Basketball Legend: When Pride Still Matters

"You know, if we beat the United States, I'm retiring right away. Because that's the pinnacle, I couldn't possibly do better than that." A few hours before the host China faced off against Team USA in their group match, Yao Ming discussed in an interview what would happen if they won against the Americans. This was yet another display of Yao Ming's famous sense of humor. "If there's one fan left for Yao Ming on this planet, that's me. If he retires, I would cease to exist as well," Yu Fei responded to Yao Ming's remarks, "So, to prevent him from retiring, we will win the first match." For the sports world, the Olympic group match between China's and the United States' men's basketball teams was a historically significant and globally impactful basketball game. But the result was not suspenseful. China displayed their strength, matching Team USA in the first half, but as the second half came around, Team USA stepped up the intensity, with a surge of fast breaks and accurate three-pointers from the perimeter, to cement their victory. American sports writers might be the biggest basketball enthusiasts in the world. ESPN's international basketball expert Chris Sheridan wrote in his post-game article, "Over a billion people worldwide watched this game, and in the end, the United States was victorious. The nation that possesses basketball's past and present showed the country that might own its future how to play at the highest level." Yao Ming couldn't block Yu Fei tonight. Yu Fei also lost an internal team bet as he didn't find the opportunity to dunk over the big man. Space Easy, the successor to Yao Ming, had a tough night. Until February of this year, Space Easy was considered one of the top five of the 2007 class, a sure pick for the Rookie of the Year lineup. But then, he hit a wall. The main problems were low efficiency under the basket, a liking for shooting despite a low field goal percentage, having ball-handling attacks but only using his right hand, and not using feints due to an absolute confidence in his own physical abilities developed from a young age in China. In the United States, there were too many people who could match his physicality, and his bulldozing approach often got him blocked. This wall has persisted since February, and Space Easy still hasn't broken through it. "Thanks to you, I don't have to retire now," Yao Ming joked with Yu Fei after the game. Yu Fei could tell that Yao Ming hadn't fully recovered; his steps didn't look smooth, and he was very cautious in his movements. "Take care," Yu Fei said. Yao Ming's words made Yu Fei couldn't help but laugh, "See you in the finals." "Right, see you in the finals." After defeating China, Team USA would receive home-court treatment in every game of the Olympics. Because now was the prime time for the NBA in China. Yao Ming opened this window, and Yu Fei elevated it to an unprecedented height; this generation of NBA stars had a considerable number of fans in China. As long as they weren't playing against China, the fans would cheer for them. In the remaining group matches, Team USA easily won all the games. August 20th Team USA faced Team Australia in the quarterfinals. The two teams had clashed before the Olympics began. It was that match that made American basketball experts less confident in the Dream Team's chances of winning gold at the Olympics. Tonight, the Australians looked the same as they always did. "They play like criminals," Chris Bosh complained when an Australian player named Mark Worthington hurt him all over during a physical encounter on the court. The main problem for Team USA tonight was they couldn't make their threes. The Australians' rough play had almost everyone lost in the scuffle. Yu Fei's breakthroughs and passing kept Team USA ahead, but to achieve a one-sided sweep, they needed to hit the three-pointers from outside. Even with Yu Fei going all out, Team USA was only ahead by 8 points at halftime. The team had only 4 assists, 3 of which were from Yu Fei. They were 3 out of 10 at the free-throw line, and 1 out of 13 for three-pointers. Note: During this period, FIBA was very strict with assist stats; even dribbling once after receiving the ball wouldn't count as an assist. Although Team USA's actual strength was sufficient to win even a brawl, Coach K wanted a blowout win. In the second half, Coach K unleashed Stephen Curry. This proved to be the key move of the night. In the first three minutes of the second half, Yu Fei continuously hit pull-up threes from the 45-degree angle beyond the arc on both sides, NBA-range. When they began to double-team Yu Fei, Curry became the open man. Leave Stephen Curry open? After today, no team would try that again. Curry continued where Yu Fei left off, hitting three consecutive three-pointers. Team USA started the second half with a 15-0 run, blowing open the Australians' Iron Bucket Formation. The law of Curry was beginning to manifest on the court. Even though this defensive gravitational pull was still far from his peak when he could consistently draw 1.5 defenders' attention every round, did Team USA need more than a wet-behind-the-ears college kid resolving their three-point crisis in a tense game to turn the tide and be a key piece in the match? Yu Fei began to dominate as a wing. Double-teams started off effective against him, but soon after, he tried challenging