When pride still matters

Chapter 547 No Good Results
Due to geographical reasons, most teams that come to Texas for away games usually play two Texas teams. The unlucky ones will play all three Texas teams.

It's like going to California to play away games and potentially playing against the Lakers, Clippers, Kings and Warriors.

But the problem is that since the new century, the average strength of the three Texas teams has been much higher than that of the four California teams.

These three teams have always been regulars in the playoffs.

Especially the Spurs and Mavericks, they have been in the first tier of the Western Conference for a long time.

The Supersonics just lost to the Mavericks last night and will play the Spurs on the road in a back-to-back game the next day.

Today's Spurs are a team that wants to seize the present and control the future.

This is because Duncan and Ginobili still have some energy left, the newly joined Pau Gasol is an All-Star-level inside player, and the thriving growth of two young players, Paul George and Kemba Walker, gives them the confidence to have both.

However, the Supersonics did not want to lose again, and Yu Fei didn't want it even more.

When the team came out of the airport, some people took the bus to the hotel, while others went straight to the visiting team's training hall.

Yu Fei is one of them.

The last time the Spurs relied on their inside advantage, they suffered their first defeat of the season, but this time, Yu Fei wants to turn the opponent's inside advantage into ashes.

Because at that time their starting power forward was still Durant, and now it is him.

Yu Fei has been practicing a lot of outside catching and shooting. He will play a lot of pick-and-roll and outside catching and three-pointers tonight.

This is because although the two tall starting players of Duncan and Gasol have an advantage in interior confrontation, these two players now play as centers with poor mobility and have no way to deal with opponents who use pick-and-roll and pull-out.

The person responsible for passing the ball to Yu Fei was Chandler Parsons.

As a rookie in the league, although Parsons only plays a few minutes per game for the Supersonics, he has become a landscape on the bench.

Because good looks really can make a living.

"Fry, aren't we going back to the hotel?"

Parsons asked casually.

Yu Fei asked: "Do you want to go back?"

"I just think," Parsons said, trying to find a reason that would be reasonable and not offensive to Yu Fei. "We don't need to be so serious. Tonight's game is a back-to-back away game. We should rest and recuperate before the game."

Yu Fei asked, "How many minutes did you play in the last game?"

“I didn’t play.”

Yu Fei asked sarcastically, "So you think you need to conserve your energy?"

Parsons said sheepishly, "I mean, you might need to."

Yu Fei smiled and rejected Parsons' kindness.

It can be said that he knows nothing about Parsons, even though he has entered the league at a time point that he can understand. However, unless you are an NBA enthusiast, who knows all the players in the league?

Yu Fei didn't know how Parsons rose to prominence in his previous life, nor how he fell. His first impression of him was that he was handsome, and secondly, that he had a high basketball IQ.

In the words of the scouts, he is a "great team defender." The subtext of this sentence is of course that his individual defense is poor, but it is better than those who are useless on the defensive end.

Yu Fei also noticed that Parsons can read offense and defense quickly and has a good shooting feel from the outside, although it is still unstable. If it weren't in Seattle, he could get a lot of time on a bad team, but the standards of a championship team are different.

Yu Fei can see both Parsons' strengths and weaknesses. Parsons' biggest weakness is his personality. He is not as competitive as Beverley and is somewhat content with the status quo. However, the competitive environment in Seattle will force him to work hard. But when he gets the position he wants, will he still be as diligent?
Yu Fei was very skeptical about this, so he often put some pressure on Parsons.

That night
50 minutes before the game against the Spurs, the SuperSonics arrived to warm up.

According to league regulations, qualified reporters can apply for interviews with players on the scene.

So, reporters wandered around the sidelines, most of them wanted to interview Yu Fei, but Yu Fei refused.

"KD, there's a nasty person here."

The person closest to Durant in the Supersonics is DeAndre Jordan, and the two are inseparable during the season.

Suddenly, Jordan saw Ethan McNeo, a reporter from Seattle.

McNealy's criticism of Durant during last night's game has become a hot topic on social media.

So, DeAndre Jordan said that.

“I was just doing my job,” McNeo said.

"Shit job! You disrespected KD," Jordan said. "KD is going to remember all this disrespect."

Durant, who was practicing shooting, suddenly put down the ball in his hand and walked quickly towards McNeo.

Durant remembered that he had been interviewed by McNealy many times in the past few years, but recently the other party suddenly began to change his attitude towards him.

What is the reason?

According to him, all the changes can be traced back to the decision of Yu Fei playing the power forward position and Durant playing the power forward position.

In terms of physical condition, Durant is more suitable for the power forward position, but the reality is that he is not ready to play the power forward position for a long time. He does not have enough strength and confrontation to withstand the pressure of the power forward position.

