When pride still matters

Chapter 535: Door that opened but not fully opened
Afterwards, Yu Fei and Yao Ming inevitably talked about what happened after the lockout.

Yao Ming's contract with the Rockets has ended this summer and he will become an unrestricted free agent.

"The shutdown is a good thing," Yao Ming said. "It gives me time to seriously consider the future."

Yu Fei joked: "I thought you were the kind of person who was willing to spend the rest of your life with one team."

"I did have this thought when I was 22 years old," Yao Ming said, "because I was making 50 RMB a year in the CBA and 400 million USD a year in the U.S. I certainly wanted to stay here until I retired. After all, the NBA is highly regulated and I would make the same money wherever I went."

Since Yu Fei witnessed almost the entire process before and after Yao Ming entered the NBA after traveling through time, he knew Yao Ming very well at that time.

Just as Yao Ming said in an interview in his country, when he came to the United States for training and beat Tyson Chandler, and then learned that the other party would enter the NBA with the top five picks, he knew he had the ability to play in the NBA.

In the following years, Yao Ming's series of expressions were: "Let me go, I want to improve so much!"

The reaction of his home team, the Shanghai Sharks, was: "Let's dominate the country first."

In the end, Yao Ming took advantage of the window period when Wang Zhizhi, his lifelong enemy in the CBA, entered the NBA and led his team to win the championship. He finally made his promise that he would retire and go to college if Wang Zhizhi didn't let him play in the NBA. At that time, he escaped from an amateur league that was neither professional nor commercial, and came to the world's most professional and commercial top league. As a foreigner, he had no regional concept. As long as he got the same salary, it didn't matter where he played.

So he would think it would be a good idea to spend the rest of his life with the Rockets.

"Then," Yu Fei asked with a smile, "Why would 30-year-old Yao Ming oppose 22-year-old Yao Ming?"

Yao Ming replied: "Because of you."

Yu Fei said that he had no intention of removing Yao Ming from the ranks of "One Person, One City" spokespersons.

"Why is it because of me?"

"How do you think it feels for me to get eliminated in the first two rounds of the playoffs every year and then watch you win the championship all the time?"

There is a saying on the Internet: I am afraid that my brothers will suffer, but I am also afraid that my brothers will drive a Range Rover. Yao Ming entered the NBA in 2002, which was the beginning of Yu Fei's dominance in the 2000s.

It can be said that he has witnessed Yu Fei's journey from being hated by everyone in America to being praised by everyone in America, and now he is winning the GOAT title as expected.

Yu Fei was too successful. This made Yao Ming, who always counted on Yu Fei to help him get revenge every time he lost, suddenly feel that he could not change the Rockets' competitiveness. He might as well try to emulate Bosh and find a good team.

Hearing him say this, Yu Fei understood.

But he couldn't help but joke: "I thought you would be happy to see the team that beat you in the playoffs get beaten by me in the finals."

"Once or twice is fine, but who can stand the same script every year?" Yao Ming said vividly, "Every summer, the domestic TV will replay "Return of the Pearl". How many people do you think will watch it over and over again?"

I'm sorry, but the feelings of you people born in the 80s and 90s are hard for a time traveler like me to understand.

In his era, "Return of the Condor Heroes" was already an outdated TV series and no one watched it.

"You are right, but you shouldn't compare my continuous winning of championships with Return of the Pearl."

"That's right. I guess you don't know what Huan Zhu is either. I think Friends is more appropriate. For me, these years are just like the reruns of Friends on NBC."

Yu Fei smiled and said nothing.

He now knew that Yao Ming was planning to transfer.

However, he made this decision a little slowly, or rather, his contract happened to expire this year instead of last year.

If it were last year, he would have come to Seattle.

Now, the Sonics' space is already locked, Roy and Bosh's maximum salaries have taken up most of the space, and Yu Fei has not yet renewed his contract. It is foreseeable that Yu Fei will use the full "Yu Fei clause" to sign a super maximum salary contract.

Moreover, after this lockout, the salary cap may decrease instead of increase. At that time, the space of each team will be even tighter, and the Supersonics will definitely not be able to sign Yao Ming.

But the most important thing is that Yu Fei doesn't like "Friends". He followed the show after traveling through time, but gave up halfway.

Because there is a point in this show that he cannot stand, that is, the screenwriter makes Chandler fall in love with Joey's girlfriend for the sake of the show effect. This arrangement will certainly cause many dramatic conflicts, but for Fei, putting himself in Joey's perspective is that my best brother and my girlfriend are together.