and breaking through opponents' double-teams. This was the time for the world's active best player to show off his strength. The wave of sound from Chinese fans at the venue made Yu Fei feel as though he was back in Seattle. Whenever he got the ball at the top of the key, the nearly twenty thousand fans would scream in unison, "Shoot! Shoot!! Shoot!!!" Then Yu Fei would just blow up the Australian player in front of him. Team Australia, only eight points behind in the first half, ended up losing by thirty-five in the second half, losing the game by a crushing forty-three points. Yu Fei exploded with forty-four points, fourteen rebounds, and eight assists, a rampage so extreme it led Australians to suspect he was on steroids. "There was a play where Frye faced a triple team but still chose to go one-on-one and score, and you knew they had no chance," Chris Bosh recalled Yu Fei's most outrageous moment that night, a one-on-three drive ending in a dunk, "Such attacks can really kill the opponent's spirit." Interestingly, after each game, one randomly chosen player from each team would be tested for doping. Tonight, the player selected from Team USA was Yu Fei. Thus, Yu Fei didn't attend the post-game interview, and only said to the reporters present, "I've used a kind of stimulant called 'I hate to lose.' Hopefully, they won't detect it." Two days later, Team USA faced Argentina in the semi-finals. It was Argentina who had beaten the United States four years ago in Athens. But four years can change a lot, and from that American team, only three players were still in the lineup. They were Wade, Anthony, and Boozer. However, this highly anticipated match lost its suspense from the beginning. Shortly after the start, Ginobili twisted his ankle and was virtually immobile after that, standing on the court without posing any threat. The Argentinians tried to use a zone defense to lock down Team USA, but it was pierced by the three-point shooting of Yu Fei, Kobe, and Anthony. The problem with Team USA was that they could suddenly relax. Therefore, the always tense Argentinians managed to cut a twenty-four-point deficit down to eleven points at one stage. But what made this Team USA different from the past few failing USA teams was that they had two leaders who took the game very seriously. Yu Fei, with a steely face, returned to the game when he was supposed to rest, watching over his teammates like the grim reaper, his face saying, "If you let the gap close further, you might as well swim back to the United States." The other was Kobe, who took the lead in defense, halting Argentina's momentum, then under Yu Fei's guidance, the lead was widened to eighteen points again. In the fourth quarter, Yu Fei plowed through the defense alone and burst through Argentina's zone, took off and contorted mid-air thrice, scooping the ball with his left hand to the highest point on the backboard and into the basket. That was the climax of the night. The noise at the venue was so loud you could hardly hear anything else. Yu Fei turned his body, shrugging at the Argentinians like Jordan did in 1992. You can't stop me with five people, are you serious? This might not have been what he meant to express, but the Argentinians' morale was indeed broken. At the venue, a sleazy-looking fan sighed, "Ah, if only Frye played for China, maybe Yao Ming could really retire." At this, several Yao fans next to him got furious, "Are you that damned Luoyang Huakai from the internet (a notorious Yao hater)?" Team USA thrashed Argentina, with Yu Fei continuing his heroic performance from Australia, scoring thirty-five points, grabbing fifteen rebounds, and dishing out six assists. For Yu Fei, there's only one last step to saving American basketball, and the only factor that could make the Redeem Team as unique as Dream Team I is the final gold medal. From a marketing and promotional perspective, Yu Fei had to cap off his myth with a perfect victory. Two days later, Team USA faced the golden generation of Spain in the finals. In Yu Fei's previous life, the two teams had a fierce battle with the United States winning by nine points, but it was a very intense process, a classic match worthy of the history books. But tonight, if there was any theme to the match, it was the dominance of Yu Fei throughout the Olympic Games. In the NBA, Yu Fei was a versatile monster who could play from the point guard to the power forward position, and in FIBA, this versatility became an unstoppable terrifying force. He challenged the Gasol brothers in the post, exploded on Fernandez from the perimeter, and golden boy Rubio was sent off by Yu Fei after just two minutes, as he was a liability on the court. Yu Fei scored twenty-two points in the first half and hammered in another twenty-three in the second, his individual offense nearly unstoppable while also invigorating the team with his passes. Under his influence, the skills of Kidd, a master of game control, were nullified. Paul turned into an idle sidekick. And heavy hitters like Kobe, Wade, and Anthony all played their part on offense. In the end, with a score of 121 to 88, Team USA claimed the title unchallenged. "Frye Yu, with an average of twenty-eight points, twelve rebounds, six assists, three steals, and two blocks per game in the tournament, shooting an unbelievable 60+50+88, is without a doubt the greatest individual performance in FIBA history." — ESPN