When pride still matters

Chapter 529 It’s Raining in Seattle
After the Lakers were eliminated, the Supersonics came to a delicate situation.

Their biggest rival this year has been eliminated, so defending the title is a natural thing to do.

But this mentality is dangerous. If they don't take their Eastern Conference opponents seriously, they may fail.

Until then, they still have to wait for the Eastern Conference to be decided.

The Celtics and Magic dragged the Eastern Conference Finals into a Game 7, which gave the SuperSonics a few extra days of rest.

Roy spent a lot of time shooting to regain his lost shooting touch.

When he was practicing 500 shots a day, Yu Fei said to him, "Aren't you going to be our Scottie Pippen? Pippen won't waste time on shooting practice."

"I actually guarded LeBron like Scottie guarded Magic in the 1991 Finals. You couldn't expect more. Now I get to be myself."

Roy kept talking to himself, with no intention of stopping.

Yu Fei could only say "Come on" to him.

In addition, he also wanted to say that defending James' back-to-the-basket attack was nothing, because they didn't have a player like JJ Barea, otherwise James would be even more embarrassed.

Although Roy seemed to have no chance of defending James at the time, he had the size as a player after all, but his miss in the back-to-back shot against Barea was a disaster of another level.

Durant has been very excited these days.

He has been in an excited state since eliminating the Lakers.

It is rumored that the oversized poster on the Nike headquarters building in Portland has been replaced with a poster moment of Durant in the Western Conference Finals.

In the past, the posters of the headquarters building have always been occupied by Woods, Kobe and James, but Woods's performance was disappointing, Kobe and James lost a series that they should not have lost, and Nike's two kings failed to stop Yu Fei from reaching the top with Reebok. They must look to the future.

The top priority is to promote Durant.

Even if Durant's performance in the conference finals can only be described as outstanding but not crucial, they will still praise Durant and use the media relations at hand to exaggerate Durant's performance and give him a reputation that goes beyond the present.

In this way, although it cannot stop Reebok's momentum and it is impossible to divert Yu Fei's star power, Nike can at least regard Seattle's victory as Nike's victory when promoting it.

DeAndre Jordan trying to develop his shot.

Yu Fei once observed his shooting. Rather than saying that he had no talent for shooting, it was more accurate to say that the fact that he spent a lot of time on strength training meant that he was doomed to not have the stable muscle memory to shoot.

Therefore, developing his shot was almost impossible for him.

He will give up soon, just like Kwame Brown did.

However, whether he can shoot or not will not affect his position.

When he understands this, he won't waste his energy on these things.

After all, he will be the starter no matter what, and as long as he is better than Kwame Brown, no one on the team can threaten his position.

As for Brown, after making the statement "My time has passed", he has completely laid back and has no idea about his position in the team.

This actually avoids future conflicts between him and the coaching staff over this matter.

The sooner Brown accepts this outcome, the more likely he is to spend the rest of his life in Seattle.

The wait is long.

A day later, the Celtics and the Magic started a seventh game.

It was a breathtaking hand-to-hand combat.

The Celtics have more defensive elites, while the Magic can only rely on Vince Carter and Ray Allen.

However, Carter was blocked by the Celtics, and Ray Allen shot 14-for-3 in this home game.

If anyone in Los Angeles watched this game, they could clearly see how their team died because the Magic had rehearsed it again.

Today's Ray Allen is no longer the all-around scorer who was beside Yu Fei eight years ago. He is now a pure shooter.

A pure shooter is destined to be unable to dominate the game in such a competition where there is no time to relax.

Ray Allen is still Ray Allen, but he is on a strange team where the big brother only does blue-collar work.

The score of this game was low, 82 to 77.

The Celtics defeated the Magic by a very narrow margin and earned their second ticket to the Finals in three years.

Bostonians, however, felt humiliated.

Because of the upcoming finals, there is no suspense to the outside world.

Just like "Unforgettable Tonight" in the Spring Festival Gala, the programs that the audience really cares about are in the front.

There is a piece of data that can reflect the gap in attention between the Eastern and Western Conference finals.

