When pride still matters

Chapter 514 Before this era is named

"I suddenly feel that you are very suitable for Marvel."

At the end of training that day, Yu Fei and Roy had dinner together.

Roy was cutting steak. He had a little-known quirk: he liked to cut a large piece of beef into triangles, squares, and rectangles. Moreover, the last piece of beef he cut must be a square, otherwise he would not eat it.

Roy was concentrating on cutting steak. Hearing Yu Fei say this, he couldn't help but ask, "You know I'm not interested in superhero movies. I've always believed that the popularity of superhero movies is a regression in audience aesthetics, but I still want to ask you why you say that."

"Because people like you who act like idiots in public without any prior notice are very suitable to appear in Marvel movies." Yu Fei complained, "Every Marvel movie is made up of characters like you as the protagonist."

"Indeed." Roy ignored Yu Fei's sarcasm and started to complain about the plot of "Iron Man". "Do you know why I hate Marvel? How could an arms dealer like Tony Stark, who sells weapons all over the world, want to become a superhero to protect the world just because he did a little good?"

Yu Fei taunted, "Just like you pretended to come back at the training ground without even saying hello to me, forcing me to speak out my true feelings?"

"To be honest," Roy said seriously, as righteously as the protagonist of a movie, "I think my motivation for doing this is much nobler than Tony Stark's reason for becoming a superhero. If you don't cooperate with me, I'm ready to participate in 5-on-5 training with an injury."

"Then do you still fantasize about you performing well in training with a limp, and then making a formal comeback in the game tomorrow night, leading the team to defeat the Lakers like Willis Reed did decades ago?"

Yu Fei asked jokingly.

Roy laughed when he heard this. What a beautiful dream!

"A little bit." Roy said, trying not to laugh, "but I didn't think too much about it."

"Idiot!" Yu Fei struggled to cut a heart-shaped piece of beef and pointed at Roy. "If you like to dream, dream about something that is impossible in reality!"

Roy rolled his eyes.

"As expected of the master of the empire, you always speak so condescendingly." Roy asked, "Honestly, do you have any friends in the team besides me?"

Yu Fei was about to speak.

Roy added: "Besides Kwame and Jermaine, is there anyone else?"

“Chris,” Yu Fei said, “I’m the reason he chose Seattle.”

"There are also DJ and Zuo. I helped them sign some endorsements in China." Yu Fei calmly recounted those relationships that were bound by interests rather than friendship. "They were very grateful to me. We may not be the kind of friends you talk about, but we are more reliable than friends."

Including Roy, Yu Fei has at least six people he can trust in the Supersonics.

Such interpersonal relationships are not a problem at all.

But in Roy's eyes, Yu Fei's identity is different.

"What are you going to do with those who are neither your friends nor grateful to you?" Roy asked a real question.

Of course, those who were close to Yu Fei could accept becoming vassals of the empire, and would not express dissatisfaction even if all the glory went to Yu Fei. But there were others who recognized the concept of the empire and felt that they were part of it.

For example, someone like Kevin Durant.

It was impossible for him to feel grateful to Fei. He would not think that it was a rare blessing to ride on the championship ride of the Supersonics at the beginning of his career. They believed that they were an important part of the championship.

This is a conceptual shift brought about by the alienation of looking at the problem.

Those who are committed to praising Yu Fei above all others insist on this idea because Yu Fei brought success to the team he was in.

Putting aside the Wizards who traded Yu Fei after his rookie season, Yu Fei's achievements in Milwaukee and Seattle make people believe that he can win the championship wherever he goes.

As for teammates, the media won't say they are unimportant, but they are all replaceable.

This is basically the standard for measuring a Pantheon-level superstar.

Although the helpers provided a lot of help, without Yu Fei, nothing would be possible. If Yu Fei was replaced with a group of teammates with similar strength, the championship would still be easily won.

For Durant and others who are desperately seeking recognition, such a concept is like a broken crystal ball, shattering the reality he perceives.

This will lead to a situation where Yu Fei's occasional poor performance in games will be ignored by the media, because no one can maintain a good form forever.

The games where Yu Fei's teammates perform poorly will be strictly scrutinized.

Like last night, Yu Fei seemed to have tried his best, but lost the game due to poor performance of his teammates. Then Yu Fei's massive fans, media and reporters who support Yu Fei will form a storm of public opinion and target those teammates who failed.

