When pride still matters

Chapter 562 Extraordinary Mid-Autumn Festival

DeAndre Jordan's departure, like Chris Bosh's, was foreseeable long ago.

However, being able to foresee something doesn’t mean that fans will be able to accept it.

Great dynasty teams often rely on their own selected players as their main team, which is why the Supersonics have been dominating since 2007.

In addition to Yu Fei's joining, they also have elite lottery picks selected over the years. However, over the years, only Roy is still playing for the team among those lottery picks.

DeAndre Jordan and Anthony Morrow, who were selected during the dynasty, were also traded one after another.

In the eyes of many teams, direct players are often more important than mercenaries signed in the free market.

But Supersonic showed a kind of ruthlessness that made no distinction between relatives and strangers.

No matter if you are a player selected by me or an All-Star who joins in the free market, no matter how much you contribute, as long as I have no salary space, you can get out.

The Sonics have been plagued by unprecedented controversy due to their abandonment of their main players and even their disregard for All-Stars like Bosh who were willing to stay and fight for their fifth consecutive championship.

The media began to doubt whether the Supersonics were still aiming for the championship.

Sam Presti, the general manager of the Supersonics, who has been strongly criticized by the outside world, also has his own grievances.

He certainly knew that these operations would bring big trouble to the team, but what could he do?

It is difficult to go against the will of the superiors, and Clay Bennett is determined to keep the salary cap within a controllable number.

Three maximum salaries is their limit.

April 7st

Chris Bosh announced he has reached an agreement with the Cleveland Cavaliers on a four-year, $4 million contract.

The gap between moving from Seattle to Cleveland is imaginable, but Bosh was still determined to join the Cavaliers because he met with certain people behind the scenes.

This is Bosh's second time to form a team with others. Compared with the first time, he can be said to be more familiar with it.

The person who secretly planned to join forces with him was LeBron James, who was actively preparing for the London Olympics.

The failure of the evil empire made James a pariah.

However, the subsequent lockout actually diluted the impact of his disastrous defeat in 2010.

Then, the entire season was cancelled, further reducing the impact of the defeat.

In this season after the lockout, James performed more steadily and maturely, and all statistics reached new peaks in his career. The Lakers once considered promoting him as long as he made a commitment to stay in LA for a long time.

James is only 27 and a half years old now. He is young enough, but he has experienced a lot.

Yu Fei achieved GOAT status in the summer of 2010, but he was doomed because of failure. These things taught James a simple and easy-to-understand truth.

The king can't have it all, but the victor can.

Only by winning can he turn things around.

The Lakers' potential has been exhausted. Even though Kobe is still one of the league's top stars, he will be approaching the age of 35 next year. That is the watershed when the superstars of all generations have experienced a sharp decline.

He likes the Lakers' market, but he doesn't like the Lakers' current competitiveness, and he doesn't like sitting in the second position and supporting an old man who is about to decline.

That's it for Kobe and the Lakers, LeBron has to do what's good for LeBron.

But this summer is not a good time.

The only ones who can be called superstars in the free market are him and Kobe, and Kobe will definitely stay with the Lakers. If James wants to start a new team, he can only find some inferior helpers.

Bosh thus came into his sight.

In terms of strength, Bosh was one of the top power forwards in the Eastern Conference before he went to Seattle to lick the soles of the GOAT. Last season, he was forced to play center for a year. He had no statistics, no honors, and even did not get the most basic respect. He wanted to stay and compete for a fifth consecutive championship, but the Supersonics waved their hands and told him to go away.

Although Bosh has never spoken ill of his former team and GOAT, James doesn't believe that Bosh doesn't hate Seattle and the GOAT who never came forward to help him.

So, James decided to work with Bosh.

He believed this was the right decision because Bosh had been "trained" by the GOAT.

Bosh can sacrifice his tactical position to cater to the GOAT, and can do the same thing around him.

They hit it off immediately, the question was which team to join.

This summer is not a good time to get together.

Because there are few big-name superstars in the free market, the teams with championship potential have a stable structure and cannot accept James and Bosh.

This prompted James' team to launch Plan B.

If "The Decision" in 2009 made James infamous, and the failure of the Evil Empire made him completely synonymous with a loser, now that several years have passed, Cleveland's hatred for him still exists, but what if he "comes to his senses" and wants to "turn back" and give back to his hometown like the GOAT?
Who can resist such a beautiful story?

The fans' stance can change as the situation changes. The only problem is Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert.

Gilbert has a huge prejudice against James, but at a time when the rebuilding schedule is nowhere in sight, accepting James' return and making the team a competitor again can effectively activate the local market.

The nature of a businessman is profit-seeking. As long as the profit is high enough, even his own father will be sold.

Therefore, Gilbert accepted James' plan to sign Bosh first and then wait for the other party's next arrangement.

James' decision is what Nike wants to see.

Durant has already gone to New York, which is the largest market in the NBA. As Kobe gets older, James is the only active superstar under Nike, but this superstar has a terrible reputation.

How to do?
A Hong Kong actress who became famous for making X-rated films once said, after becoming a big hit in the mainstream film market, that she would put back on all the clothes she had taken off one by one.