This is unacceptable.

Still, Yao’s analogy is apt, with Friends dominating television to a degree comparable to what he did in the 2000s.

"In that case, I think you should make a decision." Yu Fei asked, "Which team do you plan to join?"

"I don't know yet." Yao Ming said provocatively, "But I know one thing, if I join a team that can't pose a threat to you even if I'm there, then it's meaningless."

Based on this premise, Yao Ming does not have many choices.

But Yu Fei fully supports Yao Ming in doing this. It is a good thing for Yao Ming to get rid of the Rockets' blood-sucking boss.

A day later, Yu Fei's team played a warm-up match with the Chinese men's basketball team at the Wukesong Sports Center.

Although the team was named after Yu Fei when it was formed, "Yu Fei's Team" sounds like they are here for a trip and is not formal enough.

So in official competitions, this team is also called the American team.

Fans will undoubtedly be more accepting of this team than the ragtag group of second-rate American players who come to China for vacation.

After all, Yu Fei really came.

If it weren't for the suspension, it would be unimaginable for someone of Yu Fei's status to personally organize a ragtag army to come to China to play games.

During the warm-up, Yu Fei noticed a young player in the Chinese team.

If he was not mistaken, that person was Guo Ailun from Liaoning Youth Team, who is also the most promising young player in Asia.

When meeting Yao Ming at midfield, Yu Fei asked about Guo Shao's situation: "How is the kid?"

"You're just a greenhorn." Yao Ming's face showed an expression again, and he shook his head and said, "I still need to practice."

"Then I'll help you practice today?"

Yao Ming said, "It's a shame. He probably won't be able to run into you."

This shows that Guo Shao's rotation position in this men's basketball team is very far behind.

After all, this was formed by the team that reached the quarterfinals in the local Olympics two years ago.

Soon, the warm-up match officially began.

Although Yu Fei's team had clear goals and two main purposes for coming to China, one was tourism and the other was gold panning, their attitude towards the game was still positive.

The Reebok Big Four consisting of Yu Fei, Roy, George and Brown all started, coupled with Wayne Harrington. In terms of the talent of this lineup, as long as they play seriously, they can be successful anywhere.

Roy, who hadn't played in a long time, was very excited and started with a three-pointer from outside.

Then, he stole the ball from the men's basketball team's top point guard Liu Wei and scored on a fast break.

What’s interesting is that Yu Fei deliberately ran to the inside to defend Yao Ming and prevent him from receiving the ball.

"Don't catch the ball, or you'll be in trouble!"

Yao Ming made some harsh remarks.

Afterwards, the Chinese team also showed its own characteristics.

Or rather, that's the characteristic of their head coach Bob Dunwad.

Because of his average resume and inability to please the media, those who monopolize the sports media discourse in China, led by the "National Version of Stephen A. Smith"⑴, often use "high school coach" to mock him.

Deng Huade does not have profound qualifications or deep tactical qualities, but his ability to respond on the spot is acceptable, and he can see through the composition of the men's basketball team at a glance.

Except for Yao, Yi, Wang and Sun, four current and former NBA players, other CBA bigwigs can only play role players on the international stage. Moreover, due to the low level of domestic grassroots coaches, these players have not developed high tactical qualities since childhood. Expecting them to play team basketball like in Europe will only turn the game into a game of standing and passing the ball outside.

Therefore, Deng Huade's main point is "fighting". He will fight hard on defense and whoever has a chance will shoot on offense. However, Yao Ming is the core and if he can't play well, he will be fed the ball crazily.

He does not have a mature tactical system, but this simple and rough style is suitable for the men's basketball team.

As Yu Fei's defense was fierce, it was not easy for Yao Ming to receive the ball, so the men's basketball team gave the opportunity to the high position.

Although Yi Jianlian, who has three years of experience in Portland, has long been criticized for his inefficiency and mechanical playing style, when he returned to the national team, he had absolute confidence. He shot as soon as he got the ball and made consecutive hits when his touch was right.

Once the space was opened to a high position, Yao Ming was also liberated.

Yu Fei wanted to go around again, but Yao Ming didn't play with him. He directly brought the NBA style of play back to China, setting up a pick-and-roll with Liu Wei, then moving to the outside to receive the ball and shoot a three-pointer.

The men's basketball team has opened up the situation at this point, both inside and outside, and on Yu Fei's side, Roy made an effort at the beginning, and then began to give the ball to young players such as George.

