When pride still matters

Chapter 626 Silence is better than sound

Chapter 626 Silence is better than sound

Time easily passed from January to February, and to some people, it seemed like a blink of an eye.

But for Fei, this period of time was very long.

He gave up his tactical position and reduced his shots in a short period of time, allowing the young players to demonstrate their strength. They then put on wonderful performances and were selected for the All-Star Game.

It was also at this time that the outside world first began to speculate, "When can Giannis take over the car keys from Frye?"

There is no doubt that Antetokounmpo is the most anticipated young player among the current NBA players.

In his fourth season, he averaged 22 points, 8 rebounds and 6 assists per game, becoming an all-around frontcourt player.

Some people in Yu Fei's camp were quite annoyed by such remarks.

In their view, Yu Fei will not be replaced, no matter he is 35 or 40 years old.

For Fei, however, it was like putting a mirror up in his life, allowing him to compare himself with the 39-year-old Jordan.

But he found no similarities.

Because he's not old enough.

Although there is only a five-year gap between the ages of 34 and 39, for athletes, the span of these five years is much greater than that of other five years. This is the period when a player officially moves from the end of his peak to the end of his career.

Modern sports recovery science may be able to extend a player's peak years, but the aging of the human body is inevitable.

This is the lesson Yu Fei learned from Jordan.

When the time comes, it's time to go.

Therefore, he does not mind such remarks appearing in the outside world.

He originally planned to let Antetokounmpo and Jokic take over after his retirement. Now that such remarks have appeared and public opinion has fermented, the outside world will have higher expectations for those two people.

They will be scrutinized as "GOAT successors" earlier.

This is not a bad thing.

Instead, Yu Fei's friends were very dissatisfied with this.

For example, Clippers president Quint DiMeo, his assistant Kevin Lin, and Anthony Lawson, who currently manages an NBA training camp, all believe that such remarks are intended to deliberately create divisions within the Clippers in order to replace Yu Fei's position.

Yu Fei understood their feelings, but chose to put the matter aside for the time being.

Right now, the only important thing is to give it your all until the All-Star Weekend.

However, the schedule before the All-Star Weekend is quite difficult.

The Clippers need to play against the Warriors, Knicks, Celtics, Timberwolves, Hawks and Nuggets respectively.

After Griffin returned, the Warriors' form soared and they avenged the Clippers at the Staples Center.

When they beat the Clippers, they were as happy as if they had won the championship.

"It's just a regular season game," Antetokounmpo said. "We don't take it personally."

Then, after defeating the Jazz, they faced the Knicks.

Durant was definitely the one most affected by last summer.

Losing to the Clippers in the finals was frustrating enough for him, but he didn't expect the Heat to directly recruit James, instantly breaking the balance in the Eastern Conference.

Now, the Heat have become the top seed in the Eastern Conference. Even though they made a fool of themselves in the Christmas game and James was chased by the GOAT off the court, that has nothing to do with Durant.

Durant's Knicks have suffered a complete defeat against the Heat this season.

In retrospect, their main problems were twofold.

The lineup lacks depth and Iguodala is obviously aging.

Although Aldridge is a capable helper, he is still slightly insufficient in front of the Heat with James, Curry, Love and Butler.

The consecutive failures made Durant feel that this season had nothing to do with him.

Even the league’s publicity machine is touting the possibility of a Finals showdown between Frye and LeBron.

Durant wants to keep a low profile, but he plays in a city where that's not possible.

Moreover, Nike cannot allow him to keep a low profile.

The pressure of the Big Apple City exhausted Durant, the incompetent coaching staff seemed to have become a problem for the team, Phil Jackson's rule in New York was crumbling, and Durant wanted to do something.

Therefore, he has recently made headlines in the NBA for various remarks.

"You can't expect me to play 48 minutes a game and still win a championship."

"Is the West really that competitive? You may be right, but I doubt it."

"How can Fry still survive here?"

The last sentence made the latest headlines.

It sounded like Durant was cursing Yu Fei, but that was not the case.

When Durant was dissatisfied with his life, he realized that Yu Fei had been living like this for fifteen years.

Even when the team was facing internal and external troubles, Durant never saw that guy show any slackness.

This led him to utter that astonishing statement.

Tonight, he had the opportunity to ask Yu Fei this question in person.

"You think that because you've basically wasted your time over the past few years."

Last season's MVP thought he didn't waste time, but there's a reason the GOAT said that.

“Only when you feel that what you are doing is meaningless will you feel tormented by what is happening. If you have really won, you will become addicted to this feeling.”

Yu Fei's words made Durant think deeply.

Then he asked, "But you've won ten championships. Are you going to tell me that you're still obsessed with winning today? How many times do you have to win to be enough?"

