When pride still matters

Chapter 625 It’s time
Yu Fei's negative comments about James caused a stir in the outside world.

For a new generation of fans, this was the first time they saw the GOAT criticize someone so directly.

What they are familiar with is the GOAT who has firmly sat on the throne of the first place in history. Every step forward increases the difficulty for latecomers to catch up.

Since you are the GOAT, you should be graceful and not embarrass others.

However, Yu Fei didn't think he had much manners. He still remembered those who had offended him more than ten years ago.

The reason why he didn't open fire on them was simply because those who needed to be liquidated had already been liquidated, and most of those people had retired.

This time, he fired at James without thinking. If we have to say what this means, it just means that Yu Fei's relationship with James has not improved.

Yu Fei still hates James as much as before.

Because Yu Fei took the initiative to set the pace, the NBA media quickly went into carnival mode.

The biggest difference between the social media era and the past is that every word and every thing a player says will be deconstructed from various different angles.

The news media deconstructed it one wave, the television media deconstructed it another wave, the self-media deconstructed it again, and finally it was deconstructed by the players who made podcasts, and the fans were forced to accept these various sources of information in order to reach a conclusion that was closer to the truth.

In any case, the fire of public opinion once again bombarded James.

As Stephen A. Smith said on ESPN: "It's hard for people today to imagine that LeBron was once as famous as Frye. It's an insult to Frye to even compare the two now. Years later, Frye became the GOAT, and LeBron may have grown a lot as a human being, but he stopped growing as a basketball player a long time ago."

As a famous commentator of ESPN, Smith's remarks have had a profound impact on public opinion.

Then there is Bill Simmons, another media celebrity who once worked for ESPN, who recalled an incident on his podcast.

When James participated in the draft, some people praised his mother Gloria for giving birth to him at the age of 16 and raising him alone. This is a great American story. Simmons, who would give fans a "Draft Diary" column every year at that time, mocked in his 2003 NBA draft diary: "What about those parents who stay together, work hard, raise their children and send them to school? Since when did DNA, not practicing birth control and luck become a 'great American story'?"

Simmons recalled this incident not to whitewash his remarks at the time, but to express his feeling that Yu Fei was the one who criticized him the most because of this incident.

"People today can't believe that Frye and LeBron were once so close."

James is destined to have a bad end of the year.

To make matters worse, he will be celebrating his 32nd birthday in a few days.

At the same time, it was also Yu Fei’s 34th birthday.

This time last year, Yu Fei lost the game on the night of his 33rd birthday.

This year, he was determined not to repeat the same mistake.

But their opponent is the San Antonio Spurs, who are walking in the fog.

Duncan's retirement has had a significant impact on the Spurs. Their inside strength has dropped to the lowest level, and they have completely become a team that relies on outside players.

Fortunately, Paul George and Kemba Walker have grown into stars.

The pain of Duncan's departure still haunts the San Antonio crowd tonight.

Yu Fei educated George from time to time, while Antetokounmpo and Jokic destroyed the Spurs' inside line.

On the night of the GOAT's 34th birthday, the Clippers were determined to win.

In the end, they won a big victory away from home with a score of 133 to 115.

Yu Fei finally didn't have to face failure on his birthday night. This victory made him happier even than the victory in the Christmas battle.

"I like this kind of game," Yu Fei said. "This kind of victory makes people want to persevere. For me, the best birthday gift is to win. I haven't been able to get this gift in the past few years, but today is different."

Then, the reporter asked an irrelevant question: "What do you think of this year's All-Star voting changes?"

Yu Fei quipped: "Unless it makes me lose the All-Star selection, I don't care."

The current NBA Commissioner Adam Silver is a man with ideas and he likes to incorporate his ideas into the NBA.

However, his ideas were not always well received. For example, the short-sleeved jerseys he promoted were ridiculed by countless players.

In recent years, Silver has focused on reforming the All-Star Weekend.

First he changed the way the game is played, and then he let inside players participate in the three-point contest and skills contest, but these changes are just minor ones. Unless he lets Stephen Curry participate in the dunk contest - just like Jordan participated in the three-point contest to avoid the dunk contest and scored hilarious points - otherwise, no one will really take these minor changes seriously.

But this time, Xiao Hua was serious.

He began to reform the voting mechanism.

Therefore, the existing All-Star voting mechanism is becoming more and more like the US presidential election in the fog. In theory, the more people support a player, the more likely he or she is to be selected as an All-Star. So Yao Ming replaced Shaq and became the starting center in the Western Conference in his rookie season.

This incident shows the voting power of overseas fans.