But George's performance was enough to make the Spurs management, who were watching him remotely, feel dazzled.

Everything was too rough, with many missed shots on offense and unreasonable misses on defense.

Kwame Brown is also a jerk.

He and Yu Fei had been to China several times together, and he knew that there was a very important social concept in China: face.

It's like the American view of "dignity".

Giving face to others in China is like giving dignity to strangers in the U.S. If everyone looks good, life will be easier.

So Brown didn't plan to fight hard, just to show his respect, and even if he was serious, he couldn't defend Yao Ming.

After one quarter, the men's basketball team was in high spirits and actually scored 22 to 14.

Yu Fei did not score in the first quarter for two reasons. One was that he only played for five minutes, and the other was that he played as a power forward and focused on defense and played with Yao Ming, and did not expect that George and others' offensive performance would be so unsatisfactory.

"Okay, everyone, be serious." Yu Fei said during the intermission, "Even though winning or losing is not important, don't be too casual. We have to catch up in the second quarter!"

After Yu Fei’s speech, he came back in the second quarter, but this time he did not play power forward.

At the same time, Roy and Beverley also played with him.

Yu Fei said they should be serious, so they took it seriously.

Beverley began to lead the defense of the men's basketball guards in the frontcourt. Liu Wei, a magical player who could fight world-class guards evenly in international competitions - and who could also be pressed by Koreans and unable to pass half court in Asian competitions - was repeatedly made to make mistakes by Beverley.

So Deng Huade gave on-the-spot instructions and asked Sun Yue to go forward to provide support.

As soon as Sun Yue got the ball, he faced Yu Fei's high-pressure defense.

This was the defense that caused James a lot of trouble in the Western Conference Finals. The reason why Sun Yue's prospects in the NBA were ruined was that before the draft, he was considered to be able to play all three backcourt positions, but at the NBA level, his skills were so rough that he could barely play the third position.

In less than a second, Sun Yue lost the ball, and Yu Fei dribbled to the frontcourt and shot a three-pointer from two meters outside the three-point line.

The men's basketball team requested a timeout.

"The bad news is that Frye is starting to take it seriously," CCTV's commentator surnamed Yu said cheerfully. "The good news is that the men's basketball team has forced Frye to take it seriously."

The men's basketball team undoubtedly has a huge advantage in the interior, but they have a long-standing problem: they can't get the ball to the interior.

Especially now.

Yu Fei, George and Beverly began to press the entire court, and the ball could not get past half court in no time.

In less than four minutes, Yu Fei led the team to a 15 to 4 offensive.

Deng Huade called another timeout. This time, he replaced the tortured Liu Wei. The US team's defense just now reminded him of the game against Greece in the 2006 World Championships.

The one who replaced Liu Wei was the highly anticipated super star Guo Ailun.

The consensus in China is that Guo Shao's dribbling skills are far better than Liu Wei's, so Liu Wei is afraid of pick-and-rolls, but Guo Shao is not.

But it turns out that this is a fallacy.

Guo Shao's basic skills are indeed better than Liu Wei's, but the main pressure of full-court press comes from physical fitness, movement speed, and body shape. Skills are the least important part.

Guo Shao is better at dribbling, but he lacks explosiveness. He accelerates very quickly, but Beverly can defend him so that he doesn't even have a chance to accelerate.

Although the men's basketball team has been changing players, breaking the full-court press in the Yao Ming era is like the sideline ball after 2019. It is a word that makes Chinese basketball players feel nervous when they hear it.

Why breaking the press isn't a problem in 2019
Because the men's basketball team at that time was already so weak that there was no need for strong teams to use full-court press on you.

In other words, the men's basketball team used its weakness to eliminate one difficult and complicated problem, but because of Zhou's abstract thinking circuit, it caused another difficult and complicated problem.

Yu Fei led the team to use full-court pressure to turn an 8-point disadvantage into a 9-point advantage, and then called it a day.

After all, full-court pressing consumes a lot of physical energy, and there is no need to go too far in this warm-up match - or more accurately, a friendly match.

Guo Shao was finally able to dribble the ball across half court normally and see the opponent's basket.

What he didn't expect was that Yu Fei would come to guard him personally.

Yu Fei's defense was not very strong, and Guo Shao had enough space to move. He began to change direction continuously.

When he thought he had an opportunity and broke through Yu Fei's weak side, he was blocked on the layup.

Fortunately, Yao Ming got the offensive rebound and made a tip-in.

