When pride still matters

Chapter 596 Curse Game
As 2014 drew to a close, Yu Fei completed another major event in his life.

On his 32nd birthday, he married his fiancée Elizabeth Olsen. This moment was like a chess piece that had been hanging in the balance for a long time, and finally settled.

Their relationship began during the shutdown, and Olsen's pregnancy further solidified their relationship. Yu Fei proposed to her shortly after. However, engagement does not necessarily mean marriage, so there has been speculation whether Yu Fei and Olsen can really get married.

Now, all these speculations have disappeared.

The 32-year-old Yu Fei finally chose the "tree" in his life, as if the prodigal son wanted a stable home after experiencing the wind and rain.

With the witness of relatives and friends, Yu Fei completed the wedding, kissed his wife, and hugged his three-year-old son. He felt extremely satisfied with his current life.

However, some people have raised the question: "Will a happy family life make Fry lose his ambition?"

This kind of doubt is quite attractive in the market. At the beginning of 2015, the Clippers lost to the Kings in Sacramento, which undoubtedly intensified the speculation from the outside world.

The Kings are not a strong team. They have been in a rebuilding state since the golden era led by Chris Webber ended in the mid-2000s.

NBA small-market teams in the process of reconstruction have difficulty recruiting star players through the free market due to their lack of attractiveness. Usually, such teams will choose to play badly to win high draft picks, hoping to select talented players who can change the fate of the team through the No. 1 pick.

However, even with the No. 80 pick, there is a risk of selecting a bust like Kwame Brown or Michael Olowokandi. The Kings have always had bad luck in the draft, and they have not won the No. pick since the late s.

The No. 1 pick often ensures the team's bottom line, but players outside of the No. 1 pick are often either not talented enough or lacking in skills, and selecting them is extremely risky. The Kings have taken many draft risks over the years, but have never been able to select the chosen one who can turn the situation around.

Last year, they used the third pick to select Joel Embiid, who had injury risks. As a result, Embiid was soon reimbursed for the season due to injury, which seemed to once again confirm the outside world's doubts about the Kings.

But it was this much-ridiculed team that handed the Clippers their fourth loss of the season in the new year, and the outside world began to question the Clippers' strength.

That’s the beauty of big city media.

Although Los Angeles and Seattle are both big cities, the difference is that Los Angeles has the largest media camp in the world. The Lakers have always occupied the support of the local media, while the Clippers lack such resources. Before Yu Fei joined the Clippers, the team had always been despised by the outside world. Even though they performed well at the beginning of the season, doubts never disappeared. People were worried that this "cursed" team would encounter misfortune again.

The Clippers were in poor form after Yu Fei's wedding, which seemed to have given the media an opportunity to satirize them.

However, Yu Fei did not care about the defeat. He said bluntly: "We really don't care about what those people think." This statement completely angered the proud media. "When we win, they will praise us as the king; now because of a small mistake, they start to talk about the curse and the history of the Clippers. If they really care about history, they won't care about us, because no one cares about the Lakers now. Only by talking about the Clippers can they make the headlines!"

Although what Yu Fei said makes sense, such bluntness is undoubtedly an offense to the media.

Even if he is the GOAT, he cannot escape the fate of being criticized for such bold criticism of the "fourth power".

JD Roten, a columnist for the Los Angeles Daily News, immediately criticized the situation by writing: "Long-term victories have given Frye hallucinations. Perhaps the Clippers' biggest enemy is not the illusory curse, but Frye's arrogance. The most successful basketball player in history also has the greatest arrogance in history!"

Soon after, various tabloids followed suit. A short defeat triggered an overwhelming amount of negative coverage.

Yu Fei couldn't help but think of the scenes in his previous life when Curry or James would be madly criticized by those "basketball experts" on online forums after they lost.

In this world under the magnifying glass of public opinion, the media scrutinizes every move and statement of players and magnifies their shortcomings infinitely. Even occasional mistakes can be spread like a virus on social media. A complaint forwarded by dozens of people may quickly turn into a storm sweeping the Internet, magnifying a small mistake infinitely and covering up the truth of the entire incident.

Professional players are like shadows living in a mirror. Their every move and decision will be interpreted dozens of different ways under the scrutiny of the outside world, and they may even be forced to respond to these interpretations.

However, Yu Fei knows how to silence these voices. All the doubts and negative opinions stem from their loss to the Kings. As long as they start winning, the mocking voices will disappear, and they will be replaced by Yu Fei's supporters, who will fight for him online and settle accounts with those who are pessimistic.