Fortunately, Yao Ming has enough strength, and his failure to be selected as an All-Star in his rookie season became his bragging capital later. So, what about some players whose strength does not match the number of votes?
Yao Ming triggered the NBA craze in China. Later, Taijian entered the NBA. In the first two years of his professional career, he was ranked as the substitute for the Western Conference star power forward twice with extremely high votes, but was miraculously "taken down" in the last few days.

This is a little-known NBA scandal - someone manipulated the fans' sincere votes just to remove a player who did not deserve the All-Star Game.

This year, Hu Jinqiu from China performed well for the Warriors. In order to appease the restless Chinese fans, Silver changed the voting calculation rules.

Starting from this season, fan votes will only count as 50% of valid votes, and the remaining 50% will be divided equally between players and the media. At the same time, the player's position has also been changed from the traditional one to five positions to "frontcourt" and "backcourt".

Such a division clearly announced the death of the traditional inside line.

This is a big event for the league.

Young players are eager to stand out, while the older generation of stars need to defend their status.

The Clippers were extremely proactive.

Antetokounmpo will fight for his first All-Star start in his career, while Jokic will fight for his first All-Star appearance in his career. This is his second season, and although he still has two seasons in theory, in order to trigger the "Yufei clause" when renewing his contract, the sooner he is selected as an All-Star, the better. Thompson will work hard to defend his All-Star status.

Only Yao Ming accepted the fact that he was no longer an All-Star.

He was injured at the beginning of the season, and his condition has been up and down since his comeback. Although he is still the mainstay of the Clippers' bench, it is obvious that this nearly 37-year-old giant has indeed shown a significant decline.

All-Star honors no longer matter to him.

If he hadn't been injured, he would have been selected to the All-Star team for fourteen consecutive years.

Today, he has four championships, has been selected to the All-NBA Team many times, and the All-Star honor has to be put at the back of the list when others introduce him.

The Clippers also offered him a fully overpriced retirement contract.

These factors have made him reach an almost saintly state in the NBA, with nothing to lose and nothing to miss. His only thought is to wait until the 2019 World Cup in his home country, and everything else is for this purpose.

Yu Fei envied Yao Ming's mentality.

Who can not envy it?

Even though his career has come to a successful conclusion, he still has obsessions and pursuits, and a strong desire to wait until a certain point in time to bloom again and then retire.

Yu Fei does not have this time point.

Maybe this season, maybe next season.

Then, as time passed, 2016 became part of world history.

2017 is here.

According to the Chinese lunar calendar, Yu Fei is already 36 years old.

But Americans, especially athletes, tend to like to be precise about the number of days.

Therefore, according to the American algorithm, Yu Fei is now 34 years and 1 day old.

After the New Year, Yu Fei's competition momentum weakened.

Because the young people in the team seemed to be unable to suppress the wild power in their bodies, everyone was doing their best to qualify for the All-Star Game. People like Yu Fei who were not worried about the quota would naturally not steal the show.

Therefore, he chose to give up the ball and tactical position, letting them play freely, while he stood on the outside with his hands on his hips, and managed to score more than 20 points in each game.

Yu Fei's choice allowed Antetokounmpo to start playing explosively.

Jokic gradually showed his potential as a triple-double king, scoring triple-doubles in five consecutive games in early January.

Thompson has also slowly regained his best form, showing his strength as one of the league's top 3D players.

Everyone exploded, and everyone's stats were good.

This harmonious dance is made possible by a completely liberated offense.

Starting from the Bucks' carnival basketball that year, the space basketball revolution has been going on for more than ten years, and finally blossomed this year. Every team regards three-pointers as the lifeblood of the game.

The Clippers went to Boston and scored 50 points in regulation time with 144% of their three-point shooting, while the Celtics "only" scored 128 points.

Such high scores displeased many basketball defenders.

"The amount of 24-pointers opens up the court so much that you have to guard guys 25 to feet from the basket," Celtics coach Brad Stevens told ESPN. "That opens up all the lanes for penetration."

Old fans don't like modern basketball because they think the defense is too soft and the layups are like on the street. This is because everyone is defending the three-pointer, so the space becomes wide.

The more three-pointers there are, the more space there is, and the layup becomes more like crossing the street.

As the beneficiary, Doc Rivers pretended to be helpless.

"What else can we do to reduce the 3-point shots?" Rivers told reporters as he led his team to Golden State for a game. "Are we really going to give up protecting the paint? Are we really going to say, 'Go ahead and get a layup'? No, I want to change that, and I'm working on it."

What's the truth? The more Rivers studied, the harder the Clippers shot three-pointers.

Since the start of 2017, the Clippers have become the most frantic team in a series of fast-paced teams.

50% of their shots in each game are three-point shots, but despite such a high shooting ratio, they still maintain a 38% three-point shooting percentage.

Oracle Arena

When Yu Fei stepped onto the court, this city, which has a majority Chinese population, did not show any friendliness.

