Basketball Legend: When Pride Still Matters

Durant was stunned for a moment; he hadn't expected James to say that to him. "Really? I don't see it that way." Durant responded briefly. But James didn't go on. He knew Durant was Nike's new favorite. With his own failure and Kobe reaching the age of 30, what Yu Fei represented for Reebok was becoming dominant in the basketball sports equipment market. For Nike, Yu Fei's 'The Chosen One' series was the new era's 'His Airness' brand. What was hateful was that this brand didn't belong to Nike. James had heard some whispers; Nike planned to pull out all the stops to pursue Yu Fei the next summer. Because the 6-year, 130 million US Dollar endorsement deal that Yu Fei signed with Reebok in 2003 would expire then. If Nike succeeded, they would gain the contemporary Jordan. For other basketball athletes under Nike, this was a tremendous pressure. Especially for James, he couldn't accept this. But he was helpless; if the choice came down to him or Yu Fei, Nike would not hesitate to drop him. From what James knew about Yu Fei, he figured the man probably wouldn't leave Reebok. Because in essence, Nike was Jordan's "old nest." So, James's biggest rival within Nike was actually Durant, standing next to Yu Fei. Nike not only provided Durant with an endorsement contract only second to James's, but also gave him a rare public image in sports—apprentice, nice guy, boy next door. This was a rare phenomenon in American sports history. People had seen Dr. J and Magic Johnson's sociable nature, had witnessed dominators like Jordan and Tiger Woods, and the villainous rebels like Tyson and Iverson, but none had ever been portrayed as the nice guy. Is it a good thing for an athlete to be called a nice guy? Maybe not, but being a nice guy in today's commercialized era has one huge advantage—it removes the distance between the athlete and the fans. This was Durant's edge. Nike promoted him as Yu Fei's apprentice to the outside world, a good guy, and in front of the fans, the big boy with a backpack. As Durant followed in Yu Fei's footsteps to win his first championship, Nike's marketing for him entered the next phase. He began to devour the market shares that formerly belonged to James and, gradually, Nike started shifting their resources towards him. Because they all knew Durant's draft template was Yu Fei. They were looking forward to the new waves surpassing the old ones. On this matter, they had already lost hope in James. James was only two years younger than Yu Fei but lagged behind by five championships, four MVP titles, and twenty-six consecutive losses in head-to-head matchups. Jordan's early playoff sweeps by Bird had become evidence for people to question him in later generations, but James's losses against Yu Fei were even more damning, and such a gap was impossible to bridge. James's camp realized this. It exacerbated their sense of urgency. Thus came the words that James said to Durant; perhaps it was a genuine outburst, but his underlying purpose was not so simple. Yu Fei was indifferent to the exchange between the two; the Cavaliers focused on outside play, allowing the Supersonics to concentrate their firepower on attacking their inside. Shaquille O'Neal's defense was now just a facade. He would pose as if he were earnestly defending but then remain motionless when it was really time to exert effort. Roy twice dribbled up to him and used the Euro step to lay up; O'Neal didn't react, just raising his hands as if going through the motions. No one was fooled by such a bluff. James, relying on his legally dubious four-step layup, attacked anyone he saw, and while the Supersonics' zone defense was useful, the Little Emperor wasn't fooled every time. Moreover, his shooting had improved from the last season. The accuracy of his outside three-pointers was unfamiliar to Yu Fei. Tonight, James was 4 for 7 from the outside, completely transitioning from a freak of nature with an uneven offensive arsenal to a precision outside shooter, capable from midrange and unstoppable in the paint, a triple-threat offensive weapon. Yu Fei didn't know whether it was his own influence that propelled James's evolution, or if Cavaliers 1.0's James really had such ability. It didn't matter. What he noticed was that, with James's existing skill level combined with the four-step layup, he really was an unsolvable ball handler. Neither him nor anyone else in the League could stop James one-on-one. But James's old problem was his over 90% tendency to pass out when breaking into the paint; no one knew whether he couldn't pass inside or just disliked passing inside, favoring scoring drives instead. This offensive preference let the Supersonics be clear on their choices when defending against him. James's singular passing tendency led to another result; he could not possibly have chemistry with O'Neal. For someone like O'Neal, who took over the paint on offense, if the ball handler didn't give him any sweet deals, he wouldn't have any desire to position himself actively, leading to a vicious cycle where everyone crowded the inside. Yu Fei, on the other hand, as he posted up against James, approached the ultimate door that one must inevitably touch after mastering post play—drawing the defense at the low post, creating a center-out explosion on all sides. When Yu Fei scored for the fourth time under James's defense in the low post, Mike Brown decided he couldn't let Yu Fei go at LeBron alone anymore. "Where's our help defense? Where's our double-team?" exclaimed the Bread Coach, "Are you damned guys able to provide any support for LeBron or not?" They could. But if they helped LeBron, who would help them? After breaking through James's low-post defense, Yu Fei found his vision incredibly clear. Because the Cavaliers' defense was forced to contract by him, anytime someone came to help defend, it meant he had at least one teammate open. After capitalizing on a few such opportunities, the Supersonics had stretched the lead to 12 points, and the first quarter was about to end. Karl substituted Yu Fei out for a rest. When Yu Fei sat down