When pride still matters

Chapter 564 Proof of My Existence
After the media day, the preseason training camp quickly entered an intense rhythm.

At this point, the coaching staff has basically determined the starting lineup for the new season, and will need to gradually clarify the order of rotation of the main players through preseason games.

However, even the pre-season is not enough to fully test the reliability of the bench, because only in the official games can the performance of the substitutes be truly tested.

Therefore, in addition to arranging daily training, the main task of Tyronn Lue's coaching staff every day is to destroy the NBA dreams of several people.

In addition to those players with formal contracts, there are many fringe players without contracts in the training camp. They don't have many opportunities in the SuperSonics.

Soon, those fringe players who didn't qualify were either sent to the Development League or forced to go overseas, leaving only a few people competing for the final roster spots.

Their "day of judgment" will come during the preseason.

This year, the SuperSonics returned to China for the preseason after several years. Their opponent was the Miami Heat, the runner-up of last season's finals.

Even though the Heat are their arch-rivals in the Finals, no one is taking the preseason too seriously.

Yu Fei played 10 more minutes to entertain the audience. In the end, the Heat, who were in better shape, won the game.

The fans may be the biggest winners as the star players of both teams played very hard in the game.

However, these are just superficial phenomena. The players' minds have long been focused on the upcoming new season.

For a team aiming to win the championship, even the regular season is not worth taking too seriously. Just like Yu Fei, he has led his team to win the championship for six consecutive seasons, and winning has almost become a habit.

The Heat are facing a similar situation. Kevin Love's maximum salary contract will take effect this season, and next season, Stephen Curry's maximum salary contract will also take effect, and their rookie contract bonus period will end.

It can be said that these two years are the best time for the Heat to win the championship.

If they can win the championship this season, the Heat's owner may pay a huge luxury tax for the chance to defend the title, just like Clay Bennett did last season. But if they fail to win the championship, the owner is likely to make a more realistic decision due to salary pressure.

The new season is about to begin, but scandals, or jokes, in the sports world never cease.

A few years ago, Greg Oden started drinking because he was depressed after the season was over. Drinking would have been fine, but he also took photos of his second brother with his mobile phone and uploaded them to the Internet, thus starting the "leaky photo era" in the NBA.

Few people want this to happen to themselves. Usually, it is caused by operational errors.

Recently, another person followed in Harden's footsteps. He is not an NBA player, but his traffic is no less than any NBA player. He is Jordan's youngest son, Marcus Jordan. His original intention was to send a photo of the porn star he was obsessed with, but unfortunately he made a mistake and sent it directly to Twitter.

This was not the first time that Xiao Qiao had caused trouble for Lao Qiao. Since he became an adult, Xiao Qiao had been in trouble, including fighting, sexually harassing female bartenders, being arrested for calling call girls, and carrying contraband. Yu Fei could not help but gloat over the misfortune of Xiao Qiao.

This made him think that if his son became like this in the future, he would break his legs.

Thanks to Xiao Qiao, fans have something to talk about and thus get through the last period before the season.

April 10st

Seattle

The defending champion SuperSonics will hold the opening game at home, when the fifth championship banner in team history will be raised at KeyArena.

Their opponent is the San Antonio Spurs, a top team in the Western Conference.

On the night of the game, the veterans of the SuperSonics lined up to receive their rings.

The silver-black army on the opposite side looked indifferent.

Duncan's big eyes blinked, as if they were not jealous at all.

If the SuperSonics were not in the West, perhaps they would not have felt it so obviously, but the SuperSonics won their ticket to the Finals by defeating them in the Western Conference Finals.

No, their connection goes beyond that.

Yu Fei and the Spurs' story began in 2003.

From 2003 to date, Yu Fei only lost the championship in 2005.

The "lucky guy" that year was the Spurs.

Because of the brawl at the Palace of Auburn Hills, the Bucks, who were on track to win three consecutive championships, fell apart, and the Spurs seized the opportunity to win the championship.

This should have been a happy ending, but Yu Fei's subsequent long-term rule successfully rewrote the narrative.