This is the future ecology of professional basketball: losers become tools for the media to attract traffic, while winners will be ridiculed on the Internet after experiencing only one setback.

However, Yu Fei did not intend to let those people be proud for too long.

Two days later, the Clippers challenged the Grizzlies away. Yu Fei played hard throughout the game, and did not leave the court even in garbage time. He only relied on low-post back-ups, made 28 of 20 shots, and scored 53 points, 14 rebounds, 5 assists and 4 blocks. The Grizzlies were vulnerable and returned in defeat.

After the game, Yu Fei faced the media and asked, "Those who said we were cursed, what do you say now?"

"The curse is lifted?"

"How is that possible? How can they make something that doesn't exist disappear?" Yu Fei laughed. "I'm sure they'll continue talking about the curse when we lose another game."

Cursing seems to have become a new and interesting topic.

There are many curses in American sports history, the most famous of which is the Holy Child Curse of the Boston Red Sox. However, as the Red Sox won the championship at the beginning of the century, no one mentioned it anymore.

The person who is most enthusiastic about hyping the Clippers' "curse" is Bill Simmons.

As one of the most influential basketball writers on the Internet since the 21st century, he actually hates the "Curse of the Holy Child". In his opinion, it is just a gimmick for the Red Sox to be hyped up by the outside world. He has personally experienced almost all the important games of the Red Sox in recent decades and knows the real reason why they lost at those critical moments.

However, when it comes to the Clippers, this writer who once firmly opposed the curse theory asserts that the Clippers are indeed "cursed." Moreover, this curse always strikes at the most critical moment.

To enhance his persuasiveness, Simmons used last season as an example: "If Blake Griffin hadn't been injured, I believe the Clippers would have won Game 6 and defeated the Spurs in Game 7. I believe Frye could have played a decisive role in the 'win or go home' game! But God didn't give them the chance. Blake was injured, and the timing and consequences of the injury directly led to the Clippers losing the opportunity to make further history. Isn't this a curse? The Clippers have suffered bad luck for thirty consecutive years. How else can it be explained except as a curse?"

Yu Fei has disliked Simmons for many years.

He thinks Simmons is full of twisted ideas and often makes jokes that go beyond the line in discussions. This is not a problem in itself, the real problem is his double standards. For example, when talking about the Red Sox, Simmons would use thousands of words to refute the "Christ Child Curse" as a commercial gimmick. Now, he attributes the Clippers' misfortunes to the so-called "curse."

This made Yu Fei even more dissatisfied, although he did not intend to refute the other party directly for the time being.

Simmons's output of articles is not as high as before, but his podcast is quite good, with one almost every day, and each episode raises a controversial topic. How can one argue with that?
The most effective way to deal with such a person is to attack what he loves.

So Yu Fei checked the schedule.

The Clippers will face the Celtics on January 1.

He noted the date on his memo.

The Clippers' "curse" became the traffic code in the professional basketball world in 2015.

Although this is not what the Clippers want, the media can use decades of misfortune as "evidence", and the fans will buy it. Even the Clippers themselves launched souvenirs that say "the curse does not exist". Although it is to counter the curse argument, it still attracted a lot of attention.

The topic of "curse" shifted from the media to television programs.

TNT produced a special issue about the Clippers, inviting three basketball legends from different generations, Dr. J, Barkley and O'Neal, to discuss whether the "curse" is credible. Dr. J said that the Buffalo Braves, the predecessor of the Clippers, was once a good team, but since the relocation, everything seems to have gone wrong.

Ironically, although the Clippers lost only five games in the first third of the regular season, had good chemistry within the team, young players grew rapidly, and veterans enjoyed a second spring, there are still many people outside who believe that they have not escaped the so-called curse and may be in trouble at any time.

The Clippers finally waited for the Celtics.

Although the cause of the incident had nothing to do with the Celtics, the "curse" public opinion was brought about by Simmons.

As the most famous Celtics fan in the world, what's wrong with Simmons making the Celtics pay for his actions?

The Celtics have been unlucky in recent years.

Ainge didn't know what was wrong with the team. Nothing good had happened to them since the Big Three were formed in the summer of 2007.

It seemed that all their luck had been sucked away by someone.

The Celtics' Big Three at their peak were defeated by the embryonic Supersonics Empire and never had a chance to compete for supremacy again.

Ainge started rebuilding last year. In order to get the new generation of defensive expert Larry Sanders, they sent Pierce and Rivers to the Clippers, which solved the problem that the latter had neither powerful veterans to support the team nor a head coach.

Of course, the Celtics got rich rewards.