The classic scene was born: Dafei tried his best, and his teammates CBA.

This is why Roy performed this act today.

He didn't expect to solve the problem all at once, but keeping things to himself was definitely not a solution.

Instead of watching them waste their energy, it is better to force Yu Fei to speak out his true feelings. This way he will feel better.

Yu Fei was happy, and there was hope for the game. As for Durant and others who were injured, that was not within Roy's consideration at the time.

That's why this problem arises.

What are you going to do with those who don't appreciate you?
In Roy's opinion, Yu Fei didn't seem to have given this issue much thought.

"I'm not going to do anything." Yu Fei casually stabbed a piece of cut beef with his knife and fork, "I don't care."

This is the truth.

Over the past few years, the outside world has changed, people's views on him have changed, industry insiders have strong suggestions for him, and the media that like him have worshipped him as a god.

The magic of the big city suddenly made Milwaukee look like nothing.

Yu Fei reached higher mountains with the Bucks, but no one outside Milwaukee regarded him as a god.

But now, everything has changed.

But he has not changed. He just knows that other people's views on him have changed. Sometimes, he will follow such changes and do something to consolidate his image, because ascending the altar is in line with his vested interests and the complex interests behind him.

But on the court, he never changed.

He always knew he was a basketball player.

Initially, he just wanted to be the best of his generation.

In recent years, he found that surpassing Jordan was already on the foreseeable schedule, so he became more eager for honor.

Not only that, he wanted to get better, so he gave up the big core play of the Bucks and transformed into an all-around small forward. However, the situation could not keep up with the changes, and he went around in a circle and returned to the starting point.

But he is still himself, and what he pursues is victory.

So, from his standpoint, from his perspective, and from his heart, he doesn't care about the background of these trivial matters themselves or the people they affect.

He played a good game, but his teammates didn't perform well. He accepted this result, and everyone would perform poorly. But isn't it normal for people who perform poorly to be scolded? If these people were not his teammates, they would not be scolded?

This kind of empty blame-shifting behavior is not valid here.

He wouldn't think that he got all the praise and glory, so he should bear all the success and failure alone, because in the past two years, everyone on the Supersonics has benefited to varying degrees, but he benefited the most, so should he be condemned?
This is not distinguishing the primary from the secondary and is a substitution of concepts. All players who play for the Supersonics should know who the core of the "empire" is. This has been the case for the past few years. If someone does not accept it, they should jump off the train when they can, instead of enjoying the benefits of the empire in good times and complaining that they get too little and bear too much in bad times.

Why does George Karl think Yu Fei is the ultimate ball-handling core?

The perspective and psychology of looking at this issue is a proof.

As the core player with the ball, he does not have the thought burden of "I have done everything, what have my teammates done?" In this matter, he also does not have the empathy of "I have received so much love and applause, I should help my teammates share the responsibility of failure."

Yu Fei once said that he had no morals.

This statement is completely true here.

He will not be bound by a sense of morality.

In his opinion, morality has no chance of being effective or working in the world of sports where the strong are respected. Those who have morality in vain are often losers in the competition. They either wait for colleagues like Tim Duncan who have a killer mentality and a sense of morality to lead them forward, or leave behind a gentleman image like Grant Hill and ultimately achieve nothing.

Yu Fei's view on these things is simple.

He exceeded the target and completed what he was supposed to do. If he didn't do it, he would accept all the criticism. However, the people around him also had to do their own things well. If someone didn't do well, he wouldn't do anything to them. But if you didn't even reach the average level, and you were scolded after the game, and finally blamed him, that was something he couldn't tolerate.

So he said to Roy, I don't care.

This is not perfunctory, but his heartfelt feeling.

He doesn't care, but if someone plays badly and wants to put the blame on him, he will use unprecedented strength to let people see how he behaves when he cares about something.

Even though Roy is Yu Fei's best friend, he can't really understand the other person's thoughts.

But even if he could understand, he could only shake his head and sigh.

There is no right or wrong here. Position, stance and personality determine that Yu Fei and others cannot look at the problem from the same perspective.

The next day was also competition day.

Since the Sonics' home games are scheduled at 4 p.m., the training sessions start earlier than usual.

After research, the coaching staff determined that the overall trend of penalties in the series was in favor of the SuperSonics.

