When pride still matters

Chapter 620: The Little Thing of Farewell
After the draft, the Clippers held a championship celebration.

This is the continuation of victory.

Deepening the team's connection with the city through such grand celebrations was, in the past, exclusive to the Lakers.

Although there are many professional teams in Los Angeles, most of them seem to be just supporting roles. Only the Lakers have continued to demonstrate their outstanding strength since the 60s, winning championships many times in multiple eras, and deeply implanting the Purple and Gold Dynasty into the memory of this city.

However, with the passing of old Bass, those glory days are fading away.

In the age of social media, information spreads faster, and the Clippers have begun to divide Los Angeles basketball fans with just two championship trophies.

Clippers owner Steve Ballmer excitedly announced that the team's new arena plans have entered a new phase.

However, what fans are most concerned about is Yu Fei's future.

They learned through various channels that Yu Fei would exercise his player option and become a free agent.

However, Yu Fei then gave them a reassurance.

He promised that by this time next year, he would lead the team to a comeback and win three consecutive championships.

This declaration triggered thunderous cheers from the audience.

At the same time, the Lakers also announced that they had reached a three-year, $3 million contract extension with Kobe.

In terms of the amount, Kobe did take a small pay cut.

This is to free up some salary cap space for the team to strengthen the roster in the offseason. However, this salary reduction is not enough to sign another star player.

But the decision was enough to appease the emotions of Lakers fans.

After all, the 38-year-old Kobe still maintains a good competitive form, but the team obviously has no hope of winning the championship.

Under such circumstances, Kobe chose to renew his contract, which means he can still play, and the Lakers are willing to use him to attract box office sales. Both parties get what they want, and the only one who feels helpless is Anthony.

He had to waste his precious youth and spend some "old man fun" time with Kobe.

This was certainly not the result Anthony wanted, so he applied for a trade with clear conditions - he would not move to any city other than a big one, and he would not move to any city that was not competitive.

This makes him look even more clownish because when he signed the contract, he did not ask for a no-trade option to be included in the contract.

This means that the Lakers can either meet or not meet the so-called demands he put forward, depending on the mood of the Lakers management.

Ambitions are high as the sky, but life is fragile as paper. He wants everything, but in the end gets nothing. This is a reflection of Anthony's career.

The Lakers farce is just about to begin, and the retirement season in professional basketball has arrived.

The first thunder of the offseason came from Timberwolves veteran Kevin Garnett.

After 21 years of journey, he decided to stop at his old club and end his career.

Shortly after Garnett decided to leave basketball, another great No. 21 also announced his retirement decision.

Duncan is definitely the most low-key star in the past 20 years.

Most people don't know what he does in the offseason, but when he retired, he got more buzz than Garnett did.

O'Neal said: "The greatest power forward of all time, the indestructible power forward."

Mark Cuban said: "It's a shame that Duncan retired and we didn't get to honor him at a Mavericks-Spurs game. I'm glad I had the opportunity to witness his greatness many times."

Yu Fei did not directly wish Duncan well, but Mark Stein did: "Frye told me that Tim Duncan is the only opponent he can't completely defeat, and he will definitely miss playing against TD."

Playing in the NBA for 19 years and entering the playoffs for 19 consecutive years, this time span speaks for itself.

Garnett wasted too much time with the Timberwolves, and by the time he realized his loyalty might have hurt him, it was too late.

In 2008 in Boston was his last chance to enter the Hall of Champions, but he happened to run into the GOAT who came with a sense of mission.

This summer, the retirement news that really made Yu Fei sad came from within the Clippers.

After 15 years of playing, Kwame Brown, who has eight championship rings, thinks his NBA career is over.

Last season on the Clippers, he was basically a dispensable role, playing in only 24 games, averaging 6 minutes per game, and his statistics were almost negligible.

Everyone knows that he is a vassal of the GOAT, but this insignificant team status is also a torment for a man who once fought against Duncan in the finals.

