Basketball Legend: When Pride Still Matters

Countless Yu Fei fans did not intend to let this opportunity slip away.

They were aware of the grievances between Yu and James.

For years, Yu Fei, with his overwhelming head-to-head record, had allowed his fans to look down on James's supporters.

No matter how dedicated the fans were, they could not ignore the fact of twenty-eight consecutive losses.

This time, taking advantage of James's explosive "Decision", Yu Fei's fans swarmed his Twitter account.

Under James's first tweet, tens of thousands of Yu Fei's fans insulted him by calling him "CowardBrown" in various humiliating ways.

And that was actually on the more civil side.

Some of the more vulgar fans directly used crass Photoshopped images of Delonte West and James's mother for personal humiliation: "Coward, you just don't want to acknowledge your stepfather!"

For half a month, James's camp could hardly catch a breath.

Nike, backing James, had no desire to fight back.

This sort of national outrage-inducing "feat" was not something they could contend with.

The most ironic part of the whole affair was that those who had the most reason to hate James, although they burned everything with the words "LeBron" and "James" on it, did not react as extremely as the rest of the world.

Other than Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert crazily declaring that the Cavaliers would win a championship before James, there was almost no noise from Cleveland.

But the voice was very loud on Yu Fei's radio show.

A Cavaliers fan complained, "Frye, I beg you to stop the Evil Empire of Los Angeles! My hometown has been ruined by LeBron, and our owner is going crazy in front of the media, actually swearing that the Cavaliers will succeed before LeBron... You're the only one who can do it, please, stop that demon!"

Yu Fei promised him he would.

So what if Zhan Ke joined forces? The Supersonics had him, Durant, Roy, and the newly joined Bosh; their lineup was much more sensible.

The most unbearable part was likewise from the howling of the Cavaliers fans.

"As a Clevelander, I've been experiencing the failures of Cleveland sports all my life. But failure is unpredictable, whereas that man's decision was a murder that was announced a year in advance! Even if my wife slept with my father, I would not be as hurt as I am now, but that man, he promised for a whole year that he would stay, then beheaded us on national television!"

"That's right," Yu Fei tried to sympathize with the Cavaliers fans, but he couldn't, so he ended the day's show with a joke. "That's the Cavaliers fans nowadays."

A lot had happened since July, James left Cleveland in an infamous way, his goal was to create an overwhelming momentum, and he succeeded.

It had been a long time since he was the focus of the basketball world.

But the price of becoming the focus was the hatred of the entire world.

Meanwhile, Yu Fei and Reebok completed a 5-year, 200 million US Dollar renewal contract, and starting from this year, he would also receive 10% of the profits from The Chosen One brand, down from the initially planned 15%, due to Reebok's internal situation.

At present, Reebok urgently needed the profits from The Chosen One to expand their business. Thus, instead of giving Yu Fei 15% profit sharing, they gave him a 3% stake in the company.

For Yu Fei's camp, this was an acceptable substitute.

It was also after renewing with Reebok that he strongly recommended the company sign Stephen Curry.

After weighing the options, Reebok preempted Under Armour and signed Curry for 20 million US Dollars over 4 years.

On the day of signing, Curry's agent Christian Laettner responded to those who thought Reebok signed Curry because of his relationship with Yu Fei.

"Stephen is the child of the future," Laettner said, "That's my view, and it's Frye's view, but we can't force Reebok to fork over 20 million to sign a rookie who looks like a junior high student. When Reebok decided to do this, I think you should congratulate Stephen."

The biggest story of the summer was about to end, but the free agent market had just opened up.

The Lakers, with three stars, could only fill the roster with minimum contracts, while Miami Heat, with space for two near-max contracts, also needed strong operations to appease Wade's heart.

As for the defending champion Supersonics... they suddenly went quiet after Los Angeles became the Evil Empire.

The only news was formally signing the second-round pick Alonzo Gee.

Sam Presti told his associates, "What we need most now is patience."

As the defending champions with a complete roster, the Supersonics certainly could afford to be patient, but the Miami Heat could not.

Riley had originally wanted Wade to recruit James but was told they weren't that close. So, he had to personally step in, enticing with rings.

Unexpectedly, James was determined to join a team that looked more promising.

This messed up Riley's perfect plan for the present and the future.

The Miami Heat first fought with the Knicks over Amar'e Stoudemire.

As the sole remaining superstar in free agency, Miami Heat had two primary advantages in recruiting Stoudemire: better team performance than the Knicks and Florida's lack of state tax.

These two factors were extremely attractive to players, but Stoudemire didn't like the Heat's plans for him.