Instead, they booed loudly.

It’s no wonder that the Warriors’ rise was completely interrupted by Yu Fei.

He eliminated his opponents in the playoffs for three consecutive years.

Although Leonard and Lillard have made obvious progress, can they challenge the Clippers now?

Warriors supporters have no confidence.

Before the game started, Yu Fei learned that Hu Jinqiu was pushed into the starting lineup due to the recent wave of injuries to the Warriors' frontcourt players, so he joked: "Well done, Xiao Hu, you finally got a start in the NBA."

Hu Jinqiu smiled shyly.

In fact, he was just a pseudo starter, responsible for doing the dirty work and using up all six fouls.

In terms of talent, Hu Jinqiu is only average in the NBA frontcourt, and has no outstanding advantages in all aspects, but fortunately he has no obvious shortcomings and is very motivated. Reminded by Yu Fei, he devoted himself to practicing three-point shooting during his school days, and now he is in line with the trend of the NBA.

He may not achieve much in the NBA, but he has a good chance of finding a foothold here.

This is crucial for Chinese basketball. Yao Ming will not be able to play for a few more years. Taiyi has already brought his talent back to the CBA. The former NBA Chinese wave has become the tears of the times. In the next decade or so, the most important thing is not to reproduce Yao Ming's glory, but to survive in the NBA.

That night, the battle between the Clippers and the Warriors continued to be tense.

Leonard really seems to be transforming into a superstar, and Lillard's long three-pointer is gradually being developed.

Antetokounmpo was defended by Leonard, while Jokic was targeted by Lillard. After the young people's momentum was frustrated, the Clippers needed veterans to step in.

Yu Fei took over the ball in time, but did not use his personal ability to change the situation like he did in the past.

He first made a three-pointer, then assisted Thompson in the low post, and then connected with Jokic, gradually regaining the confidence of the young people and the team's offensive firepower also recovered.

On the contrary, Leonard's offense and defense were not as good as in the first half as his physical strength declined, while Lillard began to lose his accuracy under the Clippers' switching defense strategy.

The Clippers' inside advantage gradually emerged.

In order to maintain the height of the inside line, the Warriors also changed the way they used Hu Jinqiu and began to make him pay attention to fouls.

But the most difficult thing for a rookie, especially a non-local rookie, to control in the NBA is the number of fouls.

Hu Jinqiu's last foul happened to Yu Fei.

Yu Fei wanted to target Lillard through a pick-and-roll, but Hu Jinqiu double-teamed him directly, putting pressure on the GOAT with a professional attitude.

Yu Fei grabbed the ball and jumped, pushed the opponent's body away, and scored with a difficult pull-up shot.

Hu Jinqiu received his sixth personal foul and left the court with 6 points and 4 rebounds in this key game.

"Just keep fighting!" Yu Fei said to him, "No matter who is in front of you, you have to fight like this!"

Hu Jinqiu was stunned for a moment, then left the stage under Yu Fei's gaze.

His departure caused the Warriors, who were already weak in the interior, to completely collapse.

They began to lose the ability to grab defensive rebounds, and the Clippers were able to do whatever they wanted in the paint with their overwhelming talent, and their dominant rebounding made their shots easier.

The Clippers' outside shooting percentage improved accordingly.

Even the missed shots were mostly scored by them.

It took the Warriors just two minutes to go from a single-digit deficit to a double-digit deficit.

Afterwards, the game turned into garbage time.

This is the charm of space basketball. The explosive power to score points is there, and if it is not handled properly in a few rounds, the score gap may be opened up to double digits.

However, the Warriors did not get nothing.

At least they have verified the strength of Leonard and Lillard. The strength of these two people has indeed reached a big level. The most important thing now is to wait for Griffin to return.

The battle with the Warriors is the last tough battle before the All-Star Weekend.

Afterwards, the NBA announced the starting rosters for the Eastern and Western Conference All-Stars.

Yu Fei was selected as usual. Westbrook and Harden, who averaged a triple-double, took up the starting backcourt seats in the Western Conference. The remaining two Western Conference starting frontcourt seats were Antetokounmpo and Leonard.

Thompson and Jokic were among the names on the substitute list that was subsequently announced.

This means that the Clippers still have four players selected for the All-Star Game this year.

The only difference is that Jokic replaced Yao Ming.

It has been one and a half seasons since Yao Ming became a substitute last season.

Being left out of the All-Star Game was expected by the outside world.

The only ones who were angry about this were Yao Ming's fans, who believed that the league's change in voting rules was targeting them.

Yao Ming seemed to know how the fans would react, and on the day the results came out, he posted several photos of himself and his family traveling in Miami on his social media.

"The weather is nice, let's go out for a walk. How do you plan your vacation?"

He wrote on Twitter.

(End of this chapter)