Brown once joked on Twitter that he would sit on the bench until he got hemorrhoids, but before the hemorrhoids grew out, he had already decided to start a new life.

Yu Fei originally wanted to persuade Brown to play for another year, and the best outcome would be for the two of them to retire together.

Nowadays, there are too many young people in the team. Although veterans like Monta Ellis and Richard Jefferson are Yu Fei's classmates, they had no connection in the past.

Brown is different.

Brown is the only person in the world who can say, “I know how Fry became Fry.”

Yu Fei entered the NBA with him, and together they were trained by the God of Basketball in DC. Brown fell down, but Yu Fei stood up straight. Brown witnessed the scene of him facing Jordan, and also saw how Yu Fei forced Jordan to trade.

Brown followed Yu Fei to Milwaukee, then to Seattle, and finally to Los Angeles.

Brown witnessed 15 of them during Yu Fei's 12 seasons.

This connection cannot be explained in a few words, but when Yu Fei persuaded Brown to play for another year, Brown shook his head and said, "Da Fei, I'm done here."

Thanks to Yu Fei, Brown's career was changed. His basketball career, which should have ended a few years ago, has continued to this day. Because of his association with Yu Fei, he was favored by sponsors and signed a lifetime contract with Reebok. Everyone knows that this is because of the GOAT.

Now, he has decided to retire and live a different life. What reason does Yu Fei have to stop him?

He knew why these people retired.

They didn't announce their retirement with much fanfare, nor did they have a glorious retirement tour. Instead, they just made a seemingly hasty decision to tell people "I've had enough."

how did you do that?
During an athlete’s brief career, their body will make decisions about their next steps.

The excitement of the game, the locker room banter, the camaraderie, the chartered planes and the paychecks all make you want to keep playing, but when your career stretches into the 10th, 15th, or even 20th year, things get complicated.

As you enter middle age, the mental load wears you down. You start to miss your freedom. You have to eat a certain way, sleep a certain way, prepare a certain way. You start to dread those mornings after back-to-back games. You hate waking up early, you’re tired of spending hours in the gym, you’re tired of doing the things you learned a million years ago. You’ve reached your peak, and you know it, so it’s all about killing yourself so you can be 70% as good as you were before. You see those young, frisky teenagers walking around you, always wanting to prove themselves, doing anything possible to compete against you on the court.

So, it’s not about one more year, it’s about 18 and how they add up and how to start subtracting from your current life.

Duncan and Garnett exhausted their strength in their 20-year journey, and their sports careers died of natural causes.

As for Brown, he just didn't want to be a blood-sucking worm attached to a giant anymore.

So if they decide to leave, let them go, thank them for a great game and wish them a great rest of their lives.

And most importantly, never come back.

The free market is coming, and in addition to the farce of the Lakers, there is also Heartbreak 2.0 from Cleveland.

This time, there was no national live broadcast to annoy them.

James announced through his agent Rich Paul that he would test the free market.

It's that simple.

The best thing James has done in the four years since his return to Cleveland from 2012 to now is to get them back to the Eastern Conference Finals, at the cost of a prematurely ended rebuild and a first-round draft pick that is completely out of their control from now until 2020.

Whether these things are worth it is only known by the Cavaliers themselves, but Cleveland has accepted the results.

For them, the second separation was acceptable.

At least he came back and he still loves us. This time we separated only because the Cavaliers are no longer worth remembering.

The Clippers quickly drafted the contract, fully activated the "Yu Fei Clause", and signed a three-year, $3 million contract with Yu Fei.

Despite the unusual team and player options in this contract, it still made Clippers fans cheer.

This contract means that the GOAT will almost certainly play for the Clippers until retirement, and there is no reason for fans not to be excited about this.

For Fei, he broke Jordan's record for the highest annual salary in the NBA since 1996.

But this is nothing to be happy about.

Considering the 3000 million annual salary Jordan received and years of inflation, his money is actually just a numerical surpassing, but it is far from the actual amount.

Moreover, he is not obsessed with surpassing Jordan in anything.