Yu Fei chose to transform in order to liberate Durant and try a new style. This is something that everyone in the team knows. But the media and fans don't understand. They think this is a waste of the GOAT's talent. If the GOAT plays the No. 1 position, he is the best point guard in history; if he plays the No. 3 position, he is the best small forward in history. But now, in order to train Durant, they actually let the GOAT play the No. 4 position?
Durant understood the doubts, but he thought more. For example, why didn't anyone get angry because Roy took the ball away from Frye? Did Roy do a better job than Frye?

Frye's most impressive period was during his time with the Bucks. At that time, he averaged 36 points per game, a triple-double per game, and won four championships in five years, completely changing the league's definition of a core. But after coming to Seattle, he chose to transform because his good friend Roy also needed the ball. Although Frye in Seattle is still outstanding, Frye in the Bucks has become a legend. Until the 2009-10 season, Roy was reimbursed for the regular season, and Yu Fei once again averaged a triple-double per game, which reminded many people of how he played in Milwaukee.

Why didn't anyone mention this? Was it because Frye and Roy played brotherly basketball? No, the more likely reason Durant thought of was that Roy had a local hukou, and he didn't. Roy was the only Seattle native on the team.

Some people say Frye is also a son of Seattle, but that is just a forced claim by Seattle, just like LeBron James said he was a little boy from Akron as soon as he abandoned Cleveland. Akron is not equal to Cleveland, just like Kent is not equal to Seattle. Even though the two places are very close, Kent is Kent and Seattle is Seattle. Frye is at most half Seattle.

If this is the reason, Durant also admitted it. This is the advantage of the household registration book, what else can I say?
What puzzles Durant the most is that he has done his best to be a good person in the eyes of the public, so why are there still so many people who would slander him based on nothing but trivial matters?

Especially those media people who have been "taken care of" by him, such as Ethan McNeo.

He accepted many interviews with the other party and told them everything he knew. He thought he had not done anything rude, but the other party did not feel anything and then criticized him casually, questioned his efforts, and magnified his mistakes, as if he had never done anything good.

Is there any media that is under Yu Fei's care, who would treat Yu Fei like this?

To elaborate, which media outlet that is cared for by celebrities would respond to their kindness in this way?
Durant couldn't control his anger. He wanted answers, so he threw the ball aside and asked coldly: "Why do you write that shit?"

"KD, I'm just writing down my observations." McNeo couldn't feel any warmth from Durant. This was not the young man who treated the media with respect and kindness. "I have no ill will."

"You don't know me at all, so how can you make those comments about me?" Durant said, "You are the one who knows nothing about the empire!" and then ran away.

McNeagh has heard many similar stories about players who don't like a certain media person's article and express their dissatisfaction. Over the years, he has entered automatic mode, and his brain will intelligently ignore this information interference. Because the media person can never argue his way out of this situation. At least McNeagh has never succeeded. These star players will never say, "Gosh, you have a point when you say it."

Their self-esteem and ego are so huge that they cannot accept denial from the outside world.

If Durant hadn’t walked away, McNealy would have asked him, “So what is true empire like?” and waited for the answer, to see if some unheard perspective would surface that would teach him something. But Durant didn’t give him that chance.

What confuses McNeo the most is why Durant didn't give him this opportunity?
Why is Durant unwilling to accept criticism?
Nike and Durant himself have been promoting such a player to the outside world all along.

Although he looks like a freak, he has a great character rarely seen in NBA history. He is humble, kind, hardworking, fighting, and simple. When he travels, he only has a backpack with a basketball and a Bible. He has no tattoos, and he doesn't convey the dangerous aura of "If you dare to mess with me, I will kill you" like other NBA stars.

He is like Grant Hill and David Robinson, but not as much of a gentleman as those two. He comes from the bottom, from a poor family, and knows that no piece of bread in life is free. He has a strong sense of competition, but this sense does not drown out the pure goodness of his character. Off the court, he is just a boy next door. Basketball is as important to him as oxygen - you can't say that about Fry Yu. Basketball is important to Fry, but women, Hollywood, fame, stardom, identity, and social consciousness are equally important to him. Basketball is just the jewel in the crown. But for Durant, everything is just basketball. Without basketball, he is just an ordinary person, an ordinary good person.

How precious is this image? It goes beyond the elegance of Hill and Robinson, which is out of touch with reality, and combines a simple image that is more acceptable to the grassroots. Why can't a person who lives and dies for basketball, who is not violent or arrogant, and who shows all his positive sides to others, accept criticism?

McNeagh didn't know who could give him the answer.

He saw Yu Fei. At this moment, he was walking towards him, but obviously, he was not coming for him, he was just passing by.

"Frye, do you want to talk about KD?" McNeo asked.

"I know you." Yu Fei smiled, "You are the one who cursed Kevin."

McNeagh defended himself: "It wasn't an insult, I just pointed out his shortcomings."

"Really?" Yu Fei asked, "He accepted it?"

