Basketball Legend: When Pride Still Matters

Chapter 792 792 514 Before Naming This Era_2

?Chapter 792: Chapter 514 Before Naming This Era_2 Chapter 792: Chapter 514 Before Naming This Era_2 From Roy’s perspective, Yu Fei didn’t seem to have given much thought to this issue.

“I don’t plan on doing anything about it,” Yu Fei casually speared a piece of cut steak with his knife and fork, “I don’t care.”

That was the honest truth.

Over the years, the outside world had changed, people’s opinions of him had changed, industry insiders approached him with strong suggestions, and the media that adored him treated him like a deity.

The allure of the big city made Milwaukee look like nothing in comparison.

Yu Fei had reached higher mountains with the Bucks, but outside of Milwaukee, no one considered him a god.

Now, everything had changed.

But he hadn’t changed. He only knew that people’s opinions of him had shifted, and sometimes, he would go along with these changes to do things that solidified his image because ascending to a pedestal was in his existing interests and the entangled interests behind him.

Yet, on the court, he had never changed.

He always knew he was a basketball player.

Initially, he just wanted to be the best of his generation.

In recent years, he had realized that surpassing Jordan was on his foreseeable agenda, so he craved even more glory.

Not only that, he wanted to become better. Therefore, he abandoned the Bucks’ strategy of heavily relying on a single player and transformed into an all-around small forward, only for the situation to fail to keep up with the changes, leading him back to square one.

But he remained himself, and what he pursued was victory.

So, from his standpoint, from his perspective, from the depths of his heart, he truly didn’t care about the background of these trivial matters and the people affected by them.

He played a good game, but his teammates performed poorly. He accepted the outcome; everyone has off days. But isn’t it normal for those who perform poorly to be criticized? Is it so that if these people weren’t his teammates, they wouldn’t get criticized?

This sort of baseless blame-shifting didn’t stand with Yu Fei.

He didn’t think that because he received all the praise and glory, he should bear all the success and failures alone, as over the past two years, everyone in the SuperSonics had profited to varying degrees, just because he profited the most, should he be condemned?

This was a confusion of primary and secondary issues and a switching of concepts; all players for the SuperSonics should know who the core of the “empire” was, and for the past few years, it had always been this way. If someone didn’t accept it, they should choose to leave when they could, rather than enjoy the benefits of the empire in good times and complain about receiving too little and assuming too much during bad times.

Why did George Karl think Yu Fei was the ultimate embodiment of a ball-dominant big man?

In viewing this issue from a psychological angle, it was proof.

As a ball-dominant big man, he didn’t carry the mental burden of “I’ve done everything, what have my teammates done?” and similarly, he didn’t have the empathy of “I’ve received so much love and applause, I should help share the responsibility of defeat with my teammates.”

Yu Fei had once said, he lacked morality.

That statement wholly applied here.

He wasn’t bound by a sense of morality.

In his view, morality had zero effectiveness and functionality in the world of competitive sports, where the strong ruled. Those who only had morality were often the losers in competition; they either waited for morally inclined killers like Tim Duncan to lead them forward or ended up like Grant Hill, leaving behind just an image of a gentleman, ultimately achieving nothing.

Yu Fei’s view on these matters was simple.

He exceeded expectations in his tasks, and if he didn’t, he accepted all criticism. But those around him also needed to do their jobs; if someone didn’t perform well, he wouldn’t make a fuss about it. However, if someone couldn’t even reach average levels and ended up being criticized after the game, then shifted the blame to him, that was something he couldn’t tolerate.

So he told Roy, “I don’t care.”

This wasn’t dismissive; it was truly how he felt.

Not caring was simply not caring, but if someone played poorly and still tried to shift the blame to him, then he’d demonstrate an unprecedented intensity to show how he performed when he truly cared about something.

Even though Roy was Yu Fei’s close buddy, he still couldn’t fully understand the other’s thoughts.

But even if he could understand, all he could do was shake his head and sigh.

There was no right or wrong here; position, stance, and personality dictated that Yu Fei and others would never see issues from the same perspective.

The next day was game day.

Since the SuperSonics’ home game was scheduled for four in the afternoon, their training had to start earlier than usual.

After research, the coaching staff decided that the series’ officiating trends were overall favorable to the SuperSonics.

Therefore, Coach Lu and defensive assistant Tim Grgurich worked overnight on a defensive plan.

Firstly, DeAndre Jordan would officially join the starting lineup from game three, with the reason being his higher efficiency in finishing at the rim and a better success rate in protecting the basket compared to Kwame Brown.

Brown objected: “My free throw percentage is 20% higher than DJ’s, and my pick-and-roll quality is also higher, does he even understand the tactics?”

“He doesn’t need to understand all the tactics,” Coach Lu said humorously, “Our main tactic is to pass the ball to Frye, which is easy to grasp.”

Little O added, “Besides, even though a 65% free throw percentage is higher than 40%, it’s still a failing rate that can’t withstand scrutiny.”

“Is it your place to talk, being a substitute?”