After that, in another ball, Yu Fei did not hesitate at all and held Guo Shao in place for 15 seconds, forcing him to shoot at the buzzer.

"There are too many ineffective dribbles," Yu Fei said, "but there is nothing wrong with your technique."

What? What does he mean?
Guo Shao didn't expect Yu Fei's Mandarin to be so good, and he didn't expect that the other party would take the initiative to talk to him.

"Since it's my sister's problem, why is it invalid?"

Guo Shao replied and ran back.

A minute later, another goal.

Guo Shao tried several times to use the Buddha's Prayer to get Yu Fei up, but Yu Fei suddenly pressed him to the sideline and he made a mistake and went out of bounds.

Afterwards, Guo Shao was directly replaced by Deng Huade because of his ugly performance.

Yu Fei said as he was leaving: "Your problems cannot be solved domestically."

Guo Shao was stunned and didn't say much.

The subsequent games went very smoothly. Yu Fei controlled the intensity and the men's basketball team tried their best to catch up with the score, but every time they tried to catch up, the US team would rain on the outside.

In the end, thanks to overwhelming overall talent and Yu Fei's official match form, the men's basketball team lost at home by 5 points.

The audience was thrilled.

When people first heard that Yu Fei was going to lead the team to China for a friendly match, many people did not believe it. After all, Yu Fei's status in the industry is too high. But they did not expect that he would actually come and even played for 27 minutes. It did not seem like he was here for tourism at all.

"It's my fault. I was too harsh in the first quarter and made him angry." Yao Ming joked after the game.

Yu Fei praised the performance of the men's basketball team in an official tone.

When the reporter asked him about his opinion of Guo Shao, Yu Fei said with a hint of meaning: "With his height and his dribbling ability, he would be qualified even in the NBA. He has very high talent, but if he wants to get better, he must have higher aspirations."

Later that day, Guo Shao got Yu Fei's contact information through Yao Ming.

They had a phone call.

Mr. Guo wanted to know what Yu Fei meant by his last sentence.

Yu Fei told him his thoughts.

He believes that there is no professional team in the CBA that can solve Guo Shao's current technical problems. In the United States, dozens of players like Guo Shao who have decent qualifications but fatal technical weaknesses can be trained in batches every year. Some of them can make breakthroughs through advanced training methods and reach a higher level, while others will stop moving forward, depending on the training team they choose and their personal efforts.

"You mean, I have to go to America?"

"You are only 18 years old and have not yet entered the professional league. Theoretically, you are still eligible to play in the NCAA." Yu Fei said, "If you are willing to do so, I can help you make the contact."

If an ordinary person said to Mr. Guo that he had various problems, they could not be solved domestically.

Mr. Guo might not even listen.

But the opinion of Yu Fei, the current GOAT, carries a different weight.

Two days later, Yu Fei and his team played another warm-up match with the men's basketball team and eventually won with a 6-point advantage.

After the game, Yu Fei told Guo Shao that he would stay in the country until early October, and if he made up his mind, he should call him.

Guo Shao was indeed persuaded and he wanted to accept Yu Fei's suggestion.

However, as a youth training player, the Sports Bureau and Liaoning Youth Team have invested huge manpower and material resources in him. They hope that Guo Shao will join the first team as soon as possible and make contributions to Liaoning basketball.

Even though Guo Shao's uncle has a lot of connections, he cannot free Guo Shao from the constraints of the club and the Sports Bureau.

He cannot go to the United States unless he gets permission.

Yu Fei finally got a reply from Guo Shao: I want to go, but the situation does not allow it.

This is the gravity of reality. Wang Zhizhi paved the way for the NBA for those who came after him, but was the door really opened? It was opened a little.

The problem is that it is not prepared for players like Guo Shao who have decent qualifications but cannot possibly enter the NBA based on their talent.

Those who are qualified to enjoy the shade under the trees of their predecessors are rare and gifted geniuses like Yi and Zhou.

Those players who are not qualified enough but also come from youth training still face the shackles of their parent team.

Yu Fei had no choice but to reply: "If you want to come to the United States for special training in the future, you can contact me."

"No problem, thanks bro!"

His reply was as fast as lightning.

The amazing thing is that Yu Fei could completely imagine the tone in which Guo Shao would say this.

⑴ If Stephen A. Smith is the American version of Yang Yi, then Yang Yi is the Chinese version of Stephen A. Smith. Although I think the two are completely different in terms of eloquence and professionalism
(End of this chapter)