Therefore, Coach Lu worked with defensive assistant coach Tim Gegurich to develop a defensive plan overnight.

First of all, DeAndre Jordan will officially enter the starting lineup starting from the third game because his finishing efficiency at the basket is higher and his rim protection success rate is a level higher than Kwame Brown.

Brown disagreed: "My free throw rate is 20% higher than DJ's, and my pick-and-roll quality is also higher than his. Does he understand the tactics when running?" "He doesn't need to understand all the tactics." Coach Lu said humorously, "Our main tactic is to give the ball to Frye, which is easy to understand."

O'Neal added: "Although a 65% free throw rate is higher than a 40% free throw rate, it is still an unqualified rate and cannot stand up to scrutiny."

"Is it your turn as a substitute to interfere in the affairs of our starting players?"

The two were about to quarrel, but Yu Fei stopped them, saying, "That's enough, shut up!"

Moreover, the adjustments to the starting lineup do not end there.

Brown wasn't the only one to be taken out of the starting lineup.

Coach Lu also announced that veteran Larry Hughes will start tonight, replacing Anthony Morrow.

Ever since Hughes joined the team, the Sonics have been using him as a substitute.

Let him fill in whichever position has a vacancy.

He is 196 cm tall, can shoot, dribble, defend, and occasionally make a shot with the ball, like a poor man's version of Roy.

Many of his skills are no longer as good as they were in his prime, but among his many skills that have obviously deteriorated, the one he has retained best is defense.

However, due to his strong ball-pressing style in the early days, his defensive prowess declined a lot after the league banned the ball-pressing style.

But in fact, the on-the-spot enforcement of the prohibition on handling has been in a very confusing state in the past decade or so since the introduction of this standard.

You can see that the same referee has zero tolerance for handicapping in the previous game, but welcomes it in the next game. This situation often reverses in the first and second half of the same game.

In the first half, the referee allowed you to do it, but in the second half, the referee thought you went too far, so even contact with body hair was a foul.

Since there are now signs that the penalty scale is in their favor, and the Sonics' offensive resources are far inferior to those of the Lakers, Coach Lu believes that the chances of winning by continuing to fight on offense are slim.

Therefore, as a pioneer in the small ball era, Coach Lu slapped his thigh, thinking that they could use the penalty scale to play a game against the trend.

Come on, let’s fight on defense.

As the old saying goes, defense wins championships.

Coach Lu believed it.

Since the game was in the afternoon, the Sonics' training time was only half of the usual time.

He announced tonight's starting lineup, spent another half an hour explaining the defense that might be used tonight, and told the players in a tone of "the referee stands with us" to increase their intensity against the Lakers.

Yu Fei doesn't like to strategically turn the matter of "the referee is in my favor", but since things have developed like this, it would be truly stupid not to take advantage of the opportunity.

That afternoon
Many large international companies in Seattle left work early, and the wealthy middle class not only filled the season ticket seats at KeyArena, but some basketball fans who usually don't pay much attention to basketball but were attracted by the popularity of the Empire Battle spent 10-15 times the price to buy tickets with poor seats to watch the game in person.

In Seattle, watching the SuperSonics game is not only a fashionable thing to do, but also a way to show status.

Powerful people can use their connections to get good seats.

Season tickets, which were sold at low prices during the Reggie Lewis era, have now increased 30 times in price, becoming the highest-return commodity in the Seattle area.

Even Hollywood stars would like to come and watch the game as long as they have time.

At this time, the KeyArena's disadvantage is that it is inferior to top arenas such as Staples Center and Madison Square Garden.

There are private rooms, but they are far less comfortable than those in famous stadiums.

There are also VIP seats in the front row, but they are not necessarily more comfortable than ordinary seats.

The SuperSonics are the face of the NBA, and the KeyArena is increasingly failing to match their status.

Not only do league professionals think so, some Seattle fans who have traveled to big cities to support their teams also think that KeyArena is terrible.

However, after it was revealed that such a stadium that was below the NBA average earned the team an average of $100 million in profits each year, the Supersonics' plan to build a new stadium, which had been planned for many years, encountered unprecedented resistance.