For him, the significance of this contract, as the outside world says, is that it is his last contract.

Whether he plays for another one, two, or three years, he will not have another contract.

These days, apart from participating in various activities and maintaining basic training, the only thing that makes him happy is that his son Yu Bufan made a long shot at home.

At the time, Yu Fei said excitedly: "This little guy's shooting ability is far better than my performance at the same age."

Apart from business and family affairs, Yu Fei no longer cares about NBA news. After signing with the Clippers, Yu Fei completely let the management work run by them, and he enjoyed his vacation.

However, it’s not time to relax yet.

After dealing with the team's contract, another contract was waiting for him.

Yu Fei's endorsement contract with Reebok is about to expire.

The cooperation between the two parties has lasted as long as Yu Fei's career.

It can be said that Yu Fei is to Reebok as Jordan is to Nike.

They are deeply bound together and inseparable. Reebok has also shown its utmost sincerity in this contract, ensuring that Yu Fei will have no worries for the rest of his life with astonishing figures and product dividends.

When Yu Fei signed his second contract with Reebok, he still had the energy to fight with them.

Now, he just asked Laettner to confirm the contract and sign it if there was no problem.

This was a big event for Reebok and a big event off the field, but for Fei, it was a small and insignificant matter.

Everything that might have bothered him was resolved by early July and he would have the whole summer to himself.

But in the NBA, summer has just begun.

Although Anthony's attitude in requesting a trade was ugly and his proposal of "neither leaving" was arrogant, the Lakers did not make things difficult for him.

Big city? Still need to be competitive?

Currently, there is only one team that has both a trade need and fits this positioning.

The Lakers contacted the SuperSonics directly.

Last year, the Sonics signed two inside players in the free market, but ultimately missed the playoffs with only the tenth place in the Western Conference. Irving's rookie bonus period has ended, and the thinker who has been struggling in the NBA for four seasons has begun to roar with dissatisfaction.

To appease him, the Supersonics needed to make a trade.

Greg Monroe's performance with the Supersonics last season was not satisfactory and his contract is significantly overpriced. Now is a good time to trade him.

The Lakers were not picky about this. In addition to taking over Monroe's "junk contract", they also asked the Supersonics to send this year's No. 12 pick Taurean Prince and a future draft pick.

Although Anthony is 32 years old, he is still a star scorer and is far more valuable than Monroe. Since there is an opportunity to get such a reinforcement, the SuperSonics will certainly not miss it.

They also gave away additional first-round picks in 2017 and 2019 in the trade, successfully exchanging Carmelo Anthony from the Lakers.

Even Anthony himself was surprised by the speed and smoothness of the deal.

Anthony then thanked the Lakers management, reflected on the way he requested a trade, and said he couldn't wait to put on the Supersonics jersey.

However, the Lakers management was criticized by fans for this deal.

Not to mention that this deal almost destroyed Kobe's last hope of winning a championship before retirement, the trade target was the SuperSonics? They were the mortal enemy that prevented the Lakers from winning the championship in the 2000s!

Is it so cheap for them?

Lakers management remained silent on this.

In their view, although the contest between the only empire and the evil empire was huge, the hatred between the two teams was far less than the hostility between the Lakers and the Celtics. Moreover, now that both teams are at a low point, the hostile relationship is no longer important.

The completion of Anthony's trade marks the end of this farce for the Lakers.

The little episode in the transaction was that the Rockets sent Dwight Howard to the Memphis Grizzlies like disposing of garbage in exchange for Joakim Noah, who was basically scrapped.

The suspense of Howard's whereabouts was also revealed.

As a result, the only "big fish" left in the free market is LeBron James, who has announced that he will test the free market.

Compared with previous years, there are not many big-name free agents this year, so James' options are relatively limited.

However, this year's free agency comes at a strange time.

In other words, this is the bonus brought by the NBA lockout in 2011.

