When pride still matters

Chapter 634 Postscript
After the 2018 NBA Finals, Yu Fei, who held twelve championship rings, announced his retirement after the game, ending his -year professional career.

Seventeen years is a very long time, but after such a long time, Yu Fei is only 35 and a half years old.

To many, he could play for another four or five years.

If he wants, he will not only be the tallest mountain in the NBA, but also the longest river in the NBA.

However, he, who always meets the fans' expectations, did not do as he pleased this time.

Clippers owner Steve Ballmer posted a screenshot on his Twitter account of a text message exchange between him and Yu Fei.

"Frye, I think you can play until you are 40. It is too early to retire now!"

This was Ballmer's persuasion.

Yu Fei responded: "I have dedicated the best 20 years of my life to basketball, for the game I love, Steve, I have played enough."

The GOAT's journey ended in 2018.

In 17 years, he has accumulated more than 37000 points, 10000 rebounds and 10000 assists, won championships, won the Finals MVP times, and won the MVP eight times.
This is not only a season of farewell, but also a season of remembrance.

Countless people shared their fond memories of Yu Fei on social media.

And Yu Fei seems to be ready to take the next step in his life.

He did not, as the outside world expected, transform from the Clippers' player GM into a real GM.

He didn’t stay in professional basketball.

His next step is Hollywood.

He has appeared in a variety of movies, and although his acting skills are often criticized, the box office of any movie he appears in is always good.

The NBA seems to have entered a new era.

An era without GOST.

This means opportunity.

Why? Excluding the lockout in 2012, Yu Fei has won championships in the past years.

He almost dominated a generation of time, eclipsing the superstars of the post-Jordan era and causing the 2003 Platinum Generation represented by James to fail repeatedly.

Now, they have finally waited for this day.

Yu Fei retired, and only his legend remained in the world.

That's good, an extremely great person must live in legend.

Although the Clippers no longer have Yu Fei, this does not prevent them from starting the new season with the goal of winning their fifth consecutive championship.

"Does Frye's retirement have no influence on the team?" Rivers said, "I don't think so. He has a profound impact on everyone on the team. Giannis wants to take over his baton. He is ready. Just wait and see!"

This is truly a transformational season for Antetokounmpo and Jokic.

The two unicorns in power began to move into new areas.

The most unexpected thing is that Pascal Siakam, who was selected by the Clippers in 2016, has made rapid progress and became the team's starter in the third season of his career.

Just when people thought that the Clippers would face great organizational pressure without Yu Fei, Jokic averaged 9 assists per game as a center, completely making up for the team's lack of a number one position.

As a result, Antetokounmpo's rise was unstoppable. He led the team to 27 wins with an average of 9 points, 6 rebounds and 70 assists per game and was elected MVP.

In the subsequent 2019 NBA Finals, the Clippers met their old rival the Heat again.

They believe this is their best chance to beat the Clippers and win the championship.

However, the growth of Antetokounmpo and Jokic, Thompson's outside shooting, and Siakam's improvement as a third-year player have completely exceeded the Heat's expectations.

The Clippers narrowly defeated the Heat with a score of 4 to 1, completing an impossible five consecutive championships.

But what should have been a perfect season for Antetokounmpo did not have a perfect ending.

In the FMVP selection, Jokic, who scored 22 points, 13 rebounds and 11 assists in five finals games, surpassed Antetokounmpo and was elected FMVP.

In the first season after Yu Fei retired, his two designated successors won MVP and FMVP respectively. This seems to be the best way of handover.

But for Antetokounmpo, this was not the best outcome.

GOAT has never let FMVP slip away.

Maybe someone can use the stinky "aesthetic fatigue" to snatch the MVP from GOAT, but no teammate has ever snatched the FMVP from GOAT.

FMVP is a strange award. Its value is locked in a best-of-seven series. Just because this series is related to the success or failure of the season, its value is constantly raised.

The champion who possesses it is the boss champion, otherwise, his boss status will be questioned.

Fortunately, this is an era dominated by Fei, and Iguodala did not use a thief-level FMVP plagiarism case to bring the value of the award to a historic low as in the main timeline, because what he stole was Curry's FMVP.

How could this man, whose influence on basketball is far greater than the sum of all basketball stars in the 21st century, be robbed of the Finals MVP by his teammates at his peak? If this is not Curry's problem, then it can only be a problem with the award itself.

Thanks to Yu Fei, this did not happen.

FMVP的含金量还没有下降，世人也已经忘记几十年前有个叫塞德里克·麦克斯维尔的凯尔特人球员抢走了拉里·伯德的FMVP，也不会记得比这更早的韦斯·昂塞尔德以9分11篮板3助攻的数据在总决赛上抢了场均20分12篮板的埃尔文·海耶斯的FMVP。

Moreover, Jokic's statistics seem to be worthy of the reputation.

The moment Silver announced the FMVP winner, Antetokounmpo's face turned red quickly, visibly.

They are still very happy.

Winning five consecutive championships is an achievement that will go down in history.

Doc Rivers proudly said: "I can be sure that no one will come to our position again!"

Moreover, he believes that the Clippers will keep winning.

Because "Frye has deeply infused his winning philosophy into the team."

Then, Yu Fei sent him a text message, asking him to pay attention to calming Antetokounmpo's emotions.

Rivers said everything is under control.

Then, the world took a weird and winding path. Before the start of the 2019-2020 season, the relationship between the NBA and China was in trouble because of a tweet from a GM. Then, the pandemic arrived, Kobe boarded that plane in February of 2020, the NBA was suspended due to the pandemic, and professional basketball turned gray.

In this dark time, Netflix announced that it will broadcast the documentary "From the Bottom to the Top: The Incredible Rise of the Seattle Supersonics in 2008" during the NBA suspension.