The Western Conference Finals between the SuperSonics and the Lakers was watched by an average of tens of millions of Americans per game, while the most-watched Game 500 of the Eastern Conference Finals between the Celtics and the Magic had no more than million viewers in the United States.

As for the finals, all the audience cares about is the result.

The Sonics winning the championship means several things.

They will become the third modern NBA team after the OK Lakers to complete three consecutive championships.

Yu Fei's total championship number will surpass Jordan, making him the GOAT in terms of honor.

In fact, the finals with the Celtics is not as eye-catching as the Supersonics' submission of a new arena financing plan to the city government during the finals.

At least the financing plan for the new arena itself has a force of opposition in Seattle that cannot be underestimated.

The only media person who took the finals seriously and thought it was suspenseful was Bill Simmons.

In the final paragraph of his Finals preview, he wrote: "The situation is in Boston's favor, at least for now. It's hard to tell what's going on with those shaky, lovable championship contenders. This is the sixth time in our history that we're in this situation. Russell's last two teams ('68 and '69) won back-to-back titles amid turmoil. The last great teams led by Havlicek and Cowens went through similar situations. The last two efforts of the Bird, McHale and Parish trio ultimately failed because they could never stay healthy. Most recently, the 2008 team, we were undoubtedly the better team that year, but we lost the championship to Frye. Now, this group of veterans is on the road to a championship again. No one saw it coming, and the opponent is Frye. Think about it, you have a chance to prove to the person who once beat you that you have recovered from the defeat and are much better than before. That's the best part."

June 3, 2010

Finals first game

MCCAIT (Mortal Citizens in Charge of Important Matters) organized an unprecedented march to put pressure on the city government to try to force them to reject the SuperSonics' new arena financing plan.

However, those who supported the SuperSonics organized a larger group.

The two groups faced off in the city center.

The first game of the finals between the Supersonics and the Celtics started at 4 p.m. that day.

All sports reporters and commentators thought it was a 100-0 series, and the Supersonics did show their dominance from the beginning of the series.

They did not become arrogant just because they were unanimously favored by the outside world.

Yu Fei, who averaged 47 points per game in the Western Conference Finals, started off with full firepower, causing Tayshaun Prince to foul twice in the first quarter and scoring 14 points in a single quarter. The Supersonics established an 8-point advantage and suppressed the Celtics.

The Celtics' commander and engine, Rajon Rondo, has shooting problems. His long-range shots are extremely inaccurate and he is often left open by opponents.

This may not be a fatal problem in the big ball era that does not emphasize three-pointers, but in front of the Supersonics, this defect is enough to destroy his role.

The Supersonics very realistically left him several meters away, forcing him to take an uncertain long shot.

It's not that he's totally inaccurate.

Rondo made 4 of 1 three-pointers. The one that went in can be considered a consolation prize for the team, but the three that didn't go in were fatal.

Roy seized the opportunity and used a defensive counterattack to expand the score difference to double digits.

This is a breath.

The Celtics never recovered tonight.

At the end of the game, the Sonics steadily suffocated their opponents with their powerful suppression.

107 is better than 92
They didn't win by much, but the gap between the two sides was much bigger than the score difference showed.

Doc Rivers put the problem his team faces succinctly: “We have to make more three-pointers.”

But their opponents don't care so much about the results.

Yu Fei and others were asked more about the conflict between the MCCAIT organization and fans outside the city hall building.

"No one wants to see this happen. Now is the season for basketball and we hope the fans can enjoy basketball," Yu Fei said. "I know the fans are doing this to protect us, but please believe that as long as we play well, good things will happen."

The ignored Celtics seemed to be stimulated by something.

Kevin Garnett said: "Our goal is to return to Boston with a score of 1-1, then win three games in a row at home, and eventually we will win the championship with a score of 4-1!"

"They actually want to play all the home games?" Yu Fei responded to Garnett, "I think he is a little greedy. I think the finals will only be played in four games."

After the harsh words, it's time to show each other's determination.

Garnett's words may be arrogant, but there is no doubt that the Celtics have the will to win.

