Basketball Legend: When Pride Still Matters

Chapter 814 814 520 The End of Good Times_3

?Chapter 814: Chapter 520: The End of Good Times_3 Chapter 814: Chapter 520: The End of Good Times_3 The imagined opponent in that game had to be the Celtics.

The rivalry between the Lakers and Celtics was the theme of the NBA in the 80s.

Yet today, he had not had the chance to face the Celtics in the finals, and he had not yet tasted the flavor of that historic rivalry.

However, the away game in Seattle had brought back those feelings.

There was still more than half an hour before the game started, but his desire to fight had already inflated beyond measure.

“Let’s go!” Kobe was the first to get off the coach, “Let’s go take them down!”

A person who was never good at motivating his teammates off the court suddenly influenced everyone with his energy.

This was definitely a special moment.

The only non-combustible item on the bus was LeBron James.

He walked off the bus unfazed, wholly unaffected by the atmosphere, the only thing influencing his heart rate being the “Big Fei Disdain Meme” that had gone viral worldwide in recent days.

The primary characteristic of the social media age is the rapid spread of information.

This is something traditional news and television media cannot compare with.

The moment when Fei sneered at James was perfectly captured and initially circulated by Fei’s fans, and then it was turned into a meme by netizens.

Inside and outside Key Arena, this photo was made into posters that could be seen everywhere.

The normally stoic James was enraged.

He remembered the failure of the third game and the insults from the public these past two days.

All of this had been brought about by the main character on the poster.

They had to win tonight no matter what, they couldn’t return to their home court with a score of 3 to 1.

The external stimulus helped James make up his mind.

Inside Key Arena, celebrities took the stage to perform.

The big screen in the arena continuously played trailers for upcoming movies.

Fei noticed that many fans in the audience were wearing T-shirts that were not the typical uniform color distributed on-site, but rather the commemorative “50” T-shirts.

Clearly, these T-shirts required a purchase.

He asked around and indeed, they were the “Frye 50-point Night Commemorative Edition T-shirts” that the team started selling today.

Moreover, the official guarantee was that sales would end with the Western finals, after which they would be discontinued and become limited editions.

As for the T-shirt itself, besides the “50” mark, there was nothing unique about it; a T-shirt that would not cost more than 30 US dollars was being sold for 155.

If there was a level in hell equipped with golden lava specifically for executing those who were overly greedy in their lifetime, Fei believed it was prepared for people like Clay Bennett.

Fei decided not to care about these damn trivialities; it was normal for the team to make money in his name, and if anyone was to be held accountable, perhaps they should first inquire why the idol economy had developed to such a pathological level in this era.

As a beneficiary of this system, did he have the right to criticize anyone?

That would be hypocritical.

Fei started to focus on warming up.

His teammates were more or less distracted by the stars in the front rows.

There were more celebrities at the game tonight than at the last one.

The prices for the front three rows were also hyped to an exaggerated extent.

Only two days ago, Robert Downey Jr. spent nearly 50,000 US Dollars to get himself and a friend two second-row tickets.

This is a figure that any team owner would envy.

However, Key Arena is an abnormal venue, where big spenders like Downey, despite securing front-row tickets, could not enjoy the quality service available at the Staples Center.

This is a market that went crazy with speculation in the short term, detached from real demand, like a stock that surges overnight.

The value they are imbued with comes from the figureheads of two major sports business empires, Nike and Reebok.

Tonight, number 24 had broken the hostility of not greeting each other in the previous two games, arriving at midcourt during this moment filled with lasting hatred, just to avenge a grievance from the previous game.

“We will return to Los Angeles with a 2–2 score,” Kobe said, “We will win this series.”

“Is this how you spoke at the Eagle County Sheriff’s Office too?” Yu Fei tried to mimic Kobe’s tone just now, “I didn’t force that woman, just accidentally sent my dick into her body?”

Kobe was furious, “Go to hell, motherfucker!”

Yu Fei laughed and said something else that infuriated Kobe even more: “That was Shaquille O’Neal’s reaction when he found out you betrayed him in the station.”

The two parted on bad terms.

This was the second pre-game greeting of the series by the core players of the two teams.

It was expected to be their last pre-game interaction before the series ended.

Tonight’s head referee was Dick Bavetta, a veteran official nearing 30 years of service, which was unsettling because Ted Bernhardt was originally scheduled to be the head referee. After a complaint from the Lakers, Bernhardt fell ill and missed tonight’s game, prompting the league to urgently call upon the experienced Bavetta to fill in.

Old fans all recognized Bavetta, the infamous whistle-blower from the shocking 2002 Western finals, once again serving as the head referee in the Lakers’ Western finals.

Did this imply that the league had compromised under the pressure from the Lakers?

Before the game started, Yu Fei greeted Bavetta, “Dick, this is our home court, treat us well.”

Bavetta was cold and unapproachable, “Stop nagging, Frye.”

Yu Fei still believed that the league wanted the SuperSonics to be this season’s “heroes of the good side,” damning the villainous Lakers to a shameful death.

But they hoped for a fierce series.

So, necessary balancing measures were inevitable.

Bavetta was the man responsible for soothing the Lakers’ feelings.

It looked like the advantage gained by the referees in the first three games might be immediately returned tonight.

Yu Fei was mentally prepared, but his teammates apparently hadn’t caught on yet.

At the start, DeAndre Jordan won the jump ball for his team again.

Yu Fei brought the ball past half court, faced with an early double team from the Lakers, so he passed the ball to Durant.

Feeling the defensive focus on his lower back, Durant saw it as an opportunity to use his signature spin move. He suddenly turned and, cradling the ball, tried to outsmart his opponent by trapping his arm.

However, the awaited warm whistle did not blow. Instead, Durant was troubled by this, the ball got knocked away, and the Lakers quickly counterattacked.

“Why?” Durant questioned Bavetta, “They fouled me!”

Bavetta coldly replied, “From now on, I don’t want to hear any complaints!”

And so, the sweet times when Durant could draw a foul on Kobe with a spin move came to an end.