McNeagh was silent.

"Would you like to talk about KD, Frye?" he decided to ask the person who was most likely to understand Durant's true nature.

Yu Fei rejected him directly: "I don't accept interviews now."

"Moreover, I will especially not accept an interview with someone who might misunderstand my good intentions," Yu Fei said mockingly. "I don't want to see someone suddenly scold me in the newspaper one day in the name of 'pointing out shortcomings'."

Yu Fei walked away, as it should be.

His contempt for the media and his heartfelt feeling that he was superior and the media was as humble as ants were formed step by step over the years.

McNeo will not crawl under Yu Fei. He respects Yu Fei as a player, but he will not sacrifice his dignity for the recognition of a star.

In his opinion, Yu Fei's refusal to be interviewed was just a means to force the media people to bow down before him more humbly.

The more rare the opportunity to interview him, the more the media people have to pay.

Moreover, his refusal to accept his own interview will also send a positive signal to KD.

This shows that Frye stands with him on this matter.

McNealy did understand Yu Fei's intention.

He won't do anything unnecessary because offending Yu Fei and offending Durant are not on the same level in the Seattle basketball world.

※※※

Yu Fei walked into the visiting team's locker room and talked about his recent meeting with Ethan McNeo.

"Kevin, he actually wanted to interview me." Yu Fei asked, "Did you treat him too well and make him lose track of his position? Why did he think I would still accept his interview after doing that?"

After publicly embarrassing McNealy, Durant was a little scared. He felt that he might be messing up his media image.

That’s what he and Nike have shaped over the years.

He was just about to call his agent to ask how to deal with similar matters when Yu Fei came in.

He recounted his conversation with McNealy, and the way he rejected McNealy was so applaudable.

Jordan couldn't help but jump up and said, "That's it! These bastards who don't know how to respect others don't deserve our respect!"

"That's what I said, but you still have to be polite when you meet." Yu Fei asked Jordan to control himself. "We are all gentlemen. This is why the president asked us to wear suits. I can do whatever I want, but you can't. It is important for your image to have a good relationship with the media."

Parsons asked, "Don't you need to have good relations with the media?"

"Pfft!" Kwame Brown laughed. "Rookie, you run errands for Frye all day, don't you notice that the media is acting like dogs in front of Frye?"

Parsons certainly didn't notice this.

Then, Yu Fei's assistant Lin Kevin revealed the truth of this side: "Frye doesn't need to do this, because they will find ways to please Frye themselves."

"why is that?"

"I don't know." Yu Fei glanced at Durant, "KD, you have to know that good people are pointed at by bad people with guns. Sometimes, even the one pointing a gun at you is a good person like you."

This sentence completely touched Durant's heart.

"Why?" Durant asked. "I didn't do anything wrong!"

"Because you spoil them."

Few people in the locker room could understand the conversation between Yu Fei and Durant.

Even Durant didn't realize that Yu Fei was implying that the Durant who was always friendly to everyone was not the real Durant.

But this sentence is easy to understand literally.

Durant spoils the media.

He flatters the media too much on a public level. If he flatters the media once, the media may think he is a good person. But if he flatters them a hundred times, his kindness will become an obligation.

Your goodness is what you should do, and your evil is not allowed. Even media people who think they are sober, like Ethan McNeo, will point out the problems harshly.

So you panic. You don’t know why a good person like you doesn’t get any good rewards, and you start to think about the various factors involved.

The answer was enough to make Durant reflect on whether the public image he had worked so hard to create over the past four years was right or completely wrong.

In the game that night, the Spurs' two tall players did not show any of the advantages they had against the Supersonics before.

Because two horrible things happened during the game.

One is Yu Fei's position under the basket. Whether facing Gasol or Duncan, Yu Fei's strength has not shown any disadvantage. As long as he is in position, the person who is confronting him cannot move.

Another one was Yu Fei's three-pointer after a pick-and-roll.

That night, Yu Fei took 16 shots from outside the three-point line, hitting 11 of them, and scored 33 points from three-pointers alone, returning all the three-point rain he encountered in Dallas to San Antonio.

Throughout the game, Yu Fei was like Rodman possessed by Jason Kapono. He hardly ever attacked with the ball. He just focused on positioning, grabbing rebounds, and shooting three-pointers. He eventually scored 33 points, 15 rebounds, and 4 assists, leading the team to a comeback on the road.

After the game, Yu Fei deliberately asked Durant to go for an interview with him.

When Ethan McNeo asks the question.

Yu Fei interrupted him.

"Until you publicly apologize to KD, no Sonics player will answer your questions." Yu Fei said in an unquestionable and irresistible tone, "Next one."

He pointed indifferently at a reporter from New York.

Kevin Durant completely lost his ability to think in that suffocating atmosphere.

He probably did know why this happened.

(End of this chapter)