This is actually the specific process of whitewashing.

Start to clean up where you started to be criticized, with standards, formulas, and proper emotions. Note that the whole process is prioritized by importance, and don't be too emotional, like the filial son who said "Obito is the most handsome" and disgusted people.

Therefore, in the next few days, the outside world began to lay the groundwork.

First, a media close to James broke the news that "Looking back, LeBron thinks he still has unfinished business in Cleveland."

Brian Windhorst, an ESPN reporter known as James' mouthpiece, broke the news: "LeBron has reconciled with Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert!"

WOJ also got inside information later: "LeBron will return to Cleveland in a sign-and-trade."

Then, on July 7, LeBron James' famous "Letter to My Fellow Countrymen" came out two years ahead of schedule against this background.

Speaking of public relations documents written by stars, no article in NBA history is more moving than this one.

However, today's James did not return with a second championship like in the main timeline. He is not regarded as the best player in the league at the moment, and no one thinks that this decision can affect the league's landscape. In fact, those who really know the inside story know that Cleveland is just a backup for James.

Before James made his decision, the Rockets and the Warriors tried their best to recruit him, especially the Warriors, who tried every possible means to recruit James, but because they only had one star, Joe Johnson, they were rejected.

James would not return to the Cavaliers if there was a better option.

This is a helpless decision.

It is precisely this helpless core that almost determines that a third "decision" will occur in the future.

But at the moment, this decision did help James regain a lot of popularity.

Americans like stories about great men who go astray, suffer humiliation and setbacks, and then suddenly repent and return to the right path.

This is also the reason why screenwriters of film and television dramas like to whitewash villains.

In the same dimension, villains are always easier to stand out than heroes because their bottom line is already low enough, so when they decide to do something good, the audience will feel it particularly strongly.

James' camp cleverly captured this public psychology and performed a good show for the national audience in the summer when James played for the country.

Presti doesn't want to see the outside world's attention and public opinion being manipulated by superstars.

But he also knew that if Yu Fei's camp were to do something similar, they would do it even better.

It took Yu Fei a year's preparation to return to Seattle, and he finally returned as a savior. How brilliant was that?
Since then, the free market has ceased to be dominated by management.

In other words, since Yu Fei set the precedent of signing a short-term second contract, the management has been put in shackles.

They have to serve the stars, and if they cannot build a competitive team for them within a limited time, they will choose to leave.

After several years of development, this kind of star empowerment led to Kobe and James choosing to form a team in the summer of 2009.

Hence the situation we have today.

As for the relationships among the stars, the execution power of the initiators of the group is far greater than the operation of the management.

These people choose the right team to board like parasites. The success or failure of the season depends on them, and the management is only responsible for signing the players they recruited.

Is this still a healthy professional basketball league?
In the long run, is there any need for management to exist?

Presti doesn't know, but he should probably thank James for making so many things happen, so that the negative public opinion that the Supersonics gave up their own team and ignored the mercenaries will be reduced. So when the Cavaliers became the protagonist of the free market, what did Presti do?

He signed Hasheem Thabeet, the No. 2009 pick in .

This player, who had the highest theoretical ceiling in the 2009 draft, played at the theoretical lower limit of that underrated draft class.

After Thabeet was selected as the second pick by the Kings in 2009, he averaged 3 points and 3 rebounds per game in his first year. Then the league was shut down. Last season, he averaged 1 point and 1 rebound per game. After the season, the Kings did not even exercise their team option and directly let him go, thus announcing that this second pick was a complete failure.

Tabeet is the epitome of the current decline of the inside line. He only has talent, and the only skill that can reach the NBA threshold is rim protection, but the ability to protect the rim alone is far from enough for an inside line.

Presti chose to sign him simply to find a substitute for Stoudemire and did not expect him to play a big role.

The Supersonics wanted to recruit players by using the name of the dynasty, but found that their attractiveness had greatly decreased.

The subsequent impact caused by the improper handling of Chris Bosh's contract extension will not disappear in a few days.

Presti can sign players like Thabeet who still have some talent, but he can't convince those veterans who have become free agents to join the Supersonics.

For example, Ray Allen and Vince Carter became free agents this summer.

Presti hopes to use the reputation of flying to convince Ray Allen to accept the veteran minimum salary and come to Seattle for one last try.

"Frye has plenty of phones," Ray Allen said haughtily. "If he wants to team up with me, let him call me himself."

Allen's attitude was very clear.

Veteran base salary? It's not unacceptable, but Yu Fei must call and recruit him personally.

If the SuperSonics only send the management, there will be no sincerity at all.

Ray Allen does not have a strong desire for a championship because he won two rings in Milwaukee early on, and now he cares more about team status and salary.

The Sonics want him? It's simple. Give him a retirement contract and he will definitely come.

But with the Sonics' current salary space, the most they can give Ray Allen is an incomplete mid-level contract.

Presti didn't want to disturb Yu Fei. Due to the needs of the team, the management had to prove that they could achieve something without relying on superstars.

