the Hornets at home.

The Hornets were originally a strong team, but Chris Paul was injured not long ago. The Hornets lost their leader and were struggling, let alone an opponent of the SuperSonics.

Yu Fei scored 25 points and 12 assists, Durant scored 30 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists, and Bosh scored 20 points and 10 rebounds. The SuperSonics' Big Three were all online and dominated their opponents from the first second of the game.

The final victory will not surprise anyone.

"I like the state of our game now." Yu Fei said, "Basketball can be very simple. As long as everyone does their own thing, winning will become very simple."

This is the reward for beating the Lakers.

The Sonics have found a new balance without Roy.

Moreover, this new balance, in the eyes of the coaching staff, is better than when Roy was there.

As an organizer, Roy can be called excellent, but Yu Fei is great.

Especially after playing the full-time third position for two seasons, Yu Fei has become more sensitive to tactics, and the self-centered habit he had during the Bucks period has disappeared.

He became a commander who could overlook the overall situation.

This allowed Yu Fei to have the strongest offensive impact of his career while taking fewer shots.

So far this season, he has averaged 26 points, 8 rebounds and 11 assists per game. He takes less than 18 shots per game, but leads the Sonics to average 119 points per game and leads the assist list. The only player who can prevent him from winning the assist title is Roy's patient. Chris Paul.

Even Paul averaged only 10.7 assists per game before injury, not as many as Yu Fei.

Needless to say, Bosh's recovery was the key to the Sonics' dominance after Roy's injury.

The most gratifying thing is that Durant proved that he is a natural ace three position.

At the beginning, he still had a tendency to throw indiscriminately, but Yu Fei corrected him for a month, and he gradually found the correct way to play.

He made the SuperSonics coaching staff feel that Yu Fei is still playing the third position. Although his organizational skills are not as good as Yu Fei's, his offensive ability, especially his shooting, is not much worse than Yu Fei himself.

Durant's average points per game have gradually climbed from 20 points to 24 points per game. If this trend continues, the outside world believes that he can eventually equal or even surpass Yu Fei in terms of points per game.

The most exaggerated thing is that even though Durant performed so well, people still felt that he was somewhat suppressed.

First guard Bill Simmons said: "Let KD play on a rebuilding team and he can average 35 points per game."

Durant responded: "I do still have some energy left, but it's not as exaggerated as Bill said."

This is a sign of humility.

Americans are used to Durant saying this kind of correct nonsense.

However, Durant's words still show that he is not satisfied with his current shooting rights.

And this is what you have to endure when playing on a championship contending team.

A team that cannot restrain its selfish desires will have a hard time reaching the end.

Lian Yufei's average shots per game are less than 18 times, what else can Durant ask for?

However, although Durant is willing to suppress his desires, the people watching behind the scenes cannot, and the stakeholders will also find ways to change the status quo.

Before Jordan, the honor of scoring champion and the championship seemed to have a mutually reinforcing relationship. The general view is that a team that can produce a scoring champion is either weak and needs a lot of shots from core players, or the core players are selfish and do not pay attention to the interests of the team. Therefore, the scoring champion is often the opposite of the championship. Until Jordan dominated the 90s.

Jordan's "adults don't do multiple choice questions" style of winner-take-all has made Nike a business empire.

So they were eager to find Jordan's successor after Jordan retired.

Kobe failed, James' hype was ruined, and now, Durant seems to have a chance to become the scoring leader on a championship team, as long as he takes 4-5 more shots per game.
Nike won't pass up any opportunity to push Durant forward.

In the last stop before the All-Star Weekend, the SuperSonics challenged the Trail Blazers away from home. Durant didn't feel good in the first half, so he relapsed in the second half and played a few times in isolation.

Yu Fei was furious and yelled at him in front of the camera, "Tell me, who is calling the shots for this team?"

"you."

Durant responded weakly.

"So what were you doing just now?"

Durant was speechless.

From then on, until the end of the game, Durant did not receive another pass from Yu Fei.

It wasn't until Yu Fei came off the court that Durant regained possession of the ball.

This is the most realistic portrayal of the interior of the empire.

They are hierarchical.

Yu Fei's status is aloof and superior. When Durant makes a mistake, he will also be severely punished by his master.

Portland is the headquarters of Nike, and there were many Nike executives present. When Yu Fei angrily criticized Durant, they hoped that Durant would respond to the master of the empire like the rookie Fei who openly confronted Jordan in 2001, but Durant did not. .

The game ended with the Sonics easily beating the Trail Blazers, but what happened during the game drew far more attention than the result.

After the game, an ABC reporter asked Yu Fei: "You and KD had an argument on the court. What happened?"

"Did you see him arguing with me?" Yu Fei asked, "When?"

The reporter was stunned for a moment and said, "Uh, at that time."

"There was no quarrel." Yu Fei said, "Only one thing happened at that time, and that was that as a third-year player, he made a mistake that only first-year players would make. I felt that I had an obligation to tell him in a stern way. What was right. He admitted his mistake and that was the situation."

(End of this chapter)