The Celtics quickly adjusted their strategy.

Starting from the second game, just like the game 7 with the Magic, we had to fight hard with the Supersonics on defense.

In the Western Conference Finals, the Supersonics relied on defense to beat the Lakers, and now the Celtics used this tactic against them, and it was effective to some extent.

Because apart from Pierce, the other four Celtics starters are players who are better at defense than offense.

Defense is also the foundation of the Celtics. However, the Supersonics are good at both offense and defense. Although their defense is not as good as the Celtics, the Celtics' offense is far inferior to the Supersonics.

Fierce defense will seriously affect the offensive state of both sides. At this time, the test is who has a higher offensive lower limit.

With four minutes left in the game, the two sides were tied at 82-82.

Then, Yu Fei and Durant started playing one-on-one.

In that breathtakingly intense moment, Yu Fei's singles were as desperate for Boston as those watching the ending of "The Mist" in the cinema.

The Celtics, who put everything on defense, really stopped the Supersonics to the point where they couldn't execute any tactics.

But the Supersonics, with Yu Fei and Durant, can switch to one-on-one tactics at any time.

The Celtics must do the same.

They let Pierce respond and let Garnett hold the ball in the low post, but Pierce only had the superstar-like ability to take over at certain times, and Garnett has never been a convincing scorer in the key moments of his career.

In comparison, Yu Fei and Durant are far better than Pierce and Garnett.

In the final four minutes, the two teams outscored each other 14 to 6.

This intuitive result overwhelmed the Celtics.

In the end, 96 to 88.

The Supersonics defended their home court and took a 2-0 lead.

"The Sonics may have played their last home game of the season," said ESPN's Mike Breen.

"I think we have found a way to win." Rivers said the most confident words in the most unconfident tone, "We will definitely beat them at home."

Rondo is more realistic than his coach and he knows how much impact losing this game will have on the team.

"We have to put our bones back together before we can beat them," Rondo said. "I'm just not sure we have the will to beat them even if it means we get broken into pieces."

Defense is the Celtics' last trump card, but the Supersonics' defense is also good.

If both teams have good defense, even if one team has better defense, they will still have to compete on offense in the end.

But the Celtics' offense just couldn't compete with the Supersonics.

This is the despair that comes to people when the logic of winning is broken.

Unless the entire Sonics team performs poorly, the Celtics see no hope of winning.

It is worth mentioning that there was a behind-the-scenes video during the game.

The Associated Press reported a news story titled "Seattle fans risk their safety to know the score."

Here's what was reported: A Seattle man was rushed to the hospital after suffering a heart attack. While in the coronary care unit, his first request was to watch Game 2 of the NBA Finals between the Seattle SuperSonics and the Boston Celtics. Then, his heart stopped beating. Doctors scrambled to revive him, but had to insert a trachea. "He couldn't speak, but he gestured for a piece of paper and a pencil. He wrote down that he wanted to know the score of the Sonics. This was a man who had just died," said Dr. Scott Linscott of the hospital. "He then asked the nurses with another note to let him continue to watch the game. The nurses hesitated, but the man kept begging. Finally, the nurses allowed him to watch the game. The man is reportedly in stable condition after the Sonics won Game 2."

After the game, the Sonics sent community favorite Alonzo Gee to represent the team to comfort the fan.

"This is the best day of my life!" the fan tweeted along with a photo of himself and Key.

The SuperSonics will then travel to Boston for an away game.

Barring any unexpected events, they will win the championship away from home.

After research, the Sonics' top management decided to present an ambitious financing plan to the city government on June 6, the afternoon office day of Game 10 of the Finals.

Clay Bennett wants to build a multi-purpose sports complex in the city center that would cost more than $5 million.

Then, some City Hall sources said: The mayor and most council members believe that the Sonics deserve a better arena than KeyArena. As a cultural totem of Seattle and even the most successful sports club in Washington state, KeyArena's rust has become a local disgrace.

New Yorkers will give the Knicks the best arena, no matter how good they are, and Los Angeles will give the Lakers the best arena, even if they lose in succession. Can't Seattle do it?
Public opinion supporting the SuperSonics overwhelmed all opponents when the news of the victory in Game 3 of the Finals came back.

