When pride still matters

Chapter 580 Just Like the Legend

Beating the Heat isn't going to make the Clippers better overnight.

Because life is not like the hot-blooded Japanese sports comics where you can achieve rapid growth by defeating strong opponents. For professional teams, this happens overnight.

Yu Fei achieved magnificent statistics and left harsh words to Wade. The media turned into vultures and gnawed at the wreckage the next day, and then the two participating teams turned their attention to the next game.

This is the most normal way to treat a regular season game.

The Clippers have won three straight games in five away games in the Eastern Conference, which was an unexpected result. Head coach Doc Rivers expected them to lose last night's game against the Heat, but they unexpectedly won.

This illustrates the unpredictable nature of competitive sports.

Of course, it also shows that the Clippers with GOAT are a team that can create miracles.

With the morale of defeating the defending champions, the Clippers arrived at the fourth stop, Orlando.

Since Howard left the team, the Magic have been wandering on the road of reconstruction.

They will not be a stumbling block for the Clippers, because the "tanking battle" to sprint to the 2014 draft has already begun.

Teams like the 76ers, who have been focused on preparing for the 2014 draft since Day of the season, are already so far ahead that they have all but locked up a last-place spot.

This deprived those teams that made up their minds only a month after the start of the new season of the opportunity to catch up.

After all, if one team can openly tell fans to “trust the process” in order to secure a high draft pick, then other teams will just have to fight for the second-to-last pick.

Now, the road ahead is long and the battle to be the worst has just begun, but it is very important to establish the "last advantage" in the early stage. Therefore, whether in terms of combat effectiveness or the overall goals of the team, the Magic will not compete with the Clippers.

The cursed Clippers made it through with ease.

Although people often say that the Clippers have bad luck, their five-game road trip went unusually smoothly.

"Our goal is to go home with a winning streak." Rivers said ambitiously, "You know, Kevin Durant grew up under Frye, and Frye knows how to deal with KD."

Yu Fei, who knows Durant's strength, never claims to be Durant's mentor, because Durant is obviously the kind of player who can stand out in any environment - even if Larry Brown is his rookie season coach. However, there are some titles that Yu Fei cannot refuse if he wants to.

Rodman opens his autobiography, As I Wanna Be, with a stark statement about the truth of influence: Fame and fortune are bitches.

Whether you like it or not, people will come to you because of your reputation. Yu Fei's role as Durant's mentor has long been recognized by the outside world, and even Durant himself does not deny it.

This was the first time Yu Fei met Durant after leaving Seattle. He was going to explain a few words on behalf of Rivers, but Durant spoke first: "Doug is right, you are my mentor, you know me well."

Yu Fei asked with a fake smile: "Do you really think so?"

"But I don't think students are necessarily worse than teachers," Durant said. "For two years, I have been considered top three in the league. I know what this means is that I am ranked third in the league."

Yu Fei wondered what was wrong with this.

"I'm tired of being No. 3," Durant continued. "You know what the most important thing I learned from being around you is?"

"Get engaged to a woman with big breasts?" Yu Fei joked.

Apparently, the instructor's sense of humor did not impress the students.

"If you want to be the best, be the best." Durant said, "This is what I learned from you, and I'm ready!"

Are you sure you want to start with me? Although my team is not doing well now, I am still the No. 1 player in the league. You, the No. 3 player in the league, shouldn't you start by challenging the No. 2 player first?

Yu Fei was too lazy to waste his breath, because Durant obviously wanted to start the challenge with him. He thought he was ready. In fact, he was indeed ready.

In the original timeline, the 2013-14 season was Durant's MVP season, and it was also his most glorious year in the Thunder. Unfortunately, ever since he said the classic quote that moved the whole country in his MVP acceptance speech, bad luck has been pouring down on him.

Will this season's Durant be as good as the main timeline? Can he be named MVP in New York? If this happens, he will be the second Knicks player to be named MVP after Willis Reed.

