When pride still matters

Chapter 504: The Kobe who can be compared is the good Kobe

Strangely, after Yu Fei gave Durant the right to impersonate Kobe on the court, he became much more normal.

Perhaps it was the low shooting percentage in the first quarter that made him fearful, or perhaps it was the few minutes of sitting on the bench that made him think clearly. During the time he led the second team, he played like the coaching staff wanted to see.

Putting aside the constraints Durant faces within the system, Durant's hard power is enough to support him to produce star-level data in a mediocre team.

The Spurs lowered their vigilance against Durant because of their successful defense in the first quarter, which was their biggest mistake tonight.

The failure to carry out the defensive intensity allowed Durant to enter his comfort zone, and he began to perform well in the areas he was accustomed to.

Durant made a pull-up jump shot after shaking the ball with his left hand, followed by a slam dunk in a defensive counterattack, and finally a three-pointer that forced the Spurs to trade for Andre Iguodala.

But the score difference has reached 16 points.

Popovich's response was a little slower than expected.

Durant already knew that Iguodala and himself were not compatible, so when facing this opponent again, his basketball IQ was restored - a trait he did not show in the first quarter - he took the initiative to use his offensive threats to stretch the Spurs' defense, like a famous prostitute who sells her art but not her body, showing off her skills. The wealthy man Iguodala was also invited in by the brothel owner, but it was impossible for him to get the kind of contact he wanted.

Durant passed the ball.

Can I see both the 2019 Durant and the 2022 Durant who played against the Bucks in the semifinals tonight?

If 19 Durant is a symptom of the late stage of princess syndrome, then 22 Durant is the peak of his personal heroism. He had a few moments close to 19 Leonard and 18 James, but ultimately missed the chance to hit the "real ring" because of a half-foot difference.

Yu Fei believes that Durant’s situation is not so complicated now.

He was just stimulated by some external factors.

What exactly is it? Yu Fei suspected that it was because Durant was not selected for the All-NBA Team.

Personally, Yu Fei understood Durant's desire to perform better. But unfortunately, the Sonics were not his team. The Sonics already had a master, and Durant was destined to be a bystander. What he really needed to understand was that it was not Yu Fei but Bosh who was holding him back.

Under the coaching of Tyronn Lue, Bosh successfully let go of himself and found the feeling of a star player. On the one hand, he relied on his playing style that matched the ball-holding core, and on the other hand, he actively integrated into the system, allowing him to swallow up the space belonging to Durant.

Status is always gained through competition, but Durant feels that there is no competition between him and Bosh. All this happened because Yu Fei wanted these things to happen.

This is a perspective that infinitely magnifies Yu Fei's influence, and indirectly reflects how successful the outside world's deification movement is.

Even Durant believed that Yu Fei could do such a thing.

In fact, Yu Fei didn’t have so many ideas at all.

The core of the ball-holding core system is minimalism. A tactic that takes 15 seconds to complete can be completed in five seconds by just the core and the pick-and-roll player.

What about the remaining three? They just need to be prepared for the unexpected.

In this kind of frequent duet style of play, whoever has a better compatibility with the big core will be able to play comfortably.

Bosh's experience and style make him stand out from the competition.

The key reason why Bosh won was that Durant didn't think he needed to compete with Bosh. Yu Fei was first, he was second, and that was how it should be.

Now, he is standing on his own with the right playing style, allowing coach Lu to discover that Durant has greater tactical value.

However, how can Durant's tactical value be made effective in Fei's system?
Coach Lu asked the assistant coach around him, wanting to know how to place a secondary attacker next to the ball-handling core.

Assistant coach John Welch vividly recalled Yu Fei's Bucks days.

"Frye needed the ball more than he does now, but he worked very well with Ray Allen and Kevin Martin." Welch directly applied the formula, "Maybe we can learn from it."

Although the formula helped him solve the problems quickly, Coach Lu felt something was not right, so he asked his old assistant coach, Tim Gegurich, whom he relied on.

But this is also problematic.

Gegurich is a coach with a serious bias. If Coach Lu wants to talk to him about defense, he will act knowledgeable, but offense? Gegurich's understanding of offense does not include ball-holding cores, so he cannot give corresponding suggestions.

"If you were to ask me how to limit Frye, I might give you a few suggestions," Ggurich laughed.

Lue's last hope was Adrian Dantley, the taciturn assistant whom Karl had hired as a player development coach.