Even within the MCCAIT organization, serious divisions have arisen.

Because they are becoming the contradiction of Seattle.

Because the name of their organization is "Let citizens focus on more important things", but now they are doing their best to oppose the things that citizens care about most?
Before Game 4 of the Finals, Roy was DNP due to a thigh strain.

He wanted to stay in Boston to witness the team win three consecutive championships, but was called back to Seattle.

Because the team will submit a financing plan to the city government today, they need a prestigious person to do this. The original person was Roy, and then he made a comeback. Unexpectedly, things happened unexpectedly, and finally the job fell on Roy.

At the beginning of the game, Durant's three-pointer took the lead.

Afterwards, Bosh also had trouble in the pick-and-roll offense.

Even though Yu Fei didn't shoot much, the Supersonics scored 22 points in half a quarter.

The Celtics were in a state of collapse.

By then, it became clear to Seattle fans that the team was going to win three straight championships.

Tens of thousands of fans gathered outside the city government office building waiting for the results.

Roy submitted a financing plan to the city government on behalf of the team.

However, while politicians were whispering and sharing opinions, the outside world was clamoring for numbers.

What is 55 to 32, what is 58 to 32?
Mayor Nichols asked someone and found out that this was the real-time score of the finals.

This makes some people feel itchy.

So someone suggested that we watch the game first.

This was the most dramatic scene of the day. Just when the city government was deciding whether to approve the financing plan for the Supersonics' new arena, they suddenly decided to put this matter aside and put aside all the official business at hand, because no matter what these things were, today, they were not as important as the Supersonics game.

They turned on ABC's live broadcast of the game in the government office building.
"No, guys."

Roy never expected things to turn out this way.

The mayor gave him a reassuring look.

Everything is going to be alright, Brandon.

So Roy went outside to update the fans.

"Brandon!" the fans' representative shouted with a megaphone, "What did the mayor say?"

"No results." Roy said, "They are watching the live game"

Perhaps nothing could better illustrate the city government's attitude than this. Suddenly, the fan representative shouted the name of the Supersonics, and then tens of thousands of people at the scene shouted together, and some people continued to broadcast the score.

Some things will definitely have an outcome.

Roy knew they were about to succeed.

By the end of the first half, the crowd already knew this would be the last game of the season.

Because the Supersonics led the Celtics by 26 points at halftime.

In the second half, the score gap widened further.

Yu Fei didn't do anything at all, it's just that the Celtics performed poorly, while his teammates were as excited as if they were taking the last exam before summer vacation.

When Jermaine O'Neal hit a humorous buzzer-beating three-pointer in the fourth quarter, the game completely turned into an exhibition game of the only empire.

Tyronn Lue played a twelve-man rotation, and Yu Fei got more than 15 minutes of rest time.

"Last twenty seconds! Supersonics have given up the attack!"

"The SuperSonics are about to defend their title!"

“This is their third consecutive title!”

"It's also Fry Yu's seventh championship in eight years!"

The scene counted down until the red light came on. The Sonics players hugged each other excitedly, and Lu leaned against his assistant coach and cried. Only one person did not react violently.

Yu Fei still had a dreamlike feeling.

Is this the end?

He accepted an on-site interview, said a few official words, and then walked towards the player tunnel.

When he opened the door of the locker room, champagne sprayed on his face. The stimulating smell of the alcohol made him realize that this journey had really come to an end.

He picked up the champagne on the ground and sprayed it back.

A few minutes later, the locker room was still noisy. Lin Kevin came over with his cell phone and handed it to Yu Fei: "Brandon's call."

"Hey, you should really see what's happened here!" Yu Fei wiped his face and asked, "How's the situation over there?"

Then he heard chaotic roars over there.

Some people were shouting "Champions", some were shouting "Supersonics", and some were shouting "Seattle".

It seemed that someone was crying.

"Fry," Roy said in a trembling voice, "it's raining in Seattle!"

(End of this chapter)