It is not difficult to tell from the title that this is a documentary recording the 08 supersonic speed.

That year, the NBA entertainment department sent a film crew to follow the Sonics throughout the entire process, and they had nearly tens of thousands of hours of ultra-high-definition footage and panoramic ultra-high-definition videos of dozens of games.

A few years ago, the documentary got into trouble due to copyright issues, and Clay Bennett refused to allow the platform to broadcast the documentary.

But recently, Bennett encountered financial difficulties due to the pandemic and decided to sell the team for cash, which gave Yu Fei, who wanted to become the full owner of the team after retirement, an opportunity.

Although the two parties still disliked each other, Bennett would not turn down a generous buyer.

Moreover, selling the team to Yu Fei is something the entire Washington state would like to see.

Now that things have come to this point, the copyright issue of the documentary is no longer a problem.

The documentary is divided into ten episodes, telling the story of the Supersonics from facing relocation issues to their subsequent rebirth from multiple narrative perspectives.

This brings the world back to that somewhat depressing but still beautiful era.

That was the era of the financial crisis, the era when social media was not yet developed, the era when Bitcoin did not determine the rise and fall of countless people like it does today, the era when Yu Fei was still very young - he left a team that had won four championships in five years and could have won three consecutive championships almost effortlessly, came to Seattle in the name of salvation, and ultimately rewrote the history of the league.

Today, the Supersonics still remain in Seattle, and their new arena is still one of the best in the NBA. The banner he won is flying above the arena. The 2008 championship was the first act of the Supersonics empire, but not the last act, but it was the most memorable one.

At the end of the documentary, Yu Fei faced the camera and was asked a question: "If you knew in advance what your final destination would be in Seattle, would you make the same choice?"

"The final result will not affect my initial decision," Yu Fei said. "I was 26 years old that year, still very young, and I thought I could become a superhero, just like Tony Stark's final snap. Now I am almost years old. Looking back, although my ending in Seattle is a bit regrettable, I never regret this decision. Think about it, when else in my life have I been so needed by others? That was the wish of millions of people, and nothing could stop me!"

Yu Fei watched the documentary at his company's headquarters.

This was clearly something he had experienced personally, but now as a viewer watching it again from the beginning, he actually felt a little excited.

That was what he did when he was 26, and now he is 38.

For some reason, he recently had the urge to make a comeback.

"You have to be kidding, right?"

When his friends heard his idea, they were surprised.

After retiring, Yu Fei's career flourished for the second time.

Not only has his Hollywood career entered its golden age, his media company has also produced many excellent works and is deeply integrated with Netflix, which is currently on the rise.

He has an entertainment empire behind him.

But now, he actually said that he kind of wants to go back to play. What's the point of this?
"I heard some things," Yu Fei said. "Some people said that the Clippers won five consecutive championships without me, which shows that I am not indispensable. I also heard that I chose to retire at the age of 35 because I didn't dare to accept the challenge of young people."

“It’s only been two years and they’ve forgotten what I look like playing.”

Yu Fei faced his friends and said indifferently: "That's because they haven't seen Fry Yu play for two years."

But he no longer had anything to prove.

He thought about many comeback declarations.

Draft after draft was torn, but in the end, he did not make a comeback.

Because the Clippers' six consecutive championships were broken by the Warriors in the same district in the park in 2020.

It is claimed that the conflict between Antetokounmpo and Jokic is irreconcilable.

Because the Clippers were reversed by the Warriors with a score of 3 to 1.

Klay Thompson tore his ACL playing for it, and fourth-year player Pascal Siakam was unhappy because he didn't get enough ball possessions.

The destruction of an empire often happens in an instant.

At the end of the game, the media asked Rivers: "Why didn't Frye's winning philosophy work tonight? Are Giannis and Nikola okay?"

Rivers, who was devastated by the loss, actually replied: "I don't know the answer to this question."

The Clippers have many problems to face and many knots to untie, but their failure just proves how valuable a leader who can calm the team is.

Antetokounmpo looks a lot like that guy, but he's not that guy.

The obsession with GOAT has faded.

A year later, he was 39 years old.

When Yu Fei lost a shooting contest with his eight-year-old son Yu Bufan at his home court, he realized he might never be able to go back.

That was the day his soul as a player died.

From then on, player Yu Fei truly retired.

At the end of 2021, the Clippers' new stadium (named after Yu Fei) was put into use, and Yu Fei also officially reached a deal with Clay Bennett to buy most of the shares of the Supersonics for nearly US$30 billion.

Just after Yu Fei became the team owner, something unprecedented in NBA history happened.

The first thing the boss did after taking office was to retire his No. 44 jersey.

Shortly after Yu Fei retired, the Bucks were the first to retire his jersey, followed by the Clippers, then the Wizards, then the Cavaliers, who were only slightly related to him, and now, it is finally the turn of the Supersonics.

The 39-year-old Yu Fei walked into the court and still looked the same as when he was 26.

Time has not changed his appearance. He picked up the microphone and said loudly: "Long time no see, this time I will never leave again!"

Yes, he won't.

The No. 44 jersey will forever be a part of the Sonics' history.

Just as his name will become a part of the first 21 years of the 20st century, when you turn to that history, you will see his story and the championships he won.

A few years later.
2024年，仍然在为21年来的第一座总冠军而努力的勒布朗·詹姆斯在对阵超音速的比赛里完成了40000分10000篮板10000助攻的数据累积。由于对阵的球队正好是超音速队，所以有媒体想知道该球队的老板对此是什么看法。

"I don't care." Yu Fei said, "You know, only turtles can live longer than anyone else."

(End of this chapter)