"I don't know." GOAT Versailles said, "Maybe I'm just waiting for someone who can beat me to appear."

Beat the GOAT?

Durant did leave Seattle with this goal in mind.

However, he then went through a few difficult years in New York before returning to the Finals, where he unfortunately met the rising GOAT.

Only when facing the opponent directly did Durant know how difficult it was.

"What if no one can do this for you before you get old?"

Durant asked a soul-searching question.

"Then I will leave on my own. I will not let time defeat me!" Suddenly, GOAT seemed to be making some kind of oath that he would never break. "I will never be as old as No. 23 and need a young man to remind me to get out! There will never be that day!"

Durant may have defeated Yu Fei in the game that night.

He scored 40 points.

Yu Fei only scored 26 points.

Judging from the process, the Clippers didn't seem to need Yu Fei to take a shot.

阿德托昆博拿到了30分、8篮板和5助攻,约基奇则贡献了14分、11篮板和12助攻的三双。

The brilliance of young people can sometimes overshadow the brilliance of GOAT.

This made Durant realize something else.

He didn't have enough help.

Iguodala is old and Aldridge is not good enough.

To succeed in this tough era, or even be bold and become the guy who beats the GOAT, he needs to at least optimize Iguodala.

This is something that is destined to be impossible to accomplish during the season.

After defeating the Knicks, although there were strong teams in subsequent games, there were no similar challenges.

However, there are no interesting teams, but there are many interesting people, such as Westbrook.

Just like what the other team did in the main timeline, Westbrook averaged a triple-double.

However, Yu Fei had already replicated this miracle eleven years ago and completed it repeatedly in the following seasons. Therefore, Westbrook is just following Yu Fei's path. He will receive a lot of praise, but he will never dominate the MVP voting because of his amazing data performance like in the main timeline.

This is the truth in the sports world.

The first person to cross the finish line gets everything, and the second place gets nothing.

Although the Timberwolves failed to defeat the Clippers, Westbrook scored 38 points, 14 rebounds and 12 assists, continuing to consolidate his triple-double average.

"Lars, is it worth it to fight so hard?"

Yu Fei likes Westbrook very much. Although he often plays without thinking, it is this kind of aggressive style that is so impressive.

"I don't have LeBron, I don't have LaMarcus, I don't have Giannis, if I don't fight, we're going to go to hell!"

Westbrook obviously knows that his biggest problem is not lack of fighting spirit, but lack of help.

Since entering the NBA, the best teammate he has ever met is old McGrady.

Moreover, the Timberwolves are a typical team that just wants to get by. Fighting for the championship? That's just a slogan to tease you. In fact, they rely on the draft to draw a player who buys tickets. If he can desperately lead the team into the playoffs, they will pretend to fight for the championship. If he can't do it, they will continue to sell tickets until he can't stand it anymore, and then teach him what "don't let loyalty hurt you" means.

However, Westbrook now believes he can create a miracle.

But one day he will find that the gravity of reality will make miracles seem insignificant.

Moreover, the situation Westbrook is facing seems to be unsolvable.

His second contract was signed directly with the Timberwolves for five years.

Moreover, this contract does not come with player options.

Now that he has entered his ninth year in his career, can he leave? No, he had already reached an early contract extension of 3 years and $1 million with the Timberwolves last summer.

From a professional perspective, Minnesota is not worth remembering, so Westbrook's choice is undoubtedly stupid.

But this is exactly why Yu Fei likes him.

Professional basketball has been almost ruined by those sophisticated and selfish people. How boring would it be if the league no longer had people like Westbrook?

After the game, a Minnesota reporter asked Yu Fei what he thought about Westbrook possibly becoming the second modern player after him to average a triple-double.

Yu Fei was generous with his praise: "Russ deserves all the praise. It's hard to see someone like him in this era. I appreciate everything he has done. If I had the right to vote for this year's MVP, I would vote for him."

The recognition from GOAT is certainly gratifying, but Westbrook has a more realistic goal right now.

He has to get the team into the playoffs.

When it comes to data, you have to rely on results.

The better the results, the more valuable the data will be.

If they can't even make the playoffs, averaging a triple-double will justify the accusation that they are inflating their stats.

Yu Fei could only wish him good luck, because in the Western Conference, a team like the Timberwolves that didn't even have a second star would have to look at the performance of second-rate teams like the Lakers if they wanted to make the playoffs.

The last game before the All-Star Weekend is against the Celtics.

The Celtics have had bad luck in recent years.

Larry Sanders, who was traded from the Clippers, has now retired to become an artist. In 2015, the Clippers got lucky and drew the No. 20 pick to select Karl-Anthony Towns, who performed well in his rookie season and was unanimously recognized by all general managers as the most suitable cornerstone player among NBA players under the age of .