Although no one knows what the mentality is in letting a scorer who is known for his selfishness when playing be responsible for the future development of the players, now Lu can only try his best.

To Lou's surprise, Dantley seemed to have little to say, but he was quite talkative if he talked about a topic he liked.

Lu asked him, "Adrian, do you think KD will become Frye's secondary attacker like Ray Allen did back then?"

However, Dantley shook his head seriously: "Not feasible."

"Why?" Lu asked.

"Ray Allen is a standard two-position player, but KD is not a standard three-position player," Dantley said bluntly. "It is extremely inefficient for him to frequently attack from outside the three-point line. He is too tall. George has tried it before, but it failed."

Lu asked helplessly: "Is there no way?"

"No." Dantley said, "The problem is not with us, but with KD. According to our original arrangement, Frye is now like Brandon Roy, but KD can't play the role of Frye at that time. His function is limited. What he is best at is singles, but nothing affects the operation of the system more than singles."

Perhaps this is what it means when a patient becomes a good doctor.

Dantley, who loved singles the most when he was a player, also understood best the damage that singles could do to the system.

Dantley can even understand Durant's desire and obsession with singles.

Dantley gave Lou an answer he already knew.

What surprised Lu was that Dantley, who seemed to be of little use, was actually a very knowledgeable man.

After all, this guy is the most stable scorer among the group of small forwards in the 80s who "know nothing but scoring". At the same time, he is also the player who has gone the farthest among those small forwards. He once played in the finals as a member of the Bad Boys, but unfortunately lost to the peak Lakers. Then he was considered a restless factor in the team by the Pistons because he was addicted to singles, didn't like to move the ball, and made the exact opposite choice when Isaiah Thomas established the locker room culture⑴.

The first half was over and the Supersonics had a clear advantage.

The Spurs underestimated Durant's ability to adjust on the spot.

But the Supersonics are no longer surprised by this.

There is a reason why Durant is called the ultimate offensive machine. Scoring is too easy for him. Unless the opponent can maintain stable pressure all night long, even if he is super bad in the first half, he can still get his hit rate back in the second half. In the end, you will find that he obviously did not play very well, but his efficiency looks okay.

This ability to forcibly correct a state is a gift from nature.

His shooting, combined with his height, long arms and superb coordination between man and ball given his height, give him a stable scoring ability.

In addition to Durant's improved form, Yu Fei also had a half-time triple-double that fans are familiar with - 19 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists. Regardless of the points and rebounds, the 10 assists in the first half were like a slap in the face from the Spurs coaching staff.

Their game plan was to seal off Yu Fei's teammates and let Yu Fei fight alone. As a result, Yu Fei had 10 assists in the first half.

“We allowed them to take too many three-pointers.”

This is how Popovich summed up the reason for the lag in the first half.

Lu highlighted the performances of Yu Fei and Durant.

Due to the huge advantage in the first half, the Supersonics did not pursue an unrestrained offense in the second half.

Lu said to Fei: "Da Fei, we have to win this game steadily!"

So Yu Fei continued to do the test of "Which year's Kobe did Durant invite to possess?"

Yu Fei controlled the tempo of the game and then passed the ball to Durant.

The good form in the second quarter gave Durant the confidence to play one-on-one.

Moreover, there was no time left in the round to organize an effective strategy.

This gave Durant the confidence to attack.

Iguodala on the opposite side was in mixed emotions. Why did the player, whom he could clearly control in the first quarter, change so drastically in the second and third quarters?
Durant's signature continuous hip-crossing and back-pulling shot.

Iguodala did not lose his position, but Durant's shooting point was too high. The accuracy of this kind of ball depends only on his own feel.

Durant's shot went in.

The crisp sound of the basketball hitting the net foreshadowed the outcome of the night.

Yu Fei continued to pass the ball to him, but Durant did not choose to play every ball himself.

This selective singles is an important factor that distinguishes Durant's state.

Yu Fei, who made a lot of passes but lacked offense, failed to score 20 points, but his assists number soared.

Until the fourth quarter, his statistics even showed 19 points and 20 assists.

Then, Lu asked Yu Fei to create a shooting foul, and it would be best if he could make one of two free throws, otherwise many people would not be able to sleep tonight.

Yu Fei agreed, but not completely.

He caused a defensive foul by Duncan before leaving the court.

Duncan threw his hands up to the referee as if he had suffered a great injustice, while Yu Fei went to the free throw line and made both free throws, leaving behind an uncoordinated 21 points and 20 assists, and was replaced by Coach Lu.