The commercial influence of the NBA during Reed's era was almost negligible, but it was the Knicks led by Reed that integrated the NBA into the business field, making the Knicks, who only won two championships, more influential in popular culture than the Celtics' glory of 11 championships in 13 years.

"Red Auerbach, who has extinguished his cigar forever, may never forgive the sports reporters at the time for ignoring the Celtics dynasty, but the truth may make him unable to rest in peace: the fact is that the Knicks' two championships are even more important to professional basketball than the Celtics' eleven championships.

If Durant becomes the Knicks' second MVP in this era, his popularity may quickly surpass James and Kobe, and he will naturally become Nike's new spokesperson.

But what does this have to do with Yu Fei?

The students are going to attack their supervisors. Can such behavior of betraying teachers and ancestors be tolerated?

The outcome of a game doesn't determine anything, but Yu Fei never wants to be a stepping stone for Durant to win the MVP. He knows that there are a lot of people secretly waiting to see him fail, but that will never happen today. He is confident that he can lead the team to defeat the Knicks.

Although the Knicks are one of the top four teams in the Eastern Conference, their victory or defeat essentially depends on Durant's performance.

DeAndre Jordan looks like he has the potential to compete for DPOY in the next few years, but in the era of space basketball, DPOY is no longer about finding the best defender among a group of strong big men as it used to be. It's more like finding a pig in a pigpen that looks relatively strong.

While the defensive value of the DPOY is vital to the team, in space basketball, even the greatest defender can become a weakness in the opponent's strategy.

Jordan's limitation on the offensive end is that he can only score at the basket, which is his shortcoming.

Last season, in order to liberate the offense of Durant and Jordan, the Knicks also paid a high price to trade Rajon Rondo from Boston.

Facts have proved that this kind of transaction is tantamount to buying horse bones for a large sum of money.

Rondo is a player who is seriously out of touch with the era of space basketball. He is a poor point guard on the offensive end. Even with the top organizational skills in history, he can only play a small part of his potential. He is destined to be restricted by the environment. The only way to unlock all the restrictions is to improve his shooting ability. However, this is exactly what Rondo finds most difficult to do.

This is the core team of the Knicks. It would be fine if we don’t analyze it, but once we analyze it, we can’t help but worry about Durant’s prospects in New York.

However, Yu Fei will not consider these issues for Durant. What he needs to do now is to avoid becoming Durant's stepping stone.

At the beginning of the game, Yu Fei faced Durant in the low post, did the back-to-back move twice, suddenly turned around and shook off Durant, then took a step inside and threw the ball high to score.

"Did I teach you this trick?" Yu Fei asked sarcastically.

Yu Fei no longer rejects the identity of "Durant's mentor" because he found that Durant also admitted it. Since even the person involved has recognized it, why should he be hypocritical? Moreover, although becoming Durant's mentor sounds a bit magical, it makes people feel extremely accomplished when it really happens.

Durant remembered all of Yu Fei's teachings.

"You told me," Durant said, "that a big guy like me isn't suited to micro-stepping."

Yu Fei smiled and pretended to be ashamed and said, "Oh, that's because you didn't have enough core strength to support these steps. When Hakeem Olajuwon played, he used these moves to trick defenders every day. Do you think his steps were not delicate enough?"

Durant was speechless. Was he fooled? No, in fact, it was just a white lie told by Yu Fei considering his physical condition at the time.

Footwork is like passing - if a player who likes to attack discovers the joy of passing, he will study various passing movements and look forward to dancing on the court like white chocolate. The same is true for low-post footwork. The greatest low-post offensive players in history often mastered the best low-post footwork after developing their core strength and offensive skills to the extreme.

This is no coincidence. Low-post offense itself is one of the skills that requires the highest comprehensive quality of the player. Either use your body to crush the opponent, or use your skills to defeat the opponent. People who have both body and skills are almost invincible in the low post.

After a few years, Durant has developed an offensive style that suits his own characteristics. Therefore, even though Yu Fei scored a goal at the beginning, he was not frustrated, and quickly used his height advantage to return a goal in the low post.