MCCAIT (Let Citizens Focus on More Important Things) is the most influential civil rights organization in the Seattle area. In the past, they blocked the SuperSonics from acquiring a new arena on the grounds that the team's profits were too low and it was not worth spending money to build a new arena. They also promoted the introduction of a bill related to financing the arena. The new bill requires professional sports clubs in the Seattle area to achieve profits for two consecutive years before applying to the city government for financing a new arena.

Two years later, the Sonics were not only making money, but making a lot of money. So MCCAIT changed its tone, saying that the Sonics could make money even in the KeyArena, so they didn't need a new arena.

This is the final destination of civil rights organizations in Western society after they participate in social issues. They are no longer rational, no longer think about gains and losses, oppose the mainstream, reject all methods of solving problems, and hope to invest social resources in those false and empty goals.

Right now, the SuperSonics are the biggest talk in town.

A new stadium is already on the schedule.

Clay Bennett made a high-profile announcement that they would present a financing proposal to the city during the finals.

MCCAIT's protests against the Supersonics became more serious.

Recently, there was a physical conflict between members of the MCCAIT organization and fanatical Sonics fans.

This led to the MCCAIT organization gathering outside KeyArena on the afternoon of Game 3 of the Western Conference Finals.

They held banners and played rock music such as "Baby, What More Do You Want?"

A cartoon image of Clay Bennett sat on a mountain of gold, with the caption: "Isn't $100 million a year enough, Clay?"

The leader of the MCCAIT organization publicly accepted an interview and shouted to Fry: "Fry, the Supersonics don't need a new arena, what you need is the support of Seattle. We have given this support, so let the citizens focus on more important things!"

"Let citizens focus on more important things" is the name of their organization and also its external slogan.

When the Sonics bus arrived outside the KeyArena parking lot, the assembled members chanted like it was a religious ceremony: "Let the citizens focus on more important things!"

Yu Fei and his group entered the stadium under the protection of security guards.

Inside the stadium, major television stations in the Seattle area surrounded Yu Fei.

Many of these stations do not normally focus on sports.

But now, they all want to take advantage of this popularity.

“Fry, what do you think of MCCAIT’s appeal?”

"I don't care what they say, just as they never care about us. We are from two different worlds," Yu Fei said. "They will never understand that in this city with millions of people, sports are the most important thing in life for quite a few people. But in the eyes of MCCAIT people, this is not a 'more important thing'. That's the problem."

"Who has the power to define 'more important things'? It's not in the hands of city government officials, nor in my hands, nor in the hands of those who shout slogans. It's in the hands of every citizen." Yu Fei faced the camera, and at several moments, he gave people the same radiant feeling as President Obama's victory speech "Yes We Can" in New Hampshire two years ago. "I will fight for them, and no one can stop me!"

A great basketball player is not necessarily a great public figure.

Star players are often two-faced.

But after Yu Fei reached the top, he showed the world only his divine side.

In the United States, a country that likes to sanctify successful people in all walks of life, his image has become saintly at an unimaginable speed.

The Sonics' PR manager came over and said, "Everyone, we still have a game, and Frye needs to go in to warm up, so, sorry, this interview will end here."

Half an hour later, Yu Fei's words spread in the Seattle area.

Sonics fans went crazy.

The godlike man said he would fight for them.

Then, the Internet exploded.

The phrase "I will fight for them" became a top trend on Twitter.

The Sonics' support in the Seattle area rose 5% in a short period of time.

"In the past half century, how many people in professional sports can dominate their own world like Frye?" Bob Ryan, a famous Boston reporter who has been following professional sports since the early 70s, said on Twitter. "In the past, only Ali and MJ did it. But Frye has joined the ranks. From now on, let us remember this. The past decade and the next decade will be called 'Frye's Era' in the future."

Before this era officially begins, "Frye" still has things to do.

James missed a dunk during warm-up.

The ball flew from one end of the field to the other and Yu Fei caught it.

Xiao Jia, who was standing next to them, came over as usual, then suddenly remembered that they didn't need the ball and was about to leave.

But Yu Fei stopped him.

"Mark." Yu Fei gently bounced the ball with his palm, "Give Kobe a message for me."

As soon as he finished speaking, Yu Fei stood behind the LOGO and used a standard smashing action to slam the ball into the basket in the front court.

“Bang!!!!!!!!”

Basketball hit the board.

When Gasol was stunned, he heard what Yu Fei behind him asked him to convey.

"I'm going to score 50 points tonight."

(End of this chapter)