"The Spurs are lucky. If the GOAT hadn't encountered the Auburn Hills Palace Brawl that year, he could have won consecutive championships until 2012."

Such remarks are as disgusting as when Olajuwon took advantage of Jordan's baseball vacation and luckily stole two championships.

The Spurs have experienced such disgusting things twice.

One was the 1999 lockout season championship, which Phil Jackson and Shaquille O'Neal have always claimed should be marked with an asterisk.

Moreover, the Spurs had no way to retort when they said this because the Lakers subsequently won three consecutive championships.

A team that succeeds three times in a row is called a dynasty. If they say you are unlucky, then you are unlucky. Who told you that you only succeeded once?

The same argument was even more persuasive in 2005.

Because Yu Fei has won every championship since 2005, the outside world can start history books and say that the Spurs were just lucky to win the championship.

To this day, the label of "luck" has not been torn off them.

Now he will have to watch Yu Fei receive his eighth ring in his career with his own eyes.

This made the Spurs furious.

The guest was already angry, but the president who presented the ring was strolling leisurely.

David Stern handed out rings one by one, and when he came to Yu Fei, he felt a little emotional.

Who could have thought that Yu Fei could go this far?
Stern himself didn't think he would be able to witness someone dethrone Jordan before he retired.

Moreover, with Yu Fei's momentum, it would be very difficult for later generations to catch up.

"I heard there was a lot of unpleasantness between you and Clay?"

Stern suddenly changed his subject.

Yu Fei asked with a smile: "Looking at what he did, should I feel happy?"

Clay Bennett was a pawn responsible for moving the Supersonics out of Seattle, but now he has become the owner of the Supersonics' basketball market. Stern certainly knows what happened in the meantime.

He also knew why Yu Fei and Bennett had a falling out.

Rather than saying that the two had incompatible personalities, it was the alliance's successful anti-monopoly measures that forced Bennett to do things that Yu Fei could not accept.

Yu Fei knew this problem, but he couldn't blame the alliance because that was the rule of the game.

Bennett was unwilling to continue paying the price to guarantee results, which Yu Fei could not tolerate.

"No matter what you decide to do, remember LeBron's experience," Stern said earnestly. "You are in this position, and your reputation is more important than anything else."

"Don't worry, Mr. President," the GOAT said. "You're standing in front of a man who's about to turn 30. He can handle anything."

Stern smiled, handed the ring to Yu Fei, and walked to the next person.

Whenever he compares Yu Fei to Jordan, he finds that the former is far superior to Jordan in both personality and personal morality. What is Yu Fei's biggest problem as a person? It could be his disrespect for the franchise, or his relentlessness towards his enemies.

But this is not a big problem for GOAT.

Stern was not worried that Yu Fei would suddenly show up in Las Vegas to gamble all night at a critical moment in the playoffs, nor was he worried that he would tell a female reporter at a league meeting that his second leg was very big and asked if she wanted to try it. Jordan had all kinds of problems, both internally and externally. His idol was made of his two three-peat championships, and his team glorified his bad deeds as part of "the ultimate competitor for victory."

From a publicity perspective, Yu Fei does not need such glorification. His biggest personal problem is gender issues. To conservatives, his rapid change of women is a bit too frequent, but recently, he seems to have stabilized.

He was engaged, had a child of his own, and seemed to be embracing a brand new life.

While his personality is purer than Jordan's, his honors have begun to surpass Jordan's.

Such a GOAT seems even more impeccable.

Stern is sure that it will be hard to see anyone getting close to Yu Fei in the next few decades. No, those people's target should be Jordan, and then Yu Fei.

And his assumption is only about Yu Fei now.

When Yu Fei retires, his accumulated honors may be worthy of an unprecedented monument. The president's good intentions could not make this night beautiful.

The Sonics' opponents hope to give the defending champions a night to remember.

At the beginning of the game, the Spurs' performance was eye-catching.

This is the third year of their transformation, and the diversified passing and cutting system has been perfected, coupled with the continued evolution of Paul George and Kemba Walker.