However, blindly attacking can only magnify personal influence. If you want to lead your teammates, you need to attract more defense and pass the ball. The Clippers, who already have limited defensive resources, do not like to adopt strategies such as double-teaming because they believe that Yu Fei will not lose to anyone in personal ability.

If Durant dares to fight back, Yu Fei will intensify and leave more wounds on him. Rivers' trust in Fei is completely correct. He experienced the joy of George Karl and Tyronn Lue after coaching GOAT for a month.

Yu Fei is so comprehensive. Not only is he versatile in offense and defense, but he is also a core player with the ball, a wing ace and can play without the ball. He can shoot three-pointers from the outside, can challenge the ball from mid-range, and can beat 95% of NBA players in the low post.

With such an offensive threat that covers all corners of the half court and his vision, based on the current known basketball logic, no defensive system can limit him.

Durant can only compete with him when he is in good form, but Yu Fei's influence on the court is much greater.

He was able to stay ahead of Durant on the offensive end, and also played a mainstay role as a sweeper on the defensive end. In the end, he broke through Durant's defense and forced the Knicks to use double-teaming first.

If the opponent double-teams him, it will be a dead end.

Yu Fei started passing the ball to Griffin and Antetokounmpo.

At the same time, Rivers' understanding of Rondo allowed the Clippers to be more targeted during the game.

Rondo was completely left open on the outside and was unable to get into his own offensive rhythm. It seemed that his every move was calculated by the Pighead Coach.

Durant's offense only lasted the Knicks half court.

Then, starting in the third quarter, Antetokounmpo hit two three-pointers.

This was a game-changing moment.

The Greek Freak's shooting accuracy has exceeded everyone's expectations. Since the start of the season, he has made 1.4 three-pointers per game with a hit rate of 36%.

Most importantly, his shooting form and release are like a shooter's.

The on-the-spot sense and the guaranteed hit rate made Yu Fei firmly believe that in his previous life, Antetokounmpo performed strength training that completely surpassed ball training in order to become stronger.

If he does this, one summer will destroy his muscle memory, and a few years will be enough for him to lose his former ball feel.

Rebuilding muscle memory is like opening a blind box. No one can guarantee that the muscle memory you rebuild will be better than the original one.

Limiting Antetokounmpo's weight gain rate and strength training, so that he can slowly increase his strength while maintaining this shooting feel, will be the focus of the Clippers coaching staff in the next few years.

Once the Greek Freak's three-point shooting got going, the Knicks found it difficult to continue to double-team him.

Durant, who was in hot form in the first half, saw his shooting percentage plummet when facing the tough defense of Du Fei and the help defense of Antetokounmpo. Jordan is still Jordan, and Rondo can't break through. The huge city of New York made celebrity fans such as Spike Lee furious: "FUCK!!! When can we find a reliable helper for KD!!!"

Durant would not give up easily, and he continued to challenge Yu Fei. He could lose the game, but he could not lose the duel with Yu Fei. He thought so, but Yu Fei did not intend to be a stepping stone for Durant in the regular season like James in the main timeline.

Yu Fei will be 31 in a month. Jordan was chasing three consecutive championships at his age, and he has won eight championships. Logically, even a monster who values ​​honors above all else should be tired of it.

There was a time when Yu Fei did show signs of lack of motivation, because there was no one ahead of him who could be surpassed and he had no goal to catch up with.

But the reality of professional sports is that “there can only be one.”

Yu Fei has been the No. 1 player in the league for ten years, and has almost monopolized the championships, so no one dares to question his position. However, in the past two years, his dominance has slightly declined, and players like Wade began to question him after tasting the championship for the first time, and Durant, who went solo, also wanted to take the opportunity to challenge him.

Yu Fei believes that there are many people who have this idea.

These external stimuli actually filled Yu Fei with energy.