As a result, Towns began to expose his shortcomings on the defensive end in his second season, which gradually became a problem that the Celtics had to solve.

Now, the Celtics are stuck in the middle, with no direction to move up, and it’s difficult to move down.

This situation is particularly suitable for receiving education from a strong team.

The Clippers, who were eager to take a holiday, did not show them any mercy.

The game started with full throttle.

Due to the Clippers' terrifying three-point threat, the Celtics had to adopt extreme defense - for example, giving up two-point defense and strictly guarding three-pointers.

As a result, it became extremely easy for the Clippers to attack the basket.

"We've gotten to the point where we're willing to give up some two-point shots, even points at the rim, to prevent corner threes," Greens coach Brad Stevens told ESPN. "The three-point shot's destructive power on defense feeds the two-point shot."

However, these remarks did not reduce the Clippers' firepower.

The Celtics, who intended to fight back against the Clippers, were outscored by 146 points in the end.

Yu Fei, Antetokounmpo and Jokic all scored 30 points.

This fully demonstrated the craziness of the Clippers' game and how explosive the scoring speed of space basketball can be in an era of limited defense.

"Frye, what do you think of some retired coaches accusing you of ruining the game of basketball?" the reporter asked. "They think that scoring in today's games is too easy, and a two-point shot is as easy as lining up for a layup."

Yu Fei hated these old guys who valued the past over the present, but he couldn't get angry on the spot, so he could only say with a straight face: "I can only suggest that they play golf, which is a bit harder to score a goal."

The All-Star Weekend holiday has arrived, but Yu Fei still can't take a vacation.

The more holidays there are without NBA schedules, the busier he is.

The next day, Yu Fei, his agent Laettner, and nominal Clippers president Quint DiMeo attended the Warner Forum in Los Angeles.

Although Yu Fei's main business is still basketball, his media empire is already running at full speed.

Thanks to the Hollywood connections he has accumulated at Marvel, his media company is already in full swing.

For this reason, DiMeo, who was the president of the Clippers, was invited back to serve as the company's CEO. After all, he is most familiar with this business. Although he is nominally the president of the Clippers, the person who actually makes the decisions is Yu Fei, and he is only the president in name only.

In the words of Steve Ballmer, he gave DeMeo $500 million a year, and all DeMeo had to do was "do nothing."

It's a joke that's especially prevalent within the Clippers organization.

Because everyone knows who is really in power.

For Yu Fei, this forum may be the real "All-Star Game" because it brings together executives from companies such as Google, Amazon, Verizon, Facebook and Twitter.

DeMeo announced several ambitious TV shows at the forum, including two sitcoms and a reality show about Yu Fei's life. Even though they didn't have a systematic script, NBC paid a high price to acquire the rights to the shows.

And a business like this will reach multiple consensuses today.

Yu Fei listened to these plans and could fully foresee how busy he would be after retirement.

"Do you want me to die suddenly before I turn 50, Quint?" Yu Fei asked his best friend.

DiMeo smiled and said, "No, you already have a brilliant sports career. I just want your next 20 years to be as wonderful as the past 15 years."

"Don't talk like I'm about to retire." Yu Fei seemed to be able to imagine life after retirement. "I just wanted to enjoy my vacation, but you dragged me to work."

Enjoy your vacation.

Yu Fei doesn’t think there is anything wrong with saying this. Just ask yourself, which player is not enjoying the All-Star Weekend holiday now?
But a question suddenly occurred to him: how long had it been since he said he enjoyed the game?

He reminded himself to say more such things so as not to let people think that he was ready to retire, after all, it was still early.

As a result, when the league displayed this year's AMVP trophy on social media, Yu Fei wanted to curse.

There are many obvious personal logos on the trophy, the most recognizable of which is No. 44.

Is the league making a very personal trophy as his retirement gift?
But wait, he hasn't decided to retire this year.

"If Frye wins the AMVP this year, does that mean he's going to retire?"

Kwame Brown asked this question.

Yu Fei retweeted him on Twitter: "This is a problem."

"Wait, what if Frye doesn't want to retire? Shouldn't he get this trophy?"

“It’s a much bigger problem.”

Yu Fei continued to interact with Brown.

Then, Brown got excited: "But if Frye doesn't take this trophy, who can take it? Can Frye miss this trophy that was specially customized for him? I can't help but ask, does Adam Silver really want Frye to retire?"

Yu Fei stopped interacting.

Because silence is better than words at this time.

Maybe the league had good intentions, but those damn incompetent people messed up the execution.

(End of this chapter)

Tap the screen to use advanced tools Tip: You can use left and right keyboard keys to browse between chapters.

You'll Also Like