However, without Yu Fei's guarantee, the Supersonics were not popular.

Presti first hit a wall with Ray Allen, and then failed to convince Vince Carter.

Soon after, Ray Allen accepted a mid-level contract from Miami.

Vince Carter signed a four-year, $4 million contract with the Timberwolves.

Neither of the two powerful veterans who had a close relationship with Yu Fei chose Seattle. Presti finally used the middle-class exception on former Rockets player Carl Landry.

In terms of age and combat effectiveness, Landry is no worse than the two who rejected the Supersonics.

But Landry is a power forward, and he is not popular in the era of space basketball. He is a traditional power forward who catches the ball.

Nowadays, players like Landry either switch to center or develop three-point shooting range. The NBA can hardly tolerate power forwards who lack three-point threat.

This can be regarded as an explanation from Presti to the fans. After all, the mid-level exception selected a good role player.

However, this is the extent of the Supersonics' reinforcement.

Veterans prefer to regard the Nets, Heat and Spurs as more convenient through-trains to the championship. No one wants to join a ruthless team that is falling apart and ruthless to mercenaries.

Yu Fei had already expected this result.

This is also the reason why he refused to get involved in the team affairs. It was he who recruited Bosh, but now he has left and the team has not given Bosh any respect. Although Bosh had asked Yu Fei not to interfere in advance, he is also responsible for the development of the situation to this point.

His biggest responsibility was that he failed to see the true nature of Clay Bennett.

It's too late to say anything now. He can only give himself a vacation, spend this time and wait for the new season to arrive.

By the end of July, the fate of free agents was almost decided. Except for the Cavaliers, no weak team changed its competitiveness by signing players in the free market.

The rest is trading.

The Cavaliers first signed Bosh, then used a sign-and-trade to get the Lakers to take on his high contract, and subsidized two first-round picks to free up space.

Then they have to take a crucial step.

Danny Ainge, feeling that the team's championship window was about to close, decided to trade Pierce and Garnett while they were still competitive.

The Cavaliers took action immediately.

After days of wrangling, the Cavaliers sent Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and first-round picks in 2017 and 2019 to the Celtics in exchange for 36-year-old Kevin Garnett.

In theory, the trading value of McGee, who has not yet made his NBA debut, is comparable to that of an All-Star player.

But Angie never trades, but once he does, he will go all-in with his opponent and absorb his essence.

The Cavaliers have no choice but to accept a premium trade if they want to quickly strengthen the team.

This is the price of empowering stars.

They sell the dream of winning the championship to the team, but the premise is that the team has to give up its own future.

The Cavaliers welcomed back James, but this James was more realistic than before he left. He didn't have the patience to wait for McGee to grow, so trading McGee in exchange for a third All-Star was an agreement reached between James and Dan Gilbert before he returned to the team.

Gilbert kept his promise.

Now, with the new season not even started yet, the Cavaliers only have three first-round picks left in the next seven years.

This is not the end. If necessary, the remaining three first-round picks will also be traded through swaps.

After the team got Garnett, James could finally participate in the Olympics without distraction.

In August, the Olympic Games opened in London.

Not only Cleveland, Seattle is also paying attention to the Olympics because Brandon Roy is one of the official players of this Dream Team.

Yu Fei had advised him in advance that for a glass man like him, it would be best to rest and recuperate during the offseason and not put extra burden on the body, but Roy still participated in the training camp and eventually became a starter.

This was Roy's personal choice, and Yu Fei could only respect and bless him. When the Olympics began, Elizabeth Olsen was still a month away from her due date, and the GOAT, who had always been in the media's spotlight, became more low-key than ever before.

During this period, the only news Yu Fei heard about the Olympics was that Roy continued to fight despite a minor injury during the competition and bravely helped the US team defeat Spain again in the final and defend the Olympic championship.

In September, Yu Fei was nervously waiting for the due date.

The day he had been looking forward to all year was approaching.

His life might never be the same again.

He often mentions the word responsibility, but that usually refers to the responsibility of star players to the team.

That is the responsibility of a leader, but what about the responsibility of a father? He doesn't know.

Probably no one knows.

No man under 30 can say he is mature enough and ready to be a father.

But your baby won't wait for you to be ready.

Yu Fei and Elizabeth Olsen's child was born on the Mid-Autumn Festival in 2012.

It's a boy.

There was nothing unusual happening in Seattle that day, and nothing special happened in the world. There was no sign that this child was unusual.

But he has a narcissistic father, and this narcissism was brought to him by this snobbish world.

So, he decided to give his child a self-confident Chinese name.

Yu Bufan.

The name was decided on the day the child was born.

"I hope he likes it." Yu Fei said with a smile.

The boy cried loudly, and at this time, the child's parents finally discovered what was special about their child - he might be the loudest crying child in the world.

At this moment, the greatest player in NBA history and Hollywood's hot young female star are just ordinary parents, and they have the same illusions as all new parents.

My children are special.

What's special?
He cried very loudly.

Eventually they will find that there is nothing special about it, and the only special thing may even make them doubt their lives for some time in the future.

(End of this chapter)