off the court, he asked assistant coach Sikma, "Jack, when you used to play in the post, you must have been double-teamed a lot, right?" With a touch of pride, Sikma said, "If they didn't double-team me, I could have averaged 30 points a game." "How many assists did you average?" Yu Fei asked. "About three," Sikma replied. He then noticed Yu Fei seemed surprised. "What's up?" "That's kind of low." "Low?" Sikma said, somewhat annoyed, "That's a lot!" Yu Fei said, "After I blew up LeBron on the post, the whole view of the court changed for me, I can almost sense when they're going to double-team me, and my teammates become visible like moles popping out of their holes..." Listening to Yu Fei recount his recent experience on the court, Sikma didn't know whether to laugh or cry. As a player, what's your first reaction when you get double-teamed on the court? Pride? Finally, the opponents are showing you respect? No, your reaction is anxiety. Double-teams are definitely aggressive, the opponents are using the strength of two players just to lock you down, why would they let you pass the ball easily? So, 99% of players being double-teamed would consider it a successful play just to pass the ball out. Finding a teammate open or even making a beautiful pass is not something ordinary people can do. In Sikma's view, Yu Fei was a player who preferred to have the ball first and had only chosen to transform after coming to the Supersonics. However, a player's personal style is as profound as lineage, and no matter how Yu Fei transformed, he would eventually return to his original path. But a player who can be the main core both at the top of the arc and down in the post has a completely different meaning for the team. "With you here," Sikma sighed, "Seattle is truly blessed." "Don't," Yu Fei joked, "they have someone over there who is constantly told by the Cavaliers' owner 'Cleveland is blessed,' and now all he thinks about is how to leave. If you wish me well, don't use that phrase on me." "No, you're different." "How so?" Sikma said in a serious tone but with a funny comment, "You won't take four steps for a layup." "That's right!" Lin Kaiwen, Yu Fei's assistant, chimed in, "Big Fei's biggest shortcoming is that his fundamentals are too solid, he can't take four steps for a layup!" Prophetically, while they were making merry off the court and joking about James's 012 layup, the game changed in the second quarter. In the first quarter, James played like a god, unstoppable in penetration and precise in his perimeter shooting. But starting from the second quarter, it was as if the referees had changed personalities, becoming particularly strict when calling travel violations. James was first called for traveling, which made him spread his hands in disbelief. Then DeAndre Jordan got a traveling call after catching a pass from Yu Fei for an easy score. The referees suddenly seemed averse to traveling, blowing the whistle as if they'd rather wrongly call ten travels than miss one, totaling six traveling violations against the Supersonics and the Cavaliers in just one quarter. For those accustomed to good techniques, this was a blessing. Yu Fei played as he always did. But it wasn't easy for James. It's not that he couldn't play without traveling, only laymen think that way; he's not in that category. The main issue was that the referees disrupted his game rhythm, making him unable to find the feeling of controlling thunder and lightning like he did in the first quarter. He was on par with Yu Fei initially, but suddenly, the Cavaliers' performance plummeted. Yu Fei didn't give James any chances, widening the gap to 20 points before halftime; fans in the Key Arena started holding up photoshopped images of James kneeling and crying in front of Yu Fei with a caption that read, "LeBron, a 27-game losing streak is not your limit!" In the second half, James returned to form, but the Cavaliers were too far behind, with no hope for a comeback. In the end, the second half became a stage for stat padding. James could lose, but his stats couldn't suffer. He racked up 36 points, 13 rebounds, and 8 assists, matching Yu Fei's triple-double of 34 points, 12 rebounds, and 12 assists for the game. "Is there a possibility," Randy Mims, serving as James's mouthpiece, posed, "I mean just a possibility. This is my personal opinion and has nothing to do with LeBron. The 27-game losing streak isn't the gap between LeBron and Frye, but between Cleveland, Milwaukee, and Seattle?" The intent of his statement was to continue the tired "Cavaliers lost but LeBron didn't lose" cliché, but since he substituted Cleveland for the Cavaliers, many from Cleveland wouldn't understand it. As a result, James later faced criticism from his hometown. Cleveland might not be as good as Seattle, but what poor backwater is Milwaukee? Yu Fei first did an on-site interview and then made a point to approach the League commissioner. While Yu Fei would like to believe that the referees made a sudden change on their own, reason told him that the only logical explanation for a referee to suddenly switch from a fan of four-step layups to a basketball rules fundamentalist would be outside pressure. Who on the scene was most likely and able to exert such influence? Of course, it was the League's ruler. "Mr. Commissioner, I hope this game hasn't disappointed you," Yu Fei said, his tone flat. "You never disappoint, which is good," Stern replied, "I hope Seattle won't be a disappointment, either." "We just work hard, and good things will happen naturally." "Let's hope so." Stern wasn't so naive, and he believed Yu Fei wasn't either. Things in this world don't always turn out as one would hope just through hard work. If you don't believe it, just look at LeBron, who tried so hard to come to Seattle and stand in front of Frye, only to be knocked down with a single punch. Although Stern had exerted some effort, he didn't feel that he affected the balance of the game. If the referee's interpretation is not in your favor and you lose your belief in victory, then maybe you don't deserve to win in the first place.