At first glance, the Spurs may have the best starting lineup in the Western Conference.

Walker, Ginobili, George, Duncan and Gasol.

They only have one problem: Duncan and Gasol are hard to defend.

But this problem did not exist tonight, because the Supersonics' outside shooting was inaccurate, but they were beaten by the Spurs' passing and cutting on the defensive end.

Irving, who is determined to lead the team on the defensive end, has become the biggest breakthrough point on the outside.

No matter how good Yu Fei was at defending, he couldn't stop the Spurs from leading by 20 points in three and a half quarters. Then the Supersonics fought to the end to defend the glory of the championship and eventually caught up to 11 points.

But the defeat is hard to change.

117 is better than 106
The Spurs defeated the SuperSonics on the road, giving the defending champions a profound lesson.

"The departure of Kevin Durant, Chris Bosh and DeAndre Jordan is not only a decline in talent, but also makes the Supersonics lose their height and length advantages. They are no longer a team with outstanding athletic ability." ESPN expert Zach Lowe commented after watching the opening game, "This is fatal for a team that is accustomed to using athletic ability to strengthen defense."

Luo said it very subtly.

Defense is the biggest problem for the Supersonics right now, and it is also an unsolvable problem.

Among the starting five, Roy, Irving, Yu Fei, Parsons and Stoudemire, only Yu Fei is an excellent defender, Parsons is a "smart team defender", Irving and Stoudemire are both mediocre defenders, and Roy's defense is neither good nor bad.

Such a defensive configuration generally requires the person who is good at defense to defend with all his strength, and leave the offense to others.

But the Supersonics are not yet luxurious enough to let Yu Fei focus on defense.

Therefore, their defense is bound to have problems of one kind or another, but what Tyronn Lue expected from the beginning was to suppress the opponent with offense.

But Stadler's actual combat status disappointed everyone.

I thought he would still have quasi-All-Star numbers like 20 points and 7 rebounds per game after returning from a serious injury.

As a result, two weeks into the season, Stoudemire averaged only 14 points and 6 rebounds per game, with a shooting percentage of 57%, but he basically finished with a dunk. He had no one-on-one ability and his mid-range shooting had also deteriorated.

Lue watched for two weeks and couldn't tell the difference between Stoudemire and Carl Landry off the court.

In the third week, Stoudemire began to hit a low point. He was continuously suppressed by his opponents, and his statistics and shooting percentage began to decline. Only when facing weak teams did he get 20 points and 10 rebounds to make up for his statistics.

Less than a month into the new season, the SuperSonics have already become convinced that the trade of Durant for the second pick and Stoudemire has failed, at least in terms of Stoudemire.

Fortunately, they didn't put their hopes on the inside.

Irving's performance was gratifying.

He was a little unaccustomed to confrontation at the beginning of the season, but starting from the second week, he got into the game.

Although he is not the main ball handler, he can pose a threat every time he gets the ball. The pick-and-roll coordination with Yu Fei is more threatening than the pick-and-roll offense of Roy and Yu Fei.

On the eve of Thanksgiving, the Supersonics played against the Cavaliers away.

The Cavaliers, with the Big Four of James, Garnett, Bosh and Wall, have naturally risen this season and become one of the top teams in the East.

That night, Bosh wanted to prove to his former team at the Cavaliers' home court what a mistake it was to let him go.

He and Garnett devoured the Sonics' inside line.

However, once the Sonics accept the assumption that "my inside players are vulnerable to attack by thousands of people, so what?", their outside players will act recklessly.

On a night when the inside was destroyed, Yu Fei held the ball, Irving and Roy assisted, and the three outside players simultaneously reached their best form.

全场比赛，于飞轰下41分11篮板12助攻，罗伊砍下30分6篮板4助攻，欧文拿到32分4篮板5助攻，三人合砍103分21篮板20助攻，纯靠外线火力，挡拆进攻和球星点名单打把骑士队打爆了。

James scored a triple-double of 30 points, but Bosh and Garnett both had double-doubles. Wall was the only star whose performance was not up to par. It can be said that the Cavaliers lost because of this.