The game has now entered garbage time.

The Supersonics' lead reached as high as 24 points, and the Spurs were unable to recover.

By the end of the game, Popovich still had no idea what they had done wrong.

They did succeed in sealing Durant in the first quarter, but the strange thing was that even without Durant, Yu Fei still led his teammates.

It is not easy to seal Yu Fei's teammates, or in other words, to put the opponent's core players into a situation of fighting alone, an unconventional method must be used to make the opponent's role players miss even open shots.

But the Spurs didn't play that kind of defense tonight.

After all, this was the home court of the SuperSonics, and they doubted whether they could use excessive physical confrontation against the owner of KeyArena.

The Spurs' conservatism on the defensive end put them in a completely passive position after implementing their first step strategy.

But in the final analysis, they underestimated Yu Fei.

Even though they had raised their expectations of this person, they eventually discovered that this person's impact on the game exceeded their wildest imaginations.

"They were relaxed every time they got a point," Popovich told reporters. "That's not going to happen again."

Coach Lu praised the Spurs' defense.

He thinks the Spurs' defense is strong, but the Sonics are better at responding. Why are they so good at responding? He didn't say, but generally speaking, the response to the game depends on the coaching staff.

Therefore, if the media knew anything, they should praise his coaching ability tonight.

Durant played a game that he felt good about. Although the first quarter was a bit ugly, the last three quarters were enough to cover it up.

He made 20 of 11 shots and scored a game-high 34 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists. Although the best player of the game went to Yu Fei who scored double 20 points, Durant believed from the bottom of his heart that he did tonight what Yu Fei did at the three position.

Those who criticize him for backsliding should shut up.

Those who left him off the All-NBA team should be ashamed.

In addition to stunning these haters, he also wants to get all the love from the fans.

This may be the most important thing.

Durant wants to be loved.

And it's not just any ordinary love; he needs the kind of love that lasts until death, like a religious belief, which can embrace everything about him.

Although his original family is not as broken as most black NBA players, Durant's desire for love exceeds that of 99% of people. Due to his lack of security and strong desire to be loved, it is difficult for him to maintain a long-term heterosexual relationship.

In this respect, he is very similar to Yu Fei.

But the difference is that Durant has no sense of security, while Yu Fei is unable to give his lover a sense of security.

The love of the fans is another.

If this matter requires an indicator, then Feimi’s love for flying is the standard.

Yu Fei has a habit of randomly picking a fan in the aisle to sign an autograph at the end of the game.

Every time that happens, the fans nearby will show their love enthusiastically.

Their passion is enough to make those who wish to keep their fans at a distance blush.

Durant also hopes that fans can go all over the Internet for him and make everyone who blackens him on social media suffer Internet violence.

That’s right, just like Yu Fei’s fans.

Once upon a time, Durant hated to follow Yu Fei in everything.

Now he realized that those who wanted him to be like Yu Fei only knew from the bottom of their hearts that Yu Fei had the best.

If you want the best, aim for him.

Durant came to the aisle where there were many fans.

“KD!!!!”

"We'll support you forever!"

"Let's play like we did tonight and beat the Spurs!"

Durant tried to exude some family atmosphere and wanted to sign autographs for ten fans.

His love for the fans is ten times that of Yu Fei, and this is what he wants the fans to know.

When he was signing for the tenth person, even though the other person was wearing Yu Fei's jersey, he still decided to sign for him.

"Where do you want me to sign my name?"

Durant asked kindly.

The fan said, "KD, can you sign for Frye?"

"???"

Durant had a question mark on his face.

"I come here for every home game, but Fry never notices me and I may never get his autograph. Can you do it for him?" The fan seemed to have no idea what offense was.

Durant said with a wry smile: "It's a pity that I only have a pair of hands that can only sign Kevin Durant."

"Okay." The fan "reluctantly" accepted the fact, "I like you very much, but not as much as Frye."

Durant signed his name with dissatisfaction. He told himself that this was all a public relations activity and he had to take care of his image.

However, when he returned home and saw the man selling his autograph online, he couldn't hold it in.

"You idiot, the worst thing KD ever did was give you an autograph!"

He left this message on his trumpet.

The fan did not realize his mistake at all and responded: "If you are so angry, $3000, give me this number, and this No. 44 jersey with KD's intimate signature is yours!"

“I don’t even want $3!”

Durant responded angrily.

The other party replied: "You also know that KD's autograph is not worth even 3 dollars?"

"You are a piece of shit, go to hell!"