Although Sanders is not good at offense, he has coveted talent. Just relying on his talent, he has the hope of becoming the Ben Wallace of the 2010s. No, his ceiling is higher than that of Big Ben.

Before the trade, everything was fine for Sanders.

However, since last season, Sanders has been injured frequently, and before he was injured, he didn't know what happened and suddenly began to turn his attention to his other hobbies.

Music, poetry, calligraphy and painting, basketball are no longer important in his life.

Before the start of this season, Saunders broke the news to Ainge that made his blood boil: "I have lost interest in basketball."

Then, shortly after the start of the new season, Marcus Smart, Rondo's successor selected by Ainge with the eighth pick, was out for the season.
With two promising rookies unable to play, the Celtics have lost all hope for the game. The only thing they have to do now is to lose, get a high draft pick, and continue to draw the lottery.

Because of the time-traveling effect, the Celtics lost not only the 2008 championship, but also the infamous Billy King trade that directly helped them complete their reconstruction.

Now, Garnett and Pierce are gone, but all the Celtics got was the Cavaliers' first-round pick and Sanders' poetry and distance.

What is going on? Why has the reconstruction turned out like this?

Angie couldn't understand, and there were many things he couldn't understand.

For example, the Clippers, who are ranked first in the league, launched a fatal attack on their team, which is ranked second to last in the Eastern Conference.

In the first quarter, the Clippers led by 16 points.

At the end of the first half, the score difference widened to 38 points.

This was just the beginning. In the third quarter, the Clippers' three-point rain was even more intense, scoring 42 points in a single quarter and widening the gap to 55 points.

In the fourth quarter, the Clippers still showed no mercy and eventually ended the game with a huge advantage of 76 points, completely destroying the Celtics' dignity.

"Frye, is your game tonight related to Bill Simmons?"

Unlike old-fashioned people like Angie who don't pay much attention to current affairs, the Boston media is obviously aware of the recent public opinion trends.

Yu Fei smiled easily: "You can say yes, and you can also say no. We just want to tell Bill through this game that if there really is a curse, then the cursed one must be his beloved Celtics."

"I admit that the Clippers have not had a smooth journey in the past few decades," Yu Fei continued, "but no matter how bad it is, it can't be worse than the Celtics after 1986, right?"

Yu Fei began his penetrating memory recovery technique.

"The Celtics picked a second overall pick who died suddenly on the night of the draft. Not long after, you witnessed your new captain die suddenly on the court due to heart problems. Next, it was my favorite Rick Pitino era. I still remember the DC media reporting Pitino's famous quote: 'Larry Bird, Kevin McHale and Robert Parish will never walk out of that door again.' Do you want me to continue? You missed Tim Duncan with a 30% chance, Paul Pierce was almost stabbed to death in a Boston bar, and the Big Three couldn't even beat the 2008 Supersonics. What is Larry Sanders doing? Why isn't he playing? Marcus Smart was ruled out for the season before he could even show his talent. Do you still expect to win another championship? What is a curse? I think this is the real curse!"

The topic of the curse has completely reversed since then, and the media's focus has shifted to the Celtics.

They found that what Yu Fei said was true.

There are many unlucky teams in professional sports, but how many are as unlucky as the Celtics, whose season-ending losses range from bad to fatal?

Why did the "Holy Child Curse" become popular back then? Because the curse was backed by a heavyweight figure like Babe Ruth.

The media carnival is always short-lived, but the misfortune of being named by celebrities will last.

The Celtics were unlucky in the past, they are unlucky now, will they continue to be unlucky in the future?
If this continues, a new "Holy Child Curse" will be born.

However, this time, the role of "Holy Child" was played by Yu Fei.

A day later, public opinion fermented violently, and the Celtics replaced the Clippers and became the focus of the "curse".

Bill Simmons lost control of his emotions in a podcast and tried his best to defend the Celtics' series of tragedies. He called on fans to respect the deceased and not be misled by public opinion. He insisted that there was no curse and that the Celtics were still the most successful team in NBA history.

"Bill, I have to correct you," Simmons' former colleague Mark Stein retorted on Twitter. "The Celtics were the greatest NBA team before 1984, but that has nothing to do with the modern NBA. The Celtics have only won one championship in the modern NBA. In this case, your historical status is probably not as good as the Detroit Pistons. How can you be great?"

The sharp questioning from the media made Simmons even crazier, but no matter how he defended himself, once the tide of public opinion was set in motion, it would not subside easily.

The game started the way he wanted it to, but it never ended the way he expected.

This is the real "Curse Game".

(End of this chapter)