Since the new century, the NBA's television broadcasting contracts have not increased significantly until Yu Fei's rise reignited the market enthusiasm. However, the lockout interrupted this growth trend.

It was not until the new season arrived that the league began to truly enjoy the benefits of the "GOAT effect".

Due to Yu Fei's success with the Clippers, the global market was stimulated and the NBA signed an unprecedented television broadcast contract, causing the salary cap for the new season to surge by $2600 million.

This means that the maximum salary for players has entered the era of 3000 million a year, but what about those teams whose salary caps are already filled with maximum salary contracts?

Either their salary cap surges and the team's salary structure returns to a healthy level; or, like the Heat this summer, they have an extra maximum salary space out of thin air.

There are many teams in the NBA, but no team can make James yearn for it like the Miami Heat.

They have the key to "space basketball"-Stephen Curry, Kevin Love, and tough forward Jimmy Butler. Now, they also have $2400 million in space, and James only needs to take a small pay cut to join this super team that can compete with the Clippers.

Of course, there is resistance.

Regardless, Reebok doesn't want James to join Curry's team.

This will allow Nike to take a share of the Miami market.

The problem is that the interests of players and sponsors are not always aligned.

Players like Curry have to consider seemingly boring issues such as glory and historical status.

For a long time, James has been regarded as the second best player after Yu Fei and is also recognized as a "loser". Curry is the new favorite of Reebok. Some people believe that once Yu Fei retires, Reebok will invest all its resources in Curry.

From any perspective, Reebok has no reason to let James steal Curry's limelight. However, for Curry, he understands that James can completely change the team's front line, and he knows that this is crucial to his third championship, so everything else is no longer important.

The Heat's goal is to win the third championship, and James's wish is the same. When Curry expressed his willingness to accept him, Riley took the initiative to call to recruit him, and James knew that his next stop was Miami.

November 7st

James took the initiative to announce: "This is a difficult decision. I always hope to end my career in Cleveland, but now, I need to consider more things... In the end, I decided to bring my talents to the South Coast and I will join the Miami Heat!"

Reebok responded fiercely, with some channels saying: "Reebok vows not to let LBJ receive any honor in Miami!"

Swear? By whom?

This question is not difficult to guess.

On this day, Yu Fei announced that he would continue to work with Marvel.

Although he is still an NBA player, he seems destined to join Hollywood after retirement. Even if he is not in Hollywood, his business activities are still flourishing.

Clippers consultant Jerry West has witnessed the off-court career of modern players and has been deeply moved.

Yu Fei attended a party hosted by Ballmer in Beverly Hills after signing with Marvel, where West was also present.

Halfway through the party, Yu Fei came over and said hello to West.

"You look like a retired player now." West made an unfunny joke.

"I do plan to work in the media after I retire." Yu Fei talked to West about his blueprint. He plans to take over his media company after retirement, build a media empire that tells stories in his own way, and invest in new energy and artificial intelligence that may have a significant social impact in the future...

The more he spoke, the more excited he became, but West seemed more lonely.

"That's enough," West said. "I've heard enough."

Yu Fei looked at him in surprise: "Jerry, are you unhappy?"

"I'm glad your generation has a real career outside of basketball," West said. "And the only thing I've ever done in my life besides playing basketball is being involved in team affairs. What else can I do? Dig a hole for myself? Maybe."

Yu Fei smiled.

"What's so funny?" West was a little angry, thinking that Yu Fei was making fun of him.

"If I can still be a consultant to an NBA team when I'm almost 80, just because they think my opinions are valuable, then I will feel that I have lived a life without regrets," Yu Fei said. "Don't be too hard on yourself, Jerry. Most people live like this."

Then, West suddenly asked: "Will you retire next year?"

"Maybe."

"I hope you don't retire."

"Jerry?"

"At least 12 championships," West said, "then you'll surpass Russell."

"It's the only thing that can make me laugh out loud before I die."

When he talked about something that made him laugh from the bottom of his heart, his expression was as serious as if he was swearing on the Bible.

(End of this chapter)