Durant's good mood was ruined by a fan, and this was not the love he wanted.

The next afternoon, the Supersonics' training session began as usual.

Yu Fei was receiving a massage from a physical trainer when he saw Durant walking into the gym in a listless state.

"Kevin, did you sleep well last night?"

Yu Fei would remind Durant directly of that man's face.

"It's okay." Durant certainly wouldn't tell the truth.

Yu Fei turned over, lay on the ground, and raised his legs to stretch.

"Last night you looked like Kobe in 2003, Kobe in 2000, and Kobe in 2006. How come your style can change so many times in one night?"

Most of the players have already arrived. This is an ordinary sentence, but when Fei said it, it seemed a little different.

Everyone pretended to continue with their own work, but they all pricked up their ears and listened carefully.

"I never wanted to be Kobe," Durant said. "He wasn't my type."

Yu Fei asked with a smile: "You don't think highly of Kobe? He is the one who can make LeBron come to him on his own initiative."

"I respect his game, but I don't like his style," Durant said.

"Who do you want to be then?"

This question is obviously very simple.

What is Durant's draft template? The upper limit is Fei, and the lower limit is McGrady.

However, if Durant really yelled at Gong Li, who played Lang Ping, like Zhu Ting (played by herself) in "Chinese Women's Volleyball": "(I want) to be you!"

Yu Fei would definitely be as embarrassed as the audience who saw this scene, wanting to find a hole to hide in.

Even if this is a fact known to everyone, Durant at this stage will deny it.

Because he is climbing up, he doesn't think he is worse than anyone else, just like when Kobe was playing, there were many stories about disrespecting Jordan, but when he retired, he would compliment Jordan in "The Last Dance" by saying "I wouldn't be who I am today without him."

Superstars only become themselves when they retire. When they are playing, their infinite self-constructed arrogance does not allow them to admit that I am just trying to surpass someone.

Durant couldn't find the answer, but the stars have always had a formula for this answer.

“I just want to be myself.”

Yu Fei felt that it was about time, so he sent the physical trainer away.

"That's the problem." Yu Fei asked, "Who is you? Was it you in the first quarter last night? Or was it you in the second quarter? Or was it you in the second half? Which one is you?"

Durant asked, "Does it matter?"

"It's important." Because it brings the question back to square one. "It allows me to figure out whether you want to be Kobe in 2000 or Kobe in 2003. And coincidentally, our opponent is also the Spurs."

Durant saw this as an opportunity to make his point.

Kobe in 2000?

This is not who he wants to be.

During OK's three consecutive championships, only Kobe in 2000 was a standard second-in-command, but Durant's goal is not to become such a player.

Kobe in 2003? That was the year when Kobe was preparing to take over the throne, but unfortunately he lost to the Spurs in the playoffs and failed. Durant wants to take over, but he knows his own weight. Now he has no ability to challenge Yu Fei.

Since Yu Fei insisted on using Kobe from different years as a metaphor, there is naturally only one Kobe that Durant wants to be.

"I want to be the Kobe of 2001," Durant said. "I think I'm ready."

If Kobe in 2000 was a typical second-in-command, then Kobe in 2001 was the least like a second-in-command. That Lakers team was more like a dual-core. Kobe entered the killing mode in the playoffs, and the Lakers were invincible. If he hadn't suddenly remembered that he was from Philadelphia in the finals, he would have had a chance to grab the Finals MVP. However, if the NBA had an award like the Division Finals MVP that year, Kobe, who averaged 33 points, 7 rebounds, and 7 assists per game (53% shooting, 6.5 free throws per game), would have likely won over O'Neal.

After that season, Yu Fei entered the NBA.

At that time, Yu Fei was still a loyal Kobe fan and was deeply impressed by Kobe's performance in the playoffs that year.

"Kobe in 2001?" Yu Fei asked, "Are you serious?"

“Of course,” Durant said.

"Then go for it." Yu Fei said, "But if I find that you are showing signs of turning into Kobe in 2003."

“I’ll go to the corner by myself,” Durant said.

"I like your self-awareness." Yu Fei said, "Let's do it this way."

What a harmonious and effective exchange and communication, it made OK and Phil Jackson's eyes go dark when they saw it.

⑴ Thomas: We are all brothers. If we win the championship in the future, whoever wins the FMVP will take it out and let everyone take turns to show it at home.

DANTLEY: I refuse.

Thomas: Then you are not my brother.

Happy Children's Day

(End of this chapter)