Durant was playing one-on-one in the high post, and Yu Fei stood in front of him with the aura of a ghost, his center of gravity slowly lowering, as if he could read the intention of Durant's every move.

Durant changed direction repeatedly, but he couldn't get rid of the defense, which put pressure on himself. He was eager to score and was confident in his height advantage. After several unsuccessful changes of direction, he forced a pull-up shot.

Yu Fei did not jump with him because he knew that Durant would believe in his talent in an emergency.

If Durant really jumped up and raised the ball above his head, almost no one would be able to block his shot. Yu Fei did not intend to give Durant a chance to fight. His right hand turned into a sharp blade and accurately cut off Durant's ball.

Durant, who lost the ball, was like a sailor who had lost his direction. His limbs twitched, and then he watched Yu Fei pick up his ball and quickly rush to the frontcourt.

Yu Fei's back seemed to tell him that it was a little too early to challenge the number one in the alliance.

Yu Fei came to the frontcourt and slammed the ball with one step inside the free throw line.

The Madison Square Garden crowd was stunned; it was the first time they had seen Durant so suppressed in a one-on-one situation.

"You're improving faster than I thought." Yu Fei said to Durant, "But if you want to become the best player in the league, you'll have to wait another five years."

Five years? Durant doesn't want to wait that long.

But Yu Fei just said as a matter of course: "I will probably retire in five years."

In Durant's view, Yu Fei's words were tyrannical and overbearing. His meaning was clear: as long as he was still playing, his position as the No. 30 player in the league would not be shaken, no matter if he was 35 or years old.

Tonight, however, Durant couldn't offer a rebuttal as he once again lost the duel.

Durant gave up psychologically, and the Knicks lost any hope of a comeback.

The remaining quarter or so turned into an exhibition game for the Clippers. They seized every opportunity to dunk, allowing the discerning Knicks fans to experience the charm of the "Los Angeles Explosive Point."

The final score was 114 to 101. The Clippers defeated the Knicks and won all five games in the Eastern Conference. At the beginning of this road trip, the outside world generally believed that they could win at most three games, but in the end, they played better and better and won all the games.

"18 wins and 5 losses." ESPN's Mark Stein wrote in his column news, "Can you believe it? The Clippers are now ranked second in the West and fourth in the league. Frye is dispelling their bad luck!"

Meanwhile, the Sonics, who lost Yu Fei, fell into the lottery zone under Irving's leadership. Roy was injured during the training camp and has not yet returned. The Sonics, who lack a second scoring point, are experiencing the pain of the post-Yu Fei era.

Yu Fei, who led the Clippers to fourth place in the league, is back in the MVP discussion.

The Christmas battle is approaching, and the outside world has begun to look forward to the year-end showdown between Yu Fei's Clippers and James' Cavaliers.

However, just as the league was warming up for the Christmas game, the New Jersey Nets suddenly jumped into the spotlight and made headlines.

The cause of the incident was very simple: Chris Paul was dissatisfied with the professional attitude of some people on the team.

Then, Anthony was injured.

Dwight Howard has publicly stated that he is unhappy playing in New Jersey.

Just when the outside world thought that this was just Howard's complaint, he suddenly requested a trade.

This made TNT's Shaquille O'Neal unable to help. O'Neal had longed for a point guard like Chris Paul as a teammate all his life, but Howard did not know how to cherish it at all.

"When they formed the Big Three, Dwight said he wanted to bring a championship to New Jersey," O'Neal said bluntly. "Now he has nothing and wants to leave because New Jersey can't make him happy? Seriously, don't let this guy call himself 'Superman' anymore. He doesn't deserve the title!"

Yu Fei, who was accidentally watching videos, saw the video of O'Neal criticizing Howard, and reposted it and commented: "An open racist said so."

Afterwards, the old story about O'Neal racially attacking Yao Ming because his All-Star starting spot was taken away by Yao Ming was brought up again.

Yu Fei's casual behavior made the outside world have a deeper impression of him: he really is just as the legend says, always hating those who must be hated.

(End of this chapter)