ESPN's headline for this game was: "The Sonics' way to win is to take turns cashing in on John Wall."

"We need to go back and study the video and find out the problem," James said.

Wall responded: "I had no feeling, no ball, and I couldn't get into the state."

James' return was devastating to Wall.

The Kings cannot be without the ball for a day, and Wall, as the core point guard, cannot be without the ball, because his shooting is not good enough. If he is not given the ball, he will be useless without the ball.

At the beginning, James was patient, but after a long time, he felt that Wall would only hinder the game. Instead of sacrificing his own ball rights to allow the opponent to adapt, it would be better to directly put the opponent into the cold palace and let him find a chance to survive.

Wall believes he can't survive without the ball.

James doesn't think it's his responsibility.

Wall's status in the team has taken a sharp turn for the worse. He is no longer the absolute core of the Cavaliers. The loss of authority will drive people crazy. Once the limit is reached, everyone will choose the most extreme option.

The Supersonics didn't feel much about winning the game.

The only one who felt comforted was the coaching staff. Tonight's victory proved that even if the inside line became a stable ATM for the opponent, their outside line was still trustworthy.

Coach Lu is determined to focus on the outside line.

In late November, the much-criticized Stoudemire was injured under the pressure.

He continues to have spasms in his back and needs to rest.

Coach Lu finally has the opportunity to put a defensive center into the starting lineup.

Now their requirements for the inside line are very low. Scoring? Shooting? Rebounding? None of them are necessary. As long as you can position yourself and protect the basket, it will be good enough.

It’s hard to imagine that half a year ago they still had Chris Bosh in the inside line and DeAndre Jordan sitting on the sidelines. That was such a reassuring inside presence. How did it suddenly downgrade to this?
Who did it?
Whenever the Sonics' inside line was destroyed, Clay Bennett would be singled out by the media for criticism.

However, such criticism cannot hurt Bennett's foundation.

What really hurt Bennett was the bombshell news in early December.

"Frye refused to renew his contract with the SuperSonics in advance, and he intends to test the free market next summer." - ESPN
Since the summer, Yu Fei's camp has been hinting and the media has repeatedly reported that his relationship with Bennett has deteriorated. Although the fans don't want to believe it, it will eventually come.

Refusing to renew the contract is already a clear signal.

Before the next game, Yu Fei faced questions from the outside world and responded calmly: "The only thing I care about now is this season. As for the future, I'll leave it to time."

As long as Yu Fei continues to play the "I haven't decided yet" card, the outside world will not be able to draw a definite conclusion.

At the same time, the Sonics seemed to have no ripples due to his contract renewal issue. Only one thing continued to worsen - Stoudemire's back injury.

Half a month has passed, and his comeback timetable is still unclear.

The fans had almost forgotten his existence, and so had his teammates, as his absence had not had much of an impact on the team's results.

December 12st was predicted by the Mayan calendar to be the end of the world.

Although Yu Fei knew that this was just a gimmick, there was no competition today, so he decided to use this gimmick to end the past.

When he was first traded to the Bucks, in order to increase his popularity, the team opened a radio program for him, allowing him to regularly answer questions from fans. As his fame grew, the popularity of the radio program soared, and the copyright was even transferred to his name. However, as he became busier and busier, the radio program went from weekly to monthly, and now, his last program was half a year ago. Today, media people such as Bill Simmons have turned to blogs, and radio is no longer so popular.

So he decided to do his last radio show on the day of the Mayan apocalypse.

Due to the preheating half a month in advance, the calls that night were endless. Many Seattle listeners called to express their gratitude and blessings to Yu Fei, some begged him to stay, and some asked about his future plans.

"Frye, I really hope today is the end of the world. In this way, you will always be a member of the SuperSonics. I can't imagine you wearing the jersey of another team, I really can't." This was the last call of the night.

"Ted," Yu Fei said, "No matter what, I will always be here as a part of the Sonics. The flag over the KeyArena is proof of my existence. I will always be here."

(End of this chapter)